Mary and Sherlock

I haven't written anything for awhile. I've been rereading Laurie R. King's Mary Russel series. The first book came out over 10 years ago and although I've read each subsequent book as it has arrived I have not paused to reread the previous books. Now I have and with 8 books it has taken some time, but well worth it. I enjoyed the books so much the first time around that I thought, naturally, that I would remember them - but so many details got lost. One thing that I have really enjoyed this time around is the banter between the girl and the man, at times it is quite funny. The other nice touch is the appearance of both real and literary characters from the time of the books. Kipling's Kim plays an important roll in "The Game" and Sayers' Peter Wimsey play the piano for us. We meet Allenby in "O, Jerusalem" and Dashiell Hammett get an idea for the Maltese Falcon in "Locked Rooms". For those of us that are interested in history and read mysteries these books are filled with fun references. Generally series tend to get tiresome - but this series is one I hope will go on and on.
Not being able to find all the books in the series at once, I have also read Amy Tan's latest book "Saving Fish from Drowning"; it was an interesting pause in the oriental world - a contrast between the geographical oriental worlds and the worlds created by the immigrants to the US. A modern day interlude to the teens & twenties in the Russel novels.