The usual schedule to be resumed

It is the first time in quite a while when I feel that the summer holiday was not enough. Not in the way of feeling relaxed and with the batteries fully charged, but I could have used a bit more time away. Since there is nothing to be gained from this wishful thinking I’ll settle for the holiday I had and that was extremely lovely. Although my reading still went in a slow manner I managed though to finish a couple of very pleasant books and that is something for me since it is the first year from the last five or six in which I stumbled upon a few truly disappointing readings. A matter of choice I believe, but it might lead to a reconsidering of the manner in which the next reading is chose. Anyway, with David Nickle’s mad but satisfying “Rasputin’s Bastards” finished just before the holiday, but still awaiting for its review to be written, while I enjoyed the time off I caught up with Daniel Abraham’s “A Betrayal in Winter” and “An Autumn War” and I am still asking myself what took me so long to read one of the best fantasy series, Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s “The Prisoner of Heaven”, that cemented the author’s position in my preferences if that was still necessary, Andrez Bergen’s “Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat”, a crime noir novel set in an excellent post-apocalyptic setting and with a main character who together with Fermín Romero de Torres (“The Prisoner of Heaven”) are two fictional personalities who make the experience of reading rewarding in the fullest, Carole Lanham’s “The Whisper Jar”, an amazing collection of very strong short stories that deserves more attention, Evie Manieri’s “Blood’s Pride” which is not exactly what I would call the perfect match for my reading preferences but still an interesting reading, Juan Pablo Villalobos’ “Down the Rabbit Hole”, told through an innocent voice in a humorous manner, but with a tragic loss of that innocence on the perspective and a re-reading of Marian Coman’s “The Chocolate Testament”, the fantastic and sensible dream of this amazing writer. Speaking of Marian Coman, while away on holiday I also had the chance to talk a bit the Romanian speculative fiction on Locus Magazine’s Roundtable blog and the result can be found here.

However, I believe now is the time to return to the usual schedule. Or so I hope J