Book Logging
Jun. 25th, 2012 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckAmulet, Book 1: The Stonekeeper; Amulet, Book 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse; Amulet, Book 3: The Cloud Searchers; Amulet, Book 4: The Last Council - These books first crossed my awareness while I was volunteering at the school library. I thought they looked kind of vaguely interesting, but I didn't do anything about it because I don't like to take books out of the school library. I don't remember what prompted me to check to see if the public library had them, but I did, and they do (and now Delia is reading the first volume). The story feels like it's just getting started, even four volumes in. The story follows a girl and her brother and mother who end up in a different world. The girl has a magic stone that gives her power, and other people want to take it from her or to use her for various ends. The books are quick reads and are pretty good.
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch - As with so many of the Aunt Dimity books, there's hardly a mystery here. There's a well known artist being pursued by (mostly) well meaning fanatics. There's a several hundred year old document hidden in pieces throughout the village that tells the story of the village witch. If you've tried any of the previous books in the series, you already know whether or not you'll like it. This book passed a pleasant couple of hours, but I won't remember it in another week.
Black Butler 6-8 - These volumes have some very dark moments, moments that fit with Sebastian's nature and show that Ciel has some fragile points in his psyche. I'm pleased to see the comic relief servants serving another purpose that justifies keeping them around (I probably won't stop calling them 'comic relief,' though). I'll be interested to see where this goes. The anime ventured into seriously weird territory. I'm curious as to whether the manga will go there or somewhere else altogether.
A Bride's Story 2 - The art is still gorgeous, incredibly detailed. At times, I was giving it more attention than I was the story. I'm sorry to be leaving one set of characters behind, but I have hopes that the next set will be as interesting.
Childs, Laura. Death by Darjeeling - I didn't finish this one. The tea geekery wasn't enough to keep me interested when I didn't care about the characters or the mystery. I had hoped it would be enough. I like books that focus on specialized areas and bring out details I'd never have guessed at. Unfortunately, this book bored me.
Copper - I got this from the library for Delia but decided to read it myself after she did. I'm not sure I understood what I was reading (and it's been long enough that I don't remember why I was left with that feeling). I think Delia enjoyed the book more than I did.
Dominic, R.B. The Attending Physician - The mystery this time is about Medicaid fraud (and murder, of course). I found the authors' belief that we'd soon have national medical care kind of touching. Their politicians are a bit too sensible. I wish the real ones were more so.
Dominic, R.B. A Flaw in the System - I really enjoy Emma Lathen's books, so discovering that the team wrote under another pseudonym was a joy. In style, this book is very close to the Emma Lathen books, so I enjoyed it from that point of view. Instead of Wall St., this series focuses on Washington, D.C. and congress. The mystery starts with a suspiciously hasty board of inquiry into a military plane crash and escalates into a suitcase bomb in a congressional office.
Dominic, R.B. Murder Out of Commission - The mystery this time centers around nuclear power (called atomic power throughout the book which dates it as clearly as the references to Watergate), the design of nuclear plants and the controversy about having one built nearby. The authors have a deft hand at creating characters and situations that are complicated without ever being bewildering.
Fagan, Deva. The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle - Prunella comes from a long line of bog witches, but she can't manage the sort of magic her family expects. Her curses always turn out to be blessings instead. Finally, her family exiles her, and she and a boy (whose name I forget) start on a quest to recover two lost items, a book of spells written by Prunella's ancestor and a magic item upon which the entire health of the kingdom rests. I enjoyed the book over all. Prunella had to come to see people outside her family as human and worthy of respect.
Flanagan, John. The Burning Bridge; The Icebound Land - I'm enjoying this series as popcorn books. I do maintain, though, that it's a sign of things to come when you encounter a character named Morgorath when other characters are named Will and Horace and Duncan. The countries pretty definitely map onto Europe, and the names of the countries tell you which part of Europe (Skandia, Celtia and Gallicia, as I recall. I'm close to right, anyway).
Gaiman, Neil. Fragile Things - I gave up on this book part way through. I simply wasn't enjoying the stories. I could tell that they were well crafted, but that wasn't enough to keep me reading. I have trouble with Gaiman when he treads close to horror, and he does tend that way.
Hall, Tarquin. The Case of the Missing Servant - This came up as a recommendation on GoodReads (yes I succumbed. If you want to know who I am there, ask), and I thought it looked interesting. I liked the details of life in modern India. There's a lot there that I didn't know. I didn't however much like the main character. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's that he was too sure of himself. I will probably try another book in this series to learn more about India, but it will be a while. I've got other things I'd rather read.
High, Philip E. The Butterfly Planet - This one feels more like the skeleton of a novel than a full novel. It's been so long since I read a High novel that I'm not sure this isn't how all his novels are. I do know that they tend to be short (most of them appeared as part of Ace doubles). At any rate, this felt incomplete. The characters were barely sketched in. The underlying idea is that part of the human population is going through a sudden positive metamorphosis while the rest of the population is going through a negative metamorphosis. High likes his superior men, and this novel has no exception. Not really recommended.
Jansson, Tove. Finn Family Moomintroll; Moominland Midwinter; Moominsummer Madness; Tales from Moominvalley; Moominpappa's Memoirs; Moominvalley in November; Comet in Moominland - I found these quick reads and relatively charming, but I didn't fall in love with them. I think I may be too old (then again, I seem to recall trying one of these as a child and bouncing off it. It's hard to say). I got lost more than once trying to figure out the internal chronology of the stories based on which characters were present. I've now read all the Moomintroll novels that my library has. There are some picture books, but I'm not dedicated enough to read those. There's a collection of comic strips that I will try.
Jansson, Tove. Moomin: the Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip - I see from GoodReads that this is actually volume one. The library doesn't have volume two. I suppose I could see about interlibrary loan, but I don't care enough. The personalities in the comic strips were clear but rather different from what I gathered from the novels.
Jansson, Tove. Moominpappa at Sea - I'm logging this separately from the rest of the Moomin novels because it's very different from the rest. It's a story about depression, about dissatisfaction with everything, about trying to find one's life again by changing location. For the first time in the series, I actually worried about the characters as they ran low on paraffin, water and other goods. I am puzzled about where this book comes in the chronology-- It would seem to be last because they move to a new place and don't, during the book, go back. On the other hand, several characters that are established as living with the Moominfamily aren't in it, so the book would seem to come before those characters are introduced. I don't know.
Jones, Diana Wynne. Earwig and the Witch - I'm glad I bought this because I'm a completist, but I was disappointed by it. It's very short with little room for character development or plot twists. The story's about an orphan who doesn't want to be adopted but is forced to go home with a witch who treats her badly.
Lackey, Mercedes. Foundation; Intrigues; Changes - I forget, during those long stretches when I'm not reading anything by Lackey, just how easy it can be to read her books. There's not much to these books when I look back on them now, but I read them quickly and cared about the characters. They were a pleasant way to spend a few hours. The books follow a herald trainee and his friends in the time right after the founding of the Collegium. I suspect there will be more books about these characters because there were unresolved plot threads at the end of the third book. I'll certainly read any follow up books.
Marr, Melissa. Wicked Lovely - I only read about half of this book, the first quarter and the last quarter. I liked the way the story dealt with the horror of constantly seeing dangerous things that one must not acknowledge seeing for fear of being in greater danger. These fair folk are not safe in the least.
McCall Smith, Alexander. The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection - This is definitely not the place to start the series. A great deal depends on knowing the characters and what matters to them. I did like this one quite a bit. The story includes an unexpected but very welcome visitor to the Ladies No 1 Detective Agency.
McKay, Hilary. Forever Rose - I've forgotten half the details of this one by now. I still like all the kids and am not so fond of the parents, particularly the father. Of course, part of this one involved the father having to take up responsibilities at home instead of spending all his time in London.
Naruto 54 - I'm really bored with Uchiha Madara. I don't find his plans interesting. That's a major problem when this manga is all about those plans and (hopefully) the thwarting thereof. I'd like Naruto to be a bit smarter by now. Right now, Naruto's the McGuffin, and that's a dull position for the main character.
Noel, Alyson. Radiance - This book follows a girl (I think she's about twelve) who has died as she settles into the afterlife and is assigned a job. I found the afterlife more than a little confusing. The main character is assigned the job of helping reluctant souls let go of their ties to life and pass over to the afterlife. The book was brief. I don't think it could have been longer without collapsing. There's at least one sequel. I may get that from the library when I have nothing better to do. I think I'd prefer something with a little more in concrete details.
Pratchett, Terry. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - I didn't like this as well as I liked the Tiffany Aching books, but I still read all of it. I wanted to know what happened to the rats, whether they found meaning for their existence and how they were dealing with sentience. Rat culture was the most interesting part of the book. I found myself skimming over the bits with people.
Pratchett, Terry. Wintersmith; I Shall Wear Midnight - For some reason, I was deeply reluctant to read Wintersmith. I thought it might be too dark for me. Once I made myself start it, I enjoyed it, and I moved on to I Shall Wear Midnight without hesitation. I like Tiffany. I like the witches. I like second thoughts and third thoughts. I like the acknowledgement that some work, really unpleasant work, has to be done, over and over again, and that not everybody is suited to do that work. The plots seem almost (but only almost) incidental.
Quick, Amanda. The Perfect Poison; The Paid Companion; The River Knows - These Quick books run together. I remember that one was an Arcane Society book while the other two weren't. I generally liked the characters and found the stories interesting (if not memorable). These were perfectly good popcorn books.
Quinn, Julia. Ten Things I Love About You - This wasn't particularly memorable, and I didn't end up reading all of it. The heroine's situation was believably awful to start with, and although I knew there'd be a happily ever after, I could see things getting steadily worse for a while. I dipped into the book at intervals, mostly to confirm that things were happening as I expected. It wasn't a bad book, simply not what I was looking for right then.
Vernon, Ursula. Dragonbreath: No Such Thing as Ghosts; Dragonbreath: Revenge of the Horned Bunnies - The Dragonbreath books are always fun, and these were no exception. The main character tumbled into trouble and then got out of it with luck and effort. I'm not sure which of the two books I liked better. The ghost book felt more compact, but the horned bunnies book introduced a new character who I quite liked.
Wood, Maryrose. The Unseen Guest - I keep saying I'm going to give up on this series. I always mean it because I don't enjoy the books very much. I don't hate them, but I keep thinking that I have better things to do with my time. I'm just curious about the central mysteries-- the origin of the semi-feral children, the governess' missing parents, the supposed judge who keeps turning up and causing trouble. I suppose I'll have to see how I feel when the next volume comes out. The ongoing plot barely inches forward.
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch - As with so many of the Aunt Dimity books, there's hardly a mystery here. There's a well known artist being pursued by (mostly) well meaning fanatics. There's a several hundred year old document hidden in pieces throughout the village that tells the story of the village witch. If you've tried any of the previous books in the series, you already know whether or not you'll like it. This book passed a pleasant couple of hours, but I won't remember it in another week.
Black Butler 6-8 - These volumes have some very dark moments, moments that fit with Sebastian's nature and show that Ciel has some fragile points in his psyche. I'm pleased to see the comic relief servants serving another purpose that justifies keeping them around (I probably won't stop calling them 'comic relief,' though). I'll be interested to see where this goes. The anime ventured into seriously weird territory. I'm curious as to whether the manga will go there or somewhere else altogether.
A Bride's Story 2 - The art is still gorgeous, incredibly detailed. At times, I was giving it more attention than I was the story. I'm sorry to be leaving one set of characters behind, but I have hopes that the next set will be as interesting.
Childs, Laura. Death by Darjeeling - I didn't finish this one. The tea geekery wasn't enough to keep me interested when I didn't care about the characters or the mystery. I had hoped it would be enough. I like books that focus on specialized areas and bring out details I'd never have guessed at. Unfortunately, this book bored me.
Copper - I got this from the library for Delia but decided to read it myself after she did. I'm not sure I understood what I was reading (and it's been long enough that I don't remember why I was left with that feeling). I think Delia enjoyed the book more than I did.
Dominic, R.B. The Attending Physician - The mystery this time is about Medicaid fraud (and murder, of course). I found the authors' belief that we'd soon have national medical care kind of touching. Their politicians are a bit too sensible. I wish the real ones were more so.
Dominic, R.B. A Flaw in the System - I really enjoy Emma Lathen's books, so discovering that the team wrote under another pseudonym was a joy. In style, this book is very close to the Emma Lathen books, so I enjoyed it from that point of view. Instead of Wall St., this series focuses on Washington, D.C. and congress. The mystery starts with a suspiciously hasty board of inquiry into a military plane crash and escalates into a suitcase bomb in a congressional office.
Dominic, R.B. Murder Out of Commission - The mystery this time centers around nuclear power (called atomic power throughout the book which dates it as clearly as the references to Watergate), the design of nuclear plants and the controversy about having one built nearby. The authors have a deft hand at creating characters and situations that are complicated without ever being bewildering.
Fagan, Deva. The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle - Prunella comes from a long line of bog witches, but she can't manage the sort of magic her family expects. Her curses always turn out to be blessings instead. Finally, her family exiles her, and she and a boy (whose name I forget) start on a quest to recover two lost items, a book of spells written by Prunella's ancestor and a magic item upon which the entire health of the kingdom rests. I enjoyed the book over all. Prunella had to come to see people outside her family as human and worthy of respect.
Flanagan, John. The Burning Bridge; The Icebound Land - I'm enjoying this series as popcorn books. I do maintain, though, that it's a sign of things to come when you encounter a character named Morgorath when other characters are named Will and Horace and Duncan. The countries pretty definitely map onto Europe, and the names of the countries tell you which part of Europe (Skandia, Celtia and Gallicia, as I recall. I'm close to right, anyway).
Gaiman, Neil. Fragile Things - I gave up on this book part way through. I simply wasn't enjoying the stories. I could tell that they were well crafted, but that wasn't enough to keep me reading. I have trouble with Gaiman when he treads close to horror, and he does tend that way.
Hall, Tarquin. The Case of the Missing Servant - This came up as a recommendation on GoodReads (yes I succumbed. If you want to know who I am there, ask), and I thought it looked interesting. I liked the details of life in modern India. There's a lot there that I didn't know. I didn't however much like the main character. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's that he was too sure of himself. I will probably try another book in this series to learn more about India, but it will be a while. I've got other things I'd rather read.
High, Philip E. The Butterfly Planet - This one feels more like the skeleton of a novel than a full novel. It's been so long since I read a High novel that I'm not sure this isn't how all his novels are. I do know that they tend to be short (most of them appeared as part of Ace doubles). At any rate, this felt incomplete. The characters were barely sketched in. The underlying idea is that part of the human population is going through a sudden positive metamorphosis while the rest of the population is going through a negative metamorphosis. High likes his superior men, and this novel has no exception. Not really recommended.
Jansson, Tove. Finn Family Moomintroll; Moominland Midwinter; Moominsummer Madness; Tales from Moominvalley; Moominpappa's Memoirs; Moominvalley in November; Comet in Moominland - I found these quick reads and relatively charming, but I didn't fall in love with them. I think I may be too old (then again, I seem to recall trying one of these as a child and bouncing off it. It's hard to say). I got lost more than once trying to figure out the internal chronology of the stories based on which characters were present. I've now read all the Moomintroll novels that my library has. There are some picture books, but I'm not dedicated enough to read those. There's a collection of comic strips that I will try.
Jansson, Tove. Moomin: the Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip - I see from GoodReads that this is actually volume one. The library doesn't have volume two. I suppose I could see about interlibrary loan, but I don't care enough. The personalities in the comic strips were clear but rather different from what I gathered from the novels.
Jansson, Tove. Moominpappa at Sea - I'm logging this separately from the rest of the Moomin novels because it's very different from the rest. It's a story about depression, about dissatisfaction with everything, about trying to find one's life again by changing location. For the first time in the series, I actually worried about the characters as they ran low on paraffin, water and other goods. I am puzzled about where this book comes in the chronology-- It would seem to be last because they move to a new place and don't, during the book, go back. On the other hand, several characters that are established as living with the Moominfamily aren't in it, so the book would seem to come before those characters are introduced. I don't know.
Jones, Diana Wynne. Earwig and the Witch - I'm glad I bought this because I'm a completist, but I was disappointed by it. It's very short with little room for character development or plot twists. The story's about an orphan who doesn't want to be adopted but is forced to go home with a witch who treats her badly.
Lackey, Mercedes. Foundation; Intrigues; Changes - I forget, during those long stretches when I'm not reading anything by Lackey, just how easy it can be to read her books. There's not much to these books when I look back on them now, but I read them quickly and cared about the characters. They were a pleasant way to spend a few hours. The books follow a herald trainee and his friends in the time right after the founding of the Collegium. I suspect there will be more books about these characters because there were unresolved plot threads at the end of the third book. I'll certainly read any follow up books.
Marr, Melissa. Wicked Lovely - I only read about half of this book, the first quarter and the last quarter. I liked the way the story dealt with the horror of constantly seeing dangerous things that one must not acknowledge seeing for fear of being in greater danger. These fair folk are not safe in the least.
McCall Smith, Alexander. The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection - This is definitely not the place to start the series. A great deal depends on knowing the characters and what matters to them. I did like this one quite a bit. The story includes an unexpected but very welcome visitor to the Ladies No 1 Detective Agency.
McKay, Hilary. Forever Rose - I've forgotten half the details of this one by now. I still like all the kids and am not so fond of the parents, particularly the father. Of course, part of this one involved the father having to take up responsibilities at home instead of spending all his time in London.
Naruto 54 - I'm really bored with Uchiha Madara. I don't find his plans interesting. That's a major problem when this manga is all about those plans and (hopefully) the thwarting thereof. I'd like Naruto to be a bit smarter by now. Right now, Naruto's the McGuffin, and that's a dull position for the main character.
Noel, Alyson. Radiance - This book follows a girl (I think she's about twelve) who has died as she settles into the afterlife and is assigned a job. I found the afterlife more than a little confusing. The main character is assigned the job of helping reluctant souls let go of their ties to life and pass over to the afterlife. The book was brief. I don't think it could have been longer without collapsing. There's at least one sequel. I may get that from the library when I have nothing better to do. I think I'd prefer something with a little more in concrete details.
Pratchett, Terry. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - I didn't like this as well as I liked the Tiffany Aching books, but I still read all of it. I wanted to know what happened to the rats, whether they found meaning for their existence and how they were dealing with sentience. Rat culture was the most interesting part of the book. I found myself skimming over the bits with people.
Pratchett, Terry. Wintersmith; I Shall Wear Midnight - For some reason, I was deeply reluctant to read Wintersmith. I thought it might be too dark for me. Once I made myself start it, I enjoyed it, and I moved on to I Shall Wear Midnight without hesitation. I like Tiffany. I like the witches. I like second thoughts and third thoughts. I like the acknowledgement that some work, really unpleasant work, has to be done, over and over again, and that not everybody is suited to do that work. The plots seem almost (but only almost) incidental.
Quick, Amanda. The Perfect Poison; The Paid Companion; The River Knows - These Quick books run together. I remember that one was an Arcane Society book while the other two weren't. I generally liked the characters and found the stories interesting (if not memorable). These were perfectly good popcorn books.
Quinn, Julia. Ten Things I Love About You - This wasn't particularly memorable, and I didn't end up reading all of it. The heroine's situation was believably awful to start with, and although I knew there'd be a happily ever after, I could see things getting steadily worse for a while. I dipped into the book at intervals, mostly to confirm that things were happening as I expected. It wasn't a bad book, simply not what I was looking for right then.
Vernon, Ursula. Dragonbreath: No Such Thing as Ghosts; Dragonbreath: Revenge of the Horned Bunnies - The Dragonbreath books are always fun, and these were no exception. The main character tumbled into trouble and then got out of it with luck and effort. I'm not sure which of the two books I liked better. The ghost book felt more compact, but the horned bunnies book introduced a new character who I quite liked.
Wood, Maryrose. The Unseen Guest - I keep saying I'm going to give up on this series. I always mean it because I don't enjoy the books very much. I don't hate them, but I keep thinking that I have better things to do with my time. I'm just curious about the central mysteries-- the origin of the semi-feral children, the governess' missing parents, the supposed judge who keeps turning up and causing trouble. I suppose I'll have to see how I feel when the next volume comes out. The ongoing plot barely inches forward.
