YumWatch: Thinking Tastes Good

I have had this sitting around in my askbox forever but haven’t answered because that would mean I’m actually exposing myself to literature other than ASOIAF right now, which is crazy! Right?! But I’ll pause a moment, tear myself away from the Roy Dotrice audiobook of A Feast for Crows (which is fantastic, although one podcast noted that Dotrice mostly sounds either like a leprechaun or a pirate. Not inaccurate!)

I’m gonna recommend The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss again (and its sequel, A Wise Man’s Fear) for anybody who missed it. Gripping fantasy with a well-constructed mythology and gorgeous writing. 

I recently finished Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, which I liked but didn’t love. Although I get what he was trying to do with the whole “deconstruction of Narnia/LOTR/Harry Potter tropes” through this modern, Donna Tartt-ish sort of sensibility, it still kind of felt like “Holden Caulfield goes to Magic School”, and Holden Caulfield has always bored me. (Sorry guys! I hate Jonathan Franzen too. So much.) 

I am currently audiobooking: 

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon (I’ve never read! and revisionary feminist fantasy is so in my wheelhouse!)

Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom (first book in his Saxon series). Now that I’m spending at least two hours a day in my car in serious L.A. traffic,  I’m really glad I discovered Cornwell (also known for the Sharpe novels, which are also known for the ITV series starring SEAN BEAN NOT DYING FOR ONCE IN HIS CAREER.) His stuff is fast-paced, competently written historical fiction that’s got just enough period detail but isn’t too mentally taxing — perfect for making the time pass on the road. 

(I’m a huge sucker for historical fic — sign me up, Phillipa Gregory! So any recs are welcome.)