What Are You Reading? February 2011

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 7:51 am

Reading the Hunger Games for bookclub. Not HF, I believe the new term for this is dystopian. I'd call it sci-fi, very reminiscent of the White Mountain series I read back when I was YA. But although I hate sci-fi, I cannot put this one down.

parthianbow · Post by **parthianbow** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 10:40 am

[quote=""annis""] Lucky you! I've got a copy on pre-order at BD. I love Robert Low's Viking books. I recently read Robyn Young's take on the Robert the Bruce story, Insurrection, and thought that was surprisingly good. I'm looking forward to seeing what what RL does with the Bruce.

Are you writing your Eagle of the Ninth review to coincide with the movie release? [/quote]

Hi Annis - one of the perks of the job now! I was given it to read for a jacket quote, which I was very happy to do, as it's outstanding!

My Eagle review is to tie in with the film release, yes. My American publishers are rereleasing 5 of Sutcliff's books, and have asked me to review all 5 in about 3 weeks. Arrghhh. Check out the Command Posts website if you want to read my article about Sutcliff. Thanks for the link to the NZ author's talk!

http://www.commandposts.com/

Brenna · Post by **Brenna** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 2:35 pm

Finished The Fort at River's Bend by Jack Whyte last night and started Master of Verona. This is something completely different for me, so I hope I enjoy it.

Nefret · Post by **Nefret** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 3:22 pm

Warriors of God by James Reston

sweetpotatoboy · Post by **sweetpotatoboy** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 3:51 pm

The Siege by Helen Dunmore.

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 7:40 pm

[quote=""Brenna""]started Master of Verona. This is something completely different for me, so I hope I enjoy it.[/quote]
That was BOM two years ago. There's a discussion thread here.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 9:05 pm

Thanks for the link Annis

Brenna · Post by **Brenna** » Tue February 15th, 2011, 12:47 am

[quote=""MLE""]That was BOM two years ago. There's a discussion thread here.[/quote]

How sweet of you! Thank you so much. I'm afraid most of the Shakespeare references will go unnoticed as I only read him when I was in High School. I've seen all of the movies though-does that count?

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Tue February 15th, 2011, 1:41 am

[quote=""Brenna""]How sweet of you! Thank you so much. I'm afraid most of the Shakespeare references will go unnoticed as I only read him when I was in High School. I've seen all of the movies though-does that count?

[/quote]
Nah--the novel's better if you don't know any of them. Just a bunch of inside jokes to distract you from what's really happening.

annis · Post by **annis** » Tue February 15th, 2011, 2:07 am

Posted by parthianbow

My Eagle review is to tie in with the film release, yes. My American publishers are rereleasing 5 of Sutcliff's books, and have asked me to review all 5 in about 3 weeks. Arrghhh. Check out the Command Posts website if you want to read my article about Sutcliff.

Great review, Ben I don't envy you having to do 5 reviews in 3 weeks, though!

Have you ever read RS's Capricorn Bracelet? It's a series of stories following several generations of Roman soldiers based at Hadrian's Wall from the first to the fourth centuries. In typically RS fashion the stories are linked by a family heirloom, a Distinguished Conduct bracelet awarded by the II Augusta, and inscribed with the legion’s Capricorn emblem.

My husband was listening to the radio interview and was very taken by the introduction Kate de Goldi read from John Rowe Townsend's critical essay on Sutcliff. I had to track it down for him, and as it's a striking piece, I'll add it here for anyone else interested.

"Day to day, minute to minute, second to second the surface of our lives is in a perpetual ripple of change. Below the immediate surface are slower, deeper currents, and below these again are profound mysterious movements beyond the scale of the individual life-span. And far down on the sea-bed are the oldest, most lasting things, whose changes our imagination can hardly grasp at all. The strength of Rosemary Sutcliff's main work—and it is a body of work rather than a shelf of novels—is its sense of movement on all these scales. Bright the surface may be, and vigorous the action of the moment, but it is never detached from the forces underneath that give it meaning. She puts more into the reader's consciousness than he is immediately aware of."

John Rowe Townsend, Rosemary Sutcliff, from his 1971 book A Sense of Story.