Oh, man, Amy, Wolf Hall was riveting. Easily one of the most compelling historical fictions I have ever read. Love. I even gave it to some students who loved it. She makes Thomas Cromwell so...so...rational and appealing and heroic.

I am not surprised that Jilli loved Night Circus. The first chapter just sounds like her. The book has second person chapters interspersed through that are surprisingly effective.

I love Night Circus! Magical.

I loved The Night Circus. I loved the world and hated to see it end.

I really liked Wolf Hall in the end, but I did get bogged down halfway through and set it aside for a couple of months.

I feel like I have a million books on the go right now, and can't seem to focus on any of them.

I had read the first chapter of Wolf Hall, and I was fascinated. I'm trying to finish library books right now, and I picked up Ron Rash's Serena after I saw pictures of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper from the film. And I still want to get into the Montaray book!

Not enough time, ever. Sometimes I miss commuting (on the train) for the regular twice-a-day reading time.

I got Wolf Hall a few weeks ago, but haven't read it yet. It should be interesting: I've read a lot of fiction set during the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, but not much under Henry.

I'm on a big Dunnett binge right now, listening to the audiobooks of the Lymond Chronicles, and it's so completely absorbing that I keep taking a longer lunch than I should so I can sit in the sun and listen to the descriptions of a shipwreck in the North Sea, or reindeer-racing in the Russian Arctic. So the dog is getting a lot of walks, but I'm going to be a bit bereft when I'm done.

There's something so immediate about an audiobook, and even books I know well (like Dunnett) feel fresh and new that way, because I can't skip or skim. I hear every line (if I don't fall asleep), and I pick up so much more in the writing that way.

I forget: have I burbled about Dorothy Dunnett here?

I forget: have I burbled about Dorothy Dunnett here?

You have been her staunchest advocate. Though I'm glad to hear your thoughts on the audiobooks.

C.J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake books set in Henry VIII's reign, and they're quite wonderful.

Consuela, I really owe it to my BFF, who has been in love with Francis Crawford of Lymond since she was a teenager, to read the Lymond Chronicles. Every time I start, I'm overwhelmed by the length and density.

Are the Dunnett books fantasy, or just historical?

Most petulant, entitled, delicate snowflake of genius author rant I've ever seen. Really a thing of beauty.

Consuela, I really owe it to my BFF, who has been in love with Francis Crawford of Lymond since she was a teenager, to read the Lymond Chronicles. Every time I start, I'm overwhelmed by the length and density.

Yeah, I can see that. I wish there was a way to just dip your toe in Dunnett, but she mostly wrote novel series--only ever published one short story in her life (although I have a copy of it if you want to see what her prose was like). Even her contemporary mystery/thrillers are ... odd. Off-kilter.

And her one-off novel about Macbeth is even denser than anything in the other works.

But that's part of the fun: she creates a whole world, and populates and furnishes it so richly, you can't tell which characters are actual historic personages and which aren't -- although the deaths that hurt the most are generally those in the historic record.

If you have the time, I would suggest just... jumping in. Because if you appreciate Lord Peter Wimsey and Miles Vorkosigan, and their mixture of hyper-competence and raw human pain, you're going to like Francis Crawford. He's an alpha-bastard's alpha-bastard, but when he breaks, it's fabulous drama. And she puts him through the ringer: battles & family crises, treason trials, drug addiction, slavery & undercover operations, espionage & shipwrecks, and even a Master Villain to defeat.

Are the Dunnett books fantasy, or just historical?

They are historic; the Lymond series covers 1547-1558, all over Europe and the Mid-East, and Russia. There are hints of psychic abilities/foretelling in the later books, but it's hardly magic.

My MiL loved Dorothy Dunnett. I haven't read her yet, but I plan on reading her one of these days.