book list, September 2007

It's time for the continuing adventures of Liz and her reading list! These are the books I read in September 2007.

New: 25
---Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions, Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and Donald Theodore Sanders (nonfiction: pretty much what the title says. Very interesting, and smoothly written)
---Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, Mark J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne (nonfiction: Penn's theory is that once a trend hits 1% of the population, it becomes important in its effects. He then lists 75 small trends that he finds interesting. Because the book is mostly a list elaborated on a grand scale, it's easy to skim any of the mini-chapters you may find boring or unconvincing, but many of Penn's observations are counterintuitively fascinating. The campaigning for Hillary Clinton does get a bit annoying, though.)
---Caressed by Ice, Nalini Singh (romance: within the genre boundaries, this is very well written, and Singh is less irritating than many in her use of clichés. Her science fiction still falls somewhat flat, though.)
---The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss (fantasy: in a world with a clear sense that something has gone badly wrong, a former hero tells his story to a wandering scribe. This is a marvelous coming-of-age story, the details of the world and its magical system are fascinating, I love the use of folktales and children's rhymes, and I particularly like that the hero and the heroine don't get together or have sex. And I would, quite literally, sacrifice a chicken if I thought that would get the sequel published sooner.)
---Summer Knight, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 4, in which Harry agrees to do three favors for Mab, the Winter Queen. The first one is investigating the death of the Summer Knight and hopefully stopping a war between Winter and Summer that might destroy the world's environment as a side effect.)
---Death Masks, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 5, in which Harry is hired to retrieve the stolen Shroud of Turin, and in which several very nasty fallen angels try to stop him.)
---Blood Rites, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 6, in which Thomas Raith, a White Court vampire, asks Harry to investigate a series of mysterious deaths surrounding a porn director.)
---Dead Beat, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 7, in which necromancers come to town, intent on finding their dead master's final book and carrying out a dark ritual to make one of them into a god.)
---Proven Guilty, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 8, in which Harry and Murphy look into attacks at a local horror convention, and discover that things are not right in the Nevernever.)
---White Night, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 9, in which someone is killing women with minor magical talents, and Thomas seems to be one of the prime suspects.)
---Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Jeff Lindsay (horror: the book they based the TV series on. The narration is really overwritten, but I got used to that after a few pages -- it's just Dexter's voice -- and while things sort of skim along the surface, that makes sense given his lack of true emotions. Fun and a little creepy.)
---Dearly Devoted Dexter, Jeff Lindsay (horror: in which a serial mutilator comes to Miami, and Dexter is dragged into the investigation somewhat despite himself, when all he really wants is to avoid Sergeant Doakes's suspicions and get back to his deadly hobby.)
---Dexter in the Dark, Jeff Lindsay (horror: in which Lindsay tips the books straight over into the supernatural. It works within the context of the story, but I liked the first two books better, probably because I already read so much paranormal stuff that it was nice to read stories that at least pretended to realism.)
---Athyra, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad Taltos discovers one of his old enemies is not as dead as people had thought, and inadvertently screws up the life of a young Teckla peasant boy.)
---Ultimate Spider-Man vols. 3-8, 10, 12-13, 15-16, Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, et al (comics: I'm always going to have a weak spot for Spider-Man, no matter how badly written or drawn. The first comic book I ever remember reading was a Spider-Man comic from the late 80s or early 90s, which Cat loaned to me one day. One of the first non-PBS TV shows I remember watching was the Spider-Man cartoon that ran in the mid-to-late 90s. So my judgment is extremely suspect here... but still, these are really good superhero comics. There are a few moments where it helps to know how the events played out in the 616 Marvel universe, because Bendis occasionally resorts to fanfic-style shorthand, but overall this is clearly written, clearly drawn, and just really, really likeable. This Peter Parker is still a teenager, and Bendis uses that to great effect, confronting his idealism with a deadly, amoral world. In this one instance, the cynical bent of the Ultimate Marvel universe actually works.)


Old: 7
---Creatures of Light and Darkness, Roger Zelazny (science fiction/fantasy: one of Zelazny's mythological stories, this one based on some Ancient Egyptian deities.)
---Orca, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad attempts to repay his debt to the boy who saved his life, and stumbles across a financial scandal far bigger than he's prepared to deal with)
---Finder: Sin-Eater vols. 1-2, Carla Speed McNeil (comics: um... how to describe this... Jaeger Ayers, a congenital wanderer, returns to the domed city of Anvard and gets tangled up in the troubles of the dysfunctional Grossvenor family. This story is flat-out weird, and McNeil rarely stops to explain things, but the world and the people feel real and three-dimensional, as if they stretch back and forward beyond the book's plotline. And there are footnotes at the back for anyone who gets lost.)
---Finder: King of the Cats, Carla Speed McNeil (comics: in which one Nyima tribe and several Ascian tribes attempt to make peace, but get stalled by the Nyima king's death and the demands of their hosts. Then Jaeger stumbles into the mess.)
---Finder: Talisman, Carla Speed McNeil (comics: in which we learn what happened to Marcie Grossvenor after Sin-Eater. A meditation on stories and writing and the pull of unfulfilled dreams.)
---Finder: Dream Sequence, Carla Speed McNeil (comics: in which Magri White, a man who creates imaginary worlds in his head and earns money by letting other people visit and explore them, finds his subconscious invaded by a monster. Except it's a lot more complicated than that, of course.)


September Total: 32 books (plus several magazines, a few newspapers, and a lot of fanfiction)

Year to Date: 303 books (176 new, 127 old)

book list, September 2007

It's time for the continuing adventures of Liz and her reading list! These are the books I read in September 2007.

New: 25
---Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions, Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and Donald Theodore Sanders (nonfiction: pretty much what the title says. Very interesting, and smoothly written)
---Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, Mark J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne (nonfiction: Penn's theory is that once a trend hits 1% of the population, it becomes important in its effects. He then lists 75 small trends that he finds interesting. Because the book is mostly a list elaborated on a grand scale, it's easy to skim any of the mini-chapters you may find boring or unconvincing, but many of Penn's observations are counterintuitively fascinating. The campaigning for Hillary Clinton does get a bit annoying, though.)
---Caressed by Ice, Nalini Singh (romance: within the genre boundaries, this is very well written, and Singh is less irritating than many in her use of clichés. Her science fiction still falls somewhat flat, though.)
---The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss (fantasy: in a world with a clear sense that something has gone badly wrong, a former hero tells his story to a wandering scribe. This is a marvelous coming-of-age story, the details of the world and its magical system are fascinating, I love the use of folktales and children's rhymes, and I particularly like that the hero and the heroine don't get together or have sex. And I would, quite literally, sacrifice a chicken if I thought that would get the sequel published sooner.)
---Summer Knight, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 4, in which Harry agrees to do three favors for Mab, the Winter Queen. The first one is investigating the death of the Summer Knight and hopefully stopping a war between Winter and Summer that might destroy the world's environment as a side effect.)
---Death Masks, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 5, in which Harry is hired to retrieve the stolen Shroud of Turin, and in which several very nasty fallen angels try to stop him.)
---Blood Rites, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 6, in which Thomas Raith, a White Court vampire, asks Harry to investigate a series of mysterious deaths surrounding a porn director.)
---Dead Beat, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 7, in which necromancers come to town, intent on finding their dead master's final book and carrying out a dark ritual to make one of them into a god.)
---Proven Guilty, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 8, in which Harry and Murphy look into attacks at a local horror convention, and discover that things are not right in the Nevernever.)
---White Night, Jim Butcher (fantasy: Dresden Files, book 9, in which someone is killing women with minor magical talents, and Thomas seems to be one of the prime suspects.)
---Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Jeff Lindsay (horror: the book they based the TV series on. The narration is really overwritten, but I got used to that after a few pages -- it's just Dexter's voice -- and while things sort of skim along the surface, that makes sense given his lack of true emotions. Fun and a little creepy.)
---Dearly Devoted Dexter, Jeff Lindsay (horror: in which a serial mutilator comes to Miami, and Dexter is dragged into the investigation somewhat despite himself, when all he really wants is to avoid Sergeant Doakes's suspicions and get back to his deadly hobby.)
---Dexter in the Dark, Jeff Lindsay (horror: in which Lindsay tips the books straight over into the supernatural. It works within the context of the story, but I liked the first two books better, probably because I already read so much paranormal stuff that it was nice to read stories that at least pretended to realism.)
---Athyra, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad Taltos discovers one of his old enemies is not as dead as people had thought, and inadvertently screws up the life of a young Teckla peasant boy.)
---Ultimate Spider-Man vols. 3-8, 10, 12-13, 15-16, Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, et al (comics: I'm always going to have a weak spot for Spider-Man, no matter how badly written or drawn. The first comic book I ever remember reading was a Spider-Man comic from the late 80s or early 90s, which Cat loaned to me one day. One of the first non-PBS TV shows I remember watching was the Spider-Man cartoon that ran in the mid-to-late 90s. So my judgment is extremely suspect here... but still, these are really good superhero comics. There are a few moments where it helps to know how the events played out in the 616 Marvel universe, because Bendis occasionally resorts to fanfic-style shorthand, but overall this is clearly written, clearly drawn, and just really, really likeable. This Peter Parker is still a teenager, and Bendis uses that to great effect, confronting his idealism with a deadly, amoral world. In this one instance, the cynical bent of the Ultimate Marvel universe actually works.)


Old: 7
---Creatures of Light and Darkness, Roger Zelazny (science fiction/fantasy: one of Zelazny's mythological stories, this one based on some Ancient Egyptian deities.)
---Orca, Steven Brust (fantasy: in which Vlad attempts to repay his debt to the boy who saved his life, and stumbles across a financial scandal far bigger than he's prepared to deal with)
---Finder: Sin-Eater vols. 1-2, Carla Speed McNeil (comics: um... how to describe this... Jaeger Ayers, a congenital wanderer, returns to the domed city of Anvard and gets tangled up in the troubles of the dysfunctional Grossvenor family. This story is flat-out weird, and McNeil rarely stops to explain things, but the world and the people feel real and three-dimensional, as if they stretch back and forward beyond the book's plotline. And there are footnotes at the back for anyone who gets lost.)
---Finder: King of the Cats, Carla Speed McNeil (comics: in which one Nyima tribe and several Ascian tribes attempt to make peace, but get stalled by the Nyima king's death and the demands of their hosts. Then Jaeger stumbles into the mess.)
---Finder: Talisman, Carla Speed McNeil (comics: in which we learn what happened to Marcie Grossvenor after Sin-Eater. A meditation on stories and writing and the pull of unfulfilled dreams.)
---Finder: Dream Sequence, Carla Speed McNeil (comics: in which Magri White, a man who creates imaginary worlds in his head and earns money by letting other people visit and explore them, finds his subconscious invaded by a monster. Except it's a lot more complicated than that, of course.)


September Total: 32 books (plus several magazines, a few newspapers, and a lot of fanfiction)

Year to Date: 303 books (176 new, 127 old)