7-22. when turning we come round right.
Dec. 31st, 2010 01:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
harborshoreThis entry is a demonstration of why it is hard for me to keep up regular book reviews when I'm reading at my normal pace. These are the books I've read in the last four weeks. Most of them were read in a week and a half. Also, I'm sure I've forgotten one or two. Augh. But I'm going to make an effort to keep this going, and in order to catch up, here are some one-sentence reviews of these books. Feel free to ask questions if you want to know more about any of them! Or if you want quotes. I'm valiantly resisting quoting from all of them or I would be here ALL NIGHT, but I am happy to provide quotes if you ask.
Mild spoilers for some of the books, but generally nothing you wouldn't get from reading the blurb, except for when I'm warning for something.
7. Tigers at Awhitu by Sarah Broom.
This is a collection that veers between sharp nature descriptions and deeply personal and sometimes very sweet (though usually not) poems. It's very, very good. (ASK FOR QUOTES, these are so great.)
8. Smoke and Shadows by Tanya Huff. First in a trilogy about Tony, the PA at Canada's most highly rated syndicated show about a vampire detective who has a gift for getting himself in trouble, an actual vampire detective ex, a crush on a hot actor on the aforementioned highly rated vampire detective show, and some unusual abilities. This trilogy is SO much fun, and Tony is a delight.
9. Smoke and Mirrors by Tanya Huff. Second in the trilogy and the best of the three, this one is about a haunted house and is one of the more interesting ghost stories I've read. Also Tony is great. Also the secondary characters are amazingly well-drawn here, and everyone is just interesting! Lee (the hot actor crush) is, ugh. So great. I love this book.
10. Smoke and Ashes by Tanya Huff. Has an interesting secondary female character, a blink-or-you'll miss it m/m/f threesome, and Tony getting better at the wizard thing. I really like this trilogy a lot--they're great lighthearted fun, and Tony is a very compelling POV. Also, massive points for a main character who is gay but not a stereotype AND not doomed to a tragic end! Awesomeness.
11. Blackout by Connie Willis. From her time travel series. Astoundingly well researched book about the London Blitz, complete with humor and a plot that will have you unable to put the book down. And I do mean unable. Don't start reading it before bed. I absolutely loved it, but the ending is a cliffhanger the likes of--oh, West Wing season 1, maybe. SUCH a good book.
12. All Clear by Connie Willis. It is useful to have it near at hand when you finish Blackout, trust me. It's not quite as good, but the plotting and the research continues to be impeccable, it's just that Blackout was so very brilliant that this one pales a little in comparison. A very little.
13. A Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer. One of two oh-my-god-my-flight-is-delayed-again books that I bought in Birmingham to distract myself. Not my favorite of hers, but the heroine is great and has an awesome temper, and the hero and the heroine argue their way through the book in a really fun way, taking turns yielding. (Do I like dynamics like this? Yes I do.)
14. Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer. The second of the Birmingham books, and I really liked how capable the hero and the heroine were here. I had an issue with the resolution of the plot, because if you get yourself into an ill-advised engagement, you ought to get out of it without terrifying your poor super-young fiancee through sexual intimidation, ffs. Other than that, a fun and enjoyable book, but that part was--eurgh. It's at the end, so one might read the whole thing and then skip the confrontation scene, or one could read other books. *frowns*
These are getting longer, sigh. Let me try to rein myself in.
15. Break, Blow, Burn by Camille Paglia. Poetry analyses! She provides the poem she will analyze at the start of the chapters, so it's very easy to follow. She's smart as fuck, and even when I wildly disagreed, I was entertained. If you like literary analysis at all, try this.
16. A Writer's Diary by Virginia Woolf. A compilation of her journal entries on writing or her books or on any literature done by her husband after her death. Oh, Virginia. This is the only book I didn't read in the past month or so, this I read in October after finishing my thesis. God, it's fantastic. She has all these thoughts on writing and the writing process and they're immensely valuable if you do write, and she's sharp and entertaining and I just, oh. It's very good. It's also an interesting (and sometimes difficult) read about depression, because even if mostly those entries are not in here, there are hints and days when she writes about being unable to write and takes to her bed.
17. The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck. The best book I've read in a while. I read it in a Pret near Victoria Station last Wednesday; I read it in an hour and I couldn't breathe. It's about courage and it's about war and it's about what the reality of fighting back can be, and it's beautiful. During WWII it was forbidden in all the occupied nations, but people translated it and printed it and spread it in secret in astonishing quantities. Read it. It's short, too--WHY don't they teach this one instead of Mice and Men? This book made me hope.
18. Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie. Like the last one, this book was a gift from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
emilytheodd, and oh my god. Stunning. Again. Hard to read in parts, because this book is also about the reality of war but where the Steinbeck kept it very simple, this one goes from Nagasaki to Guantanamo, and it's--there were parts where I was very sad. The very end was one of them. But there were also parts where people figured out how to live, where they found beauty and love and language--this book sometimes made me hope and sometimes made me cry and sometimes made me despair. It was worth it. An astounding read.
19. The Lady's Not For Burning by Christopher Fry. My greatest regret of the Bristol visit was not buying the second of the volumes of Christopher Fry's collected plays. I bought one, and decided I didn't have room for the second. That was dumb. This play is one of my favorite plays ever; written about the McCarthy era but set somewhere entirely different, Fry manages to convey the workings of a witch hunt, make his two main characters fall in mature, stunning love, and get us to a place where this all doesn't have to end tragically. And the language, oh, the language. "I am Jennet Jourdemayne, and I believe in the human mind."
20. I Have The Right To Destroy Myself by Young-Ha Kim. This book was too cynical for me. Or cold, maybe. The narrator is someone who encourages people to find solace in suicide, and I just--for this book to work for me, it would have had to have more light. Or hope. As it was, it just made me sad in a slightly hopeless way. That being said, it was definitely well-crafted and difficult to put down--it is unquestionably a good book, but thematically, it didn't work for me.
21. The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones. OH MAN. LOVE. An interesting intrigue with many mythological layers, three great main characters, interesting poking at religion, and just a very interesting read. Plus, it's Diana Wynne Jones. One of her good ones, too. Less hysterical dialogue than some of her later books, but a really great read.
ETA: I knew I'd forgotten at least one!
22. The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. The sequel I'd been awaiting, jesus. And she still puts her characters through hell, but she does it so skilfully that I don't mind. I mean I do mind, but I also want to keep reading and I care and she rewards me for caring. I'm being very careful here because I think any spoilers ruins the book, in many ways, because it depends on surprise. But ask me if you want details about the more traumatic things that happen.
Previous reviews: Free Love by Ali Smith | Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey | The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera | Libyrinth by Pearl North | Ash by Malinda Lo | The Changeover by Margaret Mahy
Mild spoilers for some of the books, but generally nothing you wouldn't get from reading the blurb, except for when I'm warning for something.
7. Tigers at Awhitu by Sarah Broom.
This is a collection that veers between sharp nature descriptions and deeply personal and sometimes very sweet (though usually not) poems. It's very, very good. (ASK FOR QUOTES, these are so great.)
8. Smoke and Shadows by Tanya Huff. First in a trilogy about Tony, the PA at Canada's most highly rated syndicated show about a vampire detective who has a gift for getting himself in trouble, an actual vampire detective ex, a crush on a hot actor on the aforementioned highly rated vampire detective show, and some unusual abilities. This trilogy is SO much fun, and Tony is a delight.
9. Smoke and Mirrors by Tanya Huff. Second in the trilogy and the best of the three, this one is about a haunted house and is one of the more interesting ghost stories I've read. Also Tony is great. Also the secondary characters are amazingly well-drawn here, and everyone is just interesting! Lee (the hot actor crush) is, ugh. So great. I love this book.
10. Smoke and Ashes by Tanya Huff. Has an interesting secondary female character, a blink-or-you'll miss it m/m/f threesome, and Tony getting better at the wizard thing. I really like this trilogy a lot--they're great lighthearted fun, and Tony is a very compelling POV. Also, massive points for a main character who is gay but not a stereotype AND not doomed to a tragic end! Awesomeness.
11. Blackout by Connie Willis. From her time travel series. Astoundingly well researched book about the London Blitz, complete with humor and a plot that will have you unable to put the book down. And I do mean unable. Don't start reading it before bed. I absolutely loved it, but the ending is a cliffhanger the likes of--oh, West Wing season 1, maybe. SUCH a good book.
12. All Clear by Connie Willis. It is useful to have it near at hand when you finish Blackout, trust me. It's not quite as good, but the plotting and the research continues to be impeccable, it's just that Blackout was so very brilliant that this one pales a little in comparison. A very little.
13. A Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer. One of two oh-my-god-my-flight-is-delayed-again books that I bought in Birmingham to distract myself. Not my favorite of hers, but the heroine is great and has an awesome temper, and the hero and the heroine argue their way through the book in a really fun way, taking turns yielding. (Do I like dynamics like this? Yes I do.)
14. Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer. The second of the Birmingham books, and I really liked how capable the hero and the heroine were here. I had an issue with the resolution of the plot, because if you get yourself into an ill-advised engagement, you ought to get out of it without terrifying your poor super-young fiancee through sexual intimidation, ffs. Other than that, a fun and enjoyable book, but that part was--eurgh. It's at the end, so one might read the whole thing and then skip the confrontation scene, or one could read other books. *frowns*
These are getting longer, sigh. Let me try to rein myself in.
15. Break, Blow, Burn by Camille Paglia. Poetry analyses! She provides the poem she will analyze at the start of the chapters, so it's very easy to follow. She's smart as fuck, and even when I wildly disagreed, I was entertained. If you like literary analysis at all, try this.
16. A Writer's Diary by Virginia Woolf. A compilation of her journal entries on writing or her books or on any literature done by her husband after her death. Oh, Virginia. This is the only book I didn't read in the past month or so, this I read in October after finishing my thesis. God, it's fantastic. She has all these thoughts on writing and the writing process and they're immensely valuable if you do write, and she's sharp and entertaining and I just, oh. It's very good. It's also an interesting (and sometimes difficult) read about depression, because even if mostly those entries are not in here, there are hints and days when she writes about being unable to write and takes to her bed.
17. The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck. The best book I've read in a while. I read it in a Pret near Victoria Station last Wednesday; I read it in an hour and I couldn't breathe. It's about courage and it's about war and it's about what the reality of fighting back can be, and it's beautiful. During WWII it was forbidden in all the occupied nations, but people translated it and printed it and spread it in secret in astonishing quantities. Read it. It's short, too--WHY don't they teach this one instead of Mice and Men? This book made me hope.
18. Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie. Like the last one, this book was a gift from
emilytheodd, and oh my god. Stunning. Again. Hard to read in parts, because this book is also about the reality of war but where the Steinbeck kept it very simple, this one goes from Nagasaki to Guantanamo, and it's--there were parts where I was very sad. The very end was one of them. But there were also parts where people figured out how to live, where they found beauty and love and language--this book sometimes made me hope and sometimes made me cry and sometimes made me despair. It was worth it. An astounding read.19. The Lady's Not For Burning by Christopher Fry. My greatest regret of the Bristol visit was not buying the second of the volumes of Christopher Fry's collected plays. I bought one, and decided I didn't have room for the second. That was dumb. This play is one of my favorite plays ever; written about the McCarthy era but set somewhere entirely different, Fry manages to convey the workings of a witch hunt, make his two main characters fall in mature, stunning love, and get us to a place where this all doesn't have to end tragically. And the language, oh, the language. "I am Jennet Jourdemayne, and I believe in the human mind."
20. I Have The Right To Destroy Myself by Young-Ha Kim. This book was too cynical for me. Or cold, maybe. The narrator is someone who encourages people to find solace in suicide, and I just--for this book to work for me, it would have had to have more light. Or hope. As it was, it just made me sad in a slightly hopeless way. That being said, it was definitely well-crafted and difficult to put down--it is unquestionably a good book, but thematically, it didn't work for me.
21. The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones. OH MAN. LOVE. An interesting intrigue with many mythological layers, three great main characters, interesting poking at religion, and just a very interesting read. Plus, it's Diana Wynne Jones. One of her good ones, too. Less hysterical dialogue than some of her later books, but a really great read.
ETA: I knew I'd forgotten at least one!
22. The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. The sequel I'd been awaiting, jesus. And she still puts her characters through hell, but she does it so skilfully that I don't mind. I mean I do mind, but I also want to keep reading and I care and she rewards me for caring. I'm being very careful here because I think any spoilers ruins the book, in many ways, because it depends on surprise. But ask me if you want details about the more traumatic things that happen.
Previous reviews: Free Love by Ali Smith | Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey | The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera | Libyrinth by Pearl North | Ash by Malinda Lo | The Changeover by Margaret Mahy