Diary of a Text Addict, #12: December 2008
ETA: Tally of books (and a few magazines) read in 2008: 103. And now, it's back to work for me ...
Saran, Suvir. American Masala - 125 New Classics from My Home Kitchen. One rarely reads a cookbook all the way through - especially when the book in question so clearly exceeds one's time budget in terms of both reading and cooking. I would like to enlarge our family repertoire, but recipes that call for lime juice and fresh ginger and spices we won't use often are not the thing just now. Pity, because a lot of this looked quite tasty.
Stuckart, Diana A. S. The Queen's Gambit. Another historical figure becomes a star in a historical mystery series! This time, it's Leonardo da Vinci. But the point of view character is not the great Leonardo himself, but one of his squad of apprentices, Dino by name. Only Dino is really Delfina, a girl disguised as a boy so she can study art! Okay, perhaps you've guessed that I'm not completely enthralled with this one. It may be that I need to take a break from the mysteries, or perhaps just lighten up a bit. I was a tad disappointed to realize I'd be stuck with an apprentice point-of-view, and I really feel the girl-in-disguise bit is an unneccessary effort to make the protagonist more interesting, as if the setting and the murder and conspiracy (and Leonardo!) aren't interesting enough. And it's true that Dino is unable to keep the secret from everyone for very long, but at that point she does gain a useful ally. The mystery itself was actually pretty good, a bit fanciful but making use of Leonardo's habit of inventing things as well as doing art. But I still feel it's trying a bit too hard.
Fleischman, Sid. The Giant Rat of Sumatra (Or, Pirates Galore). I'm not too proud to read books labeled "10 and up," and you shouldn't be either. Sometimes they're a lot of fun - especially if they're historical aventure stories. In 1846 San Diego, California, twelve-year-old Shipwreck is brought ashore by the pirate captain who rescued him from the sea, and who is now bent on becoming an hidalgo - and completing his revenge on the local man who wronged him years ago. A fast-paced, mostly credible, and often funny yarn, this story did have a few continuity problems but was enjoyable to read (even for a historian).
Gilman, Laura Anne. Free Fall. I've been following Gilman's Retrievers series for - five books now, and I'm not tired of it. In this revised version of our world, the creatures of fairy tale are real and hiding among us (or out in the wilderness). Also, some humans have the ability to channel "current" (which is basically, though not exactly, electricity) (one must wonder if Tesla and Edison were Talent - Gilman doesn't say, but it seems likely). I'm not going to recap the whole plot of this series here, just say that in this one, everybody antes up and shows their hand, and the results are spectacular - if somewhat ambiguous in some ways. I look forward to the next in the series to see what happens next.
Rowling, J. K. The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I'm not sure why kebbykate put this on reserve for me, but I'm (somewhat surprised to be) glad she did. I'm ambivalent about Rowling's magnum opus - but this little book suggests that if she'd managed to stick closer to a fairy tale type of story, I might feel they were better books. These are tidy little tales in the unexpurgated Brothers Grimm tradition, with thoughtful commentary by Albus Dumbledore (a device that actually works quite well here). Plus, the book benefits a charity that assists institutionalized children across Europe (www.chlg.org). Recommended.
Armstrong, Kelley. Living with the Dead (abandoned). I've enjoyed quite a few of Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld books (especially Bitten), but in this one, I just can't get past the protagonist being on the run because when she found her client shot to death she panicked and ran off with the gun. Sorry, but I hate stories that start off like that. This could actually be a really good book, but - no. Not for me.
Anam, Tahmina. A Golden Age. In essence a historical novel, about the Bangladeshi war of independence in 1971. The widow Rehana Haque, with a history of her own that is slowly revealed, passes through the war like a small boat, sometimes utterly adrift and sometimes moving with a difficult, desperate purpose. It is not an easy book, but the fear of losing children and life itself keeps a high tension in it. And the author loves her country, and it shows. A very good book, hopeful and terrifying and painful.
DeVito, Dominique. Country Living 500 Kitchen Ideas: Style, Function & Charm. It is, actually, kind of fun to look through these books, even though the kitchens pictured generally have at least twice the space and twenty times the budget of my own. Sometimes they even provide a good idea or two.
Saran, Suvir. American Masala - 125 New Classics from My Home Kitchen. One rarely reads a cookbook all the way through - especially when the book in question so clearly exceeds one's time budget in terms of both reading and cooking. I would like to enlarge our family repertoire, but recipes that call for lime juice and fresh ginger and spices we won't use often are not the thing just now. Pity, because a lot of this looked quite tasty.
Stuckart, Diana A. S. The Queen's Gambit. Another historical figure becomes a star in a historical mystery series! This time, it's Leonardo da Vinci. But the point of view character is not the great Leonardo himself, but one of his squad of apprentices, Dino by name. Only Dino is really Delfina, a girl disguised as a boy so she can study art! Okay, perhaps you've guessed that I'm not completely enthralled with this one. It may be that I need to take a break from the mysteries, or perhaps just lighten up a bit. I was a tad disappointed to realize I'd be stuck with an apprentice point-of-view, and I really feel the girl-in-disguise bit is an unneccessary effort to make the protagonist more interesting, as if the setting and the murder and conspiracy (and Leonardo!) aren't interesting enough. And it's true that Dino is unable to keep the secret from everyone for very long, but at that point she does gain a useful ally. The mystery itself was actually pretty good, a bit fanciful but making use of Leonardo's habit of inventing things as well as doing art. But I still feel it's trying a bit too hard.
Fleischman, Sid. The Giant Rat of Sumatra (Or, Pirates Galore). I'm not too proud to read books labeled "10 and up," and you shouldn't be either. Sometimes they're a lot of fun - especially if they're historical aventure stories. In 1846 San Diego, California, twelve-year-old Shipwreck is brought ashore by the pirate captain who rescued him from the sea, and who is now bent on becoming an hidalgo - and completing his revenge on the local man who wronged him years ago. A fast-paced, mostly credible, and often funny yarn, this story did have a few continuity problems but was enjoyable to read (even for a historian).
Gilman, Laura Anne. Free Fall. I've been following Gilman's Retrievers series for - five books now, and I'm not tired of it. In this revised version of our world, the creatures of fairy tale are real and hiding among us (or out in the wilderness). Also, some humans have the ability to channel "current" (which is basically, though not exactly, electricity) (one must wonder if Tesla and Edison were Talent - Gilman doesn't say, but it seems likely). I'm not going to recap the whole plot of this series here, just say that in this one, everybody antes up and shows their hand, and the results are spectacular - if somewhat ambiguous in some ways. I look forward to the next in the series to see what happens next.
Rowling, J. K. The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I'm not sure why kebbykate put this on reserve for me, but I'm (somewhat surprised to be) glad she did. I'm ambivalent about Rowling's magnum opus - but this little book suggests that if she'd managed to stick closer to a fairy tale type of story, I might feel they were better books. These are tidy little tales in the unexpurgated Brothers Grimm tradition, with thoughtful commentary by Albus Dumbledore (a device that actually works quite well here). Plus, the book benefits a charity that assists institutionalized children across Europe (www.chlg.org). Recommended.
Armstrong, Kelley. Living with the Dead (abandoned). I've enjoyed quite a few of Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld books (especially Bitten), but in this one, I just can't get past the protagonist being on the run because when she found her client shot to death she panicked and ran off with the gun. Sorry, but I hate stories that start off like that. This could actually be a really good book, but - no. Not for me.
Anam, Tahmina. A Golden Age. In essence a historical novel, about the Bangladeshi war of independence in 1971. The widow Rehana Haque, with a history of her own that is slowly revealed, passes through the war like a small boat, sometimes utterly adrift and sometimes moving with a difficult, desperate purpose. It is not an easy book, but the fear of losing children and life itself keeps a high tension in it. And the author loves her country, and it shows. A very good book, hopeful and terrifying and painful.
DeVito, Dominique. Country Living 500 Kitchen Ideas: Style, Function & Charm. It is, actually, kind of fun to look through these books, even though the kitchens pictured generally have at least twice the space and twenty times the budget of my own. Sometimes they even provide a good idea or two.