Archives - April 2006

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1 April 2006

Antonia Forest, nine of the Marlow family books (Autumn Term, The Marlows and the Traitor, Falconer's Lure, End of Term, Peter's Room, The Ready-Made Family, The Cricket Term, The Attic Term, Run Away Home -- I skipped The Thuggery Affair because I'd read it fairly recently): Having recently acquired The Attic Term and completed my collection of the series, I had the pleasure of rereading them and enjoying the deep character development through all of the books. The Attic Term was particularly satisfying, as it explored an interesting triangle Forest had set up in Peter's Room and continued through later books.

Books read: 10

2 April 2006

Susan Shwartz and Martin H. Greenberg, Sisters in Fantasy 2: I bought this for Pamela Dean's short story, This Fair Gift, which I liked a lot, though I'm clearly going to have to read it again in order to figure out all of the characters' Arthurian analogues. I skipped freely, not reading any story which didn't grab me within the first couple of paragraphs, but there were several other stories I liked a lot: Lois Tilton's "Kneeling at His Side"; Janni Lee Simner's "Why Is This Night Different"; Esther Friesner's "Moonlight in Vermont"; Ru Emerson's "Call Him by Name"; Sherwood Smith's "Daria's Window"; and Lee Barwood's "Pyre".
Rita Mae Brown, Sour Puss: I think I may be done with this series. Brown has resolved the major emotional issue the characters have been dealing with for some books now (and she did it mostly off-stage, which was not very satisfying), and the mystery in this one was practically non-existent amid the long, boring conversations about human fallibility, politics, and wine making.

Books read: 2

3 April 2006

Patricia A. McKillip, Ombria in Shadow: typically beautifully written, so let's just take that as a given. When the prince of Ombria dies, he leaves behind his small son Kyel and his mistress Lydea, who are at the mercy of Domina Pearl, the prince's powerful great-aunt. The struggle over who will rule Ombria pulls in not only them, but also the prince's mysterious relative Ducon Greve, the sorceress Faey, and her odd apprentice Mag. I very much liked the relationships in this one; Ducon and Lydea love little Kyel and are willing to risk much to protect him from Domina Pearl. I didn't enormously like the ending, though.

Books read: 1

4 April 2006

Sheri S. Tepper, The Gate to Women's Country: reread; it's been at least six years since I last read it. I loved it originally, but this time I was less...viscerally convinced, I guess, of this vision of the future. The gender assumptions bothered me, and so did the dismissal of homosexuality as "gay syndrome", supposedly caused by "aberrant hormone levels during pregnancy". Also, I hate the ending. On the plus side, the culture is certainly interesting and thought-provoking, and there are many interesting and strong characters. Maybe I'll read it again in a few years and see what I think of it then.

Books read: 1

5 April 2006

Daphne du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon: I missed this one in my big du Maurier read a couple of months ago, and I'd seen it recommended a couple of times, so I got it from the library. Armino Fabbio is going about his business as a tour guide in Rome when suddenly his past intrudes upon him, causing him to return for the first time since his WWII boyhood to his hometown of Ruffano (made up by du Maurier), where a charismatic professor is stirring up enmities between different schools of the university there. This novel is not one of du Maurier's better-known books and has received very mixed reviews, but I liked it quite a bit. The plot, admittedly, is a little bizarre, but the characters are fascinating, in their relationships, their shared pasts, and their connection to Ruffano's history and its 15th-century Duke Claudio, known as the Falcon.

Books read: 1

6 April 2006

Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus and Other Plays: This was the Oxford World's Classics edition, which includes Parts One and Two of Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta, Edward II, and the A- and B-texts of Doctor Faustus. I'd never read Marlowe before and thought I should remedy that. I like the ambiguity of the plays' heroes, particularly Barabas and Edward II, and the lovely verse. Reading these started a little Marlowe jag, with Park Honan's biography and Nicholl's The Reckoning to follow.

Books read: 1

7 April 2006

Elizabeth Peters, Tomb of the Golden Bird: the latest in her Amelia Peabody Emerson mystery series. I was less than impressed with the last entry in this series (The Serpent on the Crown), but I was pleasantly surprised that this one was an improvement. Peters blends the historical excitement of the discovery of Tutankhamon's tomb with interesting family interplay to come up with a pretty good book.

Books read: 1

8 April 2006

Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett, The Armor of Light: a very entertaining historical fantasy set in an alternate magical Elizabethan England. In this world, Sir Philip Sidney did not die after the battle of Zutphen; he recovered from his wounds and lived to save Christopher Marlowe's life at the tavern in Deptford. When the Wizard Earl of Bothwell threatens James VI of Scotland with deadly magic, Elizabeth of England sends Sidney to defend him; Robert Cecil sends Marlowe along to spy, whereupon Marlowe is also pulled into the magical battle, with very interesting results. The historical detail and language were good, the magic is powerful, and the characters were darned convincing. I enjoyed it a lot and will continue to look for the authors' other books (which are apparently set in the same universe).

Books read: 1

9 April 2006

Susan Isaacs, Any Place I Hang My Hat: reread.

Books read: 1

10 April 2006

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Knitting Rules!: fun and useful, though possibly more useful to a more experienced knitter than I currently am.
Elizabeth von Arnim, The Enchanted April: a delightful froth of a book about four Englishwomen on holiday in Italy. The plot was slender and a little contrived at the end, but the lovely setting and characters more than made up for it. I guess I'll have to get Elizabeth and Her German Garden, too.

Books read: 2

11 April 2006

John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades: an excellent followup to Old Man's War, set in the same universe and sharing a couple of the same characters (though the narrator of Old Man's War is mentioned, he doesn't appear). The focus widens a bit here to the larger scale of humans' fight for interstellar power with other alien races, three of which have allied against the humans and suborned a leading human scientist. In an effort to understand why the scientist betrayed them, the Colonial Defense Forces create a clone and attempt to transplant the scientist's memories into him. I liked how Scalzi explores character, personality, and identity -- how the clone, Jared Dirac, differs from his begetter -- and also how he continues to examine issues raised in the first book. I'm quite looking forward to the third book.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher, The Home-Maker: Fisher is best known today for the children's book Understood Betsy, which I read and liked a few years ago, but she also wrote many novels for adults. This one is a Persephone reprint -- I should just eventually buy everything they've reprinted, as I haven't disliked one yet. Evangeline Knapp is a smart, organized, determined woman, stuck at home in a role she despises; she loves her children, but she can't seem to sympathize with them, and her passion for cleanliness and organization has become an obsession in her house. Her husband Lester, on the other hand, is a dreamy, empathetic man who would love to write poetry but who is instead stuck in the role of earner, in a dreary job at a department store. When Lester is injured in an accident, the chance comes for the two to switch roles. The Home-Maker is a perceptive and often searing exploration of "traditional" family roles; Fisher is sympathetic to the characters and their dilemmas, but not at all to the society which forces them into the gender roles which make them miserable.

Books read: 2

12 April 2006

Mary Hays, The Memoirs of Emma Courtney: Mary Hays was a friend and ardent admirer of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin; I ran across her while reading Lyndall Gordon's Wollstonecraft bio and remembered that I had one of her novels. It's a mix of autobiographical, epistolary, and philosophical, telling the story of a young woman who falls in love and unconventionally pursues the man she loves with passion and sensibility. (So much sensibility, in fact, that I was often reminded of Austen's Love and Freindship, every time Emma threw herself sobbing on a sofa.) As a novel, I didn't find it very engaging. The characters, other than Emma herself, were uninteresting and shallow, and the plot got remarkably melodramatic at the end. Intellectually, though, it was an interesting expression of Hays' beliefs about feminism, and an interesting accompaniment to the Wollstonecraft biography.

Books read: 1

13 April 2006

Loretta Chase, The Lion's Daughter: Oh, dear, the first Chase I didn't really like. I wanted to like it, but I could not force myself to care about the hero, who struck me as a standard rakehell without much depth, or the plot, which was utterly ridiculous and convoluted. I did like the Albanian setting and the brave, forthright heroine, but liking them couldn't overcome my lack of interest in the hero and the plot. Oh, well, better luck next time, or maybe I'll just reread Lord of Scoundrels, my favorite Chase to date.

Books read: 1

14 April 2006

Lyndall Gordon, Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft: As I expected (having really liked Gordon's bio of Charlotte Brontë), this was excellent. Gordon examines the truths and myths of Wollstonecraft's life in an illuminating way, with generally just the right level of detail. She does spend a little too much time on Gilbert Imlay (Wollstonecraft's lover and father of her daughter Fanny) and his business partners and intrigues, but other than that, I found this a very compelling biography (and now I want to reread Claire Tomalin's, when I have a chance).

Books read: 1

15 April 2006

E.M. Delafield, Thank Heaven Fasting: Tracking down her non-Provincial Lady books has been very rewarding. This one is a perceptive look at the coming out of a debutante and her increasingly desperate search for a husband. It's sympathetic to the heroine, Monica, and to her mother (and does the relationship between them beautifully), but underneath there's a fairly scathing look at the society Monica has to deal with.

Books read: 1

16 April 2006

Amelia Opie, Adeline Mowbray: more Wollstonecraft-related reading. Opie was a friend of Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, and Adeline Mowbray, which deals with the effects of a cohabitational relationship outside of marriage, is partly based on Wollstonecraft and Godwin's relationship. Adeline Mowbray has been brought up by her intellectual mother to pursue radical thought, but when she puts that thought into practice by living with the philosopher Frederic Glenmurray while not married to him, Adeline is condemned by all, including her mother. Opie explores the contrast between the real world in which Adeline must live and "the world as it ought to be" in which she wants to live. Her conclusions are unsettling to modern readers, though reasonable for her times, and I rather wished for a slightly less downbeat ending, but it's a very thoughtful book, with some excellent and deep characterization, particularly of Adeline and her mother.

Books read: 1

17 April 2006

Georgette Heyer, The Corinthian: It's been a while since I read a Heyer, so I chose this randomly out of the ones the library had last week. I chose well, apparently, because I enjoyed it a lot. Sir Richard Wyndham is walking one night when he notices a young lady climbing out a window. The charming and impulsive Penelope Creed is trying to escape from marriage with her cousin; since Richard's family is pressuring him to marry also, he's more than happy to leave London and escort Penelope on her journey. Hijinks ensue, involving stolen diamonds, blackmail, elopements, and even a murder.
Loretta Chase, Lord Perfect: Okay, that's two Chases in a row which haven't done much for me. Maybe I'm just not in the mood? This is third in the series about the Carsington brothers (after Mr. Impossible and Miss Wonderful), focusing on the eldest brother, Benedict, commonly called "Lord Perfect" because he never sets a foot wrong -- until he falls for the notorious Bathsheba Wingate, of the rotten branch of the DeLucey family. I wasn't terribly interested in either the hero or the heroine, nor in the piece of plot that threatened to Keep Them Apart. I did like the children (Benedict's nephew and Bathsheba's daughter) and their quest for hidden treasure, but that wasn't enough to keep me very engaged.

Books read: 2

18 April 2006

Justine Larbalestier, Magic Lessons: I loved the first book in the trilogy, Magic or Madness, and this, in which Reason and her friends learn more about magic and face a new enemy, was also very good. The magic system continues to intrigue, and also the further development of the characters.
Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer, Don't Look Down: This was pretty good fun. I did find myself enjoying the Crusie sections more, but I thought the different POVs and styles blended reasonably well. I prefer Crusie on her own, but I'll likely try future collaborations.

Books read: 2

19 April 2006

Jennifer Crusie, Welcome to Temptation, Faking It: rereads. I actually liked Welcome to Temptation more this time; I still didn't think the murder mystery part meshed terribly well with the rest of the story, but it didn't bother me as much, and I love Sophie and Phin. And Faking It was still excellent, with more interesting secondary romances than Temptation.

Books read: 2

20 April 2006

Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond: I found this via the American Book Review's list of best first lines. Who could resist this?: "'Take my camel, dear,' said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass." The narrator, Laurie, goes to Turkey with her aunt Dot and Father Chantry-Pigg to try to establish an Anglican mission. It's as funny as you might expect, and the travel passages are excellent; I particularly liked Macaulay's gift for lyrical descriptions: "And I dreamed of sea winds whispering in rustling grass and asphodel among the fallen columns of Ilium and over the grave of Priam's Troy...." There are also some interesting ruminations on religion, cultural differences, and love, as we learn more about the narrator's personal life throughout the book.

Books read: 1

25 April 2006

Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog: the first Willis I've read, and I really liked it. I knew my history degree could actually be useful someday -- now I want to be a time-traveling historian when I grow up, if only I can figure out how to arrange it. This was a great combination of time travel, mystery, Wodehouse-type house party story, historical fiction, and romance. Now I have to get Three Men in a Boat from the library soon.

Books read: 1

29 April 2006

Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Mars books: rereads. I first started reading ERB when my father gave me A Princess of Mars one summer when I was nine or ten and sick in bed with measles. Since then, I've read all of Mars, Venus, Pellucidar, and even a couple of Tarzan books, but I've always liked the Mars books the most. Yeah, they're pulp, but they're delicious pulp. It's hard to resist Burroughs' colorful descriptions (even if all the men are handsome and all the women are beautiful) and outrageous plots: brain transfers, games of brutal living chess, people materializing from the power of the mind, bodies with detachable heads, and even synthetic men grown in a vat. I'm particularly fond of the first three (A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, The Warlord of Mars), because I love John Carter, that clean-limbed fighting man of Virginia. He may not be too bright, but he's certainly got panache. Of the later books, I especially like A Fighting Man of Mars which features a lovably dim hero and a brave and clever heroine, who actually gets some sword fighting action.

Books read: 11

30 April 2006

Mary Wollstonecraft, Collected Letters, edited by Janet Todd: an excellent edition, with good, detailed, useful notes, of fascinating letters. Wollstonecraft's voice is direct, impassioned, dramatic, affecting. Her letters to Gilbert Imlay are particularly compelling: after he left her, she writes, "Even at Paris, my image will haunt you. -- You will see my pale face -- and sometimes the tears of anguish will drop on your heart, which you have forced from mine."

Books read: 1

Total books read this month: 47
Total books read this year: 158


Last updated 21 June 2006. All text and photographs © George Mitchell and Margaret Johnston, unless otherwise noted Comments, questions, suggestions to margaret@lonelymountain.net.