book list, September 2007
Oct. 1st, 2007 04:02 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 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)
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)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-02 04:32 am (UTC)You don't know me, because I'm a lurker with too little time, horrible social skills, and a bad habit of occasionally commenting only to feel like an idiot afterward and go hide under a rock.
I love your fics, and felt somewhat sad when you announced you won't be writing new HP fics, but figured you've got plenty of other fandoms and there'll be other fics, or tales, to comfort me (even though sometimes it seems like you're trying to carve my heart out).
Unfortunately, I'm not here to give you the praise you are due - rather, I'm wish to ask for your opinion. You see, I don't live on the USA - or, indeed, even on an English-speaking country - but I prefer to read books on their original language whenever possible, and usually they have to be shipped in. Your book lists have been useful to me, but I sometimes misinterpret your comments, and I'd like to avoid giving trouble to my library by having them ask for books I will look through and then give up on buying.
I know I'm probably being bothersome, but if you have the time, could you indicate a few names or titles? ...If it helps, we seem to have a rather similar taste in both fanfiction and original fiction (or at least I've never read something you recced and disliked it), and I have been told Terry Pratchett is always a pretty safe bet; I'm not particularly fond of The Color of Magic and Pyramids felt unfinished, but I greatly enjoyed Small Gods and The Wee Free Men.
Thank you for your time, and I do apologize for troubling you.
V.
P.S. Sorry about being so old-fashioned too - I hope this won't seem ridiculous tomorrow!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-02 04:39 am (UTC)That made me cringe. Please, please ignore it.
*kicks self*
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-02 08:17 am (UTC)What sort of book are you looking for? I assume you're interested in fiction, not nonfiction, but what genres do you prefer: fantasy, science fiction, horror, realistic fiction, historical fiction, romance, or something else? Do you prefer books that work on their own, or do you prefer series?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-02 03:19 pm (UTC)As always, I am in awe of your reading ability. I always thought of myself as a voracious reader, but you put me to shame.
In any case, you seem to have many of the same tastes that I do, so I was wondering: have you ever read the Young Wizards series, by Diane Duane? It seems to be the sort of series you'd like, judging from the books on your monthly lists.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-03 12:43 am (UTC)If you like comics, I would recommend Fables. It's a Vertigo comic and even though the re-interpretation of fairy tales has been done over and over again, I like this one. (I've only read the first volume, Legends in Exile, so far) For instance, I find it interesting how the author(s) pulled all the Jacks of the old stories into one Jack character and the same with Prince Charming. It would be cool to read your take on them.
Also, I enjoyed reading "The Book of Lost Things" by John Connolly. It is a coming of age story, slightly creepy, nuanced, and also has interesting re-interpretations of the old tales.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-03 07:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-03 07:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-04 04:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-04 10:38 pm (UTC)I honestly would have prefered her to wrap the series up after three books, once the overall conflict was done, and leave the endless iterations of 'mopping up' to readers' own imaginations.
YMMV, obviously! :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-05 02:02 am (UTC)Of course, as I've said, this was my favorite book, so I may be a little biased.