Books read January 2007
Jan. 31st, 2007 08:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furyofvissarionThe Hollow Kingdom - Clare B. Dunkle. After repeated mentions of this book in the blogosphere, I got it from the library. The story revolves around a goblin kingdom whose kings get their wives (human or elvin) by kidnapping them & bringing them to their underground kingdom. Kate is brought to be the goblin king's wife w/her sister Emily. Kate reacts as you might expect, while Emily finds everything to be an adventure. Gradually Kate comes to enjoy her life. Which sounds really dodgy, but somehow isn't quite as dodgy as it might have been. Anyway, I thought it was done well, & certainly more complicated than I'm making it sound.
Unbowed - Wangari Maathai. This is the autobiography of the founder of the Green Belt Movement, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work to empower women by helping combat deforestation in Kenya. I thought Wangari was sometimes a little bit too forgiving to some of the colonialists she came in contact w/, but then sometimes she doesn't spare anyone @ all (as well she shouldn't). One of the moments that stuck out for me was when she talked about how @ school, if you didn't speak English, you had to wear a button that said something like, "I'm stupid. I was speaking my native language." Of course I know that people all over the
world were punished for daring to speak their own language, but the button text still got me. Anyway--an inspiring, fast read.
Specials - Scott Westerfeld. The third book in the Uglies trilogy. Good stuff. Nothing too surprising here, but more of what I've come to appreciate about Westerfeld's writing: thoughtful but fast-paced & fun YA sf.
How to Live Green, Cheap, & Happy - Randi Hacker. A bit outdated, & sometimes a bit off-puttingly strident. There are better simple living books out there.
Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture - Juliet B. Schor. Frightening! All about how children are marketed to pretty much since birth. She also talks about research that shows that kids who are heavily involved in consumer culture are unhappier & have more problems. That seems sensible to me, given the folks I know who are shopaholics never seem happy.
Liavek - Edited by Will Shetterly & Emma Bull. The Bordertown books made me a sucker for anthologies like these (I know Liavek came first, but that's not how I encountered them). Anyway, it took me a long time to get through this book, b/c for every story I really liked, there was one that kind of dragged. Still, I'm excited about reading the rest of the Liavek anthologies.
Fifth Quarter - Tanya Huff. Total brain candy reading. Brother & sister assassins (the sister has an unhealthy attraction to her brother) muck up a job & find themselves both sharing the sister's body, while the bad guy runs off w/the brother's body. I liked that the bad guy was given more depth, but didn't really find realistic the sister's warming towards him. Regardless, a fun, quick read.
Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping - Judith Levine. Levine, a Brooklynite, & her husband decide for a year they won't buy anything unnecessary (groceries, yes, eating out, no). While @ the beginning of the book I rolled my eyes @ how bougie they come off, by the end I appreciated how Levine complicates the notion of consumption: it's not just brainwashed capitalists who want to buy superfluous stuff (an idea I'm exploring in the next issue of my zine!).
Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out - Edited by Katia Roberto and Jessamyn West. What the title says. A sequel to a book by the same name from the '70s. I didn't really find the updates from authors in the original anthology to be that interesting (especially one piece, which was just way too groovy & hippie for me), but the rest of the book I liked a lot, & found useful in my quest to discover if I should go back to grad school AGAIN.
Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich - Duane Elgin. An oft-mentioned classic of the voluntary simplicity movement. Again, like most books on the subject I've read, there's stuff to take & stuff to leave behind. I do like that it talks about societal change, & doesn't just focus on how we as individuals can cut down on consumerism.
Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems - Cesar Millan. Yes, the Dog Whisperer. And no, we still don't have a dog. Nevertheless, an intriguing read. He definitely has a take on dog behavior that most other folks don't--for example, he recommends not showing affection to a new dog for a couple of weeks, so that you can assert your pack leader stance first (this is part of his "exercise, discipline, & affection--in that order!" mantra that he uses on his TV show). I was fascinated. Also, I loved reading about his daily routine--he takes his pack (sometimes up to 40 dogs!) running in the hills early every morning off leash. Then he brings them all back to his Dog Psychology Center &, ten @ a time (this time on leashes) he takes them rollerblading. So basically he goes for a run & then goes for 4 jaunts rollerblading w/packs of dogs!
Close Kin - Clare B. Dunkle. The sequel to The Hollow Kingdom, this one focuses more on Emily & her childhood friend Seylin, who proposes to her. She rejects him; he leaves on a quest to find his kin (the elves), & she realizes that no, she actually does love him. You can imagine how the story goes from here. Definitely an enjoyable ride, though, if predictable.
Gaudy Night - Dorothy L. Sayers. I wouldn't have read this w/o![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
oyceter's review, as I've never read any Sayers & I don't often read mysteries. But this is women @ Oxford in the '30s & has a lot of discussion about the work/family public/private dilemma that women are still faced w/. I had to read around the classism in the book, but still--yum!
Train to Pakistan - Khushwant Singh. There was an article in the New York Times about this months ago; apparently I wasn't the only one inspired by it, as it took me ages to get this on hold from the library. This is a harrowing novel about partition in India that focuses on a village where Sikhs & Muslims have lived in peace together for years. As the novel unfolds, dissent is sown in the village, inflamed by the violence of partition going on around them. An upsetting, but important, read.
Catalyst - Laurie Halse Anderson. Meh. I read & enjoyed Speak, but this was just kind of blah. Big nerdy girl Kate gets rejected from MIT, the one college she applied to (after lying to everyone about applying to safeties as well), & has to deal w/having a tough girl & her younger brother move in w/Kate's family after their house burns down. There were bits that were good, but when I put the book down, I didn't really feel much.
Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News - David T. Z. Mindich. What the title says. Basically, it's because our parents didn't, & we're lulled by entertainment "news" & the Internet (potentially a savior, except for the siloization factor--on the
Internet, it's easy to just look @ the stuff you want, so if you don't want a general news picture, you're not going to get one). Mindich interviewed lots of folks about how tuned in they are & why or why not. There's a lot of stuff on how lower-income, black communities in New Orleans tend to be v. tuned in & engaged, which is poignant to read post-Katrina.
Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books - Maureen Corrigan. Corrigan is a professor & an NPR book reviewer; hence, her life is full of books & here she talks about them. I liked her categorization of female extreme-adventure novels--they're not like the male counterparts w/Arctic adventures, but things like Jane Eyre. I also liked her defense of genre literature--specifically hard-boiled detective novels--as things worth reading & analyzing critically, as things that can have worth.
Millicent Min, Girl Genius - Lisa Yee. Millicent Min is 11 years old & in high school. I thought her a bit too pretentious & obnoxious @ first, but then I remembered how unconsciously pretentious I was as a child (& I'm not even near genius-level). Also, I was hoping the book wouldn't fall into the Asian Nerdy stereotype, but Yee introduces a Chinese boy character who's the total opposite: athletic, slacker-y, etc. Yay! The story revolves around Millicent learning there's more ways to be smart than academically (ie. she learns to play volleyball & how to make friends & be honest w/them), but the story doesn't end w/her renouncing book-learning. Phew!
Just Listen - Sarah Dessen. The plot made me think this would be a ripoff of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak: girl loses friends over a misunderstanding that actually cloaks a sexual assault. However, there the similarity ends, & I think I actually like this book better. Annabel learns to use her voice throughout the book, learns to tell the truth. I got weepy in parts, like where she tells her family about what happened to her & they listen & they support her, & where someone gives her just what she realizes she wants: an acknowledgment of what happened to her. That's how you know it's fiction, right?
The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy - Compiled and edited by Leonard S. Marcus. I'd been eyeing & petting this book @ Books of Wonder for months, & finally got it from the library. All the interviews had something interesting about them, even if I'd never read the author before or wanted to. I was especially pleased to read the Diana Wynne Jones, Philip Pullman, & Garth Nix ones. And, holy crap, Lloyd Alexander LOOKS LIKE FFLEWDDUR FFLAM! Totally like how I've always imagined Fflewddur (who I love), except obviously older.
Kitty and the Midnight Hour - Carrie Vaughn. Reread. Still as fun as last time, & also more complicated than you might expect from reading the jacket copy. I still love how Vaughn has Kitty struggling w/the different mores of the werewolf world, instead of just diving in, despite her pack's tendency towards what her human side sees as abuse.
Kitty Goes to Washington - Carrie Vaughn. Reread. Even more fun than last time, I think, as Kitty is subpoenaed by the Senate to testify on the existence of supernaturals. The next Kitty book comes out in April, & I can't wait!
Unbowed - Wangari Maathai. This is the autobiography of the founder of the Green Belt Movement, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work to empower women by helping combat deforestation in Kenya. I thought Wangari was sometimes a little bit too forgiving to some of the colonialists she came in contact w/, but then sometimes she doesn't spare anyone @ all (as well she shouldn't). One of the moments that stuck out for me was when she talked about how @ school, if you didn't speak English, you had to wear a button that said something like, "I'm stupid. I was speaking my native language." Of course I know that people all over the
world were punished for daring to speak their own language, but the button text still got me. Anyway--an inspiring, fast read.
Specials - Scott Westerfeld. The third book in the Uglies trilogy. Good stuff. Nothing too surprising here, but more of what I've come to appreciate about Westerfeld's writing: thoughtful but fast-paced & fun YA sf.
How to Live Green, Cheap, & Happy - Randi Hacker. A bit outdated, & sometimes a bit off-puttingly strident. There are better simple living books out there.
Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture - Juliet B. Schor. Frightening! All about how children are marketed to pretty much since birth. She also talks about research that shows that kids who are heavily involved in consumer culture are unhappier & have more problems. That seems sensible to me, given the folks I know who are shopaholics never seem happy.
Liavek - Edited by Will Shetterly & Emma Bull. The Bordertown books made me a sucker for anthologies like these (I know Liavek came first, but that's not how I encountered them). Anyway, it took me a long time to get through this book, b/c for every story I really liked, there was one that kind of dragged. Still, I'm excited about reading the rest of the Liavek anthologies.
Fifth Quarter - Tanya Huff. Total brain candy reading. Brother & sister assassins (the sister has an unhealthy attraction to her brother) muck up a job & find themselves both sharing the sister's body, while the bad guy runs off w/the brother's body. I liked that the bad guy was given more depth, but didn't really find realistic the sister's warming towards him. Regardless, a fun, quick read.
Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping - Judith Levine. Levine, a Brooklynite, & her husband decide for a year they won't buy anything unnecessary (groceries, yes, eating out, no). While @ the beginning of the book I rolled my eyes @ how bougie they come off, by the end I appreciated how Levine complicates the notion of consumption: it's not just brainwashed capitalists who want to buy superfluous stuff (an idea I'm exploring in the next issue of my zine!).
Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out - Edited by Katia Roberto and Jessamyn West. What the title says. A sequel to a book by the same name from the '70s. I didn't really find the updates from authors in the original anthology to be that interesting (especially one piece, which was just way too groovy & hippie for me), but the rest of the book I liked a lot, & found useful in my quest to discover if I should go back to grad school AGAIN.
Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich - Duane Elgin. An oft-mentioned classic of the voluntary simplicity movement. Again, like most books on the subject I've read, there's stuff to take & stuff to leave behind. I do like that it talks about societal change, & doesn't just focus on how we as individuals can cut down on consumerism.
Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems - Cesar Millan. Yes, the Dog Whisperer. And no, we still don't have a dog. Nevertheless, an intriguing read. He definitely has a take on dog behavior that most other folks don't--for example, he recommends not showing affection to a new dog for a couple of weeks, so that you can assert your pack leader stance first (this is part of his "exercise, discipline, & affection--in that order!" mantra that he uses on his TV show). I was fascinated. Also, I loved reading about his daily routine--he takes his pack (sometimes up to 40 dogs!) running in the hills early every morning off leash. Then he brings them all back to his Dog Psychology Center &, ten @ a time (this time on leashes) he takes them rollerblading. So basically he goes for a run & then goes for 4 jaunts rollerblading w/packs of dogs!
Close Kin - Clare B. Dunkle. The sequel to The Hollow Kingdom, this one focuses more on Emily & her childhood friend Seylin, who proposes to her. She rejects him; he leaves on a quest to find his kin (the elves), & she realizes that no, she actually does love him. You can imagine how the story goes from here. Definitely an enjoyable ride, though, if predictable.
Gaudy Night - Dorothy L. Sayers. I wouldn't have read this w/o
oyceter's review, as I've never read any Sayers & I don't often read mysteries. But this is women @ Oxford in the '30s & has a lot of discussion about the work/family public/private dilemma that women are still faced w/. I had to read around the classism in the book, but still--yum! Train to Pakistan - Khushwant Singh. There was an article in the New York Times about this months ago; apparently I wasn't the only one inspired by it, as it took me ages to get this on hold from the library. This is a harrowing novel about partition in India that focuses on a village where Sikhs & Muslims have lived in peace together for years. As the novel unfolds, dissent is sown in the village, inflamed by the violence of partition going on around them. An upsetting, but important, read.
Catalyst - Laurie Halse Anderson. Meh. I read & enjoyed Speak, but this was just kind of blah. Big nerdy girl Kate gets rejected from MIT, the one college she applied to (after lying to everyone about applying to safeties as well), & has to deal w/having a tough girl & her younger brother move in w/Kate's family after their house burns down. There were bits that were good, but when I put the book down, I didn't really feel much.
Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News - David T. Z. Mindich. What the title says. Basically, it's because our parents didn't, & we're lulled by entertainment "news" & the Internet (potentially a savior, except for the siloization factor--on the
Internet, it's easy to just look @ the stuff you want, so if you don't want a general news picture, you're not going to get one). Mindich interviewed lots of folks about how tuned in they are & why or why not. There's a lot of stuff on how lower-income, black communities in New Orleans tend to be v. tuned in & engaged, which is poignant to read post-Katrina.
Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books - Maureen Corrigan. Corrigan is a professor & an NPR book reviewer; hence, her life is full of books & here she talks about them. I liked her categorization of female extreme-adventure novels--they're not like the male counterparts w/Arctic adventures, but things like Jane Eyre. I also liked her defense of genre literature--specifically hard-boiled detective novels--as things worth reading & analyzing critically, as things that can have worth.
Millicent Min, Girl Genius - Lisa Yee. Millicent Min is 11 years old & in high school. I thought her a bit too pretentious & obnoxious @ first, but then I remembered how unconsciously pretentious I was as a child (& I'm not even near genius-level). Also, I was hoping the book wouldn't fall into the Asian Nerdy stereotype, but Yee introduces a Chinese boy character who's the total opposite: athletic, slacker-y, etc. Yay! The story revolves around Millicent learning there's more ways to be smart than academically (ie. she learns to play volleyball & how to make friends & be honest w/them), but the story doesn't end w/her renouncing book-learning. Phew!
Just Listen - Sarah Dessen. The plot made me think this would be a ripoff of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak: girl loses friends over a misunderstanding that actually cloaks a sexual assault. However, there the similarity ends, & I think I actually like this book better. Annabel learns to use her voice throughout the book, learns to tell the truth. I got weepy in parts, like where she tells her family about what happened to her & they listen & they support her, & where someone gives her just what she realizes she wants: an acknowledgment of what happened to her. That's how you know it's fiction, right?
The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy - Compiled and edited by Leonard S. Marcus. I'd been eyeing & petting this book @ Books of Wonder for months, & finally got it from the library. All the interviews had something interesting about them, even if I'd never read the author before or wanted to. I was especially pleased to read the Diana Wynne Jones, Philip Pullman, & Garth Nix ones. And, holy crap, Lloyd Alexander LOOKS LIKE FFLEWDDUR FFLAM! Totally like how I've always imagined Fflewddur (who I love), except obviously older.
Kitty and the Midnight Hour - Carrie Vaughn. Reread. Still as fun as last time, & also more complicated than you might expect from reading the jacket copy. I still love how Vaughn has Kitty struggling w/the different mores of the werewolf world, instead of just diving in, despite her pack's tendency towards what her human side sees as abuse.
Kitty Goes to Washington - Carrie Vaughn. Reread. Even more fun than last time, I think, as Kitty is subpoenaed by the Senate to testify on the existence of supernaturals. The next Kitty book comes out in April, & I can't wait!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-02-01 03:44 am (UTC)I've heard good things about Sarah Dessen but haven't read any of her books. I'll have to check her out.
I'm excited that you have a reading journal! I'll add you under my book journal account (lj user="mydeergirl">).
no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 03:34 pm (UTC)I'm debating whether I want to add all the reading journals I read (I'll have to add yours!) on this journal, to keep them separate, so I can add journals for folks who I don't know & then don't have to worry about them having access to my friends-only posts...
no subject
Date: 2007-02-01 08:49 am (UTC)Wow, HOW do you manage to read so many books in one month????
no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 03:35 pm (UTC)Heh, when I'm depressed I tend to just hunker down & read. ;) Plus I have a fair bit of time on the train to & from work every day to read.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-01 10:39 am (UTC)And damn! I only managed 20 books this month. How do you do it!!
Also, would Fifth Quarter have enough of an unhealthy sister-brother attraction to make it worthwhile me reading it as preparation for the incest book?
no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 01:39 am (UTC)Oh! That sounds really interesting. Have you read How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (aka my favorite book read in 2005)? Fabulous amazing book, also contains incest (well, if you consider first cousins incest--which in western societies we usually do...).
Fifth Quarter is fun & smutty--the situation set up in the book provides lots of food for
smutty fantasties/fanficthought...no subject
Date: 2007-02-06 12:22 am (UTC)I shall also check out Fifth Quarter.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-06 02:56 am (UTC)Fifth Quarter is a bit trashy--not that it means it's not worth reading, or that there aren't interesting things in there (btw, you never replied to my post about trash lit, did you? Hee). It's just... more of a guilty pleasure read.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-05 08:34 am (UTC)I'm glad I'm not the only person who thought that!
(I haven't seen this particular photograph, but I remember running across a jacket photo of Alexander in elementary school and I was impressed.)
no subject
Date: 2007-02-06 02:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-06 04:45 am (UTC)I must check out this book: I don't think I've ever seen pictures of him that young. Even by The Fortune-Tellers he had the right profile. And the hair.
As regards Fflewddur: he was probably my earliest favorite character.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-11 03:52 am (UTC)And re: your link--yes! The harp-smashing scene makes me cry all the time.
And I love Ed the Master Shark from Deep Wizardry too. SO COOL.