 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• What did you recently finish reading? Bendis and Maleev, Daredevil Ultimate Collection, vol. 2: I don't love the art, which I find so dark as to be unreadable sometimes, but the storyline is compelling. G. Willow Wilson et al., Ms. Marvel Vol. 6: Civil War II: love, love, love this series. Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies, Black Mischief (rereads): oogh, had forgotten about the twist at the end of the latter. • What are you currently reading? James Shapiro, The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606: really interesting job of putting Shakespeare's plays around that time ( King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra) into context with the politics and events of the day. • What do you think you’ll read next? Third volume of the Daredevil collection, then not sure. I bought a new-to-me D.E. Stevenson, Amberwell, the other day, so maybe that. Am contemplating an end-of-year book review post, if the spirit moves me. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/231272.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• What did you recently finish reading? Peter S. Beagle, Summerlong: new Beagle! This is lovely and quiet and contemplative, a tale of an old myth wandering into the modern world. Another Goodreads reviewer commented that this might have worked better in a shorter format, and I would agree with that; the pacing was very slow, and I guessed early on who the mystery girl was. But I love Beagle's writing and was happy to sink into it. Then I reread The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances. "Come Lady Death" is still such an amazing story, and there are several other gems here, plus some interesting non-fiction pieces. Lily Anderson, The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You: YA reworking of Much Ado About Nothing. Plot-wise, I thought Anderson did a good job of translating the plot into something that worked in a high school (obvs couldn't use the "I can't marry her because she's a slut!" plot of the play). Character-wise, I was a little less convinced: Trix was a little too mean for me compared to Beatrice, and I spent a lot of the first half of the book disliking her and being unconvinced that Ben could actually be in love with her when she was so unreasonably horrible to him. The second half won me over, though, once their friends pulled the secret love trick and Trix and Ben started working through their feelings. Nancy Mitford, Pigeon Pie, Wigs on the Green: rereads. • What are you currently reading? The new Seanan McGuire, Once Broken Faith, and a Joseph Ellis book called The Quartet, on Washington, Hamilton, Jay, and Madison, and the creation of the Constitution. It's a little too much overview and not enough detail, but Ellis's books are often that way. • What do you think you’ll read next? I've decided to try comics/graphic novels again (I have issues with reading the text so fast that I miss the art), so I have Fun Home and the first volume of Ms. Marvel waiting at the library. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/230795.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• What did you recently finish reading? Kate Elliott, Court of Fives (reread), Poisoned Blade: second book as good as the first, and I already long for the third. Jonathan Bate, Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeare: definitely not a replacement for a more usual biography, as it's arranged thematically (around the seven ages of man). I don't always agree with Bate's interpretations and feel that sometimes he's too in love with his own hypotheses, but there was lots of interesting stuff to chew on. Pamela Dean, Tam Lin (reread): perennial favorite. Pamela Dean just set up a Patreon, by the way, which I'm happily supporting. • What are you currently reading? Pamela Dean, Jupiter, Gentian, and Rosemary (reread): love the friend and sibling interactions, still confused by the plot. Julia Briggs, This Stage-Play World: just started, so no opinion yet. • What do you think you’ll read next? Most likely N.K. Jemisin's The Obelisk Gate; I loved The Fifth Season, added it to my Hugo noms, and was thrilled when it won. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/230433.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Do you ever have that thing where it's been ages since you posted, and so every time you think about posting, it feels overwhelming even though you know you're overthinking it. Yeah, me too. I kind of want to post about the TV adaptation of The Magicians, but until that happens, have a meme instead (via several people). What I've read from 60 Essential SFF Reads: Bold = read, italics = read another book by the same author, strikeout = didn't finish Grimspace by Ann Aguirre Primary Inversion by Catherine AsaroThe Handmaid's Tale by Margaret AtwoodRange of Ghosts by Elizabeth BearFlesh and Spirit by Carol Berg Chime by Franny BillingsleyDaughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop Tithe by Holly BlackThe Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster BujoldWar for the Oaks by Emma BullParable of the Sower by Octavia ButlerSynners by Pat Cadigan Foreigner by C.J. CherryhJonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna ClarkeSurvival by Julie E. Czerneda Tam Lin by Pamela DeanKing's Dragon by Kate ElliottBlack Sun Rising by C.S. FriedmanSlow River by Nicola Griffith Dragonsbane by Barbara HamblyFly by Night by Frances HardingeAssassin's Apprentice by Robin HobbThe God Stalker Chronicles by P.C. HodgellBrown Girl in the Ring by Nalo HopkinsonValor's Choice by Tanya HuffGod's War by Kameron Hurley The Killing Moon by N.K. JemisinHowl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne JonesDaggerspell by Katharine KerrThe Steerswoman by Rosemary KirsteinBeggars in Spain by Nancy KressDeryni Rising by Katherine KurtzA Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'EngleTender Morsels by Margo Lanagan The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le GuinAncillary Justice by Ann LeckieAsh by Malinda LoWarchild by Karin Lowachee Legend by Marie Lu Dragonsong by Anne McCaffreyRosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuireDreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre (go on, guess what book of hers I have read) The Thief's Gamble by Juliet E. McKennaSunshine by Robin McKinleyHis Majesty's Dragon by Naomi NovikWho Fears Death by Nnedi OkoraforDiving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch The Female Man by Joanna RussOld Man's War by John ScalziA Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski The Grass King's Concubine by Kari SperringThe Raven Boys by Maggie StiefvaterCity of Pearl by Karen TravissHer Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. ValenteThe Snow Queen by Joan D. VingeFarthing by Jo WaltonThe Cloud Roads by Martha WellsAn interestingly female-dominated list, which is nice given how many other "essential" lists seem to be mostly male. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/230396.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"I am full of holy joy and free booze," said Cobbler. "I feel moved to sing. It is very wrong to resist an impulse to sing; to hold back a natural evacuation of joy is as injurious as to hold back any other natural issue. It makes a man spiritually costive, and plugs him up with hard, caked, thwarted merriment. This, in the course of time, poisons his whole system and is likely to turn him into that most detestable of beings, a Dry Wit. God grant that I may never be a Dry Wit. Let me ever be a Wet Wit! Let me pour forth what mirth I have until I am utterly empty -- a Nit Wit."-- Robertson Davies, Tempest-TostI liked this particularly because Liam was remarking the other day that he bet that lots of people would think it was odd that I'm always singing, but we're totally used to it. :) This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/230138.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: commonplace book
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No reviews, just a list, but feel free to ask about any you're curious about. Favorite fiction: - Rae Carson, Walk on Earth a Stranger- Zen Cho, Sorcerer to the Crown- James S. A. Corey, Nemesis Games- Kate Elliott, Black Wolves- Kate Elliott, Court of Fives- Tana French, read all five, hard to pick a favorite - Ann Leckie, Ancillary Mercy- Rose Lerner, Sweet Disorder, True Pretenses- Naomi Novik, Uprooted- Jo Walton, The Just City, The Philosopher KingsFavorite non-fiction: - Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome- Verlyn Flieger, Green Suns and Faerie: Essays on J.R.R. Tolkien- Hermione Lee, Penelope Fitzgerald- Lucy Moore, Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary FranceFiction: 237 (79%) Non-fiction: 66 (21%) This is the highest non-fiction percentage I think I've ever had, which I'm pleased with. First reads: 188 (62%) Rereads: 115 (38%) Books by women: 202 (67%) Books by men: 94 (31%) Books by both: 7 (2%) TBR 1/1/2015: 274 TBR 1/1/2016: 349 This last is because my grandmother passed away at the end of last year and left me all her books. I didn't keep them all (there were 2000-2500, something like that), and I didn't even add all the ones I kept to my TBR list. There are about 500 still in storage downstairs. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/229862.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• What did you recently finish reading? Jon Spence, Becoming Jane Austen: kind of meh. I was interested in some of the connections he draws between Jane's fiction and her brother Henry and cousin Eliza, but I absolutely fail to believe that Jane inserted names from Tom Jones in all of her books as a remembrance of Tom Lefroy. Also there was rather too much "Jane must have thought" for my taste. D.E. Stevenson, Anna and Her Daughters: quite liked this -- it starts out very charming, ends with unexpected depths. Max Gladstone, Full Fathom Five, Last First Snow: I sometimes feel as though I don't quite know what's going on in these, but I really like them anyway. Just really interesting worldbuilding and characters, and I love how the books build on each other while still remaining independent (particularly impressive with Last First Snow, which comes first in internal chronology). This seriously made me want to reread all of them, but I think I can wait until Four Roads Cross (yay more Tara!) comes out next year. Kate Beaton, Step Aside, Pops: love, love, love, especially the Chopin/Liszt ones. • What are you currently reading? Melissa Scott and Jo Graham, Steel Blues: read the first one yesterday and liked it well enough to continue on. • What do you think you’ll read next? A library book, probably: just about to pick up The Grace of Kings, The Martian, and An Ember in the Ashes (recs welcome!). This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/229414.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• What did you recently finish reading? Zen Cho, Sorcerer to the Crown: I really loved this, and it probably will go on my Hugo nominations list. Funny, good period feel, Regency worldbuilding rather reminiscent of Susanna Clarke, really good examination of bigotry and colonialism. Sylvia Izzo Hunter, Lady of Magick: The first book was a 3.5; this one is a solid 4 stars. I enjoy the worldbuilding and characters and good period language, and the pacing was much better in this book. I look forward to the next one. Judith Merkle Riley, The Oracle Glass: Probably my favorite of Riley's books so far (have read two others). I'm fond of the Louis XIV period, and I found this convincing as far as the historical characters went, while loving the characters Riley added (especially the whip-smart heroine, Genevieve). • What are you currently reading? Tom Reiss, The Black Count: fascinating account of Alexandre Dumas' ( pere, obvs) father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, who was half black and rose high in the French Army before clashing with Napoleon. I love French Revolution and Napoleonic history anyway, and the sidelight this throws on race relations and slavery in France and the French possessions is something I've never really read about before. • What do you think you’ll read next? The new Kate Beaton collection is sitting temptingly on my desk! This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/229198.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TBR: 370. • What did you recently finish reading? Rose Lerner, Sweet Disorder, True Pretenses: two related romances (same setting, characters from the first appear briefly in the second). It's been a while since I found a new-to-me romance author whose books I just fell right into, and this was really good timing, as last week was stressful to say the least (finished performing in one show, started stage crewing for a second). Wonderfully believable characters, plots with real conflicts rather than Big Misunderstandings. • What are you currently reading? Robin Hobb, Fool's Quest: I'm a third of the way through and practically nothing has happened, but I love the worldbuilding and characters (especially Fitz, even when he's being so blind to the obvious that I would like to codslap him) so much that I don't really care. Catherine Kenney, The Remarkable Case of Dorothy L. Sayers: excellent Sayers lit crit (inherited from my grandmother's large Sayers collection), definitely recommended for Lord Peter lovers (though it also addresses other Sayers works -- haven't gotten to that part yet). This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/229036.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TBR: 372. • What did you recently finish reading? Terry Pratchett, Maskerade (reread): I have no idea why I didn't like the Witches books as much as some of the others the first time around; I enjoyed this one immensely. (I've been rereading Discworld by groups (I guess is the best way to put it), so I reread the Rincewind/Wizards books first and then moved on to the Witches. I've also been buying the pretty Gollancz reprints to replace our old paperbacks and SFBC editions.) Lucy Moore, Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France: I loved this. I've seen criticisms that it's hard to follow because she weaves back and forth among her subjects (and a few others), but I thought it was very well-constructed and not hard to follow at all. She doesn't have as much material from some of the women, so it can feel a little unbalanced at times, but she still does a really good job balancing things. I'd definitely like to read her other books. Angela Thirkell, Miss Bunting, Peace Breaks Out: I find that I don't love later Thirkell as much as, say, the first ten in the series, but they're still enjoyable (with the usual caveat re: snobbishness and classism). • What are you currently reading? Kate Milford, The Boneshaker: interestingly steampunk YA, though I'm not finding it quite as good as Greenglass House. • What do you think you’ll read next? D'know? Maybe reread Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains and then read Forge; I've given up on waiting for the third one. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/228662.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TBR: 386 (yikes!). Also, what happens when I forget to do bookposts is that bookposts end up insanely long, so please pardon me if that happens here. • What did you (not so) recently finish reading? Dorothy Whipple, Because of the Lockwoods: Dorothy Whipple is so insanely readable. I'm glad Persephone have republished so many of her books, as I don't think I'd have found her otherwise. This is the latest one they've done, and I think it will end up being a favorite. The story has to do with a rich family defrauding and patronizing a newly poor one, and as usual, the characters are beautifully drawn. Even the nastier characters have moments where one can't help but sympathize with them, and the sympathetic characters have their own flaws. I really liked the intelligent, headstrong heroine, Thea, and I *loved* Oliver, the eventual hero. I must admit to not finding the ending completely convincing, or this would have been a five-star book for me. Tana French, Broken Harbor: oh, the feels! Fantastic mystery, and really heart-breaking ending for all concerned. I like the faint supernatural aspect to this one, too. Verlyn Flieger, Green Suns and Faerie: I didn't like this quite as much as Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World, because as it's a collection of essays, there's a certain amount of repetition of theme and detail. However, it's still very much worth reading if you're interested in Tolkien scholarship at all. Lia Silver, Prisoner, Laura's Wolf: really good paranormal romance. This isn't usually a genre I go for, but I'm happily looking forward to the sequels (two more, I think?). Very satisfying relationships and romances ( Prisoner had a slight edge for me here -- I loved DJ and Echo's banter). Katherine Addison, The Goblin Emperor: reread, and just as good the second time through: definitely on my list of Hugo nominations this year. If I look at it plot-wise, it seems as though nothing much happens, and yet the book is so enthralling it's hard to put it down. The development of the protagonist into his entirely unexpected role as emperor is beautifully done, in elegant, precise language which is slightly formal but never distancing. Jo Walton, My Real Children: reread, and while it's definitely not my favorite of her books, I do like it. The premise is interesting, and the narration worked for me surprisingly well, considering that I usually prefer "show don't tell". I think reading it a second time helped me keep all the relationships straight. Jo Walton, The Just City: I loved it. It's like she has a direct line into my hindbrain and writes exactly what I've always wanted to read but never known it before. The Mitford sisters in Fascist England? Check. Rumer Godden-style narration in fantasy? Check. Dragons in Victorian England? Check. And now, what would happen if someone actually started up Plato's ideal city? Check! Well, kind of check, given the startling ending. I really can't wait for The Philosopher Kings. • What are you currently reading? Dorothy Whipple, The Priory: I really don't reread her enough, and I recall this one being especially good. Jonathan Bate, The Genius of Shakespeare: excellent. I particularly liked the chapter on Marlowe and the chapter on Shakespeare's impact on other world literature -- I really want to read Aimé Césaire's Tempest now. • What do you think you’ll read next? I have Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist and Anna Quindlen's Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake out from the library, so probably those, and also a reread of Sense and Sensibility. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/228251.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I don't know, is it totes obvious that one of my New Year's goals has to do with posting more often? ;) TBR: 300. • What did you recently finish reading? P.G. Wodehouse, Summer Moonshine: excellent non-series Wodehouse with a particularly intricate plot having to do with a possibly-stolen Gainsborough miniature. I didn’t totally care for the hero’s masterful style, but the heroine generally bit back at him when he was too annoying. Terry Pratchett, A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Nonfiction: Neil Gaiman’s introduction perceptively points out that Pratchett’s writing is fueled by anger as much as humor, anger with injustice and unfairness. Both the anger and the humor are evident throughout this excellent collection, but the anger does take center stage in Pratchett’s very pointed and well-argued pieces on Alzheimer’s and on assisted dying. Well worth reading even if you’re not a Discworld fan, and essential if you love Pratchett’s fiction. Tana French, Faithful Place: I bounced right off the first in this series ( In the Woods) and decided to give the second one ( The Likeness) a try anyway. I’m glad I did, because that was good, and this is even better. Outstanding characterization, good plotting, and I thought the overwriting that bothered me in the first book was toned down in this one. N.T.P Murphy, In Search of Blandings: a search for the real-life sources of Wodehouse’s characters and places, and unfortunately rather dull (especially the place-hunts). Sylvia Izzo Hunter, The Midnight Queen: This Regency-feel alternate universe fantasy is a promising debut, I think. Hunter’s command of language is very good and gives the right feel for the time period without being at all dense or slang-heavy for my taste (though goodness, there are a lot of reviews on Goodreads criticizing it for those things). The pacing feels a bit off, sometimes too fast, sometimes too slow, but I liked the characters and was interested in the worldbuilding. (Although I’m a little confusticated by a reference to the Tudor line in the book, when the author’s website says that in her world, Henry V lived a long and happy life and did not die early leaving a child on the throne – I can’t reconcile those two things at all.) Anyway, I enjoyed this quite enough to read the next one. • What are you currently reading? Rereading The Hobbit, now that I’ve seen all three movies and it’s safe. Reading a vast anthology of diaries called The Assassin’s Cloak and having the greatest difficulty in reading only one day’s worth of entries at a time. Reading a Roger Angell baseball book written in the 80s, which causes me a little whiplash every time he refers to someone I think of as a manager as a player (frex, Phil Garner or Ned Yost). • What do you think you’ll read next? Fiction: new Ben Aaronovitch (no spoilers pls!), new Rachel Manija Brown/Sherwood Smith. Non-fiction: No idea. I’ve just inherited a vast number of books and am still sorting through and cataloguing. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/227967.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I don't know, Wednesdays are just not a good day for posting. TBR: 207 • What did you recently finish reading? G. B. Stern, A Deputy Was King: loved this and am hoping I'll be able to track down the others in the series (I think Virago did at least one other). Elizabeth Taylor, The Sleeping Beauty: I always enjoy Taylor's insightful, elegant style. I didn't enormously warm to most of the characters in this one but was caught up in the quiet plot anyway. Harriet Walter, Other People's Shoes: Thoughts on Acting: excellent, both for stories about her own career and for her advice on acting (not that I act, but the structure she came up with made a lot of sense to me). Rereads: DWJ, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland and Unexpected Magic. • What are you currently reading? Elizabeth Taylor, The Soul of Kindness; Trollope's book about Thackeray. • What do you think you’ll read next? Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith, Stranger -- have been looking forward to this for ages! Also Delia Sherman's new collection of short stories, Young Woman in a Garden. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/227724.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
but that movie meme sort of struck my fancy (via several people): Everyone should post their ten most CRUCIAL CRUCIAL CRUCIAL-ASS movies, like the movies that explain everything about yourselves in your current incarnations (not necessarily your ten favorite movies but the ten movies that you, as a person existing currently, feel would help people get to know you) (they can change later on obviously).In no particular order: Beauty and the Beast (Disney version, sorry!) Pulp Fiction The Empire Strikes Back A Room with a View Meet Me in St. Louis Topsy-Turvy Summer Stock The Philadelphia Story A Fish Called Wanda Lady Jane The Breakfast Club This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/227276.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: movies
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It’s been years since I did one of these, but what the heck, I happen to feel like it today. I read 361 books this year, so it’s hard to choose out the best, but happily, I can look at what I rated five stars on Goodreads. (These are all new-to-me books, as opposed to the quite a few five-star books I reread.) - Noel Coward, The Letters of Noel Coward- Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo- Frances Hardinge, A Face Like Glass- Melina Marchetta, Jellicoe Road- Seanan McGuire, Velveteen Vs. the Multiverse (and would also highly recommend the first book, Velveteen Vs. the Junior Super Patriots) - Susan Palwick, Shelter- Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor and Park (and would also highly recommend Fangirl) - James Tiptree, Jr., Her Smoke Rose Up ForeverFiction: 302 (84%) Non-fiction: 59 (16%) First reads: 200 (55%) Rereads: 161 (45%) Books by women: 300 (83%) Books by men: 60 (17%) Books by both: 1 (0%) I managed to raise my non-fiction percentage from 13% to 16%, which pleases me. The thing that makes me the happiest, though, is that I reduced my vast TBR pile from 295 to 225, with a correspondingly positive impact on the amount of money I spent on books last year (also lots of rereading helped this). I would never want to have an empty TBR pile, but I’d love to stabilize it around 100-150. So hey, a good year in books! Maybe this year I’ll have time and space and calm to review more. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/226931.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• What did you recently finish reading? A bunch of rereads while I was feeling stressed and unwell recently: all three Howl's Moving Castle books (first is still easily the best), Connie Willis' Bellwether (fine, but fluffy) and Lincoln's Dreams (tied with To Say Nothing of the Dog for my favorite Willis). Sharon Shinn, Reader and Raelynx and Fortune and Fate, which I did indeed (thank you, ![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) jinian) like better than the first three. I did have some regret for the heteronormativity: I think the last book would have been even better with Wen/Karryn instead of Wen/Jasper, and that seemed as though it would have flowed really well from the beginning where Wen rescues Karryn. D.E. Stevenson, The Two Mrs. Abbotts: sadly, like the second book, it still didn't live up to Miss Buncle's Book. Reasonably fun, though. Sherry Thomas, The Luckiest Lady in London: (Is it just me, or is that a terrible title?) I think I liked this the best of all the Sherry Thomas I've read. There was angst and misunderstanding, but it felt believable, and I loved both the main characters. • What are you currently reading? Just about to start Three Weeks, by Elinor Glyn, and also reading the Tiptree bio by Julie Phillips, which I got for my birthday. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/226752.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TBR: 235. • What did you recently finish reading? Margot Livesey, The House on Fortune Street: The only Livesey I'd previously read was The Flight of Gemma Hardy, which is a retelling of Jane Eyre that I liked but didn't love. I liked this one much more. It's a series of intertwined narratives by four different characters, gradually revealing more and more about all of them. I think it would be easy for this kind of structure to get repetitious, but even though it does cover a bit of the same ground plot-wise (and occasionally even the same scenes), I felt it really just got deeper and richer. I also really liked that each character had a key writer who was in some way important to them and to their story. There's another Livesey ( Eva Moves the Furniture) on the Sirens reading list for next year, so I'll definitely prioritize that one. Penelope Fitzgerald (ed. Terence Dooley), So Have I Thought of You: The Letters of Penelope Fitzgerald: As I've said elsewhere, I liked the letters themselves, but I did not like the editing and organization. Having the letters grouped by correspondent instead of chronologically didn't allow any flow through Fitzgerald's life, and I felt that there needed to be many more footnotes explaining references to people and events which weren't fully detailed in the letters themselves. I'm especially looking forward to the Hermione Lee bio now, though. Jaclyn Moriarty, Feeling Sorry for Celia, The Year of Secret Assignments: a pair of related YAs by an Australian author, both excellent. They're epistolary, which I love but was worried wouldn't work in a modern setting, but there's a clever and believable plot device whereby the characters are writing to each other courtesy of an English teacher who sets up a pen pal system with a neighboring school (one private, one public). I especially liked that a lot of the letters in the first book were imaginary letters from bits of the heroine's psyche to her (e.g., from the Best Friends Club or the Cold Hard Truth Club). That sounds totally dorky when I put it like that, but it really was a good way of showing her teenage insecurities in a funny but touching way. There are two more books in the series, and I will definitely be reading them. • What are you currently reading? Jane Gardam's Old Filth, which I'm not far enough into to know whether I like it yet, and rereading Dorothy Dunnett's Queens' Play. • What do you think you’ll read next? No clue. Funny that sometimes I know exactly and sometimes I have absolutely no idea. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/226507.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TBR stack: 240 (due to pre-Sirens trip to Powell's). • What did you recently finish reading? I think I'll have to pick and choose here, since it's been three weeks since I remembered to do this. Seanan McGuire, Velveteen vs. the Multiverse: outstanding, even better than the first installment. I especially liked the bits from other POVs, and the plot came together beautifully and powerfully. Seanan McGuire, Indexing: this, on the other hand, I didn't love. The idea is interesting (fairy tales come true, government agency fights them), but I didn't think the characterization had the strength of her best stuff. Jane Aiken Hodge, The Private World of Georgette Heyer: wow, hagiography much? And even from the little bits of letters Hodge quoted, you could see that there were elements of Heyer's personality which were unpleasant, to say the least. I have Kloester's bio also and will be interested to see how she handles those. Sherry Thomas, The Burning Sky: Alas, I wasn't entranced with Thomas's foray into YA. The worldbuilding was not very good at all (also, srsly, end notes?), the plot didn't make a lot of sense, and the villains lacked any kind of characterization. Her writing is lovely, as usual, and there were bits between the heroine and hero I liked (although on the whole I thought they were too perfect), so I will probably try the second book. Sharon Shinn, The Thirteenth House, Dark Moon Defender (Powell's didn't have the fourth and fifth books, alas): I was faintly bored by the former and really didn't like the ending, but I liked the latter quite a lot, definitely my favorite of the series so far. • What are you currently reading? Rereading Laurie R. King's Touchstone, because The Bones of Paris came in at the library and only then did I realize it was a sequel to Touchstone. Rereading Anthony Trollope's Ayala's Angel, which isn't one of his best but is awfully amusing. • What do you think you’ll read next? Beth Bernobich's River of Souls trilogy, as the third one just showed up on my Kindle this morning and I'd like to reread the first two first. Also Penelope Fitzgerald's letters, which were a nice Powell's score. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/226220.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TBR stack: 224. • What did you recently finish reading? James S.A. Corey's Leviathan Wakes, which I picked up because Daniel Abraham is half of Corey (the other half is Ty Franck, of whom I wot not) and I really liked his Long Price Quartet. I didn't like this nearly so much, alas; it was fairly readable space opera, but my enjoyment was diminished by two things: 1) almost total lack of female characters (it does pass the Bechdel test, but just barely), and 2) it had two alternating POVs, and I was way more interested in one than the other. I will pick up the next one and give it a try, but only because reviews indicate that it has more and better female characters. A small slew of Rainbow Rowell: I got Fangirl from the library and liked that so much I immediately downloaded Eleanor & Park and Attachments. Eleanor & Park actually made me cry and was probably my favorite of the lot. Attachments was pretty good, but the concept was just a little too skeevy for me to totally accept (hero is an "Internet security officer" for a newspaper and falls in love with heroine through reading her flagged emails to a friend at work). I did like the epistolary format, though. A couple of Mary Stewarts reread: Thunder on the Right, which is one of her weakest, IMO -- the heroine is rather spineless (unusually for Stewart), the hero is boring, and the plot is slight and unconvincing; Nine Coaches Waiting, which is one of my favorites, though I think I would find Raoul too alpha-male if I'd read it for the first time now instead of when I was 11. • What are you currently reading? Just about to start Sharon Shinn's Mystic and Rider, and rereading Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. • What do you think you’ll read next? No idea! I'm driving to Sirens on Thursday via Powell's, so I'm sure I'll have lots of choices after that. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/225583.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm trying to find a day other than Wednesday for weekly reading posts. Maybe Tuesday, maybe Thursday? Who knows? TBR stack: 228. • What did you recently finish reading? Sarah Rees Brennan's Untold, which was just as good as the first book: excellently fearless and snarky heroine, good continuation of plot (bit of a cliffhanger, but enough resolution to be pleasing). Maggie Stiefvater's The Dream Thieves: again, as good as the first book, keeping the overarching plot going while deepening the characters and providing a good one-book resolution. Robin McKinley's Shadows, which still isn't Sunshine or Deerskin or Beauty but was a whole lot better than Dragonhaven or Pegasus (which I couldn't even finish -- will try again when the now-projected two further books are out). I still think she needs a stronger editor right now, as it was a bit rambly and parenthesis-ridden, but I thought the worldbuilding and characters were a lot better than most of her recent outings. • What are you currently reading? Rereading Robin McKinley's Sunshine -- the world is clearly not the same one as Shadows, but the feeling of the Shadows world being a world just a few over from ours reminded me of the Sunshine world (if you know what I mean). I wish I had time to make cinnamon rolls. Reading Claire Tomalin's biography of Nelly Ternan, quite good so far. • What do you think you’ll read next? Steven Brust and Skyler White's The Incrementalists, then maybe continue my Sayers reread. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/225321.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TBR stack: 232. • What did you recently finish reading? Mary Renault's Funeral Games, which, yeah, so not The Mask of Apollo or The Persian Boy. I'm glad I read it, but I doubt I'll return to it as often as some of her others. Then I read David Sweetman's biography of Renault, which I thought was quite good: sympathetic but objective (other than a couple of comments about her mother, who does seem to have been terrible), and good literary analysis (though more wouldn't have been amiss). Two Margery Sharp rereads: Britannia Mews and The Foolish Gentlewoman. The former suffers a bit from the change in POV about two-thirds of the way through; the latter has some very sharp character portraits. Not my favorite Sharps (those would be The Flowering Thorn and Cluny Brown), but worth rereading. • What are you currently reading? Elizabeth Wein, Rose Under Fire: only about halfway through, so no cogent comments yet, but I was so glad to have appearances by a couple of the characters from Code Name Verity! • What do you think you’ll read next? Still with the stack of library books. One of them is the new Naomi Novik, though, so that's up at the top of the list. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/224774.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Wednesdays are just not a good day for me, so I'm trying to do Thursdays instead.) TBR stack: 234 • What did you recently finish reading? Rae Carson's Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy -- the third was a very satisfying conclusion. I liked how much agency the heroine has, and how much agency and power women in general have. Seanan McGuire's Chimes at Midnight: maybe a tiny step down from the last one, but only a tiny step. She's really doing a great job keeping the overarching story arc of the series going, with more pieces and clues in place each time. Also, bonus Luidaeg short story! • What are you currently reading? Mary Renault's Funeral Games, which is reasonably interesting, but nothing like so good as The Persian Boy (so I'm glad I took a long break in between). I like the political maneuvering, and her historical sense is always fantastic, but I think it suffers from the lack of strong viewpoints -- too much hopping from character to character. • What do you think you’ll read next? Um, don't know? I have a whole stack of library books. Summer of the Mariposas, maybe, to make sure I've read it before Sirens next month. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/224617.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TBR stack: 238 (though now I'm up to 7 acquired this year but unread). Goodness, I've been terrible about this lately. Who would have thought it would actually be harder to have time to do it in the summer? Aaaanyway.... • What did you recently finish reading? Two Gerald Durrells, definitely comfort rereads: A Bevy of Beasts, about his time as a young man at Whipsnade Zoo, and Fillets of Plaice (title cleverly suggested by his brother Lawrence to echo his own Spirit of Place), a collection of shorter autobiographical pieces. A small glut of Courtney Milan: Unveiled, Unlocked, Unclaimed, and Unraveled. I liked Unlocked and Unraveled the best, but I enjoyed them all. Robert Galbraith (aka you know who, I'm sure), The Cuckoo's Calling, which I thought was quite well done and almost compulsively readable, if maybe just a little long. I will definitely read the next one. The Count of Monte Cristo! My long summer read, and totally worth the time (particularly the last couple hundred pages, which were near-mesmerizing -- I stayed up way too late one night to finish). • What are you currently reading? Rereading Rae Carson's The Girl of Fire and Thorns, as the third book in the trilogy just came out. Reading Nathaniel Philbrick's Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution, which is well constructed and reasonably interesting; military history isn't really my preferred subgenre, but there's enough political and social stuff to keep me going. • What do you think you’ll read next? Carson's The Crown of Embers (reread) and The Bitter Kingdom. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/224331.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TBR stack: 248. (I'm quite proud of this, as I started the year at 295 and was aiming for 240 by the end of the year.) So far I've only bought three books this year which I haven't read yet. (I'm sure this will change as soon as I have my annual trip to Powell's, which I think might be before Sirens in October again.) • What did you recently finish reading? Linda K. Kerber, No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship, which was a tad dry at times, but was cogent and well-supported, and had a wry feminist sensibility I quite liked. A couple of DWJ rereads: The Time of the Ghost and The Homeward Bounders. The latter is still amazing and one of my favorites; the former isn't, quite, as I find the combination of grim and confusing not totally to my taste. Elizabeth Moon, Limits of Power: I really think I'll like these more when I read them all as a unit when they're all out (I think this is the fourth of five). There's just not quite enough happening in each book for me to love them individually, though there was a lot of Arvid in the last part of this one, which pleased me. A couple of Laura Kinsale rereads: The Hidden Heart and The Shadow and the Star. Plots: still cracktastic! Characters: still wonderful! Samuel and Leda: still one of my favorite couples ever! The Letters of Noel Coward: fabulous, and now I want to read his diaries. (Though then I got to Sondheim's mini-essay about Coward in Finishing the Hat and was amused at Sondheim's near-utter disdain for Coward's lyrics.) • What are you currently reading? Rereading Susanna Kearsley's The Winter Sea, which I loved when I read it the first time. Just about to start Jane Leavy's biography of Sandy Koufax. Still reading Finishing the Hat and listening to Sondheim sequentially (currently on Follies). • What do you think you’ll read next? Fiction: Kearsley's The Firebird, which is a sort-of-sequel to The Winter Sea and I believe has a character from The Shadowy Horses as well. Non-fiction: probably C.V. Wedgwood's The Thirty Years War, which I just got from Powell's after a small mix-up in which they accidentally sent me a 1961 Anchor Books tatty paperback edition instead of the NYRB Classics edition I'd ordered (they fixed the mistake very quickly and politely, though; I was impressed). This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/223621.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm having such a hard time remembering to do this lately. Wednesdays seem not to be a good day for me for some reason. Oh, well, here it is this week, anyway. • What did you recently finish reading? - Diana Wynne Jones's Dalemark books (rereads), which I like but are still not favorites. - Vera Brittain's Testament of Friendship and decided that though I like Winifred Holtby a great deal, I really don't like Brittain herself, and so seeing everything through her "had I but known/poor me/poor everyone" lens just irritates me. - books 3 and 4 in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, which I liked more than the first two (not that I didn't like the first two, I just think the overarching plot is clearly picking up steam in these ones). - Frances Hardinge's A Face Like Glass, which was amazing: great worldbuilding, great characterization, intricate plot, fantastic prose. I think it's my favorite of her books so far (though I haven't read Gullstruck Island yet. • What are you currently reading? Rereading some Susan Isaacs ( Lily White), and reading Jane Dunn's book about Daphne du Maurier and her sisters. The prose is a little clunky, and it's inevitably a little Daphne-centric, but Dunn does a good job portraying them as a family. • What do you think you’ll read next? No idea. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/223303.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, that was a nicer-than-usual Monday thing. Got a package in the mail, clearly with books in it, but didn't know what it was. Opened it to see, and out tumbled copies of Ekaterina Sedia's The Secret History of Moscow, James A. Burton's Powers, and an anthology called Rock On with stories by Elizabeth Bear, Elizabeth Hand, and Caitlin R. Kiernan, among others. Turns out it was from Worldbuilders, Pat Rothfuss's annual Heifer International fundraiser. I donated again this year, got lucky, and won the books in the lottery. Neat! This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/223117.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• What did you recently finish reading? Winifred Holtby, The Land of Green Ginger: Oddly, although this was in the main not enormously cheerful, it ended on a surprisingly optimistic note, which I appreciated. Rosemary Clement-Moore, Prom Dates from Hell (Sirens list), Hell Week: Better and less Buffy-ripoff than they sound (high school girl develops paranormal powers and fights supernatural crime!). They're seemingly fluffy, fast reads, with an excellently snarky heroine, but there's some serious character development and concern with important issues (bullying and date rape, just for two). I'll definitely pick up the other two books in the series. Guy Gavriel Kay, River of Stars: It makes me so sad to say that I barely got through this. Kay has been one of my favorite writers since I read Tigana for the first time years and years ago, and while that's still my favorite of his books, he's written others that I love almost as much. I have been a little less impressed with his last couple of books, though, and this one might have knocked him off my buy-in-hardcover list. Guy has always had a thing about pointing out how people's lives can be changed by small events (or not changed), and he's occasionally a little portentous about it, but he generally doesn't let that get in the way of telling a story or developing characters. Here, he does. The story is slow, the characters unconvincing (at least the main characters; I often found the lesser characters more interesting than the hero and heroine). The heroine especially is presented as a marvelously educated and intellectual woman, whose accomplishments impress even the emperor and allow her some agency; later, though, she becomes the lover of the hero (by whose confidence that he would change the world I was consistently bored) and is reduced to nothing but a supporting role, and not a very interesting one. Really disappointing. • What are you currently reading? Rereading Winifred Holtby's Poor Caroline; reading Robert Graves and Alan Hodges' The Long Week-End. • What do you think you’ll read next? I have the last book in Stephanie Burgis' charming Kat, Incorrigible series and am looking forward to reading it after rereading the first two. I'm thinking about John Garth's Tolkien and the Great War as my next non-fiction, as it's been sitting on my shelves for four years and a couple of people have read it and liked it recently. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/222775.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• What did you recently finish reading? Kathleen Duey, Skin Hunger and Sacred Scars, and I ended up being glad I did wait until I had the second one at least. I don't feel as though they ended on cliffhangers, exactly, but there wasn't a ton of closure at the end of either. I'm really glad she's apparently finished writing the third one. Fantastic world and magic system, and unusually for me, I don't mind the alternating POVs, being equally interested in both plotlines (and in finding out in more detail how one leads to the other). Definitely one of the best things I've read from the Sirens list so far. • What are you currently reading? C.S. Friedman's Magister Trilogy, which so far is not living up to my recollection of her Coldfire Trilogy (though I read that more than ten years ago, so who knows what I'd think of it now). The pacing is odd, the worldbuilding isn't as complex as I'd like, and I don't really like any of the characters (not that this is a surprise from Friedman). I'm interested enough to keep reading to see how the plot turns out, but they may not be keepers. I'm also reading Miles Franklin's My Career Goes Bung (having just reread My Brilliant Career, which I think I wasn't quite in the mood for), and Elizabeth Wanning Harries' Twice upon a Time: Women Writers and the History of the Fairy Tale, which I think someone must have recommended at Sirens and which is excellent. • What do you think you’ll read next? Yesterday my Kindle downloaded Teresa Grant's newest historical, The Paris Affair, and Lindsey Leavitt's YA, Going Vintage (I really liked her first, the oddly named but charming Sean Griswold's Head). I do love the automatic download on publication day thing it does. I need to choose a couple of other things to download to take on vacation next week, too, since even if I save those two, they won't last me six days with two plane flights. There are many tempting things on my thousand Amazon wishlists, though, so I don't expect I'll have too much trouble finding something. (Am I the only one who has wishlists for different genres because otherwise they get too long to be useful?) (Someday might I write a whole post with no parentheses? (Seems unlikely, doesn't it?)) This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/222566.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• What are you currently reading? Seanan McGuire's A Local Habitation, having finished Rosemary and Rue yesterday. I don't find these as instantly absorbing as the Incryptids books so far, but I wonder if they'll eventually be more so; the potential for deeper characterization seems to be there. Joseph Ellis's First Family, on John and Abigail Adams: enjoyable as Ellis usually is, though I could wish for a little more in-depth analysis. His discussions of the Adams children are particularly short and somewhat unsatisfying. • What did you recently finish reading? Some comfort rereading: Elizabeth Enright's Gone-Away Lake and Return to Gone-Away, which are charming but not as close to my heart as the Melendy books; and several Elizabeth Peters books, which ranged from dull and somewhat creepy ( The Love Talker) through decently entertaining ( Devil-May-Care) to quite good ( Summer of the Dragon -- the anthropology grad student heroine is one of my favorite Peters heroines). I also reread Stephen Fry's Moab Is My Washpot, and my, I'd forgotten how intensely confessional it is. • What do you think you’ll read next? I decided to wait and get the sequel to Skin Hunger from the library, so I'll probably get to those this week. Am also considering Kushiel's Dart and/or C.S. Friedman's Magister Trilogy, or possibly some Miles Franklin. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/222286.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• What are you currently reading? Daphne du Maurier, My Cousin Rachel, for a Goodreads group read of this and Rebecca. • What did you recently finish reading? Seanan McGuire's Midnight Blue-Light Special, which I think I liked even better than the first, maybe because of the addition of Sarah POV. I'm interested to see where she's going next, with Verity's siblings (I assume both siblings eventually, not just Alex). Kari Sperring's The Grass King's Concubine, which was really good: a bit of a slow starter, I thought, but deeply engrossing worldbuilding and characters. Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca: also a reread for the Goodreads group read (though kore and I have also been discussing it here). • What do you think you’ll read next? I still have Skin Hunger and the Allinghams from the library (having bounced off Soulless). Or I might reread some Diana Wynne Jones, depending on whether I feel like new stuff or not. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/221700.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If I'd remembered it was World Book Day today (props to oursin), I'd've delayed this post until today on purpose. But actually, I was just too busy yesterday. • What are you currently reading? I just started Seanan McGuire's Midnight Blue-Light Special. I'm also trying to read Susan Ferrier's The Inheritance, but boy is it slow going so far. I've seen her described as the Scottish Austen, with some justice, but the witty bits are currently outnumbered by the boring or sentimental bits. I did like Marriage, which I read years ago, so I will probably keep plugging away and see if I like it more once there's more plot. • What did you recently finish reading? A comfort reread of all of Antonia Forest's Marlow books, plus that new one by Sally Hayward which came out last year (and is really very good). • What do you think you’ll read next? I have several library books I should get to: a couple of Margery Allinghams, Gail Carriger's Soulless, Kathleen Duey's Skin Hunger (the latter two from the Sirens list). This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/221673.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Since I know I'm going to be too busy tomorrow for a bookpost, here's one today instead. • What are you currently reading? What do you think you’ll read next? I'm sort of between books at the moment, but I'm thinking of rereading Teresa Edgerton's Green Lion trilogy, which I haven't read in ages. • What did you recently finish reading? Maureen Johnson, The Name of the Star (reread), The Madness Underneath: I still liked the first book, but I was deeply underwhelmed by the middle bookiness of the second book. If I'd known there was going to be that much cliffhanger, I'd've waited to read it until the third book was out. A couple of Wodehouses ( Very Good, Jeeves and Service with a Smile), which are always good when you're sick. Ben Aaronovitch, Whispers Under Ground: just as good as the first two. I was trying to hold off until the fourth one comes out this summer, so that I could read two in a row again, but I couldn't wait. Seanan McGuire, Discount Armageddon, which was lots of fun; I will willingly read the next book (which I think is soon). Talking religious mice FTW! • What did you start and not finish? Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: This has gotten raves over on Goodreads, and I'm not really sure why. The premise has potential (unemployed tech worker Clay gets job at mysterious bookstore and discovers that there's more to the store and its owner than there seems to be), and I liked the idea of weaving the old with the new, ancient paper books with modern technology. But the protagonist is cardboard, a blank slate I felt had no character of his own, and his friends are worse: Kat, every nerd's wet dream, the pretty, quirky Google employee who can code even better than Clay; Mat, genius ILM designer, able to do or make anything; Ashley, blonde PR exec who only becomes worthy of notice once she starts dating Mat; and Neel, self-made multimillionaire whose company does breast imaging. No, I don't mean mammograms; I mean designing lifelike breasts for video games. This was the point where I applied the "put it down for a night and see if I care enough in the morning to pick it back up" test, and guess what? It failed. If I were a teenage boy, I'm sure I'd have loved it. As an adult female geek...not so much. Cinda Williams Chima, The Demon King: I d'know, just seemed too much like YA-epic-fantasy-by-the-numbers. I gave it 100 pages and still didn't care what happened. Also, please do not name your roguish ex-thief character Han, okay? It's distracting. This entry was originally posted at http://gwyneira.dreamwidth.org/221423.html. There are  comments on that post. Please comment here or there, your choice.Tags: booklog, books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
![[sticky post]](http://l-stat.livejournal.net/img/icon_sticky.png?v=11043 "[sticky post]"){kind=icon}
01:46 pm April 8th, 2017
