Archives - December 2003 archives -- index by author -- index by category -- favorite books -- links

Search Now:

2 December 2003

• Gregory Maguire, Mirror, Mirror: a new skewed fairy tale from the master of skewed fairy tales. This one is based on Snow White and is set in Renaissance Italy, featuring Lucrezia Borgia as the evil stepmother. Liked it, didn't love it, not sure why.
  
  
• Neil Gaiman, Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: I thought this would be more of a biography than it turned out to be, but still, it was an entertaining companion to the Hitchhiker's series.
  
  
• Jane Yolen, Sword of the Rightful King: an Arthurian novel, telling the story up until Arthur removes the sword from the stone. I kept thinking, "Wow, this seems really familiar!" (and not just because it's Arthurian), and finally I realized that it was an expansion of a short story from Yolen's Merlin's Booke, which sort of spoiled the surprise of the ending.
  
  
• Mark Dunn, Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters: a very, very odd but enjoyable book, set on the imaginary island of Nollop, off the coast of the Carolinas. The island is an autonomous country, named after the author of the famous sentence, "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog", which is a pangram, using all of the letters of the alphabet. The sentence is inscribed in tiles on a statue of Nollop, and one day, the "Z" tile falls off. The ruling council of the island interprets this as a sign from Nollop (who is almost a deity to them) that the people of the island should stop using the letter "Z" in speech and in writing. The book is made up of correspondence between several residents of the islands, and the language in their letters becomes more and more bizarre as letters continue to fall off the statue and thus under the ban. Overall, an interesting mix of whimsical wordplay and almost Orwellian social commentary.
  
  
• Katherine Kurtz, The Deryni Archives: reread.

Books read: 5

8 December 2003

• Katherine Kurtz, ed., Deryni Tales: a collection of basically fanfic in Kurtz's Deryni world. Not very memorable.
  
  
• Antonia Forest, Run Away Home, The Marlows and the Traitor: two books in a wonderful series about the Marlow family - many of the books are annoyingly out of print, but a great publisher called Girls Gone By is slowly but surely reprinting them. These two feature Forest's usual excellent characterization of the children in the Marlow family, along with thrilling plots and fast action.
  
  
• Rita Mae Brown, Full Cry: the latest in her series of fox-hunting mysteries set in Virginia, and not as good as the previous two. The mystery seemed to take a back seat to moralizing about society, and while there's certainly a place for that sort of thing, I don't think it goes well in a mystery, at least not when it bogs down the plot.
  
  
• Donna Leon, Death at La Fenice: decent murder mystery set in Venice, but it didn't grab me enough to make me want to read the rest of the series.

Books read: 5

11 December 2003

• Deborah Crombie, And Justice There Is None, Now May You Weep: the last two installments in her mystery series about two Scotland Yard detectives, Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. If you like Elizabeth George's books but find them too depressing and long-winded (as the last few have been), try Crombie. The story is well-woven and engrossing, and the ongoing relationship between Duncan and Gemma continues to intrigue.
  
  
• Tanith Lee, Wolf Wing: I really should have reread the previous books in the series (Wolf Tower, Wolf Star, Wolf Queen) before reading this one; I had a terrible time remembering what was going on, as the plot of this series (the Claidi Journals) is extremely complicated. Claidi is the narrator of the story, and as this book begins, she is finally about to be married to her beloved Argul, but of course, Claidi's life never runs smoothly, and more adventures ensue.
  
  
• Gwendoline Courtney, A Coronet for Cathie: entertaining British boarding school story.
  
  
• Elizabeth Goudge, Linnets and Valerians: a charming children's fantasy novel, set in England in the early 20th century.
  
  
• Sara Nelson, So Many Books, So Little Time: the title is the story of my life. I have a thing about reading books about books (always looking for recommendations), and this was a good one, covering books from Anna Karenina to Heartburn.
  
  
• Ian Fleming, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: I've seen the movie many times but have never read the book, which was (unsurprisingly) not a lot like the book - no Truly Scrumptious and little plot similarity, except for the magical car. A fun read, by the author of the James Bond books.
  
  
• Peter Beagle, The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances, Tamsin: the former is an excellent collection of short stories and essays spanning Beagle's career, including his best-known stories "Come Lady Death" and "Lila the Werewolf" and a new (and very good) one, "Julie's Unicorn".
  
  Tamsin is a ghost story about Jenny, an American teenager who is transplanted to an old manor in Dorset, England, when her mother remarries. Told in the first person (from Jenny's POV), the style is an interesting departure for Beagle, who normally writes in the third person, but it's very successful and just as beautifully written as his other books. After another reread or so, I think this might make it on to my favorites list (I have to read something several times to know whether I still like it enough for it to become a favorite).

Books read: 9

19 December 2003

• Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage: reread, because I was about to read Tooth and Claw, which I'd read was based loosely on Framley Personage. I think Trollope was particularly good at writing female characters, and Lucy Robarts, the spirited heroine of this novel, is one of my favorite Victorian heroines.
  
  
• Jo Walton, Tooth and Claw: a wonderful fantasy novel based on Victorian novels, particularly those of Anthony Trollope (and of his, especially Framley Parsonage). Walton takes the stereotypes of Victorian fiction (the strong male, the weak woman, the importance of property) and imagines a society in which the stereotypes are true. The twist? It's a society of dragons, where marriages are arranged, money is everything, and maiden dragons really are tarnished by the touch of a male dragon. Fascinating and convincing (and I speak as someone who's read a lot of Victorian novels and a lot of Trollope). I hope she writes more books set in this world.
  
  
• Eoin Colfer, The Wish List: Meg Finn, a teenage girl, is killed while reluctantly robbing the home of an elderly man with her partner in crime, Belch. However, her soul is perfectly balanced between good and evil, meaning that she can't enter heaven or hell, and she is sent back to earth as a ghost to help the old man she robbed. Entertaining, but not terribly gripping (which is much the same way I feel about Colfer's bestselling Artemis Fowl books).
  
  
• Laura Zigman, Her: I really liked her first book, Animal Husbandry, but this one just didn't grab me; it was next to impossible to empathize with the obsessive heroine.
  
  
• Peter Beagle, The Unicorn Sonata: not one of Beagle's best. Nicely written, as always, but the plot moved slowly, and I found the ending rather unconvincing.
  
  
• Diane Duane, High Wizardry, A Wizard Abroad: rereads. In High Wizardry, Nita's sister Dairine becomes a wizard and faces her Ordeal, while in A Wizard Abroad, Nita goes to Ireland to stay with her aunt and gets involved with wizardry there. High Wizardry felt like the concluding book of a trilogy, and a worthy one at that, but A Wizard Abroad feels curiously unconnected to the others - perhaps because Nita is in Ireland, away from her family, and even Kit isn't in a lot of the book.
  
  
• Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See: by turns hilarious and horrifying, this is the story of Adams's travels with Mark Carwardine, a zoologist, to visit endangered animals in their own habitats. Apparently Adams considered it his best book, and I think I agree.

Books read: 8

26 December 2003

• Diane Duane, The Wizard's Dilemma, A Wizard Alone, Wizard's Holiday: reread the first two to lead up to the new installment, Wizard's Holiday, which I liked quite a bit, although the ending felt a bit rushed and I was a little disappointed that Darryl (from the previous book, A Wizard Alone, didn't appear).
  
  
• Maeve Binchy, The Lilac Bus: a collection of twelve stories and a typically cozy and enjoyable read, though not one of her best.
  
  
• Peter Beagle, The Innkeeper's Song, Giant Bones

Books read: 6

31 December 2003

• Christopher Paolini, Eragon: a remarkably clichéd and unoriginal fantasy novel, despite the generally glowing reviews it's gotten. There are elements from Tolkien, Anne McCaffrey, George Lucas: you name it, and it's probably there. Or else, read this for an excellent description of most of Eragon. Yes, it's possible to create something original or at least interesting out of semi-standard elements, but Paolini just hasn't accomplished that; as this is the first of a planned trilogy, perhaps the next books will be better, but I'm not sure I'm interested enough to find out.
  
  
• Didier Ghez, Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality: beautifully produced art book about Disneyland Paris, which I happily got for Christmas.
  
  
• Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen's Outlandish Cousin: The Life and Letters of Eliza de Feuillide: excellently researched and presented biography of Jane Austen's cousin Eliza, who married first a French aristocrat and then (after his death by guillotine in the French Revolution) Jane's brother Henry. Eliza's story is largely presented through a series of her vivacious letters, which together with Le Faye's short narratives connecting the letters present a well-rounded picture of a charming and elegant woman.
  
  
• Douglas Adams, Salmon of Doubt: I resisted reading this for a long time because I was under the misapprehension that it was merely a presentation of the sections of the Dirk Gently novel Adams was working on until his untimely death in 2001. Having seen multiple references to it in Neil Gaiman's excellent Hitchhiker's companion, Don't Panic, I finally broke down and got it from the library, and I was very glad that I did.
  
  The last third of the book does indeed contain the unfinished Salmon of Doubt, but that was to my mind the least interesting part of the book and could (and perhaps should) have been left out. Adams didn't yet know where he was going with it, and in fact, he was apparently thinking of changing it from a Dirk Gently novel to one set in the Hitchhiker's universe. The first two-thirds of the book comprise many different writings by Adams on topics ranging from computers (his beloved Macintoshes) to how to make tea to his atheism, as well as speeches, letters, and interviews with Adams. It's really an eye-opening look at the wide-ranging intellect and knowledge that underlies the seeming frivolity and true hilarity of his books.

Books read: 4

Total books read this month: 37
Total books read this year: 365

Last updated 29 November 2005. All text and photographs © George Mitchell and Margaret Johnston, unless otherwise noted Comments, questions, suggestions to margaret@lonelymountain.net.