2009: books
Jan. 1st, 2010 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thanateRoughly in order as finished, particular favorites starred:
January:
1) Into the Wild -- Sarah Beth Durst (interesting children's take on magic/folklore as an evil soul-sucking force, a quick & pleasant read)
**2) The Orphans Tales: In the Night Garden and
**3) The Orphans Tales: The Cities of Coin & Spice -- Catherynne M Valente (Good, folkloric, intricately nested stories as plot and world/myth building. Will read to my late elementary children, should I have such)
4) Out of the Wild -- Sarah Beth Durst (sequel to previous, solving the wishing problem presented. Minor demerits for (excusably) dense fathers, otherwise good)
***5) A Hidden Magic -- Vivian Vande Velde (reread--enchanted forest, obnoxious prince, a very nice ordinary princess named Jennifer, various users of magic, and illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman. Definitely children's, but fully worthy for an adult quick read.)
6) The Sun's Bride -- Gillian Bradshaw (Rhodean warships in the ancient mediterranean, complete with pirates, evil queens, & true love. Not her best, but that bar is pretty high.)
7) Blood & Iron -- Elizabeth Bear (Interesting, modern & mythological, but I didn't quite take to it... very "I have seen all this somewhere else before" which may have been partly intended.)
February:
8) The Sharing Knife: Horizon --LM Bujold (good conclusion to 4-book series, the world is not saved, but improving)
9) Coraline -- Neil Gaimon (I liked this more than I expected to, particularly the "protective coloration")
10) Making Money -- Terry Pratchett (worthy, as usual)
11-13) Riddle of Stars (The Riddlemaster of Hed/Heir of Sea & Fire/Harpist in the Wind)-- Patricia McKillip (reread: still worthy, complex and detailed and full of dreams & strange reversals)
14) The Graveyard Book -- Neil Gaimon (PG for evil cultists, friendly dead things, & creepy alternate worlds. worthy.)
March:
15) The Bell at Seley Head -- Patricia McKillip (more stories, alternate worlds, and people stuck in books. Very nice.)
16) Tofu Knights (Ozzie & Millie '04-'05) -- DC Simpson (comics, light, worthy, with annotations in book form. Far better than reading same online & getting a headache)
17) Closer to the Void (Ozzie & Millie '06-'07) -- DC Simpson (as above, also goth sheep squee!!)
18) Palimpsest -- Catherynne M Valente (R for much sex, pain, and dream-induced madness. Very well written.)
19) Journeymage Wren -- Sherwood Smith (unpublished, I read it online on the author's website, but I'm not currently finding the link. Anyway, you should read the first four Wren books first. They're relatively kid-safe and rousing girl-friendly magical adventure, shelved YA.)
20) The Composer is Dead -- Lemony Snicket (picture book foisted on me by my mother; cute, entertaining for the classical music appreciative, structured as a detective story, comes with CD of reading & music)
21) Prehistrionicks (Ozzie & Millie 1997-2000) -- DC Simpson (as above)
22) Ancient Book of Semi-Coherent Wisdom (Ozzie & Millie 2000-'01) -- DC Simpson (as above)
April:
23) Zen Again (Ozzie & Millie '01-'02) -- DC Simpson (as above)
24) Perpetual Motion (Ozzie & Millie '02-'03) -- DC Simpson (ditto)
25) Never Grow Up (one more Ozzie & Millie) -- DC Simpson
**26) City of Bones -- Martha Wells (reread: still very good. All the neat bits of ancient cities & post-apocalyptic worlds smashed up into one desert culture with a post-human hero. Also: adventure, multi-level politics, magic, pirates, evil alternate world invaders, etc)
27) The Lone Star Stories Reader -- Eric T Martin, ed (still available online, I believe, as well as print edition. "best of" short stories, mainly fantasy of various sorts, southwest feel, largely worthy)
28) The Convent of the Pure -- Sarah M Harvey (novella, steampunkish fantasy with all kinds of secret cult stuff and lesbian romance with one girl dead. fun in a "wow, what next?" sort of way.)
29) The Skeleton's Knee -- Archer Mayor (found in the B&B on honeymoon; detective novel with interesting premise but ending fell through rather, from the middle of a rural Vermont detective series)
May: (during which I was busy unpacking books, and thus read lots of snippets of things that I didn't record)
30) Clemency Pogue: Fairy Killer -- JT Petty (cute, children's, exploring the difficulties of not believing in fairies. Cleverly worded. Try it; you'll like it-- it's only a little one.)
*31) Harold's ABCs -- Crockett Johnson (reread: picture book; if you haven't read any of the Harold & the Purple Crayon books, you should. They should be at your library when you've got half an hour to visit; if not, you should yell at them about it.)
***32) Bones of Faerie -- Janni Lee Simner (post-faerie-apocalyptic, beautifully written, YA, entirely worth your time. Read this book.)
33) Yume no Hon: The Book of Dreams -- Catherynne M Valente (dreamlike, as advertised. PG/PG13 for existential mythologies, death, isolation, and climbing of temples. Good, but requires some concentration.)
34) Catwings -- Ursula le Guin (reread: picture book with flying cats. What's not to love?)
35) Sleeping Ugly -- Jane Yolen (reread: picture book pushing storybook with good fairytale morals. Would recommend for impressionable youngsters.)
36) Myrtle Albertina's Secret -- Lillian Pohlmann (reread, I think: early children's with pioneer girl struggling to keep a secret and help her friends out of trouble. worthy, but probably hard to find.)
37) We're in Big Trouble, Blackboard Bear and
38) I Sure am Glad to See You, Blackboard Bear -- Martha Alexander (reread: small boy with large 2D bear friend who can escape the blackboard to play with him)
***39) What Do You Say, Dear? -- Maurice Sendak (reread: Sendak on proper manners. If you have not read this, you should. Right now!)
**40) various Beatrice Potter including The Tailor of Glouster (reread: I hope I don't have to tell you that all children must read Miss Potter's works...)
June:
*41) Moonwise -- Greer Gilman (dense, fascinating, balladic & mythological, full of winter and strange food. Two real-world girls get drawn into their own invented otherworld by the people who already live there. Worthy, also requires concentration & affection for dense language.)
42) The Princess & Curdie -- George MacDonald (reread: sequel to The Princess & the Goblins, both mentioned in the preceding. Early children's fantasy, somewhat moralistic but not painfully so. recommended.)
*43) A Wizard of Earthsea and
*44) The Tombs of Atuan and
*45) The Farthest Shore -- Ursula Le Guin (not sure how I didn't read these before; the first one begins a bit slowly. Worthy; fascinating particularly in their understatement of stories not told but mentioned in passing.)
46) The Wind's Twelve Quarters -- Ursula Le Guin (also v. worthy, short stories of vast scope)
47) Lud-in-the-Mist -- Hope Mirlees (antique/proto-fantasy, very odd. Full of interesting turns of phrase, odd customs, and willful blindness, with an oddly unexplained ending. Would recommend to those interested in faerie fruit, politics, and pseudo-victorian/regency style cultures challenged.)
48) Tales of Wonder -- Lord Dunsany (audiobook: short stories, also antique fantasy. Some of the same feel as Lovecraft (no longer as potent due to things come after) but interestingly woven, particularly in moments of continuity between stories.)
*49) Damiano and
*50) Damiano's Lute and
July: (er, I have no idea what I was doing in July. Not reading, apparently...)
*51) Raphael -- RA MacAvoy (good. PG/PG13 for Raphael vs Lucifer, war, plague, dark & mistaken magics, sudden death, and possibly the oddest romance I've read recently. Do not stop after book 2.)
52) Daughter of Hounds -- Caitlin R Kiernan (this book had too much swearing in it, but that may be just me. Otherwise interesting, although definitely R, despite being largely about precocious children)
August:
53) The Last Hot Time -- John M Ford (a grown-up coming of age novel, & another post-faerie-as-apocalypse. PG13 for fast-paced action, gang politics, kinky sex, evil and things that look like it. Would recommend.)
**54) The Raven Ring -- Patricia C Wrede (reread: this & Marelon the Magician are my favorites of hers. Fun, romantic, funny, with fighting, intrigue, and evil incarnate plus loss of a parent to give it depth. Quick read but excellent.)
55) The Dreamstone -- CJ Cheryth (first half of The Dreaming Tree; I have failed to finish the second part. Prettily worded celtic last of the high elves vs the world of men, but time flows oddly, skipping years/generations and I failed to be properly absorbed. Also, mad Gaelic spelling madness: Meadhbh=mev, etc.)
***56) The Wizard Hunters and (in the running for favorite book ever; read this about 4 times before the second one came out...)
**57) The Ships of Air and
**58) The Gate of Gods -- Martha Wells (high adventure spanning multiple worlds: WWI-esque tech & magic vs jumped up evil invaders, plus anti-magic warrior people. Also includes much excellent banter, magic stylistic clashes, lost worlds, magic spheres, a ship based on the Queen Mary, cute guys with swords & a feisty girl with a gun and an odd sense of humor. Highly recommend.)
*59) Crown Duel -- Sherwood Smith (reread: short version (book 1 of 2). Good, but you want the 2-books-in-one, see below)
60) Shiva's Fire-- Anne Fisher Staples (odd, but not in a bad way. YA fantasy, but not standard fantasy-styled, set in slightly future India, which is as good as a fantasy world for those who haven't been; much dance, different cultural expectations, and a light touch on the magic. PG for elephants, gods, and outlawed romance)
September:
61) The Stepsister Scheme -- Jim C Hines (light/humorous dark fantasy. fairytale revision with strong women, fighting, abductions, evil stepsisters, darkness & squick treated gently. Silly but entertaining read, would recommend to those whose senses of humor are more mainstream than mine.)
62) Empire of Bones -- Liz Williams (sci-fi; futuristic India & aliens this time. Interesting & complex. PG13 for bioterrorism, standard terrorism, & alien politics. Also interesting virus theories.)
63) The Reformed Vampire Support Group -- Catherine Jinks (YA, cute take on the vampire craze, treating it as a chronic illness. Also includes werewolves, madmen of various sorts, Mortal Peril, and gruesome guinea pig death. Set in Australia.)
**64) Crown Duel -- Sherwood Smith (full version: Crown Duel & Court Duel revised & bound together. YA romp with treason, evil kings, peasant armies, narrow escapes, court machinations, sophistication, and mysterious love letters. Would recommend.)
65) Sasharia En Garde: Once a Princess and
66) Twice a Prince -- Sherwood Smith (borderline YA/adult (the partial narrator's about 25) but a quick read with high adventure, evil kings, virtuous pirates, magic, world-hopping, kidnapping & mistrust, true love, etc... narration flips between 1st person and varying 3rd person limited, which is eventually explained. Fun.)
67) M is for Magic -- Neil Gaimon (short stories determined to be children's, some quite good. You don't need me to recommend Gaimon to you.)
68) Circuit of Heaven -- Dennis Danvers (most people have retreated into a virtual upload world, except mainly for looney fundamentalists; romance between a girl who only exists digitally & a guy who's been a stubborn real-world holdout. Plus odd personality construct people, unwilling computer programmer gods, and DC/Richmond post-societal breakdown landscape. Interesting concepts.)
October:
*69) Dragons of Babel -- Michael Swanwick (odd alternate faerie world with technology; coming of age plus discovery of self with war, travel from countryside to refugee camp to city, odd digressions, severely confused family relations. I liked this book, but I wasn't sure if I would until the very end.)
70) End of Days -- Dennis Danvers (sequel to Circuit of Heaven with some recurring characters; interesting, began well, became needlessly messianic.)
November:
71) Last Chance to See -- Douglas Adams (madcap more-or-less-true adventures in the late 80s traveling to the inconvenient ends of the earth in search of endangered species. Good read.)
December:
72-3) Meji, Books 1 & 2 -- Milton J Davis (good books which deserved a good editor; epic fantasy sub-Saharan style. Would recommend to interested parties not driven to murder by poor copy editing.)
*74) Wheel of the Infinite -- Martha Wells (reread: world-inverting epic fantasy in something resembling ancient SE Asia. PG for destroyers of evil with work to do, dead worlds, mad gods, & a possessed puppet. Also has an acting troupe, river pirates, an ex-bodyguard, and interesting religion including a head priest who rises from the dead.)
75) The Ghost Sister -- Liz Williams (PG-13 for cultural clashes between bioengineered world religions, somewhat graphic sex & various unhealthy relationships, bloodmind, & otherwise violent societies. Minor demerits for bogus scientific explanations re: instinctive behaviors. Quite interesting overall. Sci-fi)
76) Rosemary & Rue -- Seanan McGuire (detective novel in a faerie-bordered San Francisco, with feuding kingdoms, cats, magics minor & major, mad queens & old gods, murder, geasa, shady dealings and pasts. Would recommend to fans of Anita Blake or Jim Butcher's hero & those (like me) who found both the previous rather irritating.)
77) Princess Academy -- Shannon Hale (YA, coming of age with various complications. PG for bandits, cruel schoolmistress, & ineffective communication. Good use of song & scenery, better living through education, friendship, and intellectual curiosity. Would recommend to Dendari Mountain girls & would-be adventurers.)
***78) Book of a Thousand Days -- Shannon Hale (Fantastic. YA, diary-style, an odd collection of coincidences put our enduring heroine into the right place to coax her lady through harrowing adventures beginning by being shut up in a tower for seven years for refusing to marry someone horrible. Good use of song, illustrations, cumulative comparisons for the best thing in the world, courage, and definitions of love. Read this one.)
79) General Winston's Daughter -- Sharon Shinn (YA on the drawbacks of colonial occupations, PG for restless natives, poor choices, and changes of heart.)
**80) Jackaroo -- Cynthia Voigt (quite good, should have read years ago. PG for bleak worldview, illegal activities, handsome masked outlaws, civil unrest, and lords & other perils.)
81) The Forest of Hands and Teeth -- Carrie Ryan (generations post-zombie-apocalypse. Interesting premise, but still structured as horror with most questions left unresolved, also entirely written in present tense. Was not impressed; those who read horror might have been more so.)
**82) Mansfield Park and Mummies -- Jane Austen & Vera Nazarian (funny, well-written/coaxed, good attention to detail. Read the recs on the back cover. You know you want to! Would recommend to Austen & regency fans with a sense of humor. One pet peeve: most of the footnotes were scolding me for reading modern innuendo into the original narrative, which I wasn't actually doing. But there were a couple others at the end that were quite funny.)
And next up:
Although I'm not sold on The Steam Magnate; the writing style is very odd. And yes, I have had that (previously used) compilation of E Nesbit since 1985 and still not read it. Oops.
January:
1) Into the Wild -- Sarah Beth Durst (interesting children's take on magic/folklore as an evil soul-sucking force, a quick & pleasant read)
**2) The Orphans Tales: In the Night Garden and
**3) The Orphans Tales: The Cities of Coin & Spice -- Catherynne M Valente (Good, folkloric, intricately nested stories as plot and world/myth building. Will read to my late elementary children, should I have such)
4) Out of the Wild -- Sarah Beth Durst (sequel to previous, solving the wishing problem presented. Minor demerits for (excusably) dense fathers, otherwise good)
***5) A Hidden Magic -- Vivian Vande Velde (reread--enchanted forest, obnoxious prince, a very nice ordinary princess named Jennifer, various users of magic, and illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman. Definitely children's, but fully worthy for an adult quick read.)
6) The Sun's Bride -- Gillian Bradshaw (Rhodean warships in the ancient mediterranean, complete with pirates, evil queens, & true love. Not her best, but that bar is pretty high.)
7) Blood & Iron -- Elizabeth Bear (Interesting, modern & mythological, but I didn't quite take to it... very "I have seen all this somewhere else before" which may have been partly intended.)
February:
8) The Sharing Knife: Horizon --LM Bujold (good conclusion to 4-book series, the world is not saved, but improving)
9) Coraline -- Neil Gaimon (I liked this more than I expected to, particularly the "protective coloration")
10) Making Money -- Terry Pratchett (worthy, as usual)
11-13) Riddle of Stars (The Riddlemaster of Hed/Heir of Sea & Fire/Harpist in the Wind)-- Patricia McKillip (reread: still worthy, complex and detailed and full of dreams & strange reversals)
14) The Graveyard Book -- Neil Gaimon (PG for evil cultists, friendly dead things, & creepy alternate worlds. worthy.)
March:
15) The Bell at Seley Head -- Patricia McKillip (more stories, alternate worlds, and people stuck in books. Very nice.)
16) Tofu Knights (Ozzie & Millie '04-'05) -- DC Simpson (comics, light, worthy, with annotations in book form. Far better than reading same online & getting a headache)
17) Closer to the Void (Ozzie & Millie '06-'07) -- DC Simpson (as above, also goth sheep squee!!)
18) Palimpsest -- Catherynne M Valente (R for much sex, pain, and dream-induced madness. Very well written.)
19) Journeymage Wren -- Sherwood Smith (unpublished, I read it online on the author's website, but I'm not currently finding the link. Anyway, you should read the first four Wren books first. They're relatively kid-safe and rousing girl-friendly magical adventure, shelved YA.)
20) The Composer is Dead -- Lemony Snicket (picture book foisted on me by my mother; cute, entertaining for the classical music appreciative, structured as a detective story, comes with CD of reading & music)
21) Prehistrionicks (Ozzie & Millie 1997-2000) -- DC Simpson (as above)
22) Ancient Book of Semi-Coherent Wisdom (Ozzie & Millie 2000-'01) -- DC Simpson (as above)
April:
23) Zen Again (Ozzie & Millie '01-'02) -- DC Simpson (as above)
24) Perpetual Motion (Ozzie & Millie '02-'03) -- DC Simpson (ditto)
25) Never Grow Up (one more Ozzie & Millie) -- DC Simpson
**26) City of Bones -- Martha Wells (reread: still very good. All the neat bits of ancient cities & post-apocalyptic worlds smashed up into one desert culture with a post-human hero. Also: adventure, multi-level politics, magic, pirates, evil alternate world invaders, etc)
27) The Lone Star Stories Reader -- Eric T Martin, ed (still available online, I believe, as well as print edition. "best of" short stories, mainly fantasy of various sorts, southwest feel, largely worthy)
28) The Convent of the Pure -- Sarah M Harvey (novella, steampunkish fantasy with all kinds of secret cult stuff and lesbian romance with one girl dead. fun in a "wow, what next?" sort of way.)
29) The Skeleton's Knee -- Archer Mayor (found in the B&B on honeymoon; detective novel with interesting premise but ending fell through rather, from the middle of a rural Vermont detective series)
May: (during which I was busy unpacking books, and thus read lots of snippets of things that I didn't record)
30) Clemency Pogue: Fairy Killer -- JT Petty (cute, children's, exploring the difficulties of not believing in fairies. Cleverly worded. Try it; you'll like it-- it's only a little one.)
*31) Harold's ABCs -- Crockett Johnson (reread: picture book; if you haven't read any of the Harold & the Purple Crayon books, you should. They should be at your library when you've got half an hour to visit; if not, you should yell at them about it.)
***32) Bones of Faerie -- Janni Lee Simner (post-faerie-apocalyptic, beautifully written, YA, entirely worth your time. Read this book.)
33) Yume no Hon: The Book of Dreams -- Catherynne M Valente (dreamlike, as advertised. PG/PG13 for existential mythologies, death, isolation, and climbing of temples. Good, but requires some concentration.)
34) Catwings -- Ursula le Guin (reread: picture book with flying cats. What's not to love?)
35) Sleeping Ugly -- Jane Yolen (reread: picture book pushing storybook with good fairytale morals. Would recommend for impressionable youngsters.)
36) Myrtle Albertina's Secret -- Lillian Pohlmann (reread, I think: early children's with pioneer girl struggling to keep a secret and help her friends out of trouble. worthy, but probably hard to find.)
37) We're in Big Trouble, Blackboard Bear and
38) I Sure am Glad to See You, Blackboard Bear -- Martha Alexander (reread: small boy with large 2D bear friend who can escape the blackboard to play with him)
***39) What Do You Say, Dear? -- Maurice Sendak (reread: Sendak on proper manners. If you have not read this, you should. Right now!)
**40) various Beatrice Potter including The Tailor of Glouster (reread: I hope I don't have to tell you that all children must read Miss Potter's works...)
June:
*41) Moonwise -- Greer Gilman (dense, fascinating, balladic & mythological, full of winter and strange food. Two real-world girls get drawn into their own invented otherworld by the people who already live there. Worthy, also requires concentration & affection for dense language.)
42) The Princess & Curdie -- George MacDonald (reread: sequel to The Princess & the Goblins, both mentioned in the preceding. Early children's fantasy, somewhat moralistic but not painfully so. recommended.)
*43) A Wizard of Earthsea and
*44) The Tombs of Atuan and
*45) The Farthest Shore -- Ursula Le Guin (not sure how I didn't read these before; the first one begins a bit slowly. Worthy; fascinating particularly in their understatement of stories not told but mentioned in passing.)
46) The Wind's Twelve Quarters -- Ursula Le Guin (also v. worthy, short stories of vast scope)
47) Lud-in-the-Mist -- Hope Mirlees (antique/proto-fantasy, very odd. Full of interesting turns of phrase, odd customs, and willful blindness, with an oddly unexplained ending. Would recommend to those interested in faerie fruit, politics, and pseudo-victorian/regency style cultures challenged.)
48) Tales of Wonder -- Lord Dunsany (audiobook: short stories, also antique fantasy. Some of the same feel as Lovecraft (no longer as potent due to things come after) but interestingly woven, particularly in moments of continuity between stories.)
*49) Damiano and
*50) Damiano's Lute and
July: (er, I have no idea what I was doing in July. Not reading, apparently...)
*51) Raphael -- RA MacAvoy (good. PG/PG13 for Raphael vs Lucifer, war, plague, dark & mistaken magics, sudden death, and possibly the oddest romance I've read recently. Do not stop after book 2.)
52) Daughter of Hounds -- Caitlin R Kiernan (this book had too much swearing in it, but that may be just me. Otherwise interesting, although definitely R, despite being largely about precocious children)
August:
53) The Last Hot Time -- John M Ford (a grown-up coming of age novel, & another post-faerie-as-apocalypse. PG13 for fast-paced action, gang politics, kinky sex, evil and things that look like it. Would recommend.)
**54) The Raven Ring -- Patricia C Wrede (reread: this & Marelon the Magician are my favorites of hers. Fun, romantic, funny, with fighting, intrigue, and evil incarnate plus loss of a parent to give it depth. Quick read but excellent.)
55) The Dreamstone -- CJ Cheryth (first half of The Dreaming Tree; I have failed to finish the second part. Prettily worded celtic last of the high elves vs the world of men, but time flows oddly, skipping years/generations and I failed to be properly absorbed. Also, mad Gaelic spelling madness: Meadhbh=mev, etc.)
***56) The Wizard Hunters and (in the running for favorite book ever; read this about 4 times before the second one came out...)
**57) The Ships of Air and
**58) The Gate of Gods -- Martha Wells (high adventure spanning multiple worlds: WWI-esque tech & magic vs jumped up evil invaders, plus anti-magic warrior people. Also includes much excellent banter, magic stylistic clashes, lost worlds, magic spheres, a ship based on the Queen Mary, cute guys with swords & a feisty girl with a gun and an odd sense of humor. Highly recommend.)
*59) Crown Duel -- Sherwood Smith (reread: short version (book 1 of 2). Good, but you want the 2-books-in-one, see below)
60) Shiva's Fire-- Anne Fisher Staples (odd, but not in a bad way. YA fantasy, but not standard fantasy-styled, set in slightly future India, which is as good as a fantasy world for those who haven't been; much dance, different cultural expectations, and a light touch on the magic. PG for elephants, gods, and outlawed romance)
September:
61) The Stepsister Scheme -- Jim C Hines (light/humorous dark fantasy. fairytale revision with strong women, fighting, abductions, evil stepsisters, darkness & squick treated gently. Silly but entertaining read, would recommend to those whose senses of humor are more mainstream than mine.)
62) Empire of Bones -- Liz Williams (sci-fi; futuristic India & aliens this time. Interesting & complex. PG13 for bioterrorism, standard terrorism, & alien politics. Also interesting virus theories.)
63) The Reformed Vampire Support Group -- Catherine Jinks (YA, cute take on the vampire craze, treating it as a chronic illness. Also includes werewolves, madmen of various sorts, Mortal Peril, and gruesome guinea pig death. Set in Australia.)
**64) Crown Duel -- Sherwood Smith (full version: Crown Duel & Court Duel revised & bound together. YA romp with treason, evil kings, peasant armies, narrow escapes, court machinations, sophistication, and mysterious love letters. Would recommend.)
65) Sasharia En Garde: Once a Princess and
66) Twice a Prince -- Sherwood Smith (borderline YA/adult (the partial narrator's about 25) but a quick read with high adventure, evil kings, virtuous pirates, magic, world-hopping, kidnapping & mistrust, true love, etc... narration flips between 1st person and varying 3rd person limited, which is eventually explained. Fun.)
67) M is for Magic -- Neil Gaimon (short stories determined to be children's, some quite good. You don't need me to recommend Gaimon to you.)
68) Circuit of Heaven -- Dennis Danvers (most people have retreated into a virtual upload world, except mainly for looney fundamentalists; romance between a girl who only exists digitally & a guy who's been a stubborn real-world holdout. Plus odd personality construct people, unwilling computer programmer gods, and DC/Richmond post-societal breakdown landscape. Interesting concepts.)
October:
*69) Dragons of Babel -- Michael Swanwick (odd alternate faerie world with technology; coming of age plus discovery of self with war, travel from countryside to refugee camp to city, odd digressions, severely confused family relations. I liked this book, but I wasn't sure if I would until the very end.)
70) End of Days -- Dennis Danvers (sequel to Circuit of Heaven with some recurring characters; interesting, began well, became needlessly messianic.)
November:
71) Last Chance to See -- Douglas Adams (madcap more-or-less-true adventures in the late 80s traveling to the inconvenient ends of the earth in search of endangered species. Good read.)
December:
72-3) Meji, Books 1 & 2 -- Milton J Davis (good books which deserved a good editor; epic fantasy sub-Saharan style. Would recommend to interested parties not driven to murder by poor copy editing.)
*74) Wheel of the Infinite -- Martha Wells (reread: world-inverting epic fantasy in something resembling ancient SE Asia. PG for destroyers of evil with work to do, dead worlds, mad gods, & a possessed puppet. Also has an acting troupe, river pirates, an ex-bodyguard, and interesting religion including a head priest who rises from the dead.)
75) The Ghost Sister -- Liz Williams (PG-13 for cultural clashes between bioengineered world religions, somewhat graphic sex & various unhealthy relationships, bloodmind, & otherwise violent societies. Minor demerits for bogus scientific explanations re: instinctive behaviors. Quite interesting overall. Sci-fi)
76) Rosemary & Rue -- Seanan McGuire (detective novel in a faerie-bordered San Francisco, with feuding kingdoms, cats, magics minor & major, mad queens & old gods, murder, geasa, shady dealings and pasts. Would recommend to fans of Anita Blake or Jim Butcher's hero & those (like me) who found both the previous rather irritating.)
77) Princess Academy -- Shannon Hale (YA, coming of age with various complications. PG for bandits, cruel schoolmistress, & ineffective communication. Good use of song & scenery, better living through education, friendship, and intellectual curiosity. Would recommend to Dendari Mountain girls & would-be adventurers.)
***78) Book of a Thousand Days -- Shannon Hale (Fantastic. YA, diary-style, an odd collection of coincidences put our enduring heroine into the right place to coax her lady through harrowing adventures beginning by being shut up in a tower for seven years for refusing to marry someone horrible. Good use of song, illustrations, cumulative comparisons for the best thing in the world, courage, and definitions of love. Read this one.)
79) General Winston's Daughter -- Sharon Shinn (YA on the drawbacks of colonial occupations, PG for restless natives, poor choices, and changes of heart.)
**80) Jackaroo -- Cynthia Voigt (quite good, should have read years ago. PG for bleak worldview, illegal activities, handsome masked outlaws, civil unrest, and lords & other perils.)
81) The Forest of Hands and Teeth -- Carrie Ryan (generations post-zombie-apocalypse. Interesting premise, but still structured as horror with most questions left unresolved, also entirely written in present tense. Was not impressed; those who read horror might have been more so.)
**82) Mansfield Park and Mummies -- Jane Austen & Vera Nazarian (funny, well-written/coaxed, good attention to detail. Read the recs on the back cover. You know you want to! Would recommend to Austen & regency fans with a sense of humor. One pet peeve: most of the footnotes were scolding me for reading modern innuendo into the original narrative, which I wasn't actually doing. But there were a couple others at the end that were quite funny.)
And next up:
Although I'm not sold on The Steam Magnate; the writing style is very odd. And yes, I have had that (previously used) compilation of E Nesbit since 1985 and still not read it. Oops.