Very few books read this month, mainly because I’ve been working my little, er, socks off checking the edits, copyedits and proofs of — then quickly doing the index for — my upcoming earthshattering masterpiece Eureka!: Fifty Scientists who Shaped Our World (coming this fall! hurry hurry! preorder multiple copies!) and then, as soon as I’d finished that, had to write a story pretty damn’ pronto that I’d promised to a charity anthology. A lesser, ancillary reason was that I got rather bogged down in one of the novels I was reading — it took me far longer to plow to the end of it than it should have. Blame dotage. (“Hmmm, yes, Minnie, my dear . . .”)
Anyway, here’s the meager list. Links are to my scrappy notes on Goodreads.
- The Limit by Kristen Landon
- Hollow Man by Mark Pryor
- An Empty Death by Laura Wilson
- The Execution by Hugo Wilcken
- Skeleton Key by Lenore Glen Offord
- The Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai
- The Bobby Gold Stories by Anthony Bourdain
I’m well on through reading another novel, but the reporting of that will have to wait until next month because tomorrow I have to start writing about Lizabeth Scott (and, yes, I know how lucky that makes me).
Pingback: o/t: leisure reading during April | Noirish
How was the Desai book? I’ve long meant to read her work but haven’t gotten to it.
Like you, I’ve long been meaning to read Desai and this book, at a mere 150 pages or so, seemed an ideal. She’s an author I really must make the effort to read a bit more of.
My notes on the book are here.
Also, congrats on the book!
Thanks! It’s quite fun writing YA books for a change.
I love variety in writing. I publish erotica under one name and academic work under another. 🙂
I use various names myself, although not split up the way you do it. Most things go as by John Grant, but sometimes it’s been handy for publishers if I’ve used other names.
Yeah, I understand. It’s about ignorance and intolerance of sexuality that makes the schism for me. I hate it sometimes.
Different for me. I did experiment a decade or so ago with erotica, both to see if I could do it and to try to find out if (for me) it could be a productive match with fantasy. After four novelettes, I came away with a sort of “not sure” verdict; one of them was, I think, among the best things I’ve ever written, and luckily for me the editor of The Third Alternative (now known as Black Static) agreed! Two of the others I quite liked; the one that I thought was a complete failure, so far as what I was trying to do was concerned, made it into a year’s best erotica anthology! So what do I know.
All of them were published under the main “John Grant” name. I imagine there must be more constraints upon you, as an academic.
Enjoyed reading about your adventures. Must be something about fantasy, erotica, and love of noir.
Which year’s best erotica is your story in? Year and publisher? I’m in several, straight, gay, and varied publishers.
Ah, yes, but having said I’m not that amazed by the story, I’m hardly likely to publicly identify the anthology, am I? Email me if you really want to know. 🙂
All right. I’ll drop you an email and we can exchange stories sometime. Let me know if you want to review my 3-story mini collection of noir/hard-boiled erotica — one gay, one straight, one trans. 🙂
A kind thought, but I don’t really read erotica, alas — a failure on my part, I know. As I say, I experimented with the genre to see where it might take me, but that’s about as far as my involvement goes.
I’d rather be reading less and writing more… so congrats to you!
Thanks! The trouble with April, though, was that there wasn’t much actual writing involved — just proofing, checking edits, etc.
That’s still an impressive reading list, considering all your other activities.
Now that I think about it, you’re really putting the rest of us to shame.
You’re being far too kind (although thanks anyway!). I find your own industry on Silver Screenings quite boggling, and rarely fail to find something new from your essays.