My what a middle book this middle book is. There's nothing wrong with it, mind you. It's just, middly. We change focus from Isolfr, who was a pretty a...moreMy what a middle book this middle book is. There's nothing wrong with it, mind you. It's just, middly. We change focus from Isolfr, who was a pretty appealing character, to Vethur, who no one really liked in the first book, and Skajldwulf, who I kind of liked, and how they find comfort in each other. For a few pages at least, and then it's all roadtrip.
We see the problems of the third book building, how will they remake themselves, what are we going to do about the not!Romans, etc. I think the third book has the potential to be pretty spiffy.
I think my favorite part of the book was the sworn-son. The jarl lost his heir to the wolfheall, so he took the most promising of his daughters and raised her as a son. It is a super interesting extension of the Albanian sworn-man theory. She is awesome, not because she is a woman, or not entirely, but because of the way you can see all the dudes in this very dudely series parsing out what jarl/woman/man/peer means to them.
The plot, on the other hand, was sort of .... there was a road trip, and some bad guys, and a party at the end?
Read if: You read and loved the first and plan to read the third. You will forgive it for only have two, relatively short, wolfboy sex scenes.
Skip if: you are a patient person. Wait until the third book comes out and read all three at once.(less)
It's interesting to me to read books set in the cold war, now that my kids are old enough that I have tried to explain the cold war.
This is a band-of-...moreIt's interesting to me to read books set in the cold war, now that my kids are old enough that I have tried to explain the cold war.
This is a band-of-misfits book with a healthy dose of improbable circumstances, but for all that, it's exactly the kind of book I keep going back to, because it is exactly what it claims to be. It's about men and women working together to accomplish an impossible mission.
Read if: you like can-do, derring-do, and awesome little character moments, like the Soviet base caretaker who loves chinese food.
Skip if: your eyes glaze over when people talk about military technology, you don't want jingoism in your escapism.(less)
This is not one of MacLean's tightly-plotted masterpieces, but it does make a really satisfying head-movie on a hot summer day. The oil fields of Alas...moreThis is not one of MacLean's tightly-plotted masterpieces, but it does make a really satisfying head-movie on a hot summer day. The oil fields of Alaska and the tar sands of Canada are being threatened by some shadowy and efficient terrorist organization. Our two intrepid investigators are out to find out what's going on.
Included: research nuggets about oil and the effects of extreme cold. Adorably crusty characters. Pretty girls. Hard drinking. Fisticuffs.
Read if: You are a MacLean completist. You love the cold books.
Have you ever shown up to a book club meeting even though you haven't done the reading, and you follow along reasonably well with the discussion,...moreHuh.
Have you ever shown up to a book club meeting even though you haven't done the reading, and you follow along reasonably well with the discussion, but you never feel quite engaged? I felt a little like that while I was reading this book.
There are two intertwined stories about the same character. There is the fantastical story of her family, and the death of her sister, and how she interacts with her family after everything has changed. Then there is the ZOMG books! peers! THE FUTURE storyline.
I'm pretty sure that if I were 10 years older, or if I had read a lot of SF in my adolescence, this second storyline might resonate more, but I found myself frustrated with the references to the books I did know -- it was more like a reading log than an exploration of how the books made her feel, or what they made her think. For example, her group read the Susan Cooper The Dark is Rising series, which I love passionately, and they briefly discuss the seasonality of it, and the ending, but not the Arthurian nature, or the bleakness, or the POETRY of it, and I suspect, from reading the comments on the other (dozens) of books mentioned, that they all also get passed lightly by. But then, other than that, I didn't read ANY of those books as a kid, (except for Far From the Madding Crowd, ironically), so they didn't blow the top off my head then, and I'm thinking that Wizard of Earthsea is a different experience when you read it at 30 than 13. Yes, she's isolated at school, and not understood by her family, and finds solace in books. That does not seem novel to me. Familiar, but not ... interesting?
The magical physical events are touched very lightly. They were not substantial, or resonant, or spiritual? They did not thrill me. I did not think the writing was acute enough, sharp enough to tolerate being spare.
The most interesting part of the book to me was the causality noodling. If magic can make something happen by making other things have happened, is there any way you can know that there is free will. It's an argument I am used to seeing in theology, and not teen angst, but it's well-presented. Also, I like that Mor is a practical soul, and takes care of herself.
Read if: Books, specifically sci-fi books, saved you when you were a kid. If you read ALL the sci-fi in the late 70's-early 80's. If you like the ambiguous line between magic, imagination, and madness. You want a trenchant voice on living with a mobility impairment.
Skip if: Unresolved story lines will make you crazy. If you want more in-depth discussion of the books, or the romance, or the exciting!fight!against!darkness. You've read a fair number of boarding-house-magic books and you have high standards - read Sabriel instead, which is only a boarding school book for 40 pages or so, and has 4 times the texture.(less)
This book is labeled as a " companion" to Graceling. Chronologically, it's a prequel, but they are truly independent stories. If Graceling was about l...moreThis book is labeled as a " companion" to Graceling. Chronologically, it's a prequel, but they are truly independent stories. If Graceling was about learning how not to be a weapon, Fire is about learning that conscientious objection may not always be the correct path. It's also about not being who your parents were*. That can be good or bad.
Those of you who have mentioned that it is not as strong as Graceling are correct, but if I had read them in reverse order, I would have been pleased at Cashore's growth as a writer. I wonder if either the publish order does not reflect the writing order, or if Graceling, as a first novel, got a bunch more polish.
I do appreciate the romance themes of unrequited love, acceptance-of-flaws, jealousy, mourning, de-coupling sex and love, and equal partnership. Cashore's greatest strength as a writer is portraying the complicated ways we love each other without ever making me feel like fated love is the same as boring love.
Read if: You liked Graceling and have patience for a sophomore effort. You want to have an antidote to chosen ones who are whiny. You are trying not to be like your own parent.
Skip if: Graceling was perfect in your mind and you will resent this book for not being that. You dislike being deceived by characters you like. You prefer evenly implemented telepathy rules.
*At about the third surprise!paternity moment, I began to wonder if it was thematic or just lazy storytelling.(less)
So this book came really strongly recommended. Strongly enough that I overcame my aversion to reading a Zombie Book. I am, on the whole, a wimp. I do...moreSo this book came really strongly recommended. Strongly enough that I overcame my aversion to reading a Zombie Book. I am, on the whole, a wimp. I do not enjoy thinking about the post-apocalypse. You realize we probably wouldn't be the survivors, right? And our children would almost certainly not? Yeah, I don't read a lot of those books anymore.
However, many people I know have really enjoyed this book, and so I gave it a flyer.
It's not really a novel about the zombie apocalypse. It's a novel set in the post-shamble era, but it's actually about trust, hope, and faith. It's about media laziness and blogging and free-range parenting.
It's wry and snarky and the narrative voice is excellent and sort of sounds like "us" in the greater blogosphere wry-and-snarky way. I don't know if it would be as resonant and homey to someone who didn't read in the same world. And I shouldn't say blogger like it's a monolith. It's not like the honey and strychnine of the Deep Mothering blogosphere. But I could imagine these reporters in Tunisia and Egypt, in Lithuania and the nominating conventions of our elections.
I once wanted to be a reporter, did you know? I almost declared it as my major. But I gave it up when I realized that I didn't love the news more than other people, that I was not driven to find out the truth. And if I couldn't serve wholeheartedly, I didn't want to be taking up someone else's place. Sometimes I wonder about the might-have-been of that.
I read this book in an enormous gulp, all 560-some pages in about, um, 24 hours. Yeah, it wasn't my most productive weekend, but it was a super compelling story, and it ran on rails, which is a feat I always admire and appreciate. The plot was tight and surprising, but not ridiculous.
Read if: You like thinking about how we get our news. You read and enjoyed All The President's Men. You worry about the radicalization of politics. You'll find it really funny that the crazy-ass stunt reporters are called Irwins, and their award is the Golden Steve-o.
Skip if: You really cannot handle zombies, or people dying of zombies, or the trope where people have to kill their infected loved ones. Zombie-based harm to small children is unendurable (but I made it through that, and I can't watch LO: SVU or Cold Case anymore, as a metric). You don't have the tolerance for chatty, conscious first-person narrative voices.(less)
This is a set of four linked stories about a set of siblings enjoying the Little Season (fall/winter) in London. Develin and his three half-sisters ar...moreThis is a set of four linked stories about a set of siblings enjoying the Little Season (fall/winter) in London. Develin and his three half-sisters are all still reeling from the loss of a father and an older brother, but life goes on, and Develin is morbidly aware of his need to be a good paterfamilia.
I found these stories sprightly and fun, and because of the differing authors, varied enough to maintain interest despite the extremely whirlwind nature of each courtship. The novellas are short, but so is the timespan, so it doesn't feel to incongruous.
All the stories are nicely edited and each one showcases a different personality type.
Read if: You want regency novellas without Christmas in them. You are looking for bite-sized romance without running all over the net. You like feisty heroines.
Skip if: You are looking for Christmas content, instant connections are going to bother you. In a short story, it pretty much has to be love at first sight.
This is my second Hern, and I am equally charmed by it as I was by the first one I read.
Our heroine Catherine is poor. Like no-meat-for-dinner poor. B...moreThis is my second Hern, and I am equally charmed by it as I was by the first one I read.
Our heroine Catherine is poor. Like no-meat-for-dinner poor. But she gets this one shining chance to go to a summer house party and secure her future. She must marry well or her options are pretty much non-existent, and she worries about the fate of her elderly aunt and her beautiful but gormless older sister (who reminded me forcibly of Charis in Venetia, a loving tribute, I'm sure).
She is a woman on a mission, but even in the midst of her mission, she can't help but be charmed by the amazing gardens of the house she is staying at. A chance encounter with the creator of those gardens sets her down a path of deception and frustration. She spends her mornings with the mesmerizing gardener, painting flowers, and her evenings on the prowl for safety and security.
I really liked that she didn't really feel guilty about this plan. It was what she had to do, so she did it. When her sister fell for someone unable to support extra adult women, she just carried on with her part of the plan. The hero thought this was reprehensible, of course, but he had a lot more options than she did, which the women in his life pointed out.
I did not love all the grabbing and kissing that happened after she told him to step off, but again, I am willing to give more leeway about this to books published 20 years ago. I did love that when she lost her temper and was trying to get him to leave her alone, she reached for the extremely blunt weapon of class differences. That seemed both in-character and in-period.
The secondary character I was most intrigued by is McDougal. Obviously there is something mysterious going on there. I hope he appears in other stories.
Read if: You are looking for a light, entertaining romance, with a surprising depth of nerdy research.
Skip if: Kissing after someone says no is a big problem for you.(less)
A child is sent into a foreign and militaristic world. He encounters kindness, bullies, and seemingly arbitrary...moreRead this book instead of Ender's Game.
A child is sent into a foreign and militaristic world. He encounters kindness, bullies, and seemingly arbitrary rules. He is smart enough to learn how to work the system and innovate within it.
They key difference is that unlike Ender, Vidanric/Shaveraeth achieves his goals through kindness. He still builds community, but it is based on respect instead of a combination of respect and fear.
Ender's Game meant a lot to me as a very bright kid who felt alone, but for my own kids, I intend to give them A Stranger To Command instead.
The story is straightforward: a scion of a noble house is sent out his home country to keep him safe from political dangers at home. He is dropped into military school, which is a rude shock for him, and his culture is very courtly and a little effete. Through various trials and experiments, he learns to play their game, but he always retains his core of kindness and compassion. That unusual perspective helps him build very solid teams and command structures. Inevitably, he is tried in a crucible of war and comes out the other side intact.
There is a thread of romance, and I really like the way it is handled as both age-appropriate to the characters and serving the needs of the story. There is also a looming enemy, which ties into more stories in the world. I read this book before Crown Duel and liked it better, but I'm sure it works excellently as a prequel after Crown Duel. It also stands alone well, although of course you like the world and characters enough to keep going.
I enjoy Sherwood Smith's solution to the twin banes of fantasy writers -- how does a society handle sewage, and how do travelers stay warm. She has provided magic that works for these simple things, and so you never have to think about one's heroes squatting behind a bush, and they don't have to spend time gathering firewood. On the whole, the use of magic is balanced, interesting, and not overwhelming to the story.
Read if: you liked Ender's game. You want a kind hero in your life. You have enjoyed any other Sherwood Smith.
Skip if: you really hate high fantasy. Military school books are not your thing.(less)
In this installment, Scalzi is loosening up and getting comfortable with the medium, which means there are interesting plot developments. The two prev...moreIn this installment, Scalzi is loosening up and getting comfortable with the medium, which means there are interesting plot developments. The two previous installments are tied together and matters are sent barreling down a greased track of eventual chaos.
The other nice part is that now that we have the "what" of some of the characters, we can start filling in the "who". Ambassador Abumwe is a delight to me. I mean, I'm glad I don't work for her, but she says things like: “Yes, well,” Abumwe said. “For the moment, at least, your terrified obsequiousness is not going to be useful to me. So stop it.”
And Wilson, our tough guy, is also pretty clear on his stance on the world: “I’m a ‘the glass is half-empty and filled with poison’ kind of guy, actually,” Wilson said.
So yes, keep reading this! If you were disappointed by how short the last one was, this one is significantly meatier.
Read if: You love classic sci-fi and/or snarky characters.
Skip if: You are going to suffer horribly from the serial format. (less)
Well.... the cyberpunk isn't bad. She's no Melissa Scott (Trouble and Her Friends (although I wondered if the woman wearing matched mauve scarf and sh...moreWell.... the cyberpunk isn't bad. She's no Melissa Scott (Trouble and Her Friends (although I wondered if the woman wearing matched mauve scarf and shoes was a nod in Cerise's direction). But the cyberpunk parts were not bad.
The religion caused me to grind my teeth. SEXY BLUE JEAN-WEARING ANGELS. And now they want to have sex with me and suck my blood. Oh, wait, my bad, that was Laurel K. Hamilton. I guess we'll just stick with sex. It's a near-future theocratic dystopia. Which, you know, has been done. But the idea that because it is dangerous and unlawful, people stop having sex.... what? No! Also, also! Did the cop-partner have to have an Irish brogue? Srsly?
But if you have a yen for investigations of the nature of angels, try A Wind in the Door, and if you want an interesting Satan, Hell and Earth: A Novel of the Promethean Age (The Stratford Man), and you would get a more sophisticated view of theodicy from The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (Calvin & Hobbes).
We own the sequel, and I really really doubt I'll ever find the time to read it. (less)
Books frequently get paired in my head, based on similarity of theme or setting or some other imponderable that causes me to shelve my books in scales...moreBooks frequently get paired in my head, based on similarity of theme or setting or some other imponderable that causes me to shelve my books in scales of what they make me feel like. This book's "sister from another mother" is Soulless by Gail Carriger.
I bought it as an ebook, because it sounded fun and charming, in the vein of Sorcery and Cecilia. It's a Victorianish romance, with bustles, gaslight and railroads. It also has shapeshifters, magical artifacts, and dastardly deeds. The premise is that magic is hereditary, and the nobility and gentry hold their estates by virtue of their ability to perform different levels of magic. Shapeshifters are immune to magic. My little monkey brain spent far more time than it should have trying to figure out what happens to an estate if the magical heir (and there is usually only one) should happen to die off. This may not be a problem for people less steeped in the contemplation of primogeniture.
Our heroine is in a bad spot. She can't work enough magic to hold onto her title and now she has come of age, and must be presented at court and magically tested. If she fails, the title will fall to her odious cousin. At her presentation ball, she meets a tall, attractive stranger. Because she is used to people ignoring or forgetting her, she has an unusually blunt and honest way of expressing herself, which impresses Our Hero.
In the finest of traditions, he courts her to get something from her. He wants both the usual something and a lead on the artifacts. There is a lot of hot and heavy making out, and she is really pretty assertive for a sheltered maiden. I thought, though, that her habitual self-doubt and second-guessing was just this side of annoying. And sometimes that side of annoying.
I thought the society was very interesting, the sense of place was negligible, the historiography suspect, the story engaging, and the characters middlin'.
Read if: you like magical costume-drama romances, you've run out of Gail Carriger, and you will not be convulsed in giggles every time she contemplates his "shaft". Skip if: you are looking for chewy alternate history, you care about how magical systems can be consistent, you are not into books that are primarily romance.(less)
This is a noir movie in verse, in a spare, mattress-ticking-and-iron-rail style. The language is both gritty and playful. You never forget that these...moreThis is a noir movie in verse, in a spare, mattress-ticking-and-iron-rail style. The language is both gritty and playful. You never forget that these characters are leading lives of being a little too cold, a little too poor, a little too drunk. Even the sex scenes occur in seedy motels and the rhapsodies are about forgetting.
Collapse( some excerpts. I had a hell of a time choosing )
Rendezvous [many awesome lines omitted, from now on represented by ....] Her noble camisole flees her body, wholly
And she is above me floating, dyed
Hair caught in stars & areoles --
Lingering cigarette light
Bolted-down seascape art Peristent static radio
My growing, gibbous heart
The Alias ...
I drink a lot about my thinking problem --
Nightcap, noontime nip --
She my unquit habit. ..... My good eye watched all night the storm
Drown the street in worms
The Rushes .... Planned she & I would meet where the dead sleep, pretending
No one there knew me --
Beneathe the morgue moon, blue light tugging at seas
One day, I thought, that will be me
In the godawful ground --
Our kisses cemeteries
The suicides coughing in their restless deep
The moon autopsied to find out if it waned
From natural causes. Bulletproof hearses. ...... I snapped back to see her hushed beside me
Soft-focus frame fading
The fedoraed darkness moving --
Our arms open as fire, we embraced
While bullets ricocheted off stone angels
Worn down by weather & winnowed by tears
Of red-clad windows in crocodile heels
Who visit just one hour a year.
Stills .... Without her I am incomplete -- prehensible, licit, couth. * Wisdom this tooth aching I want removed.
The Grift .... His real home was six feet beneath ground, he was just
up here renting breath with the rest of us, short-term lease
he's fallen behind on. * Flimflam man, two empty hands. Collapse
In short, I really loved this book, and was strangely unsurprised when I got to the end and there was a heartfelt thank-you to Colson Whitehead, because while the voice wasn't that similar, this book and The Intuitionist could exist in the same world.
Read if: You like lyrical poetry featuring a complete absence of ladies, lillies, clouds, or joy. If you are in the mood for a long-form poetry book. If you love noir and the trenchcoated gumshoes and fallen chantueses that populate it. Skip if: You really want straightforward beauty, you hate short lines, poetry seems inefficient to you.(less)
This may be my favorite of all the Regency Christmas collections. There are a metric ton. I am not the only one who treats holiday stress with mistlet...moreThis may be my favorite of all the Regency Christmas collections. There are a metric ton. I am not the only one who treats holiday stress with mistletoe kisses).
I could write reviews on each of the stories, but you should read them all. From Under the Kissing Bough, which includes an extended description of scrumping pinecones, to The Christmas Mouse, which charmingly reminds me of The Reluctant Widow, the whole thing is warm, cheering, charming, and not full of appalling people. It is not currently available on ebook, but I am going to make my mom bring the copy we share.
Read if: You want your heart to grow three sizes. You are looking for just the thing to take the edge off a long pre-holiday day without getting into a big book. You like short stories that know what they are and fit into their space.
Skip if: You are grinchy about Christmas romances.
Hmm. You know what? There's a LOT of great YA in the world. There is even a fair amount of palace-intrigue stepmother childhood-love romance. If you w...moreHmm. You know what? There's a LOT of great YA in the world. There is even a fair amount of palace-intrigue stepmother childhood-love romance. If you want truly awesome political feisty women in your YA, go read A Proud Taste For Scarlet and Miniver. You'll thank me later.
Aurelia is strictly mediocre YA. It's like knock-off oreos. Somehow just not satisfying, and you find yourself wondering why you're even bothering to eat it. It's not bad, not revolting, just not GOOD.
The strong points are an intense horsiness, a plausible romance, and a mystery it took me 3/4 of the book to figure out. The weak points are a predictable setting, a boring hero, a heroine who is defiant and avoidant of responsibility, and god help me, a magical negro character.
The writing is workmanlike, and I really wanted some of the costumes described, but overall, meh.
Read if: you are a voracious pre-teen reader systematically working your way through the library, you are also studying for the LSAT and need something as a palate cleanser at night.
Skip if: You might get your hopes unreasonably raised by a book named after an interesting historical character, you have limited reading time and like to allot it judiciously.
Have you ever eaten Vosges Chocolates? (if not, I recommend you do so!) You read the bar description, and it's like... "mushroom....chocolate?" It's w...moreHave you ever eaten Vosges Chocolates? (if not, I recommend you do so!) You read the bar description, and it's like... "mushroom....chocolate?" It's weird. And it's so intense and unique and you can only eat so much at a time. You really only want like, a truffle, or a square.
Cat Valente's Palimpsest is a little like that.
"To touch a person...to sleep with a person...is to become a pioneer," she whispered then, "a frontiersman at the edge of their private world, the strange, incomprehensible world of their interior, filled with customs you could never imitate, a language, which sounds like your own but it is really totally foreign, knowable only to them. I have been so many times to countries like that. I have learned how to make coffee in all their ways, how to share food, how to comfort, how to dance in the native ways."
You can't read paragraphs like that all in a gulp. They require a little cogitating.
What Valente excels at in this book is worldbuilding. There is a plot, and it even has a beginning and a middle and an end. There are characters, and they are not unsympathetic. But they sort of exist to showcase the world, which is amazing. I love the conceit of the book, the way the world unfolds in front of you. it's a tiny bit like falling into Imajica, but, if possible, weirder. Or differently weird. A factory that creates biomechanical pests/spies. A river of clothes and fog. A church of silence. Trains that rut and mate and run wild. It is a sad and lonely book, in a lot of ways, with a lot of lost people in the world yearning for something that they cannot have, a heaven beyond their reach.
Read if: You enjoy floral prose shading to florid, you love exquisite and delicate otherworldliness. You are lonely and in search of something. You have ever sought to connect with people using your body. You like the kind of story that follows separate threads until they ultimately collide.
Skip if: Ornate language annoys you. You will be uncomfortable about sex as a means to an end, as anonymous, as sometimes a punishment. You want a strong narrative line. You read books for character development.(less)
Take one prototypical American westerner, and drop him in Victorian academia. It's the story equivalen...moreWho doesn't love a good fish out of water story?
Take one prototypical American westerner, and drop him in Victorian academia. It's the story equivalent of Diet Coke and Mentos. The result is explosive, fizzy, and impossible not to giggle at.
Samuel and Jane are an excellent combination, and together, you believe they can do anything. Jane brings all the suave, and Samuel brings a surprising array of talents.
Although set in the same universe as A College of Magics, the magical structure is both similar and different in ways that seem oddly real-world to me. I have always thought that if there were magic, it wouldn't be very homogenously applied across physical and cultural barriers. This book seems true to that theory.
Read if: You love a good period romp, and some interesting and unusual magical worldbuilding. You are my sister.
Skip if: You are looking for something thoughtful and analytical. You are only in it for the romance.
Also read: A College of Magics Naturally, you should read this one, too. I don't think order matters too much. Territory For Western magic and differences in magical inflection.(less)
My mom is a pastor, not a chaplain (they are related, but not identical), and I see her do a lot of this work, the work of sitting with someone and no...moreMy mom is a pastor, not a chaplain (they are related, but not identical), and I see her do a lot of this work, the work of sitting with someone and not knowing the answers. It's hard. There are no good answers.
This was a really hard book to read. Bad things happen to lots of nice people, especially children. As someone who had to give up on some shows (Cold Case and SVU, I'm looking at you) because now that I have kids, they are just too scary. and as you might expect, sometimes little kids die in the woods. Not always -- there are stories in here where no one dies, or is hurt. There are little bits of her life (I am amazed at her ability to be a single parent AND be on-call.)
Interestingly, the author's faith journey, while evident, is not explicated. She doesn't talk about how she came to believe, or even what she believes. The most significant story about faith was about her realization that she hadn't had a religious epiphany, that her scientific faith had not been taken from her by an involuntary mystical experience. I liked that. I appreciate stories where love and humanity are marks of the Divine. Her journey is not road-to-Emmaeus, although it is full of roads.
Read this if: you wish people of faith were more humble, if you want a non-Jodi-Picoult view of widowhood, if you've never thought about who fishes unlucky snowmobilers out of the water Do not read: without a sufficient supply of kleenex, if your faith is threatened by a chaplain who doesn't believe in an afterlife, if you can't handle people dying (less)
I am a child of my time, and if you present me with a darkly sinister dancing magician, a teenage girl in a ball dress, and fantastickal creepy ballro...moreI am a child of my time, and if you present me with a darkly sinister dancing magician, a teenage girl in a ball dress, and fantastickal creepy ballroom scenes, all of the images in my head will look like Labyrinth. I consider this a plus.
Imagine the story of the twelve dancing princesses. Now imagine that you can actually tell the princesses apart, and they each have stories and personalities. Not just that there is a bookish one or a nice one, but Azalea is the oldest, and keeps everyone safe, and Bramble is tomboyish but also the one with the most puckish sense of humor, and so on, right down to Lily, the baby. I see that Dixon grew up in a big family, and I think informs a lot of the flavor of the book. The preschooler who is always hungry, the baby who likes to chew on things, the shy girl with an unexpected fierce streak, they all work together as a family to comb their hair, or mend the slippers. Older sisters help younger ones, not as "babysitting", but as an inescapable, loving way to live with each other. Not once do any of them wish to be free of each other. It might be unrealistic, certainly for modern girls, but it's very charming.
The dancing sections themselves were fascinating. You know that feeling you get when you read a book with horses, and it is just suffused with love and care and passion about horses, and their halters and stalls and withers and whatever all else? (<- not a horse person, obviously). This is like that, only with schottishes and waltzes and curtsies. I was just rapt in the dancing sections.
This is also a story about how members of a family can handle grief differently. Azalea tries to be as much like her mother as possible, while her father the king plunges into a more traditional, dire mourning, and behaves badly toward his family. I wondered if he was talking about extending the mourning period as a way to prevent himself from having to remarry. I thought the way their differences were highlighted and played off each other, and the eventual resolution, were very well executed.
As for the romances, they are all quite charming. I would say more, but I am trying not to be too spoilery. It is enough to know that as each of their personalities is different, they fall in love with different types of men. I was all awwww.
I could have lived without Azalea's fainting problem, but at least it's consistent with her losing her appetite and not eating anything.
Read if: you like romance, princess, fairy tales, or Jareth. You want a sweet, poignant story with good strong characterization. You are a fan of dance.
Skip if: you want sex in your romance, you don't care about dance, or you want a more adult heroine.(less)
Oh. My. God. These are not the books for you if you are intolerant of literary wankery. I would also like to point out that I suspect they will make m...moreOh. My. God. These are not the books for you if you are intolerant of literary wankery. I would also like to point out that I suspect they will make more sense if you have a grounding in the changing nature of God. If you do love literary fiction, this is an excellent example of the genre.
Oh, the heartbreaking beauty of this book. I devoured it in a day. Which, given that it's a 400-pg book and it was a work day, you can see that I did pretty much nothing else. And political intrigue! And delicious foreshadowing! And the lovely conceit that all stories are true, somewhere, and that they affect the reality of Fairie. I mean, that's been touched on before, but this one is deliciously effectively used. ---- "No," Kit answered. "He could have been forgiven. Anyone can be forgiven, who repents. Faustus had opportunity, time, and chance to repent, again and again and again. But he never meant to. Never meant to repent, my lord [spoiler]." :Then what was his fatal flaw, Sir Poet?: Lucifer's eyes sparkled. He tilted his head aside, lovelocks drifting against the exquisite curve of his neck. Enjoying the game. " 'But Faustus' offence can ne'er be pardoned,' " Kit quoted. "The serpent that tempted Eve may be saved, but not Faustus.' Faustus' flaw was the sin of Judas, who deemed his transgression too great to repent of, and thereby diminished the love of God, who can forgive any offense, so long as the sinner wishes forgiveness. Faustus sinned by hubris." --- That! That right there! That's what made me twitter that I was crying, because it is so perfectly correct, so true, so chewy in the intersection of theology and literature. Believing you are unforgiveable is to diminish God's love. :waves arms madly.
Um, yeah. Start with Ink & Steel. Don't blame me if you have to take a day off. (less)
Oh, Nevil Shute. I do so adore your unabashed authorial self-insertion. I haven't read all Nevil Shute, or even the majority, but the ones I have read...moreOh, Nevil Shute. I do so adore your unabashed authorial self-insertion. I haven't read all Nevil Shute, or even the majority, but the ones I have read, I have strong opinions about.
In this one, Shute is himself twice, both in the narrator (a young manager at an aeronautics company) and the main character, a weedy, pathetic, but brilliant "boffin".
The novel opens with the young manager, Scott, talking about his job managing a bunch of brilliant but mildly eccentric scientists at a safety facility, a job much like the one Shute had before the WWII. One of his scientists, Theodore Honey, is drawn as extremely eccentric. He is widowed, with a pre-teen daughter, and is essentially uncivilized in a way that is acceptable only in older novels. He doesn't know how to cook or clean or buy clothes. He is interested in many crackpot theories, including pyramidology, and the return of Jesus to England. He is also quite brilliant at what he does, aeronautics-wise.
Honey comes to Scott and tells him that the tail assembly of the brand new plane currently flying the Transatlantic flight is going to crystallize and shear off after a certain number of hours. He is running tests on a tail to be sure, but it will be months before they get confirmation. Scott is torn on whether to take this seriously on not. On the one hand, pyramidology. On the other hand, planes falling out of the sky for a reason that manifests quickly and without warning.
Scott orders Honey to step up the testing and goes to see his own boss to quietly freak out about planes falling out of the sky. He finds out that one of these planes HAS fallen out of the sky -- the prototype, which had almost the correct number of hours for Honey's theory, crashed in a stupid way. It had been ruled pilot error, but the coincidence made Scott edgy.
Scott and his boss decide that someone needs to go out to Newfoundland to investigate the wreckage. Scott would go, but he is going to present his big important professional paper, and so he decides to send Honey, who is not... personable, but is the expert on crystallized metal fatigue.
As you can imagine, the plot is more complicated from there. I shan't give it all away, except to note that I find it completely and hilariously charming that Shute, who was 49 when it was published, depicted the nerdy, asocial little engineer as charming both an aging movie star and a bright and beautiful flight stewardess.
Thematically, I can tell that this book was written in the era when Shute still had faith in the British system. It was not long after this that he emigrated to Australia because he found the country no longer to his taste.
This book is by no means as strong as A Town Like Alice or On The Beach, but it is not unworthy to be on the shelf with them. Shute's charming older men: the narrators in Alice and Pied Piper, the Trustee from the Toolroom, are all extremely homey and sympathetic. I always like to think of them as Shute himself, spinning stories. I haven't read much from his early works, but I may go seek them out. Evidently some of them are about daring young pilots, which Shute also was.
I enjoy reading period books that do not think of themselves as period books. It is not notable that Honey has trouble working his ration coupons and has three years of his jam sugar allotment saved. Of course air stewardesses are unmarried and of course young wives don't work. When I read stories that are ABOUT a period, these things always feel highlighted, but when I read books IN a period, they are just part of how life goes.
Read if: You want to read about failure and risk analysis. Stories about nerdy little men who have women contending for them are amusing to you. The installation of domestic hot water heaters is something you had never thought about. You can tolerate some strange woo-woo in your mostly-science.
Skip if: You want a lot of action, intrigue, or plausible romance. You have problems with outdated science. You are unwilling to read about the typical breakfasts served to transatlantic passengers of the era*.
* I did enjoy reading about the time in Gander. I mostly know it as the place a lot of transatlantic flights ended up at after 9/11, but of course, it's been an airport for a very long time.(less)
I like how much easier it has gotten for me to read novellas. Yay for ebooks, because I never read Asimov's.
I thought this highly polished story was a...moreI like how much easier it has gotten for me to read novellas. Yay for ebooks, because I never read Asimov's.
I thought this highly polished story was a perfect example of how to work through one's own expectations. At first, our viewpoint character arrives on the planet Christmas, expecting pretty much what people told her. She got invited because she is the only female xenolinguist available, and it appears that the women have a second language that the men don't use.
She does all the things a sophomore expert does -- starts figuring things out, falls for a local, gets squashed by her boss, the usual. The twist is when she starts using her linguistic skills to tease out the cultural differences between what she has and expects, and what is actually going on.
I spotted the twist coming, but that didn't ruin my enjoyment watching her figure out what was going on.
Read if: You like watching people have to re-evaluate their assumptions, your are having a bad week with your boss.
Skip if: Linguistics scare you - you don't have to understand the details, but they are a big part of the story. You were hoping for a full book.(less)
For a dollar fifty, buy this anthology and then only read the last story, by Barbara Miller. The others are characterized by unusually wooden writing...moreFor a dollar fifty, buy this anthology and then only read the last story, by Barbara Miller. The others are characterized by unusually wooden writing and contrived reconciliations. It is difficult to get a lot of character development into a short story, but it can be done.
The Miller Story, "Country House Christmas" has two romantic leads that I actually enjoy. Diana is a willful and talented artist, and Richard is a remarkably self-effacing and generous veteran of the Napoleonic War. Both of them are struggling to figure out who they are after the passage of time. I cheered for them when I was done.
Read if: You skip the stories that bore you. You are looking for some not-spicy romance.
Skip if: $1.50 is more than you want to pay for one short story. You don't love romances on a short scale.
Also read: A Regency Christmas 5, which I loved for two stories, Under the Kissing Bough, and The Christmas Mouse, and the rest were pretty good as well. Sadly not available in ebook.(less)
Once again I leap willy-nilly into the middle of a series. I'm tell myself I don't like it, but mostly I really only hate it when the series is not a...moreOnce again I leap willy-nilly into the middle of a series. I'm tell myself I don't like it, but mostly I really only hate it when the series is not a series, but each book is a volume in a large book. This book is a book in itself.
It is again a costume historical romance, with women who are not scared of society, and men who respect that. And it turns out that the cover, miraculously, is relevant to the story.
The sex is average, but the foreplay is smoking hot. I mean, you can skip it if you want, but it is above the average, in that I had a 3:1 hawt:giggle ratio.*
I like romances where people have a little bit of real life to deal with, and where part of the romance is based on each of them deriving benefit from each other. Our brooding hero, who had a name that did not stick in my head -- Bryce? Anyway, The Dude has PTSD, a leg injury, and a wee little problem with the opiates. Also, he was pale, but not sparkly -- he just lived in practically-scotland, so we can forgive that. The lady (Jane) has a flaketastic and useless brother, and a father with Alzheimer's. I gotta say that I think the future of fiction for women is probably going to contain more and more of "what the hell do I do now that I'm in charge of my parent", because, you know, we will be. I thought it was especially sweet that the last scene of the book is Jane and her father, not The Dude. So anyway, these are people who have adult problems. Not like Montague and Capulet, but problems you might have yourself someday. Also, they have sizzling glances. It is a romance novel, after all.
There are a couple little touches in the plot that I appreciated -- the flighty friend proves to be fierce and useful, the society drones prove to be capable of planning a party, the devoted batman has his own issues, someone gets turned down for an affair, and the premarital nookie actually gets revealed instead of covered up with a hasty marriage. The whole thing is neither really a society book nor a house party book, but a book of its environment, in the best Austeny way. There is even a little map for those of us bad at visualizing.
Read if: you like feisty red-heads with pert breasts who are also capable of being funny, engaging, sulky, selfish, and bad at a few things. You enjoy your tortured hero with a bit of self-control. You ever lived in a small gossipy town**.
Skip if: you have developed an allergy and can't read books with red-headed pert-breasted women, you want political machinations, you object to too many exciting events in a small town, you are an inveterate romance skeptic.
* Eels in the lake! Eels in the lake! How can I swim with eels in the lake? (oh, whew, just a p***s)
** Of course, the best ever gossipy-small-town book is Miss Buncle's Book, which as you can see from the price listings is very popular. I have a copy because my sister loves me very much. (less)
This is a slim little romance in which childhood friends grow up to love each other, encounter difficulties, and everything turns out ok in the end. I...moreThis is a slim little romance in which childhood friends grow up to love each other, encounter difficulties, and everything turns out ok in the end. Its strong points were an excellent attention to horsey detail, a hero I actually wanted to lick (possibly due to him sounding like my high school crush), and a heroine, well...
I think Jane was written as being on the (autism) spectrum. Possibly not deliberately -- it was 1981 and there was a lot less public knowledge, but if we are going to argue than Jane Eyre was on the spectrum (and I find it not improbable), then this Jane can be, too.
My points: * She only bonds strongly to one person, and has a flat affect around people that she doesn't care about. * She is much more comfortable with animals than humans. * She is repeatedly and strikingly oblivious to social cues. * She is not motivated by social rewards or punishments. Having decided on a goal, everything she does is bent to that goal. * She has difficulty expressing herself verbally. * She finds social situations overwhelming, especially around people she doesn't know. * She is anxious and withdrawn around strangers, and it takes several times meeting someone to warm up to them.
I might just attribute all that to shyness, but her utter lack of emotive expression toward anyone but her friend David is remarkable, especially in the context of an average romance novel, where even shy heroines have close female friends they talk to, or siblings they relate to.
I think this is fascinating, but I could be constructing a house of cards. I wish someone else would read it and let me know what they think, especially someone who is themselves on the spectrum. It's an old old book, but my copy, at least, is not showing undue signs of poor printing, and Amazon has at least a few copies available used.
Read if: You want to investigate my theory, you like heroines for whom love is "an ever-fixe'd mark", you are horse-crazy.
Skip if: You are frustrated by a lack of pliability in characters, you hate childhood friends-romances, you really hate horses.(less)
A slight but sufficient story of two people finding each other.
But really? REALLY? Phillip Peartree, Duke of Bartlett? REALLY? It's hard to take a bro...moreA slight but sufficient story of two people finding each other.
But really? REALLY? Phillip Peartree, Duke of Bartlett? REALLY? It's hard to take a brooding, handsome, deaf stranger seriously if his name gives you the giggles.
My favorite part of this book was the obvious love of reading that pervades everything. The characters meet in a library. She's a tutor. He picks books associated with good memories. "Later, when she fell ill, Grandfather would go to her chambers and read to her, his gentle voice caressing the words as if singing a love song. Grandmother would lie back with her eyes closed, an ethereal smile lighting her face. It was his favorite memory of his grandparents and the love they shared."
Like many short stories, this one could do with more depth of character, but I thought it was handled well within the constraints of the medium.
Read if: You are assembling your own collection of Christmas shorts.
A M/M YA romance about a sheltered boy and a kid who is living with a curse.
In the beginning, we meet Eiland, the youngest son of a talented healer....moreA M/M YA romance about a sheltered boy and a kid who is living with a curse.
In the beginning, we meet Eiland, the youngest son of a talented healer. He is remarkably naive and unobservant. He runs into a pretty boy named Charon, and it's only later that he realizes that something is different about him.
Charon is Cursed, and can pass it on to anyone by just saying so. This makes him a pariah, but a feared and respected one. It's an interesting blackmail dynamic.
Charon and Eiland go on the road together, and their relationship changes dramatically over the course of the journey. The power imbalance hovers between them and shifts over time. It's sort of the relationship exploration that I wish had happened in The Eagle. What happens when two boys are dependent on each other for survival, and they both have reasons not to trust each other? What if it's complicated by mutual attraction.
I don't know why the book is called Timshel. It doesn't appear in the book anywhere. In the beginning, Eiland seems even younger than 17, and sort of annoyingly childish and optimistic. I liked Charon a lot more as a character, but it was important that Eiland was the viewpoint character.
Read if: You are looking for a Y/A romance that explores issues of power exchange and trust. You want to watch a kid come into his calling.
Skip if: You don't want to read a (very mild) M/M romance. You prefer more worldly viewpoint characters.(less)
How did I miss this book when it came out? I am now sad about the 18 months that I could have been loving this book and wasn't.
Briefly, it's a post-dy...moreHow did I miss this book when it came out? I am now sad about the 18 months that I could have been loving this book and wasn't.
Briefly, it's a post-dystopic YA spin on the Sleeping Beauty story. It takes all the problematic passivity of the original, mixes it with some horrifying gaslighting, high school, a lost love, and a really amazing amount of growth in a main character, and produces a book I will enthusiastically recommend to almost everyone.
I... really have no complaints about this book. As a whole, it is strong and intact, the themes are mature and interesting, the characters are rounded and change themselves, the setting is lightly sketched but supports the story. Even the high school bits are both compassionate and well-observed.
Here, have some of the MANY quotes I highlighted. "In fact, Bren’s grandfather had somehow sidled up beside me and was patiently handing me objects to throw. Bren stood in the doorway, out of the way of any shrapnel, with a look on his face that I can only describe as a serious smile."
"Only he didn’t see me as the cursed and passive beauty, quietly waiting to be awakened by her Prince Charming. I was the stunning rose hedge, wild and impenetrable and strong enough to withstand a hundred years of people trying to hack their way through it to the vulnerable innocents I would protect. A hedge that knew which person, which people, to let inside."
Read if: You like your YA with philosophy and heart. You want to watch someone grow up. Seriously, you should read this one. It is similar to Cinder, but more creepy, in many ways.
Skip if: You are triggered by absent or cruel parents.
I found this book intensely frustrating because I feel that the author was heading for "spare" and headed right ov...moreSlight. Not going on my list to buy.
I found this book intensely frustrating because I feel that the author was heading for "spare" and headed right over the cliff into "cryptic allusion". For example, when the title is Shooting the Moon, and the protaganist plays card games, one might expect a reference to that version of shooting the moon, as well as the obvious photography angle. I think this may bother me more as an adult because I see the missed connections. I know why a Vietnamese child might be running down a road, and what is more, I have a picture to go with that. I know about moon landings and pool tables and deployments, and all of these things are lightly skimmed. Perhaps for kids it's just like reading fantasy, where you just accept that magic works.
I was also frustrated by the tactile descriptions. She describes the smell of stop bath, which is good, but I thought that the was a mere glance at the isolation and beauty of solitude in the dark room, mostly just focusing on printing. And I choked a little on the idea of printing page after page of photos, because when I came up in darkrooms, it was EXPENSIVE.
Ok, enough whining. The story unfolds at a stately pace, with a set of characters who were well drawn. I loved the Colonel and his acceptance of his tomboy daughter. He was a more complex and interesting character to me than the viewpoint character. The plot itself is slight, and the suspense moment is very short, relative to the book.
Read if: You can't find anything else at the scholastic book fair that appeals, you have a serious darkroom nostalgia fit, you don't mind thinly-veiled Vietnam metaphors for adulthood.
Skip if: You have access to other books, you want actual history in your historical nostalgia.(less)
The thing I love about Powell's books is that you can ask the much-pierced 20-something at the desk about the location of bestsellers of the 60s and 7...moreThe thing I love about Powell's books is that you can ask the much-pierced 20-something at the desk about the location of bestsellers of the 60s and 70s, and they will answer you without so much as a pause for thought.
Anyway, Powell's: a great source for the pop-action-stories of bygone decades.
I picked up an omnibus of full-length novels. I already own /Where Eagles Dare/ and /When Eight Bells Toll/, but can you believe I did not actually own /Ice Station Zebra/ or /The Guns of Navarone/. But I have them all now, as well as HMS Ulysses, which I had never read before. I am going to tell you all sorts of plot points, on the theory that this book is 20 years older than I am.
We start with an abortive mutiny. The poor sods crewing this escort ship are officially about to have a very bad trip. They are slated to do yet another run of the convoy to Murmansk, which is pretty much Dead Men Sailing In Ships. They are pretty sure that they do not want to do this again. However, the ship is sent out again, under the auspices of the kindly, overworked doctor, the kindly, stoic captain, and the kindly admiral. The whole book could really be titled "HMS Ulysses and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Convoy". In only a rough semblance of order, here are SOME of the things that happened.
* U-boats * More U-boats * Henkels * Being bombed * Being torpedoed * Catastrophic winter hurricane * Rogue waves * Stukkas * People having to be trapped on the wrong side of a flood door to Save the Ship (x2) * Tall taciturn strong man sacrifices self in misguided expiation of sins * Captain dies of TB * Betrayal by the command structure * Poor bastard finds out his sisters and mother died in a bombing the day they ship. Then his brother is killed. Then he has to fire on his father's ship because it was endangering the convoy. * Admiral goes crazy * Admiral dies of frostbite/amputation * Bad apple saves the engineer who gave him a chance
Really, it was like a microcosm of horsemen, what with the war, pestilence (TB), starvation, and death. By halfway through the book I was cackling madly and reading choice excerpts to my roommate. It was just the sort of adventure book I love, full of hard luck and people pulling through anyway.
Amazingly, some few battered survivors lived to tell the story. (less)
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