Books read in 2009
Time for my annual list of books read. This year, having tired of getting neck and wrist strain making a carefully tabulated list linking to cover art and Amazon, I am taking a leaf from eledonecirrhosa 's book and just making a list of what I've read, divided into broad categories, with comments as I feel moved to make them.
Fiction: general (8)
1) Richard Adams, Watership Down. - A long time since I've read this. malaheed had started reading this to me during last year's eye troubles and we had never finished it, so I finished it on my own. Still a favourite.
2) Valerie Martin, Property. - Unrecommended by a former colleague but recommended by a different colleague whose taste I respect more. The unhappy young wife of a slave owner is caught up in a revolt by the "property" in question.
3) Anita Shreve, Sea glass
4) Sylvia Townsend Warner, Lolly Willowes. - The book I name when asked what is my favourite novel, because it is just so perfect.
5) Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the road. - I would consider killing to be able to write like Chabon.
6) Graham Greene, Stamboul train. - I found this, my first Greene, rather dull and dreary, populated by stock figures of which none of the females exceeded two dimensions.
7) P.G. Wodehouse, Mr Mulliner speaking. - Run of the mill as Wodehouses go. I prefer Jeeves and Blandings.
8) Michael Cart (ed.), In the stacks: short stories about libraries and librarians. - An early birthday present from my mother; some enjoyable stories and one or two authors to follow up.
Fiction: children and YA (11)
9) Ann Turnbull, The frightened forest. - One of my favourites from childhood despite being the first instance I encountered of the invariable rule that characters with my first name are invariably pathetic or annoying or both. Because of this book I have always longed to have a (European) robin carved in wood, of a size to nestle in my hand. Even if it will never flutter to my shoulder and turn back to wood.
10) Otfried Preußler, Krabat. (English title: The satanic mill.) - The television adaptation of this or more likely of an earlier version of the folk tales on which it is based, formed a much loved part of childhood New Year's Eve on Tele Svizzera. Beautifully written.
11) J.R.R. Tolkien, Roverandom. - Believe it or not I had never read this despite it being by Tolkien and about a dog!
12) Sherwood Smith, Wren to the rescue (Wren ; 1). - Engagingly written but I would have liked it better thirty years ago.
13) Diana Wynne Jones, The game. - I can't remember much about this; DWJ is always readable but this was a bit same old same old.
14) Joan Aiken, Limbo Lodge (Wolves chronicle ; 6). - I adore The wolves of Willoughby Chase and sequels but must confess a preference for the ones I read as a child/teen. Not sure whether it is because they are better, or because the later ones suffer from not being read at the "right" age?
15) Alan Garner, Elidor. - The opposite holds for Alan Garner somehow; the Brisingamen books were slightly disappointing last year whereas this was still genuinely creepy and sad.
16) Stephenie Meyer, Twilight (Twilight ; 1). I was on vacation, all right? Decided to see what the fuss was about. I liked the temperate rain forest setting. The rest was pretty forgettable when it wasn't unintentionally hilarious.
17) Lynne Weingarten, Wherever Nina lies. - My cousin wrote this! And it really sounded like her!
18) Stephenie Meyer, New moon (Twilight ; 2). Since the future werewolf character was the only remotely interesting one, and I still felt like reading trash, I tried again. This one was even worse.
19) Cornelia Funke, Inkheart (Inkworld trilogy ; 1). - Borrowed from na_lon: an enjoyable read but I found the heroine rather tiresome.
Fiction: crime (9)
20) Barbara Hambly, A free man of color (Benjamin January ; 1). - Cannot recommend these highly enough. Naturally their in-printness is erratic, but apademek has sailed to the rescue and a new one is forthcoming from a UK publisher, yay!
21) Barbara Hambly, Fever season (Benjamin January ; 2)
22) C.J. Sansom, Revelation (Matthew Sherdlake ; 4). - More in an excellent series, as approved of by at least two people who don't like historical fiction.
23) Barbara Hambly, Graveyard dust (Benjamin January ; 3)
24) Barbara Hambly, Sold down the river (Benjamin January ; 4)
25) Barbara Hambly, Die upon a kiss (Benjamin January ; 5)
26) Ian Rankin, The Falls (Inspector Rebus ; 12). - I like these better since visiting Edinburgh last year and seeing Ken Stott on the telly.
27) Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong poison (Lord Peter Wimsey ; 6). - Time to reread some Wimsey to see if Harriet Vane annoys me less these days. Less, but still annoys me for different reasons!
28) Barbara Hambly, Wet grave (Benjamin January ; 6)
Fiction: fantasy (19)
29) Jane Lindskold, Wolf’s blood (Wolf series ; 6). - see entry in last year's lost.
30) Jo Walton, Tooth and claw. - I loved this - delightful hommage to Trollope and co.!
31) Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, A companion to wolves
32) Sarah Monette, Corambis (Doctrine of labyrinths ; 4). - No more Mildmay stories *wails*
33) Barbara Hambly, Dragonshadow (Dragonsbane ; 2). - Not as good as Dragonsbane (q.v.).
34) Daniel Abraham, A shadow in summer (The long price quartet ; 1). - Very impressed by this series.
35) Sherwood Smith, Crown duel (Meliara/Shevraeth ; 1). - Not a patch on Inda and sequels (q.v.) but better than the Wren book.
36) Sherwood Smith, Court duel (Meliara/Shevraeth ; 2)
37) Daniel Abraham, A betrayal in winter (The long price quartet ; 2)
38) K.J. Parker, Devices and desires (The engineer trilogy ; 1). - Typical KJP by which I mean detailed central metaphor, slightly overcomplicated and very wittily written. I liked this better than the Scavenger trilogy but not as well as the Fencer trilogy.
39) K.J. Parker, Evil for evil (The engineer trilogy ; 2)
40) K.J. Parker, The escapement (The engineer trilogy ; 3)
41) Daniel Abraham, An autumn war (The long price quarter ; 3)
42) Tanya Huff, Blood price (Blood books ; 1). Not normally keen on urban fantasy with vampires but would read another one of these.
43) Sherwood Smith, King’s shield (Inda ; 3). - With superhuman self-control I have avoided buying the fourth one in hardback, but it's been touch and go. After a slow start, these have rocketed to the top of my current favourites and I'm looking forward to rereading them in anticipation of Treason's shore in paperback.
44) Barbara Hambly, Knight of the demon queen (Dragonsbane ; 3). - This was very slow going, I had to force myself to finish it.
45) Barbara Hambly, Dragonstar (Dragonsbane ; 4). - Also a bit of a struggle, but this series has probably my favourite portrayal of a dragon in fiction.
46) Randall Garrett, Lord Darcy. - Delightful, even if I am sure I missed 80% of the intertextual jokes.
47) C.E. Murphy, Urban shaman (Walker files ; 1). - Despite the Mary-Sue nature of the heroine (American Indian/Irish, please - it's like a white teenager's wish fulfillment fantasy) I would read more of these.
Fiction: science fiction (16)
48) C.S. Friedman, The madness season. - I remember being impressed by this, but not why...
49) S. Andrew Swann, Forests of the night. - Well-imagined future but the characters were a bit samey and I am still not a big fan of urban fantasy.
50) Mary Gentle, Ash: a secret history. - Speaking as someone who had a brief unrequited passion for Charles the Bold of Burgundy (1433-1477) as a teenager, I was very impressed with this, but not as much as sigisgrim. I didn't like the end much.
51) Scott Westerfield, The risen empire. - Didn't do much for me.
52) C.J. Cherryh, Wave without a shore. - a.k.a. Existentialist Philosopher Planet. Not one of her better efforts.
53) C.J. Cherryh, Regenesis (Cyteen ; 2). - Long-awaited sequel to Cyteen (q.v.) and worth the wait, but let's hope it's not quite such a long one until the next book!
54) Celia Friedman, Black sun rising (The Coldfire trilogy ; 1). - I enjoyed this well enough but in two minds about whether to bother with the other two. I would rather try the Magister series but am waiting for more than one of them to be out.
55) C.J. Cherryh, Conspirator (Foreigner ; 10). - A new Foreigner series, yay!
56) Octavia E. Butler, Wild seed (Seed to harvest ; 1). - Been meaning to read OEB for years and finally got around to it. Well worth reading but not the most cheerful read! I am still bracing myself to read the final book in this series.
57) Octavia E. Butler, Mind of my mind (Seed to harvest ; 2)
58) Octavia E. Butler, Clay’s ark (Seed to harvest ; 3)
59) John Scalzi, Old man’s war (Old man’s war ; 1). - Not my cup of tea. Never really warmed to any of the characters.
60) Tanya Huff, The heart of valor (Confederation of valor ; 3). - Third in the Confederation of Valor series (q.v.). Still no Silsviss :-(
61) Jo Walton, Half a crown (Small change ; 3). - Stopped having to wait for this in paperback because my mother's local library had it, possibly as a result of her recommendation to the librarian after mine to her.
62) Elizabeth Bear, Hammered (Jenny Casey trilogy ; 1). - Not my cup of tea.
63) Vernor Vinge, A deepness in the sky. - The prequel to A fire upon the deep and, I think, a better book despite the lack of adorable dog-aliens. Probably the best SF I've read this year, working on many levels.
Non-fiction (19)
64) Robert Graves, Good-bye to all that
65) Stephen Harris and Phil Baker, Urban foxes. - New ed. (British natural history series)
66) George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia
67) Cesar Millan with Melissa Jo Peltier, Cesar’s way : the natural everyday guide to understanding and correcting common dog problems
68) Vera Brittain, Testament of youth
69) Steve Cohen, That’s funny, you don’t look anti-semitic : an anti-racist analysis of left anti-semitism. www.engage-online.org.uk/ressources/funny
70) H.R. Ellis Davidson, Gods and myths of northern Europe
71) Gavin Pretor-Pinney, The cloud collector’s handbook
72) Charles C. Mann, 1491 : the Americas before Columbus. - Fascinating subject, shame the author backed up his justified Euro-America bashing (not nice to learn how my ancestors may have participated in land-hungry genocide) with less justified Europe-bashing generally (as if Americans get to be cool because there are still some Indians alive there).
73) Mark Rowlands, The philosopher and the wolf : lessons from the wild on love, death and happiness. - I would like to be more of a wolf than an ape.
74) Elizabeth Mavor, The ladies of Llangollen
75) Esther Woolfson, Corvus : a life with birds
76) Studs Terkel, My American century
77) Bruce Fogle, If your cat could talk : a language course for humans
78) J.K. Galbraith, The nature of mass poverty. - If you read any economist, ever, read J.K. Galbraith. If nothing else, the man writes like a dream.
79) Cesar Millan with Melissa Jo Peltier, Be the pack leader : use Cesar’s way to transform you dog … and your life
80) James Wilson, The earth shall weep : a history of Native America. - I wept too. A grim read and less preachy than 1491.
81) Claire Besant, The secret life of cats : everything your cat would want you to know
82) Dee Brown, Bury my heart at Wounded Knee : an Indian history of the American west. - A classic.
Odds and ends (4)
83) Hyacinthe Phypps [i.e. Mel Juffe and Edward Gorey], The recently deflowered girl : the right thing to say on every dubious occasion. http://www.joeydevilla.com/2009/01/10/the-recently-deflowered-girl-1965-illustrated-by-edward-gorey/ (only 10% still available to read online after a partial takedown request from the Gorey estate.
84) Paul W. Nash, The woodcut: a short story attempted in the manner of M.R. James. - A privately printed Christmas present.
85) Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira ; 1. - Manga.
86) Edward Gorey, The loathsome couple. - A loathsome little book which leaves a nasty feeling behind it.
Short stories
From Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April/May 2009:
James Tiptree Jr, ‘The women men don’t see’
Elizabeth Bear, ‘Long cold day’
Thomas M. Disch, ‘The brave little toaster’
Ellen Kushner, ‘A wild and a wicked youth’
S.L. Gilbow, ‘Andreanna’
Fiction: general (8)
1) Richard Adams, Watership Down. - A long time since I've read this. malaheed had started reading this to me during last year's eye troubles and we had never finished it, so I finished it on my own. Still a favourite.
2) Valerie Martin, Property. - Unrecommended by a former colleague but recommended by a different colleague whose taste I respect more. The unhappy young wife of a slave owner is caught up in a revolt by the "property" in question.
3) Anita Shreve, Sea glass
4) Sylvia Townsend Warner, Lolly Willowes. - The book I name when asked what is my favourite novel, because it is just so perfect.
5) Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the road. - I would consider killing to be able to write like Chabon.
6) Graham Greene, Stamboul train. - I found this, my first Greene, rather dull and dreary, populated by stock figures of which none of the females exceeded two dimensions.
7) P.G. Wodehouse, Mr Mulliner speaking. - Run of the mill as Wodehouses go. I prefer Jeeves and Blandings.
8) Michael Cart (ed.), In the stacks: short stories about libraries and librarians. - An early birthday present from my mother; some enjoyable stories and one or two authors to follow up.
Fiction: children and YA (11)
9) Ann Turnbull, The frightened forest. - One of my favourites from childhood despite being the first instance I encountered of the invariable rule that characters with my first name are invariably pathetic or annoying or both. Because of this book I have always longed to have a (European) robin carved in wood, of a size to nestle in my hand. Even if it will never flutter to my shoulder and turn back to wood.
10) Otfried Preußler, Krabat. (English title: The satanic mill.) - The television adaptation of this or more likely of an earlier version of the folk tales on which it is based, formed a much loved part of childhood New Year's Eve on Tele Svizzera. Beautifully written.
11) J.R.R. Tolkien, Roverandom. - Believe it or not I had never read this despite it being by Tolkien and about a dog!
12) Sherwood Smith, Wren to the rescue (Wren ; 1). - Engagingly written but I would have liked it better thirty years ago.
13) Diana Wynne Jones, The game. - I can't remember much about this; DWJ is always readable but this was a bit same old same old.
14) Joan Aiken, Limbo Lodge (Wolves chronicle ; 6). - I adore The wolves of Willoughby Chase and sequels but must confess a preference for the ones I read as a child/teen. Not sure whether it is because they are better, or because the later ones suffer from not being read at the "right" age?
15) Alan Garner, Elidor. - The opposite holds for Alan Garner somehow; the Brisingamen books were slightly disappointing last year whereas this was still genuinely creepy and sad.
16) Stephenie Meyer, Twilight (Twilight ; 1). I was on vacation, all right? Decided to see what the fuss was about. I liked the temperate rain forest setting. The rest was pretty forgettable when it wasn't unintentionally hilarious.
17) Lynne Weingarten, Wherever Nina lies. - My cousin wrote this! And it really sounded like her!
18) Stephenie Meyer, New moon (Twilight ; 2). Since the future werewolf character was the only remotely interesting one, and I still felt like reading trash, I tried again. This one was even worse.
19) Cornelia Funke, Inkheart (Inkworld trilogy ; 1). - Borrowed from na_lon: an enjoyable read but I found the heroine rather tiresome.
Fiction: crime (9)
20) Barbara Hambly, A free man of color (Benjamin January ; 1). - Cannot recommend these highly enough. Naturally their in-printness is erratic, but apademek has sailed to the rescue and a new one is forthcoming from a UK publisher, yay!
21) Barbara Hambly, Fever season (Benjamin January ; 2)
22) C.J. Sansom, Revelation (Matthew Sherdlake ; 4). - More in an excellent series, as approved of by at least two people who don't like historical fiction.
23) Barbara Hambly, Graveyard dust (Benjamin January ; 3)
24) Barbara Hambly, Sold down the river (Benjamin January ; 4)
25) Barbara Hambly, Die upon a kiss (Benjamin January ; 5)
26) Ian Rankin, The Falls (Inspector Rebus ; 12). - I like these better since visiting Edinburgh last year and seeing Ken Stott on the telly.
27) Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong poison (Lord Peter Wimsey ; 6). - Time to reread some Wimsey to see if Harriet Vane annoys me less these days. Less, but still annoys me for different reasons!
28) Barbara Hambly, Wet grave (Benjamin January ; 6)
Fiction: fantasy (19)
29) Jane Lindskold, Wolf’s blood (Wolf series ; 6). - see entry in last year's lost.
30) Jo Walton, Tooth and claw. - I loved this - delightful hommage to Trollope and co.!
31) Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, A companion to wolves
32) Sarah Monette, Corambis (Doctrine of labyrinths ; 4). - No more Mildmay stories *wails*
33) Barbara Hambly, Dragonshadow (Dragonsbane ; 2). - Not as good as Dragonsbane (q.v.).
34) Daniel Abraham, A shadow in summer (The long price quartet ; 1). - Very impressed by this series.
35) Sherwood Smith, Crown duel (Meliara/Shevraeth ; 1). - Not a patch on Inda and sequels (q.v.) but better than the Wren book.
36) Sherwood Smith, Court duel (Meliara/Shevraeth ; 2)
37) Daniel Abraham, A betrayal in winter (The long price quartet ; 2)
38) K.J. Parker, Devices and desires (The engineer trilogy ; 1). - Typical KJP by which I mean detailed central metaphor, slightly overcomplicated and very wittily written. I liked this better than the Scavenger trilogy but not as well as the Fencer trilogy.
39) K.J. Parker, Evil for evil (The engineer trilogy ; 2)
40) K.J. Parker, The escapement (The engineer trilogy ; 3)
41) Daniel Abraham, An autumn war (The long price quarter ; 3)
42) Tanya Huff, Blood price (Blood books ; 1). Not normally keen on urban fantasy with vampires but would read another one of these.
43) Sherwood Smith, King’s shield (Inda ; 3). - With superhuman self-control I have avoided buying the fourth one in hardback, but it's been touch and go. After a slow start, these have rocketed to the top of my current favourites and I'm looking forward to rereading them in anticipation of Treason's shore in paperback.
44) Barbara Hambly, Knight of the demon queen (Dragonsbane ; 3). - This was very slow going, I had to force myself to finish it.
45) Barbara Hambly, Dragonstar (Dragonsbane ; 4). - Also a bit of a struggle, but this series has probably my favourite portrayal of a dragon in fiction.
46) Randall Garrett, Lord Darcy. - Delightful, even if I am sure I missed 80% of the intertextual jokes.
47) C.E. Murphy, Urban shaman (Walker files ; 1). - Despite the Mary-Sue nature of the heroine (American Indian/Irish, please - it's like a white teenager's wish fulfillment fantasy) I would read more of these.
Fiction: science fiction (16)
48) C.S. Friedman, The madness season. - I remember being impressed by this, but not why...
49) S. Andrew Swann, Forests of the night. - Well-imagined future but the characters were a bit samey and I am still not a big fan of urban fantasy.
50) Mary Gentle, Ash: a secret history. - Speaking as someone who had a brief unrequited passion for Charles the Bold of Burgundy (1433-1477) as a teenager, I was very impressed with this, but not as much as sigisgrim. I didn't like the end much.
51) Scott Westerfield, The risen empire. - Didn't do much for me.
52) C.J. Cherryh, Wave without a shore. - a.k.a. Existentialist Philosopher Planet. Not one of her better efforts.
53) C.J. Cherryh, Regenesis (Cyteen ; 2). - Long-awaited sequel to Cyteen (q.v.) and worth the wait, but let's hope it's not quite such a long one until the next book!
54) Celia Friedman, Black sun rising (The Coldfire trilogy ; 1). - I enjoyed this well enough but in two minds about whether to bother with the other two. I would rather try the Magister series but am waiting for more than one of them to be out.
55) C.J. Cherryh, Conspirator (Foreigner ; 10). - A new Foreigner series, yay!
56) Octavia E. Butler, Wild seed (Seed to harvest ; 1). - Been meaning to read OEB for years and finally got around to it. Well worth reading but not the most cheerful read! I am still bracing myself to read the final book in this series.
57) Octavia E. Butler, Mind of my mind (Seed to harvest ; 2)
58) Octavia E. Butler, Clay’s ark (Seed to harvest ; 3)
59) John Scalzi, Old man’s war (Old man’s war ; 1). - Not my cup of tea. Never really warmed to any of the characters.
60) Tanya Huff, The heart of valor (Confederation of valor ; 3). - Third in the Confederation of Valor series (q.v.). Still no Silsviss :-(
61) Jo Walton, Half a crown (Small change ; 3). - Stopped having to wait for this in paperback because my mother's local library had it, possibly as a result of her recommendation to the librarian after mine to her.
62) Elizabeth Bear, Hammered (Jenny Casey trilogy ; 1). - Not my cup of tea.
63) Vernor Vinge, A deepness in the sky. - The prequel to A fire upon the deep and, I think, a better book despite the lack of adorable dog-aliens. Probably the best SF I've read this year, working on many levels.
Non-fiction (19)
64) Robert Graves, Good-bye to all that
65) Stephen Harris and Phil Baker, Urban foxes. - New ed. (British natural history series)
66) George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia
67) Cesar Millan with Melissa Jo Peltier, Cesar’s way : the natural everyday guide to understanding and correcting common dog problems
68) Vera Brittain, Testament of youth
69) Steve Cohen, That’s funny, you don’t look anti-semitic : an anti-racist analysis of left anti-semitism. www.engage-online.org.uk/ressources/funny
70) H.R. Ellis Davidson, Gods and myths of northern Europe
71) Gavin Pretor-Pinney, The cloud collector’s handbook
72) Charles C. Mann, 1491 : the Americas before Columbus. - Fascinating subject, shame the author backed up his justified Euro-America bashing (not nice to learn how my ancestors may have participated in land-hungry genocide) with less justified Europe-bashing generally (as if Americans get to be cool because there are still some Indians alive there).
73) Mark Rowlands, The philosopher and the wolf : lessons from the wild on love, death and happiness. - I would like to be more of a wolf than an ape.
74) Elizabeth Mavor, The ladies of Llangollen
75) Esther Woolfson, Corvus : a life with birds
76) Studs Terkel, My American century
77) Bruce Fogle, If your cat could talk : a language course for humans
78) J.K. Galbraith, The nature of mass poverty. - If you read any economist, ever, read J.K. Galbraith. If nothing else, the man writes like a dream.
79) Cesar Millan with Melissa Jo Peltier, Be the pack leader : use Cesar’s way to transform you dog … and your life
80) James Wilson, The earth shall weep : a history of Native America. - I wept too. A grim read and less preachy than 1491.
81) Claire Besant, The secret life of cats : everything your cat would want you to know
82) Dee Brown, Bury my heart at Wounded Knee : an Indian history of the American west. - A classic.
Odds and ends (4)
83) Hyacinthe Phypps [i.e. Mel Juffe and Edward Gorey], The recently deflowered girl : the right thing to say on every dubious occasion. http://www.joeydevilla.com/2009/01/10/the-recently-deflowered-girl-1965-illustrated-by-edward-gorey/ (only 10% still available to read online after a partial takedown request from the Gorey estate.
84) Paul W. Nash, The woodcut: a short story attempted in the manner of M.R. James. - A privately printed Christmas present.
85) Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira ; 1. - Manga.
86) Edward Gorey, The loathsome couple. - A loathsome little book which leaves a nasty feeling behind it.
Short stories
From Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April/May 2009:
James Tiptree Jr, ‘The women men don’t see’
Elizabeth Bear, ‘Long cold day’
Thomas M. Disch, ‘The brave little toaster’
Ellen Kushner, ‘A wild and a wicked youth’
S.L. Gilbow, ‘Andreanna’