false 48 24 23 true 5903268 read 1 true 229433 currently-reading 0 true 229432 to-read 1 false 1111549 gave-up-on http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46803000 to: Limbo: A Memoir (Paperback) by A. Manette Ansay
This is an interesting, beautifully-written book about a woman growing up in rural Wisconsin in a very catholic family and community, and how it shaped the way she viewed many things: one of them disability. And it's a story about how she became disabled. She has been disabled for, I believe, 16 years, and still has no diagnosis or prognosis, which is why I was so interested in the first place.

Ansay is a lyrical writer. Her descriptions of training for a future as a pianist, the strange reaction of her hometown to her "thinking she's too good for them," her feelings about disability and her friends and family, were all very interesting.

To be honest, though, I would have pruned this book by about 1/3. She makes her point, and then she brings up 4 more examples from her life. Repeatedly.

I heartily recommend the book. But I confess toward the end I started skimming her childhood memories.

On a personal note, I was fascinated how a girl in a conservative catholic home and town got the same messages about strength and fault and blame and disability that I got in my atheist, predominantly urban or suburban home (I did live on a farm for a while, but it was a totally different experience and really a very small part of my life). ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48102724 Lavinia (Hardcover) by Ursula K. LeGuin
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39982151 to: Ironside (The Modern Faerie Tales, #3) by Holly Black
This series got better and better, I think.

Her creepy version of faerie really came to fruition in this last book, as did the characters we've gotten to know. She didn't shy away from our favorite people having dark sides, and this book felt like a nuanced, satisfying ending to the trilogy.

The trilogy in general: although I felt the start was a bit wobbly, I very much liked her tactic of telling three different stories in each book which interwove together, instead of stretching out one storyline into three books like so many trilogies do. This made it a very satisfying read altogether. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39982116 to: Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie (Book 2) by Holly Black
This one got much better. The plot wasn't as predictable, the language was stronger, and I really cared about the characters. I loved the angry heroine Val and her adventures. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39981717 to: Tithe (A Modern Faerie Tale, #1) by Holly Black
This book definitely reads like a first book. I loved that the characters weren't spoiled little middle class/rich kids, and that they had real problems, but honestly I got pretty tired of the love interest having a "crooked grin," though. Why do all teen book love interests have crooked grins? ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39977685 to: One For Sorrow (Paperback) by Christopher Barzak
This book moved me. I believed it. I believe in the characters. It was so sad and beautiful and _honest._

It was also an incredibly creepy and interesting view of life and death. His ideas about what/where ghosts go, and their interactions with people . . . I believed Adam, and I believed _in_ him, and I believed his family and his town and his
random angry desperate wandering.

He is a lost boy in a town that everyone else has forgotten, and his family is unhappy and confused, but this is still a beautiful, beautiful book. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35787499 to: The Iron Dragon's Daughter (Hardcover) by Michael Swanwick
Although at times this book threatened to veer into soap opera, this was an interesting book. I liked how it was actually several books in one, and how the end become very confusing and mixed-up, and then resolved.

It has a hopeless message. What's not to love! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/34145922 to: The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories (Hardcover) by Susanna Clarke
What could be better than drifting through the eddies of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell's word again? Spot-on. Wonderful.

More of an emphasis on the female side of this world, this time, as the title story suggests. Oh oh oh wonderful. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/34145763 to: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Paperback) by Susanna Clarke
This book is utterly delicious. It is perfect in every way. I never wanted it to end. Not a single comma, description, or thought could have improved it.

Scary fairies. Oblivious magicians. Dubious friendships. BRILLIANT worldbuilding. Perfect dialogue, deep and believable characterization. And a wonderful, heavenly, heavenly ending (although I was so sad I was done reading it). ]]>