Tall Tales and Fickle Fantasy: What I'm Reading

I thought I would do something little different today and let you guys know what I've been doing so much of this summer...reading.  I love it. I have always loved it. I was once grounded for staying up too late reading. Hell, I stayed up too late reading the other night, but there was no one to ground me but my lack of sleep in the morning.  After 16 months of procrastination, I finally got myself a library card, and I've been putting it to good use.

American Gods

By Neil Gaiman

My only previous experience with Mr. Gaiman's work was Neverwhere, which was captivating, but I thought somewhat underdeveloped.  Perhaps that was the result of it having originally been conceived for television. American Gods displays much more fluidity in its writing, and has a captivatingly enigmatic main character.  I don't want to spoil it for anyone or scare away people who claim not to like certain genres, but it takes a unique approach to exploring exactly what our ancestors brought with them to the United States.

1493

By Charles C. Mann

Non-fiction. Alright, all the strict summer readers gone? Down to business. This is the follow up to Mr. Mann's work on the pre-Columbian Americas, 1491 (see what he did there?). I find it not quite as captivating as the first, possibly because it's covering territory I've tread many times before. Still, it is excellently written, and I don't think anyone with an interest in early American history would be disappointed.

The Queen's Governess

By Karen Harper

Delicious, delicious trashy historical fiction. Not as trashy as some I've read, but my familiarity with the Tudors and their admittedly fascinating lives made some of the truth stretching a little difficult for me to work through. Written as if a memoir of Elizabeth I's governess, Kat Ashley, it's got all the little sordid bits you would expect out of a summer read and could easily be dispatched in the space of half a day.

There are a couple of other novels I'm working through right now, but I'll wait until I get a bit farther along to write about them.  Hope you enjoyed this departure from Beautyville, I know I certainly have a deep passion for the written word.