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February books

Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer
Dennis Rooke, A Touch Of The Sun
Peter Schickele, The Definitive Biography Of P.D.Q. Bach
Gene Wolfe, The Claw Of The Conciliator
John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades
Susan Coolidge, What Katy Did At School (Reading of What Katy Did Next aborted on realisation that it was that loathsome thing, an abridgement that doesn't admit it. [The London chapter just wasn't there, for ex.] I'd never have bought it if I'd realised, no matter how pretty the binding is.)
Stephan Zeilinski, Bad Magic (ooh YUM. Nearly too much for my grueometer but worth it. Really imaginative urban fantasy; not a mislabelled paranormal romance.)
Jo Walton, Farthing (brilliant, chilling)
Kage Baker, The Machine's Child
Janet Evanovich, Seven Up
Mercedes Lackey binge! (Not sure why I felt like the Valdemar & Tayledras books, but it was fun to reread them. If you skip all the Poor Tortured Teenager/Joy Of Impression Choosing parts... oh all right, and ignore the way the enemies aren't just antagonists, they're evil evil perverts and eat babies! And the End Of The World is on the way, again!... they're good stories, very readable. And I do like the world, so there. And you can play spotting the Tough Guide entries.)
Owlflight
Magic's Pawn
The Black Gryphon
The White Gryphon
By The Sword
Winds of Fate
Winds of Change
Winds of Fury
Storm Warning
Magic's Promise
Magic's Price
Storm Rising
The Silver Gryphon
Storm Breaking
(I'd forgotten the plots of the middle Vanyel book and Silver Gryphon- which was nice.)
Robert van Gulik, The Lacquer Screen
Ngaio Marsh, A Man Lay Dead
Arthur Conan Doyle, His Last Bow
Dorothy L. Sayers, Murder Must Advertise
Georgette Heyer, Sprig Muslin
Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think
Rudyard Kipling, Kim
Dave Langford, They Do The Time Police In Different Voices
Laurie R. King, The Moor
Mercedes Lackey, Arrows Of The Queen
Giles, 46th collection
Laurie R. King, The Game
Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, Heaven (a slightly old fashioned sci-fi-of-ideas feel to this, in an "our worldbuildings, let us show u them" way, and there's a fair sized deus ex machina. The aliens are worth showing off, though- I particularly liked the magnetic plasma creatures that are used to pull starships, and the walking ponds- and it's certainly entertaining and well worth reading providing you don't mind the odd infodump.)
Mercedes Lackey, Arrow's Flight
Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero (illus. Paul Kidby)
Petronius, The Satyricon (trans. J. Sullivan)

I was sweeping up leaves in my new garden (yay) when a large Alsatian wandered through the gap in the fence from next door and sniffed at me. There was a small girl in the yard, who informed me "That's our dog." I muttered something about what a nice doggie.
"Sometimes he likes to bite people."
Note to self: mend gap.

Saw Dara O'Briain at the Grand last night. (It always seems a bit unnatural venturing out through empty streets to go into town at six o'clock on a Sunday. At least it wasn't quite dark yet.) An amusing rant about psychics, nutrionists and other scammers; a nice bit about a gig to very drunk people where he was followed by a magician. "Comics despise magicians. We think they try too hard, all that stuff they buy... it's like we're a ninja, they've got a bazooka." My favourite part of the audience interaction was with a music teacher. What's the most difficult instrument to teach? "Xylophone." Why? "They just hit each other."