I recently finished reading (in a proper paperback) Different Class by Joanne Harris. It's a slightly clever crime fiction type book, and pretty much the sequel to Gentlemen and Players from a few years earlier. I enjoyed the earlier book more than this, which lagged a little in the middle, although I can at least say it took me longer to guess the baddie in this book than in Gentlemen and Players where it was a simple matter of elimination to work it out, so if that's where you get your enjoyment in reading crime fiction, there's that in its favour. Personally I enjoy the characters and plot twists for what they essential are themselves, rather than needing a mechanical effect to enjoy these books, and at least in Gentlemen and Players she did write some very good characters.
Perhaps I found the characters less interesting this time because I'd already met at least half of them, but it's almost impossible for me to decide on that from where I am. I'd recommend anyone who likes good stories to try Gentlemen and Players but only pick up Different Class if you're a big fan of the first book and want more. I wouldn't recommend it as a stand-alone book.
Before that I read a biography of Leonardo da Vinci by Charles Nicoll, subtitled the Flights of the Mind. It taught me a little of late 15th and early 16th century life in northern Italy and bits of France and Switzerland, and some of his interactions with other famous names I've heard of, and of course the life and times of the titular man, but it was relatively dry and it took me a while to get through it, and I'm not sure having read it that I'm likely to dip back into it for reference, the way I do with most of my other non-fiction books.
Now I'm reading Thud by Terry Pratchett, one of his later books that I must have missed off - I mostly used to get them for birthdays and christmas, so I've no idea what I was doing in 2005.
