2007 Reading Log
Taking inspiration from
joyce, I have decided to keep track of the books I read in 2007. I will be listing them in chronological order, so:
1. Dragon Rescue by Dan Callander (finished 1/5/07; 225 pgs). This is the second book in the series which features Tom the Librarian, who was mysteriously transported from his boring life in Washington DC to an elfish kingdom named Carolna. I stumbled upon these while staying at a friend's place over break. I liked the first one a bit better, but both were fun and light. If the third one finds me, I will definitely enjoy it.
2. The New Glucose Revolution: Low GI Eating Made Easy by Jenne Brand-Miller, Kaye Foster-Powell, and Phillipa Sandall (started & finished 1/6/07; 104 pages). This book provides a coherent, simple summary of low GI eating. I only read the first two sections (which is where the page count comes from), and am setting the list of 100 best foods aside. Interestingly, I already tend to eat in a way that matches this plan, since it is what makes me feel most functional. Reading about it may inspire me to eat more fruits & veggies and fewer "treats," since my diet is already congruent with the principles and the science makes sense to me.
3. Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton (finished 1/7/06, 596 pages). I started this while whiling away time at
crimmycat's house, and went on to read the whole thing. Both crimmy and
lycantras have warned me that her later work is sheer smut, but this one was fine, if a little gory. However, I dont resonate enough with the character to bother going back and reading of her earlier adventures and have little to no interest in her smutty future. It's an adequate book, but not a fabulous one.
4. Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich (started & finished 1/10/07 on the airplane, 228 pages). This is sheer fluff, selected for light airplane reading. I try to choose light books with compelling story lines for that sort of distracted reading, and Evanovich tends to fit the bill. This re-release of a much earlier stand-alone romance novel (first published in 1988) was not that interesting though... The character were cute, but there was no story arc. I am one of those people who has a hard time reading about bad things happening to people, but there was no conflict in this story. With no conflict, there is no plot, so it was a disappointment.
5. Aeromancer by Don Callander (started & finished 1/10/07 on the airplane, 289 pages). This is the fourth book in a series, but the first one I have read. It was okay, but definitely read like a series book: he expected you to know the characters and their backstories, so there was a lot I missed.
6. Learning to Float: The Journey of a Woman, a Dog, and Just Enough Men, by Lili Wright (finished 1/12/06, 363 pages). At the beginning of the book, Lili (pronounced Lee-Lee) is having a relationship quandary. Rather than choose between the two men in her life she borrows one of their dogs and drives south, tracing the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Florida. She returns the dog a few states in, but continues to grapple with the big questions of who she is and what she wants all the way south. I like that there is no tidy take-home message or neat happily-ever-after ending. Instead Lili shares a journey, then ends the book at Key West without inviting us to follow her north and weather her renegotiation with the men in her life. From the "Acknowledgments," we know what she chooses, but I appreciate her willingness to admit she doesn't have all the answers, that maybe the answers don't exist, etc.
7. The Looniness of the Long Distance Runner: An Unfit Londoner's Attempt to Run the New York City Marathon From Scratch, by Russel Taylor (finished 1/14/06, 224 pages). This is a book about running by someone who obviously loves the sport. The most important bit for me was his assertion that the worst part of running occurs between minute 5 and minute 25 - he is right, and this means my usual run-for-half-an-hour strategy maximizes the pain without ever getting to the endorphin payout. I am working back up to running (i.e. thinking hard about it, from the comfort of my lush bed), so this is a helpful reminder that perhaps I should just Go Do It, for an hour or so each day.
- I am also realizing that I dont like having this all in a seperate, huge post. I want to talk about books, so think I am going to start posting each book paragraph to my LJ as I finish it. That way anyone who has also read the book or has any comment can share their perspective. More like an online book club, since last year's resolution to find an in-person book club failed miserably. (No, I didn't find one. Perhaps because I didn't look. Yes).
I read 7 books in the first 14 days of 2007, then didn't finish anything for almost three weeks. This is a reflection of my life and mental health - I have been working on finishing the thesis document, so most of my brain space has been elsewhere. I started several books, but none of them had enough shine to keep my attention, with the thesis looming over my head. When this happens I get into the habit of retreating to my bookcase, and re-reading passages from a handful of comfort books. These are books I can pick up, flip open at any point, read for ten minutes with delight, then walk away satisfied.
I finally read a couple real books though, so here is the latest report.
8.* Full Bloom by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes (finished 2/2/07, 344 pages, re-read). This is an unlikely, semi-romance novel about a woman who has turned her great-grandmother's Victorian brothel into a B&B, and then finds her husband - who she thought left her for another woman - buried in the backyard. Oh the shenanigans, etcetera. It's silly and fluffy, and I read it in the bathtub Friday night. It is very genre-ific, if you like those books you will like this one.
9. Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett (finished 2/3/07, 257 pages). Truth and Beauty chronicles Ann's friendship with Lucy - a friend with a complicated and ongoing medical history, a brilliant mind, and a self-destructive longing. Ann (of Bel Canto fame) wrote the book after Lucy's death, and it seems like a memorial to her as well as an exploration of what exactly happened over the decades of their friendship. Lucy being dead seemed convenient - I can't imagine speaking to someone who put all my naked faults on paper then published them for the world to read - but Ann mostly avoided the trap of writing herself as perfect. I like books about long friendships, since I think those relationships help us explore who we are, and this one was fine. I would have liked to see Ann use the medium more to reflect on her own trajectory, since she wasn't inside Lucy's head and thus can only give us an observer's perspective.
10.* Sunshine by Robin McKinley (finished for the eleventeenth time, in late January, 405 pages). This is probably my favorite book of 2005 or whatever year I discovered it, and in my all-time top ten. I don't read a lot of vampire fiction or fanasy, but I love Robin McKinley's work (order: this, The Blue Sword / The Hero and the Crown, then Sherwood Forest, then all the other re-told fairy tales) and am praying for a sequel. Sunshine, the main character, has a life nothing like mine but we share a sensibility and sense of humor, which makes her very fun to read about. I also love the world Robin set it in - it is very like ours, with a few massive exceptions. The overall world presented is enough like ours to easily relate to, but also shocking and strange.
11. Holding the Line by Barbara Kingsolver (finished 2/18/07, 196 pages, acquired via Bookmooch). This is Kingsolver's first book, pre-dating her novels. She was a journalist covering the "Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983" and wrote this book to shed light on the women who "held the line" throughout this strike. In a way, the book reads like one of her novels, because it is so character driven. At the same time, I never got the characters or the towns straight, since she was chronicling the stories of many women in disparate locations. Despite that, I really enjoyed her writing because it anchored these women's action and growth in the larger historical and sociological context, without zooming so far out that the individual stories were lost.
12.* Protector of the Small: Squire by Tamora Pierce (409 pages, February). I love Tamora Pierce's young adult novels, which follow strong girl characters through a faux-medieval society where magic exists. Her heroines push the boundaries of their society to be knights and warriors, without being ridiculously perfect characters. This story follows Keladry of Mindelan from becoming a squire (for Raoul of Goldenlake and Mallory's Peak, Commander of the King's Own) through her transition to knighthood. I like Kel, the way which Pierce normalizes reality (she glosses over the details but her characters menstruate, have pre-marital sex, and talk about slatterns in taverns), and the story arc. It's a YA, so a fast read, but a good one. All Pierce's stuff counts as "comfort reading" for me.
13. Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton (finished the first week of February, sometime, 266 pages, arrived via Bookmooch). This is the first book in the Anita Blake series (which I first encountered in book #3 on this list), and I enjoyed it. It was a slick, fast read which kept my attention. Anita is the only character in the story with any depth at all, so far, but - assuming I agree to suspend my disbelief of the rest - it works.
14. Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia by Emily Toth (arrived via Bookmooch, 207 pages, read in February). I haven't read every word of this yet, but am dipping into it for the odd ten minutes of amusement here and there. Ms. Mentor has a column in The Chronicle of Higher Education which I read online, and I enjoy her sarcasm, realistic perspective, and reminders that academia is a skewed world. The book reads like a compilation of Toth's columns, with a few defying belief (a drunken academic throwing the olives from his martini down the front of a pre-tenure women colleague's blouse, then another tenured drunken lout pawing her to retrieve them, springs to mind) while others reflect more typical troubles.
15. The Seven Towers by Patricia Wrede (264 pages, read 2/18/07, arrived via Bookmooch). I put Patricia Wrede in roughly the same category as Tamora Pierce (see entry #12), though that is mostly based on her series about Princess Cimorene (a very un-silly princess who runs away to bake Cherries Jubilee and sort treasure for dragons, rather than be married off to boring Prince Therandil). This book was a stand-alone about another group of royal advisors, relatives, and hangers-on, set in another mythical region. I picked it up for the first time the day after it arrived and couldn't get invested in it, but today it hit the spot. I had to read a little further than I would have expected to start caring about the characters, but she manages the unlikely feat of setting one character up to be pitied and disliked, then making him emerge as the noblest of the assembled nobles. I likely wont reread it, but it was a fun romp and you can see her feeling her way into personalities you see in her later books (i.e. Amberglas evolves into Morwen, Crystalorn into Cimorene, etc.). I dont want this last piece to sound condescending, but I am not sure how to avoid it: Wrede is an excellent young adult writer, and her work has deepened and strengthened over time. The Seven Towers reads like an early effort, because it is - it was published in 1984, at least a decade before the Cimorene books. (That doesn't make it bad, just less polished).
16. The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton (read 2/24/07, 291 pages, via Bookmooch). Another book about a girl who raises the dead and hangs out with vampires. It was a remarkably un-sexy book, so it amuses me that the series apparently gets torrid soon. It was fun and a fast read.
17. Plum Lovin' (a Stephanie Plum between-the-numbers novel) by Janet Evanovich (read 2/24-25/07, in one sitting. 164 pages. Amazon.com). I loved the Stephanie Plum series when I was in college, and have read each of them as they come out. My issue with the series now is that we are thirteen books in, and Stephanie's life hasn't changed at all. Her relationships with Morelli and & Ranger peaked around book eight, and it feels like we are just sort of in stasis, with no real growth or character change happening. This book had remarkably little Ranger or Morelli, though each made a brief, token appearance. Instead Stephanie and Diesel (from the Christmas themed book published a couple of years ago) were all a-flutter coping with Valentine's day and other people's relationships.
18. Caught in Crystal by Patricia Wrede (read 2/25/07, 293 pages, via Bookmooch). I love the premise of this novel, which is that a 37 year old inn-keeper, widow, and mother to two children, is called upon to return to the site of an earlier defeat and battle the forces of evil. We need more middle-aged heroines (and this is even in a YA!), and it was interesting to discover her secret past as a warrior maiden for the Sisterhood of the Stars. This book is not extrordinary, but it was pleasant and the story unfolds in a compelling way.
19. Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton (read end of February, 329 pages, arrived via Bookmooch). More vampires, shape-shifters, gore, etc.
20-21.Bloody Bones & The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton (read 3/7-9, 370 & 369 pages, bought for me by Heather at a cute independent bookshop in Florida). Anita has maintained her virtue thus far, but is finally beginning to lust after two of "the monsters" in her life. There is some fairly gory "sex" which occurs between other, lesser characters - some of whom are even alive!
I am amused that, while no one has fabulous things to say about this series, more people seem to have read them than anything else I am journaling. I find them engrossing in the moment, but have trouble remembering what happens in any given book without re-reading the cover copy. And I dont think I would enjoy Anita in person - she is just a little too strident about everything.
The smut element of this story arc confuses me, and I am a little bewildered by how the author will get from here (gore! saving sex for marriage! more gore! french-kissing! wait - casual sex is bad and cant happen! people die! non-people die!) to erotica. Thus far, I have found the books fairly un-sexy. They are violent (I think Anita has killed at least three people in every book, despite her continued insistence that all life is sacred) and occasionally we see (because Anita sees) sexual violence being done. And, yes, sex and violence have some things in common - both have a lot to do with bodily fluids, power, and vulnerability - however, the confusion here doesn't seem to be doing much for the series. The only interesting bits so far, if you ask me, are Anita's dawning realization that "the monsters" are not that different from some parts of her, her discovery that she can love Richard and Jean-Claude simultaneously (if not in the same way), and Larry's emergence as a necromancer and as an independent adult.
I figure I will read the next three, bringing me as far as Obsidian Butterfly (the first Laurell k. Hamilton I read), then move on to some other escapist reading. This series is a fun train-wreck, but the body count is getting ridiculous.
22. Beka Cooper: Terrier by Tamora Pierce (read 3/9-10, 581 pages, YA, I gave it to Heather for Christmas, and she loaned it me). This was an awesome book (not that I would have expected less from anything set in Tortall, my favorite fictional kingdom). I liked the characters and appreciated the way Tamora presented the Dogs (City Guards) and the Rats (members of the Court of the Rogue) as characters with depth and common motivations. She lets life be imperfect, occasionally kills a character we care about, and generally respects her reader enough to present a complicated, messy story (since life is complex). The mystery element was interesting and the solution both clear and unexpected enough to avoid early guessing. Beka, the heroine, is 18ish and you see some of her struggles to find her place in the world, but there isn't so much angst it chokes the story. The developing romance storyline is interesting. Need I mention that I think the rogue sounds adorable? [I always think the rogues are adorable. This is why I found George Cooper more appealing than Prince Jonathan, Jean-Claude more attractive than Richard, and Ranger more interesting than Morelli (double bonus points to anyone who gets all three of those references, triple if you agree with me)].
23.* Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce. (299 pages, YA, re-read 3/11/07, acquired at Edward McKay Used Bookstore in Greensboro, now in my collection). Reading Terrier (#22 on this list) reminded me how much I love Tortall and the people who live there, so I decided to re-read this one (for the eleventeenth time). Daine is sweet, and I like seeing glimpses of the people we met earlier in Alanna's series. I have been reading these books since middle school, so they are the ultimate in easy comfort reading.
24.* Beka Cooper: Terrier by Tamora Pierce (re-read 3/11, 581 pages, YA). Had to read it again, it was even better the second time. Knowing the characters a bit better made their interactions more fun to read.
25. A Difficulty With Dwarves by Craig Shaw Gardener (read 3/12/07, 188 pages, via Ed McKay). This is one of a series of books about an apprentice named Wuntover. I vaguely remember reading a couple of them when I was a teenager, and picked this one up for $1.50 out of nostalgia. There are a few cute bits - the other seven dwarves (my favorites are Smarmy and Nasty) and other fairy tale jokes, but it starts slow and stays that way, as there is no story arc. The book ends five pages after the one exciting thing that happens. I know it is part of a series, but I strongly believe all books should be readable as stand-alones. Instead, this one feels like chapters 14-20 of a 40 page opus - you know, the boring, pre-action middle.
26. Memories of the Old Plantation Home & A Creole Family Album by Laura Locoul Gore, with Norman and Sand Marmillion. (Memoir, 166 pages, bought at The Laura Plantation, Vatcherie, LA, read 3/12/07). Heather and I toured a Creole plantation while in southern Louisiana, and she bought this memoir chronicling life on that particular plantation for four generations, spanning from French exploration to Reconstruction. Laura wrote this memoir when she was in her early seventies, for her children and posterity. It does not say so in the book, but Norman (who conducted our tour) claimed it was in response to her daughters' discovery of Gone with the Wind,and Laura's desire to present a less romantic version of life in the Old South. As you might expect from a book written for one's children, it feels a little sanitized, but it also presents interesting information about life at that time and the Creole culture. It's a nice supplement to the tour we took, and the pictures of ball gowns and sundry relatives are fun.
27. The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton. (385 pages, read 3/12/07, arrived via Bookmooch). More random gore, endless dressing and undressing, and some killing of humans, shapeshifters, and vampires. I have been avoiding the obvious temptation to fuss about the clothes, but find that my parenthetical note about them is now three times as long as the other things I have to say. So, succumbing: There is lots and lots of over-done clothing descriptions in this book (like all the books in this series). We always know what Anita will be wearing (boring polo shirt, black jeans, and black Nikes described ad nauseum), yet it is reiterated every time she changes clothes, and there is a ridiculous amount of getting dressed in these books. And the masculine attire is somewhat unbelievable. I mean, where does Jean-Claude get his endless supply of thigh-high black leather books and Jason his skin tight leather pants? On what planet are they the last word in men's sexually appealing attire? Also - now that I am ranting about this I am not sure I can stop - I am fairly sure Ms. Hamilton has never attempted to wear all these weapons anywhere, including around her own damn house. Hiding a handgun in female attire is difficult, which she acknowledges, but it is also freaking uncomfortable if you plan to, say, sit down, stand up, take a jacket on and off, or breathe deeply. I dont understand why she side-steps some of the more comfortable but still discreet options for arms placement, and it seems clear that she is describing all these choices based on pictures in a book rather than weapons on her body. Okay, moving on: Spoiler alert: finally, in the last pages of this sixth book, Anita goes to bed with one of the monsters after demonstrating her love for the other monster, by doing something she said she would never do. Does this remind you of high school yet? (So it's not much of a spoiler. Sue me. I am trying to be discreet). Having read Obsidian first, out of order, I can see how she is setting up for it in this book via conversations with Edward ("Even Death has needs" etc.)
28.* Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold (3/14/07, 262 pages, via Bookmooch). This author was originally recommended to me by
crimmycat and I enjoy her work. I requested Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem off Bookmooch, thinking it was one I hadn't yet seen, but it is merely a collection of three previously published titles, including Cetaganda. I re-read the first title in the compilation, but am not inspired to re-read either Ethan of Athos or Labyrinth. Despite having read it before, I enjoyed the story. I like Miles.
29. point last seen (A Woman Tracker's Story of Domestic Violence and Personal Triumph) by Hannah Nyala (finished 3/15/07, 168 pages, memoir). This is a neat idea, but the execution was merely okay. Rather than being a story of tracking, a tale of personal growth, or both, it was a weird hybrid that didn't fulfill either promise. Too many isolated vignettes, not enough information tying them to an overarching story.
30: In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker (read 3/16/07, 329 pages, from
joyce). The premise behind these stories is interesting - sometime in the future Dr. Zeus develops technology for making mortal children immortals, who can be shipped about in history to preserve lost historical artifacts, organisms that will die of extinction as time passes, etc. Our narrator was rescued from the prisons of the Spanish Inquisition and trained as a botanist, then set down in 16th century Spain and England to live a cover life and save plants that would otherwise disappear forever. Of course, being 19 years old and on her first mission, she is exploring her own place in the world and her relationships with other people. As you can imagine, drama ensues. It was a good book, but I never really clicked with Mendoza. She is like a friend's younger sibling - if someone asked, I would automatically say that yes, I know her and she is sweet, based entirely on exposure. But as I think harder, it occurs to me that I really dont have a connection with her at all.
Taking another hint from
joyce,I created an excel spreadsheet with all the information I think would be useful to have for a reading-list-at-a-glance. It includes author; title; date read; pages; whether the books is a re-read, fiction or non-fiction, or young adult; genre; where I got the book; and what I did with it once it was finished.
My magic spreadsheet informs me that in the first 2.5 months of 2007 I have read 30 books (24 of which were new to me, 8 non-fiction), totalling 9152 pages. Wow. There are several other books I am close to finishing and I am not tallying pages read out of the middle of comfort books, so I have probably consumed 10,000 pages of pleasure-reading (as opposed to school reading) so far this year. Sheesh. Maybe I am a bookworm after all... (Anyone who knows me in real life is now falling out of their chair laughing. My nickname in elementary school was Redzils Readmore, and I can read in any setting, including walking up stairs or flying in small, rickety airplanes, due to long practice).
31. boy meets girl: say hello to courtship by Joshua Harris (3/17/06, 220 pages, via Bookmooch). This arrived on my to-read shelf sort of accidentally - a friend joined Bookmooch and I wanted to help her accrue points, so picked this off her inventory. Apparently a mutual friend originally gave it to her, and I read it mostly to see what all the fuss was about. To be strictly accurate, I should say I read about seventy percent of it - it was just repetitive. This will sound odd, but it reminded me a lot of The Rules, a book on husband-catching that circulated when I was a freshman in college. Apparently Rules girls dont accept Saturday night dates after Tuesday and play lots of other games to make men chase them, since the assumption is that men wont want girls they can actually catch. I found The Rules interesting because they got it half right - however, rather than pretending to have a busy, fulfilling life as a single girl you should actually be having it. (The joke among my friends was that we couldn't be Rules girls, since we had no interest in Rules boys). And, boy meets girl is right in suggesting that for serious, marriage-minded Christians who are looking for a certain kind of relationship, dating as done in twentieth century Western society is Not It. For that population - who are very concerned with loving God first and a spouse second, sex role compliance, and sexual purity before marriage - the plan laid out in the book is logical and presumably perfect. However, Josh makes the assumption that "A wonderful, God-blessed, God-honoring marriage is what it is all about" for EVERYBODY. And, um, that is a huge, flawed assumption, for obvious reasons.
32. Whose panties are these? More misadventures from Funny Women on the Road. (Edited by Jennifer Lee, 201 pages, 3/24/07). This is an anthology of misadventure travel writing by women. Some was excellent, some adequate, but I like reading about gutsy women taking their shows on the road.
33.* Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce (308 pages, finished 3/19/07). More Tortall. Seeing Thayet and Buri through Daine and Keladry's eyes in Squire and Wild Magic inspired me to revisit this book, where they are rescued by Alanna, Coram, and the Shang Dragon and delivered to Jonathan's court. Thayet is more accesible in this book, but that makes sense because Alanna sees her as an equal, while Daine and Kel are both younger and her subjects. I love these books. If I was going to throw myself into Tortall I think I would choose to be one of the Queen's Ladies, so as to have the broadest exposure, with being a Queen's Rider as my second choice. I am not meant to be a knight.
34. Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank And Other Words of Delicate Southern Wisdom by Celia Rivenbark (262 pages, 3/22/07). I was attracted to Celia's work by another title - Bless her heart, tramp- since living in the south has convinced me that southern women speak a whole different language. In Belle, the phrase "bless her heart" generally means, "lean closer girls, and let's trash her." I still haven't read that one, and I may not. This book (Stop Dressing...) was supposed to be Erma Bombeck-like (and I love Erma), but it didn't draw me in. Her humor was a little sharp and aimed too widely for me to really empathize with her.
35. Bitten by Kelley Armstrong (451 pages, 3/22/07). This is another wacky alternate reality with werewolves running amok. Bitten is Kelley's first novel, and it is great. Her female protagonist is more interesting and accessible than Miss Anita Blake, and the storyline is just twisted enough to be intriguing. I stayed up 'til 2 am on a school night to finish it, and am looking forward to reading the next one.
36. Blue Moon by Laurell K. Hamilton. (read 3/24/07, 418 pages). I shouldn't bash Miss Anita Blake, as I am still enjoying these books. They are fluff, yes, but fun fluff. Perhaps I have a higher tolerance for smut than other people, but I am planning to read a couple more in the series, despite having reached my artificial deadline (Obsidian Butterfly). I enjoyed Blue Moon because the relationships - and no, I don't mean who-is-Anita-sleeping-with-now, are getting more interesting. [spoiler alert!!] Having killed Gabriel ini the last book, Anita is now the Nimir-ra (Queen) of a were-leopard pard as well as lupa of a werewolf pack, girlfriend of a vampire, necromancer, student of Marianne's, etc. Watching her try to bond with the were-leopards, as well as navigate her other roles and what they mean to the bigger picture is interesting. And, bully for us readers, this time most of the sex was actually relatively non-gorey. I mean, all the rapes happened off-screen and the bodily fluids scenes weren't too icky (although there was a lot of blood and some licking of wounds). The fact that I present that as a nice change from other books is amusing.
37. A Hidden Wholeness by Parker J. Palmer (168 pages, read 3/23/07). My mother sent me this book, since she knows I have been struggling to figure out what it is I need in my life. Palmer argues that many people today live divided lives, complicating their choices and making life unrewarding. I can relate to that - I have gotten bolder about bringing the parts of my life together in the last year or so, but between the distance and over-active impression management, my life is certainly not a single, coherent whole. I read this book slowly, and have tabbed some pages to revisit, perhaps in a reflective LJ post. I enjoyed his gentle discussion of the importance of living a value-centered life, focusing on community, and making space to hear our own inner truths. The making space component particularly stuck with me, since I had arrived at that same language in my recent decision-making process, telling people that rather than making a decision I was making space for a decision.
38. The Accidental Florist by Jill Churchill (224 pages, read 3/25/07 sitting at Barnes & Noble). This Jane Jeffery story was fun, but I hesitate to describe it as a mystery - two people were killed and their killers arrested, but Jane and Shelley were too busy planning a wedding to solve the crime, instead Jane made one useful suggestion to the police and shopped, battled her future mother-in-law over wedding planning, and dealt with family crises. It was a fun read, but I wont be adding this one to my collection or revisiting it anytime soon.
(Since I have the spreadsheet automatically, tallying pages, I can report that I am now over 11,400 words read this year).
39. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott (253 pages, 3/26/07). I love Anne Lamott's books about faith, which is a topic I am spending some time mulling over these days. She is very Christian, but also accessible - she is struggling to quit hating G.W. Bush, marching for peace, and writing about her efforts to avoid strangling her teenage son. She doesn't claim to have the answers, but continues to ask questions and think about her place in the universe. She is the anti-zealot, if that makes sense, and people like her are the ones who keep me from declaring organized religion inherently dangerous.
40. Death Dance by Linda Fairstein (485 pages, 3/29/07). Fairstein is a former sex crimes prosecutor for the district attorney's office in New York City. Her books are realistic and compelling, but she has thus far avoided the Patricia Cornwall trap, in that her characters are amazing without being ridiculously unrealistic (i.e. they seem like actual people, rather than ethically-questionable super-heroes - Lucy, anyone?) and her crime scenes convey the horror of death, without then rubbing the reader's nose in it like a bad puppy (note: Redzils and Kiska do not sanction puppy-nose-rubbing, regardless of the offense committed, however that is the image I am trying to convey). I recommend her, if you are into mysteries, and thought this book was better than the last.
41. Narcissus in Chains by Laurell K. Hamilton (529 pages, 3/30/07). This was a totally ridiculous book. After spending the first however-many books celibate, struggling with the idea of premarital sex, then the next couple books having sex only with people she loves, Anita goes a little crazy in this episode. It is like Laurell was trying to be shocking, so piled Anita into bed with more men simultaneously than she had ever had sex with in her whole life, for an orgy, without bothering to let their bodies belong to beings with feelings. And that particular, which seems awfully unlikely in context of the world she had set up, is one of the more reasonable events in the book. I can't help wondering if this disconnect is due in part to the lack of feedback Laurell got before publication - in the acknowledgements section she specifies that her writing group did not get to see the draft, and hopes that "this is the last book that doesn't get to go through the group." Narcissus in Chains made me want to abandon Anita and co. forever, however I already had the next book in hand, so went ahead and read it...
42. Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton (529 pages, 3/31/07). This book was much better than the previous one. It was still smutty, in creative new ways even, but there was character development and/or personal growth (Anita, Asher, Dolph, and Jason, in particular) and plot that hung together over time. Based on this story, I could begin to believe the series might have potential again, if only the author remembers that character and plot are the skeleton of good writing, rather than window dressing for overly detailed erotica.
Current page total: 13,200
43. Maybe, Maybe Not by Robert Fulghum (4/2/07, 232 pages). This is the Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten guy, and I like the reflective tone he takes in sharing personal experiences, then tying them to larger phenomena. This book was typical of his work, and fine.
44. Strange Bedpersons by Jennifer Crusie (4/1/07, 219 pages). This book has the most ridiculous cover of anything I have read so far this year, probably because it is a late-80s era romance. I like Crusie's more recent work better, but it was light and fun.
45. The Copper Beech by Maeve Binchy (4/2/07, 391 pages). This book contains a bunch of stand alone stories about people who live interconnected lives in a small village. That degree of overlap makes things a bit confusing, since each story is told chronologically, and the times overlap from story to story (i.e. one of the first stories begins when the young schoolmistress is 20 years old, and ends several years later. However, other stories include mention of her at other, much older, ages, and vice versa). Overall, it was pleasant but unremarkable.
46. Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck (4/3/07, 306 pages). This was excellent. Martha left Harvard to return to Salt Lake City, Utah and her Mormon family, after having a baby with Down's Syndrome. That geographical change sparked the return of horrible childhood memories, and started her on a journey of self-discovery that is powerful to read about, especially since she is very articulate. I learned a lot about Mormonism too, by-the-by, which is interesting to me since my friend Mim is Mormon and I tagged along to Mormon Girl's Camp probably my freshman or sophomore year of high school. I recommend it highly - unless reading about flashbacks of sexual abuse would be triggering.
47.* Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie (4/8/07, 381 pages). More silly, more fun. This was a reread from long ago, since I recently read Faking It, which furthers the story of several minor characters, and I wanted to revisit their debut.
48.* The Goodbye Summer by Patricia Gaffney (4/5/07, 460 pages). In sorting my books recently this ended up on the unread shelf. It took me a good chunk of pages to realize it was a reread, and even then I wasn't sure which guy our heroine was going to end up with, so I finished it. It was fine, but if you are going to read Gaffney, read The Saving Graces.
49. Incubus Dreams by Laurell K. Hamilton (4/8/07, 721 pages). Geez, I didn't realize exactly how long it was until I just typed the page number in - no wonder I find myself skimming the Vampire Hunter books lately. It was fine, better than Cerulean Sins, which is my new benchmark for dumb. Overall, fine. She solves a murder, admits her new sexual preferences out loud to herself (about three books after her readers noticed them), and ends up onstage with Nathanial at a strip club. There is some interesting stuff in there about her friendship with Ronnie, and Jason (legendary for his too-tight leather pants) continues to be the wisest voice.
New total: 49 books, 15,910 pages.
50. Micah by Laurell K. Hamilton (4/12/07, 245 pages). In this book, Anita and Micah go somewhere else to raise a different zombie. Anita does some of her traditional making-life-hard, there is one goofy sex scene, and one zombie raising. You dont learn much about either of them, and the plot is sparse. It is a vampire hunter short story, essentially, although it takes her 245 pages to cover that ground.
51. Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold (4/13/07, 367 pages). I like Miles and his wife, so this was fun. My only gripe - why does every one of Miles' romantic interests have to have an "El" name (Elli, Elena, and Ekaterina spring to mind)? I have been reading these totally out of order, and, while I dont recommend it, they do work as stand-alones. It just makes the El-mess and such more confusing, when you are dipping in and out of the story arc.
52. Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton (4/14/07, 517 pages). The last vampire hunter book currently available (The Harlequin will be published in hardcover in June, I believe) - I made it through the series. Again, it suffers the same failings as many of the vampire books she writes, but it is a good example of its genre (i.e. preternatural smut). I liked the over-arching secondary plot (revealed on page one, but I dont want to spoil it), and how it prompts different characters to grow in different ways. Again, much, much better than Narcissus in Chains, which is my new standard for kindling.
53. Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell (4/14/07, 215 pages). I had high hopes for this, and it was fine. Unfortunately, that is about what I can say: it was fine. Many of the pieces started out as episodes on Ira Glass' NPR show "This American Life," a format which I think was better suited for the material.
Book update. It's been a busy month or two, so my reading has slowed down. In April I spent time in three states besides my own, and continued the uphill battle to graduate. The semester ends a week from yesterday, so hopefully I will have more brain space available for reading soon. In the meantime, what fluff have I been enjoying?
54. Hot Stuff by Janet Evanovich & Leanne Banks (4/22/2007, 281 pages). Cute, silly. Sheer fluff. I am trying hard to remember what it was about, and I think there is a girl and a dog and some bad guys. That should give you everything you need, since it's very genrerific (slapstick romance).
55. Don’t Look Down by Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer (4/25/2007, 349 pages). Well written, engaging, but not heavy in any way. Perfect airplane reading, which is why I bought it in the Detroit airport.
56. Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong (4/28/2007, 414 pages). Very good - I read it out of order though, not realizing that Armstrong's two series (one about a werewolf named Elena and this 'Women of the Underworld' series) intersect, with action in one affecting the other. I liked the characters, even those who should have been difficult to relate to, and look forward to reading the next one. / Pleasant, I like how she wrapped it up. Warning: the first book in this series about Paige actually falls after the second book about Elena (Stolen, see below) in the chronology of this world, so it will make more sense if you read them in that order. I am looking forward to reading more about Paige.
57. Expecting Adam by Martha Beck (5/5/2007, 328 pages). Sweet, loving, not really my style. I much preferred Leaving the Saints, and hope that this book was therapeutic for her to write. Her prose remains beautiful and her analysis of her own throught processes interesting, but this book didn't really speak to me. / This book, describing Martha's relationship with her Down's Syndrome son - both before and after birth - was a little woowoo for me. It was sweetly written and I appreciate the process she went through in deciding her "damaged" child was really a gift from God; however, I find her less credible in this book than in Leaving the Saints.
New page total: 57 books, 18,630 pages.
58. Enchantment by Orson Scott Card (5/14/2007, 417 pages). Very excellent - it is a lovely, well-crafted fantasy weaving together modern academic culture and the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.
59. Stolen by Kelley Armstrong (5/14/2007, 469 pages). Werewolves and demons and evil warlocks, oh my. Brain candy, this one, but fun.
60. Indecent: Making it and Faking it As a Girl for Hire by Sarah Katherine Lewis (5/16/2007, 256 pages). Interesting discussion of ten years of personal experience in the adult entertainment industry. It was published by Seal Press, who also published Bare, which I read last year. For all Sarah's cavalier dismissal of the personal and relationship effects of being a sex-worker, there was heavy subtext suggesting she isn't quite ready to look at her own slide down the slippery slope from peep show worker to sex worker and her new dislike of the male of the species
61. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (5/25/2007, 333 pages). This book is huge at the moment, and my decision to read it was based on an online review by a blogger I admire. Maybe my life experience has been different than hers, but I did not find this book compelling or even that interesting. Elizabeth experienced great personal growth, after a divorce. She spent four months each in three different places, of which I though Italy was the most interesting. I am glad she had these transformative experiences and that she was able to share them, but I wont be rushing out to buy her next travelogue. It seems ridiculous for me - someone who spends a lot of time "nvael-gazing" via LJ - to say her self-fascination wore thin, but I was left feeling that way.
62. Point of Honour by Madeleine E. Robins (5/27/2007, 347 pages). This is a "hard-boiled Regency" novel, about a "fallen woman" (i.e. non-virgin) working as an "agent of inquiry" (private detective) in Regency England.
joyce recommended it, with the aside that Sarah and I had much in common. I didn't see the link while reading the book (well, aside from our inappropriate liaisons at early ages with fencing instructors), but
joyce pointed out that Sarah and I are both "very firm, in that, if there's something you need to happen, or you want to happen, or you have good reason to make happen, it will happen," which makes more sense. I am looking forward to the sequel.
New totals: 62 books, 20,452 pages.
63. Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior by Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnson (6/2/2007, 348 pages). A very cool book about an autistic woman with a Ph.D. in animal behavior using her autistic brain to "translate" things most humans are incapable of perceiving. I liked it muchly.
64. Women and Thru-Hikingon the Appalachian Trail by Beverly "Maine Rose" Hugo (6/3/2007, 164 pages). Fine, for what it is.
65. My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding (A Collection of Short Stories) edited by P.N. Elrod (6/5/2007, 310 pages). Short stories are not my favorite fictional form, but these were fine.
66. Every Which Way But Dead by Kim Harrison (6/6/2007, 501pages). Cover quote from Diane Galbadoni: "Great sex and even better plot!" Um. Sure. It was fine, but not massively sexy or even massively great.
67. The Way of the River by B.K. Loren (6/10/2007, 228 pages). A female martial artist's memoir. I read it in one sitting, since it is pretty light, and enjoyed it. I like reading about strong women, even if they aren't strong writers.
68. Inner Harbor by Nora Roberts (6/18/2007, 324 pages). Typical Roberts romance, fun twaddle.
69. A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez (6/20/2007, 320 pages). This was fun, in a silly, fantasy sort of way.
70. Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook (6/21/2007, 282 pages). Fluffy romance, but the idea is intriuging (girl's pushy older sister writes her a personal ad, hilarity ensues).
71. Through the Wolf's Eyes by Jane Linkskold (6/22/2007, 579 pages). lycantras recommended this, and I loved it. I read it fast, on the beach in Kasilof, and enjoyed it.
72. Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich (6/24/2007, 320 pages). If you are into Stephanie Plum, this will amuse you mightily. I giggled so hard I got banished from the bedroom, to cackle quietly on the couch. Not a lot of character growth, but fun revisiting of amusing characters.
73. Snapshot by Linda Barnes (7/1/2007, 386 pages). Hard-boiled female detective in Boston solves a mystery. I like Carlotta, and enjoyed it.
74. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (7/2/2007, 376 pages). Typical Pratchett - silly but funnish.
New totals: 74 books, 25,590 pages.
75. Disappearing Nightly by Laura Resnick (7/3/07, 408 pages). A fun mystery about a slightly alternate New York, where we learn magic actually works when a series of magic acts actually disappear the beautiful assistants - including a tiger named Alice (much to their magicians' dismay). This was a fun romp, and the characters were human enough to be relatable, despite my skepticism about the disappearances.
76. S is for SIlence the eleventeenth million book in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" mystery series (7/4/07, 353 pages). I used to adore Kinsey (the detective), but it seems like this author is tired of both her protagonist and the concept. This book was better than the last, in my opinion, but I still found myself skipping chunks of the backstory towards the end (she alternated events set in 1953 with the modern day attempt to puzzle out what happened). That sort of perspective flip-flop is difficult to do smoothly, and the level of detail provided in the ancient history lulled me towards sleep.
77. The Playboy Prince and Cordina's Crown Jewel by Nora Roberts (7/4/07, 474 pages). I bought this compilation volume in Seldovia, and read most of it sitting on the front porch of the Jolting Java, waiting for my parents to get back from driving out to the end of the road. Reading stories of dashing, debonair men who fall madly in love with smart women, each of whom has a Big Secret, is always fun. I'll never be a princess or a spy (sad, that), but I can relate to the push-pull of complicated relationships, and the desire for a HEA (happily ever after ending). Of course I am a little afraid that admitting that will get my feminist identification yanked, so don't tell, okay?
New total: 77 books, 25824 pages.
78. Memory by Lois McMaster-Bujold (7/7/07, 345 pages). Miles Vorkorokojsdfajdisfjaodsfafdn returns! I enjoy these books very much, and appreciate the nuance with which Lois navigates what is essentially a space opera.
79. The Owl & Moon Cafe by Joanne Mapson (7/14/07, 368 pages). This is a novel focusing on the relationships between four generations of women, during a time of great upheaval. That sounds trite and chick-lit-y, but Joanne did it well and made all four characters simultaneously huggable and uniquely flawed, which I appreciate in my fictional friends.
80. Waltzing the Cat by Pam Houston (7/15/07, 288 pages). This was a set of interlocking, over-lapping short stories, thinly fictionalizing a year in Pam's life. I am not a straight-up short story person, but this collection reads almost like a memoir or novel, and I love Pam's stark honesty. My life isn't nearly as interesting as her, but we have sensibilities in common, which makes her stuff even more compelling for me.
I am struggling to find books that draw me at the moment. I am very tired of perspective hopping, so want either a nice omniscient narrator or a main character with room in their head for the reader. I want the story to happen in a straight-forward time progression, with no flashbacks or scenes plucked from ancient history. I want believable characters and solid plots, with minimal preachiness. And my attention span is somewhat divided. I am going through books fast - once I get into them - but have three or four books lying about which I have started but cant summon the mental energy to finish.
81. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (7/21/2007, 765 pages). I read this in one sitting, the day after it's release. I picked it up about 10:30 and finished by 5 pm, which was killer because no one else was done at the same timeand I couldn't talk to anyone about how it ended. I have some friends that don't read HP, so indulged myself by telling them a bit of it. Imelda was shocked and appalled to hear Hedwig was a casualty and shrieked, "They killed the owl!" at top volume. Fortunately we were eating in a bar, so I don't think we ruined any kids' life.
82. The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip (7/25/2007, 200 pages). TDaC loaned me the entire trilogy in one volume (to amuse me on the Friday night I was not getting HP), but it was huge and I tended not to lug it around. The shift of viewpoints from Book 1 to Book 2 was jarring, and I put it down for a couple of weeks. I am now part way into the second book but returned his copy before leaving the state, so I need to find another.
83. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris (7/29/2007, 144 pages). Short stories. He is a funny, if heartbreakingly cynical, guy. His account of being a department store Christmas elf was hysterical, in that thoughtful, what-is-this-world-coming-to way.
84. Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong (8/1/2007, 528 pages). Book two of the Paige and company series. I liked this book a lot, even better than the werewolf ones. The characters seem solid and the action was believable (well, other than that whole magic/voodoo/speaking to the dead thing...).
Then I moved diagonally across the country. Again. My record-keeping was thrown out the window during the weeks leading up to the move, so I think I missed a few in this transition…. I wasn't reading that much in the two weeks before I left, but I know I read something between August 1st and the airplane ride on the 17th.
Since arriving in Virginia I have been doing mostly comfort reading, so most of these are re-reads.
85.* Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster-Bujold (8/17/2007, 367 pages). I bought this book for the airplane thinking it was the one in the series I had not read, then realized at 30,000 feet that I had read it before. (I need Komarr). Fortunatley I like Miles and company, and enjoyed revisiting their adventures.
86. The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes by Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dreyer, and Ann Stuart (8/17/2007, 391 pages). Fluffy, good airplane reading. It was fun, but I have no real interest in reading it again.
87. Banana Rose by Natalie Goldberg (8/20/2007, 373 pages). I read a real novel! I mean, big-girl fiction and everything! I have enjoyed Goldberg's writing books (which are as much about philosophy and how to live as they are about how to write), and recognized her voice in this novel. It chronicles onewoman's life through a series of transitions and the accompanying self-discovery. Parts were raw, and I enjoyed it.
88. * Beka Cooper: Terrier by Tamora Pierce (8/21/2007, 581 pages). Tortall is where I go to escape. I love these books.
90. * Protector of the Small: Squire by Tamora Pierce (8/22/2007, 390 pages). See above.
91.* Don’t Look Down by by Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer (8/25/2007, 349 pages). Silly action/adventure/romance. I like Lucy because she reminds me of me (control freak, determined to make all the problems go away through sheer force of will), and the story is fun.
92.* The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster-Bujold (8/27/2007, 260 pages). I went to the library looking for Komarr and found these two others in the series instead. I essentially pulled them over my head yesterday, reading both between four pm and midnight while hiding from my life. Fiction, especially comfort fiction, is a good insulator that way, but I can't afford to make a habit of it. Time to start reading Journal! Articles! and Big! Important! Books! instead.
93.* The Vor Game by Lois McMaster-Bujold (8/27/2007, 342 pages). See above.
Booklist update, in a very horrible format, sorry. That is the number it is on this year's list, the autho, the date I finished it, number of pages, and then category.
94. Anyone but You by Jennifer Crusie (8/29/2007, 283 pages). I like her female characters and their "unconventionality" - in this case the female protagonist is older than her future mate, uninterested in having kids, and unwilling to return to the life of privilege the hero keeps trying to force upon her. It's light reading, but good fun.
95. Sunshine by Robin McKinley (9/3/2007, 405 pages). Comfort reading. I think this is the third or fourth time I have read it this year, so scroll up in the Big Book Post for a full comment.
96. Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff (9/6/2007, 222 pages). Memoir / social commentary. I enjoyed it, but it didn't stick with me, so now - a month later - I cant tell you much.
97. The Harp of Imach Thyssel by Patricia Wrede (9/13/2007, 234 pages). This is one of her early stand-alones, and it pleasant.
98. Broken by Kelley Armstrong (9/17/2007, 480 pages). Fun werewolfy fiction.
99. The Marriage Wager by Candace Camp (9/17/2007, 384 pages). This was a stranded-in-the-Atlanta-airport-for-who-know's-how-long purchase, and it was nicely distracting.
100. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (9/18/2007, 320 pages). Veddy interesting. Trust your intuition, darlings. Just because it processes at a speed you cannot track does not invalidate the conclusions it reaches.
101. The Heir of Sea and Fire by Patricia McKillip (9/19/2007, 200 pages). Classic fantasy. I hadn't read it before, but I am enjoying the series and loved that this book focused on three young women unraveling the great mystery of their time.
102. Too Wicked to Wed by Cheryl Holt (9/19/2007, 352 pages). A nice woman I met in Chicago gifted me with her bag of Goodwill books when she heard I was out of travel reading. This book, as well as the next three, came out of the bag. And it is the only book I can recall throwing away, but it was much too ...... to be freed in the wild. I just couldn't stand the thought of some unsuspecting woman picking it up and getting ensnared by it's vileness.
103. Blue Flame by Jill Shalvis, (9/20/2007, 356 pages). Contemporary romance, likable characters, reasonable plot.
104. Lord of Seduction by Paula Quinn (9/20/2007, 336 pages). Historical Gaelic romance, likable characters, reasonable plot.
105. A Lady At Last by Brenda Joyce (9/20/2007, 384 pages). Pirates! And a young, orphaned virgin! And a bounder of a buckaneer with a wealthy family back home and noble intentions! Lots of romance cliches here, but it was fun.
I think I missed a few here….
106. Memory by Lois McMaster-Bujold (9/25/2007, 509). More Miles Vorkoadfjodiafdojkfnpaodifuakdsnfaklsdjnf. I likes him, and I likes these books.
107. What Should I Do With My Life by Po Bronson (10/8/2007, 365 pages). That is the big question around here these days, and it was interesting to read about other people's search to discover their answer.
New Totals: 107 books, 36345 pages.