Book round-up, a little
So the past couple days I have kind of felt a little hermit-like, so I curled up and read a few books, these are just the five of the last couple days; a couple re-reads and three new-reads.
Gemma by Noel Streatfeild.
Gemma, while not being one of my favourite Streatfeild books, ranks relatively high up there, because there is nothing Streatfeild wrote that I have not loved. I found my copy from when I was wee at my Grandmother's house over the holidays and brought it home with me. It's falling apart and needs some serious taping, but all just signs of well loved-ness. It's a significantly prettier copy than the copies I recently got of the Shoes books, all of which are bright PINK and BLUE and look like my nine year old sister might be too old for these books, which is sad since I think that everyone of every age should be able to snuggle into some Streatfeild. (Although, while rereading the shoes books last summer, a co-worker asked me if I was reading the trashy chick lit books he's heard about...)
Gemma is the story of a young actress, daughter of a famous film star, who is sent to live with her very plebeian cousins and learns about family life for the first time, while everyone deals with their misconceptions. What draws me to Gemma is how very fallible everyone is - much more so than in other of her works - and how quick-tempered and immodest they often are. Everyone in Streatfeild books tends to be so very talented but so humble and loving and amazing that despite how charming they are, they can get very tiresome. Here some of the characters are much less charming, but while still being very talented in some ways, are very human in others.
Mostly, I like the father, who says at one point "I'm sure humility is a great virtue...but I doubt if too much of it brings out the best in most of us". Oh! Also the Grandmother who is unashamedly biased towards her grandchildren and absolutely bitchy and catty to everyone who does anything to outshine them. She's hilarious. A delightful half hour-ish read. Torn between wanting to read the rest of these and going to find the Chalet school books which I've been dying to re-read for ages.
Flying Under Bridges by Sandi Toksvig. My comments immediately post reading were "Dear Sandi Toksvig: I have just finished your book "Flying Under Bridges". You are fucked up. Also, amazing.". I think that still pretty much sums it up. It is alternately startlingly hilarious and read-bits-outable and heart-breaking. There were two bits that made me put the book aside and go up to Gina and need a bit of a hug before I could continue. Were I Joey from Friends I suspect I might have put the book in the freezer after the second bit.
I got my copy from Paperbackswap and honestly didn't really know what to expect. I knew the author was a respected journalist and brilliant comedian (and adorable 2 feet tall dyke), I didn't realise there were any lesbians in the book until I actually got it and read the back cover and was a little confused by the back copy in any case. The tagline is "Guests ruin weddings all the time, although I will admit it is probably less usual for them to do it by killing the groom..." but the back copy doesn't tell you who killed whom, so I assumed (incorrectly) that this was mysterious.
The book oscillates view-points; every other chapter is written by the main character from prison and it very stream-of-conscious, looking into the past, relating her experiences as the barrister and psychiatrist tried to figure out why she did what she did. The other chapters are present-tense, immersed in the story that the previous chapter was discussing. So it's mostly told from the main character's pov, but occasionally there'll be the chapter from the only other really important character's pov (the lesbian).
Overall it was all the things bad marketing copy tries to make a book; a story of change, of growth, of friendship...It was a coming-of-age story for a forty something year old woman. She's stuck in a crappy life with some kind of crappy kids whom she loves deeply and somewhat crazily anyway, and she's definitely going just a little insane. It's delicious. Occasionally almost gossipy - as if you lived in Edenford, occasionally makes you feel like you're going to go insane with Eve, twice had me close to crying - she doesn't shy away from quite painful topics and while some of the death and illness is hilariously done (the crazy mother's stroke and subsequent inability to say anything except "WHO-HA"; the father's terrible will-reading) there's some pretty serious takes on religion, intolerance, racism, xenophobia and homophobia. As well as having possibly my favourite minor character die of cancer.
Despite all of which, it was a good ending. Not exactly happy, but very satisfying and kind of up-lifting. I struggled with the main character even while I were laughing at her and her antics and I came through it, grew with her and changed with her. Definitely for the last couple days events and characters from the book keep jumping out at me. So definitely recommendable.
Murder and Magic by Randall Garrett.
This is the third one I've gotten (Paperbackswapping them) of these books. The first one I read Too Many Magicians" is the only full-length novel, the other two books are collections of short stories. I originally looked them up because of a casual mention in one of Neil Gaiman's blog posts and have been loving them. The tagline is "Welcome to a World where Richard the Lion-Heart did not die...but went on to found the mightiest and most stable empire in history...where Magic is a science, and science is an art." They're wonderful little alternate-history, fantasy stories. What Arthur Conan Doyle would have written in that world? Perhaps, will a little more frivolity. It would be wrong to say these are Sherlock Holmes pastiches - they are much more than that, and not exactly Sherlock, although that's as close as I'll get. Maybe a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Lord Peter Wimsey with magic? They focus on Lord Darcy, the most prominent detective in the entire Anglo-French empire and his friend/partner Sean O Lochlainn, a preeminent Irish forensic Sorcerer. At the request of the King and his brother, they go round and solve murder mysteries - which normally are murder and normally aren't done by black magic...but occasionally none of that's true.
The conceit of the books is that the Anglo-French empire is constantly fighting the Polish Empire and often the plots and murder Lord Darcy must investigate are tied in with the Polish spies and plots and terrorism and he must often be devious and sneaky to figure out what's going on, as well as employing Sherlockian observational skills and occasionally even disguises. He's elegant, not gorgeous, has been in a war (the last book which I'm getting soon is the omnibus which includes two not otherwise published stories including the one in which he meets Sean, in the war, I believe), mingles in high society and is generally learned and quippy a la Wimsey. (Also, he occasionally looks at girls, which is totally a Wimsey, not Sherlock trait.)
Amongst this all Garrett finds the time to be witty and sometimes downright punny as well as creating adorable main characters (which is good because you rarely find the time or desire to like the characters unique to each short story) and the most adorable king ever. I heart him lots.
DEFINITELY recommend the entire series. Now my only problem is that once I achieve the omnibus, do I get rid of my individual books? Eep!
After which, I needed a brain-break (it was late but not late enough for bed), so I finally got around to reading:
The Baker Street Irregular by Robert Newman.
I'm a big fan of Sherlock Holmes both in M's telly shows and more importantly the books. I'll admit to some wariness in other people writing Holmes - I like a couple of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell books quite a lot, but others significantly less so. I keep trying to start Shadow at Reichenbach unsuccessfully and never yet found any fanfiction about him that I can deal with (except in my head:). I love Eve Titus' Basil of Baker Street series, but again not quite trying to replicate Holmes. Perhaps I only like childrens books about Holmes not written by Doyle? (Oh! Which reminds me, I also read Arthur and George last summer and loved it. Arthur Conan Doyle was an adorable, crazy, sweet, kind of screwed up man. And that was before he got into the spiritualism. Plus! Delightful consumption occurs! A must read for anyone who likes Doyle or mysteries.)
Whatever the case, I quite enjoyed this. It was another half-hourish read, but well worth the half hour spent on it. A young boy gets taken to London, his guardian is mysteriously abducted and the bad guys are coming back for the boy. Along the way he becomes friends with the sister of Sherlock's irregulars and between her family and Sherlock they discover and foil a sinister plot and reunite the boy with his long-lost mother. Included are: very very very minor Sherlock/Watson adorableness (definitely not slash, just a couple moments of love!squee), hi-jinks with a blind Irish fiddler who may not be what he seems and can definitely hold his own in a fight, a girl who screams to get her way and many disguises and clothing changes. Plus pretty ladies. Totally delightful.
Finally, we come to Living With The Dead by Kelley Armstrong.
I love Kelley Armstrong's books. I have borrowed them all from thunderemerald who originally got me hooked on them (although now I believe I own Bitten, the first one). I personally feel like she has gotten significantly better as the series continued, but this is also partially because it shifted focus somewhat to fantasy I like more personally. (The first few focus almost exclusively on Werewolves, who are awesome, but will never compare - in my heart - to witches and magic users generally.) But really I think what makes this series stand out - similarly to the Dresden Files - is the way in which Armstrong slowly built this world and keeps expanding it and creating a more and more complicated over arching plot, while keeping each book focused on one clear character and plot. Most of the books work as standalones or two/three book series, but work even better as an entire series. This most recently book featured Hope, a half Expisco (Chaos) demon, and her boyfriend Karl, an until recently lone werewolf. So they both have issues. Hope works for the supernatural inter-racial council on keeping the supernatural world from going splodey, while her own head/nature is almost making her go splodey. Which is all just set up for this particular book which focuses on them trying to help Hope's best friend from childhood who is the number one suspect in double-murder case. Oh! Plus! Some crazy clairvoyant (seer) cults. And the supernatural mafia pop back in a couple times, just to say hey. It only gets more fun from here. The Detective is a necromancer - he can see and speak to ghosts - and the main character's husband died not that long ago.
There's a lot of running (definitely some Doctor Who style running goes on in here), some fighting, not too much gore, some very evil machinations and a lot of hilarious writing. I've yet to meet a book of Armstrong's in which I didn't like the characters I was supposed to like. They are all remarkably fallible, human, screwed up and trying (often making things worse along the way) to do good. They are sometimes crazy, sometimes selfish, sometimes traumatised and often sympathetic. It could work as a standalone, but honestly, why wouldn't you want to read the entire series? Go forth and conquer the Women (and in the next book thunderemerald gives me, Men) of the Otherworld!
And so finishes the round up of this week so far. Next on my list may be Conrad's Fate by Diana Wynne Jones UNLESS penmage has finished that thing I want to steal from her, in which case I might NOMNOMNOM that. Jus' saying.
In other news, last night I went to go get free books from the internet and ended up with free paintings instead. Today I got a message (from correspondance on Paperbackswap) from a guy who wants to create a sustainable food-growing commune in Nevada and tonight I will stop being a hermit and go watch things on the internet at someone elses house. Unless I can persuade them to mine. :) Last night I accidentally stayed up until 4:30ish, watching the last four episodes of West Wing. It never fails to break my heart. So amazing.
Now I must make breakfast and snuggle kitty.
Gemma by Noel Streatfeild.
Gemma, while not being one of my favourite Streatfeild books, ranks relatively high up there, because there is nothing Streatfeild wrote that I have not loved. I found my copy from when I was wee at my Grandmother's house over the holidays and brought it home with me. It's falling apart and needs some serious taping, but all just signs of well loved-ness. It's a significantly prettier copy than the copies I recently got of the Shoes books, all of which are bright PINK and BLUE and look like my nine year old sister might be too old for these books, which is sad since I think that everyone of every age should be able to snuggle into some Streatfeild. (Although, while rereading the shoes books last summer, a co-worker asked me if I was reading the trashy chick lit books he's heard about...)
Gemma is the story of a young actress, daughter of a famous film star, who is sent to live with her very plebeian cousins and learns about family life for the first time, while everyone deals with their misconceptions. What draws me to Gemma is how very fallible everyone is - much more so than in other of her works - and how quick-tempered and immodest they often are. Everyone in Streatfeild books tends to be so very talented but so humble and loving and amazing that despite how charming they are, they can get very tiresome. Here some of the characters are much less charming, but while still being very talented in some ways, are very human in others.
Mostly, I like the father, who says at one point "I'm sure humility is a great virtue...but I doubt if too much of it brings out the best in most of us". Oh! Also the Grandmother who is unashamedly biased towards her grandchildren and absolutely bitchy and catty to everyone who does anything to outshine them. She's hilarious. A delightful half hour-ish read. Torn between wanting to read the rest of these and going to find the Chalet school books which I've been dying to re-read for ages.
Flying Under Bridges by Sandi Toksvig. My comments immediately post reading were "Dear Sandi Toksvig: I have just finished your book "Flying Under Bridges". You are fucked up. Also, amazing.". I think that still pretty much sums it up. It is alternately startlingly hilarious and read-bits-outable and heart-breaking. There were two bits that made me put the book aside and go up to Gina and need a bit of a hug before I could continue. Were I Joey from Friends I suspect I might have put the book in the freezer after the second bit.
I got my copy from Paperbackswap and honestly didn't really know what to expect. I knew the author was a respected journalist and brilliant comedian (and adorable 2 feet tall dyke), I didn't realise there were any lesbians in the book until I actually got it and read the back cover and was a little confused by the back copy in any case. The tagline is "Guests ruin weddings all the time, although I will admit it is probably less usual for them to do it by killing the groom..." but the back copy doesn't tell you who killed whom, so I assumed (incorrectly) that this was mysterious.
The book oscillates view-points; every other chapter is written by the main character from prison and it very stream-of-conscious, looking into the past, relating her experiences as the barrister and psychiatrist tried to figure out why she did what she did. The other chapters are present-tense, immersed in the story that the previous chapter was discussing. So it's mostly told from the main character's pov, but occasionally there'll be the chapter from the only other really important character's pov (the lesbian).
Overall it was all the things bad marketing copy tries to make a book; a story of change, of growth, of friendship...It was a coming-of-age story for a forty something year old woman. She's stuck in a crappy life with some kind of crappy kids whom she loves deeply and somewhat crazily anyway, and she's definitely going just a little insane. It's delicious. Occasionally almost gossipy - as if you lived in Edenford, occasionally makes you feel like you're going to go insane with Eve, twice had me close to crying - she doesn't shy away from quite painful topics and while some of the death and illness is hilariously done (the crazy mother's stroke and subsequent inability to say anything except "WHO-HA"; the father's terrible will-reading) there's some pretty serious takes on religion, intolerance, racism, xenophobia and homophobia. As well as having possibly my favourite minor character die of cancer.
Despite all of which, it was a good ending. Not exactly happy, but very satisfying and kind of up-lifting. I struggled with the main character even while I were laughing at her and her antics and I came through it, grew with her and changed with her. Definitely for the last couple days events and characters from the book keep jumping out at me. So definitely recommendable.
Murder and Magic by Randall Garrett.
This is the third one I've gotten (Paperbackswapping them) of these books. The first one I read Too Many Magicians" is the only full-length novel, the other two books are collections of short stories. I originally looked them up because of a casual mention in one of Neil Gaiman's blog posts and have been loving them. The tagline is "Welcome to a World where Richard the Lion-Heart did not die...but went on to found the mightiest and most stable empire in history...where Magic is a science, and science is an art." They're wonderful little alternate-history, fantasy stories. What Arthur Conan Doyle would have written in that world? Perhaps, will a little more frivolity. It would be wrong to say these are Sherlock Holmes pastiches - they are much more than that, and not exactly Sherlock, although that's as close as I'll get. Maybe a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Lord Peter Wimsey with magic? They focus on Lord Darcy, the most prominent detective in the entire Anglo-French empire and his friend/partner Sean O Lochlainn, a preeminent Irish forensic Sorcerer. At the request of the King and his brother, they go round and solve murder mysteries - which normally are murder and normally aren't done by black magic...but occasionally none of that's true.
The conceit of the books is that the Anglo-French empire is constantly fighting the Polish Empire and often the plots and murder Lord Darcy must investigate are tied in with the Polish spies and plots and terrorism and he must often be devious and sneaky to figure out what's going on, as well as employing Sherlockian observational skills and occasionally even disguises. He's elegant, not gorgeous, has been in a war (the last book which I'm getting soon is the omnibus which includes two not otherwise published stories including the one in which he meets Sean, in the war, I believe), mingles in high society and is generally learned and quippy a la Wimsey. (Also, he occasionally looks at girls, which is totally a Wimsey, not Sherlock trait.)
Amongst this all Garrett finds the time to be witty and sometimes downright punny as well as creating adorable main characters (which is good because you rarely find the time or desire to like the characters unique to each short story) and the most adorable king ever. I heart him lots.
DEFINITELY recommend the entire series. Now my only problem is that once I achieve the omnibus, do I get rid of my individual books? Eep!
After which, I needed a brain-break (it was late but not late enough for bed), so I finally got around to reading:
The Baker Street Irregular by Robert Newman.
I'm a big fan of Sherlock Holmes both in M's telly shows and more importantly the books. I'll admit to some wariness in other people writing Holmes - I like a couple of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell books quite a lot, but others significantly less so. I keep trying to start Shadow at Reichenbach unsuccessfully and never yet found any fanfiction about him that I can deal with (except in my head:). I love Eve Titus' Basil of Baker Street series, but again not quite trying to replicate Holmes. Perhaps I only like childrens books about Holmes not written by Doyle? (Oh! Which reminds me, I also read Arthur and George last summer and loved it. Arthur Conan Doyle was an adorable, crazy, sweet, kind of screwed up man. And that was before he got into the spiritualism. Plus! Delightful consumption occurs! A must read for anyone who likes Doyle or mysteries.)
Whatever the case, I quite enjoyed this. It was another half-hourish read, but well worth the half hour spent on it. A young boy gets taken to London, his guardian is mysteriously abducted and the bad guys are coming back for the boy. Along the way he becomes friends with the sister of Sherlock's irregulars and between her family and Sherlock they discover and foil a sinister plot and reunite the boy with his long-lost mother. Included are: very very very minor Sherlock/Watson adorableness (definitely not slash, just a couple moments of love!squee), hi-jinks with a blind Irish fiddler who may not be what he seems and can definitely hold his own in a fight, a girl who screams to get her way and many disguises and clothing changes. Plus pretty ladies. Totally delightful.
Finally, we come to Living With The Dead by Kelley Armstrong.
I love Kelley Armstrong's books. I have borrowed them all from thunderemerald who originally got me hooked on them (although now I believe I own Bitten, the first one). I personally feel like she has gotten significantly better as the series continued, but this is also partially because it shifted focus somewhat to fantasy I like more personally. (The first few focus almost exclusively on Werewolves, who are awesome, but will never compare - in my heart - to witches and magic users generally.) But really I think what makes this series stand out - similarly to the Dresden Files - is the way in which Armstrong slowly built this world and keeps expanding it and creating a more and more complicated over arching plot, while keeping each book focused on one clear character and plot. Most of the books work as standalones or two/three book series, but work even better as an entire series. This most recently book featured Hope, a half Expisco (Chaos) demon, and her boyfriend Karl, an until recently lone werewolf. So they both have issues. Hope works for the supernatural inter-racial council on keeping the supernatural world from going splodey, while her own head/nature is almost making her go splodey. Which is all just set up for this particular book which focuses on them trying to help Hope's best friend from childhood who is the number one suspect in double-murder case. Oh! Plus! Some crazy clairvoyant (seer) cults. And the supernatural mafia pop back in a couple times, just to say hey. It only gets more fun from here. The Detective is a necromancer - he can see and speak to ghosts - and the main character's husband died not that long ago.
There's a lot of running (definitely some Doctor Who style running goes on in here), some fighting, not too much gore, some very evil machinations and a lot of hilarious writing. I've yet to meet a book of Armstrong's in which I didn't like the characters I was supposed to like. They are all remarkably fallible, human, screwed up and trying (often making things worse along the way) to do good. They are sometimes crazy, sometimes selfish, sometimes traumatised and often sympathetic. It could work as a standalone, but honestly, why wouldn't you want to read the entire series? Go forth and conquer the Women (and in the next book thunderemerald gives me, Men) of the Otherworld!
And so finishes the round up of this week so far. Next on my list may be Conrad's Fate by Diana Wynne Jones UNLESS penmage has finished that thing I want to steal from her, in which case I might NOMNOMNOM that. Jus' saying.
In other news, last night I went to go get free books from the internet and ended up with free paintings instead. Today I got a message (from correspondance on Paperbackswap) from a guy who wants to create a sustainable food-growing commune in Nevada and tonight I will stop being a hermit and go watch things on the internet at someone elses house. Unless I can persuade them to mine. :) Last night I accidentally stayed up until 4:30ish, watching the last four episodes of West Wing. It never fails to break my heart. So amazing.
Now I must make breakfast and snuggle kitty.