Mailing it in this morning. I spent all day yesterday with mrsS and friends in Amador County sampling wines. We had a lovely time celebrating the 30th anniversary of a good friend's illegal entry into the country (he's long been a citizen, and is a teacher at my kids' high school), but it didn't get my taxes FMBD blurb done.

Among the many books I did not read last month were these. But I have been plowing through the assorted beheadings, impalements, assassinations, flayings, etc., of A Dance With Dragons.

This mammoth installment of George R.R.R.R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series is, well, mammoth. And fascinating. And disconcerting. Much of the first couple hundred pages feel like back-tracking, because they re-tell some story lines from a different perspective, or simply move back in series time to pick up another character's thread that had been left lagging in the previous volume. Still, there are plenty of guts spilled and bones crunched here to satisfy any devoted reader.

I'm only about a third of the way into this one, but I'm anxious to see the return of Arya Underfoot, for Roose Bolton and his bastard to get what's (surely?) coming to 'em, and for somebody to pay the Walders back for the Red Wedding. Let's get on with it, already.

What are you reading?