What the Wenches Are Reading

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The Wenches have all been busy with different things this week, including reading whenever we can find the time! Some movies and TV series inspired a couple of us to pick up the books they were based on, some of us are in the midst of our old favorites and sneaking in a few clandestine meetings with our book boyfriends between chores, while some of us are getting familiar with new universes and characters.

Click through to see what we've been reading.




Amanda: I haven't had very much time to read lately, so I'm still on Archangel's Legion by Nalini Singh.

Angela: I'm completely immersed in the world of Diana Gabaldon's Drums of Autumn (Outlander #4). She has started putting me through the wringer, and I need to keep reading to see how it is all going to play out. I also read the Flesh Cartel #10 and #11. I'm ready for this serialised book series to be over, but am committed to seeing it through as I need to know that it ends okay. I'm over the authors trying to make the situation for brothers Dougie and Mat as horrific as possible, and I know there is more to come given how many "episodes" there are left. Looking back, I think Seasons #1 and #2 were the best, and it now feels like things are dragging.

Anne: After reading and absolutely ADORING Shock & Awe by Abigail Roux, I stayed in that world, sort of, a little longer and read a lovely steampunk Cut & Run fanfiction called Airship Sidewinder. Now, I'm returning to the world of Katniss Everdeen and rereading Catching Fire in preparation for the movie.

Barbara: I finally finished Halfway to the Grave this morning, and will be moving right on to One Foot in the Grave. OFITG is, by far, my favorite Night Huntress book, which always wrings out of me laughter, tears, laughter-through-tears, joy, and heartache. We meet Ian and Annette in this book, two characters whom I need to know so much more about!

Beta: I've hardly been reading anything this last week, been pretty busy preparing for Christmas, but I have occasionally read a page or two of Diana Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross. I just wish I had more time for reading, especially when reading the Outlander books, so I could see some progress.

Care: Okay, so I'm doing this backward. I'm watching large volumes of Once Upon a Time — massive volumes, meaning all of season 1 and 2/3 of season 2 in the past week and change. But this means I am now dying to reread all these fairy tales. But the question... What is the best version of them to read? I don't want anything too Disney-esque, but I don't want the most gruesome, Lovecraftian versions ever written either... So what are YOU reading? What was your favorite fairy tale — and by whom?

Kathi: Thoroughly immersed in my reread of Drums of Autumn. Between that and the news and photos from the set of the Outlander TV series, my reading time is blissfully happy.

Merit: This week I read The Age of Miracles by debut author Karen Thompson Walker. The Earth's rotation is slowing, and soon the world as we know it will change. Gravity is affected and there are devastating consequences for animals, plants, and the human race. The story is told from the POV of 11-year-old Julie, in retrospect by an older Julie. I would have liked more emotional depth in here, but it is an intriguing hunting story, one that made me think about how we take our world for granted while we shouldn't! Reading now The Queen is Dead by Kate Locke, the second installment of The Immortal Empire. This urban fantasy is a fun read.

Natalie: I will admit it has been some time since I honestly sat down and dedicated time to reading. I gave a few hours here or there to a book since I started working, but nothing like what I have done this weekend. I don’t know if it was seeing the movie The Best Man Holiday on Friday night that kicked off the urge to read, but I will admit that the movie was profoundly powerful to me. I would say late summer or early fall I bought this book called The Promise Of Stardust, and the synopsis captivated me. I had a strong urge to read it, but something in me said "wait". After the movie on Friday night I thought, "well, I've cried once this weekend...let's keep it going". See, this story is of the struggles one husband has after his wife falls off a ladder and becomes clinically brain dead. He knows his wife's feelings about being kept alive in a vegetative state, but with the added the monkey wrench that she is 8-weeks pregnant and they have lost 4 other babies previously, he now is faced with a new dilemma. To keep her alive or to let her and the baby go, that is the question this husband faces. This book is very polarizing, but I have been sucked in, and if I have not finished it by the time you read this, I will be finishing it very soon. I am currently 58% of the way through the book, and I have not had to have a box of tissue next to me, I've had to have a towel.

Veronica: I was sick over the past week, so I had a bit of time on my hands. I didn't catch the Orange is the New Black craze with everyone else (I confused it with Orphan Black, one of which I didn't have access to), but this week I found it on Netflix and binge watched it over 3 days. It was fantastic! And ended on a helluva cliffhanger. A few events in season 1, including the ending, led me to believe that perhaps the television show took more than a few liberties with Piper Kerman's memoir. So I downloaded the book with the purpose of looking through it to find the differences — I'm not all that sympathetic to Piper's situation as portrayed on the television show, especially compared to the West Memphis Three, whom I've been following for the past decade, give or take — but it ended up being a very engaging story. I read it in one day, and I'll just say for now that Piper Kerman's story is a bit different from Piper Chapman's.

Zee: Haven't had a lot of time to read, but trying to make time to finish The Name of the Wind! It's one of those books you really want to finish in one sitting, but dammit! Life is not cooperating. Also started reading Hamlet; it had been too long.