Book Logging
Aug. 29th, 2010 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckAiken, Joan. The Serial Garden - Aiken's short stories are always odd, and the stories in this collection are no exception. I liked having the common thread of the family throughout as I didn't have to get to know new people for each story. I'm not sure how I would have responded to these if I hadn't been on painkillers, but I was, and it was nice to have something episodic that I could put down for naps.
Andrews, Donna. Six Geese A-Slaying - Several books in this series came out while I wasn't paying attention. In this one, Meg is running the town's annual holiday parade. On the day of the event, someone murders the man playing Santa Claus. This book had fewer insane relatives than I remember from previous installments. It was a good, light way of passing a couple of hours. I look forward to reading the other two books I've missed.
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity Down Under - This read more like a travelogue than a mystery. It was a pleasant travelogue, though. I enjoyed reading about Laurie's adventures in New Zealand.
Balogh, Mary. Slightly Dangerous - I've now read the first and the last in the Bedwyn series. The others will follow as my holds come in. I liked the heroine better than the hero in this one. She seemed like a person I'd enjoy spending time with. I did find the resolution of her difficulties with her dead husband's relatives a little too easy-- The hero figured out the problem, explained it and that was that. Too easy.
Balogh, Mary. Slightly Sinful - I didn't finish this one. I got a ways into it and then flipped to read the end. I realized that I didn't want to read the middle at all. I think the amnesia plot put me off. Actually, I know the amnesia plot put me off. I felt too much like the hero was unable to give rational consent to the schemes that were coming. I liked all the characters, but I felt icky about the story.
Balogh, Mary. First Comes Marriage; Balogh, Mary. A Matter of Class; Balogh, Mary. Secret Affair; Balogh, Mary. Seducing an Angel; Balogh, Mary. Slightly Scandalous - The Balogh books I've read blur into each other now (I waited too long to write them up). I've also started and not finished quite a few Baloghs, ones in which the central conflict was too much for me to handle. Balogh writes characters I like, often in situations that are genuinely desperate. I'm working my way through the public library's holdings. I probably won't ever buy any of her books because I wouldn't reread them, but they're worth reading once.
Billingsley, Franny. The Folk Keeper - Unfortunately, I bounced off of this one each time I tried to get into it. Somehow, I never quite found myself liking the heroine.
Bradshaw, Gillian. Dark North - I approached this with some trepidation because, in historical fiction, bad things inevitably happen to likable characters. In this case, Memnon brought a lot of his troubles on himself. The forces of the ongoing war and struggle for succession were present and powerful in his life, but he was a small part of the war and only a witness (a distant one) to the imperial family's infighting. This book is the story of a Roman soldier, auxiliary cavalry, stationed near the wall in Britain.
Brust, Steven. Iorich - I enjoyed this book, but I also wanted more from it. I feel that the Vlad books have a lot of questions implicit in them without necessarily promising answers. I'd like to be getting some answers in each book (of course, it's possible there are answers in each book and that I'm simply missing them). This one is a good addition to the series.
Bryson, Bill. Made in America - I read this more for the historical trivia than for the linguistic history. It's a history of the English language in the United States, but the details about language tended not to connect for me. The surrounding information-- bits of history, biography and culture-- worked much better, in my opinion. I found the last few chapters a bit of a slog, though, so I'm not sure I'd recommend it.
Carriger, Gail. Soulless - I'm glad that I overcame my aversion to vampires and werewolves to read this. (This aversion isn't absolute, but it does take getting past. It's more an assumption of tedium than a revulsion, if that makes sense.) The story was fun and required no particular thought on my part. I was a little surprised to discover that it was Victorian rather than Regency, but that didn't put me particularly off balance. I can't say that anything in this book was wildly original, but I did have fun reading it.
Castle, Jayne. Obsidian Prey - There was nothing new in this book. I didn't predict its twists ahead of time, but I probably could have if I'd made an effort. Castle's Harmony books tend to be much the same. I read them because the formula and execution are enjoyable. I don't read the author's other pseudonyms any more because I've lost that enjoyment.
Cresswell, Helen. Bagthorpes Haunted - This wasn't as funny as I remember the Bagthorpe books being. Given that everything that happened seemed in line with what I remember of those earlier books, I can only conclude that what I find funny has changed. I felt sorry for most of the characters even while they were being awful and earning the bad things happening to them. Some of it may be that I shudder at the thought of being stuck somewhere without the ability to cook and bathe and so on.
Crusie, Jennifer. The Cinderella Deal - This was typical Crusie fun. I had some problems with suspension of disbelief over the way the college worked (the word 'tenure' didn't get mentioned once). I also found myself wondering if romance novels are ever written with the guy as the free spirit and the woman as the uptight one. I'm guessing not because, for guys, 'free spirit' implies 'likely to take off at any time.' That would interfere with most readers' sense of happily ever after.
Crusie, Jennifer. Strange Bedpersons - Reading this so soon after The Cinderella Deal was a little disconcerting as I could see shadows of one story in the other. This one's older, of course, so it's the prototype-- flaky, liberal woman with a straight laced, conservative man who needs to pretend he has a fiancee. I felt like the book dissolved into a tangle at the end, but that may have been as much the painkillers as it was the book.
Dalton, Annie. The Alpha Box - I'm blanking for words to describe this book. (The fact that I can't remember character names isn't helping.) The main characters have to save the world from aliens who are using the power of music to drain the life force of those who listen to it. The book's better than it sounds and more complicated. The characters are teenagers and have to deal with school and everyday complications of life as well.
Dunlop, Eileen. Green Willow - Judging by the books I've sampled, Dunlop writes ghost stories. In this one, the ghost is a Japanese gardener. I liked the main character. She was likable without being particularly nice. One of the central conflicts was the fact that she didn't regret the death of her older sister some months previously and how she felt about that lack of regret.
Dunlop, Eileen. House on the Hill - In this book, a boy has to stay with his great-aunt and cousin while his mother is away at school. The house where they live seems to be haunted, with a room that has lights on even though it's quite empty and a mystery dating back decades. The main character is, again, likable without being a really nice person. He has his personality flaws.
Estes, Eleanor. Ginger Pye - A boy and a girl buy a puppy and have adventures. About halfway through the book, someone steals the dog, and the kids spend months searching for him. If not for the thread of the missing dog, I'd call this a slice of life. The book's rather old-- It set in the days when a penny could buy toys. I'd only read Estes' The Witch Family before. I'm not sure why I never tried anything else she'd written.
Ferris, Jean. Once Upon a Marigold - I feel like I read this book without ever quite touching it or being touched by it. It remained at a remove, and I never cared very much about the characters. A young man (once a runaway child) raised by a troll falls in love with a princess after spying on her. He conducts his courtship by correspondence at first then goes looking for a job at her castle. Her mother, for reasons I never quite understood, is plotting to marry her off and then kill her. (I understood the killing her reasons not the marrying her off first reasons.)
Freeman, Lorna. Shadows Past - It's been long enough since I read this that I've forgotten a lot of the details. I know that I enjoyed it and that it came across as a worthy follow up to the previous two books, but I don't remember much more than that. There was magic and politics and treachery.
Gee, Maurice. The Halfmen of O - Two children travel to another world. One of them (the girl) is the only one who can save the world from encroaching evil. She has to collect two talismans and take them into the heart of enemy territory. The non-human species were nicely alien. I'm not sure I quite understood why the evil folks were evil (this may be because I started the book a couple of years ago, wandered away and then came back to it after my surgery. I've likely forgotten quite a bit). There seemed to be some sort of doom or imperative that they just were like that as part of the solution was to introduce good into each individual.
Gliori, Debi. Pure Dead Magic - Reading this was like reading something slippery that I couldn't quite grasp. It moved along rapidly, but I didn't connect with any of the characters and so didn't care very much about what happened to them. The characters felt rather like members of the Addams family but without the self-confidence. I also kept stopping to go, "But how would that work?" which broke up the story rather a lot.
This is a kids' book with monsters and magic. The blurb mentions both Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket. In my opinion the latter is more apt.
Helgerson, Joseph. Horns & Wrinkles - Magic on the Mississippi. The river is almost a character in this book (but only almost). The book has that peculiar logic found in some kids' books in which everyone knows the world is weird but adults somehow miss most of it. Bullies turn into rhinos. Trolls steal and lie and kidnap. Courage conquers danger. I'm not sure I recommend this. I finished it, and I didn't dislike it. I just didn't really ever quite like it, either.
Jones, Diana Wynne. Enchanted Glass - This is probably not going to be a Jones book that I return to frequently. There's nothing wrong with it. I quite enjoyed it. It just didn't make a big impression the way something like Archer's Goon or Homeward Bounders did. It's been a few months now, and I don't even remember the characters' names. Still, I recommend it for those who like Jones' books.
Jones, Diana Wynne. The Game - I got this right when it first came out and started it then. I don't recall what distracted me, but I stopped halfway through and only came back to the book after a long hiatus. Given all of that, I still liked the story. I think it would have been improved by being longer-- The characters were barely sketched in, and the multiverse of the Mythosphere needed more space to seem real. I also wouldn't have recognized the characters as figures from Greek mythology without peeking at the afterword.
Lin, Grace. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - A girl leaves home on a quest. She wants to find out how to make the area she calls home flourish. It's a hard land where people just eke out a living. Along the way, she has adventures and meets a dragon who can't fly. There are other stories inserted into the text, stories people tell each other, stories that interconnect. The book is set in ancient China. I quite enjoyed it.
Lindgren, Astrid. Mio My Son - Some of my enjoyment of this book was lost because I kept wondering whether I was meant to read the story as real or as the fantasy of an unhappy boy. It wasn't clearly one thing or the other, and I rather wanted it to be events really happening to the boy (who deserved something happy in his life). After years of being an unwelcome foster child, a boy discovers that he's the lost son of the king of a fantastic realm. His newfound father gives him everything he could possibly want, but there is unhappiness in the land. Eventually, the boy has to face evil in order to rescue a bunch of stolen children and unhappy people.
MacDonald, Betty and Anne MacDonald Canham. Happy Birthday, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle - I'm not sure if it's my age or if these stories are less magical than the stories I first read when I was Cordelia's age. It might be both. These are all in the style of MacDonald's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle stories with children with behavioral problems that only Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's methods can solve, but they felt thinner to me. (To be fair, the old stories feel thinner now when I read them than they used to. These felt thinner still.) I suspect that kids who love Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle will still find this book satisfying.
Middleman: The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse - I wish, how I wish, that this had been filmed as an episode. I don't want to say anything to risk spoiling this for anybody who hasn't read it. I recommend it highly for those who've watched and enjoyed the TV series (others will likely be confused).
Morris, Gerald. The Squire's Tale - I was dubious about this book because Arthurian stories tend not to work for me. I picked it up in my pile of library books to read post-surgery, and it turned out to be one of the few I actually finished. Structurally, it's very episodic. The characters grow but not a lot. The main character is a boy who's been raised by a hermit who then become Gawaine's squire.
Pon, Cindy. Silver Phoenix - I found this book anxiety inducing. I ended up reading it backward, a chapter at a time, and, even so, had to struggle to finish. It was well written and original, but it wasn't a good match for me.
Vande Velde, Vivian. Smart Dog - This one was cute. A girl finds a talking dog and helps him hide from the researchers who created him. The kids in the book are clever but still believably kids. The dog is charming.
Weber, David and Eric Flint. Torch of Freedom - I ended up skipping most of the end of this book because I couldn't bring myself to care about the battle that was occurring. I also balked a bit at Mesa and their big plans. I couldn't make their plans for conquest make sense. Of course, I may have skimmed the relevant section and so missed something explaining how it could work. I skimmed several sections when the focus was on weapons systems, battle tactics, the history of technology, etc.
I do want to know what happens next. I'm just not sure I want to wade through another book about it, even if I am fascinated to watch Flint and Weber negotiating their very different political views.
Andrews, Donna. Six Geese A-Slaying - Several books in this series came out while I wasn't paying attention. In this one, Meg is running the town's annual holiday parade. On the day of the event, someone murders the man playing Santa Claus. This book had fewer insane relatives than I remember from previous installments. It was a good, light way of passing a couple of hours. I look forward to reading the other two books I've missed.
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity Down Under - This read more like a travelogue than a mystery. It was a pleasant travelogue, though. I enjoyed reading about Laurie's adventures in New Zealand.
Balogh, Mary. Slightly Dangerous - I've now read the first and the last in the Bedwyn series. The others will follow as my holds come in. I liked the heroine better than the hero in this one. She seemed like a person I'd enjoy spending time with. I did find the resolution of her difficulties with her dead husband's relatives a little too easy-- The hero figured out the problem, explained it and that was that. Too easy.
Balogh, Mary. Slightly Sinful - I didn't finish this one. I got a ways into it and then flipped to read the end. I realized that I didn't want to read the middle at all. I think the amnesia plot put me off. Actually, I know the amnesia plot put me off. I felt too much like the hero was unable to give rational consent to the schemes that were coming. I liked all the characters, but I felt icky about the story.
Balogh, Mary. First Comes Marriage; Balogh, Mary. A Matter of Class; Balogh, Mary. Secret Affair; Balogh, Mary. Seducing an Angel; Balogh, Mary. Slightly Scandalous - The Balogh books I've read blur into each other now (I waited too long to write them up). I've also started and not finished quite a few Baloghs, ones in which the central conflict was too much for me to handle. Balogh writes characters I like, often in situations that are genuinely desperate. I'm working my way through the public library's holdings. I probably won't ever buy any of her books because I wouldn't reread them, but they're worth reading once.
Billingsley, Franny. The Folk Keeper - Unfortunately, I bounced off of this one each time I tried to get into it. Somehow, I never quite found myself liking the heroine.
Bradshaw, Gillian. Dark North - I approached this with some trepidation because, in historical fiction, bad things inevitably happen to likable characters. In this case, Memnon brought a lot of his troubles on himself. The forces of the ongoing war and struggle for succession were present and powerful in his life, but he was a small part of the war and only a witness (a distant one) to the imperial family's infighting. This book is the story of a Roman soldier, auxiliary cavalry, stationed near the wall in Britain.
Brust, Steven. Iorich - I enjoyed this book, but I also wanted more from it. I feel that the Vlad books have a lot of questions implicit in them without necessarily promising answers. I'd like to be getting some answers in each book (of course, it's possible there are answers in each book and that I'm simply missing them). This one is a good addition to the series.
Bryson, Bill. Made in America - I read this more for the historical trivia than for the linguistic history. It's a history of the English language in the United States, but the details about language tended not to connect for me. The surrounding information-- bits of history, biography and culture-- worked much better, in my opinion. I found the last few chapters a bit of a slog, though, so I'm not sure I'd recommend it.
Carriger, Gail. Soulless - I'm glad that I overcame my aversion to vampires and werewolves to read this. (This aversion isn't absolute, but it does take getting past. It's more an assumption of tedium than a revulsion, if that makes sense.) The story was fun and required no particular thought on my part. I was a little surprised to discover that it was Victorian rather than Regency, but that didn't put me particularly off balance. I can't say that anything in this book was wildly original, but I did have fun reading it.
Castle, Jayne. Obsidian Prey - There was nothing new in this book. I didn't predict its twists ahead of time, but I probably could have if I'd made an effort. Castle's Harmony books tend to be much the same. I read them because the formula and execution are enjoyable. I don't read the author's other pseudonyms any more because I've lost that enjoyment.
Cresswell, Helen. Bagthorpes Haunted - This wasn't as funny as I remember the Bagthorpe books being. Given that everything that happened seemed in line with what I remember of those earlier books, I can only conclude that what I find funny has changed. I felt sorry for most of the characters even while they were being awful and earning the bad things happening to them. Some of it may be that I shudder at the thought of being stuck somewhere without the ability to cook and bathe and so on.
Crusie, Jennifer. The Cinderella Deal - This was typical Crusie fun. I had some problems with suspension of disbelief over the way the college worked (the word 'tenure' didn't get mentioned once). I also found myself wondering if romance novels are ever written with the guy as the free spirit and the woman as the uptight one. I'm guessing not because, for guys, 'free spirit' implies 'likely to take off at any time.' That would interfere with most readers' sense of happily ever after.
Crusie, Jennifer. Strange Bedpersons - Reading this so soon after The Cinderella Deal was a little disconcerting as I could see shadows of one story in the other. This one's older, of course, so it's the prototype-- flaky, liberal woman with a straight laced, conservative man who needs to pretend he has a fiancee. I felt like the book dissolved into a tangle at the end, but that may have been as much the painkillers as it was the book.
Dalton, Annie. The Alpha Box - I'm blanking for words to describe this book. (The fact that I can't remember character names isn't helping.) The main characters have to save the world from aliens who are using the power of music to drain the life force of those who listen to it. The book's better than it sounds and more complicated. The characters are teenagers and have to deal with school and everyday complications of life as well.
Dunlop, Eileen. Green Willow - Judging by the books I've sampled, Dunlop writes ghost stories. In this one, the ghost is a Japanese gardener. I liked the main character. She was likable without being particularly nice. One of the central conflicts was the fact that she didn't regret the death of her older sister some months previously and how she felt about that lack of regret.
Dunlop, Eileen. House on the Hill - In this book, a boy has to stay with his great-aunt and cousin while his mother is away at school. The house where they live seems to be haunted, with a room that has lights on even though it's quite empty and a mystery dating back decades. The main character is, again, likable without being a really nice person. He has his personality flaws.
Estes, Eleanor. Ginger Pye - A boy and a girl buy a puppy and have adventures. About halfway through the book, someone steals the dog, and the kids spend months searching for him. If not for the thread of the missing dog, I'd call this a slice of life. The book's rather old-- It set in the days when a penny could buy toys. I'd only read Estes' The Witch Family before. I'm not sure why I never tried anything else she'd written.
Ferris, Jean. Once Upon a Marigold - I feel like I read this book without ever quite touching it or being touched by it. It remained at a remove, and I never cared very much about the characters. A young man (once a runaway child) raised by a troll falls in love with a princess after spying on her. He conducts his courtship by correspondence at first then goes looking for a job at her castle. Her mother, for reasons I never quite understood, is plotting to marry her off and then kill her. (I understood the killing her reasons not the marrying her off first reasons.)
Freeman, Lorna. Shadows Past - It's been long enough since I read this that I've forgotten a lot of the details. I know that I enjoyed it and that it came across as a worthy follow up to the previous two books, but I don't remember much more than that. There was magic and politics and treachery.
Gee, Maurice. The Halfmen of O - Two children travel to another world. One of them (the girl) is the only one who can save the world from encroaching evil. She has to collect two talismans and take them into the heart of enemy territory. The non-human species were nicely alien. I'm not sure I quite understood why the evil folks were evil (this may be because I started the book a couple of years ago, wandered away and then came back to it after my surgery. I've likely forgotten quite a bit). There seemed to be some sort of doom or imperative that they just were like that as part of the solution was to introduce good into each individual.
Gliori, Debi. Pure Dead Magic - Reading this was like reading something slippery that I couldn't quite grasp. It moved along rapidly, but I didn't connect with any of the characters and so didn't care very much about what happened to them. The characters felt rather like members of the Addams family but without the self-confidence. I also kept stopping to go, "But how would that work?" which broke up the story rather a lot.
This is a kids' book with monsters and magic. The blurb mentions both Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket. In my opinion the latter is more apt.
Helgerson, Joseph. Horns & Wrinkles - Magic on the Mississippi. The river is almost a character in this book (but only almost). The book has that peculiar logic found in some kids' books in which everyone knows the world is weird but adults somehow miss most of it. Bullies turn into rhinos. Trolls steal and lie and kidnap. Courage conquers danger. I'm not sure I recommend this. I finished it, and I didn't dislike it. I just didn't really ever quite like it, either.
Jones, Diana Wynne. Enchanted Glass - This is probably not going to be a Jones book that I return to frequently. There's nothing wrong with it. I quite enjoyed it. It just didn't make a big impression the way something like Archer's Goon or Homeward Bounders did. It's been a few months now, and I don't even remember the characters' names. Still, I recommend it for those who like Jones' books.
Jones, Diana Wynne. The Game - I got this right when it first came out and started it then. I don't recall what distracted me, but I stopped halfway through and only came back to the book after a long hiatus. Given all of that, I still liked the story. I think it would have been improved by being longer-- The characters were barely sketched in, and the multiverse of the Mythosphere needed more space to seem real. I also wouldn't have recognized the characters as figures from Greek mythology without peeking at the afterword.
Lin, Grace. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - A girl leaves home on a quest. She wants to find out how to make the area she calls home flourish. It's a hard land where people just eke out a living. Along the way, she has adventures and meets a dragon who can't fly. There are other stories inserted into the text, stories people tell each other, stories that interconnect. The book is set in ancient China. I quite enjoyed it.
Lindgren, Astrid. Mio My Son - Some of my enjoyment of this book was lost because I kept wondering whether I was meant to read the story as real or as the fantasy of an unhappy boy. It wasn't clearly one thing or the other, and I rather wanted it to be events really happening to the boy (who deserved something happy in his life). After years of being an unwelcome foster child, a boy discovers that he's the lost son of the king of a fantastic realm. His newfound father gives him everything he could possibly want, but there is unhappiness in the land. Eventually, the boy has to face evil in order to rescue a bunch of stolen children and unhappy people.
MacDonald, Betty and Anne MacDonald Canham. Happy Birthday, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle - I'm not sure if it's my age or if these stories are less magical than the stories I first read when I was Cordelia's age. It might be both. These are all in the style of MacDonald's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle stories with children with behavioral problems that only Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's methods can solve, but they felt thinner to me. (To be fair, the old stories feel thinner now when I read them than they used to. These felt thinner still.) I suspect that kids who love Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle will still find this book satisfying.
Middleman: The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse - I wish, how I wish, that this had been filmed as an episode. I don't want to say anything to risk spoiling this for anybody who hasn't read it. I recommend it highly for those who've watched and enjoyed the TV series (others will likely be confused).
Morris, Gerald. The Squire's Tale - I was dubious about this book because Arthurian stories tend not to work for me. I picked it up in my pile of library books to read post-surgery, and it turned out to be one of the few I actually finished. Structurally, it's very episodic. The characters grow but not a lot. The main character is a boy who's been raised by a hermit who then become Gawaine's squire.
Pon, Cindy. Silver Phoenix - I found this book anxiety inducing. I ended up reading it backward, a chapter at a time, and, even so, had to struggle to finish. It was well written and original, but it wasn't a good match for me.
Vande Velde, Vivian. Smart Dog - This one was cute. A girl finds a talking dog and helps him hide from the researchers who created him. The kids in the book are clever but still believably kids. The dog is charming.
Weber, David and Eric Flint. Torch of Freedom - I ended up skipping most of the end of this book because I couldn't bring myself to care about the battle that was occurring. I also balked a bit at Mesa and their big plans. I couldn't make their plans for conquest make sense. Of course, I may have skimmed the relevant section and so missed something explaining how it could work. I skimmed several sections when the focus was on weapons systems, battle tactics, the history of technology, etc.
I do want to know what happens next. I'm just not sure I want to wade through another book about it, even if I am fascinated to watch Flint and Weber negotiating their very different political views.
