book list, March 2007
Apr. 1st, 2007 02:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingIt's time for the continuing adventures of Liz and her reading list! These are the books I read in March 2007.
New: 18
---Funny You Should Ask: Real-Life Questions from the Reference Desk, vol. 2, Thomson Gale, eds. (nonfiction: things people have asked librarians; ranges from hysterically funny to just sad)
---Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits, Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson (fantasy: a collection of six stories, three by each writer. This was my birthday present from Susan, and I am very grateful! The stories that particularly got to me were Sea Serpent and Kracken, by Dickinson, and A Pool in the Desert, by McKinley.)
---Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai, Kokichi Katsu, translated by Teruko Craig (autobiography: fascinating in its depiction of pre-Meiji Japan, especially since Katsu rubbed shoulders both with his social superiors and with merchants, prostitutes, beggars, thieves, etc. He claims to have repented in his age, but the tone of his story belies that.)
---The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, Steven Brust (fiction: the story of five struggling artists mixed in with theories of creativity and a Hungarian folk tale; see my review)
---Ports of Call, Jack Vance (science fiction: a young man joins a tramp star freighter and we follow the ship along its journey. This book has all of Vance's gift for language and peculiar invention, but the story is aimless and glancing rather than satisfying.)
---xxxHolic, vols. 3-8, CLAMP (manga: a high school student with unwanted spiritual perception gets roped into increasingly peculiar events by a woman who promises to solve his problems. Okay, this gets a lot better as it goes on! I shall blame my dislike of vol. 1 on the lack of Watanuki-Doumeki interaction, which is my favorite part of this series.)
---YuYu Hakusho, vols. 10-11, Yoshihiro Togashi (manga; "like caffeinated crack," in which the Dark Tournament continues and Bad Things happen)
---Hikaru no Go, vol. 4, Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata (manga: in which a boy is haunted by a ghost obsessed with Go, and learns to play and love the game somewhat in self-defense. Fun.)
---Nana, vol. 3, Ai Yazawa (manga: college-age people in Tokyo; love, sex, and rock. This is really not my usual thing, but it's very well done, and the sense of searching, of not quite knowing where you want to be in the world, nor how to get to wherever that place is, resonates with me and pulls me past Nana K's obsession with romance and fashion. The art style's quirky, but it grows on you.)
---Paradise Kiss, vol. 5, Ai Yazawa (manga: the fashion industry and several troubled romances. I'm sure this would make more sense if I'd read vols. 1-4, which I'd like to do someday, but there's enough here to make the bittersweet ending ring very true to life.)
---Godchild vol. 4, Kaori Yuki (manga: a young English nobleman and his manservant in Victorian/Edwardian times, with poison, murder, and random supernatural elements. I like creepy gothic weirdness and moral ambiguity, okay? And Kaori Yuki's artwork is very, very pretty.)
---Monster vol. 4, Naoki Urasawa (manga: a doctor accused of murder tracks the real killer, his former patient. Like The Fugitive, only creepier, and set in reunification Germany with all the attendant social issues. The art is clean and clear, and the plot is gripping.)
---------------
Old: 17
---Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card (science fiction: book 2 in the Enderverse, and my personal favorite; in which contact between alien species is treated thoughtfully and respectfully, and in which the characters are allowed to have families, professions, religious beliefs, and various other trappings of real life that don't often make it into 'adventure' stories)
---First Meetings, Orson Scott Card (science fiction: short story collection, part of the Enderverse; I like the wider perspective on life during the three space wars)
---Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card (science fiction: I don't care that much for the other books about Bean, Petra, and Peter -- they're too preachy, and I dislike the tone of authorial infallibility -- but this one I like.)
---Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett (fantasy: a Discworld novel; in which Magrat Garlick becomes an inadvertent fairy godmother and she, Nanny Ogg, and Granny Weatherwax set off to save her goddaughter from falling prey to a constructed fairy tale)
---Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett (fantasy: a Discworld novel; in which vampires invade Lancre and the witches have to stop them)
---Maskerade, Terry Pratchett (fantasy: a Discworld novel; in which, after Magrat's marriage to King Verence, Granny and Nanny go to Ankh-Morpork in search of a replacement Maiden and run into a Phantom of the Opera parody)
---The Truth, Terry Pratchett (fantasy: a Discworld novel; in which the printing press and the newspaper come to the Discworld, much to various people's consternation)
---The Art of Discworld, Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby (fantasy/nonfiction: basically what it says it is, along with some background explanations by Pterry and Kidby)
---The Hammer of Darkness, L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (space opera: now and then I like a good power fantasy, and Modesitt does those very nicely; I think it's his obsession with moral conundrums that makes the thing work)
---Firehand, Andre Norton and P. M. Griffin (science fiction: a Time Traders novel; in which Ross Murdock and friends go back in time to fight a feudal war and save another planet from destruction by aliens. It's a lot better than that summary makes it sound, though I could do without the occasional Random Capitalization.)
---Jhereg, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad Taltos and friends foil a plan to start a war between the House of the Jhereg and the House of the Dragon)
---Yendi, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad meets Cawti and they fall in love, after she kills him)
---Teckla, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad and Cawti's marriage begins to crack and a rebellion against the Empire is temporarily averted)
---Dragon, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad somewhat inadvertently finds himself at war)
---Dzur, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad tries to fix some of the problems he left Cawti with at the end of Phoenix)
---Angel Sanctuary vols. 12, 18, Kaori Yuki (manga: fucked up and brilliant.)
---------------
March Total: 35 books (plus several magazines and a lot of fanfiction)
Year to Date: 99 books (61 new, 38 old)
---------------------------------------------
Question: I put these lists up every month, and I realize they're kind of long, especially since I've started doing slightly more detailed capsule reviews/reactions. Would you prefer me to hide them behind lj-cuts?
New: 18
---Funny You Should Ask: Real-Life Questions from the Reference Desk, vol. 2, Thomson Gale, eds. (nonfiction: things people have asked librarians; ranges from hysterically funny to just sad)
---Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits, Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson (fantasy: a collection of six stories, three by each writer. This was my birthday present from Susan, and I am very grateful! The stories that particularly got to me were Sea Serpent and Kracken, by Dickinson, and A Pool in the Desert, by McKinley.)
---Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai, Kokichi Katsu, translated by Teruko Craig (autobiography: fascinating in its depiction of pre-Meiji Japan, especially since Katsu rubbed shoulders both with his social superiors and with merchants, prostitutes, beggars, thieves, etc. He claims to have repented in his age, but the tone of his story belies that.)
---The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, Steven Brust (fiction: the story of five struggling artists mixed in with theories of creativity and a Hungarian folk tale; see my review)
---Ports of Call, Jack Vance (science fiction: a young man joins a tramp star freighter and we follow the ship along its journey. This book has all of Vance's gift for language and peculiar invention, but the story is aimless and glancing rather than satisfying.)
---xxxHolic, vols. 3-8, CLAMP (manga: a high school student with unwanted spiritual perception gets roped into increasingly peculiar events by a woman who promises to solve his problems. Okay, this gets a lot better as it goes on! I shall blame my dislike of vol. 1 on the lack of Watanuki-Doumeki interaction, which is my favorite part of this series.)
---YuYu Hakusho, vols. 10-11, Yoshihiro Togashi (manga; "like caffeinated crack," in which the Dark Tournament continues and Bad Things happen)
---Hikaru no Go, vol. 4, Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata (manga: in which a boy is haunted by a ghost obsessed with Go, and learns to play and love the game somewhat in self-defense. Fun.)
---Nana, vol. 3, Ai Yazawa (manga: college-age people in Tokyo; love, sex, and rock. This is really not my usual thing, but it's very well done, and the sense of searching, of not quite knowing where you want to be in the world, nor how to get to wherever that place is, resonates with me and pulls me past Nana K's obsession with romance and fashion. The art style's quirky, but it grows on you.)
---Paradise Kiss, vol. 5, Ai Yazawa (manga: the fashion industry and several troubled romances. I'm sure this would make more sense if I'd read vols. 1-4, which I'd like to do someday, but there's enough here to make the bittersweet ending ring very true to life.)
---Godchild vol. 4, Kaori Yuki (manga: a young English nobleman and his manservant in Victorian/Edwardian times, with poison, murder, and random supernatural elements. I like creepy gothic weirdness and moral ambiguity, okay? And Kaori Yuki's artwork is very, very pretty.)
---Monster vol. 4, Naoki Urasawa (manga: a doctor accused of murder tracks the real killer, his former patient. Like The Fugitive, only creepier, and set in reunification Germany with all the attendant social issues. The art is clean and clear, and the plot is gripping.)
---------------
Old: 17
---Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card (science fiction: book 2 in the Enderverse, and my personal favorite; in which contact between alien species is treated thoughtfully and respectfully, and in which the characters are allowed to have families, professions, religious beliefs, and various other trappings of real life that don't often make it into 'adventure' stories)
---First Meetings, Orson Scott Card (science fiction: short story collection, part of the Enderverse; I like the wider perspective on life during the three space wars)
---Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card (science fiction: I don't care that much for the other books about Bean, Petra, and Peter -- they're too preachy, and I dislike the tone of authorial infallibility -- but this one I like.)
---Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett (fantasy: a Discworld novel; in which Magrat Garlick becomes an inadvertent fairy godmother and she, Nanny Ogg, and Granny Weatherwax set off to save her goddaughter from falling prey to a constructed fairy tale)
---Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett (fantasy: a Discworld novel; in which vampires invade Lancre and the witches have to stop them)
---Maskerade, Terry Pratchett (fantasy: a Discworld novel; in which, after Magrat's marriage to King Verence, Granny and Nanny go to Ankh-Morpork in search of a replacement Maiden and run into a Phantom of the Opera parody)
---The Truth, Terry Pratchett (fantasy: a Discworld novel; in which the printing press and the newspaper come to the Discworld, much to various people's consternation)
---The Art of Discworld, Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby (fantasy/nonfiction: basically what it says it is, along with some background explanations by Pterry and Kidby)
---The Hammer of Darkness, L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (space opera: now and then I like a good power fantasy, and Modesitt does those very nicely; I think it's his obsession with moral conundrums that makes the thing work)
---Firehand, Andre Norton and P. M. Griffin (science fiction: a Time Traders novel; in which Ross Murdock and friends go back in time to fight a feudal war and save another planet from destruction by aliens. It's a lot better than that summary makes it sound, though I could do without the occasional Random Capitalization.)
---Jhereg, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad Taltos and friends foil a plan to start a war between the House of the Jhereg and the House of the Dragon)
---Yendi, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad meets Cawti and they fall in love, after she kills him)
---Teckla, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad and Cawti's marriage begins to crack and a rebellion against the Empire is temporarily averted)
---Dragon, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad somewhat inadvertently finds himself at war)
---Dzur, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad tries to fix some of the problems he left Cawti with at the end of Phoenix)
---Angel Sanctuary vols. 12, 18, Kaori Yuki (manga: fucked up and brilliant.)
---------------
March Total: 35 books (plus several magazines and a lot of fanfiction)
Year to Date: 99 books (61 new, 38 old)
---------------------------------------------
Question: I put these lists up every month, and I realize they're kind of long, especially since I've started doing slightly more detailed capsule reviews/reactions. Would you prefer me to hide them behind lj-cuts?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-01 07:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-01 07:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-02 02:57 am (UTC)I think a fake cut would be a good idea. It's easy to use, and for some reason I find it more aesthetically pleasing.
I love Terry Pratchett, and I hear he's got a new Discworld novel coming out in the near future. I can't wait.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-03 09:04 pm (UTC)