furyofvissarion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
furyofvissarion) wrote2007-03-10 12:19 pm
furyofvissarion) wrote2007-03-10 12:19 pm
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Developing an Outstanding Core Collection: A Guide for Libraries - Carol Alabaster. I found this interesting because I've been suspicious of the idea of a canon since junior high school. This book discusses how to create a list of core books that each library branch in a system should have: how to assemble such a list, how to get buy-in from librarians, how to keep in mind individual branch budgetary restrictions, etc. I liked that diversity was discussed (though not as much as I'd have wished) in terms of what books get chosen, which make me feel a lot better about such a project.
The Voice That Thunders - Alan Garner. Ugh. I got this from the library because the Endicott Studio blog mentioned that it had some powerful writing in it on mental illness. Alas, most of the book didn't cover the topic (& when it did, I found the results mixed). Most of the pieces talk about writing; some talk a bit about archaeology as well. I found it to be overall pretty dull, & I thought Garner came off as quite arrogant sometimes. Mind you, I bounced off The Weirdstone of Brisingamen but really liked The Owl Service, so I wasn't really sure what I would get with this essay collection. Mostly a sense of time wasted, really.
Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin. This is a really richly written book about growing up in a Pentecostal family in Harlem in the '30s. I found some of the "dominating abusive father" bits triggering, but aside from that it was an intense read anyway. This is the first book for an online book group I'll be participating in, & I can see that (hopefully) this will generate a good discussion. I thought the ending was going to be different, for one (I'll be vague for folks reading who may not have finished yet!).
Shakespeare's Landlord - Charlaine Harris. Much darker than the Southern Vampire books, this is the first in the Lily Bard series. Lily lives in the titular Shakespeare, Arkansas. She's a housecleaner who's run from a violent rape in her past. Despite herself, she gets drawn into a murder investigation in her new town. At first I couldn't really warm up to Lily, although I had sympathy for her; by the end of the book, though, I was already thinking ahead about getting the next one from the library. However, Charlaine, could we quit w/the Asian inscrutability stereotype? It shows up briefly here &... arrrgh. Can we not know better by now, please?
The Barbed Rose - Gail Dayton. This book & its prequel, The Compass Rose, would be "guilty pleasures" if I was feeling much guilt these days about anything I read: the plot is kind of cliched, there's lots of silly invented language & italics, but there's lots of smut. And also the main society in the book features polyamorous relationships as the norm, which is a really nice thing to see. I thought this book read better than its predecessor, but that's probably at least in part because I got somewhat used to some of the things I found silly.
47 - Walter Mosley. 47, a young slave in Georgia, meets mysterious Tall John, who turns out to be an alien from another world & tells 47 that he's destined to save the universe. Wow, that sounds hokey, but I wanted to read this because it won the first Carl Brandon Parallax Award. I've never read any other of Mosley's books, & I found this to be well-written & easy to read. But somehow it was hard for me to feel really drawn in somehow.
In the Coils of the Snake - Clare B. Dunkle. Definitely the most dissatisfying of the Hollow Kingdom trilogy, with a focus on characters that I felt the least connected to. And also, this book really hammered home how much the world of these books depends on women being forced into situations they then throw up their hands & decide they enjoy. Which... yay for adaptive ability, but c'mon! I get tired of women whose role is to get forced into marriage (what is this, the Kalevala?). The first book of this trilogy (The Hollow Kingdom) I felt handled this issue in a believable way, but this one didn't at all. The second book (Close Kin) didn't really have much of this (except for Sable, who managed to escape being forced into one marriage, only to make the best of a situation & go into another), probably why I liked it best.
Zahrah the Windseeker - Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. So wonderful! This is beautiful & satisfying & charming, & I can totally see why it was shortlisted for the Carl Brandon awards. Zahrah is a young girl shunned by her peers for having dadalocks, hair that has vines growing in it. Dadafolk are reputed to have strange powers, & in the Ooni Kingdom, where anything uncertain or unknown is forbidden, that isn't a ticket to an easy life. Zahrah & her best friend, Dari, sneak off to explore the Forbidden Greeny Jungle. He gets bitten by a war snake, & suddenly Zahrah is his only hope for survival. While the book gets a bit heavy-handed about how people have to stop being afraid of the unknown, what I loved about it was how Zahrah grew from a timid, ashamed person to a tough & gutsy one. And she makes mistakes, & she's scared, but she keeps going. Also, the world of this book is delightful--technology centers around plant life, so computers & things are all grown from plants. Definitely recommended!
The Voice That Thunders - Alan Garner. Ugh. I got this from the library because the Endicott Studio blog mentioned that it had some powerful writing in it on mental illness. Alas, most of the book didn't cover the topic (& when it did, I found the results mixed). Most of the pieces talk about writing; some talk a bit about archaeology as well. I found it to be overall pretty dull, & I thought Garner came off as quite arrogant sometimes. Mind you, I bounced off The Weirdstone of Brisingamen but really liked The Owl Service, so I wasn't really sure what I would get with this essay collection. Mostly a sense of time wasted, really.
Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin. This is a really richly written book about growing up in a Pentecostal family in Harlem in the '30s. I found some of the "dominating abusive father" bits triggering, but aside from that it was an intense read anyway. This is the first book for an online book group I'll be participating in, & I can see that (hopefully) this will generate a good discussion. I thought the ending was going to be different, for one (I'll be vague for folks reading who may not have finished yet!).
Shakespeare's Landlord - Charlaine Harris. Much darker than the Southern Vampire books, this is the first in the Lily Bard series. Lily lives in the titular Shakespeare, Arkansas. She's a housecleaner who's run from a violent rape in her past. Despite herself, she gets drawn into a murder investigation in her new town. At first I couldn't really warm up to Lily, although I had sympathy for her; by the end of the book, though, I was already thinking ahead about getting the next one from the library. However, Charlaine, could we quit w/the Asian inscrutability stereotype? It shows up briefly here &... arrrgh. Can we not know better by now, please?
The Barbed Rose - Gail Dayton. This book & its prequel, The Compass Rose, would be "guilty pleasures" if I was feeling much guilt these days about anything I read: the plot is kind of cliched, there's lots of silly invented language & italics, but there's lots of smut. And also the main society in the book features polyamorous relationships as the norm, which is a really nice thing to see. I thought this book read better than its predecessor, but that's probably at least in part because I got somewhat used to some of the things I found silly.
47 - Walter Mosley. 47, a young slave in Georgia, meets mysterious Tall John, who turns out to be an alien from another world & tells 47 that he's destined to save the universe. Wow, that sounds hokey, but I wanted to read this because it won the first Carl Brandon Parallax Award. I've never read any other of Mosley's books, & I found this to be well-written & easy to read. But somehow it was hard for me to feel really drawn in somehow.
In the Coils of the Snake - Clare B. Dunkle. Definitely the most dissatisfying of the Hollow Kingdom trilogy, with a focus on characters that I felt the least connected to. And also, this book really hammered home how much the world of these books depends on women being forced into situations they then throw up their hands & decide they enjoy. Which... yay for adaptive ability, but c'mon! I get tired of women whose role is to get forced into marriage (what is this, the Kalevala?). The first book of this trilogy (The Hollow Kingdom) I felt handled this issue in a believable way, but this one didn't at all. The second book (Close Kin) didn't really have much of this (except for Sable, who managed to escape being forced into one marriage, only to make the best of a situation & go into another), probably why I liked it best.
Zahrah the Windseeker - Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. So wonderful! This is beautiful & satisfying & charming, & I can totally see why it was shortlisted for the Carl Brandon awards. Zahrah is a young girl shunned by her peers for having dadalocks, hair that has vines growing in it. Dadafolk are reputed to have strange powers, & in the Ooni Kingdom, where anything uncertain or unknown is forbidden, that isn't a ticket to an easy life. Zahrah & her best friend, Dari, sneak off to explore the Forbidden Greeny Jungle. He gets bitten by a war snake, & suddenly Zahrah is his only hope for survival. While the book gets a bit heavy-handed about how people have to stop being afraid of the unknown, what I loved about it was how Zahrah grew from a timid, ashamed person to a tough & gutsy one. And she makes mistakes, & she's scared, but she keeps going. Also, the world of this book is delightful--technology centers around plant life, so computers & things are all grown from plants. Definitely recommended!