November books

[jinian]

Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild.
Recommended circa sartorias recently, and papersky has talked about the author fairly often. This is the first of her novels I've read, and I liked it a lot. Three adopted sisters go to theater school because it'll allow them to make money at a young age and, in some cases, because they love it. They're all good characters and the plot, though not ordinary, seems very real.

Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams, Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett.
Mentioned circa papersky. Queer in SF! though very understatedly so in the first one. Both books are mysteries in a perhaps-just-slightly-post-feudal city, in a world in which astrology and necromancy, among other things, are very important to people's daily lives. One character is a cop, the other one an ex-mercenary who tends to get into the middle of things. Good magic, very good reading. Another is in the works, but they work well as stand-alones.

The Lost Steersman and The Language of Power, Rosemary Kirstein.
TLS was the most wrenching of the books so far, and it didn't even emphasize some of the things that would have bothered me in Rowan's place. The niftiness of the world continues to be revealed apace.
TLoP disappointed me a little. I think it was that the book was about just Rowan finding out more about how her world worked, and not me too; I'd inferred all this stuff already. Especially after the suspenseful, world-altering demon stuff in tLS, it just wasn't as big as I wanted. The dragon parts were easily worth reading the book for, though; I'm certainly not saying people shouldn't read it.

Petty Treason, Madeleine E. Robins.
I wish I had more to say abut the Sarah Tolerance books. I copped out on Point of Honour last month by saying I'd write about this one now, and I still find I have not a great deal to say. I enjoy them, and Miss Tolerance is excellently self-reliant but not perfect. This one seemed to have a little less interest in the immediate plot and to set up a bit of a longer story arc, so I wonder what'll happen next.

The Real Minerva, Mary Sharratt.
Found when looking at SF author events. A single mother, her daughter, and a woman running a farm alone try to live independently (of each other too) in a small 1920s Minnesota town. It didn't go quite the way I wanted it to, but it was complicated and sad and joyful in good ways.

Dragonsinger, Anne McCaffrey.
More comfort reading. Wish there'd been a third Menolly book instead of in addition to that Piemur-focused one.

Cotillion, Georgette Heyer.
Mentioned circa papersky, who's mentioned Heyer before. I loved this! And I was so hopelessly naive that I thought things would go entirely the wrong way and I wouldn't like the book at all, so I was ridiculously elated when the right thing happened.

The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett.
Mentioned in various talk, largely by msagara. It's Pratchett, which means I like it once in a longish while, but it's YA Pratchett, which is less annoying for some reason, so I'm in line for the next one at the library right now. Tiffany, a very young witch, is a pretty great character, and the Wee Free Men are fun.

The Land of Gold, Gillian Bradshaw.
Didn't realize this was the second of Bradshaw's YA books until I saw the appalling cover. She says she loved writing them, but I really prefer her adult novels, which are less simple.

The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon.
Recommendation from rivka. This starts out as a very good SF novel about a team of high-functioning autistic adults, from the last years before a treatment for autism in babies was universally adopted, working at a large corporation which meets their needs. I thought it turned from one thing to another nine-tenths of the way through, though: the treatment of autistic adults that drives the plot has interesting social implications and constitutes a mystery, as it also sounds a lot like Vingean Focus, and those topics are brought up in the story, but the ending deals with only the personal life of the main character. That aspect of it was disappointing, but overall I still think it's good.

The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson.
Recommended circa sartorias. Beautiful, large-canvas alternate history in which the guns, germs, and steel didn't belong to Europeans. Reincarnation and its mechanics make for interesting transitions between the different eras presented.

The Cuckoo Tree, Joan Aiken.
From rachelmanija's Essential List of Very Modern Fantasy, YA. I wouldn't have called it essential, but I certainly enjoyed it. Rachel's post will tell you about it better than I could.

The Last Song of Dusk, Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi.
Author events. Sad, magic-realist and clearly alternate-historical, set in India, lots about music, love, alienation, the sorrow and anger of inanimate objects.

The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo.
gwyneira read this, and I'd been a bit interested before. It seems like gwyneira's tastes and mine overlap in the main but often not in the particulars. I found the author's asides in this one too twee, which skewed my enjoyment of the rather good story.

Watch Your Mouth, Daniel Handler.
The aftermath of The Basic Eight having mostly worn off, I decided I was ready for the other Handler. It's much less shocking, but still has some good twistiness and taboo-play.

Trickster's Queen, Tamora Pierce.
(What? I know I have no money, but we went to Powell's. Wim got it for me because he rules.) I continue to like Aly the least of Pierce's heroines, but she does know what she's doing. The overall plot was interesting and went where I wanted it to, though the wrap-up was substandard. Also, even more than a queer protagonist in Pierce I am starting to want one who has ZERO BABIES EVER. (I admit to having been sucked into sappiness over one's name, though.) Pierce thanked J.K. Rowling for causing her publishers to believe that kids would buy longer books; this story is complete in two rather than four.

The New Moon with the Old, Dodie Smith.
Here's a place that mine and gwyneira's tastes overlap really well. Loved this. Go read it.

Four Wings and a Prayer, Sue Halpern.
Referred to in Locust. Halpern was involved, seemingly tangentially, in finding out more about the migration of the monarch butterfly in North America. It's one of those pop-science books where the scientists' personality quirks are almost as discussed as the science, but I liked it anyway.

Across the Nightingale Floor, Lian Hearn.
I think I liked this better than gwyneira did. It was distant, but I found that suitable for the culture so far. We'll see what I think about the next one once I get through the surprisingly long hold queue. (Also, I was wondering whether Lian Hearn was related to Lafcadio Hearn, and the dust jacket was kind enough to answer me: Lian Hearn is a pseudonym. I bet it's a reference, though.)

Manga:
Wish #3, CLAMP.
Cuteness ramification continues. There's more supernatural going on than we first thought, which is interesting, and I'm happy that being in love hasn't made Kohaku insufficiently pure for certain of her jobs. (I wish I knew more about the word they're using in the Japanese original; sometimes purity/innocence seems to have different provenance in different stories, and I wonder whether the word is the same.)

Knitting:
Sculptured Knits, Jean Moss.
Many lovely pieces, some unimpressive, all with claimed inspirations that don't make much sense to me. I intended to copy some of the patterns, but I'll just get the book again if I somehow find myself without a project.
Simple Knits With a Twist, Erika Knight.
Very simple knits, not really interesting to me at this point. Probably a fine book for modern beginners, especially if they don't quite know what to make, as the pieces are attractive and not grandmotherish.
Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments.
Giant book of one zillion furbelows. Want to knit pansies? Sure you do. And Epstein continues to give excellent, clear directions for everything. I can't imagine needing to own this book, but looking through it was enlightening.

Note for wishlist and readers: The Wind in the Willows illustrated by Helen Ward is lovely. I'll have to see whether it's still at the Capitol Hill Twice Sold when I have money.

Comments

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

the point of hopes / point of dreams ones I didn't like as much as I liked other melissa scott ones; something about them just got to me after a while (maybe all the cop junk?)

in general I really like her though, including the one with psychedelic drugs everywhere, even in the soap

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

have you read trouble and her friends, by melissa scott? i adored it, but this seems to not be universal.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Point of Dreams right now, without having read Point of Hopes. I'm a little confused by some of the details of the world, but agree that the book generally works well alone.

I loved Cotillion, but I totally misread Heyer's signals and assumed that we were meant to see Freddy as gay. The ending surprised me.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

Argh, I can't decide whether to start the Kirstein books or not. I have the first two, and everyone seems to love them, but I hate starting a series that isn't finished yet.

I thought the second and third Hearn books were a bit better: less flat, more detailed. rachelmanija wrote a review (http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_hearn_nightingalefloor.html) that expresses a lot of how I felt about the first one (though I think I disliked it less than she did).

I have the second Hearn in my books-to-get-rid-of pile, since I'm not planning to read them again - would you like it? (I have the first one, too, but not the third, which I got from the library.) I could easily drop it in the mail next time I go to the post office.

[eub.livejournal.com]

I really need to read some KSR. The Years of Rice and Salt sounds like a good one.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Yes, "not in the petticoat line" is challenging to read as anything other than "exclusively homosexual" these days, but obviously, Heyer was pulling the wool over our eyes, dear Freddy is perfectly normal and therefore bi...

I love Cotillion, I think it does everything just right, and the ending surprised and delighted me as well.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Someone should reprint the other Dodie Smith's.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

That would be wonderful. I was hoping that I Capture the Castle's current popularity would inspire some publisher to reprint her other books. I have to get A Tale of Two Families from the library when I want it, and I still haven't managed to lay hands on a copy of It Ends with Revelations (which is the only one of her books I haven't read, I think).

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Yes, "not in the petticoat line" is challenging to read as anything other than "exclusively homosexual" these days, but obviously, Heyer was pulling the wool over our eyes, dear Freddy is perfectly normal and therefore bi...

*snicker*

It was "not in the petticoat line," yes, but also her comment that even the most suspicious husbands didn't mind having their wives escorted about by Freddy. And his exquisite fashion sense.

I am slowly working my way through Heyer, now that I've moved out of the newly-settled suburbs and into a city where the library is more than a hundred years old. I keep having to send the librarians down to search the basement, but they don't seem to mind. I picked up Cotillion because I remembered that it was one of your favorites - must re-check your list of recommendations to see what else I should look for.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I've read it and liked it.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I think I would not have started the Kirstein books if I'd known how I'd react to them. There's no parceling them out, you have to read the next one right away!!! and I think #4 is a crummy place to stop. It's always so hard to wait, though. The George R. R. Martin series going on now is supposed to be really good, and I want to read it now.

The second Hearn has just come in at the library, so don't worry about it. But thanks very much; books are always a handsome offer.

It's interesting that rachelmanija seems sure the secret religion was Christianity. I acknowledge the possibility, but it didn't seem in any way definite to me.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

The SPL's copy of that one is missing, too, and they've only got Castle, New Moon, and Dalmatians otherwise. May the reprints come soon.