Duck duck duck Booklog!

[trinityofone]

Oh man. Please remind me to NEVER AGAIN go so long without updating this. Bad Trin! No biscuit for me.

Weeks 26—30: 25 June—29 July

149. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov — In which human cop Elijah Baley is partnered with robot cop Daneel Olivaw to solve an unusual murder, and wackiness ensues. I enjoyed this quite a lot—it was fun to watch Baley slowly overcome his prejudices toward robots and start to regard Daneel first as an asset and then even as a friend. His detective prowess left something to be desired, however. In fact, I spent most of my time reading this novel wishing someone would write a porny due South version of it. (Turns out troyswann kind of has: Real Boys (A Chip Off the Old Blog) is a fantastic story, and the concept is close, if not exact. Well worth reading, anyway.)

Asimov's novel is, too. I wish I'd read it when I was younger and less likely to be distracted by perviness.

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150. Alanna: The First Adventure, Tamora Pierce — Pretty much the first thing people mentioned when I asked about YA genderbending novels. This is another book I probably would have enjoyed a lot more when I was in the target age group; it's still very enjoyable, if incredibly predictable. I may pick up the rest in the series if I can get the cranky librarians to stop giving me weird looks.

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151. The Ordinary Princess, M.M. Kaye — darcydodo recommended this to me months ago and I finally managed to track it down. It's a fun, witty fairy tale revamp in which a young princess, at her fairy christening, is given the gift of ordinariness. Kaye's prose style (which to me seemed wonderfully dry and English) was very enjoyable to read; I didn't, however, enjoy this quite as much as I thought I was going to. I'm actually totally willing to blame myself for this: I think I started overthinking it—"Wouldn't it be much more transgressive," I thought, "for the king to fall in love with and marry a real kitchen maid rather than a princess disguised as one? And Amy really isn't that bright." Shut up, brain. Sometimes I am just cranky.

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152. Uncharted Territory, Connie Willis — The best and worst of Connie Willis, in one slim volume! The first half of this book annoyed me so much I almost considered not finishing it. In describing the problems facing interplanetary surveyors Carson and Findriddy, Willis, as she often does, pokes fun at the stupidity of bureaucracy; however, it felt like all the humor in this book totally missed the mark. It was like actually being stuck in line at the DMV as opposed to reading a funny satire about such a situation. But then, Willis does something very, very cool—a little narrative trick that I admire immensely and don't want to spoil here. It turns the whole narrative on its ear, and while it doesn't cure the other problems, it certainly made me want to keep reading.

The novel, however, remains uneven. The romance plotline(s) never seemed believable to me, which rather lessens the impact of the end. Still, that one twist—I do feel like all the annoying stuff was worth wading through for that. I'm glad I did.

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153. All-Consuming Fire, Andy Lane — The Seventh Doctor meets Sherlock Holmes. How can that not be full of win? And it pretty much is—unlike a lot of the Holmes pastiches I've read, Lane isn't afraid to actually do things with Holmes canon; many pastiche writers seem VERY AFRAID that they're somehow going to damage Sir Arthur's toys, which 1) is ridiculous, and 2) leads to very boring stories. Lane, meanwhile, is more willing to take Holmes canon in hand—he allows for character development and doesn't simply maintain the status quo. He also, bless him, lets Watson shine; in fact, this novel ends up being much more about Watson than about Holmes, or even the Doctor. It's probably a better Holmes novel than it is a Doctor Who one, honestly. But I love both worlds so I enjoyed it.

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154. Michael Tolliver Lives, Armistead Maupin — I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I've complained before about my increasing frustration and even anger with the last few Tales of the City novels, in which all the female characters had to completely renounce their hetero- or bisexuality or instead become HIDEOUS HOME-DESTROYING BITCHES; however, I couldn't resist reading this new, seventh installment, because, well, I'm a completist. (Or an addict. Call it what you will.) But like I said: I was pleasantly surprised. This seventh volume finds Michael Tolliver, the gardener formerly known as Mouse, still alive in the present day despite having been HIV positive since the '80s. This book is much less wacky than its predecessors—there are no plotlines about child pornography rings or Jim Jones or the Bohemian Grove. Instead, most of the plot revolves around making peace with the past. Michael takes his new lover with him to Florida to visit his dying mother, and there's a lot of stuff about family (both the one you're born with and the one you make) that seemed very real to me. Maupin even managed to rehumanize Mary Ann a little bit; of course, he also had Michael use "my little spunk bucket" as a term of endearment. Um. It's a step up from "All straight women are EVIL!", anyway.

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155. & 156. Go Jump in the Pool! & Beware the Fish!, Gordon Korman — More Bruno & Boots, still as awesome and hilarious and gay as in This Can't Be Happening at MacDonald Hall! If you want to *wink* find out more *wink* I recommend joining scrimmettes. *continues to be very subtle*

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157. An Invisible Sign of My Own, Aimee Bender — I've enjoyed Bender's short stories (collected in The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Wilfull Creatures). This, her only novel, was written in between the two, but unlike her shorter fiction, it really didn't work for me. Mona, the protagonist, is the kind of improbable fictional person who buys herself an axe for her birthday—from a guy who wears wax numbers around his neck that signify his mood. Each new character is stranger-than-thou; this sort of thing worked okay in a short format, but over the course of a full-length novel, it just seemed way too SEE HOW WEIRD AND SYMBOLIC I'M BEING? Also, not much really happened, and most of what did happen involved self-mutilation and axe wounds and was seriously unpleasant. Just...really not for me.

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158. Making History, Stephen Fry — This was such a blast. Fry has a lot of fun with the "what if you could go back in time and kill Hitler?"—or in this case, go back in time and prevent Hitler from ever being born—plot. The alternate universe he creates is pretty cleverly developed and suitably creepy; it's also incredibly amusing that Michael's meddling has the first troublesome result of making him AMERICAN, oh noes. I wish there'd been a bit more about Michael and Steve's developing relationship, but mostly this was a romp in the best sense of the word, with a good dose of underlying scariness. Recommended.

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159. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling — ONLY VERY MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW — I TRIED VERY HARD TO KEEP MY DISCUSSION THEMATIC AND VAGUE WITH A SIDE OF VAGUE.

Ahem. Anyway. There are a lot of ways in which I found this a very satisfying conclusion to the series. I was pleased that Rowling took care to tie up a lot of outstanding plot threads—even minor ones—and I liked the central questy plot, and all of Harry, Ron, and Hermione's interaction. Also, NEVILLE. Everything to do with him made me insanely happy.

However, the narrative kind of derailed for me after the shrieking shack scene. Rowling's love of infodumping wasn't as overwhelming as in the last few books, but it was still pretty bad, and the second big battle, especially in comparison to the first one, which I thought was excellent, was way too talky. And kind of lame. And I really could have done without That Epilogue.

More importantly, however, there are certain aspects of Rowling's universe that continue to baffle me. Remember what the Sorting Hat said about inter-house cooperation in...was it Order of the Phoenix? Anyway, the Hat talked about the necessity for inter-house cooperation, and not only did it feel like that was one plot point Rowling did drop like a lead balloon, she really does seem to think all Slytherins are evil (with a few exceptions. MAYBE). And I really have to question a system that decides AT AGE ELEVEN whether you're going to be a good person or not. Even if that were possible, why would you want to put all the bad apples together? I just...ARGH. MAKES NO SENSE!

I never understood what was up with the Malfoys, either. WTF?

But Neville was cool. Gonna focus on that.

For those who are interested, there's some actually spoilery discussion in this post here. (And spoilery comments should probably be directed there, too, instead of here.)

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160. Rereadings, Ed. by Anne Fadiman — A collection of essays in which various authors and essayists discuss rereading their favorite works, from The Charterhouse of Parma to the back of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I haven't read most of the works discussed in this book, so while I enjoyed all of the essays, some of them lost some resonance for me. I actually thought Fadiman's introduction, in which she discusses reading The Horse and His Boy with her son was one of the most effective, perhaps because I feel a personal connection to any discussion about disenchantment with Narnia, but also because she emphasizes the difference between reading and rereading more strongly and concretely than many of the other essays.

All in all, this was an enjoyable collection, but unlike Fadiman's solo effort, the fantastic Ex Libris, one I'm glad I got from the library instead of purchasing; in other words, most likely not a book I will be rereading.

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161. & 165. Bimbos of the Death Sun & Zombies of the Gene Pool, Sharyn McCrumb — Two fandom-set mysteries. The first takes place at a con, and with its wacky con shenanigans is generally more fun than the second, which involves a small fan reunion in Tennessee. Neither one of the mysteries is particularly mysterious (which is odd because McCrumb is nominally a mystery writer), but the books are generally amusing, quick reads. Enjoyable—if you don't think about them. Think about them at all, and you start to realize that McCrumb is really rather contemptuous toward fans and fandom. According to her, everyone involved in sci-fi/fantasy fandom is a socially-incompetent loser who will never amount to much, has poor personal hygiene, and is probably a virgin. Even if you become a successful genre author, you will never garner respect or attain happiness. Fannishness is, apparently, something you are supposed to grow out of when you finally lose that extra weight and find a boy/girlfriend. McCrumb's attitude certainly makes me wonder who she thinks she's writing these books for. It isn't for genre fans.

wychwood, the sequel isn't actually any more bitter and nasty than the original, in spite of what your friend said; however, both books contain the same kind of sloppiness. The main character is an engineer named Dr. James Owens Mega; the pen name under which he writes is Jay Omega. He's referred to interchangeably in both books (in the 3rd person omniscient narration, no less) as James, Mega, Jay, Jay Omega, and even Dr. Jay Omega—in other words, his nom de plume with his real world title. That kind of thing drives me nuts. There's also an instance of McCrumb stating that Character A doesn't know Character B's name at the top of a page, and then at the bottom of that same page, A casually calling B by her name. Oh, and another character thinking of a death as a murder and then a few pages later having to be convinced that it was indeed a murder and not accidental death. You know what is needed, here? A GOOD BETA.

So, I found these books both enjoyable and incredibly infuriating. I honestly can't make a recommendation about whether I think other people should read them or not.

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162. Literacy and Longing in L.A., Jennifer Kaufman & Karen Mack — Another book that left me somewhat confuddled. On the one hand, it's hard to resist a book that wallows in reading, and I enjoyed Kaufman & Mack's navigation of the L.A. book scene, including a little ode to the now sadly-deceased Dutton's Brentwood Books. (How wrong is it that that's gone? VERY.) Some of the narrative twists were surprising and well done, as well—I really liked how Dora, the protagonist, becomes involved in the lives of her boyfriend's mother and niece, and how those relationships evolve and change. However, I found it really hard to sympathize with Dora a lot of the time. Oh the poor dear! She's a trust fund baby with nothing to do all day but sit around and read! Lady, I wish I had your problems.

Well-written and at times moving, but also somehow off. *peers at it*

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163. The Eight Doctors, Terrance Dicks — Like bad fanfic. Bad fanfic that is mostly recapping old episodes. *skips to Fitz books*

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164. On the Verge, or the Geography of Yearning, Eric Overmyer — Recommended by iamsab, a play about three Victorian women explorers who set out to explore Terra incognita and end up traveling forward in time. I really enjoyed Overmyer's use and fun manipulations of language, and the slightly skewed perspective on two different eras (1880s and 1950s). The sad truth is, though, I'm not the best reader of plays. I have a hard time engaging with them as I do novels or short stories, or even film. Still, despite that fault (in myself) I enjoyed this. Which speaks very highly of it, I think.

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166. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer — Let me give you an idea of how much my opinion of this book changed at different stages of reading. When I was about a third of the way through, I was so into it that I immediately put my name on the library reservations list for the sequel, and wishlisted every edition on BookMooch. Now, having finished, I doubt I'll bother to read any further in the series. The opening is really quite interesting: Bella moves from sunny Arizona to rainy, gloomy Washington State to live with her father (her somewhat loopy mom wants to follow her new husband while he's on the road as a minor league ballplayer). To her surprise, she gains almost instant popularity at her new high school—with the exception of the beautiful Edward Cullen and his siblings, who either ignore her, or in the case of Edward himself, seem to be repulsed by her. Even though the reader probably knows going in that at least part of what's going on relates to Edward being a vampire (because it says in BIG LETTERS ON THE BACK that Edward is a vampire), it's still fun to speculate about what exactly is going on—why does Edward seem both drawn and repelled by Bella? Why does he save her life? What are a bunch of vampires doing impersonating students at a small town high school, anyway?

Unfortunately, the answers to all these questions seem to be either nonexistent or extremely lame. Edward reacts weirdly to Bella because she 1) smells unusually good, and 2) is the only person he's ever met whose mind he cannot read. No. 1 apparently makes him fall in love with her, while the reasons behind No. 2 are never explained. But, you know, the actual mysterious stuff is apparently not important—instead it's more important that we realize that the Cullens are good vampires, who only eat animals, and who do nice, all-American things like play baseball in the woods. Okay! Also, all the weaknesses you've heard vampires have are just myths. Garlic, stakes, even sunlight—no problemo. Yet Edward would never even consider turning Bella, because that would make her an Evil Thing. Oh, and they also can't have sex, presumably because Meyer once read "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" and/or is a Mormon. Sorry.

Instead, what Edward and Bella apparently CAN do is be very emo and teenage about their twu luv (despite Edward actually being over 100 years old), and be threatened by a villain that shows up in the novel's last third just to give it some semblance of an actual plot. Then, once all is well, they go to the prom! SERIOUSLY. THE BOOK ENDS WITH EDWARD TAKING BELLA TO THE PROM. What. The. Fuck.

And still, none of this answers my number one question: if you were a century-old vampire, why the HELL would you spend your time going to high school in Washington State? Especially when you're not even trying to bang high school girls. Angel at his most pathetic emo mopiness had more spine.

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167. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi — A really excellent and heartbreaking account of growing up in Iran in the late '70s/early '80s, told in graphic novel form. Has rightfully been compared to Maus, and is, I think, something everyone should make an effort to read. It offers excellent insights into Iranian culture, as well as illustrating hard and horrifying truths about how and why revolutions can fail. It also makes me really grateful that—for now, anyway—we do have free speech in this country. SO WE NEED TO USE IT. We need to speak out now, while we can, and not allow our corrupt government to invade any more countries or bomb Iran—which, as books like Satrapi's drive home, is full of ordinary people, real people, people who are trying to change things or are even just trying to get by and make better lives for themselves. I'm sure the situation in Iran is still incredibly fucked up, but we won't be helping anyone by imposing our fucked-upness upon them.

Sorry. Useless political rant over. A better point is: read this book. Personally, I will be hunting down the sequel.

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168. Complications, Atul Gawande — Another of Sab's recs, this is a fantastic account by a surgeon in the last year of his residency. Gawande blends discussion of interesting and curious cases with thoughts on both ethical and technical issues facing doctors today, and makes it all immanently readable—I was never, not once, confused by jargon or technical terms. Gawande is thoughtful and compassionate, and willing to recognize faults both in his profession and in himself. If you're at all interested in medicine, or enjoy watching Scrubs or House or any of those shows, this is really well worth checking out.

Total Books: 168

Comments

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Tamora Pierce! I love her series, well, the books about Alanna and that world and the characters in it. She's got several, but this one is one of my favorites. I started reading it when I was a kid, which has something to do with it, but I pick up the new editions pretty faithfully. She writes good girls -- girls who are girls, and different types, all of whom are pretty damned strong.

Yeah, it's predictable as hell, but as far as comfort stories go, there's not much better.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I really wish I had read them when I was younger. I know they were out there; I don't know why I never picked them up. Now I wish I had infinite time: I want to read everything I missed when I was younger, plus so many adult books... It's so hard to choose!

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

... at least the ya books are usually pretty fast reads? I mean, I adore her and her books, but heavy slogging they ain't :)

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

That's true! I think I started Alanna at around 10 p.m. and finished it in time to go to bed at reasonable hour. ;-)

I think I'll let myself grab some more the next time I'm at the library...

[wychwood]

Yay! I'm glad you liked Alanna, although I'm sad you *didn't* meet her earlier; I first read that when I was, I don't know, thirteen? Fourteen? And it made a *huge* impression on me. Also, thanks for the word on the McCrumb; I won't bother mooching, but if I come across it, I'll probably read it. I agree, though; the setting and all makes the books ideal for a fan audience, people who will like the con background, but she's so nasty about it that that doesn't make so much sense. Bizarre.

PS DAMN YOU AND YOUR PERSEPOLIS. *sulks*

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Maybe she thinks that if she bashes genre people the SERIOUS AUTHORS will finally sit up and take notice? Or maybe it's a lesson to us: get out now while you still can!

*doesn't get it at all*

Does your library not have Persepolis? That's not right.

[wychwood]

Apparently my library system has Persepolis 2? But, helpfully, not the first volume.

[loves-bitch.livejournal.com]

My cousin keeps trying to get me to read Twilight. But I just know I am going to hate it and I really don't want her to be disappointed that I do.

I think that the problem I will have with it, which I have with most "trendy" Young Adult books, is that they try so hard to be clever. But never end up being as clever as they could be. I don't care if your Target Audience watches Spongebob and writes bad love poems write as if they are not idiots.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly: what's the point of writing down? I mean, I was a teenager just a few years ago, and in general, the people I wanted to read about were not fellow teenagers; I wanted to read about adults off doing cool adult things, because I wanted to be an adult. Being a teenager sucked; why would I want to wallow in it?

Meyer also seemed to think that with Twilight she was reinventing a whole bunch of vampire tropes, but uh, chewing them up and regurgitating them is not the same thing.

Maybe you could point your cousin to a book or series you'd both enjoy? Both Annette Kurtis Clause and Vivian Vande Velde have written good YA horror/romance, IIRC.

[cerrad.livejournal.com]

My 15 year old sister went nuts for Stephanie Meyer's first two books. I think she devoured the things within a week, which is impressive for her, since she's not a big reader. So I picked up Twilight, and I had kinda the same reaction. It felt like the L.J. Smith crap I read in junior high. It just reminds me again why I don't read YA fic anymore: no sex. And I didn't really buy the "I love you because you smell great", especially since that really just means that Edward wanted to eat her, and that doesn't really translate to love in my world.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I have no idea who L.J. Smith is. I suppose I should consider myself lucky?

And I didn't really buy the "I love you because you smell great", especially since that really just means that Edward wanted to eat her, and that doesn't really translate to love in my world.

Ahahahahaha, yes. I thought that too! So I kept thinking there was going to be some explanation for why Bella is "special"—I mean, the fact that he can't read her mind ought to mean something, right? But apparently not! Instead it's prom tiem nao. *rolls eyes*

[cerrad.livejournal.com]

I have no idea who L.J. Smith is. I suppose I should consider myself lucky?

Yeah, probably. A series of books with vampires and witches and humans all improbably falling in love because they're soulmates. Like crack to a junior high girl.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I guess it's a good thing I got into vampires, et. al. just a little bit later. (In junior high I was still really into The X-Files and reading The Casebook of Forensic Detection and stuff like that. I'm strange.)

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Okay, more and more I'm wondering, HOW DID I MISS THE ALANNA BOOKS? Seriously, shouldn't there have been a friendly neighborhood librarian to tell me about this stuff? Fail, Vermont!

I am so anxious to get my hands on Persepolis II. I feel so caught up in Satrapi's story and worried about her family!

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Please let me have read that correctly, dirty mind and all.

...

What I want to know now is, did Holmes name it that or did Watson?

Survey says: read more Alanna books! Okay! =)

[wyomingnot.livejournal.com]

I can't remember the twist in Uncharted Territory. I read it based on a rec from someone on my flist.

I do remember liking it though.

Hm. May have to go back and give it a quick reread.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Um. *tries to think of a non-spoilery way to reference it* It's a think about Fin? A rather crucial thing? Er.

[darcydodo]

I can totally lend you the rest of Song of the Lioness Quartet — I'll be home for most of August, starting next week.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Yaaaaaaaaay! (On both counts. But mostly you being down here.)

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Yay, Tamora Pierce! I really liked her Wild Magic series (which is set after the Alanna series but still in Tortall and features most of the Alanna book characters as adults in supporting roles) - one of the books has a lot about wolves and I really like wolves.

if you were a century-old vampire, why the HELL would you spend your time going to high school in Washington State? Especially when you're not even trying to bang high school girls.

*chokes on giggles* Um, for the fun of retaking all your exams? Because the social interaction is so meaningful and accepting? At least in the LJ Smith books the supernatural people involved were also usually teenagers, and they were dire enough.

[lovessong.livejournal.com]

Nice to know that fandom loves Tamora Pierce, who is still one of my favorites. :) I think in some ways she just has gotten better and better as time goes on. My favorite of the Alanna books is the second, although perhaps I'd like the third and fourth more now that I'm an adult. I'll second the recommendation for the Wild Mage series, also fun. But IMO, by and far the best work she's done is the two-book series Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen, set a generation after Alanna (so finish the Alanna books first, or you might be spoiled for some important developments). They're aimed at older readers than many of her other recent books, and they have an interesting take on colonization, resistance, and violence.

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm Kiwiria from bookmooch and found this link through your bio. I'm impressed! You're one of the few people who read more than i do!

Reviews of the books I read can be found at http://kiwiria.livejournal.com/tag/monthly+books, and I also have a book blog at bogormen specifically for my reviews.