2006: Ruth's Year in Books
A couple of years ago, I decided that I would keep a list of all the books I read. It would be, I thought, interesting to see how much, and what, I actually read. So when I read a book, I wrote it down in my writing binder. I liked the whole project so much that I've been doing it again each year.
What's here:
January 3-5 Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane. Fairly good, should make a great movie. First reading.
January 7 Strange Bedpersons by Jennifer Crusie. Fairly standard Jennifer Crusie; good if you like that kind of thing. First reading.
January 9-10 Disappearing Nightly by Laura Resnick. Humerous fantasy. First reading.
January 17-20 The Hidden Queen by Alma Alexander. Fantastic fantasy. First reading.
January 21-22 Changer of Days by Alma Alexander. Sequel to The Hidden Queen, also fantastic. First reading.
January 30- Paper Mage by Leah R. Cutter. Not very interesting. First reading (unfinished).
February 6-10 Winter Moon by Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, and C.E. Murphy. I bought this for the C.E. Murphy story, which fits between her other two books. I was a little disappointed by the resolution in this story. Mercedes Lackey's story was pretty good; Tanith Lee's readable but nothing special. First reading.
February 13-15 Iceman by Cynthia Felice. Very good frustrated love/survival story. First reading.
February 17- Mistwalker by Denise Lopes Heald. Despite being a Del Rey Discovery book, this was not very good. First reading (unfinished).
February 24-March 2 Space Inc. edited by Julie E. Czerneda. Fairly good collection addressing the everyday of working in space. Includes an excellent Tanya Huff story. First reading.
March 4 Amazing Grace by Megan Shull. Good premise, fairly good book. First reading.
March 6- The Charmed Sphere by Catherine Asaro. I kept reading even though I wasn't that interested because I know Catherine Asaro can write a really good sex scene. The main characters had sex off the page between chapters. That's the point at which I gave up. First reading (unfinished).
March 13-24 Women of War edited by Tanya Huff and Alexander Potter. This book gave me a bunch of authors not to read. It does include a good story or two. First reading.
March 24 Hunter's Way by Gerri Hill. Lesbian mystery/romance. I was bothered by the fact that they always eat hamburgers and never eat the birthday cake, but it's otherwise a fair read. First reading.
March 29 What the Lady Wants by Jennifer Crusie. Eh. Not that good. First reading.
April 2-3 Manhunting by Jennifer Crusie. I liked this one. First reading.
April 4-7 The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson. An okay book about three best friends. First reading.
April 10-14 Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn. Slightly too busy, but fairly good. A fuller review can be found here. First reading.
April 17-22 Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. Excellent book. A fuller review can be found here. First reading.
April 24-29 The Wood Wife by Terri Windling. This always makes me want to go live in the desert. Second reading.
May 1-3 Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. Fantastic fantasy adventure/romance. First reading.
May 4-6 Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. Not good enough to make me read any of the other Alex Rider novels (I had to force myself through to the end of this one), but certainly good enough to make me want to see the movie, which never came to my town. First reading.
May 6 Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie. See above. Second reading.
May 8-10 Hot Target by Suzanne Brockman. Someone on my friends list mentioned this, and I was in the mood for romance novels. This book is just awful. First reading.
May 11-14 Tamar by Ann Chamberlin. Retelling of the biblical story of Tamar. Not great, but since I'd been wanting to read it again for years, I don't feel like I can get rid of it. Second reading.
May 15-21 The Moon Under Her Feet by Clysta Kinstler. Retelling of the story of Jesus from Mary Magdalene's point of view in the context of a goddess-worship culture. Okay. Second reading.
May 22-24 The Garden by Elsie V. Aidinoff. An excellent retelling of the story of Adam and Eve. First reading.
May 25 Thunderbird Falls by C.E. Murphy. Excellent continuation of the story of Joanne Walker. First reading.
May 25-26 One Hot Second edited by Cathy Young. Awful short story collection with just one or two stories worth reading. First reading.
May 26 Citizen Girl by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. The Nanny Diaries was good; this is not. First reading.
May 28-29 Wheel of Dreams by Salinda Tyson. Fairly good fantasy. Second reading.
May 30 Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb. The classic tale of murder at a sci fi con. Worth reading to have in your background. First reading.
June 1-2 Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle by Gordon Korman. Eh. First reading.
June 3-4 Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. Not great, but okay. Third reading.
June 5-8 Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. I think this would have been a lot better if I hadn't read Hot Target. The plots are similar, and remembering that one made me dislike this one. First reading.
June 10 Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. A fantastic book; the movie is amazingly faithful to both plot and tone. Second reading.
June 12 Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta. Excellent Australian young adult novel. First reading.
June 13 The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty. Good companion to Feeling Sorry for Celia. First reading.
June 14-18 Tall, Dark & Dead by Tate Hallaway. I was horribly disappointed by this book. Tate Hallaway is a pseudonym of Lyda Morehouse, who's written one of the best series I've ever read. This book is awful. You can find more of my thoughts about it here. First reading.
June 19-22 Touch the Dark by Karen Chance. Fantastic book. Chock full of plot, longest sex scene I've ever read in a book, and a fantastic ending. First reading.
June 26-27 Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta. I thought this wasn't as good as Saving Francesca although I found something that claimed this is the most stolen book from Australian high school libraries. First reading.
June 28-July 2 The Oracle's Queen by Lynn Flewelling. Third book in the Tamir trilogy; a nice finish to the story. First reading.
July 3-8 Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn. Sequel to Kitty and the Midnight Hour. Still a little too busy; good enough that she gets one more book. First reading.
July 10-19 Code Noir by Marianne de Pierres. I liked the first book in the series better. This is not a book to read over lunch. First reading.
July 22-23 Cast in Courtlight by Michelle Sagara. Sequel to Cast in Shadow. Good, but doesn't quite live up to the first one. First reading.
July 24-26 Guitar Girl by Sarra Manning. Excellent teen rockstar novel. First reading.
July 31-August 4 Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. Excellent fantasy romance. Third reading.
August 7-12 River Rats by Caroline Stevermer. Given Caroline Stevermer's other books, I expected more out of this. First reading.
August 14-19 Freedom's Sisters by Naomi Kritzer. Third in the excellent Dead Rivers trilogy. First reading.
August 21-26 Steal the Dragon by Patricia Briggs. Good fantasy/romance. First reading.
August 27 When Demons Walk by Patricia Briggs. Good fantasy/romance. First reading.
August 28-September 3 Sing the Four Quarters by Tanya Huff. Fantasy novel, not that good. First reading.
September 7-8 Pretty Things by Sarra Manning. Mediocre young adult novel. First reading.
September 11-15 The Modern Jewish Girl's Guide to Guilt edited by Ruth Andrew Ellenson. Fantastic essay collection. First reading.
September 18-25 Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson. Robin McKinley's stories are great; Peter Dickinson's less so. First reading.
October 9-11 Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder. Excellent sequel to Poison Study. First reading.
October 12-13 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson. Readable young adult novel. First reading.
October 16-26 A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer. Good children's book. First reading.
October 29 The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. Quite good. First reading.
October 30-31 The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson. Eh. First reading.
November 1-2 Paloma by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Excellent fifth book in the Retrieval Artist series. First reading.
November 4-5 Sharp North by Patrick Cave. Excellent young adult sci fi. First reading.
November 6-10 The Secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander. Very good novel. More fantasy than straight fiction, even though it's usually filed under fiction. First reading.
November 10-11 The Machine's Child by Kage Baker. Latest book in the novels of the Company. Good; I'm now totally impatient for the next book. First reading.
November 13-15 The Veiled Web by Catherine Asaro. Not very good. A fuller review can be found here. First reading.
November 16-18 Greywalker by Kat Richardson. Fairly good book. It would be even better if there were less vampire stuff and more Quinton. First reading.
November 19 The Heldan by Deborah Talmadge-Bickmore. Good fantasy novel. First reading.
November 27-December 2 City of Bones by Martha Wells. Excellent fantasy novel. Second reading.
December 4-7 Daughter of the Desert by Noel-Anne Brennan. Awful fantasy novel. First reading.
December 11- Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent. Awful. First reading (unfinished).
December 15-28 White Swan, Black Swan by Adrienne Sharp. Collection of short stories about ballet. Slow going, and I felt like I needed a history of ballet to go with it, but not bad. First reading.
December 28-29 I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter. Fantastic and hilarious young adult novel. First reading.
December 30-31 A Strong and Sudden Thaw by R.W. Day. Gay sci fi/romance. Good worldbuilding, nice romance. Tends toward overwrought at times, but that fits with the genre. First reading.
What's here:
- Books I read in 2006.
- Authors of the books.
- Dates I read the books.
- Short notes about each book.
- Approximately how many times I've read the book.
- Magazine and newspaper articles I read, either for work or for fun.
- Web-published fiction I read.
- Short stories and individual chapters I read to remind myself of what the book was about.
January 3-5 Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane. Fairly good, should make a great movie. First reading.
January 7 Strange Bedpersons by Jennifer Crusie. Fairly standard Jennifer Crusie; good if you like that kind of thing. First reading.
January 9-10 Disappearing Nightly by Laura Resnick. Humerous fantasy. First reading.
January 17-20 The Hidden Queen by Alma Alexander. Fantastic fantasy. First reading.
January 21-22 Changer of Days by Alma Alexander. Sequel to The Hidden Queen, also fantastic. First reading.
January 30- Paper Mage by Leah R. Cutter. Not very interesting. First reading (unfinished).
February 6-10 Winter Moon by Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, and C.E. Murphy. I bought this for the C.E. Murphy story, which fits between her other two books. I was a little disappointed by the resolution in this story. Mercedes Lackey's story was pretty good; Tanith Lee's readable but nothing special. First reading.
February 13-15 Iceman by Cynthia Felice. Very good frustrated love/survival story. First reading.
February 17- Mistwalker by Denise Lopes Heald. Despite being a Del Rey Discovery book, this was not very good. First reading (unfinished).
February 24-March 2 Space Inc. edited by Julie E. Czerneda. Fairly good collection addressing the everyday of working in space. Includes an excellent Tanya Huff story. First reading.
March 4 Amazing Grace by Megan Shull. Good premise, fairly good book. First reading.
March 6- The Charmed Sphere by Catherine Asaro. I kept reading even though I wasn't that interested because I know Catherine Asaro can write a really good sex scene. The main characters had sex off the page between chapters. That's the point at which I gave up. First reading (unfinished).
March 13-24 Women of War edited by Tanya Huff and Alexander Potter. This book gave me a bunch of authors not to read. It does include a good story or two. First reading.
March 24 Hunter's Way by Gerri Hill. Lesbian mystery/romance. I was bothered by the fact that they always eat hamburgers and never eat the birthday cake, but it's otherwise a fair read. First reading.
March 29 What the Lady Wants by Jennifer Crusie. Eh. Not that good. First reading.
April 2-3 Manhunting by Jennifer Crusie. I liked this one. First reading.
April 4-7 The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson. An okay book about three best friends. First reading.
April 10-14 Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn. Slightly too busy, but fairly good. A fuller review can be found here. First reading.
April 17-22 Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. Excellent book. A fuller review can be found here. First reading.
April 24-29 The Wood Wife by Terri Windling. This always makes me want to go live in the desert. Second reading.
May 1-3 Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. Fantastic fantasy adventure/romance. First reading.
May 4-6 Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. Not good enough to make me read any of the other Alex Rider novels (I had to force myself through to the end of this one), but certainly good enough to make me want to see the movie, which never came to my town. First reading.
May 6 Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie. See above. Second reading.
May 8-10 Hot Target by Suzanne Brockman. Someone on my friends list mentioned this, and I was in the mood for romance novels. This book is just awful. First reading.
May 11-14 Tamar by Ann Chamberlin. Retelling of the biblical story of Tamar. Not great, but since I'd been wanting to read it again for years, I don't feel like I can get rid of it. Second reading.
May 15-21 The Moon Under Her Feet by Clysta Kinstler. Retelling of the story of Jesus from Mary Magdalene's point of view in the context of a goddess-worship culture. Okay. Second reading.
May 22-24 The Garden by Elsie V. Aidinoff. An excellent retelling of the story of Adam and Eve. First reading.
May 25 Thunderbird Falls by C.E. Murphy. Excellent continuation of the story of Joanne Walker. First reading.
May 25-26 One Hot Second edited by Cathy Young. Awful short story collection with just one or two stories worth reading. First reading.
May 26 Citizen Girl by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. The Nanny Diaries was good; this is not. First reading.
May 28-29 Wheel of Dreams by Salinda Tyson. Fairly good fantasy. Second reading.
May 30 Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb. The classic tale of murder at a sci fi con. Worth reading to have in your background. First reading.
June 1-2 Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle by Gordon Korman. Eh. First reading.
June 3-4 Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. Not great, but okay. Third reading.
June 5-8 Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. I think this would have been a lot better if I hadn't read Hot Target. The plots are similar, and remembering that one made me dislike this one. First reading.
June 10 Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. A fantastic book; the movie is amazingly faithful to both plot and tone. Second reading.
June 12 Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta. Excellent Australian young adult novel. First reading.
June 13 The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty. Good companion to Feeling Sorry for Celia. First reading.
June 14-18 Tall, Dark & Dead by Tate Hallaway. I was horribly disappointed by this book. Tate Hallaway is a pseudonym of Lyda Morehouse, who's written one of the best series I've ever read. This book is awful. You can find more of my thoughts about it here. First reading.
June 19-22 Touch the Dark by Karen Chance. Fantastic book. Chock full of plot, longest sex scene I've ever read in a book, and a fantastic ending. First reading.
June 26-27 Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta. I thought this wasn't as good as Saving Francesca although I found something that claimed this is the most stolen book from Australian high school libraries. First reading.
June 28-July 2 The Oracle's Queen by Lynn Flewelling. Third book in the Tamir trilogy; a nice finish to the story. First reading.
July 3-8 Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn. Sequel to Kitty and the Midnight Hour. Still a little too busy; good enough that she gets one more book. First reading.
July 10-19 Code Noir by Marianne de Pierres. I liked the first book in the series better. This is not a book to read over lunch. First reading.
July 22-23 Cast in Courtlight by Michelle Sagara. Sequel to Cast in Shadow. Good, but doesn't quite live up to the first one. First reading.
July 24-26 Guitar Girl by Sarra Manning. Excellent teen rockstar novel. First reading.
July 31-August 4 Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. Excellent fantasy romance. Third reading.
August 7-12 River Rats by Caroline Stevermer. Given Caroline Stevermer's other books, I expected more out of this. First reading.
August 14-19 Freedom's Sisters by Naomi Kritzer. Third in the excellent Dead Rivers trilogy. First reading.
August 21-26 Steal the Dragon by Patricia Briggs. Good fantasy/romance. First reading.
August 27 When Demons Walk by Patricia Briggs. Good fantasy/romance. First reading.
August 28-September 3 Sing the Four Quarters by Tanya Huff. Fantasy novel, not that good. First reading.
September 7-8 Pretty Things by Sarra Manning. Mediocre young adult novel. First reading.
September 11-15 The Modern Jewish Girl's Guide to Guilt edited by Ruth Andrew Ellenson. Fantastic essay collection. First reading.
September 18-25 Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson. Robin McKinley's stories are great; Peter Dickinson's less so. First reading.
October 9-11 Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder. Excellent sequel to Poison Study. First reading.
October 12-13 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson. Readable young adult novel. First reading.
October 16-26 A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer. Good children's book. First reading.
October 29 The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. Quite good. First reading.
October 30-31 The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson. Eh. First reading.
November 1-2 Paloma by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Excellent fifth book in the Retrieval Artist series. First reading.
November 4-5 Sharp North by Patrick Cave. Excellent young adult sci fi. First reading.
November 6-10 The Secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander. Very good novel. More fantasy than straight fiction, even though it's usually filed under fiction. First reading.
November 10-11 The Machine's Child by Kage Baker. Latest book in the novels of the Company. Good; I'm now totally impatient for the next book. First reading.
November 13-15 The Veiled Web by Catherine Asaro. Not very good. A fuller review can be found here. First reading.
November 16-18 Greywalker by Kat Richardson. Fairly good book. It would be even better if there were less vampire stuff and more Quinton. First reading.
November 19 The Heldan by Deborah Talmadge-Bickmore. Good fantasy novel. First reading.
November 27-December 2 City of Bones by Martha Wells. Excellent fantasy novel. Second reading.
December 4-7 Daughter of the Desert by Noel-Anne Brennan. Awful fantasy novel. First reading.
December 11- Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent. Awful. First reading (unfinished).
December 15-28 White Swan, Black Swan by Adrienne Sharp. Collection of short stories about ballet. Slow going, and I felt like I needed a history of ballet to go with it, but not bad. First reading.
December 28-29 I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter. Fantastic and hilarious young adult novel. First reading.
December 30-31 A Strong and Sudden Thaw by R.W. Day. Gay sci fi/romance. Good worldbuilding, nice romance. Tends toward overwrought at times, but that fits with the genre. First reading.