Thursday, June 23, 2005

 

The Long Search by Isabelle Holland

The Long Search by Isabelle Holland is another sort of mystery. It was a little gimmicky and pretty much unbelievable except for the difficulties of leaving an abusive relationship with an alchoholic, that rang true.

Janet has a good position at a prime NY publishing house. When an editor leaves and one of her authors is assigned to Janet things begin to tremble. Janet's life is built on a foundation of secrecy and lies. Her name isn't really Janet and she has been hiding from the police for at least a decade. Her new author is an ex-FBI agent with a history of tracking down stories. Janet is scared by what he may reveal about her and also sexually drawn to him.

The secrets come out, Janet tries to end her relationship with her abusive boyfriend, and someone is stalking Janet. Of course (eye roll) she assumes it is her new sexy writer and not the shady man in her past.

There were just too many threads to this story; they cluttered the plot. There is the abusive father, the teenage pregnancy, drugs and alchohol, subversive politics, a newly discovered genetic link to hemophilia, abusive boyfriend, weird friends, a convenient therapist introduced, attempted murder, murder, flashbacks, drug runners...you get the picture.

 

Down these DARK SPACEWAYS edited by Mike Resnick

Sometimes I get very annoyed with the
Science Fiction Book Club. Like when after I'd been an active member for over 10 years and had bought books within three monthes and they called up to invi9te me to join complete with new member # and new obligations to buy. They had wiped out my old # and buying history! I also get annoyed when they send two sets of choices within 6 weeks and both need to be responded to (I respond online now).

Most of the time I like the SFBC. I like getting the books I would buy anyway but at a lower price and I like the special offers like Down These DARK SPACEWAYS. I enjoyed the stories. The blurb and reviews are correct; these are good mysteries with solid science fiction - not gimmicky on either part.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

 

Yesterday was the 365th day of this blog YAY!

I caught up on blogging the books I'd read through yesterday before celebrating. I've enjoyed blogging the books I read and I plan on keeping up the book blogging. I often find that after I blog, sometimes several books later, the blogging has brought other thoughts about the book to my mind.

Here are the books I read in the last 365 days; the links lead Powell's or Amazon but the books are listed by month so that you can use the archive to look up my blurb.

JUNE 2004
Queens Own Fool by Jane Yolen and Robert Harris
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
Longshot by Dick Francis
The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones
Don't Hurt Laurie! by Willo Davis Roberts
Encounter at Easton by Avi
False Prophet by Faye Kellerman
JULY 2004
Wise Child, Juniper, and Colman by Monica Furlong
The Wind Singer by William Nicholson
Proof, Flying Finish, Banker, and For Kicks by Dick Francis
Dead Cert, Nerve, Slay Ride, Smokescreen, and Rat Race by Dick Francis
Knockdown and Straight by Dick Francis
The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
Blood Sport and Hot Money by Dick Francis
The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, and Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Tithe by Holly Black
Zazoo by Richard Mosher
Hidden Talents by David Lubar
The Ragwitch by Garth Nix
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Freedom's Ransom by Anne McAffrey
Simply Divine by Wendy Holden
Azur Like It by Wendy Holden
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Searching For Dragons and Talking To Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Thinner Than Thou by Kit Reed
Slaves of the Mastery by William Nicholson
For Love of Mother-Not by Alan Dean Foster
Law of Gravity by Stephen Horn>
Farm Fatale by Wendy Holden
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien
Troll A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo
Gossip Hound and Bad Heir Day by Wendy Holden
Truckers by Terry Pratchett
SHOAH by Claude Lanzmann
AUGUST 2004
Saber & Shadow by S. M. Stirling and Shirley Meier
Spellsinger by Alan Dean Foster
Night Journeys by AVI
Hilary and Jackie by Hilary and Piers dePre
Hunting Season by Nevada Barr
Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Corrections by Jonathan Frantzen
The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw
A Head For Poisoning
The Book of Alfar
The Game of Sunken Places
Raphael and the Noble Task
Diggers and Wings
MOJO
SEPTEMBER 2004
Unicorn's Blood
Speaker For The Dead
Persepolis 2
Faerie Wars
Interstellar Pig
Lady's Maid
Chindi
The Secret Life of Bees
The Painter
The Cage
Lion's Heart and Lion's Soul
Snowbrother
Shadow's Daughter
Inkheart
The Winds of Change
Peter and the Starcatchers
Postcards
A recipe for Bees
In the Shadow of No Towers
OCTOBER 2004
Gringa Latina
Freckles
Iron Council
The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, and The Miserable Mill from A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Lost King
The Slippery Slope and The Grim Grotto
Piratica
Gourmet Meals in Minutes
NOVEMBER 2004
The Sea of Trolls
Deep Wizardry and High Wizardry
Little Little
The Ordinary Princess
Trickster's Queen
Miles' Song by Alice McGill
Tears of the Giraffe
The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish
The Car
A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie "Peanut" Johnson
The Mottled Lizard
The Supernaturalists
I Am The Ice Worm
A Stolen Life
Midnight for Charlie Bone
Charlie Bone and the Time Twister
Santa's Stuck
My Freedom Trip
Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy
A Wizard Abroad
Survivors - True Stories of Children in the Holocaust
Gregor the Overlander
Heir Apparent
Gigi and Lulu's Gigantic Fight
The Bone Wars
The Grilling Season
The Wizard's Dilemma
Dragon Rider
DECEMBER 2004

The Queen's Fool
Going Postal
Nickel and Dimed
Lord John and the Private Matter
Angel-Seeker
Marque and Reprisal
Dies the Fire
The Ugly Duckling
And Then You Die
JANUARY 2005
Briar Rose
Armageddon Summer
Kathleen The Celtic Knot
The Ersatz Elevator
Mira, Mirror
Stargirl
Wee Free Men
Pirates!
The Hidden Life of Otto Frank
Shade's Children
The Onion Girl
I tell A Lie Every So Often
The Purple Emporer
Sorcery & Cecelia
A Hat Full of Sky
FEBRUARY 2005
Dime Store Magic
Oryx and Crake
Solitaire
Sastun
Firesong
The Grave Maurice
The Wish List
I Capture the Castle
MARCH 2005
Anita Lobel
The Singer of All Songs
Wicked
Facing The Lion
Fever 1793
he Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
The Young Merlin Trilogy by Jane Yolen
Alphabet of Thorn
APRIL 2005
User Unfriendly
The Cure
Being Dead
Sorcery Rising
Dragon's Bait
Never Trust a Dead Man
Now You See It...
East
Girl in a Cage
Firegold
Rent Girl
Sister Light, Sister Dark and White Jenna
The Wish
The Kite Runner
Heart of Gold
MY Guardian Angel
MAY 2005
Beyond the Deepwoods
The Meq
be more chill
Stravaganza City of Masks
The Waterless Sea
Sticks and Scones
A Great and Terrible Beauty
Once Upon a Marigold
Saving Grace
JUNE 2005
Dead Lines
The Speed of Dark
Mindscan
Star Wars Jedi Apprentice The Rising Force
The Dark Rival
All He Ever Wanted
Plainsong
The Tar-Aiym Krang
Stravaganza II: City of Stars
Dead as a Doornail
Triad

 

Triad by Lauren Dane

Triad is a Romantica ebook. It is an erotic novel of a witch in New Orleans and her relationship of lust and power with a vampire and a wizard. Lots of sex with a good story line and strong characters.

 

Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

Dead as a Doornail is the latest in the Southern Vampire series. I don't generally go for vampire books (Ann Rice = Booooring after the first two) but the Sookie Stackhouse series is hilarious and sexy. Where else will you find out the mystery of Bubba, the botched vampire conversion of a once proud King and werepeople who turn into lovable dogs?

The mystery is never easy but isn't popped out as a huge surprise either. You work your way into understanding of what's going on. Sookies relationships with vampires, werepeople, and plain old human men are logical and emotional and seem natural to Sookie and the story.

Ok, in this book someone is shooting at shapeshifters and Sookie is in the middle of multiple investigations and a werepeople political incident.

 

Stravaganza II: City of Stars by Mary Hoffman

City of Stars is the second in the Stravaganza series. Set in both our world and the alternate universe in the country of Talia the Stravaganzas are the link between time and space.

Georgia is unhappy. She lives in London with her mother, step-father, and stepbrother Russell. Russell is a bully and hates Georgia. He takes every advantage to belittle her and make her life miserable. Georgia buys a small statue of a black winged horse and when she sleeps with it clasped in her hands she wakes up in Talia. Luckily (!) she happens on a family of Stravaganzas and into the stable where a winged black horse has just been born. She is astonished to find out that not only has another person from London come to Talia, Lucien from Stravaganza I, but she knows him and had a wonderful crush on him before he died in her world.

Through her friendships in Talia and her double day horseback riding work, Georgia develops self-confidence and finds her way to friends in her own world as well. Georgia and her friend Cesare become friends with two diChemici princes and Georgia arranges to take one of them back to London with her so that he can access modern medecine. The decision to leave his fmily forever is very difficult for Falco but he can only imagine the pain and anguish his father suffers and the anger that follows that grief.

 

The Tar-Aiym Krang by Alan Dean Foster

I picked up
The Tar-Aiym Krang again and whipped through it, enjoying it. One of the main characters drops Swahili words into almost every conversation and I was highly amused.

Flinx and Pip are drawn into an intriguing search for what could either be a great musical instrument or a terrible weapon. They are hunted by at least two competitors. When if seems that the expedition is doomed the first time, a chance of science saves them but the second time they are in jeopardy it takes a joint effort of Flinx, Pip, and the Tar-Aiym Krang.

I just noticed that the female characters are weakened by their relationships to men: Moth and Lynxx are not really part of the science or politics - they are there to showcase the sexual power of Malaika (and his disdain for their passion - they are tools for his use), Rashiella and her daughter share a male lover (this is not sharing in a friendly way) and their sexual competition is part of what makes them ineffectual.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

 

Plainsong by Kent Haruf

Plainsong feels like gentle gossip. Quiet tales about the stories of people in town; people you have seen in small moments but whom you wondered about. What about those two young brothers who deliver papers and visit that old lady? Why was that young pregnant woman shopping with the two old bachelor brothers? Why did the mild-mannered English teacher attack the star football player on his front porch on Sunday morning?

Nothing mean spirited, just a thoughtful story about what motivates people and what strangles them.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

 

All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve

In All He Ever Wanted Nicholas Van Tassel sees what he wants and goes after it. What he wants are Etna Bliss and position as Dean at his University. Etna Bliss is an unsuspecting and beautiful young woman and Nicholas wants to posess her. His need for her can only be love (because he says so) and he sets out to get her. He thinks nothing of her life, her wants, her background. He thinks of her only in relation to his control of her and is SURE that all he wants is to have her. She says he doesn't love him but he assures her that he has love enough for both of them. (gag) He pushes her into marriage and is horrified to discover, on their honeymoon, that her hymen is broken. He does not discuss this with her, he does not content himself with her contract of marriage with him. No, he realizes that having her isn't all he wants. Over the next 15 years he tries to bully and smother her into loving him all the while resenting her suspected pre-marriage promiscuity. As Etna gathers herself to find a quiet place for herself to be alone and unpressured, Nicholas tries even harder to control her. Those escalating attempts at control finally drive his wife away and splinters his family for good.

Suffice it to say that his career path suffers from similar trauma and his possession of his dream is unfulfilling.

 

Star Wars Jedi Apprentice The Dark Rival by Jude Watson

The Dark Rival by Jude Watson continues where Rising Force left off. Qui-Gon and Obi-wan arrive on the mining planet feeling that they have diffused the mining situation, for now. Qui-Gon recieves a disturbing note from his ex-apprentice Xanatos. We learn more about their troubled past as Obi-wan comes to terms with his use of the force and loss of his Jedi dream and Qui-Gon must deal with conflicts that he thought he could avoid.

Can acceptance that one may never be a great Jedi Knight but still may be a good person be the key to Obi-Wan's future?

 

Star Wars Jedi Apprentice: The Rising Force by Dave Wolverton

Star Wars Jedi Apprentice The Rising Force is about Obi-wan Kenobi as a young boy. Although Obi-wan is a good student at the Jedi temple his anger is a problem. Time after time Obi-wan has been passed over when Jedi Knights come to choose their Padawan students. His 13th birthday is approaching, if Obi-wan isn't chosen by that day he must abandon his dreams of being a Jedi and leave the temple.

Qui-Gon is coming to watch the students but he has told Yoda that he will not choose a student. Something happened with his last apprentice and Qui-Gon is worried and betrayed.

Qui-Gon does not choose Obi-wan (what? I was sure he would) and Obi-Wan is sent away from the temple to be an agricultural worker on a mining planet. On board the mining ship, Obi-wan stumbles into a tense situation and struggles to save lives and win Qui-Gon's respect.

A 7 year old hovers at my elbow waiting for me to hand over this book.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

 

Mindscan by Robert Sawyer

In Mindscan Jake Sullivan, heir to a Canadian brewing empire, has a birth defect that could leave him a vegetable at any time. He's seen the horror that can ensue; his father is a vegetable from the same defect. Jake uses a new technology to copy his consciousness into an android body. The birthed and doomed Jake heads off to the moon to live in Eden intil his physical death while the new Jake takes over his life on Earth.

New Jake has some difficult moments. His dog doesn't accept him, his mother rejects him, and his lover can't look him in the eyes. He finds friendship and solace with the New copy of a famous scifi writer, Karen. It looks like Jake is getting together a good life when things start to go wrong (doesn't something ALWAYS happen?).

Karen's son sues her claiming that his mother is dead (her body on the moon has died) and a cure is found for the original Jake Sullivans physical defect. On the moon Jake now is healthy and realizes that he could return to Earth and claim his love and life. When the PTB declare that he has signed away his rights to an earth life, Jake takes matters into his own hands.

Much of the questions and thinking about consciousness and what makes a person (along with debate about souls) is set in the courtroom with testimony by experts. The political world in the US in this novel is shockingly repressive - Buchanan has been President! Yes, Pat Buchanan. Think of a slightly less obvious Handmaid Tale with a sharp line between Canada and the US.

 

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

I stretched this book out as long as I could but I finally couldn't resist reading it through to the end. The Speed of Dark is a novel about autism. Well, it could be called that but it could also be called a story about humanity, what makes each person who s/he is, and what role medical intervention and technical advances have in our lives.

Lou Arrendale is a successful man with autism. He and his autistic coworkers do specific pattern work what their autism makes them very suited for. Their workplace includes adaptions and compensations that help them to balance their rhythyms. A new manager decides that he can save money and improve output by using a new experimental process to cure the autists.

Lou has a good life outside of work. He has a circle of friends who revolve around fencing, a group of internet aquaintances, and another circle of coworker friends. He is interested in a woman in his fencing group but isn't sure about how to romantically approach her. He knows the restrictions that he has socially and has routines and plans for dealing with them.

The pressure at work to take the cure comes at the same time as someone starts to attack Lou escalating from attacks on his car to attempted murder. Lou finds that he can take control of his life and that he must advocate for himself. He also finds that he has good supportive friends who do not see him as less than human or in need of curing.

Great book.

 

Dead Lines by Greg Bear

Dead Lines is a sort of ghost story set in Hollywood. Peter Russell is a depressed man who gets by doing most things without major output of energy. One of his jobs, his main job, is to run errands for a wealthy man. A visiting project pusher offers Peter a bonus and some free Trans, which are a new version of a cell phone, if he can get his patron to invest in Trans. Then things start happening. Dark shadows seep around sucking life and energy and ghosts appear and are greatly affected by the shadow seepers.

Are the Trans to blame? What does this have to do with Peter's murdered daughter? Can the effects be reversed?

This story has a very dark view.

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