{"id":132,"date":"2018-07-01T20:02:50","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T06:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/?p=132"},"modified":"2018-07-01T20:02:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T06:02:50","slug":"reading-list-2018-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/?p=132","title":{"rendered":"Reading List 2018 – June"},"content":{"rendered":"

Still making my way through Ruth Rendell’s Wexford novels. It’s fascinating to watch as both Rendell and her main characters adapt to the changes of time: the first Wexford novel was published in 1964, and the one I just finished, “Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter<\/a>“, came out in 1992. A lot happened in real time over those ~30 years, but Wexford only ages about a decade (maybe? she’s left it pretty vague) so it would’ve been a challenge to update her characters for more modern audiences without totally changing their personalities. It’s indicative of Rendell’s skill as a writer that she accomplished this so smoothly.<\/p>\n

Speaking of writers, I spent June organising a local writers group<\/a>, which necessitated reading some books aimed at writers as part of my prep. I spent quite a bit of time with Diana Wynne Jones’ writing memoir – “Reflections<\/a>” – and then had to re-read some of her books so that I could give context to her musings. I will forever be in awe at her mind. It’s always been obvious to me that she was a terrific writer, but then when you read about her story-building process (especially for “Fire and Hemlock” – my God!), you realise she was a wildly creative genius who left the world a better place for having had her in it.<\/p>\n

The other observation that reading “Reflections” left me with was when I’m struggling with low mood, reading anthologies is a wise choice – being able to pick up and put down a book at regular intervals seems to improve my concentration and focus at such times. In that vein, I recommend “Te K\u014drero Ahi K\u0101<\/a>“: a delicious collection of scifi, fantasy and horror submissions from members of SpecFicNZ<\/p>\n

Honourable mention goes to Vanessa Cuccia’s “Crystal Healing and Sacred Pleasure<\/a>“. The founder of Chakrubs<\/a> has done an excellent job of writing about sexuality, healing and the use of crystals in this book. It was a beautiful and edifying read.<\/p>\n

Murder Being Once Done<\/em> by Ruth Rendell
\nPlus+<\/em> by Bethany Rutter
\nAngel Fire<\/em> by Lisa Unger
\nThe Perfect Cookie<\/em> ed. by America\u2019s Test Kitchen
\nSome Lie and Some Die<\/em> by Ruth Rendell
\nShake Hands For Ever<\/em> by Ruth Rendell
\nWitch, Please<\/em> by Misty Bell Stiers
\nThe Workshop Handbook for Writers<\/em> by Jackie Wills
\nMedea<\/em> by Kerry Greenwood
\nFire and Hemlock<\/em> by Diana Wynne Jones
\nDaily Writing Resilience<\/em> by Bryan E. Robinson
\nPep Talks for Writers<\/em> by Grant Faulkner
\nReflections on the Magic of Writing<\/em> by Diana Wynne Jones
\nA Sleeping Life<\/em> by Ruth Rendell
\nThe Game<\/em> by Diana Wynne Jones
\nThe Power of Three<\/em> by Diana Wynne Jones
\nEight Days of Luke<\/em> by Diana Wynne Jones
\nDogsbody<\/em> by Diana Wynne Jones
\nPut On By Cunning<\/em> by Ruth Rendell
\nThe Witchmaster\u2019s Key<\/em> by Franklin W. Dixon
\nBless This House<\/em> by Donna Henes
\nThe Merlin Conspiracy<\/em> by Diana Wynne Jones
\nCrystal Healing and Sacred Pleasure<\/em> by Vanessa Cuccia
\nThe Speaker of Mandarin<\/em> by Ruth Rendell
\nAn Unkindness of Ravens<\/em> by Ruth Rendell
\nIn the Shadow of the Trees<\/em> by Elenor Gill
\nThe Writing Group Book<\/em> ed. by Lisa Rosenthal
\nTe K\u014drero Ahi K\u0101: To Speak of the Home Fires Burning<\/em> ed. by Grace Bridges, Lee Murray, Aaron Compton
\nThe Veiled One<\/em> by Ruth Rendell
\nKissing the Gunner\u2019s Daughter<\/em> by Ruth Rendell<\/p>\n

30 in total.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Still making my way through Ruth Rendell’s Wexford novels. It’s fascinating to watch as both Rendell and her main characters adapt to the changes of time: the first Wexford novel was published in 1964, and the one I just finished, “Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter“, came out in 1992. A lot happened in real time over … Continue reading “Reading List 2018 – June”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6,7,5],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-6","tag-books","tag-reading-log"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}