August books
Sep. 3rd, 2004 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinian(I'm writing these more or less as I go this month, which seems to be working well.)
(Look how early I'm posting it! Yay!)
Ladybugs, Tiger Lilies, and Wallflowers: A Gardener's Book of Words, Robert Hendrickson
Lots of entertaining word origin stuff for words that may not even be obviously connected to gardening. I enjoyed it and would like my own copy, but he contradicts himself at least once (on the naming of grapefruit) and is definitely inaccurate in several other places. A book that was less cute but completely correct would've been a bigger winner for me.
Taking Charge of Your Fertility, Toni Weschler
This year's Book Most Likely To Make Boyfriend Nervous. I admit, the temperature-charting stuff might make a person want to see this three-level pregnancy signal just for sheer geekery's sake, but I think there'll be plenty else to keep me amused for a while. Thanks,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheesepuppet, it's a neat book. (No, [many people], I am not going to change my method of birth control.)
The Sand-Reckoner, Gillian Bradshaw
Bradshaw writes very engaging historical fiction, but last time it wasn't about math. Now I need more books about Archimedes!
The Companions, Sheri S. Tepper
I'm a long-time Tepper fan in spite of her obvious, glaring flaws, so of course I was going to read this eventually. She started out by playing to her strengths, interesting aliens foremost among them. I'm not sure what it is about the way she writes alien cultures, but, whatever it is, I like it. After a while, though, the usual flaws became obvious: there's about one male character who is substantially competent, while pretty much all the women are Supergirl, and the ending partook of a giant, honking deus ex machina (which, to be fair, had actually been foreshadowed fairly well, but was no less annoying for it) that punished each and every person who deserved it and some who didn't. It also suffered from a flaw I haven't seen in such magnitude in her earlier work, implying that the use of extreme manipulative power was just fine as long as it was by the good guys, even if it's mainly to their personal benefit. Ick. I'd thought with the last couple of books she was beginning to parody herself on purpose, but it seems not.
Cats Are Not Peas, Laura Gould
The author acquires a male calico cat and sets out to find out how he happened. The cute present-tense narrative about her cats and her research contains a few great pieces of scientific detail toward the end. I already know as much about cat genetics as appeared in the book, but the exact information about calico males, including her cat, was interesting, and the book as a whole entertained me pretty well.
Flights, ed. Al Sarrantonio
Many of these stories were odd, some were really odd, and some were creepy, but none of them had much wow-nature, which is what I was looking for. I'm just not in sync with Sarrantonio, I guess; I don't think I'll seek out any other anthologies of his editing. Good stories:
Enchanter's Glass, Susan Whitcher
YA novel in which a pubescent girl interacts with bits of the Faerie Queen to figure out who her real friends are and how to appreciate herself. I don't think anything is actually wrong with it, but I found it overly simple and unimpressive.
Liquor, Poppy Z. Brite
Two New Orleans boys who are, very understatedly, lovers open a restaurant together. Lovely chef-geeking, reasonably interesting intrigue, slashy sensibility.
The Basic Eight, Daniel Handler
Handler is also Lemony Snicket, and this extremely disturbing novel about a high-school drama clique makes it extremely clear why that link is kept as unidirectional as possible by pretty much everyone. The Basic Eight also features possibly the best unreliable narrator I've ever read. I found it compelling and creepy that you start out knowing something awful happened and only slowly find out what it was, but that could probably annoy some people even when done well. There were a couple of gross-out scenes, but they were effectively and parsimoniously placed.
Brown Harvest, Jay Russell
Fanfiction made legal by never mentioning the main character's name. The complete change of genre may also have helped; this is thoroughly noirish with a lot of silliness thrown in. I didn't actually like anyone in the book, but it could be fun if you don't require that kind of thing.
The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler
I found it charming, but, despite passing familiarity with most of Austen, didn't see many of the parallels between Fowler's characters and the books they're reading that I've been told are there. Still, a pleasant light novel.
Blind Lake, Robert Charles Wilson
I like the way Wilson bridges the mainstream-thriller/SF gap with unlikely but interesting science. This one concerns self-modifying quantum computers based on Bose-Einstein condensates, handwaving goes here, that allow Earth-based researchers to watch alien worlds. That's not all, of course, but no one is quite sure why the research sites are now being quarantined. Slightly dorky, but fun.
The Wellstone, Wil McCarthy
Crazy, fun space opera based in technology that McCarthy still seems to believe is not outrageous, though I certainly don't. Goes more into the consequences of practical immortality as presaged in The Collapsium, and sets up for an obvious sequel.
A Stir of Bones, Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Centers on Susan from the Matt Black books as she meets the other players for the first time, as a young teen. Has the same feeling of stopping somewhere that's not a stopping place as A Red Heart of Memories does. Maybe there's a sequel in the works, or maybe I was just strongly expecting to get to a certain confrontation that doesn't appear. (This books is cheap at Powell's right now, I notice.)
A Scholar of Magics, Caroline Stevermer
Rules, obviously. I need to dig up College and compare Greenlaw with Glasscastle some more.
Phoenix: A Tale of the Future, Osamu Tezuka
Tezuka apparently wrote an entire series of long graphic novels concerning this phoenix spirit, but only this one -- written second, chronologically last, in a carefully planned convergence on the present -- is available at the library so far. Interesting for seminal manga style elements and their similarity, in their early forms, to American animation of that era. (And for a lovely quote I failed to transcribe, saying something to the effect that many people think it's weird to go to Japan and see everyone reading comics, because those people didn't have Tezuka in their country.)
Shadow Heart, Laura Kinsale
Sort of absurd in its romance-novel setup (she's an innocent, and a princess unknowing; he's ruthless, and more beautiful than a god), this eventually acquired a good strong heroine and a mild fantasy element. I wish I remembered where I'd gotten the recommendation for this, because I want to know whether they mentioned the strong BDSM thread running through it, which is not at all typical of a romance novel considering who's on top.
The Riddle-Master trilogy, Patricia McKillip
Too dense to read with distractions, even so few as on the bus. Why had I not read this before? Now I can't say anything without reading it again. It's lovely. It's obscurely disappointing. I don't know.
Candyfreak, Steven Almond
Steven Almond is more obsessed with candy than I knew anyone could be, and he writes about it in a very agreeable way. He visits a lot of the smaller American candy manufacturers and describes the machines and their products beautifully. His tone is a little reminiscent of David Sedaris, but Almond shows his adoration for his topic, rather than just universal mockery, and is much more pleasant to read for it.
Witpunk, ed. Claude Lalumière and Marty Halpern
This anthology was a failure for me. It was meant to be satirical and funny stories, but mostly the funny ones weren't satirical (Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "Savage Breasts") and the satirical ones weren't funny (many, notably "Auspicious Eggs" by James Morrow and "Kapuzine and the Wolf" by Laurent McAllister). The story I liked best, "The Wild Girls" by Pat Murphy, was neither. However, Nina Hoffman did sign this copy with several different-colored pens, and Leslie What and Pat Murphy did so more sedately, so it has fun value beyond the intrinsic.
Street Magic, Tamora Pierce
Comfort reading during the Sorbitol Incident. These have very different magic from her Tortall books, and I like it better. That fact has nothing to do with the fact that Briar is a plant mage, of course. "The Circle Opens" quartet has much more adult subject matter than the "Circle of Magic" that preceded it, so kids might want to watch out a little. People get killed and there's more moral complexity.
(Look how early I'm posting it! Yay!)
Ladybugs, Tiger Lilies, and Wallflowers: A Gardener's Book of Words, Robert Hendrickson
Lots of entertaining word origin stuff for words that may not even be obviously connected to gardening. I enjoyed it and would like my own copy, but he contradicts himself at least once (on the naming of grapefruit) and is definitely inaccurate in several other places. A book that was less cute but completely correct would've been a bigger winner for me.
Taking Charge of Your Fertility, Toni Weschler
This year's Book Most Likely To Make Boyfriend Nervous. I admit, the temperature-charting stuff might make a person want to see this three-level pregnancy signal just for sheer geekery's sake, but I think there'll be plenty else to keep me amused for a while. Thanks,
cheesepuppet, it's a neat book. (No, [many people], I am not going to change my method of birth control.)The Sand-Reckoner, Gillian Bradshaw
Bradshaw writes very engaging historical fiction, but last time it wasn't about math. Now I need more books about Archimedes!
The Companions, Sheri S. Tepper
I'm a long-time Tepper fan in spite of her obvious, glaring flaws, so of course I was going to read this eventually. She started out by playing to her strengths, interesting aliens foremost among them. I'm not sure what it is about the way she writes alien cultures, but, whatever it is, I like it. After a while, though, the usual flaws became obvious: there's about one male character who is substantially competent, while pretty much all the women are Supergirl, and the ending partook of a giant, honking deus ex machina (which, to be fair, had actually been foreshadowed fairly well, but was no less annoying for it) that punished each and every person who deserved it and some who didn't. It also suffered from a flaw I haven't seen in such magnitude in her earlier work, implying that the use of extreme manipulative power was just fine as long as it was by the good guys, even if it's mainly to their personal benefit. Ick. I'd thought with the last couple of books she was beginning to parody herself on purpose, but it seems not.
Cats Are Not Peas, Laura Gould
The author acquires a male calico cat and sets out to find out how he happened. The cute present-tense narrative about her cats and her research contains a few great pieces of scientific detail toward the end. I already know as much about cat genetics as appeared in the book, but the exact information about calico males, including her cat, was interesting, and the book as a whole entertained me pretty well.
Flights, ed. Al Sarrantonio
Many of these stories were odd, some were really odd, and some were creepy, but none of them had much wow-nature, which is what I was looking for. I'm just not in sync with Sarrantonio, I guess; I don't think I'll seek out any other anthologies of his editing. Good stories:
- "The Silver Dragon", by Elizabeth A. Lynn -- I like Lynn's style of smooth, panoramic, almost genealogical narration.
- "The Following", by P.D. Cacek -- Things are disturbingly off kilter, and then you find out why. I had to keep reading more stories to get this one out of my head before going to sleep.
- "Demons Hide Their Faces", by A.A. Attanasio -- I had to look up several words!
- "Relations", by Nina Kiriki Hoffman -- Well, this one is by Nina Hoffman.
- "The Problem of Susan", by Neil Gaiman -- I found it a bit confusing, likely due to headache, but the subject matter is of interest.
- "Golden City Far", by Gene Wolfe -- Peculiar but lovely.
Enchanter's Glass, Susan Whitcher
YA novel in which a pubescent girl interacts with bits of the Faerie Queen to figure out who her real friends are and how to appreciate herself. I don't think anything is actually wrong with it, but I found it overly simple and unimpressive.
Liquor, Poppy Z. Brite
Two New Orleans boys who are, very understatedly, lovers open a restaurant together. Lovely chef-geeking, reasonably interesting intrigue, slashy sensibility.
The Basic Eight, Daniel Handler
Handler is also Lemony Snicket, and this extremely disturbing novel about a high-school drama clique makes it extremely clear why that link is kept as unidirectional as possible by pretty much everyone. The Basic Eight also features possibly the best unreliable narrator I've ever read. I found it compelling and creepy that you start out knowing something awful happened and only slowly find out what it was, but that could probably annoy some people even when done well. There were a couple of gross-out scenes, but they were effectively and parsimoniously placed.
Brown Harvest, Jay Russell
Fanfiction made legal by never mentioning the main character's name. The complete change of genre may also have helped; this is thoroughly noirish with a lot of silliness thrown in. I didn't actually like anyone in the book, but it could be fun if you don't require that kind of thing.
The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler
I found it charming, but, despite passing familiarity with most of Austen, didn't see many of the parallels between Fowler's characters and the books they're reading that I've been told are there. Still, a pleasant light novel.
Blind Lake, Robert Charles Wilson
I like the way Wilson bridges the mainstream-thriller/SF gap with unlikely but interesting science. This one concerns self-modifying quantum computers based on Bose-Einstein condensates, handwaving goes here, that allow Earth-based researchers to watch alien worlds. That's not all, of course, but no one is quite sure why the research sites are now being quarantined. Slightly dorky, but fun.
The Wellstone, Wil McCarthy
Crazy, fun space opera based in technology that McCarthy still seems to believe is not outrageous, though I certainly don't. Goes more into the consequences of practical immortality as presaged in The Collapsium, and sets up for an obvious sequel.
A Stir of Bones, Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Centers on Susan from the Matt Black books as she meets the other players for the first time, as a young teen. Has the same feeling of stopping somewhere that's not a stopping place as A Red Heart of Memories does. Maybe there's a sequel in the works, or maybe I was just strongly expecting to get to a certain confrontation that doesn't appear. (This books is cheap at Powell's right now, I notice.)
A Scholar of Magics, Caroline Stevermer
Rules, obviously. I need to dig up College and compare Greenlaw with Glasscastle some more.
Phoenix: A Tale of the Future, Osamu Tezuka
Tezuka apparently wrote an entire series of long graphic novels concerning this phoenix spirit, but only this one -- written second, chronologically last, in a carefully planned convergence on the present -- is available at the library so far. Interesting for seminal manga style elements and their similarity, in their early forms, to American animation of that era. (And for a lovely quote I failed to transcribe, saying something to the effect that many people think it's weird to go to Japan and see everyone reading comics, because those people didn't have Tezuka in their country.)
Shadow Heart, Laura Kinsale
Sort of absurd in its romance-novel setup (she's an innocent, and a princess unknowing; he's ruthless, and more beautiful than a god), this eventually acquired a good strong heroine and a mild fantasy element. I wish I remembered where I'd gotten the recommendation for this, because I want to know whether they mentioned the strong BDSM thread running through it, which is not at all typical of a romance novel considering who's on top.
The Riddle-Master trilogy, Patricia McKillip
Too dense to read with distractions, even so few as on the bus. Why had I not read this before? Now I can't say anything without reading it again. It's lovely. It's obscurely disappointing. I don't know.
Candyfreak, Steven Almond
Steven Almond is more obsessed with candy than I knew anyone could be, and he writes about it in a very agreeable way. He visits a lot of the smaller American candy manufacturers and describes the machines and their products beautifully. His tone is a little reminiscent of David Sedaris, but Almond shows his adoration for his topic, rather than just universal mockery, and is much more pleasant to read for it.
Witpunk, ed. Claude Lalumière and Marty Halpern
This anthology was a failure for me. It was meant to be satirical and funny stories, but mostly the funny ones weren't satirical (Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "Savage Breasts") and the satirical ones weren't funny (many, notably "Auspicious Eggs" by James Morrow and "Kapuzine and the Wolf" by Laurent McAllister). The story I liked best, "The Wild Girls" by Pat Murphy, was neither. However, Nina Hoffman did sign this copy with several different-colored pens, and Leslie What and Pat Murphy did so more sedately, so it has fun value beyond the intrinsic.
Street Magic, Tamora Pierce
Comfort reading during the Sorbitol Incident. These have very different magic from her Tortall books, and I like it better. That fact has nothing to do with the fact that Briar is a plant mage, of course. "The Circle Opens" quartet has much more adult subject matter than the "Circle of Magic" that preceded it, so kids might want to watch out a little. People get killed and there's more moral complexity.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 07:52 am (UTC)i wasn't going to say anything, i was just going to grit my teeth.
_the basic eight_, is it funny at all? it sounds like it might be interesting, but the lemony snicket books not only don't grab me but turn me off (horrible things happening to people and it's supposed to be amusing) so if he's trying for similar things here, i should skip it.
at wiscon, there was a jane austen book club making the rounds with people-- it was a copy of one of austen's books taped to a baseball bat, i do believe.
i really liked _brown harvest_. i devoured the original books as a kid.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 09:47 am (UTC)Heh heh heh. I can see how people are persuaded to use FAM, since the author seems dead certain that she knows exactly how to get or avoid a pregnancy, but my situation is not such that I can chance using just one method, no matter what it is.
The Basic Eight is funny in places. I found them to be entirely different from the creepy places, but Lemony Snicket is silly and meta enough that I like it, so I'm probably not the person to ask.