A decent reading month, although the two HIGNFY quiz books obviously weren't much of an actual 'read'. Still, mostly good stuff. The book I liked the least was probably 'Planes, Trains and Toilet Doors' because I found the author's writing style vaguely annoying, even if the subject was pretty interesting in general.
Anyway, these are my September reads. I've been mostly reading books about UK politics recently, ever since getting into the panelshow Have I Got News For You my interest in that subject has reawakened in full force and it's been really enjoyable. Well, if you find politics enjoyable - as I do. In addition I'm also still trying to get rid of the remainder of my German unread pile. So, we have a pretty eclectic mix of British politics, Japanese history, asexuality and gay erotica. Interesting, but that sort of sums up my interests pretty well. Well, at least some of them.
Doctor Who: Totenwinter (James Goss)
I haven't actually read that many Doctor Who books and/or short stories yet, but I've heard that they're usually something of a mixed bag. This one was pretty good: it had a proper intriguing mystery and the danger didn't come from some evil monster-of-the-day, but from something way more ambivalent. I also liked how the inner life of our protagonists way portrayed. I don't know, but Rory talking about how much he loves Amy even though she's sometimes more than ready to leave him behind for a new adventure (or for the Doctor) was quite heartbreaking. Consider becoming my boyfriend if you ever tire of your wife, man! Well, and the book also made me realise how much I want to rewatch DW, but I don't think I'll get to that anytime soon...
Doctor Who: Die Blutzelle (James Goss)
The 12th Doctor is my personal favourite, and Clara is on of my least favourite companions. That often made watching Twelve's series of the show something of an exhausting affair, but thankfully Clara was a lot less annoying in this book. I'm still not entirely sure whether I liked the book in the end...the mystery was interesting and I liked the way the truth was slowly revealed over the progression of the story. But the end was...confusing and sort of weird. I have exactly no idea how the mysterious 'blood cell' looked because the author just ducked out by letting his characters say 'what we saw was too weird to describe'. Uh, sure, alright then. Don't expect me to be thrilled upon hearing this, though.
Jagd der Vampire (Barbara Hambly)
I initially dropped this book after reading like 30 pages last year. Before throwing it out I started a second attempt and well, it was actually pretty good. I like the way the vampires are portrayed: they are retaining some of their human characteristics, but they are also very, very different because some of the smaller or bigger things humans care so much about (keeping up appearances for example) just lose much of their importance once you're undead for hundreds of years. I'm not sure if I could entirely follow the main plot, but overall I really enjoyed it and I also liked the resolution. What I didn't like was the sequel: I dropped that one for good around halfway through because I was either bored or wondering if any of this made any sense. Plus, I absolutely didn't like how the protagonist's wife Lydia was being such a bitch to another woman just because she thought her to be stupid. Even more so when her own actions in this book could be called more than stupid. Still, at least the first book was a good read.
Sherlock Holmes: Der Wille des Toten (George Mann)
Note to self: don't buy any of those popular Holmes pastiches anymore. You won't enjoy them anyway and it's a waste of money. Ahem. Well...I didn't like that one. I'm generally very picky about pastiches and my pet peeve is when the main characters don't feel like Holmes and Watson. And here they clearly didn't. Also, I didn't like the case solution. Oh, and one more thing: Holmes novels just rarely ever work in general. Not even ACD's own full Holmes novels are even that good if you ask me. The short stories are what makes Holmes great, so maybe pastiche writer should rather stick to those anyway...
Die Chronik der Unsterblichen: Der
Gejagte/Die Verfluchten/Blutkrieg/Das Dämonenschiff/Göttersterben/Glut und Asche/Der schwarze Tod (Wolfgang Hohlbein)
I think this series is still going strong, although by now some things are slowly getting repetitive or just not as good as during the first few books anymore. A lot of the enjoyment depends on whether I liked or didn't like the setting of the different books though. I guess that was why volume 7 about the Order of Saint John defending Malta against an armada of Ottoman ships. Volume 8 saw our heroes travel though the desert and visit the graves of the Pharaohs...yep, that was right up my alley again. The extra volume Blutkrieg plus volume 9 told a story about Norse gods and some Viking-esque tribes of people – not my favourite book setting, but then again, I love things set in cold climates, so that was also nice. Volume 10 was sort of a continuation of where 9 left off, but I didn't like that one as much again (it had a nice and surprising cameo of a real historical figure though!). Volume 11 and 12, well...I'm not sure I entirely understand that whole storyline about Andrej's dead son, but at least that story should be over by the end of volume 12. That was also when I meant to take a break from the series, but you know what, I just want to go on reading now. I'll probably finish the last four books in November, so let's see whether I'm finally fed up with it by then. I sincerely doubt it, because the whole series is just immensely fun reading.
I did read more books this month yet again. Which feels almost weird, but...I just slowly felt my book-reading mood coming back? Haven't felt like that for a while now, but I'm not sure how long this'll last.
Die Chronik der Unsterblichen: Der Vampyr / Der Todesstoß / Der Untergang / Die Wiederkehr / Die Blutgräfin (Wolfgang Hohlbein)
I usually really enjoy books and book series by Wolfgang Hohlbein. And this one is no exception. Sure, the stories and prose aren't especially deep, but his style is just really engaging and fun and easy to read. Perfect to huddle on the couch with a blanket and a hot cup of tea and escape reality for a while. That's exactly what I want and need in Autumn, so it wasn't hard for me to pick this book series from my huge unread list. And I'm glad there are still ~10 more volumes to read!
Dear Oxbridge (Nele Pollatschek)
I usually don't read books by Germans telling stories about their life and experiences in other countries anymore. In most cases I just can't bring myself to care about what the narrator wants to tell me, and often enough I even find the narrator/author pretty unlikable. Not in this case – judging from the writing style and the things she was writing about I often found myself agreeing with her. And there were quite a few things I found really interesting, even if I've already read countless books about life in the UK. (And we're not even talking about all those TV shows I've watched...) So well, I was pleasantly surprised here!
Lebensgeister (Banana Yoshimoto)
A few years ago I read a few books by Banana Yoshimoto and I mostly remember really liking „Kitchen“. The other books were pretty good, too. But...I just didn't like this one here at all. Sure, the descriptions of Kyoto were pretty good and atmospheric. Everything else was less good, though. I couldn't connect to the characters at all and the book felt way too...esoteric? spiritual? for my tastes. It wasn't even the thing about the mainchar being able to see ghosts, but rather the fact that she herself seemed like a ghost herself, with all this weird esoteric talk about inner healing and stuff. Nah, not my favourite by this author. Definitive not.
Frauen in Japan / Das verhasste Alter (various authors)
Two anthologies with short stories by Japanese authors. I already knew some of the authors, but I also discovered a lot of new ones. The stories were pretty good, too, but there wasn't one that made me want to read more from the same author ASAP. Still, decent anthologies, because there weren't any really bad stories and that's worth something, I think.
Angels in the Moonlight (Caimh McDonnell)
I was a bit sceptical about this prequel, because frankly...as much as I love Bunny (who doesn't?), I was sure that I would miss the other characters from the original trilogy. And well, I did miss them, but I still liked the prequel a lot. Even though I still prefer the trilogy, haha. But we still get a cast of quirky, interesting characters instead of the ones we already know and the crime part is also pretty good. So...while I still have the final book of the trilogy left, I'm not worried about whether I'd enjoy the prequels and other related books anymore. Which is pretty nice.