books! January!
Feb. 3rd, 2013 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thanateI always mean to do this. I may never get around to it again, but you get a month, if a somewhat slight one.
The Hero's Guide to Saving your Kingdom- Christopher Healy. I suspect I would have found this hilarious when I was about twelve; at going on three times that, I found a few bits to be clever and a lot to be either predictable or kind of dumb. This is mostly the ways in which I'm picky, though; if fractured fairy tales with extra silliness are your thing you may well love it; while some of the supposedly sympathetic characters could use a good kick to the head at times, there's a decent gender balance on competency and adventurous spirit and all that.
Ash- Malinda Lo. This did a decent job of being a Cinderella story that actually held its own plot-wise. (While I always want more spunk out of the cinder girl, there's only so much you can ask of a bereaved pre-teen...) I liked the world-building and background bits, and the way people kept telling each other fairy tales worked for me, which it doesn't always. The resolution of the faerie plotline kind of melted like gold-into-leaves in the morning, but otherwise I liked it.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking- Susan Cain. I seem to have missed large amounts of the "everyone must be an extrovert!" brainwashing that she assumes all Americans get hit with; some of this may have been my failure to pick up social cues as a kid, though. In any case, I found this quite interesting as a social study; it's full of anecdotes on various historical figures, bits of brain science, and various thoughts on coping mechanisms for different introversion-related potential problems. Recommended for people who think about these things, and possibly for people to whom it has never occurred to think about these things by way of perspective-- though I do wish the author didn't keep slipping into present tense narration anytime she talks about meeting someone.
All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals- Darren Naish, John Conway & CM Kosemen. Awesome picture book of alternate dinosaur reconstructions, with various explanations of why these are not more improbable than the normal paleontological art one sees, followed by a section of modern animals reconstructed by applying the standard conventions to the sorts of fragmentary evidence one gets from fossils. Obtainable as an e-book or from Lulu; if you want it I would recommend a version that includes color. Recommended for anyone interested in dinosaur art or anatomical reconstruction who won't be bothered by the page of extravagant penis theories.
Lobster Moths- Diane Redfield Massie. This came out of one of the boxes of my brother's picture books, and it's actually not the only picture book I read this month, but it was the only one I wrote down by virtue of being significantly more surreal than your average picture book. We begin with an expert on lobster moths and his cat who likes to eat them, progress through the lobster moth fairy, nosy neighbors and wings hidden under raincoats, and an argument between representatives of the army and the police, to migration. "The End is Near." Very peculiar.
Glamour in Glass- Mary Robinette Kowal. I liked this better than the first book (where I found the dramatic climax particularly silly), though it remains very Austinoid (er, as in "Celtoid" rather than "Celtic") and on the whole I think Revenant Eve had already filled my six-month+ Napoleon quota. Anyway, the book as a whole deals with a bunch of interesting and serious subjects, but with a relatively light touch; definitely recommended for those who are still enjoying the less wildly unhistorical Austen-spin-offs, and possibly for those who want a good adventure story with light magic and intrigue from the POV of a woman under various social & physical constraints.
The Hero's Guide to Saving your Kingdom- Christopher Healy. I suspect I would have found this hilarious when I was about twelve; at going on three times that, I found a few bits to be clever and a lot to be either predictable or kind of dumb. This is mostly the ways in which I'm picky, though; if fractured fairy tales with extra silliness are your thing you may well love it; while some of the supposedly sympathetic characters could use a good kick to the head at times, there's a decent gender balance on competency and adventurous spirit and all that.
Ash- Malinda Lo. This did a decent job of being a Cinderella story that actually held its own plot-wise. (While I always want more spunk out of the cinder girl, there's only so much you can ask of a bereaved pre-teen...) I liked the world-building and background bits, and the way people kept telling each other fairy tales worked for me, which it doesn't always. The resolution of the faerie plotline kind of melted like gold-into-leaves in the morning, but otherwise I liked it.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking- Susan Cain. I seem to have missed large amounts of the "everyone must be an extrovert!" brainwashing that she assumes all Americans get hit with; some of this may have been my failure to pick up social cues as a kid, though. In any case, I found this quite interesting as a social study; it's full of anecdotes on various historical figures, bits of brain science, and various thoughts on coping mechanisms for different introversion-related potential problems. Recommended for people who think about these things, and possibly for people to whom it has never occurred to think about these things by way of perspective-- though I do wish the author didn't keep slipping into present tense narration anytime she talks about meeting someone.
All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals- Darren Naish, John Conway & CM Kosemen. Awesome picture book of alternate dinosaur reconstructions, with various explanations of why these are not more improbable than the normal paleontological art one sees, followed by a section of modern animals reconstructed by applying the standard conventions to the sorts of fragmentary evidence one gets from fossils. Obtainable as an e-book or from Lulu; if you want it I would recommend a version that includes color. Recommended for anyone interested in dinosaur art or anatomical reconstruction who won't be bothered by the page of extravagant penis theories.
Lobster Moths- Diane Redfield Massie. This came out of one of the boxes of my brother's picture books, and it's actually not the only picture book I read this month, but it was the only one I wrote down by virtue of being significantly more surreal than your average picture book. We begin with an expert on lobster moths and his cat who likes to eat them, progress through the lobster moth fairy, nosy neighbors and wings hidden under raincoats, and an argument between representatives of the army and the police, to migration. "The End is Near." Very peculiar.
Glamour in Glass- Mary Robinette Kowal. I liked this better than the first book (where I found the dramatic climax particularly silly), though it remains very Austinoid (er, as in "Celtoid" rather than "Celtic") and on the whole I think Revenant Eve had already filled my six-month+ Napoleon quota. Anyway, the book as a whole deals with a bunch of interesting and serious subjects, but with a relatively light touch; definitely recommended for those who are still enjoying the less wildly unhistorical Austen-spin-offs, and possibly for those who want a good adventure story with light magic and intrigue from the POV of a woman under various social & physical constraints.