First things first: I have been remiss in announcing the winner of Tea and Other Ayama Na Tales. The lucky winner is Claire, lucky commenter number 5 (but lucky entrant number 4), thanks to random.org. Claire, I will be emailing you shortly, but if you happen to see this post before I do, please send me an email. Thanks!
I just spent a somewhat interesting day in Leeds, a bigger city which is only a 20 minute train ride away. My initial purpose was to copy a couple of articles from a journal to which that university subscribes, but since I was paying train fare, I also decided to stop by the Royal Armouries Museum. I was disappointed that they weren’t holding a joust today since it’s “Wild West Week”, but otherwise I thought it was awesome. Keith preferred the modern guns, but I was all about the medieval armour. Who would have guessed?
Here’s a picture from the museum, full body 15th century armour:
They also had a clever display where you could stick your head into a helmet and try to see what was going on in a virtual battle. It was nearly impossible; I can’t say I’d want to face someone with nearly all of my vision blocked!
As for reading, I’m about halfway into Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. For all that it isn’t as good as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I’m loving it. These days I feel that I love fewer and fewer books, although I like almost all that I read; maybe I just read too many of them these days and I’m learning to separate the wheat from the chaff a little better. With this book, however, I would have preferred knowing a bit less about the plot. I’m at the middle of the book and the last event that the back cover promised has just happened, albeit with a surprise in between. I try to give away as little as possible in my reviews and this is why; I dislike feeling impatient to get to a part I don’t expect. I’m now excited to see what happens next and hope to finish the book either later today or early tomorrow. Next up is Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, a library book which is due back on Thursday, and then I’ve got to get to The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe.
I’m quite pleased with my reading since last Sunday. I completed:
- Atlas of Unknowns by Tania James
- The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
- Undead and Unwelcome by MaryJanice Davidson
- Starfinder by John Marco
- The Bridge of the Golden Horn by Emine Sevgi Ozdamar
- Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
- Warrior Daughter by Janet Paisley
As a result, my TBR mountain has dropped below 350. I’m very pleased with myself, although I’m going to a library sale on Friday and will probably undo all the good work I’ve done. Oh well. It’s worth it for a bag of books for £3.50.
This week, I reviewed:
- Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
- The World in Half by Cristina Henriquez
- Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
- The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer
- The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
All in all, a very good week! How is everyone else doing? Anything exciting planned for the week?
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