Or: My library books have just come in.

I love requesting books. They appear, magically! Everything I want, ready for me to pick up! (This is slightly untrue. There are two books on Anne Lister, Regency lesbian superfox extraordinaire, that I happen to know the Metrowest library possesses, and they won't let me have them.)

I am now staring at my lovely collection of texts, completely bedazzled and uncertain which to pick up first. Help me, flist!

1. Naomi Novik, Victory of Eagles
2. Mary Jo Putney, River of Fire
3. Mary Jo Putney, Silk and Secrets
4. Pam Rosenthal, Almost a Gentleman
5. Laura Kinsale, The Dream Hunter
6. Laura Kinsale, My Sweet Folly
7. Elizabeth Vaughan, Warsworn
8. Elizabeth Vaughan, Warlord
9. Carol Berg, Flesh and Spirit
10. Carol Berg, Breath and Bone

And then there is David Kahn's The Codebreakers, which is my beloved nonfiction anecdotal history of cryptology, and is also active proof that I am only willing to go so far when it comes to writing a really historically inaccurate romance novel.

(Writing this reminds me that I haven't been keeping up with my list of read books; I feel a bit bad about that, since they're great fun to write and are helpful to have around. Perhaps I will start again with this list.)

Good gravy. I'm not even going to attempt to review all that I've read. Spoilers, should any present themselves, are cut-tagged. Currently reading: Georgiana: The Duchess of Devonshire, to be followed by one about her sister, Harriet Spencer, and then a book about Mary Lamb (sister of Charles Lamb, but not related, I don't think, to Lady Caroline Lamb) and her crazy stabbing of her mother.

Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters: Blue Noon
In the last Review entry, I mentioned that I would be watching all the relationships in this third story in the Midnighter's trilogy to see if any of them turn weird(er) than other Westerfeld YA. Answer: The Normal Kids (tm) relationship turned even creepier than the already uncomfortable Odd Kids relationship. I am displeased overall with the way that turned out, character-wise. Boo.

Anne-Laure Bondoux's The Princetta
Pseudo-fairy tale. This was one of those attempts on my part to read translated foreign YA fantasy. As I recall, this failed for me much in the way Hervé Jubert's Dance of the Assassins later did -- which is to say, I wonder how well this would have worked if I'd read it in the original French. As such, how much of this was a problem with the story, and how much with the translator? Questions, questions.

Maggie Anton's Rashi's Daughters: Joheved
This, and the next one, should've both been on the previous list. (Yay for memory!) The first of three novels meant to bring to life Rashi's daughters and their place in Medieval Jewish society. Fascinating, but almost more like a fictionalized nonfiction biography -- which is fine if that's what you're going for, though I was expecting more novel than not when I picked it up.

Maggie Anton's Rashi's Daughters: Miriam
This one, however, is just fantastic. Since the author had a lot less biographical information to go on with this, she went much more fictional, and came out with just a great story about, among other things, homosexuality and its effects on Jewish married life. Really, really good. If the third book is going to be anything like this one, I'm going to call the entire series a winner.

Sheila Williams, ed., Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine 30th Anniversary Anthology
Very nice. Had only two stories, as I recall, that I just couldn't get through (might've been the Robert Silverberg, might've been the Kim Stanley Robinson). I think my favorites were Octavia E. Butler's "Speech Sounds" (which was deliciously "hey, maybe I could write like that"), and Bruce Sterling's "Dinner in Audoghast" (for the concept alone). The most uncomfortable of the bunch was Jonathan Lethem's "The Happy Man" (which seemed to be going for a mindfuck like Chuck Palahniuk's "Guts", and then somehow really didn't make it). Leaving aside that, though, the collection's well worth checking out.

Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, eds., Dangerous Games
Was supposed to be an anthology of "game"-related SF. The first couple (those notably from the '50s and '60s, making educated guesses about where television was leading us) were great. After that... turns out there aren't that many game stories. Who knew? The remainders can only vaguely be considered game-related if you turn down the lights, squint, and then don't actually read any of them.

Roderick Townley's The Great Good Thing
Godawful YA fantasy. Took a vaguely interesting conceit (the characters in books are really living! in books! like, they have to jump around the paragraphs and take shortcuts through the pages to show up at their next scene!) and ran it into the ground. Stopped being cute after the second chapter. There is, God help me, a sequel. When I discovered that it was about the advent of the internet (all this scrolling we must do to get to our scenes!), I threw it aside with great force.

Hervé Jubert's Dance of the Assassins
Futuristic SF/F YA with recreated historical cities as tourist attractions: Victorian London, Renaissance Venice, and (as I recall) Montezuma's Mexico City. (Looking at Amazon, they're saying that Paris is in there as well, though I don't remember it.) This is supposed to be the first of The Devil's Dances trilogy, with a magical older eccentric woman and a technologically savvy young idiot detective running about trying to solve a set of Jack the Ripper-like murders. It seemed as if "one thing too many" was the main issue with the book -- magic and nanos, hardboiled thriller and Golden Age detective story, steampunk sensiblity and base consumeristic drive... which, you know, could be totally awesome if it all gelled, but as is, merely read like runny Jell-o. But, very well could've been a language problem -- unlike The Princetta, it was actually pretty good most of the time, and I suspect would've been excellent were I actually able to read French.

Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint
This seems to be on much of my flist's mind, and I saw it mentioned numerous times as "fantasy without any magic," and I thought, why not? I'm glad I read it, but I kept getting caught up in the similarities between one of the main characters and fandom's Draco Malfoy (most particularly, sarahtales's Draco, from such excellent series as Quality of Mercy and Drop Dead Gorgeous), and then being very distracted from what actually happening by the sudden wish that they'd discuss the whole Voldemort situation. Which all leads me to conclude that I must hand in my Worthy of Conducting Literary Analysis card.

Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword
The sequel to Swordspoint, several years in the future and with a younger generation. This, I loved unequivocally. Gender! Sexuality! Swordfighting! skadi, you should read this. In fact, all CMHers should read this. Scrumptious.

Tamora Pierce's Terrier
Same universe as the Alanna books, centuries (?) earlier. Very nice look at the early history of the city of Corus, somewhat questionable characterization of the bad guy. Good mystery, though, and interesting issues. Looking forward to the next one.

Fiona Buckley's Ursula Blanchard series
Elizabethan-era mysteries. Ate the whole set. (so omnomnom) The mysteries -- and, indeed, the feel of the historical setting itself -- doesn't hold up to the glory that is Sharan Newman's Catherine LeVendeur series, but has a lot of interesting character issues nonetheless (oh noes! my one true passionate love is Catholic, and wants to overthrow the Queen! whoops!). And the series, so far as I can tell, certainly isn't over yet -- I'm looking forward to the rest of them.

Maria V. Snyder's Poison Study
Picked up for the cover art, and was, for once, rewarded! Fantasy romance, but actually good. Young lady gets picked out of the execution list to become the king's foodtaster, falls for the head of the security who's teaching her how to identify poisons. Magic, murder, unknowns, great unknowns! Very nice. Only downside: Chocolate somehow involved? "Theobroma" fools no one.

Maria V. Snyder's Magic Study
Sequel to above. Did not disappoint, and in fact kept up the romance very well while adding dimension to the political issues at stake for everybody. Looking forward to reading the third book.

one billion and one historical Regency/Georgian romances
Really. So many, in fact, that I stopped keeping a complete list. The one thing that really jumped out (and which I kept a note of), is that Johanna Lindsey's The Heir had really, REALLY horrible and constantly abused Scottish accents. Ugh. Celeste Bradley, on the other hand, was rather fun (if occasionally over-the-top).

Shannon Hale's The Goose Girl
YA retelling of the fairy tale, and actually, extremely fantastico. The romance was nicely handled, and there was all sorts of political shenanigans and commentary being made. And interesting magic! Highly recommended.

Vic Gatrell's City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London
And from here, we venture into the land of nonfiction, from whence I've yet to drag myself, starting entirely with the glory that is this book. It looks at London/British society through the eyes of the caricatures printed at the time, and in the course of discussing this brings up fashion, sexuality, gender, divorce cases, scandals, famous artists, political races, popular fiction, extremely naughty ballads, the number of horses and carts on the street at any one time... Honestly, it was breathtakingly awesome. The only part I skipped was the overlong discussion of the philosophical origins of humor that took place in the intro to part two, which, well, blah. But otherwise? Oh good God, should everyone read this book. I've already requested Gatrell's other book, The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English People 1770-1868, because it looks to be just as much of a cornucopia of delightful information as this one.

Saul David's The Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency
Interesting, almost more-so for its leading me toward the primary source I quoted in my last commonplace book entry. In many ways was more of an entrance point toward more research than Gatrell's book -- in City of Laughter, I was just mesmerized by the abundance of interesting stuff going on in the time period. In David's, I can actually pinpoint what next to read, and how it all connects up. In fact, reading this (and the following books) really makes me want to go back to Gatrell's book and reread it with the more thorough understanding I've got now of the principal players of the time.

Jane Robins's The Trial of Queen Caroline: The Scandalous Affair that Nearly Ended a Monarchy
I didn't even know there was a Queen Caroline until I started all this, but my God, do I ever know it now. While the title's a bit too exciting, it's also accurate, and the research is very well done, giving a solid understanding of the evidence for and against, and the political and personal reasonings of everybody involved. Suffers a bit from never being entirely clear what year things were happening it -- the precise dates are nice, but I had difficulty placing events in the overall history.

Paula Byrne's Perdita: The Literary, Theatrical, and Scandalous Life of Mary Robinson
Ooo, a biography of the Prince of Wales's first mistress. Nummy. Has some problems in the beginning, though, with the author depending too much on Robinson's own (highly problematic) memoirs, and the end of the book, much like the end of Robinson's life, drags a bit while we're all waiting for her to die. There was a great deal of interesting information, though, particularly about publishing and the literary practices going on in the later parts of Robinson's life.

Flora Fraser's Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III
Ever since I read in David's book that one of the Prince of Wales's sisters had a child out of wedlock, I was wild to read about them. And this book by no means disappoints. Full of their letters and a complete history of their lives (which brings in a great deal of information regarding their father's madness and the formation of the regency), what's particularly interesting are the personalities that come out of this, and the varied solutions each daughter found to make a life for themselves outside of the extreme confines of the unmarried spinsterhood foisted upon them. Excellent. (DVD Extra: Good God, did everybody love Lady Mary Hamilton? George wrote his first love letters to her, and the Princess Royal's notes smack of a red hot pash in the works. Wowsa. Where's the bio of Hamilton for me to read?)

So the last time I did this was way back in April, which would suggest that my list should be ginormous. And it is. But I've found that I've also managed to forget a bunch of what I've read, so this list is actually much smaller than it should have been. I am certain there is a Lesson in this somewhere.

(I've taken the following list out of chronological order because by the end of it I was definitely wracking my brain trying to remember it all -- so it's by author or by topic or whatever made sense at the time. Spoilers, as ever, are cut-tagged.)


Scott Westerfeld's Specials
Ha! The third book in the trilogy, following Uglies and Pretties, and it finally showed up in the library. As I recall, it was both satisfying and weird, which kind of sums up most Westerfeld YA novels. I wonder what his adult stuff is like?

Scott Westerfeld's So Yesterday
This and Peeps was part of my "now I must devour all Westerfeld novels" phase. Good story about sociological principles (the transmission of fads), though I think Beth might have gotten slightly more out of it than I did, though it should have been more up my alley (cumulative authorship!). ( I think I was disturbed by... )

Scott Westerfeld's Peeps
Vampire novel! In this one, the secret science thing that's being taught to the unsuspecting YA reader is the reality of parasites and, eventually, nature's reason for parasites. Also, we have a handy side-swipe on the issue of STDs (though that one, I think, may not have had a solid a message as the previous. Relationships are a little weird in Westerfeld's books). I definitely loved this one, though -- and the parasite info was fantastic. (Note to phobics: OMG DO NOT READ THIS.)

Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters: The Secret Hour
An extra hour that starts at precisely midnight for some special kids with weird powers who end up fighting the creatures that live during that secret time. A new girl shows up -- she's a midnighter, but what's her power? I just picked this one up last week, actually, along with its two sequels. I'm not sure what the Overall Science Theme is yet, though there's a hefty dose of math and physics wandering around in it. Maybe he's also going for a folklore angle? Again, though, weird relationships. I wonder how those'll resolve in this series?

Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters: Touching Darkness
In the course of writing up these reviews, I've finished the second book as well. Our plucky psychotic malcontents realize there's Someone Else out there, and something gross but cool (plot-wise) happens. We also discover more reasons why everyone's a malcontent, but no further reasons why I should not be really uncertain about the message being given out about relationships. --Well, that's not entirely true. The Normal Kids (tm) relationship seems pretty well covered at the moment, but... we'll see. I've got volume 3 for the train ride home.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Camilla
Audio, courtesy of LibriVox. I believe I have commented on this piece in two other entries, but let me just repeat: So. Gay. In addition, the free Librivox recording is fantastic, and I fully anticipate downloading it and burning it to CD for future use.

Baroness Orzasy's The Scarlet Pimpernel
Audio, uh, "reread," LibriVox recording. The narrator was excellent, and told the story brilliantly. Unfortunately, actually listening to a certain character's constant self-recriminations in the final chapters really leaves something to be desired. The reader did her best, but really, it's a weakness of the book.

Arthur Machen's The White People
Audio reread, LibriVox recording. (Can you tell I found a new toy and used it ruthlessly during work hours?) There's a definite punch to the story when it's being narrated aloud, and I think I may have gotten more of a sense of horror from that perspective. On the other hand, I got less of an appreciation of the folk elements, which was what first drew me into loving the story. Hm.

Shakespeare's King Lear
Audio, LibriVox recording. Yes, I made it all the way through an English major (and three Shakespeare courses) without actually reading Lear. The weakness of LibraVox is revealed: Some of the volunteers did a fantastic job with their parts, and some... well. Yeah.

E. M. Forster's Maurice
Reread. A young man's journey into knowing himself, and, eventually, happiness. God, I love this book. Let me see... ah, quote at the bottom.

Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge
Whooboy. This? I did not make past page 60. As I mentioned to a friend, "I did try to read The Mayor of Casterbridge, per your rec, but I'm afraid I had to throw it against the wall after the fiftieth description of Idyllic Countryside. When Hardy was not lovingly describing the entire history of a country fair and the way the sun hit upon the dappled grasses that had remained unshorn though the honest farmer had done so these nigh on fifteen years HERE LET ME DESCRIBE EVERY ONE OF THOSE YEARS IN ACHING DETAIL, I did enjoy the dialogue and actual plot."

Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey
Started listening to it (courtesy LibriVox), but was just too entertained to keep it to work hours. Austen's parody of the gothic novel. Very spot on, and a good story as well. L'sigh.

Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea
Jane Eyre fanfic! (A literature professor just died somewhere.) Published in 1966, this book details the history of Rochester's first wife up until, ahem, the very end. Set largely in the Caribbean, it has a dreamy quality that is very... modern, is the word that's coming to mind, but not necessarily the annoying kind of modern. It's saved from that by the sheer mood of the piece, which drew me in and then left me just as uncertain about events and reality as the main character. Later, I found out that part of the basis of Rhys's novel was the fact that due to inbreeding, by the early 1800s many of the white Jamaican upperclass were possessed of rather delicate mental states; Rhys did a fantastic job of inducing a similar state in the reader.

Lois McMaster Bujold's The Sharing Knife: Beguilement
Honestly, I picked this up expecting it to be another fantasy novel along the lines of The Curse of Chalion. As such, I spent a long time looking for serious plotlines and political maneuverings in what is, essentially, a fantasy romance. Which isn't, you know, a bad thing. I was just unprepared for it. So I ended up watching these two people from different backgrounds and different cultural values meet under dangerous circumstances, followed by the necessity of sticking together in spite of their differences in order to overcome a shared difficulty, and then learn to appreciate one another and, eventually, come to love one another... while wondering when we were going to hie ourselves to a castle or something to solve a succession mystery. Clearly, though...

Lois McMaster Bujold's The Sharing Knife: Legacy
...this confusion did not hinder me from picking up the sequel. Now everyone's in love, and one family's been told, but what about the other? Now that I had a grip on the series, I was able to enjoy this one a lot more -- I mean, come on! Cultural differences! Discussed in detail! With blood involved! Pretty awesome. Downside: With the ending of this book, though, I'm kind of wondering what can happen next without a massive jump in the internal history of the series. Which, you know, possible, but inconsistent with the timeline between book 1 and 2. Bah.

Every wedding book ever
Not really. But it certainly started to feel like it.

About two months back listening at Escape Pod and Pseudopod
I went through an audio kick (witness LibriVox, above) for a few months, and part of that kick led me to listening to many of the podcast science fiction and horror short stories available on Escape Pod and Pseudopod. Unlike LibriVox, the readings tend to be consistently good -- in addition, I tended to universally enjoy the Escape Pod stories and the intros provided by Steve Eley. Pseudopod had the same problem I find with most horror short stories (I don't find them scary -- and since that's the baseline of what horror stories are trying to accomplish...), but every once in a while there'd be a keeper, and at the very least I certainly had a good time dissecting the methods each author used to try to induce a state of horror in the reader/listener. If you find yourself really trying to codify the nuts and bolts of a story, listening to it outloud should be one of your steps. You don't get caught up in the (delicious, addictive) act of reading -- it's just you and the words being dropped in your ear. And some of those words? Clunk on the way in.

Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith
A sequel to the ongoing Tiffany YA series. ( Again, to my mind... ) On the other hand, while the first book in this series was very well constructed, each subsequent one has devolved into more and more chaotic pieces of plot and cleverness and strings of thought that go nowhere -- it's kind of sad, actually, because you can see where someone *cougheditorcough* should've stepped in.

Terry Pratchett's Going Postal
A new series, set in Ankh-Morpork, about a conman getting a second chance and a new life in the public service field. Filled with the kind of clever "knowing all the tricks" stuff that has started to leave me annoyed with Night Watch books, but with a good dose of "actually, I may know all the tricks, but, um, do they know them too?" -- which I found charming.

Terry Pratchett's Making Money
Drat it. Had the same charm as Going Postal, but started to develop the same "wandering around lost in my own outline notes" problem as Wintersmith.

Victoria Hanley's The Seer and the Sword
I was swept up by its coverart. I've realized my error since then. Stupid girl, stupid boy, stupid succession crisis. Bah.

Patricia Elliott's Murkmere
Another coverart dalliance, picked up around the same time as I picked up The Seer and the Sword. Governess, girl, unhealthy fixation with swans. Susan Wade's short story The Black Swan did it better (much better). Also: Compared with the mood invoked by Wide Sargasso Sea, this felt like someone was hitting me upside the head with a THIS IS HOW YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FEEL stick. "Look! There's all this mist all over the place, and it never goes away, so it's like you can't see what's right in front of you and also it's also really depressing and kind of moldy, except with a lot more pathos."

Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series
Reread. Follows a girl in the generation after Alanna the Lionheart paved the way for female knights, the trials/tribulations she faces. Comfortable potato-chip YA (you read them one after the other without ever really feeling full).

Delia Sherman's Through a Brazen Mirror
Ever since I heard that there was a queer retelling of the ballad The Famous Flower of Serving-men, I've wanted to read this book. In the end, I really liked it and the solution to problem it presented was as close to perfect as possible. However, having just come off the pseudo-Medievalness of Pierce's universe, diving headfirst into VERY historical dialogue was not precisely an easy transition. Which is not to say Chaucer-like speech has no place in modern literature -- it was just a bit jarring. In addition, I'm still considering the Mother's role in all this -- suggesting that a reread is in order.

Mary Jo Putney's Dangerous to Know
This is actually a dual publication of two shortish romance novels -- according to my notes here, one is a reread and the other wasn't. Whatever. It was mind candy, but not (apparently) particularly memorable mind candy.

Mary Jo Putney's The Marriage Spell
So Putney's always had a bit of the supernatural in her books, and I suppose with the advent of the Paranormal Romance being Hot Stuff, someone's let her have free reign to create magical romances left and right. This is (so far) a standalone historical where the upperclass beat the magic out of their children because it's only something the poor do. So, pretty cool premise. And the beginning had a lot of promise... which all fizzled out once the male main character accepted his inner demons blah blah and realized the power of magic blah blah which all leads to love blah blah blah. Which I wouldn't have minded, say, in the last thirty pages, but having all that touchy-feely ridiculousness appear at the quarter mark was, frankly, appalling. But up to that point, aces.

Mary Jo Putney's A Kiss of Fate
What promises to be the first of a "Guardian" series of historical paranormal romances. Weather magic! Slightly unmemorable, which is unfortunate, because with the whole Bonnie Prince Charlie aspect, it should've been really cool.

Mary Jo Putney's Stolen Magic
Second in the Guardian series. Dude turns into a unicorn. Yep. Would've been cool, except -- unicorn. The end.

Johanna Lindsey's A Loving Scoundrel
I only read this romance last week, and I can't remember what it's about. But I do remember thinking very strongly that I really hate the whole "I am a glorious hedonistic male, a lover of women and a bane to good sense. I see you, and instantly, regardless of circumstances, I'm thinking about how I will sleep with you before the night is over. Yea, even if when we meet, you are disguised as a boy -- for I can tell, yo" vibe. Give me a set of characters who spend a lot of the first half-to-three-quarters of a book annoyed with one another, and you've got me hooked. (Which may explain my penchant for Snape romances, but that is a topic for a later discussion.)

Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's The Missing Magician; or Ten Years After
Third book in the Sorcery and Cecelia series, still written in epistolary fashion -- and the best one of the bunch for coordinating action and plot resolution. Discussion of people's children, a good story, and trains. Extremely satisfying.

Naomi Novik's Empire of Ivory
Fourth in the Temeraire series. A deadly plague hits the dragons -- the answer might lie in Africa. Adventure, frank discussions of slavery, and a potential end for our plucky Captain Laurence and Temeraire both. Ends on a cliffhanger, but frankly, I know Novik's good for another book in around a year or so, so I don't mind waiting.

Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen
Last in the Tamir trilogy that began with The Bone Doll's Twin. Everyone's back in their right bodies, and now there's a showdown over the throne (succession issue!). Has delightful in-characterness, though the ending is perhaps... too happy? for the universe this book is set in. Still, I think the best ending would have been a bummer of immense proportions, and I didn't feel like reading something on those lines anyway. Everyone's a winner! And that's it, folks.

SO GAY.

( And so you were thinking of the night I came here? )



Dear professor who was obsessed with finding queer Victorian literature for our reading lists regardless of the actual class subject,

You missed one.

Severe disappointment,
Me

Or; the gayest gay that ever gayed.

( She used to place her pretty arms about my neck, draw me to her... )

There's no doubt a pile of books I've forgotten to add between the last time I updated like this and now, but here's what I've got a list of at the moment. Some of these are from before Christmas, so some of these may be more like five seconds than the lengthy, glorious ten seconds I've come to know and love. Oh well. Future reads: Maurice (again), and probably The Silence of the Lambs.

Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
A mysterious woman moves into Wildfell Hall with child in tow. Where's her husband? Where's her family? Where's her sense of common decency, the did-you-hear-she-actually-provides-for-herself-by-painting slut? I saw the BBC production of this long before I read the book, but the book is definitely a keeper. A lot of fascinating messages for the time, and I do like the love story.

Jo Walton's Farthing
Alternate history: Britain caves to Hitler. A country house murder mystery is the story in the foreground. I liked it, quite a lot, ( although... )

Lou Anders's (editor) Futureshocks
An SF anthology that was supposed to be (I think) a sort of SFnal horror mix. Frankly, I was unimpressed. Maybe I'm just more of a Dozois or Nielsen Hayden sort of girl, but I was suprised by the generally blah level of the stories.

Mercedes Lackey's The Arrows of the Queen, Arrow's Flight, Arrow's Fall, and Take a Thief
Magical horses and a female-centric worldview. These were the first Lackey books I've ever read, and they were... all right. I was more engrossed than I thought I'd be, but on the other hand, I found myself reading them as I do romance novels -- with just half a brain. When I tried to read more, well, I tripped on whichever Valdemar book had the backstory for the big dude, and I never really got back on the horse.

Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun
A man and his life after the war. More than that from me, and it'll take away from it. Fabulous. Even more fabulous, though, were the introductory essays Trumbo wrote -- one for World War I, one for World War II, and one for Vietnam. Trumbo's disgust is tightly controlled, and powerful.

Scott Westerfeld's Uglies, Pretties
Very brill YA SF about an appearance-obsessed society and the lengths that are gone to achieve this "perfect" world. It's a trilogy, and I have not yet read Specials. Damn your popularity, Westerfeld! The library can never keep the third book on the shelves.

Jeffrey A. Kottler and Jon Carlson's (editors) The Mummy at the Dining Room Table
A nonfiction collection of essays from (very Freudian) therapists describing their strangest cases. Fascinating (to an extreme), but very filled with teh Freud and his pervasive... pervasiveness.

Terry Pratchett's Night Watch
A time-travel entry in the Vimes series of Pratchett stories. Reread. Many people list this as one of their favorite Pratchetts and... well, I still don't see it. The lilac sprig has never been mentioned previously, but whatever -- more importantly, Vimes is too damn perfect. Every sneaky thing that could be thought of? He's thought of it. Every clever way to resolve a situation. He is all over it. Bah. It's fun, sure, but it's the fun of a Mary Sue -- confectionary with a bad aftertaste. Reminds me of my problems with Pierce's Tricksters's Choice/Trickster's Queen books.

Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment
In comparison, bunches of people hate this book. It's mostly a standalone (with vast Vimes cameos), regarding a distant land, a distant war, and the sacrifices of fair maidens. It's a gender book! It's got gay people! It says things... things that resonate in my brain and I haven't figured out what the words are yet! What little fanfic there is all tries to deal with this -- thing -- in the book, and none of it quite makes it.

Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar
Excellent story of a girl going mad. Disturbing in conjunction with Plath's own story.

Holly Black's Tithe
YA of some variety. Faeries and whatnot. Kind of crap. Kind of = mostly. Blah.

I was a horrid child, this time; I didn't keep an adequate list of what I'd been reading, I didn't read very much at all (read: any) of the classic literature I'd planned to, and now I've listed all higgledy-piggledy the books I've managed to remember (because while I can remember that I've read them, sort of, I can't at all think of what order I may have read them in). Anyway. Ten-second reviews for your enjoyment, spoilers beneath cut tags, and previous reviews in the "reading" tag. Next time: Probably The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and I'd really like to try and get into The Portrait of a Lady -- I bogged down in the fourth chapter, but I think I can overcome it if I'm not drawn to Bronte-like temptations.

Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers
A young jackanapes wants to join the King of France's personal lynch mob, and manages to do so through a great deal of swaggering bravado and expensive meals. Confession: I have not finished this book. I believe Milady had made it out of jail in England before I bailed, but beyond that, I haven't cared enough to pick up the book and see how it all ends. I have the impression that this story would be a lot more fun and interesting if I were twelve years old and reading it for the first time -- however, at the grand old age of twenty-four, I find leaping about and killing people for looking at one funny kind of, well, boring.

Christopher Priest's The Prestige
baldanders described The Prestige as "both one of the best stories about stage magic I've ever read and one of the best horror novels, period" when he was talking about it in conjunction with the film being made from it. All in all, I have to agree. ( What I found particularly interesting... ) Just to be persnickety, however, I did thoroughly despise the cover art.

Laurie R. King's The Beekeeper's Apprentice
She's a half-American theology student with no patience for idiots. He's Sherlock Holmes. They fight crime. Reread. One of my favorites, I first read this when I was fifteen years old (as was the protagonist, so this was pretty high up on my "cool" list). ( After nearly ten years of familiarity... )

Lois McMaster Bujold's Memory
Two men getting their lives completely ruined, and then continuing on anyway. Reread. I used to read a scene in this whenever I had to gird myself up for something that required a lot of self-esteem and projecting of personal space. Now... I'm not sure what I would read this for. Don't seem to need the scene for that anymore.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Komarr
Miles tries not to fall in love with a married woman. Married woman goes "ack." Reread. Wanted to see Miles meeting Ekaterin again. Whee.

Lois McMaster Bujold's A Civil Campaign
Miles goes a'courting. Ekaterin tries not to pull her own eyeballs out over the course of the plot. Ekaterin's child, Nikki, renders much service to the narrative. Reread. This was actually the first Vorkosigan book I read in the series -- whoops. However, much as I may like the set up for Miles and Ekaterin's relationship, ( something I suspected... )

William Goldman's Which Lie Did I Tell?
Aside from having a cool title, this is a sequel to a previous nonfiction work of Goldman's (author of both the book and the movie The Princess Bride, among other things); as with the previous, this deals with the screenwriting life. Half writing guide, half Really Good Examples of Why I Never Want to Be In the Same Room as William Goldman, Oh My God, His Issues Are Sucking All the Air Out of My Lungs, this is a fascinating look into the wild world of prostitution writing film scripts. Confession: The last 100 pages or so, he puts up a screenplay he wrote (specifically for the book) and comments from a bunch of other screenwriters on how to make it better. I skipped the screenplay, read the comments, and haven't regretted either decision.

Georgette Heyer's Arabella
Girl says she's a heiress when she isn't in order to miff a rich guy who thinks she's after his money. Much silliness ensues. Heyer evidently had a fondness for unfeeling wretches who find themselves hopelessly charmed by naivete. Either that or her reading audience did. Still, I liked it, and the unfeeling wretch wasn't completely unlikeable. Not bad, really.

Torey Hayden's Beautiful Child, One Child, Ghost Girl, Somebody Else's Kids, Twilight Children, and Murphy's Boy
Torey Hayden is a special needs educator with a specialty in elective mutism. She writes narrative nonfiction or some such -- basically, she follows the lead of the All Creatures Great and Small fellow, writing her work with troubled children as fiction. I find it fascinating, but there is basically one narrative line: Torey gets a new class; Torey is disturbed by the issues revealed by the kids; Torey overcomes her own worries/doubts/horror; some outside thing happens that is tangetially related to the A-plot, but which strikes a meaningful chord; Torey helps the children overcome their issues (or at least, enter the judicial system); the school year ends. --Having laid that out, though, I should say that repeating plots don't really bother me (how many Harry-becomes-a-teacher-at-Hogwarts-and-seduces-Snape stories have I read?), and these are certainly worth the read. Also, I find them filled with happy plot/character bunnies to steal steal steal (or at least, seriously manipulate for my own wicked ends).

I still like reviewing things I've read. No spoilers this time, so no cuts. Other ten-second reviews can be found by following the "reading" tag.

Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Kind of glad I didn't read this right after Girl, Interrupted -- I think both would have suffered from the comparison. Tried to imagine what reading it when I was in 7th grade might have been like. Was vaguely horrified by the notion.

Georgette Heyer's Faro's Daughter
Not terribly memorable. One of the thin romances. I remember a gambling house... kidnapping... hate/love plot... which now that I think about it, makes me want to go read some good old fashioned Harry/Draco. Yeah.

Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
I have a rule. I must read sixty pages into every book -- by the sixty page mark, I'll either want to keep reading or... I won't. This one was a won't. I found it annoying, not well thought out, and too young. There was probably really significant stuff going on, trailblazing for its time, and satire enough to make angels weep. Gah.

Lynn Flewelling's The Bone Doll's Twin
Excellent fantasy, completely absorbing. I ate its brains, and oracne, you were right, I'm very glad I had the sequel on hand.

Lynn Flewelling's The Hidden Warrior
Hee! The sequel to The Bone Doll's Twin, this book was sex and drugs and big-ass genderbending soldiers. Yay! The third book comes out this month. *haunts bookstore*

Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades
I had this whole little dialogue written up describing the intensely weird sex/gender relations in this book, but then I decided that there were too many exclamation points and wrote this instead.

Charles Dickens's, Great Expectations
Much, much funnier than I was ever led to believe. Also, not at all about some great romance between Pip and Estella, and much better for the lack. I dislike having been lied to by popular culture. *shakes fist*

Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence
Brilliant. Best line of the entire book (and serious contender for my favorite written line ever): "She's your Fanny, isn't she?" So much is brought together with that. So much makes sense. It is utterly perfect, and it doesn't sound impressive at all.

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
Hee! Unlike much of the classic literature that gets stuffed down children's throats, I rather think I might have enjoyed this one as a kid. The small town life described is utterly enjoyable, while the message and the storytelling is top-notch.

(I sometimes -- like now -- feel very silly giving my stamp of approval to books that are considered genius/Western canon/pretty darn important. I mean, am I saying that yes, To Kill a Mockingbird gets to keep its prestigious place in the history of well-written literature because I said it was a-okay? My God, how ridiculous.)

Jo Beverly's St. Raven
And this is me recovering from reading Classics by delving into the sordid depths of historical romance. (Mmm, tastes like fetid.) This book is all well and good, except Mary Jo Putney does dark+dirty history better, and there is, again, a highwayman. Why? Why must there be highwaymen? And why can't any of them be Mal Reynolds travelling back through time to shift Earth-that-was's history enough to cause the destruction of the Alliance and the reigning of Chinese/Dixie accents forever? Why?

Because I love reviewing things, but hate the actual writing of such -- Ten-Second Reviews, with occasional cuts for whatever spoilers may turn up in single-sentence pronouncements of classic/recent literature.

Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera
Chapter 1 can be summarized as "How I was actually right all along, and the rest of you were, in consequence, so totally wrong that it boggles the mind that you're even still disagreeing with me, omg, suck it." The book's pretty funny, actually -- I am shocked.

Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White
Reminds me that I like the switched identity plot. Also, the turn at the end of Part 2 does justifiably rock my socks. ( Unfortunately... )

Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders
Can't figure out if I Learned Something Special about redemption because of the introduction, or if I saw Our Lord Jesus Fish everywhere because Defoe mentioned it right at the beginning with "and by the way, while Moll Flanders sounds totally cool, dude, she REPENTED because the things she done was BAD." On the other hand, the badass bits were pretty cool, regardless of how sorry she felt about it afterwards.

Jo Beverley's Skylark
What was this about? A wife... uh... society girl before she was married, falls for first friend/early suitor, even though he gave her a nickname she didn't like? Something.

Jo Beverley's Hazard
Girl with club foot finds true love. Liked the class issues and dealing with disability; did not like the timely appearance of a highwayman to settle things. Bah.

Georgette Heyer's The Foundling
"It was a race!" is now my most favorite line EVER. A bit heavy with the exclamation points, but the fifteen-year-old boy was perfect.

Dorothy Sayers' Murder Must Advertise
Peter Wimsey lives my life, understands my sorrows, and HE LOVES ME. Also, good mystery, and it's really funny reading Inspector Parker talk about the problems of catching drug runners. Because we have improved our methods so much in the intervening years. Yes. So much.

Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's Sorcery and Celicia
The problem with the letters, in my mind, was that there were two different climaxes with two different denouements -- meaning that you got the denouement for one storyline, leaving everyone all relaxed and such-like, and then bam, another climax. On the other hand, I heart historical fantasy.

Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's The Grand Tour
Very well-handled -- I heart this even more, ( though... )

Terry Pratchett's Mort
Death was weird and scary when he was "younger." Is this because mid-life crises are as much fun for anthropomorphized life functions as it is for humanity? ( Also... )

Terry Pratchett's The Wee Free Men
I really enjoyed this. Accents are fun if done correctly, and the "dealing with death of a loved one" was way cool. But it seemed as if Pratchett's usually fantastic handling of climaxes was absent this time around. Which is okay, I suppose -- I'd read this again for the characters. But still. Sadness.

Terry Pratchett's A Hat Full of Sky
Again with the character love, although the plot was... actually, I can't remember the plot. So there you go. ( The big thing for me was... )

Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad
I heart fairy tales. It also makes me appreciate how Pratchett has grown as an author.

Terry Pratchett's Soul Music
Makes more sense having read Mort. ( On the other hand... )

Dorothy Sayer's Lord Peter Views the Body
Excellent batch of short stories, though I wish I'd had a clue on the outset when they were supposed to be set -- I was thoroughly surprised by Jerry being 10-years-old (though his story was THE BEST). Anyway. Entertaining.

Pamela Dean's Tam Lin
What I remembered about Dean's Tam Lin was the basic plot and that it seemed to be largely about sex. ( Having now reread it... )

Bonus:

Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
I read this shortly before moving, and since wayman asked what I thought then, and I didn't answer, I'm sticking this on the end. Very simply, it reminds me of all my very favorite research in college, mixed delightfully with Arthur Machen's The White People, and then lightly toasted with classic literature. ( My only scruple is that... ) Which is not to say that I don't think everyone should read it; it's marvelous. It just... takes some understanding of the purpose of the story.

Hm. stumbledhere writes that "the other night I made a list of my favorite dS [due South] fic moments. Not my favorite fics, or the ones I read all the time, but just the moments that I replay in my head sometimes when I am sitting on the subway or driving for a long time or stopped at a red light or staring at the ceiling in my bedroom.

"I am going to post mine (with story links), and then I want people to post theirs (with links) (either here, or in their own journal and post a link here so I can read it). I'm interested in what people will say."

Now, I don't read dS, so instead I did a quick review of my favorite moments in general.

( More embarrassing fandoms than you can shake a stick at behind this cut tag. )