april wrap up: murder, fantasy, and sheep
In April, I read twenty-five books, about average, although there were a few days where life (and an excellent audiobook) made reading more difficult than usual. More than half of them were completely new to me–which makes it a great month, book-wise. I’ve been so lucky to review a few canongate books–and The Death of Bunny Munro (not out for a few months yet) is one of them. It’s a wild ride–full of fire, devils, and despair–but it never quite loses the touch of humanity that makes life (and the main character) bearable. My review will be up on bookgeeks, eventually, but if you see it, you should grab a copy. You may not like it, but you will probably enjoy it. I know, a paradox, but what can I say? It’s one of those books. (And, you should check out the new and very cool canongate website).
I also picked up Neil Gaiman’s newest, The Graveyard Book–I ended up with the audio book, and it is fantastic. It’s read by Gaiman, and the accents and the amazing story made me a completely silent hermit for the ten or so hours it took to listen to it. Immediately afterward, I re-read it in print, which should tell you how wonderful it is. And, unlike Bunny Munro, this story is not off-putting or despairing, but hopeful and humourous.
I also got a chance to visit Keswick in the Lake District. I loved it. It’s still lambing season, but they are old enough to be playing and bounding around–providing endless entertainment from our hotel room window. Luckily, they fell asleep around the same time we did, but most mornings we were woken up by some strident bahhhing. We were at a lovely hotel–and because the wireless internet was intermittent and… unique, I had very little time to wander the internet and a lot of time to read. I’m sure we will go back there–maybe at a different time of year to see what it’s like–although we would miss the lambs…