Reading matters

The book I first read in 2007... re-discovered in the carton of stuff recuperated from my old flat here in Abu Dhabi... was an eye-opener in a way.

I wonder what was my mood, my état d'ame when I first read it. Was it just the burning need to escape from the day-to-day absurdities of the time? (And they were many; here in the Sandlands they always are!) I recalled the basic premise of the story, of course. And while I am not usually taken by the fantasy genre... with shape-shifting time travelers... I suspect that I enjoyed the storytelling even more on this second time around.

Ysabel was the winner of the 2008 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

I suppose I should be surprised that this is a book seen by some reviewers as falling into the teen fantasy publishing category. I suspect that when I first bought it I was responding to the setting of the story in Provence. Readers of this blog know full well of my weakness for the south of France!

Which brings me to another book salvaged from said box. Labyrinth was my introduction to Kate Mosse's writing. The Languedoc, this time, rather than Provence. And again I think the re-reading will be enjoyable, possibly more so than it was in 2006 when I bought my copy.