Summer Reading

You know how you sometimes just dive into a series and don't resurface until it's done (or, you've read the latest book)?  Well, it's been quite a while since that has happened for me.  I plowed through the Stephanie Plum/Janet Evanovich series a few years ago, then more recently did James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series and about half of the Alex Cross series.  All of those books fall into the category of what I'd call popcorn or beach reading (or fireside reading, if done in winter).  Page turners that you can polish off in a day if you're not careful.  I've been really looking for another absorbing, can't wait until the next book comes out series, and boy, did I find a good one.  It's on the short side, just four books to date, but what a great four books:



I'm currently on the fourth one, Revelation. 

The series is set in 16th century England and features an unlikely protagonist, Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer and a hunchback who seems to generally find himself in the middle of some manner of politicial mess and mystery.  Fascinating historical fiction (not an anglophile, I wasn't sure how spot on he was until I cross checked some aspects of the stories and came away impressed), I've seen the series referred to somewhere as CSI - Renaissance England and that's not a bad description, either.  The books don't romanticize the time period, which is quite refreshing (or not, as the case may be).   And the books, while highly readable, are also long and complex enough to be far more satisfying that popcorn.

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This morning was a five mile easy run, followed by training with sensei J.  We did the usual kata run through and then worked a LOT on fighting technique.  Basically, he has been completely tearing apart what I've learned and teaching me a far more effective style, particularly for someone my size.  It is a crazy mix of fascinating and frustrating because I'm having to go against nearly six years worth of built in responses, things that, although not wrong or incorrect, really only work well in either point sparring (which I've always loathed) or a cooperative, structured sparring environment, but are not always best in a ring, or a real fight.  I see progress every time we train, but damn, do these sessions scramble my brain.  I have regular class tonight; hopefully we'll spar and I'll get to try some of these things after they've had time to marinate a bit.