So far I'm keeping to my posting resolution, to post at least once a month, by posting on the last day of the month. I guess that's just-in-time posting. February brought a record snowfall, most of which was wasted on me, as was the Christmas snow (instead of being sick, for this blizzard I merely had to mostly be at work during the daylight hours). I did manage to fall down in the snow once, losing my house keys until the thaw; but as I was on the way out of town for the weekend, and didn't drop my car keys, there was no inconvenience, if a little worry. Here are a few pictures, though.
I didn't get as much reading done this month –it was a shorter month, yes, but not that much shorter. It just seemed like it. I only have seven titles for February, compared to eleven for January. As before, an asterisk (*) indicates a book that I've re-read.
1. The Four Last Things – Andrew Taylor
2. The Judgement of Strangers – Andrew Taylor
3. The Office of the Dead – Andrew Taylor (these three make up The Roth Trilogy)
4. Gil's All Fright Diner – A. Lee Martinez
5. The Automatic Detective – A. Lee Martinez
6. Literary Life: A Second Memoir – Larry McMurtry
7. Moon Flights* – Elizabeth Moon
I reread the collection by Elizabeth Moon based on something she said at ConDFW, where she was Guest of Honor, about dragons in the world of The Deed of Paksenarrion (and of her new book, Oath of Fealty, which comes out in a few weeks).She's sitting at the left of this picture. The man on the right is A. Lee Martinez. I'd been aware of his books, but hadn't quite brought myself to buy any of them before. He was on several of the panels at the convention, with interesting things to say. All of his books are stand alone novels. After one of the panels where someone pointed out that his mother was in the audience, I went up to her afterward and asked her which one did she usually recommend to someone starting out to read his books. She asked me a few questions and them described them five or six. I ended up buying the first one and one of the more recent ones. She described the first one as a story about a pair of friends, and the other one as a mystery novel. I enjoyed both of them, and there were very different. He did a really good job writing a hard-boiled detective (who happens to be a killer robot). I'd recommend either one of them as a good read.
