One of the things I like about Victorian novels is the way they can just kind of meander in a way that still keeps your attention.

FredPete, have you read any Sarah Waters? Her books aren't Dickens-long, but they are substantial, and they are Victorian settings (except for her last 2), and focus on the lesbian culture then, with a great honking dose of gothic (Affinity, I think my fave) and crime (Fingersmith). Just really fabulous.

I also quite liked The Observations, which is more Gothic Victorian-settings, with quite a strong lesbian (quasi) subtext.

Also Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue was really good, although it was 18th c. rather than Victorian.

Mmm. Historical fiction.

Also Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue was really good, although it was 18th c. rather than Victorian.

Oh! Loved that book and her short stories too. I was trying to remember the title when she was interviewed on NPR yesterday about her new novel, which I really want to read.

Room? I want to read that. I haven't read the short stories, but her book on female relationships in fiction is at my lib, and it's on my list. I also read a story she did about whathername, female sculptor in England, Damer?

I read it following the bio on Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and it was really interesting, although I didn't enjot it as much as Slammerkin.

I was just thinking about this yesterday! Time and again, if I'm reading a long series, I start getting disappointed after 5-6 books in (Sookie, Hollows, Pern). So I guess I prefer trilogies, or well planned out series (where the author actually has a definitive end in mind).

I love a good short story, but I have to be in the mood. Otherwise a novel is what I generally read. And anything that continues into a series is usually welcome, but some mystery series do have the same-old feeling after a while.

Unsurprisingly, I am Amy. In college, as a Lit and Theatre major, all I could read for "entertainment" was short stories-- Stephan King, Agathie Christie, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, though, because that was all I had the attention span for with all that academic reading.

Interesting. I tend to find short stories take more deliberate mental focus than a novel.

Well, I recently finished Blameless ... don't know if I'll follow the series any further. HOWEVER ... I'm wondering if Alexia or her child (after it's born, of course) will return Biffy to mortal so Lord Akeldama can make him into a vampire (I do like a happy ending!),

My favorite is a well-paced trilogy. Quartets are acceptable as well. Almost any time a series goes longer than that (no matter how addicted I might get), I expect an unfortunate degradation in quality

YES. I was just reading the latest in a series I've quite enjoyed...and it's the 6th or 7th book, and I thought it was the last, and come to find out there's at LEAST two more planned, and I was really annoyed. Not only because I have to wait for more wrap up, but because, really? Dude? You can't say it all in SEVEN BOOKS? (Which are not short)?? But at least there does seem to be an end planned. Many series I read/have read just go on and on...and eventually (sometimes sooner [coughAnitaBlakecough] rather than later) just go downhill, and it makes me sad because I usually liked them so much to start with.

Though I don't tend to as much have that issue with mysteries, unless they get too caught up in the main character's personal life (like if suddenly after four or five books, there's no outside mystery, it's always that the serial killer wants the detective/forensic specialist/cop! This time Every time, it's PERSONAL!)

ugh, i'm half way through _The Windup Girl_ and just got _Catching Fire_ from the library. I put a freeze on everything else i have on hold until i'm done with at least one...but such a condundrum...finish the one i'm halfway through (and totally able to put down) or jump ahead and read Catching Fire cuz i WANNA even though that means i might run out of time on Windup Girl...can't renew, there's other folks waiting. Oh, the first world woe!

Well, I recently finished Blameless ... don't know if I'll follow the series any further.

I finished it last night myself. I enjoyed it, and it made me laugh out loud at points, of course, but it felt...like not as much was at stake as usual. I never felt a real sense of danger, perhaps because Alexia is so gosh-darn unflappable. That's part of the lighthearted, romp-y tone of the books, I suppose, which has its charm, but it seems like very little HAPPENS in each book. There are basically one or two revelations or developments that move the plot forward (and I do like that Carriger is moving a continuing plot, of sorts, regarding Alexia's preternatural nature through the books and like the references to past books), but otherwise it's just silly fun, which is fine.

I did like that secondary characters like Lyall and Floote got a chance to shine (and, like Steph, I really want to know what the HELL is/was up with Floote: it seems to be implied that he was a sundowner...or maybe a Templar, but I've forgotten what he's done in previous books). Also, I got unexpectedly teary at Lyall's reaction to Biffy's sadness at the realization that he'd become a werewolf.

I'm interested to see what Carriger is planning for the next two books, which I believe are supposed to close out the series.