Chemistry

Aug. 12th, 2010 02:56 pm
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
[personal profile] nineveh_uk
Scanning the bookshelves in search of something fairly short and fun, I picked up Agent of Change by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Ah! I thought, space opera. Perfect for a couple of days before I go on holiday. I put it in my bag, and opened it on the bus. A paragraph in, and I knew it was going to be a very long bus journey. I kept going for the half-hour, but no good. It was perfectly well-written, but we didn’t gel. (On the plus side, this means that [livejournal.com profile] ankaret won’t have to wait years to get it back.)

On getting home, I therefore hunted for something else and came across Janet Neel’s Death among the Dons, recently picked up in a second-hand shop on the advice of [livejournal.com profile] antisoppist (at least I think so, that could be wishful thinking and a bid for theft). I wasn’t sure I wanted to read a detective novel, so I had a quick look at the first couple of chapters. I was hooked within a paragraph. Reader, we were made for one another.

On another note entirely...

Oxfordshire speed cameras switched off: Oxfordshire motorists speed. My colleague who drives into Oxford says it’s a nightmare – a big increase not only in speed, but in drivers aggressively tail-gating to bully people observing the speed limit into going faster.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-08-12 03:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nineveh-uk.livejournal.com
It was via [livejournal.com profile] antisoppist - I thought it actually belonged to you, but it sounds like I'm wrong.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-08-12 03:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ankaret.livejournal.com
Nope, definitely not mine - I thought I'd lent mine to [livejournal.com profile] lurkingcat, but actually it's on my shelf, so I think the one you have must be [livejournal.com profile] antisoppist's unless she's got some other Liaden pusher out there. I'm fairly certain I only have one - it's not like Plan B which I inexplicably have two of, and can't give one to someone to try to get them into reading Liaden books, because it's pretty much the definition of a book where you would not want to start there.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-08-12 06:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nineveh-uk.livejournal.com
antisoppist has come forward and claimed it (I blame her - I was sure she said it was yours).

Double-copy can be annoying (though I do own a couple of Gaudy Nights, one to read, one to keep pristine with the set). I need to search my shelves tonight to check before I buy kingdom of the Ice Bear that I definitely don't have it.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-08-13 11:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wellinghall.livejournal.com
Double-copy can be annoying

You wouldn't want to see our array of Silmarillions, then ...

(no subject)

Date: 2010-08-12 04:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] antisoppist.livejournal.com
It is my Agent of Change (on Ankaret's recommendation). It took me a while to get past all the shooting but I liked it lots further on. However, I haven't worked out which one to read next for fear I will encounter telepathic cats.

More importantly Death among the Dons is also mine and you can't keep it because I would miss it greatly. But I'm glad you like it as I love Janet Neel and all her administrative detail but wasn't sure whether that one was too heavy on childcare problems (or maybe you haven't got as far as the wondrously competent Francesca's post-natal misery yet).

Honestly, you go away for a few days, check in with great typing effort on your phone, and people are stealing your library... :-)


(no subject)

Date: 2010-08-12 06:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nineveh-uk.livejournal.com
Blast! It was one in a pile with the ones from the second hand shop and I was hoping it was one. But there appear to be plenty of copies available second-hand. I like books about heroic university administrators. Francesca has just explained about the baby who never sleeps, something with which as a person who sleeps well, but under narrowly defined circumstances that do not include being woken nightly by babies, I sympathise deeply. (The blithe advice "sleep when the baby does" makes me want to hit things on behalf of new mothers everywhere. How???)

heroic university administrators

Date: 2010-08-12 10:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] antisoppist.livejournal.com
I think it was a tale of your heroic university administrating that made me throw it at you in the first place. In the earlier books Francesca works for the DTI though, and there is more McLeish than Francesca in some of them. I love DATD for Francesca being knocked completely off balance by the demands of her baby and the recognition that work was essential for her sanity. And Dame Sarah.

Sleep when the baby sleeps is useless if your child only sleeps when walked miles across town in a pram - I used to sit on benches and read until she woke up again - or if it is the only time you have 2 free arms to have a shower. And if it's a second or third child, no way.

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