Reading Roundup #44: A Study in Secrets

Everyone has secrets to hide — some more devastating than others. In each of this week’s books, our main characters question what to hide, who to trust, and when it is necessary to face the truth. And each of them handles it in a different way, by running, by pretending, or by marching straight ahead and damn the consequences. I had a really good time with these ones and hope you will, too!

Let’s start with the toughest one first, before jumping along to the fun reads.

The Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras was good but also tough. Contreras paints a poignant picture of growing up in the uncertainty of Colombia in the early 1990s, as people are on the move and Pablo Escobar is the boogeyman-incarnated of a young girl’s increasingly unstable life. Still, I felt pretty detached emotionally until the final act of the story, and I think this is partly because I was reading for work and partly Contreras’s writing, which has a similar detachment, except for in moments of intense terror. I’m not sure how deliberate that detachment was or was not. Still, a worthwhile read and an introduction to a time and place I know very little about but am starting to research.

And now for something completely different… His at Night (London Trilogy #3) by Sherry Thomas! My friends, if you, like I, adore The Scarlet Pimpernel and all such stories of secret agents/vigilantes masquerading as foppish aristocrats, you simply must read this. Watching the leads outwit each other and butt heads is so much fun, and I’m almost sorry this one book isn’t a full series because I can imagine plenty more adventures for these two, as they fool the public and act as spies for the crown in secret. Alas, it is only one, but what a fun one it is! Highly recommended for steam with substance.

A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock #1) by Sherry Thomas: I’m always somewhat wary of retellings of classic lit, as they can be such a risky endeavor. But in Thomas we trust — and with good reason. Her version of Sherlock is witty, intriguing, and utterly delightful. The lady herself, one Charlotte Holmes, is no shadow of Conan Doyle’s great detective but a true force to be reckoned with, a great detective in her own right. And the other characters and plots from the original series are cleverly reimagined. I am well and truly hooked and can’t wait to see what happens next!

The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time #2) by Robert Jordan: As I suspected, book one, The Eye of the World, was all setup for the rest of the series. While I enjoyed that and found it competent enough, The Great Hunt is where the story really takes off and Jordan makes it his own, rather than simply reworking The Fellowship of the Ring. From the very start, I was drawn in, and there were several times when the need to sleep or go to work were the only reasons I could tear myself away. I’m going to take a short break to catch up on other books, but I will be back for the rest of this series soon!

And that’s another excellent reading week rounded up! I’m already looking forward to next week, and, as always, I’m open to recommendations. What are you reading this week? And should I read it, too??

–b