Read Recently
Defending Evolution: a guide to the creation/evolution controversy by Brian J. Alters and Sandra M. Alters
Every now and then I like to read something topical. And since the creation/evolution controversy is always getting ink somewhere in America, this seemed like a good choice.
What's interesting is that it's not the usual sort of thing for this sort of thing, but rather advice for teachers on how to answer questions from students and parents relating to the subject. Chapters on "Why Should Students Learn Evolution?", and two different chapters on why students reject evolution are particularely useful, as is the final chapter on Methods for Teaching Evolution. It gave me some useful ideas, and I'm not even a teacher.
Recommended for those interested in this subject.
Every Which Way But Dead by Kim Harrison
As the man jumping off the building said, when passing another floor, "So far, so good."
Series' like this one always seem to lose me sooner or later. Laurel K. Hamilton lost me so completely I don't even want to reread the books before it went bad. Charlaine Harris only slightly pissed me off, but the books just . . . stopped entertaining me. Jim Butcher's doing okay, though I started out hating his and only got to like it with the second book (and, of course, still haven't read the latest so he could have blown it and I just don't know it yet). But Harrison, though she nearly lost me this time, still holds my interest.
Rachel has, at the start of the Novel, unfortunately bound herself to become the slave of a demon. She comes up with a trick to free herself, or at least to keep him from taking her for now, though he can still keep coming back and trying again if she isn't careful, and as a bonus rescues a former captive from him. Her relationship with her partner Ivy is still tempestuous, made worse by the fact that Ivy wants Rachel and Rachel does not return the feeling (though she likes Ivy very much and wants to remain her friend). And she took down the city's Master Vampire in the last story and now feels some need to help deal with the war going on between the remnants of his old organization and a new force trying to muscle in. Lotsa fun.
The bit that nearly lost me is where she agrees to go on a date with the arrogant vampire Kisten. And, as is so often the case in this sort of thing, he seems to know what she needs better than she does. But Kisten turns out to actually be a nice guy, and he's careful not to push, and I found myself liking him and understanding why Rachel did, too.
There's still time to screw things up and lose me, but, so far, so good.
Recommended.
The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey
It's probably no surprise that I'm not Lackey's greatest fan. I'm by no means her greatest basher, either--that would be yendi, but I do feel that the "Bedlam's Bard" series is seriously running out of steam and Valdemar, of course, is a pitiful zombie of its old self, too weak even to moan "Braaaaiiiinnnssss" and far too slow to catch anyone, and thus starving and this metaphor is really too dumb for words, ain't it? But I saw that she's got a new series out, the Elemental Masters series, so I thought I give it a look. I chose this book because it features a half-Indian heroine and I've got a soft spot for India. I liked it.
Maya Witherspoon is the daughter of an English doctor and a High-Caste Brahmin woman. Both her parents are dead, and Maya has come to England to practice medicine and flee from the enemy that may have killed her father and may also be after her. This enemy, she and we find out, is her mother's sister, a priestess of Kali. Maya also has to deal with prejudice, both as a woman entering a man's traditional career, and as a "half-breed" working in the white man's world. She also has to deal with the fact that, while she is a strong mage, she doesn't know how to work her magic--her mother wouldn't teach her, arguing that Maya's magic came from her father's side, and is alien to India as a consequence, so Mother didn't even know how to teach her. Now Maya is putting together half-assed magic defenses that work only because she is so strong, but are also her only hope of hiding from her homicidal aunt. Fortunately, a sympathetic English Mage is willing to teach her . . . but is Maya's magic all that he is interested in?
There were a couple of little problems; for example at one point one character refers to Indian "snake demons" as "rakshashas", which is wrong. Rakshashas are shapeshifters; snake spirits are Nagas. But it's a one off, and the rest of the Indian stuff works okay. The romance holds up, and the menace is kept in the background long enough to build properly. Overall, I'd say that Lackey is, until she beats this series into the ground, back in her groove.
Recommended.
So those three were the last ones for October, for a total of 10 books, 2 of them nonfiction, an annual total of 136 books, 36 nonfiction.