April Reading List

• Sarum - Edward Rutherford. A novel following the same five families living in the Salisbury area from pre-history to the modern time. Lent to me by my father-in-law as a suitable holiday read (as in it's a brick!) and an interesting overview of English history.
  

• Renegades of Pern - Anne McCaffrey. I bought a hardback edition of this at a library sale on Big Pine Key (Florida) for the princely sum of $2, mainly because I liked the retro cover. This was over Mr B's protests about luggage weight and that I already had enough to read and he funded the purchase in eventual good grace. The book itself was a rehash of several story threads I'd already read in another of the Pern books but from the viewpoint of different characters so that was a disappointment. Book still looks funky though and it's an easy beach read.
  

• Heart Shaped Box - Joe Hill. This was the book we bought at Detroit airport when Mr B had finished his book on the previous plane. It was added to my "must buy" list when Neil Gaiman mentioned enjoying the book last year and I'd not realised it was a big release over in the USA. Mind you, I'd also forgotten he was Stephen King's son but now I know again that may help to explain it. Although I should make it clear that this book was easily good enough to be popular without the parents. Heart Shaped Box was a real page turner and not the horror I expected. I look forward to the film version which should be a challenge to make.
  

• Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny. Fantasy Masterworks editions always tempt me as they are such a bargain way of reading SFF classics. This one collects the first five Amber books into one volume so qualified as one of my holiday reads as it was 1) a way of secretly packing five books and 2) it's a big book. In case you don't know, Amber is the one real world that casts infinite reflections of itself (shadow worlds) that can be manipulated by those of royal Amberite blood. The Amber throne looks as if it's up for grabs and the Amber princes and princesses vie for control.

• A Piano in the Pyrenees - Tony Hawkes. No. Not the skateboarding dude - the Brit Comedian one. You know the fellow. He went around Ireland with a fridge. Yes him! Anyway. He's now bought a house in the Pyrenees and, having read this enjoyable book, I want one as well. Seen a couple that take my fancy however need to brush up my GSCE French first!
  

• Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson. This is my POTM read for April and I now really regret that I didn't review it properly as I was reading. I've already mentioned that it was a whopping book but I'm finding it hard to explain why it was such a damn good read. The story alternates between WW2 and the present and follows the fortunes of a handful of characters linked by code-breaking and some of them/their descendants in the present time. That explaination really does not do the huge themes that run through this book any justice whatsoever (or the incredible attention to detail) and I find it hard to explain how this makes a brilliant novel but it is. Just read it and find out for yourself! I can't wait to read Stephenson's Baroque Cycle though.
  

• Odd and the Frost Giants - Neil Gaiman. At £1 how could I say no? Delightful short story released for World Book Day.
  

• The Season of the Witch - Natasha Mostert. I'm really not sure what I expected from this novel but I finished it very pleased that I'd read it. A Gothic novel set in a modern context with interesting characters, lashings of mysticism and a gripping plot. Dovegreyreader puts it so much better than I could in her dgr post from last year.
  

• The Prisoner of Zenda - Anthony Hope. One of my five NCBC purchases as it's a classic I've never read and was a mere £3.50. Of course, then I see how much it is on amazon but hey ho. Perhaps that's why I don't really go into bookshops any more. :(