Whole Lotta Books!

a gotta go see Nutschell's awesome post about stationery.

I love drooling over notebooks and pens and sticky paper supplies. I don't have a home office, but if I did, I'd have a massive corkboard, covered in inspirational images. For now, at least I've got Pinterest and tumblr.

And now on to books, which I also drool over... If you haven't yet, read Amanda Palmer's post about her friend Anthony. I got my copy of Anthony Martignetti's book Lunatic Heroes yesterday and started it this morning - already teary, and marking all kinds of quotes. The stick in that drop cap is for him and Amanda, and all of us.

I also just read Diana Gabaldon's The Space Between, available right now in her anthology A Trail of Fire:
 

"In LORD JOHN AND THE PLAGUE OF ZOMBIES, Lord John Grey is posted to Jamaica to assist the Governor as he faces a most unusual kind of uprising among the colony's slave population.

In THE SPACE BETWEEN, Jamie Fraser's step-daughter, Joan, is on her way to an abbey in Paris to become a nun - but when she meets the Comte St Germain, a wealthy French aristocrat rumoured to deal in the occult - she discovers her destiny lies on quite a different path.

In THE CUSTOM OF THE ARMY, Lord John Grey is summoned as a witness in a court martial in the wilds of Acadia, only to find himself playing a crucial role in the Battle of Quebec.

In A LEAF ON THE WIND OF ALL HALLOWS, a WW2 Spitfire pilot called Jerry MacKenzie crashes near a stone circle and wakes up in the eighteenth century. Can the strange man he meets - who impossibly seems to know him - help him return to his wife and baby son before a terrible fate overtakes them?"

I've also finished Mischief and Mistletoe! I don't want to be negative, but... the only story I really enjoyed was Joanna Bourne's Intrigue and Mistletoe. The others all had interesting concepts, but some of the dialogue felt a little hollow to me.

In other book news, I just discovered that I already have a book by Kate Pullinger, whom I've wanted to read for ages because she contributed a piece to Paint a Vulgar Picture: Fiction Inspired by the Smiths. My friend had leant me Pullinger's A Little Stranger ages ago.

And Simon Tolkien has a new book out! Orders from Berlin and its author were featured in a BBC Radio2 broadcast the other day, and listeners also got to live chat with Tolkien. I asked him a question (about Sherlock Holmes) and he answered, and I forgot to save a screenshot! Now I can't find it online. Argh. But the episode is still up for a week, if you'd like to listen.

I really do need a reading vacation. But, no, there's only a week or so left for NaNo. Must press on with Captive of the Sea! I'm so close to the end of the story (ROW80 goal!)... I can't wait to get to at least the wedding of the MCs, if not the sweet and lovely denouement. By the way, the girl in the latest nespresso ad looks like Mawdlen:

Finally, check out Alan Silberberg's cartoons of inspiration from writers, for writers. Featuring Neil Gaiman, natch.

What are you reading in between NaNo sprints?