Better late than never
It's not like I haven't been reading YA books, travling to faroff places like Cucuron, France or Nuremberg, Germany, and doing a lot of writing.
But it is like, well, I'm not a good blogger anymore. OTOH, I just paid LJ for another year of my blog, so I should blog! OK, here are a few books I've read recently...
One is the super-popular on all of my listservs A True and Faithful Narrative by Katherine Sturtevant. OK, I didn't read the first book in this series, or duo as the case may be, At the Sign of the Star, so maybe I shouldn't be talking too much about this one--but it was superb. Sturtevant's heroine is 16-year-old Meg Moore, whose father owns a bookstore in Restoration London and who enjoys plays, books and writing. As a matter of fact, she IS a writer, and her father's not happy about it. Apparently, and I guess I knew this, women weren't supposed to be writers. It seems so inconceivable. Sturtevant does a great job of conveying the need to write and the frustration at not being allowed to write and the basic necessity of writing. And then there are the two men in her life, one who's right there and will have his own bookshop, one who's gone to sea and provides most of the center of the book. The way that telling someone's story brings emotional closeness--that's depicted very well. Very well indeed, as are the arguments and trauma around a variety of very real experiences, including the capture by pirates off the Barbary Coast of one of the characters and the character's experience being a slave of Islamic masters. This is a wonderfully written book that's both subtle and smart. OK, some of the plot is easily mapped early on, but a lot of it isn't, and it's a fairly thick book with a lot of characters and a lot of discussion.
Another was Alan Gratz's Samurai Shortstop, which was a lot more complex than the sort of stupid title might suggest. I guess the title is meant to appeal to the boys who theoretically never read or whatever all the alarmists say (what would I know? I only talk to reader boys, so there's no good sample for me), and then there's certainly a lot of blood, discipline and sport throughout the book. But it's also a lot deeper than that--about emotional connections and bonding, duty and honor, leadership, and the changing ways of a society in massive flux. I thought it was a solid read. I do wonder about the writing of this book by a man who doesn't seem to have a Japanese background. Maybe it's wrong of me to worry about this; the research is solid, it seems, and I'm sure Gratz was sensitive to the fact that he appears white, and oh my goodness, this is all so complex. And I have to go write some stories, so I don't have anything else to say at this moment....
Excited that I just got an ARC of a Nina Kiriki Hoffman book. And she lives in my town! Super cool! Rock on, sister! (OK, maybe I can't call her "sister" until I start, you know, publishing YA books. But at least she's a fellow Eugenean.)
But it is like, well, I'm not a good blogger anymore. OTOH, I just paid LJ for another year of my blog, so I should blog! OK, here are a few books I've read recently...
One is the super-popular on all of my listservs A True and Faithful Narrative by Katherine Sturtevant. OK, I didn't read the first book in this series, or duo as the case may be, At the Sign of the Star, so maybe I shouldn't be talking too much about this one--but it was superb. Sturtevant's heroine is 16-year-old Meg Moore, whose father owns a bookstore in Restoration London and who enjoys plays, books and writing. As a matter of fact, she IS a writer, and her father's not happy about it. Apparently, and I guess I knew this, women weren't supposed to be writers. It seems so inconceivable. Sturtevant does a great job of conveying the need to write and the frustration at not being allowed to write and the basic necessity of writing. And then there are the two men in her life, one who's right there and will have his own bookshop, one who's gone to sea and provides most of the center of the book. The way that telling someone's story brings emotional closeness--that's depicted very well. Very well indeed, as are the arguments and trauma around a variety of very real experiences, including the capture by pirates off the Barbary Coast of one of the characters and the character's experience being a slave of Islamic masters. This is a wonderfully written book that's both subtle and smart. OK, some of the plot is easily mapped early on, but a lot of it isn't, and it's a fairly thick book with a lot of characters and a lot of discussion.
Another was Alan Gratz's Samurai Shortstop, which was a lot more complex than the sort of stupid title might suggest. I guess the title is meant to appeal to the boys who theoretically never read or whatever all the alarmists say (what would I know? I only talk to reader boys, so there's no good sample for me), and then there's certainly a lot of blood, discipline and sport throughout the book. But it's also a lot deeper than that--about emotional connections and bonding, duty and honor, leadership, and the changing ways of a society in massive flux. I thought it was a solid read. I do wonder about the writing of this book by a man who doesn't seem to have a Japanese background. Maybe it's wrong of me to worry about this; the research is solid, it seems, and I'm sure Gratz was sensitive to the fact that he appears white, and oh my goodness, this is all so complex. And I have to go write some stories, so I don't have anything else to say at this moment....
Excited that I just got an ARC of a Nina Kiriki Hoffman book. And she lives in my town! Super cool! Rock on, sister! (OK, maybe I can't call her "sister" until I start, you know, publishing YA books. But at least she's a fellow Eugenean.)