Inconsistent Little Old Me

When I first started this blog, I was keeping a reading diary here like the movie diary I have neglected am keeping. Then my sister-in-law asked me to join her on Goodreads, and I decided to post my reading over there instead. But I'm not feeling the love, and meanwhile the blog is getting a little dusty.

So I'm changing the way I do things once again. From now on, I'll post my comments to the blog as I finish each book. I'll retropost all the books from so far in May, then carry on one by one.

For the most part these will be the types of quick thoughts I usually offer, but occasionally I may get into a full-blown review as the mood strikes me.

What can I say? It's a blogger's privilege to change her mind.

Holy Crap, That's a Lot of Books!

Finally regained the strength to lift my head from my sickbed and wrestle with my year-end reading numbers. They break down this way:

January	19	July	24
February	19	August	26
March	24	September	20
April	17	October	18
May	20	November	14
June	16	December	17
Total			234

Even if I round it down to 200 to account for the books I pitched across the room without finishing and the few I read online (i.e., while I should have been doing something else), that still works out to almost four books a week. That's TWICE what I thought my consumption rate was.

As for the numbers themselves, I guess it makes sense I posted so little in August, since apparently I spent every waking moment reading. Don't know what my excuse for November is.

Favorite Books of 2007

The End of Mr. Y, Scarlett Thomas
Shane the Lone Ethnographer, Sally Campbell Galman
Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Air, Geoff Ryman
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon
Transformation, Carol Berg
California Fire and Life, Don Winslow
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
For My Lady's Heart, Laura Kinsale
Trouble Is What I Do, Rob Kantner
Blade of Fortriu, Juliet Marillier
The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Susannah Clarke
Gimme More, Liza Cody
Fortress of Ice, C. J. Cherryh
Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik

Most Hated Books of 2007

A Grave Mistake, Stella Cameron
Immaculate Midnight, Ellen Hart
Eyes of Crow, Jeri Smith-Ready
Blue Shoes and Happiness, Alexander McCall Smith
The Oxford Murders, Guillermo Martinez
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
The Crimson Petal and the White, Michael Faber
Red Lightning, John Varley
If I Ever Get Back, Darryl Brock
St. Dale, Sharyn McCrumb
Only With Your Love, Lisa Kleypas
Goddess of Spring, P. C. Cast
The Dangerous Debutante, Kasey Michaels
Son of Avonar, Carol Berg
Rifkind's Challenge, Lynn Abbey
Alinor, Roberta Gellis

Reading Diary July 2007

Books read online are in green.

1. The Railroad Children, Charlotte M. Yonge. (Click What's New?, then the link to the story.) Oh dear, I was so excited to find something new by Yonge on the web, but this isn't the type of her work I enjoy. This didactic novellette showcases some of her least attractive tropes: anything mechanical or industrial is bad and leads to moral degeneracy; it's worse for children to be unbaptized than to be starving and ignorant; it's OK for little kids to die as long as they do so uncomplainingly and in a state of grace.
2. St. Dale, Sharyn McCrumb. Dear Ms. McCrumb: I willingly stipulate that NASCAR is a legitimate sport that is enjoyed by fine people from all walks of life. I am also ready to admit that Dale Earnhardt was a beloved figure worthy of induction into the pantheon of Elvis and Princess Di. Nevertheless, I'm supremely indifferent to both subjects, and your poorly written infodump masquerading as a novel hasn't done anything to change my mind. Let me just add, Chaucer you're not. Sincerely, Muse of Ire.
3. Saving Fish from Drowning, Amy Tan. Inconsequential comedy of errors about the folly of human wishes, or something like that. Some funny parts, but not as emotionally involving or deeply characterized as Tan's previous work.
4. Wanted, Kim Wozencraft. Nicely written, well-constructed thriller about Gail, whose muzzy-headed involvement with bank-robbing terrorists has gotten her imprisoned for 72 years, and Diane, a young cop with crucial evidence in a murder case who gets set up on a phony drug charge. Together, they break out of prison; aside from running from the cops, there's a lot of tension between Gail's wanting to go underground far, far away and Diane's wanting to go back home and settle the score. There are some loose ends, and ultimately there's less going on in Gail's story than in Diane's, but both viewpoints are well represented.
5. The Janissary Tree, Jason Goodwin. Interesting, somewhat choppy mystery set in the intriguing, exotic world of 1830s Istanbul. Are the Janissaries, the feared warriors who were repressed 10 years earlier, plotting to rise again? The hero, Yashim Togalu, is a eunuch, which becomes an important plot point at times; it would have been nice to have a little more discussion of the mechanics. Definitely planning to read the next one, though.
6. Almost a Bride, Jane Feather. I thought Feather's Elizabethan romance To Kiss a Spy was pretty laughable. This one is better, probably because the Regency period is one she's more at home in, or at least because I learned its conventions in the same kind of romances she did. But the interesting premise and enjoyable dialog can't overcome the dropped plot points, inconsistent characterization, or melodramatic ending.
7. Moonrise, Ben Bova. Jarring viewpoint shifts and strangely outdated racial attitudes made me give up on this after a couple of chapters. It wasn't worth the quarter, Dad.
8. Year's Best SF, David G. Hartwell (ed). Some terrific stories, including one from Robert Silverberg about LA becoming a volcanic zone and one from Ursula K. LeGuin exploring the sexuality of the Gethenians. Unfortunately, also contains a story by Gene Wolfe that is so sexist and creepy it made me completely reevaluate my feelings toward him.
9. Manhunting, Jennifer Crusie. Needed something good to wash the taste of the Wolfe out of my head, so turned to this frothy confection. Lacks the mystery component I usually like in her work, but still an enjoyable love story between a hard-driving woman and a drifting-nowhere man.
10. Strange Bedpersons, Jennifer Crusie. Reading Manhunting touched off a little Crusie marathon. Decided to work through some of her older, less-read-by-me books. Tess and Nick are not my favorite set of Crusie lovers, but the minor characters are great, especially the secretary Christine.
11. Charlie All Night, Jennifer Crusie. Enjoyed this one, but it's a little rushed. She could definitely have spun out the crusade to save the city hall into a full-length plot.
12. Getting Rid of Bradley, Jennifer Crusie. Zach the sexy cop going from commitment-phobe to happily-ever-after-man in 5 days isn't exactly plausible (even my brother took 3 weeks to propose), but the dialog's snappy, the sex is hot, and the dogs are cute, so I'm not complaining.
13. Fast Women, Jennifer Crusie. It's hard to choose, but I think this might be my favorite of all of Crusie's books. The sheer number and complexity of the relationships between the characters, the way that Nell and Gabe learn how to deal with their past and express what they need from each other, and the gradual unraveling of the mystery all add up to a terrific, satisfying reading experience. And the sex ain't bad, either.
14. Faking It, Jennifer Crusie. Another good one. Everybody in the interesting cast of characters (my favorite is Nadine, Tilda's teenage niece) is playing a part or wearing a mask. Also enjoyed Tilda's knowledge of art and art forgery and Davy's con games. Surprisingly little sex.
15. Tell Me Lies, Jennifer Crusie. The first of Crusie's books I ever read, it remains one of my favorites. Yes, Maddie does some dumb things, but I like her. I really like the way the small-town miasma of gossip and expectations colors the actions of all the characters.
16. Crazy for You, Jennifer Crusie. One of Crusie's weakest efforts, with a pretty typical woman-in-jep plot. Her writing still sells it.
17. Welcome to Temptation, Jennifer Crusie. Sophie Dempsey is the prototypical Crusie heroine -- organized, methodical, taking care of everyone else, trying to hold it all together but starting to unravel at the seams. I like the way Phin unravels her. More than usually tricky murder/theft/sabotage plot.
18. Bet Me, Jennifer Crusie. Min is the Crusie heroine I identify most with. I like how she and Cal complement each other and especially enjoyed the parts where they stand up to each other's parents. I also just really like the way Crusie lets her characters be themselves in this one.
19. Chocolat, Joanne Harris. Normally I'm not a fan of movies messing with books, but I think the film version made some smart choices. Harris's use of the priest as the bad guy -- rigid, narrow-minded, trying to exercise an undue temporal power -- is a huge cliche, and I preferred the movie's mayor. Roux's involvement with Josephine comes completely out of left field; his involvement with Vianne isn't much better established, but at least the movie gives us Johnny Depp. The thing the book had that I would have liked to see more of in the film is the hint of magic. Harris's prose is good, even beautiful in places, but her constant switching from past to present tense within scenes -- even within paragraphs -- is majorly annoying.
20. Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, Alexander McCall Smith. Smith's sense of place is as strong as ever, and Edinburgh shines almost as much as Botswana. But damn, Isabel is one judgmental bitch. Her relationship with Jamie is the only genuine thing in this rather plotless, pointless novel. I was surprised Smith called her on her habit of jumping to totally unwarranted conclusions, but of course only in such a way that her niece could deny it.
21. One for the Morning Glory, John Barnes. Charming, often very funny tale of characters who know they're living in a story but aren't quite sure what the story is. Somewhat disappointing ending forgets some of the book's fairy tale elements, not quite bringing the story full circle.
22. Snow White, Blood Red, Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow (eds). A seminal collection of modern retellings of fairy tales that I can't believe I never read before. Quality of the stories is almost uniformly high; I think my favorite is Patricia McKillip's take on the Snow Queen.
23. Mr. Paradise, Elmore Leonard. More than usually meandering and pointless mystery -- if something so entirely lacking in suspense can be called that -- from Leonard. Usually I like reading him for the caper, but nobody gets away with anything here, and I didn't even enjoy watching the bad guys get theirs.
24. Science Fiction: The Best of 2003, Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan. Uneven collection. Stories I especially enjoyed were George Saunders' "Jon" and Lucius Shepherd's "Only Partly There," the finest post-9/11 story I've ever read.

Reading Diary June 2007

Books read online are in green.

1. Red Lightning, John Varley. Disappointing, depressing follow-up to the exuberant Red Thunder. First half in a tsunami-struck Florida (interestingly, written pre-Katrina) is absorbing, but ultimately has nothing to do with the point. Mars and Martian society never really come alive, and the part about the revolution has been done better by Robert A. Heinlein. Varley is also all too eager to score points regarding contemporary politics to do service to his story. In all, reminds me of how Star Trek III messed up everything that was good about Star Trek II, and there's no condemnation lower than that. Edited July 4 because I'm an idiot. That's the trouble with movies that have numbers instead of names. Thanks, Damian!
2. The Truth-Teller's Tale, Sharon Shinn. Another lovely, romantic fantasy in the world of Shinn's The Safe-Keeper's Secret. Not much suspense, but Shinn writes so well I don't care. She writes the kind of books that make you want to race ahead to see how everything comes out while turning the pages slowly because you don't want them to end.
3. Midnight Choir, Gene Kerrigan. Very mixed feelings. Starts out as an interesting, many-layered police procedural set in modern Dublin, but about halfway through begins to leave a bitter taste in my mouth. Synott is too sympathetic a character to be someone I love to hate and too hypocritical and corrupt to be someone I can root for.
4. Bone Valley, Claire Matturro. A little high on the wackiness scale at times, but some good moments. Loved the Florida panther. Hard to believe that a dedicated crunchy-granola-type like Lilly would be so ignorant about the gigantic environmental mess on her doorstep.
5. If I Never Get Back, Darryl Brock. Bloated time-travel fantasy, deeply unsatisfying on so many levels. Well-researched but too eager to show it off, as with gratuitous encounters with the James brothers and too many quotes from contemporary documents. If Brock wants to write about the beginnings of pro baseball, why does he drag the Fenians into it; and if he wants to write about the Fenians, why does he spend so much time giving us play-by-plays of baseball games and completely bypass their failed invasion of Canada? Only the least interesting of the plot strands is resolved, and the ending is an obvious cheap set-up for a sequel.
6. Still Life, Louise Penny. A pretty good effort from first-time novelist Penny: thoughtful, with engaging characters, and often beautiful prose. But her inexperience shows in her unsure grasp on the omniscient authorial viewpoint, whipping in and out of people's heads at an annoying rate, and the way various plot points fail to add up (if Yvonne thought she had inherited Jane's house, why paper over the walls in a way that would have made it impossible to live in or sell?). After such a leisurely, unconventional build-up, it was disappointing that the final confrontation with the villain was pure Thriller/Horror Movie 101.
7. The Robber Bride, Margaret Atwood. Tony, Charis, and Roz are great characters, but I couldn't empathize with them as much as I wanted to. Still moping about the worthless men Zenia took from them 30 years earlier? Zenia did them a favor, and I loved it at the end when she told them so. Hated Boyce, the gay assistant -- the only thing more annoying than a guy who quotes at you nonstop when you're trying to have a serious conversation is a guy who quotes at you and then finishes off with the author's name.
8. Flight, Sherman Alexie. A very slight book -- read it in a morning -- not as funny as I'd hoped, but with a very affecting ending. Zits is too young to know this, but if some random guy comes up and starts quoting Nietzsche at you, watch yourself. Made me want to know more about Crazy Horse.
9. The Target, Gerri Hill. Equal opportunity suckitude: proves that books about lesbians can be just as stupid, predictable, and badly written as those about straights.
10. Transformation, Carol Berg. Got interested in Berg through her shared site DeepGenre. Was rewarded with this thoughtful fantasy about culture conflict and the unlikeliest of friendships. Convincing characterization and well-drawn cultures. A bit disappointing that, after the kickass magical battle, the climactic physical battle takes place offstage while one of the heroes is recovering.
11. North of Market Street: Being the Adventures of a New York Woman in Philadelphia, Harriet Boyer. I always enjoy reading things set in Philadelphia, but this was very odd. The book is entirely devoted to complaining about how unfriendly Philadelphians are and how living north of Market St. puts one beyond the social pale. It might be true (even today North Philadelphia is pretty undesirable), but seems like a very slight premise for a novel. Something with an actual, you know, story might have been nice, like the experience of being a female medical student in the 1890s (which is what I thought this was about).
12. Don't Look Down, Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. Fun but not totally successful collaboration between romance writer Crusie and action/adventure writer Mayer. Crusie seems to have set the tone, but she's lost control of some of the stuff that make her books so great: the way the lovers get together is unconvincing, their later conflict more so, and some seriously loose ends are left dangling (hello! did Daisy try to kill herself, or what? And how's she doing?). On Mayer's territory, the whole art theft/mob/CIA plot is impenetrable and the body count disturbingly high for what's, on the whole, a light romp. On the plus side, Lucy's a great heroine, her relationship with Daisy and Pepper is terrific, the sex is hot (Crusie's into bondage these days, it seems), and details like the coin check convinced me that Wilder is the real deal. I'm looking forward to the next Crusie/Mayer project, since advance word is that they've ironed out some of the kinks.
13. California Fire and Life, Don Winslow. The opening, with its short, smartass chapters, is a bit offputting, but persevere and soon you'll be swept along on a wild ride involving arson, murder, the Russian mob, the American dream, corruption, and true love. A good writer can make anything interesting, and you'll be eager to absorb whatever Winslow tells you about fuel loads, insurance law, and Georgian furniture. Jack Wade's a great hero, smart and stubborn, although a few hundred pages too slow to realize one crucial fact; but when you think you've got everything figured out, the story twists hard, then twists again.
14. The Compass Rose, Gail Dayton. OK, so sexy magic chick is married to 4 count 'em 4 smokin' hot men (and another woman) and she won't have sex with them because sex is too complicated? And she doesn't see that not having sex is what's complicating everything? Suuuuure. There's some good stuff going on here, but the large number of personalities and relationships makes for very uneven storytelling; Obed and Aisse get especially short shrift. Also completely ignores the possibility of homosexual relationships, even among the Spartan-warrior-pair-bonded Tibrans. The final battle is laughably anticlimactic.
15. Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. The Apocalypse has never been funnier.
16. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See. There's a story in here somewhere screaming to get out, but it's trapped in this conventional, cliched tale of friends who have a misunderstanding. See has beautifully depicted women's nu shu language and life and culture in remote 19th Century China ; I wish her characters had received the same attention.

Reading Diary May 2007

Books read online are in green.

1. Deadly Advice, Roberta Isleib. See post May 3, 2007.
2. Jamaica Me Dead, Bob Morris. Even with a huge chunk missing from the middle (what is with publishers' QC these days?), it wasn't too hard to figure out what was going on. But the setting was pretty entertaining, and the characters OK to hang out with (although I could have lived without the stereotypical mystic Indian). Seriously, though, who carries around a signed first edition? That's what paperbacks are for.
3. Sarah Canary, Karen Joy Fowler. Another fragmented, elliptical meditation on race, class, and especially gender. Who or what is Sarah Canary? She is a blank canvas for others to project their ideas of being female onto: thus, to Chinese railroad worker Chin, she's an immortal; to a psychologist, a madwoman; to a naturalist, a feral human; to feminist Adelaide Dixon, a discarded mistress who turned on her betrayer. Interesting and at times funny, but never quite comes together.
4. Saddled with Trouble, Michele Scott. Subpar writing and an idiot heroine made me abandon this book far, far from home.
5. Bone of Contention, Roberta Gellis. Much better outing for Magdalene la Batarde than the second book in the series (although the title has no relevance to the story). In the mode of Ellis Peters, Gellis does a pretty good job of interweaving her characters' concerns with people and events on the national stage.
6. Instrument of Fate, Christie Golden. A glorified D&D adventure disguised as a novel -- and I say that as someone who likes D&D.
7. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, James Tiptree, Jr. I remember some of these groundbreaking stories from the early '70s, but it's interesting to see them all collected together. Not all of them are masterpieces, but it's good to be reminded how talented, and how revolutionary, Tiptree was.
8. The Crimson Petal and the White, Michael Faber. I was going to write a huge rant about this, but I just don't have the energy. Starts off well, but loses momentum as soon as William moves Sugar into her flat, mostly because we don't have any clue what Sugar feels about any of this: is she really in love with William? how and when did that happen? Just when it seems like the story might be kicking into gear again, the oh-so-clever ending comes like a slap in the face to readers who have stuck with the book for almost 900 pages. Gahhh. I've read worse books, but few that have made me so angry at the waste of promising material.
9. Air, Geoff Ryman. Funny, charming, thoughtful, and altogether enjoyable. Except for the last five pages, which no doubt are supposed to be Deeply Symbolic of something or other, but are just plain disturbing.
10. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon. How can a book so funny be so amazingly tender and profoundly sad? Devoured the whole thing in one glorious day and only wished it were twice as long.
11. Quality Street, J. M. Barrie. Play on which one of my favorite Katharine Hepburn movies is based. Just as adorable as the film.
12. Dead Man's Ransom, Ellis Peters. Ran out of new stuff, so I'm back to Brother Cadfael. This book has one of my favorites scenes in the whole series, where Cadfael questions the cattle-man Anion in Owain Gwynedd's court.
13. The Pilgrim of Hate, Ellis Peters. Peters has an unfortunate habit of trying to present conversations and situations as if they can only mean one thing, when clearly there are alternate explanations. Doesn't help when she puts the real motive in the title.
14. An Excellent Mystery, Ellis Peters. Well, not really so much, with Peters doing her ineffectual "look over there" handwaving, but still an enjoyable read.
15. The Raven in the Foregate, Ellis Peters. One of the more genuinely suspenseful of the late Cadfael oeuvre.
16. The Hermit of Eyton Forest, Ellis Peters. Some interesting goings-on, with a victim and murderer who for once both deserve their fates. But Rafe of Coventry is a little deus ex machina, and there's more than a little wish-fulfillment in the way Hugh Beringar, himself a holder of villeins, connives at the escape of Hyacinth.
17. The Heretic's Apprentice, Ellis Peters. Solid detective work by Cadfael and a truly dramatic climax, with a maguffin worthy of the fuss.
18. Tomb of the Golden Bird, Elizabeth Peters. After a brief return to form in Guardian of the Horizon and The Serpent on the Crown, Peters is back to phoning in the mystery while she dwells on the domestic relations of the vast and quarrelsome Emerson clan. After all, who could possibly be interested in such petty matters as the discovery of King Tut's tomb, political unrest in the post-WWI Middle East, or a tomb robber who somehow blows himself up when we could be discussing the stormy state of Sethos and Margaret's marriage (maybe Amelia, with her vast knowledge of psychology, could teach these two a little about communication skills), the need for Ramses and Nefret to have some independence (it only takes them 3 months to decide to do what Amelia planned for them from the beginning), or whether Bertie and Jumana will finally get together (they do, in one of the most rushed and undramatic romances Peters has ever penned). Even Amelia disappoints, as she fails to deliver her usual blithe outrageousness (she does figure out the baffling cipher, but it's a meaningless clue that leads nowhere). Also, the book is riddled with annoying grammatical errors that should have been cleaned out by a good copy edit.
19. Killer in High Heels, Gemma Halliday. Reads like the author was writing with a Chick Lit Checklist in hand: "Wacky young single heroine with the libido of a hamster? Check. Offbeat creative job? Check. Ditsy friends, including obligatory gay guy? Check. Tough sexy man of mystery? Check. Obsession with fashion, including rampant product placement? Check." Too bad the checklist didn't include anything like clever dialog, believable situations and motivations, characters readers can care about, or actual clues pointing to the killers.
20. Ghost of a Chance, Amy Patricia Meade. Another period effort with no sense of history at all. A vast wave of indifference engulfed me as I read this and I tossed it aside halfway through.

Reading Diary April 2007

Books read online are in green.

1. Willy Burke; or, The Irish Orphan in America, Mrs. J. Sadlier. Overly didactic, overly sentimental tale of a Catholic boy making his way in pre-Civil War New York. Moderately interesting for its insight into how Protestants viewed Catholics at that time (Sadlier's no fan of multiculturalism either) , but not nearly as entertaining or naturalistic as her Bessy Conway; or, The Irish Girl in America. Hero is an exasperating prig; I sympathized with his tormentors' desire to knock him out of his smugness.
2. Lincoln, Gore Vidal. Starts off strong but quickly turns dull. Some interesting tidbits, but Vidal's more concerned with showing off his research than telling a story.
3. The Thirteenth House, Sharon Shinn. One of the things I most admire about Shinn is her ability to write about love in a way that makes each set of lovers unique, and this book is no exception. But although the sequel to Mystic and Rider, somehow the canvas feels smaller and the stakes lower, with a disappointingly limited climax. I sure hope some fireworks are coming up in the next book, because they've been in relatively short supply so far.
4. Blue Shoes and Happiness, Alexander McCall Smith. See post April 10, 2007.
5. Petty Treason, Madeleine E. Robins. A good second outing for Fallen Women Sarah Tolerance, in a Regency England just slightly askew from our own. Robins is thoroughly grounded in the Regency period, and her books are prime examples of how to do historical fiction right. Her grasp on plotting and pacing is not quite so sure: she telegraphs her twists well ahead of time and could have brought the book to a close many pages earlier if Miss Tolerance had gone to the magistrate with her evidence sooner.
6. Sister Noon, Karen Joy Fowler. A well-written exploration of sex, class, race, and history in Victorian San Francisco. I wasn't sure what attitude to take to Mrs. Pleasant -- was she a good guy or a bad guy? Not quite sure the book qualifies as fantasy; while there are hints of supernatural activity, they could just as easily have naturalistic explanations.
7. The Accomplice, Elizabeth Ironside. Interesting story of history, family, identity, and murder, with well-drawn characters. Naturally asks the question, who is the accomplice? Shows that we all may be complicit in the crimes and tragedies around us.
8. A Personal Devil, Roberta Gellis. A mixed offering in the Madgalene la Batarde series. Interesting characters and situations, although Magdalene wasn't the only one who found the Mainard/Sabina romance hard to take. Not much mystery, and the resolution is both unsatisfying and slightly nonsensical.
9. Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones. Terrific, fun, and utterly satisfying. Jones plays beautifully with fairy tale conventions, and Sophie is an admirable heroine. Must find the movie.
10. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides. See post April 25, 2007.
11. Ruddy Gore, Kerry Greenwood. Moderately stylish, moderately entertaining mystery set in 1920s Australia. Don't think much of the heroine's detective powers: on learning that the case involves a baby given up for adoption, she fails to ask even the most obvious questions.
12. The Oxford Murders, Guillermo Martinez. See post April 24, 2007.
13. Death at the Rose Paperworks, M. J. Zellnik. Pedestrian in the extreme. True, I didn't figure out the solution ahead of time; but on the other hand, I was too bored to care. Has Zellnik ever read a Victorian novel? She has no conception of how people spoke and acted in those days (pregnancy openly discussed! ladies inviting seamstresses into parlors!).
14. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell. Greed is bad. So is racism. Also, slavery. Gosh, Mr. Mitchell, thanks for clearing that up for me.
15. Holmes on the Range, Steve Hockensmith. Pretty entertaining story of cowboy detective who models himself after Sherlock Holmes in 1890s Montana, with his brother serving as sidekick and Watson. Takes the interesting narrative stance that Holmes is a real person.
16. The Rebirth of Pan, Jo Walton. Don't understand the point of International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day (other than a shoutout to my sister, who also uses the term "technopeasant"), but thanks to Jo Walton for posting so much of her work for free online. Really enjoyed this unpublished beautiful, evocative tale of the death of an old age and beginning of a new, filled with memorable characters.
17. Seeking Whom He May Devour, Fred Vargas. Quirky characters and interesting rural French background. Solution comes a little too pat for the hero's romantic dilemma.

Reading Diary March 2007

As before, books read online are in green.

1. The Silver Bough, Lisa Tuttle. Like Singer of Souls, an urban fantasy set in Scotland, but very different. Happenings both weird and wonderful, with a satisfying conclusion. Can't help feeling not everything adds up, though.
2. Legacies, A. Paul Wilson. Repairman Jack's still fun, but didn't like this as much as The Tomb. Chaotic, rather episodic, with shocking waste of an interesting character's death.
3. Making His Way, or Frank Courtney's Struggle Upward, Horatio Alger. Missing wills, chance encounters with benevolent millionaires. Character never really struggles or suffers.
4. Andy Grant's Pluck, Horatio Alger. Pretty typical of his country-boy-goes-to-the-city tales. Hero gets numerous lucky breaks, but turns them into prosperity through hard work and virtue.
5. Frank and Fearless: or, The Fortunes of Jasper Kent, Horatio Alger. One of the most boring of Alger's works. All nonsensical "adventure" story, no real boy-rises-through-industry.
6. Romance Island, Zona Gale. Weird Lost-Horizons-like adventure tale.
7. A Fatal Appraisal, J. B. Stanley. Not bad, but I wouldn't run out to buy the next one. Murderer and motive pretty obvious, not least because the motive is plastered all over the front cover.
8. Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger. Alger's first and probably best work. Informative, unsentimental look at social and economic conditions. Dick is a genuinely likeable hero, and his rise is accomplished through his own resourcefulness and industry, with a minimum of coincidence and lucky breaks.
9. The End of Mr. Y, Scarlett Thomas. A mind-blowing ride through cosmology, phenomenology, epistemology, theology, and no doubt many other -ologies I've missed. How can you not love a book that stars Apollo Smintheus, god of mice? It's amazing to me how a book like this can be embraced by the mainstream critics when it's so clearly science fiction, but more power to Thomas for pulling it off.
10. Miss Lulu Bett, Zona Gale. This couldn't be more different from her insubstantial, fantastical, rather boring Romance Island. Closely observed, deeply felt tale of female oppression and liberation about a spinster of 34(!) in a small Midwest town. Too bad Lulu has to settle for marriage with the nearest man at the end.
11. Miss Lulu Bett, Zona Gale. Gale's historic Pulitzer-winning stage adaptation of her novel. Interesting dual endings. In the original, Lulu does not settle for the nearest man, but goes off to make her own life. Audiences didn't care for this strong feminist message, so Gale rewrote it so that Ninian's first wife has died, and he and Lulu wind up together.
12. Dope, Sara Gran. It's noir, baby. Gritty, entertaining tour through post-war New York with hookers, con men, petty thieves, and junkies -- and those are the good guys. Must admit I was blindsided by the ending.
13. Conspiracies, F. Paul Wilson. A Repairman Jack living off the grid, dispensing his own idiosyncratic brand of justice, running into the occasional weird, inexplicable event? Sure, bring him on. A Repairman Jack as the sole defender of the universe against chaos and Eeevil? Oh no, no, no. Wilson just isn't a good enough writer to bring this off. I'm done with this series.
14. Solstice Wood, Patricia A. McKillip. See post March 18, 2007.
15. A Torrid Piece of Murder, C. F. Roe. One of those books that make me think people in the UK live in an alternate reality. Heroine's kids talk like teenagers and behave like 30somethings. Only real twist is that when the seriously ill heroine collapses while confronting the murderer in her deserted office, he goes for help rather than trying to polish her off.
16. They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War, Deanne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook. First of three books I bought during my visit to the battlefield at Manassas, VA. Should have been fascinating, but snooze-worthy instead. Badly structured, with a laundry-list approach to the evidence.
17. Eyes of Crow, Jeri Smith-Ready. A post-apocalypse tale for the crunchy granola set. Completely lost interest after the third or fourth repetition of "Rhia evades her destiny; Rhia accepts her destiny."
18. Alice Adams, Booth Tarkington. Wanted to read this after seeing the movie, which turned out to be a very faithful adaptation aside from the ending. Real ending much more realistic, both heart-breaking and encouraging, with the family reduced to taking in lodgers and Alice entering secretarial school. I really think they'll be much more comfortable on their proper rung on the social ladder, without the strain of trying to reach so high all the time.
19. Beguiled, Alice Borchardt. Borchardt has written one good book. This isn't it.
20. Dirty Blonde, Lisa Scottoline. Post to come.
21. Firethorn, Sarah Miklem. Beautifully written, thoughtful tale of love between high and low. Never settles for the easy answer.
22. Shane, the Lone Ethnographer, Sally Campbell Galman. See post March 28, 2007.
23. The Good Fairies of New York, Martin Millar. Neil Gaiman recommends it and so do I. What else do you need to know?
24. The Book of Jhereg, Steven Brust. Contains the books Jhereg, Yendi, and Teckla. How glad I am that I read Brust's mock-heroic, Dumasian romances The Phoenix Guards and its sequels before picking up this book, because I really enjoyed them and I never would have sought them out had I read this first. Protagonist was so whiny in third book I really grew to dislike him.

Reading Diary January-February 2007

I've often wished I had kept a record of what I read, so this year I'm finally doing it. I was going to publish the whole list at the end of the year, but it was getting kind of long so I've decided to break it up. This list is for January and February; from now on, I'll post monthly.

Books read online are in green.

1. Sacred Cows, Karen E. Olsen. Fair. Interesting background set in Providence. Heroine too prickly and unlikeable.
2. Winter's Heart, Robert Jordan. Oy, when will it be over? Another installment without much happening, although they finally figure out what happened to Moiraine.
3. Children of England, Alison Weir. Boring; had to plow my way through. Gave me some info I didn't know, however.
4. Lord Byron's Novel, John Crowley. Beautifully crafted but ultimately unsatisfying. The stuff purportedly written by Ada is the least convincing.
5. Daemonomania, John Crowley. As always, beautifully written, but doesn't seem to advance the story much. What is the point of Bobby Shaftoe and the many, many repetitions of the war between witches and werewolves?
6. Pattern Recognition, William Gibson. Another wild but inconclusive ride from Gibson.
7. The Tomb, F. Paul Wilson. Fun read. Repairman Jack is a great character. Plan to look up more of the series.
8. One Corpse Too Many, Ellis Peters. Rereading my way through the classic Brother Cadfael mysteries.
9. Monk's-Hood, Ellis Peters.
10. St. Peter's Fair, Ellis Peters.
11. The Leper of St. Giles, Ellis Peters.
12. The Virgin in the Ice, Ellis Peters. One of the best in the series.
13. The Sanctuary Sparrow, Ellis Peters.
14. A Grave Mistake, Stella Cameron. Dreadful. Only finished because I was too stubborn to give up. Unbelievable hero, stupid heroine, both completely lacking communication skills. Usual cast of "colorful" small-town characters. Mystery solved by witness ex machina.
15. High Heels Are Murder, Elaine Viets. Ho-hum.
16. WebMage, Kelly McCullough. Flawed but promising.
17. The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library, Alice Kimberly. Apparently the author doesn't believe in spelling, grammar, or historical accuracy.
18. The Young Widow, Cassandra Chan. OK. Bethancourt is no Lord Peter Wimsey.
19. Cold and Pure and Very Dead, Joanne Dobson. Reread.
20. The Skewed Throne, Joshua Palmatier. Interesting, somewhat predictable.
21. Other People's Children, Joanna Trollope. Touching, with a large cast of well-drawn characters.
22. Mona in the Promised Land, Gish Jen. Pretty funny with some very sharp writing. Tedious subplot about cook and his black power friends. Final conflict between Mona and her mother seems to come out nowhere, but nice bittersweet resolution.
23. Immaculate Midnight, Ellen Hart. Ugh. Neither plot or subplots wrapped up -- loose ends or set-up for another in this ongoing series? Heroine and her brother act so stupidly it's hard to care about them.
24. The Devil's Door, Sharan Newman. Forgot I'd read this already, but it was worth going back to. I also have another in the series. May have to look up the others at some point. Well researched but not overbearing, Catherine and Edgar are fun characters.
25. The Difficult Saint, Sharan Newman. Worth rereading. Not much suspense if you already know what Cathars are.
26. Crown of Stars, Kate Elliott. A mostly satisfying conclusion to this epic series.
27. Fifty Degrees Below, Kim Stanley Robinson. See post Feb 13, 2007.
28. The Water Devil, Judith Merkle Riley. Disappointing. Flashes of Riley's characteristic humor and erudition, but a weak plot and unconvincing villain. I love Riley's amused and tolerant God, however.
29. Pagan Babies, Elmore Leonard. Fast-paced and fun, with the usual Leonard line-up of mobsters, ex-cons, lunkheads, and misfits.
30. Powers of Detection, Dana Stabenow, ed. I always like these theme collections in theory, but they never really live up to expectations. Even the story by Sharon Shinn is kind of a snooze.
31. Slow and Sure, or From the Street to the Shop, Horatio Alger. Continuing adventures of Paul Hoffman of Paul the Peddler. As usual, supplies fascinating details of life on the streets in New York and the economics of the period. Google online edition marred by truly heinous scanning.
32. Jack's Ward, or The Boy Guardian, Horatio Alger. Counterfeiting and mysterious foundlings. Not as compelling as his up-from-poverty stories.
33. Harrowing the Dragon, Patricia A. McKillip. Collected short stories. Magical and beautiful as always.
34. Risen from the Ranks, or Harry Walton's Success, Horatio Alger. Sequel to Bound to Rise. Fewer unlikely coincidences and strokes of fortune than usual; hero is still able to borrow money from an old boss at an opportune time.
35. Od Magic, Patricia A. McKillip. Beautiful and enchanting as always, but a little on the thin side. Distinctly anticlimactic ending.
36. Singer of Souls, Adam Stemple. Good concept, horrible ending.
37. Joe's Luck, or Always Wide Awake, Horatio Alger. At least in this one Alger is upfront about the incredible luck that underlies the hero's success. Somewhat interesting because it actually follows the hero out west, but still less fascinating than his New York stories.
38. Cursed in the Blood, Sharan Newman. Another in the Catherine LeVendeur series. Some interesting history and a few touching moments. Not so much mystery.