Reading Notes

For some reason, I feel so relieved that the month of May is over. It’s not that I don’t love Spring, I do, but it was a busy month. I’ve been doing a good deal of reading for work and there were times when it felt like reading was becoming a chore. I can’t believe I just said that. But reading under pressure takes a little bit of the fun out of it. That said, I had some wonderful reading experiences in May. In addition to the reading I’ve been doing for our Reader’s Advisory Roundtable, my co-worker (a genre maven if ever there was one) and I are preparing to facilitate a genre study at our library. My days as a not-too-snobby literary snob are over thanks to my exploration of genre fiction. For all of you fantasy readers, please don’t laugh when I say that I’m no longer an urban fantasy/paranormal romance virgin! Oh, how some of my former co-workers would be shaking their heads and wagging their copies of the New Yorker at me. Jeaniene Frost’s Halfway to the Grave was my first and I now have a serious book-crush on Bones. More to come on that later. The downside of all this fun reading is that I want everything I read to be fast-paced with a good romance. Ah well, I have to stay true to myself and continue to read (and enjoy) my depressing literary novels.

On another note, I wasn’t able to attend BEA (sigh) but I did get to see some great author events this past month. I got to see a panel with Patricia McKillip and Laurie R. King. It was a great discussion and I loved that Laurie R. King reminded me so much of Mary Russell or vice-versa. Our library also hosted Maria V. Snyder author of the Study Series and her latest Storm Glass. It was great to meet and talk to Maria. She was so down-to-earth and she had some interesting stories to tell about doing research for her novels. She actually took glass classes and horseback riding to get the details right. I think it shows in her writing. I can’t wait for Sea Glass to come out in the fall.