April (yes, April) books

[jinian]

The Court of the Stone Children, Eleanor Cameron. Short YA novel, lent by eub. Excellent museum, nice subtle magic. It's odd how sympathetic I found Nina, who knows exactly what she wants to do with her life, when I've never felt that way.

Eight Days of Luke, Diana Wynne Jones. Should cut and paste the "lent by eub" part into many of these. This one is great, though I spotted the gimmick a lot sooner than I would have as a kid. DWJ often has adults who are real people, but they're usually not as prominent as Astrid is here. I liked having her as another character, even if she was a bit in the silly-girl vein.

Natural Obsessions, Natalie Angier. Engrossing story about research into several oncogenes and the people and labs doing it. The pure research parts were totally fascinating, but the lab politics worried me. Definitely want to try research as a career, though. It rings true to me when she says that being a good researcher isn't about wanting to save the world, it's about being fascinated with exactly what you're doing. I can do that.

Archer's Goon, Diana Wynne Jones. I really liked this. I was surprised just the right amount by the ending -- I'd noticed something was up, but hadn't worked out how it all came together -- and that doesn't happen often. Awful is great, and I liked all the wizard characters even if they didn't have much depth.

Firebirds, ed. Sharyn November. I'm surprised at what a good month April was for books. I liked this very much too. Garth Nix's story "Hope Chest" was a creepy standout, and DWJ's "Little Dot" was an excellent example of the obligatory cat story. Many others were charming and fun and affecting and well written. I should add this to my wish list so I can read it again whenever I want.

Xanadu, ed. Jane Yolen. Had an urge to read pameladean's "Owlswater" again, so I reread the rest while I was at it. "Owlswater" and Eleanor Arnason's "The Hound of Merin" are still my favorites, but there's a lot of really good stuff in this.

A Fistful of Sky, Nina Kiriki Hoffman. Why on earth had I never read Hoffman's novels before this? This is a great book. It's real and fantastic in just the right ways. My only small problem with it (which seems to be a Hoffman thing, see next month) is that people make up their minds very quickly and, to me, opaquely about relationships.

Coyote Cowgirl, Kim Antieau. An interesting paired reading with Fistful of Sky, actually: young woman in family where everyone else has talent, and what happens to change that situation. This one's enjoyable, but unfortunately nothing special. Has a recipe section at the end (good) which is written in extra-cute characterese (loses it many points).

The Midwife's Apprentice, Karen Cushman. I enjoyed this, but why oh why does the downtrodden girl always have to turn out to be pretty to gain self-confidence?

Wild Life, Molly Gloss. I'm not sure why I didn't like this more. It has a lot going for it: a beautifully and accurately described Pacific Northwest setting, aliens of a sort, mystery, adventure, tangential stories. I never really came to care for the protagonist, though I was impressed by the way she felt differently about her family at different times and how that was presented. Something about the writing style distanced me, and I can't place it, but I think the main thing was that Charlotte was so hapless for a lot of the book.

Fires of the Faithful, Naomi Kritzer. More queer in SF! This is the one before the one I read first. Unfortunately, I think I liked it better conveyed in backstory. The relationship between Eliana and Mira in particular was not as complex as I'd imagined it. Probably I should've read these the right way around, but I think they'd be better as a single book regardless.

The Beacon at Alexandria, Gillian Bradshaw. Girl dresses up as boy! Girl has clue and a society where it makes sense, and dresses up as eunuch! Rules! The requisite romance is a little thin, I think, but all of the characters seemed real to me. Lots of fun. Fine book.

Claudine at School, Colette
Claudine in Paris, Colette
Claudine Married, Colette
Claudine and Annie, Colette. Queer in classic mainstream fiction. Claudine is a little too, hmm, disingenuous for me, but especially Claudine Married seemed very emotionally real. Claudine and Annie is a big change, from Claudine POV to Annie POV, but I think it works well with the background of the other books.

Who Needs Donuts?, Stamaty. Cute children's book with incredibly intricate illustrations. A person can look at one page for ten minutes and not see everything in it. Got this for Wim despite disagreeing with its answer to the title question.

Album Zutique #1. I read this for "The Catgirl Manifesto" by Christina Flook, which was on the Tiptree shortlist, and turned out to be excellent gender examination. (You'd think they would usually be, but a lot of it is not obvious to me.) Lots of other weird SF and horror in here. Stepan Chapman's "A Guide to the Zoo" was notably fun, others I would rather not have read ("The Scream", "Maldoror Abroad"), and most were agreeably strange.

Seed to Seed, Ashworth & Whealey. A handbook on saving pure seed from varieties of crop plants, with lots of detail on each species. Strange to read this opposite Carol Deppe's book on creating new varieties, which is in May books.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon. Quite good. The main character's point of view is (believably) autistic, and it turns out to be a very effective filter for the story, even though it turns out to revolve around the emotions that he doesn't understand.

Comments

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

lab politics are worrisome = why your tapir (among other reasons) isn't in graduate school anymore

plus, have you read any anais nin? to me her stories were less 'precious/'take me'/lesbians for show' than the stylisticness of colette

that midwife's apprentice one was so clever socially though :)

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Haven't read any Nin, though I've been vaguely interested for years now. What do you recommend?

Yeah, I should probably say more about it than just the prettiness bit, shouldn't I? What do you mean "clever socially", though?

[(Anonymous)]

I read 'little birds' and 'delta of venus' and remember liking some of the stories better than others but this was when I was in more of my own little psuedo-libertine phase, it might seem again too precious and self-conscious to me now that I'm older.

'socially clever' = her knowing how to manipulate people's weaknesses just enough to get what she wants. I guess I saw her as using what she knew about the other characters to make people more honest rather than truly destructively (like, I guess I saw it as a parable more than literal.)

[eub.livejournal.com]

A couple of books prod me in different ways to lend you Cobwebwalking.

It rings true to me when she says that being a good researcher isn't about wanting to save the world, it's about being fascinated with exactly what you're doing.

It sounds true, but, hm, thinking.

It occurs to me that the ways people spend their lives differ not just in what fraction is just what they want to be doing, but how well that fraction runs all through and animates the whole, and maybe that is the thing for research.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

O found the romance in Beacon quite believable, especially the bit about frustration.

I really like that book.