Reading log, lately
After messing around on LibraryThing quite a bit and remembering about seven dozen books I'd meant to read but never gotten around to, I have again attacked the local library. (It took me an hour and a half to round up 39 books by the most efficient and expeditious route. My local library has a whole lot in common with an airport. o_O)
Obviously, I haven't read all 39 yet. ;-)
Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg
Summary: Retelling of the folktale of Pecos Bill, with rather awesome full-page illustrations on all the pages.
Reaction: I read Steven Kellogg's Paul Bunyan when I was very young; I can't recall if it was the first version I heard of that story, but I think it must have been, because I've been an obsessive Paul Bunyan fan as far back as I can remember. :-)
I've only just gotten round to most of his other picture books (though Johnny Appleseed was given me a long time ago, as well). This one tells the story of Pecos Bill - heavily bowdlerized for younger readers, which I think is appropriate, as the versions I originally read were a lot more grim and gory. This one actually has a happy ending to the tale of Sluefoot Sue, for cryin' out loud! Anyway, I like it.
(Also, nobody draws cute rattlesnakes like Steven Kellogg. Nobody. *g*)
From Sawdust to Stardust by Terry Lee Rioux
Summary: Nonfiction. Heavily researched biography of DeForest Kelley, aka Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy on Star Trek: TOS.
Reaction: When I first got into TOS, my local library had the first ten eps filmed and the movies. I accordingly devoured them and then went on a spate of reading all the making-of books, novelizations, and actor autobiographies I could get my hands on, while trying to write a Trek fanfic play for my 4-H club.
I like actor autobiographies because the way someone talks about the people they work with, IMO, gives you more of a look inside their head than anything else, and with a TV show you can get several different people's take on the same guy, plus his own take on himself. But DeForest Kelley didn't write an autobiography; he's the only one of the Original Seven (or as Leonard Nimoy says, "Magnificent Seven") who didn't. He was apparently planning to do so, but died before he got beyond some preliminary notes. This is the book written using his notes and research.
*shrugs* It's a biography. I don't normally do "outsider" bios if an autobiography exists, because all you get that way is the facts; you can't be sure if the writer captured how the person themself felt about a situation. That stands true in this instance. Probably it's pretty close - the writer interviewed Mrs Kelley and a lot of De's friends - but there's still a lot that is, by necessity, speculation. It doesn't fill the gap. Nothing could.
Postmarked the Stars by Andre Norton (Solar Queen series, book 4)
Summary: Apprentice Cargo-Master Dane Thorson and the crew of the free-trading spaceship Solar Queen deal with a complicated plot involving de-evolved monsters, hyperintelligent ferret-like creatures, mysterious radiation, and other weird things like that. ;-)
Reaction: I'm prejudiced in favor of these books because they're essentially "crew of a tramp freighter solves mysteries, IN SPACE". And if there is one thing I love more than tramp freighter crews being teamy goodness in general (see: Han/Chewie/Falcon), it is tramp freighter crews solving mysteries. (I haven't mentioned Howard Pease's Araby books yet, have I? Believe me, I'll get there.) Besides, IN SPACE. ;D
But they are good, anyway. I discovered Andre Norton a while back when (due to complicated life stuff) I had enough time and boredom on my hands to read through most of the stock of a small local library branch. I think hers was the first SF I read that had actual convincing alien races and worldbuilding in it; she changed my world.
This volume in the Solar Queen series is about average, IMO; there's not enough teamy goodness (I want more Ali! and more of Rip's sense of humor! and more Captain Jellico being kickass! and I miss Van Ryck! and Queeckx and Jasper didn't show up at all!), but there is fantastic alien-y stuff and science-y stuff, and for once nobody spends a large part of the book bumbling around anywhere and the forces of authority have some common sense. (Okay, I'm snarky. *g*)
Next up: way too many books to list. I'm thinking to just read straight through the stack in alphabetical order, which means "Anne of Windy Willows" is up first. (Someone told me the "Windy Poplars" version was abridged, and we can't have that. :lol: I really don't do abridged.)
Obviously, I haven't read all 39 yet. ;-)
Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg
Summary: Retelling of the folktale of Pecos Bill, with rather awesome full-page illustrations on all the pages.
Reaction: I read Steven Kellogg's Paul Bunyan when I was very young; I can't recall if it was the first version I heard of that story, but I think it must have been, because I've been an obsessive Paul Bunyan fan as far back as I can remember. :-)
I've only just gotten round to most of his other picture books (though Johnny Appleseed was given me a long time ago, as well). This one tells the story of Pecos Bill - heavily bowdlerized for younger readers, which I think is appropriate, as the versions I originally read were a lot more grim and gory. This one actually has a happy ending to the tale of Sluefoot Sue, for cryin' out loud! Anyway, I like it.
(Also, nobody draws cute rattlesnakes like Steven Kellogg. Nobody. *g*)
From Sawdust to Stardust by Terry Lee Rioux
Summary: Nonfiction. Heavily researched biography of DeForest Kelley, aka Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy on Star Trek: TOS.
Reaction: When I first got into TOS, my local library had the first ten eps filmed and the movies. I accordingly devoured them and then went on a spate of reading all the making-of books, novelizations, and actor autobiographies I could get my hands on, while trying to write a Trek fanfic play for my 4-H club.
I like actor autobiographies because the way someone talks about the people they work with, IMO, gives you more of a look inside their head than anything else, and with a TV show you can get several different people's take on the same guy, plus his own take on himself. But DeForest Kelley didn't write an autobiography; he's the only one of the Original Seven (or as Leonard Nimoy says, "Magnificent Seven") who didn't. He was apparently planning to do so, but died before he got beyond some preliminary notes. This is the book written using his notes and research.
*shrugs* It's a biography. I don't normally do "outsider" bios if an autobiography exists, because all you get that way is the facts; you can't be sure if the writer captured how the person themself felt about a situation. That stands true in this instance. Probably it's pretty close - the writer interviewed Mrs Kelley and a lot of De's friends - but there's still a lot that is, by necessity, speculation. It doesn't fill the gap. Nothing could.
Postmarked the Stars by Andre Norton (Solar Queen series, book 4)
Summary: Apprentice Cargo-Master Dane Thorson and the crew of the free-trading spaceship Solar Queen deal with a complicated plot involving de-evolved monsters, hyperintelligent ferret-like creatures, mysterious radiation, and other weird things like that. ;-)
Reaction: I'm prejudiced in favor of these books because they're essentially "crew of a tramp freighter solves mysteries, IN SPACE". And if there is one thing I love more than tramp freighter crews being teamy goodness in general (see: Han/Chewie/Falcon), it is tramp freighter crews solving mysteries. (I haven't mentioned Howard Pease's Araby books yet, have I? Believe me, I'll get there.) Besides, IN SPACE. ;D
But they are good, anyway. I discovered Andre Norton a while back when (due to complicated life stuff) I had enough time and boredom on my hands to read through most of the stock of a small local library branch. I think hers was the first SF I read that had actual convincing alien races and worldbuilding in it; she changed my world.
This volume in the Solar Queen series is about average, IMO; there's not enough teamy goodness (I want more Ali! and more of Rip's sense of humor! and more Captain Jellico being kickass! and I miss Van Ryck! and Queeckx and Jasper didn't show up at all!), but there is fantastic alien-y stuff and science-y stuff, and for once nobody spends a large part of the book bumbling around anywhere and the forces of authority have some common sense. (Okay, I'm snarky. *g*)
Next up: way too many books to list. I'm thinking to just read straight through the stack in alphabetical order, which means "Anne of Windy Willows" is up first. (Someone told me the "Windy Poplars" version was abridged, and we can't have that. :lol: I really don't do abridged.)