Super Bumper Catchy Uppy Review Post 2010
Originally published at tansyrr.com. You can comment here or there.
I’ve actually got to the point where it BUGS ME if I like a book and for one reason or another, don’t get around to reviewing it on my blog. Sometimes I don’t have time, or I can’t figure out what to say, or what I have to say is too big, or I just read too many awesome books in the one fortnight and some get lost along the way. Or I talked about it on Galactic Suburbia and lost impetus to write my thoughts down. There are also the books that I feel odd or uncomfortable about reviewing, because they’re written by friends (weirdly sometimes I do feel okay about doing this and sometimes not, and it has nothing to do with the degree of friendship) or because there’s some other perceived conflict of interest - there are some TPP books where I have contributed more editorial input than others, and of course there are anthologies in which a story of my own appears.
And there are the ones I just forgot about at the time. And the ones I finished really close to the end of the year, when all my blogging mojo was directed at Ace and the baseball bat.
Part of me wants to go, “REALLY? You REALLY can’t let it go? You’re going to actually feel guilty about not reviewing a small handful of awesome books that people probably know about anyway, rather than feeling proud about the zillions you have reviewed?”
To which I reply, “Okay, you’re obviously a part of me that does not know me very well AT ALL.”
Here then is a super post of a bunch of books I meant to review in 2010 but didn’t, so I can move on into 2011 with a clear conscience. Or something.
Russell T Davies & Benjamin Cook, The Writer’s Tale: the Final Chapter
I very much resented having to buy this book a second time, even if the extra amount added to the paperback was totally worth the price. I now have TWO copies on my shelves, and who’s going to want my hardback of the first half? It was, sadly, completely worth it. A fascinating behind the scenes look at the creative genius (and it has to be said, creative flukitude) of Russell T Davies, it’s a very candid correspondence and one of the best books I’ve ever read as far as capturing what it’s like to be a writer. All writerly spouses should read it, regardless of their interest or lack thereof in Doctor Who!
Helen Merrick, The Secret Feminist Cabal
A fascinating, crunchy examination of the history of fan culture, which happens to have an awful lot in it about women, attitudes to women, feminism, and attitudes to feminism. Awesome stuff.
Clayton Hickman (ed), The Brilliant Book of Doctor Who
One of two very well-chosen Christmas presents I bought myself! I’ve never bothered with the annuals or any of the tie in books about New Who, because they seem to mostly be aimed at kids - this was totally aimed at kids, but luckily the kids in question were mostly TWELVE YEAR OLD ME so I enjoyed it very much as a lazy Christmas read. Far closer to a Doctor Who Magazine Special than some boring old annual, this was full of cool bits and pieces, Moffatt quotes, cast interviews, making of features, and extras. The Brian Aldiss story was a bit of boring old tripe that didn’t capture the character voices at all, but the rest of the book was tip-top. My favourite bit was the collection of Churchill diary entries with mentions of all the Doctors who have crossed his path over his lifetime, which was genuinely funny and sweet.
Poppy Z Brite, The Value of X
A very touching prequel to Brite’s marvellous Rickey & the G-Man novels, set in the New Orleans restaurant scene. I had forgotten how much I love these characters, and it made me want to read Prime and Liquor all over again, as well as reminding me how sad it is that Brite is no longer writing.
Jennifer Chiaverini, The Aloha Quilt
I adore these books, set around a small town quilting community. Some of them are quite awkwardly written, and some are amazingly sincere and thematically clever. This was one of the latter ones. Though to be honest I LOVE THEM ALL, even the ones that make me want to hurl beginner level creative writing handouts at the author. The love of craft and the focus on women’s stories is just so good, it transcends everything else. And sometimes she really really gets it right - this story of a woman putting herself back together during the divorce process (and the very mixed reactions of her children) through friendship, craft and a spark of a new romance is just so very good. Also the history of Hawaii and exploration of Hawaiian quilting techniques was really, really interesting. I knew what Hawaiian quilts looked like but had never known anything about the processes.
Catherynne M Valente, Palimpsest
Apart from anything else, this one had the honour of being the first book I ever read on the iPad. It’s also really beautiful, lyrical and strange. Many other people have said much cleverer things about this one than I could, but I thought it was a really impressive story and the use of sexuality as magic was extremely cleverly handled, with surprising subtlety. I was even more impressed by the end of it that such a literary and subversive novel had clawed its way into the Hugo ballot. Times, they are a changing.
Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire
I was really fascinated to see how the story would continue in this one, since the first book, The Hunger Games, was structured so closely around, well, The Hunger Games. Collins didn’t disappoint! I was fascinated by the way the world set up in the first book slowly began to unravel, and Katniss certainly has cemented herself as a heroine for the ages. There’s some marvellous feminist crunchiness to unpack in these books, not least the portrayals of femininity and masculinity. I was quite uncomfortable with the romantic expectations of both the boys in Katniss’ life, since they both basically fell in love with her without her knowledge, and put her on different but matching pedestals. I liked very much the way that Katniss was as uncomfortable with this as I was, and that romance was so low on her priority list. Quite my favourite thing about this book was the developing friendship and understanding between Katniss and Haymitch, who seemed to be a fairly thin cypher of a character in Book One, but who has now become the person who understands her most.
Trent Jamieson, Death Most Definite & Managing Death
I feel like I’ve been doing nothing but talk about Death Most Definite all year, and yet have never reviewed it, for the obviousish reason that Trent’s a good friend, and in particular that book is one close to my heart because I helped crit it a couple of years ago. Still, to echo what I’ve been saying on Twitter and in Galactic Suburbia, this is an excellent and original very AUSSIE take on the urban fantasy genre, a fun and yet bleak Brisbane-based series with a thriller sensibility and a huge serving of doomed romance on the side. I only read the sequel last week, with absolutely no idea what to expect - and what I got was a marvellous, crumbling hero (you all know I love my fictional men to be as damaged as possible, right?) who is struggling to balance his new power and responsibility. I particularly liked the relationship aspects - having seen Steve as the Orpheus hero in the midst of a tragic, star-cross’d love affair with a dead woman in Book 1, it’s really fascinating to see how absolutely crap he is at maintaining a real relationship with a real live, quite-understanding-but-can-only-take-so-much woman in Book 2. Can’t wait for Book 3 now because OH WOW, were the stakes ever raised in this one.
Nisi Shawl, Filter House
a gorgeous collection of short stories that fit together like a puzzle. Lots of young female protagonists, lots of crunchy, thought provoking themes. I can absolutely see why this one won the Tiptree.
Diana Peterfreund, Ascendant
This is the one I feel most guilty about not giving a proper review to! I really liked Rampant, with its clever attitude towards unicorn myths and virginity, and also enjoyed Peterfreund’s two ‘unicornverse’ stories in 2010, “Errant” and “The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn.” I was expecting to like Ascendant, but wasn’t prepared for how blown away I would be. Astrid continues in this novel much as in Rampant, hunting unicorns, developing her friendships with the other teen girl hunters, working out problems with her budding romantic relationship, and trying to deal with the hand fate has dealt her. Her interest in medicine and determination to get vengeance leads her to Paris, to a secret laboratory, and to a whole different way at looking at the life of a unicorn hunter. The novel rollicks along nicely with lots of interesting new characters and themes, and then BANG! Peterfreund throws a pretty awful and overwhelming obstacle at our heroine, and suddenly everything is different. I was awed and impressed at the story, and how far she was prepared to go, to explore the harsh reality of being a teen girl with a warrior destiny. It’s not as pretty as Buffy made it look! And I hope, hope, hope that Peterfreund does get a chance to continue this series, because it’s just such an interesting story to be telling about young women, and I think it’s an important series for the way it interrogates so many urban fantasy and YA tropes that many of us kind of take for granted.
Nick Hornby, Slam
I’m counting this one even though it was an audio book - I love a bit of Nick Hornby, with his strange compelling, self-involved protagonists, and was very interested to see how he handled YA. This book was the very compelling story of a young skateboard fanatic who accidentally gets his girlfriend pregnant at sixteen. I don’t want to spoil this one because I went into it knowing nothing about it and was quite joyfully surprised, but there is one of those spec fic twists to it, which provides enough of an out that non spec fic readers can pretend it didn’t really happen, but for those of us who love this stuff, actually makes the book more interesting. I heartily recommend it, especially the audio version I have, which is presented in a very authentic laconic teen boy voice by Nicholas Hoult.
Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content Vol I
My other Christmas present to myself this year! Couldn’t resist this one - the first 299 strips of my favourite webcomic. It’s really cool to go back and read those old strips, especially with the running commentary by the creator, and I hope he gets the other volumes out soon! The format translated really nicely to the pages, with nice layout and the whole thing was a terribly enjoyable re-reading experience.