A Writer's Paradise

Remiss & Reading

I thought for certain I'd posted to this journal since LAST TUESDAY. But apparently not.

Regardless, it's time for a reading post.

I have been reading entirely for pleasure of late. That is to say, there has been no obligation reading, no research reading... nothing that I haven't been salivating to read and salivating during the reading of. This has included Buffy: The Long Way Home, which I won't count as even a graphic novel because it's not quite long enough, but I did enjoy that muchly, too. And, it was my Valentine from my husband.

Okay. The list:

5) V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd (graphic novel)
6) Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey (fantasy)
7) Reader and Raelynx by Sharon Shinn (fantasy)
8) Austenland by Shannon Hale (chick lit)
9) Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (fantasy)

Not my usual sort of analysis after the cut.

Okay, so, a leetle beet of my usual analysis to start with V for Vendetta. I came to this graphic novel (and it is a novel) via the backdoor of having seen the movie first, then reading the novelization of the film (egads!) and then reading the original, the graphic novel. I could just as easily pretend the novelization doesn't exist, so I think I will. The movie and the comic are all that really exist for me, and I really do adore them both. I still read them both as a love story. Not a Romance, but a story about love, unconditional, pure love for other humans, the choice of man's humanity to man over man's inhumanity to man. The politics that get screwed up in the movie? Don't actually matter to my reading of the story. Anarchy is not the opposite of fascism. Love is. It's like The Bridge of San Luis Rey for the comics set. I am incapable of rational articulation on V for Vendetta. But there's my irrational articulation for you.

I think the next thing is to take Twilight and Skin Hunger together. Twilight is Anita Blake for Girl Scouts. Skin Hunger is Harry Potter for the Young Kafka Readers' Society.

Both are well-executed young adult fantasy. Skin Hunger is probably the better book, in terms of fresh territory and style and technique and a whole slew of things that writers certainly care about. But I read it with a faint feeling of dissatisfaction, even when I was reading it compulsively to find out what happens next. I don't think it is YA, not in the way I want to read YA. There is a distinct nihilistic streak to the book which makes it exactly the sort of thing I would never re-read wittingly. Compare this to the perfectly clear, perfectly competent Twilight that reeks of wish-fulfillment so deep that a couple of times I was blushing because I was enjoying the wish-fulfillment so much that I was kind of sighing and murmuring to myself a little. Yes. Out loud.

Of Skin Hunger, I read a brief review somewhere (apologies for not knowing where) that said something like, "I wonder if this is the sort of book for kids that adults like but kids don't." I wonder that too. I know how adolescent girls react to Twilight, because I live with an adolescent girl who ate all three available volumes in about a week, and nothing, not even Harry Potter, ever got her to read that much that quickly. And all of her friends have done exactly the same thing.

If it seems I am damning Twilight with faint praise at any point here, let me assure you, I am not. Twilight carries with it an extremely well-executed extended metaphor equating food/hunger with sex/lust. I am constantly amazed by the author's twists and turns on the conceit, and hell if I know if her tropes are breaking new ground or not, but they feel fresh to me.

My only concern is that Twilight is All About the Boyfriend, but honestly, bookworm-writer-theatergeek-feminist high schooler that I was, I was (or would have been) All About the Boyfriend, too, and I really can't get fussed about that. It's great if you were the girl who wasn't. But plenty of girls were. And it wasn't just Society's Great Patriarchal Influence at fault--it was also the hormones and the mystery. If I were still on the potent combo of hormones and mystery, I'd still be just as boy crazy now as I was then. Further, I really identified with Bella pre-Edward, and even post-Edward, too. She's detached, reserved, self-sacrificing, and completely undervalues herself--she's the perfect portrait of an only child who's been raising her mom since she was born.

I'm not sure what has provoked this impassioned defense of Twilight; it's selling well enough on its own. Perhaps it is my innate distrust of the popular, which I know a lot of people (but not a majority, OBVI) share.

In any case, I'm certainly not saying read Twilight over Skin Hunger. I am saying read both.

Reader and Raelynx... I was half-way through this before I realized it was more or less going to wrap up the Twelve Houses books. I just went looking, and if Shinn writes a fifth book, it looks like it's going to follow a character outside of our main six. (Insert cry of dismay here. Why can't Tayse and Donnal get their own books, exactly?? I know Aj agrees with me.) All the same, it was a nice ending. I look forward to re-reading this series in the relatively near future.

Austenland is So. Awesome. Here, go read the plot summary. Back? Good. Shannon Hale, who subverted every expected trope in her YA Princess Academy made me like chick lit again. Competent, intelligent heroine! And witty, too! The book was simply too short; I wanted to stay much longer in Jane's world. Not necessarily in Austenland, but in Jane's head. If you have been disappointed by much or most of the Austen-based fare out there, this is a sure remedy.

Lunchtime Meme

Hey! You know how TiVo is a godsend and I love it? TiVo also sucks! It especially sucks when you watch, say, Lost only on weekends, and so the Lost discussion group is spoilering your spoiler while you're eating your leftover stiffado and trying to read the newest Sharon Shinn book! So, I'm back at my desk, exiled to the Land of Meme.

But it's a good meme, for it is a book meme, and it was snurched from Gwyneira, so. Here goes.

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

Oh, lots of things. Almost anything Arthurian-based. Almost anything really literary that's been published in the last ten or twenty years.

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can't die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for a while, eventually you realize it's past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

Eh. I can get through anything eventually, boring-wise. It's an issue of badly-written for me. There are things that could kill me with their badly-writtenness.

Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you've read, when in fact you've been nowhere near it?

Back before I finished the Harry Potter series, I found it expedient not to mention that I hadn't been keeping up with it, on several occasions. It was just not worth the discussion.

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realize when you read a review about it/go to 'reread' it that you haven't? Which book?

Yes, but nothing anyone has heard of.

You're interviewing for the post of Official Book Adviser to some VIP (who's not a big reader). What's the first book you'd recommend and why?

Srsly, not a good question. It depends on the VIP. But I'd probably start out with something in pop non-fiction. Like Everything is Miscellaneous.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

Oh, Japanese. Definitely. Maaaaybe one of the Chineses. But something I'd never be able to spend any real time on for learning myself.

A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

I think that fairy came by, and we already agreed on Pride and Prejudice.

What's one bookish thing you 'discovered' from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art – anything)?

I've found lots of books this way--most recently, Austenland by Shannon Hale.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she's granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leather-bound? Is it full of first edition hard covers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead – let your imagination run free.

What a ridiculous question! She's obviously granting me Powell's bookstore. DUH. All the branches thereof, too. I'll have a sleeping cot in the YA section, and we'll set up the kitchen in the cookbook store. (I see no reason not to just move in. With a library like that, who needs a house?)

let's do a book report

This is Day Two of Sick, so let's discuss what I've read since the beginning of 2008.

Lessee:

1) Booty: Girl Pirates on the High Seas by Sara Lorimer (er.... folklore?)

2) Tempted by Megan Hart (romance)

3) Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot (chick lit)

4) How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time by Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer (non-fiction)

And I read bits of:
Seafaring women : adventures of pirate queens, female stowaways, and sailors' wives by David Cordingly, Iron Men, Wooden Women: Gender and Seafaring in the Atlantic World, 1700-1920 by Margaret S. Creighton and Lisa Norling, Bold in Her Breeches: Women Pirates Across the Ages by Jo Stanley, and Women Pirates: And the Politics of the Jolly Roger by Ulrike Klausmann, Marion Meinzerin, Gabriel Kuhn, and Tyler Austin. Of these, I highly recommend Bold in her Breeches and Seafaring Women, and bid you all to avoid Women Pirates.

I also read the Sharon Shinn stories out of two anthologies, The Queen in Winter being one of them... The other must be a Firebirds anthology, which I'm still working my way through.

Now, the silly thing is, I know I read at least one other book. But I can't think of what it is, for the life of me.

Detailed discussion after the cut.

Booty: Girl Pirates on the High Seas by Sara Lorimer

A very slight volume, but functioned as a starting point for my women pirate research. Almost identical, it seemed, to Women of the Sea: Ten Pirate Stories by Myra Weatherly, except in the ordering of the pirates presented. Fun, but not filling.

Tempted by Megan Hart

As twistily emotional as Broken or Dirty, I felt that the situation (potential polyamory) was problematized but never delved into. I wasn't satisfied by the ending the way I was with the previous two Hart books. The happiest ending was deemed impossible. Hm. Not that I don't think it was extremely well written, and I will definitely be eager to read Hart's next effort.

Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot

Intensely frustrating at times. Lizzie, the main character was almost unbelievably unaware at times, while at others, hyper-aware. I don't know. Also, Lizzie as University of Michigan alumna and native of Ann Arbor didn't ring true, in very minute details like how Lizzie wouldn't have had free tuition to UM and there is no such place as McCracken Hall... If you had to fake a dorm at UM, why wouldn't you come up with something plausible, like "Ford Hall" or "North Quad?" (Further, at UM, we never call anything "halls." The dorms just get called by their name, and that's it: Stockwell, MoJo (Mosher-Jordan), Bursley, etc.) But it came out alright, and I understand there are two sequels.

How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time by Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer

Man, this really was an eye opener. I think that all my hoopy frood Third Wave feminist ideals totally came through exposure to this magazine. I know that I had a sort of awakening around late junior high, but I always assumed that it was, you know... growing up, but I wonder now exactly how much of it just came about through Sassy (which I read religiously for three years). Some of the articles quoted in the book I remember reading, clear as day. I must have read each issue two, three times. This book is a fantastic overview of what was going on behind the scenes, sure, but the exploration of the culture vis-a-vis young women... oh, yeah. Suddenly, it all makes a lot more sense.

Reading Review 2007

Other than somehow skipping 46-49 in my numbering scheme, I have read fewer books than I thought this year. The other possibility--and it's a very real one--is that I've actually read the books that were originally 46-49 and somehow forgot what they were.

Anyway, 57 books. It's a semi-respectable total for me, what with being in school and all the other things I've been reading: articles on information science, fic, short stories...

Anyway.

I read 12 books (21%) of non-fiction, broken down into the sub-categories of history, biography, writing, literary criticism, and linguistics. This is on par with 26% non-fiction in 2006 and 20% non-fiction in 2005.

Yay, trends!!

In the fiction category, I read:

6 mainstream
15 romance
3 SF
18 fantasy
3 horror

Which, proportionally, is par for the course for me, though I usually fit in more SF.

I only re-read one book. This is also part of the recent trend. I used to re-read madly. I'm rather surprised at this lack of re-reading, but can only surmise that emotionally solid enough that I don't need the comfort of re-reading old faves (in spite of school stress (and in fact, the only way to handle school stress was to read about information science, anyway)), and I did in fact re-read that book right in the middle of school stress. --Oh, wait. I did re-read the first three Harry Potter books in an effort to just go straight through the series and be done with it. But that almost doesn't count. Somehow. I swear.

I discovered many new-to-me authors this year, the standouts being Sarah Micklem, Megan Hart, Lionel Shriver, Ruth Downie, Tananarive Due...

I think my favorite book was Jo Walton's Farthing.

Last Book Report of the Year

53) Tease by Suzanne Forster (romance)
54) Lady Beware by Jo Beverley (romance)
55) Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie (romance)
56) Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster (uhm...)
57) General Winston's Daughter by Sharon Shinn (YA)

Well, I haven't passed 60 this year, but passing 50 is good. But more on my performance, later...

Reviews after the cut.

Tease by Suzanne Forster (romance)

After Megan Hart's work (in the same Harlequin Spice line), I suppose anything would be something of a disappointment. There were definitely points I desired to slap the heroine. Too many of them, probably. It worked out okay in the end, more or less, but there were some eyerolls even close to the end. Motivations were iffy. The fact that the heroine wasn't always sure which man was in her bed seemed unlikely. The misunderstandings between, well, everyone, were annoying, and did not ratchet up the tension. And here's the really weird thing: this is in the line billed as erotic romance, and somehow, all of the sex scenes--every single one of them--ended at the point of penetration and faded to black. Bizarre.

Lady Beware by Jo Beverley (romance)

Lovely Beverleyness once again. I adore this author. I heap love and praise on her head. If you haven't yet read her (and you even vaguely like romance), why not??

Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie (romance)

A very entertaining Crusie. Exactly what I was in the mood for over the holidays. Funny stuff. Funny enough that I overlook the occasional moments of dimness on the heroine's part, and I can ignore the phrase "she licked into his mouth" in reference to tongue-kissing. Almost.

Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster (uhm...)

Too much fun. I "died" several times. I'm deeply amused by Webster's snarky commentary. I look forward to going through this a few more times, as I explore the other ways out.

61) General Winston's Daughter by Sharon Shinn (YA)

I didn't connect with this Shinn effort the way I usually do, but it was well-written and enjoyable nonetheless, and had an extremely nice presentation of the arguments about imperialism and colonialism. I think Shinn works best for me when she's writing fantasy. This was Ruritanian, not fantasy.

Books of Late

46) Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger (non-fiction)

47) Out Front with Stephen Abram: A Guide for Information Professionals by Stephen Abram (non-fiction)

48) Foundations of Library and Information Science by Gayle Rubin (non-fiction)

49) Dirty by Megan Hart (romance)

50) Broken by Megan Hart (romance)

51) Twice the Temptation by Suzanne Enoch (romance)

52) A Touch of Minx by Suzanne Enoch (romance)

Reviews after the cut.

Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, Out Front with Stephen Abram: A Guide for Information Professionals, and Foundations of Library and Information Science.

I read these three for school, along with a slew of articles that will certainly not get mentioned here. I rather like the articles better, in general, but that's how it is with professional fields, I guess. More info in an article. Less balderdash. I feel the same way about anthropology. In any case, Weinberger's would be great for non-librarians, but Abram is the ground-breaker in my future profession, and I think I appreciated his book the most. The Rubin book is a great introduction. I got to choose the Weinberger, as it happens, but I think that whoever selected books for my class did a great job. (I say "whoever" because I think all sections are reading the same things.)

As for Megan Hart's Dirty and Broken... these are not typical romance. First, they're categorized as "spice" or "erotic romance" or some such (but not "romantica"), and the sexual component is heavy. And yet, I'd say they are some of the best-written books Harlequin has put out. Period. I've pored over the internet for reviews that do these books justice, but I think most people doing the reviewing get hung up on the liberal use of the word "cunt" or the fact that the books are genre-atypical. Well. Humbug to all of that. Hart's characterization skills are mighty, and it's a rare romance novel that has me invested in more than just wondering when the couple is going to hook up or say "I love you." There are subplots that are interesting! There aren't true villains! There is depth and complexity and subtleness!

The nearly Aspergian qualities of one heroine (Elle of Dirty) contrast sharply with the extreme emotional awareness of the other (Sadie in Broken), and prove that Hart is no one-trick pony. These books are not chick lit, but they have many factors in common (the romance is not the sole focus, for example) with chick lit. At the same time, there is an emotional resonance far beyond any chick lit I've ever read, something sort of on par with *gasp* modern literature, but without the pretentious shit that so turns me off of modern literature.

I think I've found a new fave.

And as for old fave, Suzanne Enoch: Twice the Temptation and A Touch of Minx are both Sam and Rick stories. (Twice is one regency paired with a Sam/Rick adventure.) I love Sam so much. I'm not sure Rick is actually worthy of Sam, but he's not half bad. Not even a quarter bad. Or maybe I over-identify with Sam's loose moral code somewhat? I mean, cat burglar who won't steal from museums, just greedy bastards! Alright then! Anyway, I don't know how much more Enoch can wring from this series (my best guess? Three books. Though I think we probably should only have one more at most), but I look forward to seeing what she does.

Books, and School

I managed to read three books this month, but hey, I'm in school and I'm reading articles like it's going out of style. I should have 3-4 school books to report by the end of the term, so there's that. But still, that means I'm on track to read about 60 books this year, maybe 70 if I'm lucky. That's punk-level reading, man!

Today, however, I read two chapters of one of my school books while sitting outside in the 80 degree autumnal weather. I also burned up the last of the stray wood in our chimenea, so I killed two birds with one stone. Three, really; I wanted to spend time outside in the 80 degree weather! This is so not October 21st. Well, it is October 21st, actually, and I like it, because it's how my brain thinks October 21st should be, thanks to growing up in North Carolina. But I have been in Michigan ten years now (uhm... okay... more like fourteen), and my brain is a little hesitant. It's looking at the trees and going, "Those aren't right. Those are supposed to be like flaming jewels!" But the leaves are not doing that thing, they're doing the thing where they get paler and paler and then go brown or drop off. Just like in North Carolina.

The grass is emerald green still, greener than spring, even--and the only thing that's right is the blazing blue October sky. I may be enjoying global warming in small doses (sitting outside of an afternoon and reading a book and activating all my good Vitamin D!) but things are really just not right around here.

Ahem.

The good news about school is that the period of group work is almost done; soon, I won't have to coordinate with 5 other people, and won't feel the burning pressure to not let my group down, either. It'll just be me and my schedule and my preferences for working quickly near the last minute. (I'm not quite such a procrastinator that I work up to the last second, but I like to keep it pretty close...) That should cut substantially into my fretting time.

Since September 12, I've read:

(43) V for Vendetta by Steve Moore [SF]

Yes, okay, I read the novelization of the film from the graphic novel. I'm a schmuck. But there were lots of elements from the graphic novel added back in that made this novelization a hybrid bridging the two things together. I mostly read it to tide myself over until I had a chance to nab the graphic novel or see the film again. Though, I will say, I almost feel like there was some sort of foul play afoot--why did they pick someone with the last name Moore to write the novelization? Were they trying to fool anybody?

(44) Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler [chick lit]

Just finished this, in about a day. There's much to like, and much to be confused about... it's like literary chick lit with pretensions and low production values. Worth the read, but I'm never going to like any chick lit heroines other than Bridget herself, am I?

(45) Farthing by Jo Walton [alt history]

Finished this last week, and it's amazing. Walton really knows what she's doing. Chilling, horrifying, and bleak, yet with just enough hope and lighter touches to keep the reader from going under completely. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically British manor house murder mystery... in a Britain that negotiated a peace with Hitler in the early 40s. Things are bad on the European Continent, but Britain has been a little beacon of hope for Jews and others that the Reich considers undesirable... until there's a sudden, V for Vendetta-ish slide into fascism (it was interesting to have experienced the two so close together).

What's great about this book, however, is not the chilling world-building--though that's good, don't get me wrong--but I really, really love the relationship between the married couple at the center. It's so exactly right. On the surface, the main character is a silly woman, but underneath, she's got reservoirs of compassion and strength that just make her astonishing, but also real. While reading it, I wasn't quite certain if her husband loves her as much as she loves him, but I've decided, for my own comfort, that he does... In any case, the two viewpoint characters are sympathetic in a way that I don't think I've experienced for a long time in recent fiction (outside of maybe a Robin McKinley novel). I've always liked Walton's work, but now I think I love it.

Books Read; Rejections Recorded

(40) The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner [non-fiction]

Go forth and read this, if thou be a writer. That is all.

Unless you aren't having any motivation problems. In which case, ignore above.

That is really all.

(41) Idlewild by Nick Sagan [science fiction]

Lots of fun and inventive stuff dispersed throughout (delicious and nutritious as the two opposing forces of the universe? Yep!), though occasionally, I wondered if I had skipped pages or paragraphs or whole chapters--something about Sagan's writing style didn't keep me abreast of things properly, and I don't usually zone out.

Still. Michigan-based science fiction! Yay! I love the sequel title: Edenborn. Because Idlewild was the "Black Eden," a resort for African-Americans before desegregation killed it--I presume.

(42) Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt [YA - ruritarian fantasy??] re-read

I loved this book soverymuch when I was younger, and while it is still most excellent, I had a harder time emotionally connecting to the story this time. I don't know if that's because I'm just older and more cynical, or because I've read the books in the series that follow them--and while the bleakness and the beauty of this book are still apparent, they pale in comparison to the three following books.

Voigt doesn't write easy books; they aren't easy on the reader, and they aren't easy on the characters. On the surface, this looks like a swashbuckling adventure tale. It is much, much deeper.

For the record, I not only did not win WotF, I didn't even make quarter-finalist. That's my first time! Boo! I am now worried that I killed my dear story in the rewrite, so double-boo!

SO TRUE

What are you reading? Xenocide...

Updates, Context, Reading

I so owe this blog the rest of the Getting Beyond Competent stuff. The rejections, mainly. I'm so loathe to go look at the rejections, though, it's not even funny. Perhaps tomorrow I'll be braver?

In the meantime:

I'm so freaking impressed with Context, I can barely talk. They are so very organized. But my main source of unspeakable impressment is because they have my name up on their page, where I'm listed as an attending author. With a link and all. Now, granted, I've shared TOCs with Lucy A. Snyder (who runs the sheang) a couple times, so we know of each other, and the other half of this is, as authors go, I'm no big deal and I don't expect anyone to actually pay attention to me. But if you are going to go to the trouble of pimping the authors attending your convention, it's so very smart to actually be able to recognize them when they show up. It's freaking good attention to detail. The kind of thing geeks are supposed to be good at and so frequently aren't. (AFAIK, I'm not on panels or anything, I'm just an attending author, but cool nonetheless.)

I read two more books this week:

(38) The Good House by Tananarive Due [horror]
(39) Titans of Chaos by John C. Wright [fantasy]

Discussions after the cut, and yeah, they might be spoilery.

(38) The Good House by Tananarive Due [horror]

Due reads a lot like Stephen King, though I was sort of sick-horrified by the horror in this one because I don't know anything about Due (I pretty much know how far King is going to go; plus, he leaches abuncha the tension out of things by telling you ahead of time when people are going to die, in the name of foreshadowing), and didn't know where she was going. On the whole, it's a damn good thing I didn't put the book down the six times I almost put the book down, because the ending was great.

Anyway, yeah. Stephen King. I couldn't get him out of my head while reading this; the approaches to character are very similar, the writing is transparent and stays out of its own way in a Kingian way, and yet, Due is very clearly doing her own thing here. And she doesn't telegraph her endings, so there's some serious win there. I'll be looking for more Due, as soon as I stop being scared.

(39) Titans of Chaos by John C. Wright [fantasy]

'Member how I love, love, loved the first one in this series? Yes, well. Unfortunately, I've read Wright's blog in the meantime, and now that I know him as other than an avant-garde neo-feminist, I had a hard time sticking with my interpretation of the gender politics in the series. In other words, it was much harder to like what was going on. Ultimately, yeah, well-written (EXTREMELY well-written), interesting (EXTREMELY interesting) stuff; ultimately, probably not going to purchase any more Wright. I'm cranky that way. I don't often let politics interfere with my entertainment, but sometimes its unavoidable.

Books Read. Also, Donate, If You Can

First off, you should be aware of the Strange Horizons Fund Drive. They pay pro-rates to their fiction writers, and they are also non-profit and self-supporting. It's like donating to NPR or what have you--except they don't keep interrupting A Prairie Home Companion to take your pledge. They publish some of my favorite writers on a regular basis (like Steph Burgis and Patrick Samphire and Deb Coates and Sarah Prineas and oh! Check out Leah Bobet's "The Girl from Another World" this week!), and have even published me once upon a time.

So. If you have change to spare, it'd be cool.

Okay. Here's what I've read lately. Impressions after the cut.

(34) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling [fantasy]
(35) Sins of a Duke by Suzanne Enoch [romance]
(36) The Sharing Knife: The Beguiling by Lois McMaster Bujold [fantasy]
(37) The Sharing Knife: Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold [fantasy]

(34) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling [fantasy]

Loved it. I think that's all I can say about it at this point--it's the only one in the series I want to reread for its own sake, and not just to keep up with the series.

(35) Sins of a Duke by Suzanne Enoch [romance]

I had a really hard time getting into this one. I didn't like the heroine much; she starts out slapping the hero, and I suppose that just never worked for me. I felt like the acceptance between Peep and the princess was unearned. I don't know! I'm so sad, because Enoch is such a fave of mine. I don't know why this one didn't work for me, unless it is possibly an issue of expectations hoisted too high on Sebastian's book.

(36) The Sharing Knife: The Beguiling by Lois McMaster Bujold [fantasy]
(37) The Sharing Knife: Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold [fantasy]

Supposed to be one book in two volumes... could've been one book in two volumes... yet, it cleaved very nicely at the halfway point, and I felt that the ending of the second book was much more "narrative-interrupted." I enjoyed these, no question, but I didn't feel the same love I did for Curse of Chalion or half the Miles canon. Early on in the books, I bounced against moments that I can only describe as Mercedes Lackey-esque. Something I think I'd like to examine further, when I have a moment to myself, but something in the magic system and the way the Lakewalkers worked, early on, reminded me of Valdemar magic and the Heralds--right up until Bujold problematized it and reminded me why I love her to pieces. So. Yeah.

Out of clever rejection entry titles; this is mostly about books anyway.

Speedy JJA reject from F&SF on Friday... Three rejections in seven days! It's not a record by any means, but after weeks of no mail, it's odd.

So. Books.

(30) The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown [non-fiction; biography]

Hm. This biography--which may actually have been more like a recitation of press events coupled with some insider dish than a true biography, it's hard to say--was an enlightening chronicle (exactly as its title says) of a public life that I only barely registered while it was being lived. I remember, with a kindergartener's bile, the pre-emption of my cartoons for the royal wedding in 1981. I always liked Fergie and her red hair better than Diana while I was growing up, but there's nothing quite like untimely death to get my attention. The greatest enjoyment I got out of the book was probably the look at how the monarchy functions today, and some interesting statements about the balance of power versus the display of power.

(31) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire [fantasy]
(32) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [fantasy]
(33) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince [fantasy]

My first reads on these three (obviously by J.K. Rowling). I liked Goblet well enough, thought Phoenix dragged a lot at the start, but Half-Blood Prince really worked for me, as I felt that wise, competent, practically-adult Harry is a guy who I'd really be able to get behind if he were, you know, leading a magical army that I might want to join.

I am not a mega-fan of this series--I have no wish to immerse myself into HP fandom, for example, and no desire to find or write fic. (I might watch a vid or two, but that's different.) But I can't understand the detractors of this series--at least, not the ones who've read it. I completely understand not wanting to jump on the bandwagon. I just don't know why you'd bother reading all of them if you aren't somewhat moved by the characters or the situations, and then rant on about the small, sentence-level mundanities in the writing. Obviously, these books aren't about the writing. Not the style, not the voice, not the prose itself. The best thing Rowling does is to not allow style/voice/prose to get in the way of her strengths, which are many. The books are about the story, the struggle, the conflict. And that's enough, isn't it?

Now, I must twiddle my thumbs until my book 7 copy gets here from Britain. Sigh.

Independence Week Book List

(26) Regency House Party by Lucy Jago [non-fiction]

A tie-in with the television show, this is a great, comprehensive guide to the Regency, plus a primer on what it would be like to time travel backward to about 1810 Britain or so. Super. There's even a fantastic chapter on race relations. Or at least, the beginnings of one (the author could only do so much and keep up with the show at the same time).

(27) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(28) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(29) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

by JK Rowling, all [fantasy]

These were re-reads, and just as engrossing as ever. I remembered book 1 perfectly (I may've read it twice before, anyway); book 2 less so, and book 3 just barely. I do not think this is because the movies diverge from the books increasingly as they go on, but I might just want to lie to myself.

Anyway. I liked Azkaban better this time; I may very well have read it with my eyes closed or something the first time. Hard to say.

I did read the British versions, for what that's worth (a few u's and the use of the word "queuing" and at least one puzzled moment of "What did Fred say there?"--mainly).

I'm on to the next three. It'll be my first time through them. And then I get to wait, along with everyone else, I guess--the goal was to read Phoenix before seeing the movie, because I didn't like how that turned out with Goblet as much. Likewise, I wanted to be caught up by the time the last book came out. It's been a harrowing month, trying to assess the timing.

Books

The most recent spate of books:

(22) The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver [mainstream]

(23) Medicus by Ruth Downie [historical fiction]

(24) The Ghost Brigads by John Scalzi [SF]

(25) The Way of the Cheetah by Lynn Viehl [nonfiction, writing]

Impressions after the jump.

The Post-Birthday World has echoes of Sliding Doors and could be considered a work about alternate universes or time-streams. Mostly, it read alternately like an experiment in defending cheating on your SO (cheat first, or you'll get cheated on), an apology for why it's okay to make risky decisions or less moral choices in your life (at one point, the protagonist says, "I learned I wasn't a saint" or something like that), and an exploration of narrative choice. Not that it wasn't enjoyable at times--it was--but I found some of the character's maddeningly cruel or annoying or... whatever.

Medicus: well, I'm just a sucker for Roman doctors, okay? You can blame Gillian Bradshaw for that. I didn't get totally sucked in with this as though it were a Bradshaw novel, but this was Plenty Good, and I enjoyed it.

The Ghost Brigades: I started arguing with Scalzi in my head about some of the details of consciousness transferral, but by the time I was getting good and ranty about it, the pace took off at the speed of light, and I was too busy flipping pages and reading as fast as I could to care anymore. So. I hope you weren't looking for a good dissection. This book, I felt, read a lot faster than 90k, incidentally.

The Way of the Cheetah: this is an ebook. I bought it--yes, I did--and printed it out, and then I read a lot of it during my leisure time in the mornings, leaving it out where my husband could read parts of it. He pointed out that the section on editing wasn't very well edited (he meant copy-editing). In spite of that, it has some good exercises that I look forward to doing, and had a really important message to writers about not caring what other writers are doing/saying/eating for lunch. It only stands in the way of your own work. And how..

Late Book Entry

Sometime between mid-April and now I read four books. The list is here, and the chatting about each book is in the extended entry (not seeable by LJ users, so you gotta click through if you wanna know).

You'll notice that once again this is a romance-heavy list. Initially, I could only plead escapism and a general lack of desire to read, well, anything else, when bouts like this came upon me. The most recent one? I went so far as to find books about why I've been having this keen psychological need to read romances. (I mean, we could argue that I might need to back away from science fiction and fantasy while writing it, but you know, it just doesn't seem that way at all.)

The most interesting theory I've run across thus far about romance novels is that many of them are retellings of the Hades-Persephone myth. Yeppers! I've adored that myth--and its fairy tale version, "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" forever. Edit: As Steve pointed out, "ESWM" is not a Hades-Persephone retelling--it's a Psyche-Eros retelling. OOPS! /End Edit Add to this that I love retellings independent of their romantic aspects, and you've got a two for one sale in my subconscious. Okay! Mystery solved (I thought), and in just the first three chapters!

Then I met the other theory--this one, I think, is Jayne Ann Krentz's very own theory: that in the romance novel hero, women aren't reading/writing their ideal mate, they are writing about the person they were never allowed to be as girls growing up--brash, sardonic, rude, powerful, egotistical, etc.--and then taking those fearsome and repressed aspects of their personalities and taming them with the feminine traits of compassion, accommodation and love (the traditional romance heroine). Every time one reads a book like this, one could be working through some deep-seated psychological need for being a more assertive woman.

Okay! (I thought) There's some of that, too.

Anyway, with me or against me on all of this, I have finally figured enough of my romance reading habit out that I can now be totally comfortable with it. Or at least mostly comfortable with it.

18) Taming Rafe by Suzanne Enoch [romance]

19) Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance edited by Jayne Ann Krentz [lit crit]

20) Dark Champion by Jo Beverley [romance]

21) Beginnings, Middles & Ends by Nancy Kress [non-ficiton]

Taming Rafe was very Enochy, but an earlier effort, I should think. I enjoy her as she grows and matures as a writer, so I probably will stop sifting through her backlog and just wait eagerly for the new stuff. Not that this was notably less mature than current works, but I feel like before she was writing more to formula, and now maybe she's writing to please herself.

Dangerous Men... was the book that gave me all the groovy new theories about romance. As a whole, it was great; individually, some of the essays seemed light or repetetive. Reading it about 15 years later was also a bit of a challenge. Some of the trends in romance noted at that point are already out of fashion, so. Yeah.

Dark Champion was great. So much more enjoyable than the last Beverley medieval romance I read. The plotline veers into the ridiculous at points, but the character moments made up for it.

Beginings, Middles & Ends probably deserves its very own entry. I am going to be doing many exercises from this book at some point, and I'll probably do a few of them here on the blog.

HOW? (plus books)

How did it get to be a week (and change) since my last post?

Well, basically, not having any content will do that, I suppose. I shall now take this opportunity that I've been in a bit of a writing slump lately. I'm trying to figure it out. When I do, I'll try to explain.

But--there's been no noticeable reading slump, so. Onward.

Jo Beverley is the master of taking the familiar trope and making it fresh and interesting, plus making the unforgiveable understandable. I'd read the Company of Rogues books well out of order, so I'd already known that the main character in this book backhands his wife rather spectacularly--it's sort of a central plotpoint in a later book, as a character witnesses it and thinks that men are generally brutes. (Beverley deals with things. That's why I like her.) Anyway. This was a spectacularly uncomfortable take on the arranged marriage trope. I loved it.

(16) Bag of Bones by Stephen King [horror]

I vaguely remember being sort of scared by parts of the Dark Tower series--the first few books of it that I read in my youth--but mostly, no, I haven't been too terribly frightened by Stephen King books. Perhaps that was because I was reading fairly selectively, and maybe also because some of the things he chooses to write about just fascinate me, without any particular horror. (Apocalyptic fiction? I've never read any that was worse than what I've cooked up in my subconscious.)

Now, with Bag of Bones, I had a bit of a hard time going to sleep on my side when I was reading it. You know. In case the ghosts came out from underneath the bed to get me while my back was turned.

Kudos, Mr. King. I haven't had that sensation since becoming an adult.

That said, mostly this book was just sad, in the way of death and the horrible things people do to each other. Troublingly sad... Not quite enough to break me for any length of time, but the ending (last quarter, really) still bothers me.

(17) Wait Until Midnight by Amanda Quick [romance]

Okay. It's gotten past phoning it in. I mean, I'll keep reading Quick, because she'll inevitably write a good one again--but it will be a while--and this Victorian trend is nigh unto disastrous. I'm not actually blaming the setting; I'll just note that the setting seems to be correlated with boring me to death.

Fortnightly Books

Man, February got away from me quickly. Even more so because January felt soooo long, like I had all the time on earth.

(12) Old English Literature: A Short Introduction by Daniel Donoghue [non-fiction]

Well, I don't see how it's an introduction, but beyond that, it's a fantastic book. It digs deeply into recurring themes in OE lit, as well as digs around in word etymologies. It's a nice bridge between linguistic and literary analysis. It was also a massive idea-generator. My copy is studded with post-it flags, and I wrote segments of "Lawncare in the Afterlife" with this book in hand.

(13) Lie by Moonlight by Amanda Quick [romance]

Hm. She's not really doing anything new and different at this point.

(14) An Unsuitable Gentleman by Jo Beverley [romance]

On the surface, I'd say she is also not doing anything new and different, and yet, I think maybe she is. In this book, the author uses a wealthy heroine to good effect, and that made a pleasant change from the usual formulae.

Reading on Vacation

(8) Freedom's Gate by Naomi Kritzer [fantasy]

A compelling beginning, and it wasn't all setup or anything! This trilogy really read like one long, complete book, in some ways, but was otherwise perfectly trilogy-like in others.

The setting is an alternate Central Asia, post-Alexandrian conquest, where a variety of cultures clash over freedom and religion. There's magic--djinn magic, as it were, real Arabian-nights-genies kind of stuff, with flying palanquins even--but there are consequences to the magic, and it's all brilliantly done. I love the world, the characters are humanly flawed and real, and I devoured book one like it was chocolate.

(9)Freedom's Apprentice by Naomi Kritzer [fantasy]

A middle book without middle book problems. The natural endpoint of book one forces the events in book two, which in turn forces the events in book three! Genius! There's not much to add without delving into the plot--though suffice it to say, it's a ripping yarn, with no dull moments that I could discern.

(10)Freedom's Sister by Naomi Kritzer [fantasy]

A satisfying ending. The third book delves into some (necessary) narrator switches that I wasn't really *happy* about, but understood the need for. As it was, I did grow to enjoy the look through the secondary character's eyes at the events of the first two books, and thought that the author did an excellent job making the POV switches work to serve the story on deeper levels. Ultimately, I cried over the ending, and that hasn't happened in quite some time.

(11)The Cartoon History of the Modern World by Larry Gonnick [er... graphic "novel"?]

I got hooked on Gonnick back in college, when one of my textbooks was The Cartoon Guide to Linguistics. I really liked the History of the Universe, and waited forEVER to get volume 3. This new thing was pretty good--as I said to Steph when she asked: "It has some history I might argue with, and some history I wouldn't argue with; it's a good review of the history I do know, and a good beginning point for the history I never knew." And that about sums it up. It has a view of the American Revolution that was shockingly unbiased--it was like reading about a different war altogether. Granted, I never really did care for American history, but I don't remember ever being quite so exposed to the British viewpoint.

I've read almost everything I brought with me--I have half an academic treatise on Old English left to get through and I do have The Pirates of Venus if I can bring myself to be interested in that... but in the meantime, tomorrow we got to Powell's, so I'll soon be back in entertaining reads!

Humdiddle-iddle

A day early, I present to you this fortnight's reading report.

(5) Dark Moon Defender by Sharon Shinn [fantasy]

Much less place-holder middle than the last book in the series; this was the Gathering Allies episode, perhaps? Anyway, we learned more about the Lirrens. I was entertained by Justin, though not particularly pleased with the blatant secret-based plot. Yes, I know... it wasn't miscommunication, and yeah, I suppose there were some valid reasons for the lovers to withold information, but still. A smidge irksome.

Also irksome: in Mystic and Rider, it seemed that Kira and Donnal were lovers. In Kira's book, it was made clear that they never had been, and it was no foregone conclusion that they were going to *become* lovers. Here we are in book three... and we're back to lovers. It's not like these are simple assumptions on the part of the non-Kira, non-Donnal characters. I'm a mite perplexed.

(6) Cell by Stephen King [horror]

Ooooh, cell-phone zombies. Apocalyptic nightmare.

Ooooh, the pay off wasn't as good as the pitch. For some reason. I don't know. Maybe I was hoping for something with the emotional resonance of Lisey's Story, which, well, no. Anyway. A good book to pass the time, but this one isn't a monument to King's genius.

(7) Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder [fantasy]

Sequel to Poison Study. A good read... I could have stood some further development of Valek, but I suppose there wasn't really room. What was there was good, and it didn't suffer (entirely) from Middle Book Syndrome. (There were some things that were clearly set-up: Cahill, mainly.) Very enjoyable, not ridiculously deep, but not entirely fluff, either. Yelena is an energetic and engaging, ruthlessly practical character.

Early Fortnightly Book Report

I wanted to write about the most recent two books read whilst they are fresh in my mind. So, maybe this will be a little more frequent than fortnightly (though not by much)... as my trend is, largely, to finish up several books at once periodically.

Today, I finished two books:

(3) The Thirteenth House by Sharon Shinn [fantasy]

Sequel to Mystic and Rider, which was an unabashed love story of a fantasy; I rather though that this one was going down a similar road, but I think it was actually a coming-of-age story instead. There's a love affair in here too, but it was of the sort that was making me increasingly angry throughout the book... and without spoiling the book, I can't really go on in any detail, but suffice it to say, I was happier than not with the ending.

The sentence level writing in this book was better than in the first (and who knows, it may've just been that people didn't spend paragraphs smiling at each other that made this perception), but I felt that the plot wandered a bit. I think we're in The Hard Middle that creeps into many a fantasy series. The series-level plot arc isn't actually going to advance here... so it's The Hard Middle. In point of fact, I didn't perceive that any of the series-levels stakes were even raised in this book; they were raised continually throughout the first book, and pretty much held steady here.

Hm. It makes it sound like I didn't like this, because I *did* like it, well enough; Shinn is an author I trust to do things that suprise me, and happily so. (Full disclosure: have not read the angel series at all.) This book did nothing to tarnish that.

(4) Lisey's Story by Stephen King [fantasy]

Horror schmorror. This was fantasy to my way of thinking, can openers and all. (I do not buy the review that says it's a romance or a supernatural thriller.) I really loved this; like Misery, it's a book about writing, but unlike Misery, it's a book about the writer's impact on his family and the family's impact on the writer. (You could widen that to any artist, to be honest...) In any case, it was just lovely. Not quite the shivers of reading an early Dark Tower book or anything, but possessing a transcendent quality all it's own. Rather than rehash the plot, I'll just say that I think this book takes a page from Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey.

Books 1&2, Writing Report

Well past two weeks into January, and I have not made my first fortnightly book report!

I am reading at the slow-and-steady-wins-the-race pace of about a book a week. I read:

(1) Firethorn by Sarah Micklem [fantasy]

I liked this. I admit I picked it up because I saw the words "gritty, feminist fantasy" on the cover and thought, "Yeah. I want some gritty, feminist" fantasy. Though there are flaws (I kept feeling like the book was walking around with it's scalp missing. It was like the top wasn't there, the thing that kept the book from jumping out like snakes-in-a-can), it had many fine attributes as well.

The book was an interesting mix of familiar tropes and unfamiliar twists on them. Herbalist? Check. Knight? Check. Camp follower? COOL. Knight is married already, doesn't take her virginity, the abuse/rape in her past is low-key and humiliating but not devasting forever and ever and there is no magical healing penis in the story? Realistic! There is no fairy tale in this book. I deeply appreciate that.

For a while, I was semi-convinced the magic was merely a belief system with a whole lot of superstition and coincidence to back it up, but I think it really is meant to be a magic system. I liked it better the first way, I guess. There's a lot to this book, though I was disappointed to learn that it's the start of a (sigh) trilogy, not a standalone.

(2) Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge by Eleanor Herman [non-fiction]

Well, I was looking for a light non-fiction something before delving into some serious research for upcoming books, and I got some light non-fiction here. And there's nothing that bugs me about the actual scholarship here, and that's a pleasant thing. Organization, however? Oof. It jumps all over the place, in time and geography, often revisiting the same kings and mistresses several times in different chapters before you can fathom the whole story. Madame de Pompadour's story would have been much better if it had been told all at once, for example... The other thing I didn't really like was the purple prose of speculation in some places. I'd excerpt some of it, but I left the book at my aunt's... and it just wouldn't be sporting, as this was otherwise a very fine book.

Writing--

I'm around 500 words on the pirate story, and loving every minute of it. No projected total in mind, other than "not over 5000 words". Still no title, either.

Tarot Book

17,289 / 78,000 (21.0%)

Excerpt in the extended entry.

"I understand that I was wrong, that my memory is wrong: I am a princess."

"You are not a princess," the Queen said, and she did not say it kindly.

"Oh, but I am! I'm quite certain that Sir Garet and Lady Kadri speak the truth, and there is a spell on me--"

"No. That's not what I mean. You are not a princess because God has chosen you to be a princess or even because you were born to a King and a Queen, nor is it because you are innately good or beautiful. You are not a princess because you are locked in a tower and beloved by a prince, and you are not a princess because you can sleep on twelve mattresses and wake with bruises from the pea beneath them. We treat the Divine Right of Kings with the same contempt as we do fairy tales in Arcana. In Arcana, the lowliest stablegirl can become the Empress in due time, with the right training and will, and no one in this country will blink twice. The high become low and the low become high because of who they are, because of their character, because of the way they face off against the lions in their lives. You can request asylum, and we will grant it because we will always need a bargaining chip against the Oestrians, no matter who rules their country, but we will collect no taxes for you to dress in silks and sleep in feathers. We will even call you princess, if that is what you wish--but to none of us will you be a princess."

Reading: Year in Review (Plus, Book 78)

Finished Fugitives of Chaos by John C. Wright (78) [fantasy] yesterday (two days ago?) and am in the middle of a analysis of Old English poetry and Firethorn. Chances are slim that I'll finish either or both before the first stroke of 2007, and if I do, I'll update this post.

So. Seventy-eight books this year! A moral victory, that.

I read 21 works of non-fiction (mostly in the history/sociology/anthropology category (9 books) and writing (5 books) and self-help (3)).

The rest were fiction:

10 science fiction
5 mainstream
22 fantasy novels
15 romances (most of them Regency)
4 mysteries
1 horror

And only three books were re-reads. I think.

I read several new-to-me fiction authors this year (including John C. Wright, Mindy Klasky, Shannon Hale, Dawn Cook, Robert Parker, James Patrick Kelly, Joe Haldeman and Maria V. Snyder), as well as reading through the backlogs of authors I already knew (Suzanne Enoch, Jo Beverley, Sharon Shinn).

The reason I'm excited about having exceeded 50 books this year is because that's about the point you have to get to where they start to blur together in a pleasant way. A bad book doesn't become a blot on the memory of an entire month, but rather, you have a vague, fond memory of "all the books I read this year." It gives the good a better opportunity to outweigh the bad, to some extent. And no, I have no idea if that makes sense to anyone but me.

My reading goals for 2007 are pretty simple: read everything that's currently in a wicker holding basket under my bed. That's probably a good 40 books right there. My second goal: read everything I have out on interlibrary loan currently (I've got about four books, and a bit over two weeks). My third goal: read everything anyone has loaned me (most notably, Hardwired). My fourth goal: read (or skim) everything I currently have checked out from the library where I work.

If I make it into any of the books on my To-Read Shelf, I'll be shocked... But this is doable, perhaps, if I make it to one hundred books next year.

Fortnightly-ish Book Report

Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright (76) [fantasy]

I already said some things here, and didn't feel very differently by the time I got to the end, which was abrupt in the fashion of books that seem to have been chopped in half. So, I ILL'd book 2 ASAP, being unable to wait to purchase the paperback, and being too poor to purchase the hardcover. (I'll eventually buy the paperback, to have the complete set.)

I was describing the book to Julie the other day and we decided Wright is a brilliant sort of feminist commentator. (Whether he is or not? We do not know.) A character that is likened to a Barbie doll, who's also a shapeshifter who's been adapting her shape to please men, being built from the ground up by a patriarch to want to please men... we got a lot of mileage out of the discussion.

Eager to see book two....

Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce (77) [young adult]

Well, it's not often that I read a Tamora Pierce and go "eh." I think the last time it happened was in the Daine series. I just never really connected with the character, let alone the story; the love interest got interesting only near the end, the catalyst-god never got interesting at all, and overall, I kept waiting for things to happen. The action was rarely face level (if that term makes sense). It was a lot of watching the main character pat down her spy network. And a lot of watching various secondary character's be in awe of the deviousness of the main character.

Ambitious, I guess, but Beka Cooper and her action-oriented Piercian siblings are much more to my liking.

Well, that's 77 books for the year so far, and I might make it to 80 (I also might not). Huzzah the me.

Orphans are Eating my Brains

First, an excerpt from Orphans of Chaos which just struck me, back-handed, right across the mouth. Because I'm a good sucker for scientific fantasy:

"Well," she said, "I will see if you can be taken up to the Chapel tomorrow. You do not have the energy relationship in the moral direction a person devoted to his God normally manifests. Your relational structures are extensional rather than intentional, and form nodes going into two time-directions, but not toward eternity. This type of atrophy is typical of atheists and agnostics..."

Of course. Worshipping God as perceived by a fourth-dimensional being... Excellent.

This book is like Nine Princes in Amber meets The Five Children and It. With a dash of Sade. But only a dash. Rather more spanking than one thinks one shall find in Nesbit or Zelazny.

In other news, a page of practically Zen koans about writing: Fifty Writing Tools: Quick List. Via Slithytove.

And on Kiki's blog, an entry about writer's blockage versus writer's block that says rather more to me than it should. (My main complaint about my blockage? "I'm too damn old to be this pathetic.")

Fortnightly Books

I've decided to report on books fortnightly instead of immediately upon reading.

I only have two to report for now (I'm theese close to finishing Orphans of Chaos, but nope, not yet).

Seducing Sir Oliver by Nicole Byrd (74) [romance]

Picked it up on a whim at the library. I think this book signals the trend of said library's romance selector being a secret romance-hater or a romance-nothinger ("I don't hate you. I nothing you."), because rarely do I stumble across anything other than middling romance in that collection. I wanted to like the book (based on the premise) a lot more than I did. Sexy scientist heroes are hard to write, though, especially in a Regency setting...

Terrier: Beka Cooper 1 by Tamora Pierce (75) [young adult]

It's no secret that Tamora Pierce was a touchstone author in my childhood. I probably wouldn't have liked this book when I was on the prowl for women-knight stories immediately after reading Alanna (the dislike would have come from the distinct lack of chivalry), and there was certainly a period of my life where I would have been frustrated to be reading about George Cooper's ancestors instead of George Cooper, but I'm pleased to say I'm (cough) mature enough to appreciate the subject of this book. Enjoyed the heck out of it, in fact.

This book is essentially a police procedural in a fantasy medieval world, and it works as such. I think it would work just fine if you were knew to Tortall, in fact, though the in-jokes work best if you're familiar with the whole shebang.

The good news (for me) was that it takes place while Tortall is free from the various magical animals that feel somewhat jump-the-sharky to me in previous Tortallian outings (magic purple-eyed cats being the exception to that; magic purple-eyed cats got me when I was eleven, and they are reserved a certain place in my heart forever). I rather liked seeing Tortall when women knights were about, pre-Alanna, and seeing the social trends that led to the end of lady knights (separate bathing facilities, for example).

I read it quickly and happily, and am eagerly awaiting the further adventures of Beka and the Rogue.

Books: Paid Companion, Lost Burgundy, My Freshman Year

The Paid Companion by Amanda Quick (71) [romance]

Fairly typical Amanda Quick. She's not doing anything different, but no one minds. The premise is very cute, and perhaps not fully developed, but fully developed is not where Amanda Quick goes, and that would have de-romped the book. I could have stood to read either version, but this one was just fine.

Lost Burgundy by Mary Gentle (72) [science fiction]

I was unable to explain this book to anyone else at Writer's Retreat. But FINALLY, after 4 books, they explain Green Christ and just about everything else. I really loved Florian in this book. The ending very nearly satisfied me. Very nearly. I understand why this series consistently gets 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon--there are many, many wonderful things about it, but all love for it must be felt with reservation (with the possible exception of Mrissa). Like the character of Ash herself, the book is amazing to contemplate, but J really wouldn't want to get too close.

My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student by Rebekah Nathan (73) [non-fiction]

A fantastic ethnography of student life at a big university. Considering "big university" is the setting of my day job and I employ numerous students, I did find reading this book both helpful and interesting. Not a lot has changed since I became a freshman 13 years ago--and yet, there are important differences, and most importantly, I've changed a lot in 13 years, and the pressures and problems of ages ago are significantly less fresh in my mind. Recommended reading to just about anyone anywhere whose paths may ever cross with a university or college of any sort.

Various Updates

Third time is the charm:

Happy NaNoWriMo to the brave ones. I am not currently NaNo-enabled, myself, but bon chance to those who are.

I've tried to post that twice now, and failed for a variety of reasons...

Rejections, rejections, rejections. I have a lot of stories to send out on Monday, let's put it that way.

Me? I've spent the weekend reading and watching Shakespeare. The week was spent reading and sleeping and digging out at work. Not a hundred percent after the week of sick--I get tired pretty easily--but feeling very nearly the thing now.

Books read of late:

Something Sinful by Suzanne Enoch (67) [romance]
The Rogue's Return by Jo Beverley (68) [romance]
Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn (69) [fantasy]
Billionaires Prefer Blondes by Suzanne Enoch (70) [romance]

As you can see, the romance streak continues. I was so excited to see the new Sam/Rick book that I surprised myself. I *hate* romance sequels. I *adore* this series, though.

Realizing I had an unread Sharon Shinn on hand that didn't involve angels was a treat... I couldn't tell you *why* I don't want to try her angel books, but I just don't. Not even a little. But I genuinely like everything she has written, on one level or another, so I can't quite figure out where my irrational prejudice comes from. Hm.

Though... one minor complaint about Mystic and Rider... the phrase "Senneth smiled" seemed like it was on every single page of the first half. Or if they do, it should be remarked on a few times in passing dialogue (culminating in "Why the hell you smilin' at me again, Senneth, you freak?") and left alone. TOO MUCH SMILING. I almost stopped reading the book at one point, but it did get better from there on.

I do think I need to reread Summers at Castle Auburn... if I could just remember to...

Rejection. Sickies. Books: Blink and To Rescue a Rogue

Rejection from Clarkesworld. Second rejection on this story that indicates it would be a better novel than a short story.

I'm doomed, I tells ya. Doomed.

I am about *thees* close to pulling the story, but--no. A firm no on that. It probably would be a better novel (it was from an idea for a novel I had when I was 16, in fact). And my recent revisions might have left it a weaker story--the last two editors have mentioned questions about things that were sort-of answered in the too-long introduction that I chopped. Which makes me think I should rewrite it. Again. But a no on that, too.

This is the dark tea-time of the writing soul, right here. I've got to be stubborn enough to print it out again, pick a market, and send it off. Without fiddling, without pulling it so it can become a novel, without self-doubt, without waiting two weeks... Sure, it might be the wrong thing to do for that story, but it's the right thing to do for my career.

There you go. I take my own advice, and here it is, in action.

*

I think that was a pretty good speech, given that I'm full of mucus and aches. (My cat stares at me right now: why aren't you lying down, Sick Human, so that I can nest atop thee? Is that not what Sick Humans are for? Quit playing with that computer.)

I was sick yesterday, and I'm sick today, and I honestly can't see that I'll be well tomorrow, though I'm crossing my fingers for it. It's not that I'm at that bored stage of sick, it's that I'm at that miserable stage of sick. But I can't stand in a hot shower all day, which is about the only place (besides sleep) that I feel relief.

Anyway. Between naps yesterday I managed to finish reading:

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (64) [non-fiction]

Which was entertaining and fine, but was more anecdotal than anything helpful. I'll sum it up for you: intuition is actually a thing, but be careful that your intuitions aren't based on too small a sample. Okay then. Carry on.

Nah, I simplified it a bit much, but at the same time, I coulda gone for some science. And more practical applications.

The day before that, I finished off:

To Rescue a Rogue by Jo Beverley (65) [romance]

I've been on a Beverley binge lately. Well, I'm still on it, actually, as I've another in hand.

I was deeply impressed by this book. The premise nearly threw me completely off--a woman falls for a man who's trying to kick opium. I thought that there was no good way that could be sexy, but Beverley handled it with a great deal of finesse, and it was, astonishingly, very not-oogy. Even more cleverly-handled was the heroine, who at first I thought I was not going to like, but who won me over in an Emma or Cher from Clueless kind of way (how can anyone stand a rich, happy, popular girl whose biggest problem is that she's a little bored and can't get what she wants?).

Anyway. It was a refreshing read in a year in which I've had to make a rule to sit down with a new book only when I have a free hour, as if I don't make it thirty pages in, I'm probably never going to pick the book up again. Weird rule, but it's helped me want to keep reading things...

Now, excuse me. My throat hurts, and the cat has finally settled down, and my latest Beverley is calling to me.

Books Update

I have been remiss in a big way, so I'm just going to list my conquests, er, recently finished books:

Glasswright's Apprentice by Mindy Klasky (58) [fantasy]

The Dragon's Bride by Jo Beverley (59) [romance]

Lady Rogue by Suzanne Enoch (60) [romance]

Reading by Starlight: Postmodern Science Fiction by D. Broderick (61) [nonfiction]

Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead... But Gutsy Girls Do: Nine Secrets Every Working Woman Must Know by Kate White (62) [nonfiction]

I should have read the postmodern science fiction book with a handful of notecards to write down everything I should still read, but mostly, I think I just need to read LOTS and LOTS of Samuel Delaney.

I feel like I'm forgetting a book, but I'm not... mostly because I did a skimming re-read of Elizabeth and Mary and read about half of Get Off the Unicorn, plus most of two cookbooks, several copies of Interzone and Locus and listened to the podcasted, condensed version of Dramatica.

Actually, that last one took up a lot of brain space, and I did download the book for free, skim it, and peer at all the diagrams, so:

Dramatica: A New Theory of Story by Melanie Phillips and Chris Huntley (63) [nonfiction]

I will say a word about that one:

Phew.

It's certainly interesting. It certainly has some ways of looking at story that I'd never have come up with on my own. I appreciate the term "storymind" and the discussion of archetypes alone is worth the time. But phew. It's so inorganic feeling, and I can't see how it always fits the kind of stories I want to tell. Maybe I'm not getting the big picture.

Books: Dream Maker's Magic, Have Spacesuit

The Dream Maker's Magic by Sharon Shinn (56) [young adult]

I believe this is Shinn's last book in the Truthteller world. I felt sort of set at sea while reading this one, and I don't know why... I felt like I was reading a cross between Cynthia Voigt and some other author that's on the tip of my brain. There was some trademarky Shinn-ness not in evidence here. I also couldn't tell you what it was.

Regardless of this vague disquiet, I found this linked trilogy to be profound, with a deep sense of metaphor.

Have Spacesuit, Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein (57) [science fiction]

A ripping yarn, this one. Kip was endearing, PeeWee more so.

Books: I (heart) Bad Boys, Crystal Singer, Killashandra

I Love Bad Boys by Lori Foster, Janelle Denison and Donna Kauffman (53) [romance]

Entirely readable.

Crystal Singer and Killashandra by Anne McCaffrey (54 & 55) [science fiction] (reread number ajillion)

I first read these back in 1987 or 1988, when they were some of my first science fiction encounters. I loved them then, and even now I can read them and recover nearly all of my early love, especially when I block out all memories of the newer sequels.

I feel there's some deeper analysis I should be doing when I reread old favorites, but less face it, we return to books from our childhoods because we want comfort, not because we want to win some prize for literary vivisection.

Book: Safe-keeper's Secret

Safe-Keeper's Secret by Sharon Shinn (52) [young adult]

You know, I think I read this series out of order, but that actually made this book cooler, if I did.

The premise is the same as in Truth-Teller's Tale: there are people in the world who have a magical ability (binding?) that makes them keep secrets, and there are people in the world who can only tell the truth. It's a lovely conceit. Shinn once again manages to obliquely visit the problems of modern society--in this book's case, incestuous sexual abuse--through secondary characters, while main characters remain unscathed. I'm not sure if this is good auctorial distancing to introduce uncomfortable topics to younger readers or the bad sort of auctorial distance wherein one keeps the main characters safe.

I'll let you know some other day. :)

***

In other news, I had a nice weekend at the lake, wherein I swam, kayaked, and wrote my fingers off. I'm ready to send out "Rampion," believe it or not, having shaved it down to a mere 7,500 words. Which plucks it out of novella-length and back to short story length, if you're not demanding that 7,499 be the actual cut-off. Whatever. I don't think I can pare off another ten words, to be quite honest.

I also may've solved the ending of "WDTP"--better late than never, I guess. I would that I'd solved both the ending and the beginning before I sent it off to F&SF, but that's the nature of the beast. I'll probably never sell there--if only because nothing I ever send there has had time to go through my editorial remorse process. In fact, the process seems to come about only when items are sitting in JJA's slush pile, and no other. Alas, eh? Alas.

Books: Spiderwick 5, Reforming a Rake

The Wrath of Mulgrath by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black (50) [children's]

A good conclusion to the series. I don't have anything very real to add to my previous conclusions, but I do like how the authors handled the parents' divorce and the kids' reactions to it. It was real. Not lovely; just real.

Reforming a Rake by Suzanne Enoch (51) [romance]

This is the book in the series that comes before Meet Me at Midnight, and all I can say is that I think I was in a better mood when I read this because I enjoyed it more than MMaM... even though the sexual attitudes of the hero were just obnoxious. (I suppose they were rakish, actually. But, bleah.) I don't know if you could write a real Regency rake and make him agreeable to a modern feminist (but now I'm wondering how I could do just that... here we come, time travel romance concept number 384).

Anyway. I was sad it was over, and have gone hunting for the third book in the series.

Books: Spiderwick 2-4, Truth-Teller's Tale, The Geography of Thought

The Seeing Stone, Lucinda's Secret, and The Ironwood Tree by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (45-47) [children's]

I'm really enjoying this series. Having spent my childhood absorbing whatever fairy lore I could come by, this series conjures up a deep sense of nostalgia. I did, in fact, run around with my shirt inside out to fool the fairies now and again. The older sister, Mallory, is very much my personal hero, too. I'm about half-way through the fifth book.

The Truth-teller's Tale by Sharon Shinn (48) [young adult]

This book is Sharon Shinn working her mojo. I love the premise (that there are Truth-Tellers who automagically know the truth and Safe-Keepers who are bound to keep secrets that they are told), and love the way it unfolds (twin sisters who are each a Truth-Teller and a Safe-Keeper). The book is mostly a coming-of-age romance, with darker emotions but lightly told. In spite of the semi-medieval, semi-19th century setting, the issues felt extraordinarily modern--loving, attentive parents still cannot protect their daughter from a sexual predator, for example. It was rather like tales drawn from Reviving Ophelia at some points, though all teen girl angst was done away with by the machinations of a loving sister.

It was a nice world to visit. Too bad we don't live there. I'd love being a Truth-Teller, no question...

The Geogrpahy of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently... And Why by Richard Nisbett (49) [non-fiction]

A nice, balanced overview of the intellectual inheritance from the Greeks in the West and Confucianism in the East. I wanted to read this book because I have been planning to write a book with an Asian-American character, but I think this book gave me a lot of ground to go one step further and think about how alien perceptions might differ from human perceptions. There's a sideways step to the left between the East/West dichotomy that aliens could slip into.

The things I found most revealing were not the most obvious ones--it's not really a shock that Asians think more holistically than Westerners--nor even the personal ones--I think my mother brought me up to think more like an Asian in terms of context and interpersonal relationships trumping other considerations. I was intrigued by the notions of "priming" members of one culture to think like another culture. Even more intriguing was the method of priming bi-cultural members, like showing Asian-Americans a picture of Mickey Mouse and evoking Western cultural responses thereafter, versus showing them Eastern iconography. Very interesting reading, and very illuminating.

Books: Flirting with Danger and Specials

Flirting with Danger by Suzanne Enoch [romance/mystery] (43)

The oddest duck in the world is the sequel to the romance novel (this one is the sequel to Don't Look Down). Usually they end up being romantic mysteries, I've noticed, and this one is no different--the difference here is that I was still compelled to keep reading.

I think I know why, too. Enoch's quite brilliant, really; the more I think about her method, the more impressed I am. Step one is the fact that she took the traditional romance "reforming the rake" plot and did a gender switch. Rick has only the window dressing of a romance hero; he's actually, perhaps, the heroine. Samantha is the rake--not sexually, so much; she's actually a cat burglar--and the tension comes in from not knowing if she'll reform. The question is still up in the air by the end of book two, in fact. And that's the thing about a romance novel ending: the readers have to believe that when the characters cross the threshold together that they are actually entering into a static box of happy domesticity.

Enoch is the master of making sure the box at the end of the story contains Schroedinger's relationship--you have to assume it's okay, because to peek at it continues the story. Works for me. I'd easily read another Samantha/Rick book, but I'm content if I can't.

Specials by Scott Westerfeld (44) [young adult]

The final book in the Uglies/Pretties trilogy. It worked pretty well, and I was satisfied. Perhaps my favorite of the series, but I'm a bit sad about the disposal/dispersal of Tally's love interests. I may have more to say about the trilogy as a whole later on...

Returned, Rejections, Reading

Back from Montana and the parts in between. I got my mountains, which Brook's book needed. I got other things as well... I'd like to do the trip again in a leisurely fashion--I could spend a full day in Badlands, hiking; I'd like to see Deadwood in spite of how hokey it looks; and I could stay a week apiece in Glacier and Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. But, all told, we saw plenty.

Came home to rejections from F&SF and Escape Pod. Onward. Just, not today. Probably not tomorrow, either.

I had something of a break from writing while I was on vacation. It was good I didn't take the laptop, really, because the amount of time it could have gotten conveniently used was negligible. Part of that was due to my traveling companions--my stepdaughter required all the attention I would have devoted to any writing. As it was, I did take notes on a story, sketch the beginning of another, and jot down some good thoughts--stolen moments, here and there. I think the break will last through tomorrow, as I'd very much like to get the house clean[er], and find a way to keep it clean[er].

I did manage to read a bit on the trip, though I haven't finished everything I started reading yet.

The Field Guide by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (41) [children's]

Cute and fast--maybe a little too fast, as I'd sort of hoped this would keep our attention as an audiobook longer than it did. I didn't listen to the rest of the books in the series yet, and I feel that altogether they amount to a whole book... possibly a little young for my stepdaughter based on their length? I don't know. It's so hard to listen to an audiobook and judge what reading it would be like, especially for this age range.

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (42) [science fiction]

Really good. The book ate my brain, in all the best ways. My favorite in the Hugo field so far. I may have more detailed thoughts later.

Book 40

How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James N. Frey (40) [non-fiction]

I dithered on this book for a while. I checked it out of the library--twice. I nearly took it back--twice. I kept it in my bag instead of tossing it in the book return because I paged through it in a moment of boredom at work and happened across a few interesting paragraphs. But every time I sat down to read it cover-to-cover, I lost the plot.

I've read a lot of books on writing craft in the last couple of years--more than I ever thought I'd read. It's nice when someone can explain a concept in a way that finally gets through to you, after all those years of wondering what the hell people were talking about exactly when they use the jargon of reading and writing. We learn about climax and denouement in eighth-grade English class (if not sooner), but you have to try writing a story a few times for it to pick up meaning, and even then, you might not be able to articulate exactly what you learned, or what you think you learned, or what you know you didn't learn.

So, I guess that's why I read writing books at this point. This book in particular was helpful with things like identifying how a climax actually works--Frey suggests the climax is the point where the story turns upside down, which is far more helpful to me than drawing a little peaky mountain graph about rising action. Frey also had the helpful advice to authors to make sure their characters are working to maximum capacity--I believe this is a good way to avoid idiot plots in short, and makes the characters more engaging in the long run. And doesn't it seem obvious, really? It probably is obvious. But it's something I needed to hear, and in this way.

Well worth the double double-checking out.

Books: Fashion in Costume and Princess Academy

Fashion in Costume, 1200-1980 by Joan Nunn (38) [non-fiction] (reread?)

I think I read this book long ago in Durham. If so, it had nearly the same squiggles around various medieval ensembles as this copy did, with notes from community theatre costumers: "Juliet" and "Nurse," for example, all through the 14th century costumes. Honestly, I think I recognized the drawings, not the text...

Since I'm not an expert, merely a writer trying to keep some sort of authenticity in her fantasy medieval worlds (and Regency and Renaissance worlds, too), I can't tell you how good the book is. I thought it was good. I dutifully copied down bits of information like the fact that it wasn't until the early 1600s women had night chemises instead of just sleeping in their day chemises or the buff. Good stuff. I hope it doesn't lead me astray...

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (39) [young adult]

Different than I expected, but satisfying enough for all that. The plot seemed a little heavy on the love parts, but the introductions to diplomacy and commerce were very cool. I was kind of hoping for a view of the wider world; it was a little bit as if Mel in Crown Duel never made it off her mountain. Perhaps that's the problem with mountain books? I don't know. I had a brief moment of trepidation in realizing this was a YA fantasy about mountians and royalty, but I can safely say it's nothing like what I've written. (I'm still worried about The Giver, though. And not for the mountains.)

Anyway. It's good to read fresh YA.

Book: The Bronte Project

The Brontë Project : A Novel of Passion, Desire, and Good PR by Jennifer Vandever (37) [fiction]

Since anything I said about this book would be shadowed by the disappointment that this is not the book I hoped it was, I'll say nothing. Or at least, not much. This should have been my kind of book, but it just wasn't. I can't recommend it to anyone, because I don't think I know anyone whose kind of book this would be. But I don't have a particularly wide acquaintanceship, so.

But beyond the jacketflap managing to mislead me--and I admit, I wanted to be misled....

Mostly, I just didn't like the humor. If it was meant to be humor. And I wasn't moved by any of it. If there was meant to be movement. So. When I want a 21st century novel about 19th century novelists, I'll stick with The Jane Austen Bookclub.

Books: His Majesty's Dragon, Elizabeth and Mary, Lady Elizabeth's Comet

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (34) [fantasy]

You know how when everyone hypes a book to death and you think, "I will not be taken in by this hype," and you prepare to be hard on a book--and then you utterly fail, because it actually is that good? Yep, that's this book. It does exactly what it needs to do, and it does it well.

Dragons. In Napoleonic warfare.

It's my wish-fulfillment version of Patrick O'Brien. It's Age of Sail without learning every bloody sail and rigging arrangement. It's Regency romance outside of the drawing rooms, and even has girls captaining dragons just as they ought. It's Pern for grownups. And it has Nelson and Trafalgar and Napoleon.

Excuse me while I join the hype.

Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens by Jane Dunn (35) [biography]

As biography goes, it was a bit heavy handed in spots, often repeating or over-emphasizing certain bits of key information. I came to this book with a solid grounding in Elizabeth's life and almost none in Mary's--so while I feel greatly enriched in my understanding of Mary Stuart, I felt that so much of Elizabeth's life was glossed over that I wonder what I was really missing about Mary. On the other hand, the glossing was done to maintain the focus on the relationship between the two queens. As pivotal as Elizabeth was to Mary's life, being her jailor for half of her life and her ultimate executioner, Mary was significantly less important to Elizabeth overall, so perhaps the proportions were right.

It's always tempting to make parallels in history, or to try and fit dual forces on a seesaw and argue that when one goes up, the other goes down--see my AP European History essay on the Spanish Hapsburgs and the French Bourbons to see just how tempting--but not everything fits that way. I'm not saying Dunn is wrong, I'm just saying it's tempting, and what is tempting is sometimes too facilely undertaken and stretched past the point of necessary credibility. So--while I happily add this to my inventory of biographies, I will also happily seek other sources. I have a big fat Mary, Queen of Scotts bio lying around somewhere, and I think a smaller ERI lurking as well.

Nonetheless, a riveting read.

Lady Elizabeth's Comet by Sheila Simonson (36) [romance]

Easily one of my favorite books ever, this Regency romance subverts the genre by being narrated in the first person by a lady astronomer who ends up engaged to a breezy, charming old friend while falling in love with a quieter, self-contained man. It may, in fact, barely fit inside the genre at all. The subtitle on the cover is "A Romance of Regency England," as if to say, "Not Quite a Regency Romance."

The self-deprecation of the narrator is perfect--light and not overdone. I could wish for more, but I don't know how I could get more. Everything hangs together just as it ought. This book serves as my ideal for a Regency; were it a bit broader in scope, it would be perfect (and I think that's what I mean by "more"--it feels a bit narrow because we rely on the first-person narrator, and don't get to dig around in other heads as we do in Jane Austen).

Book: 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published & 14 Reasons Why It Just Might

78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published & 14 Reasons Why It Just Might by Pat Walsh (33) [non-fiction]

Okay, so this is a pretty necessary book--if you haven't spent the past two years reading Making Light and Miss Snark and The Evil Editor and everyone else out there who's fighting the good fight to educate writers on publishing.

Since I have spent the last two years reading everything I could find on the publishing biz by the people in the publishing biz, as printed on the web for free, this book was a lot like reading the Cliff's Notes. Note: I'm not knocking Cliff's Notes. It's the only way I was able to get through The Aeneid (though, as a supplement, not a replacement). And, just like Cliff's Notes, this book doesn't get into the nitty-gritty, like alg's comprehensive profit and loss essays or Michelle Sagara West's book contract dissections.

Now, the only thing left to do is to ponder the deeper symbolism of this work. The 78 in the title is clearly an allusion to the 78 cards in a tarot deck, which means that if one is clever and creates a tarot out of the bad reasons, one can do personalized readings for the prospects of one's book--by the dark of the moon only. The 14 is, of course, a red herring that makes you think of the word fortnight.

Moments, Bells & Buttons

A particular meme that I've seen going around is the "what flips your switch in other people's writing" and (I think) hence, what do you like to write about?

Since I'm declaring the month after I finish The Bitter Road "Embrace My Inner Twee Month," it is handy to start thinking about this.

I like warfare. The more I read about it, the more I convince myself that I understand it, and that makes it okay, or at least, bearable. I don't like modern warfare, though. I like to read about interstellar warfare (Starship Troopers, Old Man's War, but if it's future warfare, it's got to be not-depressing (no Forever War). Past wars can be depressing (or at least not glorious) (I like wounded soldiers returning from the Peninsular War, cf. Lady Elizabeth's Comet, but this has to be really well handled to ring my particular bell). I love most anything with Roman warfare in it, though I tend to like it more in visual media (Gladiator, Rome) or the original source material (anything by Tacitus).

War gets about a thousand times better if there are women in it--Honor Harrington and Cordelia Naismith in the future, for starters, but I'll take any woman at any point performing most any role. Tanith Lee's Heroine of the World is a book I only half-remember, but I think the main character was an army camp doxy, and that was good enough for me. Far more enjoyable: Mary Gentle's Ash, Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword.

But it's not just about women in war, it's women fighting. Tamora Pierce's Alanna mostly stays out of war, and I thought the war parts were maybe the weakest bits of the Keladry series... but when Alanna first picked up the sword, I was won over to fantasy forever. Here were GIRLS doing STUFF. More stuff than even Eilonway in the Prydain Chronicles.

If girls can't go to war, then they'd better be strong leaders. Elizabeth I floats my boat in a big way--strong E. R., in fact, and I don't like historical romances that focus overmuch on her love life. Part of that is because I don't think the man who could match her existed in her own time. Women queens are as good as women warriors at times (best if both, however), so Narnia got in with me okay, even though Susan and Lucy didn't quite get to do enough.

And, well, if women can't be queens or warriors, they've gotta be good at what they do, independent, stubborn... my early attraction to McCaffrey's Pern centered around Menolly and Lessa. On the other hand, I tire quickly of "strong-minded Southern women" plots. I'm not sure why.

In the completely opposite direction, I really love healers. Charis in Bradshaw's Beacon at Alexandria is an early love, and I particularly like to read about midwives and doctors--especially good ones in bad conditions. Claire in Outlander? At least half her appeal was that she was a WWII nurse trying to make her way as a healer in the 1700's. (Time travel is a big flashy button marked FUN for me, too, and Outlander typifies the kind of time travel novel I like. Mostly. I like my time travel complicated and fraught with misery--I rarely like the easy-peasy knockoffs of Outlander.)

Female to male cross-dressing--either as a lark in Regency novels, or as a matter of life and death (or life and freedom) as in the Alanna books or Beacon at Alexandria. I think if done right, I could equally get behind a female to male cross-dressing novel, but it'd have to be on par with Beacon in terms of motivation. I do love the movie Stage Beauty, actually, so I know I can get behind it in some circumstances.

(Considering how early most of these buttons were installed, I'm a bit amazed that I considered gender-subversion and -inversion such a high priority at such a young age.)

On the romance side of things, I want a couple who argues. Not one who hates each other, but one who are each others' first and best intellectual adversary. It's a theme in Lady Elizabeth's Comet, for starters, but I'm sure I encountered it earlier than that. I know I like how it shows up in Pride and Prejudice.... I think it comes from tiring of seeing women characters simply sitting around and agreeing with their menfolk. At the same time, it's particularly boring if a female character is called "spirited" and is really just petty and spoiled. It takes a deft hand to write an argumentative couple so that they resonate instead of grate. See also Doris Egan's Gate of Ivory.

Well, I've been writing this for about 30 minutes, and I could keep going for another 60. We pause now so that I can actually go write... something with an argumentative couple, as it happens.

Book: Sebastian

Sebastian by Anne Bishop (32) [fantasy]

I would have to re-read the Blood Jewels series in order to figure this one out, but it really felt like Bishop's writing quality has gone down. It's not like it's bad, it just seems unsophisticated. In fact, the whole book seems a bit unsophisticated in comparison to previous work by the same author.

And I'm always going to think that when a female character has nothing going for her but a combination of innocence and a history of being abused, and when self-described bad boys never seem to do anything worse than have a little wild consensual sex. Daemon was far badder than Sebastian, so I know that Bishop knows how to do this. The only thing I can think of is that this book is meant to be one of those fantasy/romance crossover books, which I am getting SO tired of because it seems like no one does either the romance or the fantasy justice.

Anyway. A bit disappointing. The gorgeous cover art lured me in, and the conceit of Ephemera kept me reading... but the characters with any depth (Glorianna and Lee) never got to be onstage all that much, and as much depth as Sebastian should have had, well, he just didn't.

Book: Freakonomics

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (31) [non-fiction]

Admittedly, I was looking for the next Guns, Germs and Steel. Suffice it to say, this book doesn't explain everything--but that would be asking for truth in advertising, I guess--nor even most things. It covers sumo wrestling, school cheating, drug dealing and real estate, plus there's a semi-comforting bit on how over-parenting is a big waste of everyone's time. While I was entertained and maybe a little bit educated, much of it was a bit too facile, and I was looking for more depth.

Books: The Queen and King of Attolia

The Queen of Attolia (29) and The King of Attolia (30) by Megan Whalen Turner [fantasy]

I believe these are marketed as YA, but I find the political intrigue to be complex enough to want to class them elsewhere--no looking down the nose at YA, but I think these books deserve a wider audience.

Good stuff. I love what Turner does with Gen in Queen; King is good, but as the end drew near it felt nothing like the end. It reads like the first half of a longer novel, or perhaps the first book in a much longer series. I dearly hope the next book is The Thief of Attolia and covers (spoiler: highlight the next line) Costis's training as said thief.

My writer brain turned on for a few scenes--mostly when the motivations of some of the characters seemed muddled, and there were a lot of setbacks for no very good or obvious reason. I didn't get as much sense of Costis as I was hoping for. He's no Irene or Eddis, or even Ornon, able to hold his own with Eugenides. But that's the only time writer-brain clicked on, and otherwise, I was able to snuggle in and enjoy the fun.

Book: Misery

Misery by Stephen King (28) [horror]

I believe it was the_red_shoes who mentioned that this is a book about writing as much as it is a horror story, and boy howdy is it. I read this one in a big gulp today, and have spent much of the evening sucking the marrow from its bones.

I--hm. I don't even know how to talk about this book. But it definitely is about writing, and it's honest about it, even with the backdrop of psychokiller and amputation and faux romance heroines.