2007 Books: February & March
6) Child of Time - Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg. A child from a different era is brought into the present, which affects the lives of his original contemporaries as well as the lives of the people living in the present. Great Asimov Book. Read it in one sitting, which I don't do often, both because English isn't my native language, and because of time constraints. Good writing, interesting plot, amusing characters, and a thoughtful sub-textual discussion about what constitutes "human"
7) Earth Is Room Enough - Isaac Asimov. A collection of short stories by Asimov. Clever, witty, lots of tongue-in-cheek stuff. Loved it. Classic sci-fi does indeed make me a very happy girl.
8) Lucky Starr, Space Ranger - Isaac Asimov. An amusing sci-fi novel by Asimov about a bold ranger catching criminals in space. Originally written for young adults, and indeed lacks the sophistication found in other books by Asimov. But fun, nonetheless.
9) Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids - Isaac Asimov. The second book in the Lucky Starr series. Not as much fun as the first one. Not sure that I'll read the rest of the books in the series.
10) Spiritual Mentoring - Judy Harrow. Mentoring in a modern religious witchcraft context. Nice, but I was mostly disappointed by it. It read like a very long and very basic website article about finding a spiritual teacher and/or finding students. Nothing in the book is "wrong" or inaccurate IMO, but it was also nothing new, nothing I haven't thought of before, nothing thought-provoking.
11) Das Parfum - Partick Sueskind. A man with no scent of his own is making the best perfumes in the world in 18th century France. Was difficult to read in German -- the author uses fairly sophisticated language - but wow, this was a great book. I bought it years ago, but haven't read it until now because on the one hand I didn't want to read it in translation, and on the other hand was never in the mood to deal with the difficult German. Was definitely worth it, though.
12) Le Premier Homme - Albert Camus. I originally picked up this book for professional purposes. I'm currently looking for new translation jobs, and so translated the first chapter as an example to send out with my resume. But the first chapter was beautiful enough and engaging enough to make me want to read the rest. "Le Premier Homme" (The First Man) is Camus unfinished autobiographical novel. He was killed in a car accident before completing it, but his daughter found the manuscript and published it as is. It sometimes gets confusing. Camus died before making up his mind about naming certain characters, for example, so some have more than one name, or share the same name with other characters. Still, wonderful, warm and well-written story.
7) Earth Is Room Enough - Isaac Asimov. A collection of short stories by Asimov. Clever, witty, lots of tongue-in-cheek stuff. Loved it. Classic sci-fi does indeed make me a very happy girl.
8) Lucky Starr, Space Ranger - Isaac Asimov. An amusing sci-fi novel by Asimov about a bold ranger catching criminals in space. Originally written for young adults, and indeed lacks the sophistication found in other books by Asimov. But fun, nonetheless.
9) Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids - Isaac Asimov. The second book in the Lucky Starr series. Not as much fun as the first one. Not sure that I'll read the rest of the books in the series.
10) Spiritual Mentoring - Judy Harrow. Mentoring in a modern religious witchcraft context. Nice, but I was mostly disappointed by it. It read like a very long and very basic website article about finding a spiritual teacher and/or finding students. Nothing in the book is "wrong" or inaccurate IMO, but it was also nothing new, nothing I haven't thought of before, nothing thought-provoking.
11) Das Parfum - Partick Sueskind. A man with no scent of his own is making the best perfumes in the world in 18th century France. Was difficult to read in German -- the author uses fairly sophisticated language - but wow, this was a great book. I bought it years ago, but haven't read it until now because on the one hand I didn't want to read it in translation, and on the other hand was never in the mood to deal with the difficult German. Was definitely worth it, though.
12) Le Premier Homme - Albert Camus. I originally picked up this book for professional purposes. I'm currently looking for new translation jobs, and so translated the first chapter as an example to send out with my resume. But the first chapter was beautiful enough and engaging enough to make me want to read the rest. "Le Premier Homme" (The First Man) is Camus unfinished autobiographical novel. He was killed in a car accident before completing it, but his daughter found the manuscript and published it as is. It sometimes gets confusing. Camus died before making up his mind about naming certain characters, for example, so some have more than one name, or share the same name with other characters. Still, wonderful, warm and well-written story.