December 2006 books
May. 15th, 2007 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinian(I finished this shortly after the last one, but was worried I'd lose my (2) readers if I spammed you with too many tiny booknotes at once.)
The Pinhoe Egg, Diana Wynne Jones. Overall I liked this, despite having a pretty uneven interest level over the course of the story.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1: The Pox Party, M.T. Anderson.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
notyourmothers and others. Very impressive YA about a young black man living a sheltered life shortly before the American Revolution, how and why he was sheltered, and what happens when he wasn't any more.
Buried Deep, Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Library shelf. The cops of Mars! It was hard to tell which characters in the confusingly large cast were from previous installments of series. Reading Extremes and Consequences made it clearer. Pretty good light reading.
Kimono: Fashioning Culture, Liza Dalby. Fromjonquil in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
reading_genji. Lots of great information about the evolution and significance of Japanese traditional clothing. Fun to read, and it'd be invaluable for anyone writing a Japanese historical.
The Demon and the City, Liz Williams. The second of Williams' Detective Inspector Chen books set in supernatural Singapore Three, this one focuses on demon investigator Zhu Irzh and has more complicated plots going at once. The world is expanding to include other mythologies than the Chinese, too, which is fun. I did miss Chen a little, but it worked out.
The Queen of Cool, Cecil Castellucci. Not quite as good as Boy Proof; the protagonist is less independent, so I identified with her rather less.
The Sibyl in Her Grave, Sarah Caudwell. Fourth and sadly last of the Hilary Tamar books. Interesting mystery and amusing archness, as ever.
The Bright Spot, Robert Sydney. From sibs-out-law while visiting. Great dystopian noir; well written, twisty, and creepy.
The Princetta, Anne-Laure Bondoux. Bookstore rec, got from library. Lackluster fairy-tale filled with dog-languages, including dog-English and star names formed by taking syllables from existing star names and doing mix-and-match, for which I felt a surprisingly powerful hatred.
Dirty Magic, Carol Hughes. Bookstore rec from library. Interestingly steampunkish setting, but largely boring or annoying characters and a plot twist visible from a mile away. Probably would have seemed better if I were eight years old.
Magic Study, Maria V. Snyder. Post-Poison-Study travelogue with very little magic-geeking, not bad but not that interesting.
Castle Waiting, Linda Medley. She's still doing the comic, so I assume this was volume 1 even though I didn't see that anywhere. Good, mellow comics. I especially love the religious order of bearded nuns, but I'm awfully curious about that baby's daddy too.
Dokebi Bride 1, Marley. Fromcoffee_and_ink. I'm not crazy about the art, which is weirdly lumpish in places, but the story's great.
Dramacon 2, Svetlana Chmakova. Still hooked on the story, and awfully pleased by the way the boy is trying to do right by everyone. (Not thrilled by the way the volumes are coming out something less than yearly, though. At least the next one's meant to be the last.)
The Pinhoe Egg, Diana Wynne Jones. Overall I liked this, despite having a pretty uneven interest level over the course of the story.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1: The Pox Party, M.T. Anderson.
notyourmothers and others. Very impressive YA about a young black man living a sheltered life shortly before the American Revolution, how and why he was sheltered, and what happens when he wasn't any more.Buried Deep, Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Library shelf. The cops of Mars! It was hard to tell which characters in the confusingly large cast were from previous installments of series. Reading Extremes and Consequences made it clearer. Pretty good light reading.
Kimono: Fashioning Culture, Liza Dalby. From
jonquil in reading_genji. Lots of great information about the evolution and significance of Japanese traditional clothing. Fun to read, and it'd be invaluable for anyone writing a Japanese historical.The Demon and the City, Liz Williams. The second of Williams' Detective Inspector Chen books set in supernatural Singapore Three, this one focuses on demon investigator Zhu Irzh and has more complicated plots going at once. The world is expanding to include other mythologies than the Chinese, too, which is fun. I did miss Chen a little, but it worked out.
The Queen of Cool, Cecil Castellucci. Not quite as good as Boy Proof; the protagonist is less independent, so I identified with her rather less.
The Sibyl in Her Grave, Sarah Caudwell. Fourth and sadly last of the Hilary Tamar books. Interesting mystery and amusing archness, as ever.
The Bright Spot, Robert Sydney. From sibs-out-law while visiting. Great dystopian noir; well written, twisty, and creepy.
The Princetta, Anne-Laure Bondoux. Bookstore rec, got from library. Lackluster fairy-tale filled with dog-languages, including dog-English and star names formed by taking syllables from existing star names and doing mix-and-match, for which I felt a surprisingly powerful hatred.
Dirty Magic, Carol Hughes. Bookstore rec from library. Interestingly steampunkish setting, but largely boring or annoying characters and a plot twist visible from a mile away. Probably would have seemed better if I were eight years old.
Magic Study, Maria V. Snyder. Post-Poison-Study travelogue with very little magic-geeking, not bad but not that interesting.
Castle Waiting, Linda Medley. She's still doing the comic, so I assume this was volume 1 even though I didn't see that anywhere. Good, mellow comics. I especially love the religious order of bearded nuns, but I'm awfully curious about that baby's daddy too.
Dokebi Bride 1, Marley. From
coffee_and_ink. I'm not crazy about the art, which is weirdly lumpish in places, but the story's great.Dramacon 2, Svetlana Chmakova. Still hooked on the story, and awfully pleased by the way the boy is trying to do right by everyone. (Not thrilled by the way the volumes are coming out something less than yearly, though. At least the next one's meant to be the last.)
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Date: 2007-05-16 03:05 am (UTC)Liza Dalby sort of annoys me, but that is because I read her Geisha first and she does the whole fetishization thing a little too much for my taste. But I did like all the charts of color combos in Kimono!
Also also, there can never be too many book posts!
no subject
Date: 2007-05-16 04:35 am (UTC)Definitely tell me if/when you find more of this story, I liked it too.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-16 05:32 am (UTC)I am trying to hold off on the Anderson until all of the series (is it a trilogy?) is out, but it's getting awfully hard.
Perhaps I will check out Boy Proof. I liked The Queen of Cool, but apparently not enough to actively seek out more (since it's been months since I read it).