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Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
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9:58 pm - Against a Fine Fool; Catering to Wonder
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A Fine Ending, by Louis Rastelli
I bought this novel because it was set in Montreal in the 90s and that's also what I liked best about it. But the matter of fact prose is somehow rather tasty as well.
(126/275, 5/75)
To Play the Fool, by Laurie R. King
The language, setting, and characterization in this mystery were really enjoyable. The plot felt like a bit of a pretext but I didn't mind much because I was caught up in the story anyway.
(127/275, 6/75)
Against a Dark Background, by Iain M. Banks
This is very smart and very literary space opera, and I really didn't care for it until about halfway through. After which I thought it was awesome, go figure.
(128/275, 7/75)
Catering to Nobody, by Diane Mott Davidson
I liked Cereal Murders well enough that I picked up a bunch of her other books - and I've finally got around to tackling the series in order. This one made such good vacation reading that I may save the others for the same purpose...
(129/275, 8/75)
Tales of Wonder, by Huston Smith with Jeffrey Paine
Things I like: 1) autobiographies, 2) travel books, 3) religious books that aren't too dogmatic, 4) charming old men. Big surprise, I really enjoyed this short, crisp look at the famous religion writer's own life.
(130/275)
current mood:  hot
current music: "Don't You Forget About Me," Simple Minds
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| Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
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8:43 pm - Random Librarian Life; Copyright Princess
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Reading and the Reference Librarian, by Juris Dilevko and Lisa Gottlieb
Dry dry dry. I read this because so many books I did like referenced it, and there were a few useful nuggets of info, but for the most part it's been surpassed. And I felt like it was either preaching to the choir (it's not exactly hard to convince me that extensive, eclectic reading is valuable) or had been proved wrong by subsequent developments.... and did I mention, DRY? I'm sure it was very useful in sparking further discussion/research, because like I said, so many later-published things I liked made reference to it.
(121/275)
About This Life, by Barry Lopez
I liked this book so much I'm already looking forward to rereading it and planning to give it as a gift. Essays by someone who I tend to consider a nature writer, although 2 of the best essays in here concern pottery and globalization (er, one topic for each essay). Highly recommended.
(122/275)
Random Family, by Adrian Nicole Leblanc
This was a really fast, compelling read. A bit on the emotionally overwhelming side, stuff just kept HAPPENING and HAPPENING to the people she writes about (and it's a little weird to read about some of the awful things that happen to little kids ... very hungry, sick, hurt, abused ... that the author either chose, for the sake of her relationships with her subjects, to ignore, or that she didn't SAY anything about trying to ameliorate). And this is one of those rare cases where I would've preferred some more explicit analysis alongside the thoroughly told story. Still, a great job of telling people's lives with lots of context - and it kind of has an oral history feel while remaining very clear to read.
(123/275)
Forever Princess, by Meg Cabot
Needed this fun fluffy fluff to catch my breath after the last one. Sometimes it's NICE when things are predictable, especially if they are also funny.
(124/275)
An Unhurried View of Copyright, by Benjamin Kaplan with contributions from friends
(I didn't link to the one I read because I can't find that one.) Useful and seminal work, published in the 60s - it was interesting to get so much background, and the contributions were much more recent and provided some interesting perspectives even when I found myself arguing out loud with them (much to my embarrassment)!
(125/275)
current mood: should be packing
current music: fallout three in the other room
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| Saturday, June 27th, 2009
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10:17 pm - Deadly Bone Name Demons
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Deadly Décisions, by Kathy Reichs
The infodumps were very clunky. (And I'm thinking maybe me being in denial about how bad the Montreal biker war was while I was living in Montreal during the biker war made me less interested in this book for odd psychological reasons.) Still fun enough that I will keep reading the series but I thought the first two were better written...
(117/275)
Bad to the Bone, by Jeri Smith-Ready
Perfect page-turner smart fluff book. Seriously, if all my fluff series were this good, I wouldn't read anything BUT fluff... Second in a series about a vampire radio station and the protagonist ex-con marketing manager trying to hold things together against the forces of evil (hint: the vamp DJs? not part of said forces).
(118/275)
Someone Knows My Name, by Lawrence Hill
A beautiful lyrical powerful historical that surprised me by being a very easy read. Highly recommended.
(119/275)
One! Hundred! Demons!, by Lynda Barry
I always enjoy her cartoons! Dark without being bleak, and very "oh yeah, I remember feeling that way"... even when I haven't felt that way.
(120/275)
current mood: exhausted
current music: dryer noises
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| Friday, June 19th, 2009
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4:36 pm - De Niro's Outrageous Ysabel; From Archangel Hunters
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De Niro's Game, by Rawi Hage
When I started this book my first impression was "OH MAN I hate this kind of book!" But I kept on for a bit and then I quickly started to love it. Comparisons to Camus' The Stranger are inevitable, but the hero of this tale of profound alienation is a lot less alienating, and there's a lot more plot.
(111/275)
Ysabel, by Guy Gavriel Kay
I raced my way through Kay's Fionavar Tapestry in high school and then kept finding all his later historical fantasy works fundamentally boring and/or forgettable, despite my best efforts. With Ysabel, the author returns to the modern-fantasy-with-historical-aspects mold of the early trilogy, and I was once again completely absorbed by the story. Stayed up really late to finish it the same night I started it and everything.
(112/275)
Two Songs This Archangel Sings, by George C. Chesbro
If you like gloriously pulpy 80s detective novels that aren't afraid to borrow from any genre whatsoever to get the job done, it doesn't come any better than Chesbro's Mongo series. And this is a very good entry in the series. I originally only read a few of the later entries, and I can feel the writing/not-quite-as-cheesy-ness approaching the excellence of those later ones (I hope I hope I hope... otherwise it's just my teen self not being as fussy as my adult self). Pulpiness aside, these are a lot of fun and I love the protagonist's way of seeing the world.
(113/275)
Witty, Weird, and Outrageous: Saki Favorites, by Saki (unabridged audio)
The reader for these did a bang-up job and while the collection was sadly lacking Tobermory, my personal favorite Saki story, it DID contain Sredni Vashtar (do a find for the story title on that page), my photo-finish second-favorite. I have a great fondness for Saki - he was one of a very few authors whose name made me perk up when reading school-required short story anthologies, as I thought to myself, "At least THIS one won't be boring!"
(114/275)
From Harvey River, by Lorna Goodison
A lyrical "memoir" that is mostly about the author's family, mostly her maternal family, and about the culture she and her mother grew up in - not so much about the author herself. Beautifully pleasant to read and powerfully evocative of place and character; and if you grew up listening to all the family stories, recalling your own stories as you dip into this collection of Goodison's (so well retold and stitched together and clarified) should be an added pleasure. Delightful.
(115/275)
The Fruit Hunters, by Adam Leith Gollner
The author is eloquent and impassioned on the subject of fruit, and his enthusiasm makes this a fun read. He comes from a journalistic background and I found myself wishing for a fact checker when it comes to science outside the realm of botany... there are some truly egregious errors in here, and I couldn't convince myself they were ALL poetic license. The historical reasoning gets pretty fuzzy too. And there are times when I thought in his effort to make people more interesting, he revealed things about them that didn't seem kosher to me. However, the book isn't about biology or history or biography, really, it's just about the human relationship with fruit in all its weirdness and wonder - and it's great about that! Recommended, especially if you are less tetchy about the above caveats than I am.
(116/275)
current mood: my head kinda hurts
current music: Paul Simon stuck in my head "These are the days of miracle and wonder..."
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| Saturday, June 13th, 2009
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3:35 pm - Sweet Towering Coat Fish
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Sweet Tea, edited by E. Patrick Johnson
A book of oral history - interviews with men who are a) black, b) from the South, and c) gay (though there are also some interviews with people transitioning to female who may or may not ever have identified as gay). The interviews are well-edited but still with plenty of the original speaker's voice in 'em, and everything is arranged and introduced with insight and verve. Thumbs up!
(107/275)
The Towering World of Jimmy Choo, by Lauren Goldstein Crowe and Sagra Maceira de Rosen (ARC)
I read a lot of great non-fiction and my standards are high - especially for business books since I don't read many of them.... and this is mainly a business book .... and it just doesn't meet my usual standards. The analysis is pretty superficial and even the straight-up reporting sometimes drowned the really interesting information in tangents and trivia. I would've liked a lot more fashion/history/biography and a lot less scandal/market reporting. The book doesn't come close to, say, Dan Baum's Citizen Coors, and I think I was expecting something more than I got since it was a Bloomsbury book - I'm usually a big fan of their stuff. I'm also hoping that, for the finished edition, they fixed all the horrible grammar that kept taking me out of the sentences to yell "AUGH THAT COMMA IS IN THE WRONG PLACE AGAIN WHAT DO THEY TEACH IN SCHOOLS THESE DAYS!!! - although I doubt the authors are much younger than I am. I know, it's an ARC, I give those a lot of slack on typos/grammar, but this was beyond awful. Every freaking page, almost. If they did fix the grammar, it's frothy and gossipy enough to make a decent time-filler, but I didn't get anything more than that out of it, except maybe a desire to read more about Jimmy Choo and Sandra Choi - I actually did enjoy the chapter on Choo's own backstory quite a bit.
(108/275)
Turn Coat, by Jim Butcher
The latest Harry Dresden book. Everything I wanted from it (including a nice break from reading nonfiction, nonfiction, and more nonfiction) and some important (and at times disturbing) secondary character development. Butcher keeps me hooked like pretty much nobody else... I had to sit out in the car while my beloved was in the grocery store because OMG I was right in the middle of a Very Important Fight and just could not put the book down.
(109/275)
Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World, by Theodore C. Bestor
This is definitely an academic book, not for the innately jargon-averse (such people might want to read The Zen of Fish aka The Story of Sushi by Trevor Corson instead). That said, it's quite witty and well-written and not dry in the least. I was very impressed... even if I did skim some of the more technical bits, there were also sections where I couldn't bring myself to put the book down - not bad for an ethnography of a fish market! Plenty of intelligent insights and lucid descriptions - a nice antidote for that OTHER business-related book a little way up the entry:).
(110/275)
current mood: kitty therapist
current music: The Killers, Mr. Brightside
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| Saturday, June 6th, 2009
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1:02 pm - Fiery Low Leyendas
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The Fiery Cross, by Diana Gabaldon
It took me a while to remember all the subplots for this series but once I got sorted I really enjoyed being immersed in this giNORmous novel. Will definitely be finishing off the rest of them, probably this summer. I love a book that goes on forever without dragging.
(104/275)
The Valley So Low, by Manly Wade Wellman
Interesting, quite short, dark fantasy stories based on Southern folklore. They are much of a muchness, one to the next, but I found that rather comforting.
(105/275)
Mitos y leyendas latinoamericanas, published by Educar Cultural Recreativa
Sadly I am still at the level of language acquisition where reviews are kind of pointless. Yay me! I could understand 80 percent of what the book was telling me. :P
(106/275)
current mood: chore-avoidant
current music: tetrisfriends.com
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| Friday, June 5th, 2009
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8:50 am - cohen
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| Monday, May 25th, 2009
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10:57 pm - NFYA Reader's Advisory
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Reality Rules! A Guide to Teen Nonfiction Reading Interests, by Elizabeth Fraser
I feel like this book should've been about twice as thick and all the extra pages put into the shortest chapters of the existing text.... I kept thinking stuff like "hey but what about THIS obvious and awesome book" (it came out in 2008. There is NO mention of anything Dave Eggers and/or 826 Valencia does... and it mentions the music spin-off of Nancy Pearl's excellent Book Lust, but neither Book Lust nor the follow up version FOR TEENS, Book Crush, gets a nod...) and also thinking stuff like "did we really need recommendations for MULTIPLE diet books in a 200-ish page book?" I don't think it's a bad book so much as that my expectations for this series were set unnaturally high by HOW awesome the GLBTQQ volume was... there were quite a few extremely interesting annotated reviews of books I'd never heard of before in here, and it really is a Sisyphean task to cover all of YA nonfiction in 200 pages.
(103/275)
current mood:  sleepy
current music: "LOOOOOOVE ME HOOOOOOLD ME"
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1:18 pm - Tulip in Air
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The Cat with the Tulip Face, by A.R. Morlan
An odd and strangely charming little novella. Interesting enough that upon discovering it is a prequel to The Amulet, I ILL'd The Amulet.
(101/275)
Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, by the obvious (edited by Thomas Travisano with Saskia Hamilton)
Okay, the first thing is that these letters are utterly brilliant and if you are interested in writers' correspondence and in the middle decades of the American century as seen by these two people, you might even want to BUY them, let alone just read them somehow. The second thing is that as read straight through? It's an awfully long book (another reason why you may want to buy the book rather than borrowing it). 800 pages of the same two people talking only to each other gets ... not really boring but more just kind of overwhelming or more-than-enough in some ways. Like how watching two best friends have a conversation you're not part of can be interesting for a while, but would you really want to do it for hours on end? The third thing is that as I got further along in the book I got sort of frustrated, because it seemed like some letters that were "lost" were probably deliberately lost either before the authors died or by one or another of their inheritors.... things were much more complete in the early years and the last decade or so is FULL of skips - no longer felt like the "Complete Correspondence" at that point. But really I love books of letters and this is an excellent example of its kind, and if you love books of letters you should dig in to it.
(102/275)
current mood: tengo hambre
current music: LOTS of thunder. ok ok i get the message, turning off computer now
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| Friday, May 22nd, 2009
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8:17 pm - Wild cama
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No tengo sueño y no quiero irme a la cama, by Lauren Child
Cute little kid's book, another in my practicing-reading-Spanish project. Loved the illustrations and the vibrancy.
(99/275)
Wild Cards Volume 1, edited by George RR Martin
I really liked the world-building and some of the writing but the pessimism got to me after a while. Hopeful things were few and far between (in a dystopia! gee, whoda thunk?) - and in a short story collection, that means depressing ending after depressing ending. Still, I intend to continue with the series. This book stayed interesting, even when it was leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
(100/275)
current mood: YAY THREE DAY WEEKEND YAY
current music: my brain has been a radio station today.
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| Monday, May 18th, 2009
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6:06 pm - i am reminded
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For those that remember the story of the ritual squirrel sacrifice last year, either Louche's sacrificial victim was NOT Angry Squirrel, or (probably more likely) Angry Squirrel left behind a descendant who has stepped up and taken over angry squirrel duties.
When I went into the backyard in the late morning 2 or 3 days ago, I got scolded for a solid 5 minutes. Go go Angry Squirrel 2.0!!
current mood: tummy is kind of grumpy
current music: dryer noises
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| Saturday, May 16th, 2009
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10:37 pm - Crash Strides; Eyes of Guernica
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Crash Course in Reference, by Charlotte Ford
This was aimed at a reference person working solo in a small library, but it was still pretty interesting for me to read. She has a good perspective.
(95/275)
The Strides of Vishnu, by Ariel Glucklich
Wonderfully fascinating book on (some parts of) Indian philosophy, with lots of interesting bits from archaeology and anthropology mixed in. Sadly marred by a) crappy printing and b) crappy proofing - a sentence should not refer to someone as a second wife AND a third wife, SAME person, in the SAME sentence... I don't care how long the sentence is - and there were lots more examples as irritating as that one. I expect better from OUP.
(96/275)
Eyes of Crow, by Jeri Smith-Ready
I was a bit dubious about this romantic fantasy because the author's only other book that I'd read (and enjoyed) was about a vampire radio station. And this one was all pastoral-mildly-post-apocalyptic-y. Seemed a bit of a leap. But I *really* enjoyed the world-building/how-magic-works and was also down with characterization, plot, dialogue, etc. Definitely looking forward to the 2nd one.
(97/275)
Guernica, by Dave Boling (ARC)
A touching novel about some people who lived in Guernica during the bombing or were otherwise tied to the town. Historical novels often come in one of 2 flavors: 1) the story is more important and the history is window-dressing, or 2) the history is more important and the story is window-dressing. While I enjoy both, I tend to favor type 1. This is type 2 but I still liked reading it. And if you tend to favor type 2, you will probably love it.
(98/275)
current mood: these boots were made for walkin', and that's just what they've done
current music: I have "All the Small Things" trapped in my head for some reason
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| Sunday, May 10th, 2009
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12:54 pm - Guiding Mean Silent Kitteridge to Fury
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Guiding the Reader to the Next Book, edited by Kenneth Shearer
This was cited so much in other books I read that I thought it would be really great reading. Sadly I felt pretty meh about most of it ... I think the other books I read were kind of the nextgen approach and so this one felt out of date. There were a few really wonderful articles though, like the one about an individual reader's reading history, that made slogging through the rest of it worthwhile.
(90/275)
Princeps' Fury, by Jim Butcher
Very much enjoyed this installment, particularly the bits with Ehren and Isana in. I admit I'm probably ready for the series to END, so it's feeling a bit dragged-out ... but still, if they stay this good, I'll happily keep reading them. I could see there being just one more.
(91/275)
Mean Streets, by Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Kat Richardson, and Thomas E. Sniegoski
The Jim Butcher story I read this for was a bit ham-handed and preachy, though still entertaining. The other two were alright. The Sniegoski story REALLY got to me, despite my initial dubiousness about the premise/protagonist; I loved it and will be reading the novel set in the same world pronto.
(92/275)
Things I've Been Silent About, by Azar Nafisi
While I didn't love this quite as much as I loved Reading Lolita in Tehran, it was still really really good. And for those who found Reading Lolita too full of litcrit, this one is much more about real people, real times, real places, without as many authorial digressions into the intellectual. (I'm a big fan of authorial digressions in non-fiction, hence my preference for the first book.)
(93/275)
Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
So I mostly read this book because I have yet to be less than pleased by reading a Pulitzer Prize winner, and I was already interested in this particular one anyway. I was, in fact, pleased by it. I still trust the Pulitzer committee, and it's a really good book. And I like reading things set in Maine because they're close enough to being set in the Maritimes to push my "comfort reading" buttons. I'm glad I read it. But it's really not my usual cup of tea, which I think is why I wasn't all THAT pleased. On some level I felt like I was reading Stephen King without all the nifty world-building & scary bits. It's a very well-told set of stories that just don't end up being about stuff I'm all that interested in... and don't transcend themselves enough to make me fall in love anyway. Solid, not breath-taking.
(94/275)
current mood: accomplished
current music: none
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| Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
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11:42 am - Backup Lives; Bones in Motion; Brutal Blood
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Backup, by Jim Butcher
I didn't expect much from this short novella other than a predictable infusion of Jim-Butcher-juice, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I'd rate this among his best works. He really brought Thomas to life, front and center, and Thomas is nothing like Harry or Tavi, who for all their charms are similar enough that I figured there was really only one first person voice Butcher could do well. I was wrong!
(84/275)
Nine Lives, by Lynn Snowden
I didn't actually set out to read two books with the same title this month, it just happened. Anyway, I really liked this one - the author spent short amounts of time trying out 9 different jobs, some stereotypically girly, some stereotypically butch; some enviable and some that are traditionally thought of as awful jobs to do. I think my favorite part was the very first, about her stint as a Skid Row pyrotechnician, but the whole thing was a fun and engaging read with some interesting points to make about the nature of work.
(85/275)
Bodies in Motion, by Mary Anne Mohanraj
Stunningly good stories, often sensual, sometimes heartwrenching. I often claim I don't like short stories, and sometimes I dispute that claim - in this case, I'm pulling out the "linked short stories are really more like a novel anyway" loophole. Anyway! It's good, you should read it, and I can't believe it took me this long to get around to reading it considering it came in 2005, and I first read writing by Ms. Mohanraj online back in .... 1996? 1997? A Very Long Time Ago. If you have been similarly foolish, fix it! And if you've never heard of her before, this is a great place to start.
(86/275)
Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones, by Brandon Sanderson
I remembered how much I liked the first book in this YA series, but I had forgotten how completely swoony I was over the voice! The narrator (first-person, intrusive to the point of obnoxiousness if it weren't so damn hilarious) really makes this story, but the plot's pretty nifty too. Excited that the 3rd is coming out this fall!
(87/275)
Verdict in Blood, by Gail Bowen
The Brutal Heart, by Gail Bowen
Verdict filled in some blanks for me, dunno how I missed it the first time around - but knowing some of the stuff that happens later didn't mess up the story any; it made some things more poignant. One of the best in the series. The Brutal Heart was excellent character- and digression-wise (which is why I read mysteries, honestly), but the "surprise" ending was so obvious to me that I was stressing out mightily for the last hundred pages or so, and kind of expecting a last minute reverse twist that I did not get. Not my favorite of her plots. (On the other hand, if my beloved spouse hadn't been pestering me "SO DO YOU KNOW WHO DUNNIT?" ceaselessly, perhaps I wouldn't have bothered to notice and the suspension-of-disbelief-mystery-version would've swept me along to the end.)
(88/275, 89/275)
current mood:  thoughtful
current music: "There's never enough whisky, there's never enough gin. I'm still down in the gutter and I'll do it
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| Saturday, April 25th, 2009
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5:16 pm - Sea of Joker Devices; Nine Years' Science Defusing Little King
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| Sunday, April 19th, 2009
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8:23 pm - home again
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Had very good trip with lots of visiting, eating, zooing, bookshopping, and even a movie. Saw wonderful peoples.
Am sleepy now.
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| Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
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10:29 pm - because I know Jaybird wants to post this and I know he won't get around to it
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She loves him a lot. If I did that to her she would bite my nose. Heck, she bit my nose last night just because I wouldn't come to bed on time (she had gotten tired of the flirty/affectionate reminders). And every time I stop typing and rest my hand on the mouse tonight, she comes and sits on my wrist.
current mood: hoping to be sleepy soon
current music: Irish and Celtic Music Podcast
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| Sunday, April 12th, 2009
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11:32 pm - Sunday night at our house
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11:23 am - Shadow Tapestry; Rumspringa Teaching
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Vampire Tapestry, by Suzy McKee Charnas
Very deliberately constructed but very readable novel. Dated but in a way that brings back the time it was written in (cusp of the 70s/80s) rather than just feeling goofy. I really need to go back and read all the Charnas I've missed. I loved Motherlines as a young adult.
(71/275)
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Delicious page turner of a literary mystery. Melodramatic but in the good way. Very evocative of its historical period (post-WW2 Barcelona). I'm excited that his next novel is coming out this summer.
(72/275)
Rumspringa, by Tom Schactman
Interesting non-fiction account of Amish youth during their "wild years" before they decide whether or not to stay in the church. Would've preferred less of the background info I already knew and more about the whole range of Amish youth experience including that of the "good kids". But I can see why he did it this way.
(73/275)
Free School Teaching, by Kristan Accles Morrison
The more I learn about free schools the more I think they are what I yearned for as a kid and even tried to make for myself within the public school system as much as I could. This was an engagingly written and in most ways a thorough book. I'm not sure a person could call it balanced though. As polemics go, it was a thoughtful one.
(74/275)
current mood:  lazy
current music: an interview with Elie Wiesel
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| Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
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10:34 pm - oh, and
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++ vermont legislature, I love you. i've always liked vermont better than most other states and now I have yet another reason.
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