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1 December 2004

• The Virgin's Lover is the third of Philippa Gregory's historical novels about the Tudors, following The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool. As one might guess from the title, The Virgin's Lover is about Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, who were widely supposed to have been lovers, unable to marry because of Dudley's wife Amy, who later died mysteriously of a fall down a staircase. As with the earlier novels, this one is well-researched and historically convincing; however, where it fails in comparison to the others is in the characterization.
  
  In The Other Boleyn Girl, Gregory took a minor historical character (Anne Boleyn's sister Mary) and created a believable personality and life for her; in The Queen's Fool, she created a fictional character and blended her story masterfully with the history of the period. In both books, her depiction of the historical people was vividly done and believable, from Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII to Lady Jane Grey and Mary I. In The Virgin's Lover, however, Gregory gives us an Elizabeth who is hesitant, hysterical, and easily led, putty in the hands of the ambitious Dudley; it makes sense in the context of Gregory's retelling, yet I never found it convincing. Better drawn are Dudley himself and Elizabeth's chief advisor, William Cecil, whose battle to dominate Elizabeth is a major plot point. Even Robert's wife Amy, though she's sometimes annoying in her passivity, is sympathetic, though the repetitive love triangle between her, Robert, and Elizabeth stagnates after a while.
  
  If you've read Gregory's other Tudor novels, do read this one; it's still reasonably good. If you haven't, however, don't start here; the earlier novels are both better (and besides, the books are better read in order).

Books read: 1

2 December 2004

• What happened to Sherlock Holmes after he retired to Sussex to keep bees? Michael Chabon's novella The Final Solution presents one possibility. During World War II, Holmes (always referred to in the book as "the old man", never by name) meets a mysterious boy who escaped from Nazi Germany with an African gray parrot which mysteriously rattles off strings of German numbers. What do the numbers mean, and what connection do the boy and the parrot have to the death of a fellow lodger at their boarding house? Chabon's writing is tight and full of memorable images, and his characters are nicely drawn (particularly the aging Holmes), but frankly, the story just didn't do much for me. It's gotten a lot of great reviews, so who knows? Perhaps I'm just missing something.

Books read: 1

3 December 2004

• Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw has just come out in paperback, and so of course I had to reread it as soon as I got my hands on a copy. Happily, I still love it as much as the first time I read it. I haven't much to add to the comments I made then, save that this time I admired even more the skillful way in which Walton transfigures the mores and conventions of Victorian society into the realities of her dragon society. She's apparently now working on a sequel, which I can't wait to read.

Books read: 1

4 December 2004

• Peter and the Starcatchers is the tale of how Peter Pan came to be Peter Pan, as imagined by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. However, their story appears to be a prequel to the Disney version of the tale, rather than to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan (which I reread immediately after finishing Barry and Pearson's book). Peter and the Starcatchers is entertaining in its own right, with an inventive story and interesting characters (particularly the practical, feisty Molly, who's a far cry from Barrie's maternal Wendy); yet I was thrown off by the lack of coherence with the original (and would have been even more disconcerted had I reread Peter Pan first instead of afterward). Still, if you want a swashbuckling tale with plenty of action and the occasional laugh, you'll probably like Peter and the Starcatchers; just don't expect the charm, whimsicality, and underlying seriousness of the original Peter Pan.

Books read: 2

14 December 2004

• I've just finished reading all of Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novels: Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Strong Poison, Five Red Herrings, Have His Carcase, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors, Gaudy Night, Busman's Honeymoon, and Lord Peter (which is a collection of all the Lord Peter short stories, including those from Hangman's Holiday, Lord Peter Views the Body, and In the Teeth of the Evidence). Had I but worlds enough and time, I would log them each individually, but alas, the holiday season leaves me little time for booklogging. Gaudy Night does get its own entry, though, on my favorites page.
  
  I think this is the first time I've read all of the Lord Peter books together in one fell swoop, and as a result, I was very much struck with the development of his character over the course of the books, from the broadly drawn gentleman detective of Whose Body? to the anguished human being at the end of Busman's Honeymoon. There clearly comes a point midway through the series when Sayers had to decide what to do with Lord Peter; you can see her developing him into a real character in The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club and Strong Poison (which introduces Harriet Vane, the mystery novelist with whom Lord Peter falls in love), and then retreating in Five Red Herrings (which for my money is the worst of the lot - all of those timetables!), before jumping into Have His Carcase (the second of the Vane novels) and The Nine Tailors.
  
  By the way, if you've read the books, there are some very interesting discussions of them in Sarah Monette's LiveJournal, here. Do not read these if you haven't read the books, because they contain many, many spoilers.

Books read: 12

15 December 2004

• Set in late 19th-century New York, Megan Chance's An Inconvenient Wife tells the story of Lucy Carelton, who suffers from what Victorian doctors called "hysteria". As she becomes more and more unable to control her nerves and emotions, her husband William frantically searches for a doctor who can cure her; the Careltons think they've found their savior in Dr. Victor Seth, but when his relationship with Lucy deepens beyond that of a doctor to his patient, all of their lives start to spin out of control. I liked this but didn't love it: the characters didn't entirely engage me. Though I admired Chance's penetrating portrayal of the stifling life of a Victorian woman, I think I'd just as soon read the Brontës or George Eliot (or even Anthony Trollope).

Books read: 1

16 December 2004

• I'm still on my Jennifer Crusie kick, having most recently read Faking It (a sequel of sorts to Welcome to Temptation) and Fast Women. As with Welcome to Temptation and Crazy for You, I wasn't as taken with these two as with Bet Me, but they were both lively, witty books, very enjoyable to read. I actually preferred Faking It to Welcome to Temptation, and Fast Women had an interesting mystery woven into it, which I thought worked better than the one in Welcome to Temptation (perhaps because it appeared earlier on in the plot).

Books read: 2

17 December 2004

• Georgette Heyer's Cotillion is a very enjoyable Regency romance. Kitty Charing is to inherit a large fortune from her guardian, but only if she marries one of his nephews; in order to entice the nephew she prefers, she forms an engagement with one of the others and goes with him to London (ostensibly to visit his family), where she becomes entangled not only in her own romance, but in several others. The period details are just right, the characters delightful, and Heyer weaves together the romances as skillfully as dancers performing the cotillion of the title.

Books read: 1

18 December 2004

• The Affair of the Blood-Stained Egg Cosy and The Affair of the Mutilated Mink Coat, by James Anderson, have long been two of my favorite mysteries, so I was happy to find out that he's finally published another in the series, The Affair of the 39 Cufflinks. Upon receiving the new one, I read all three of them with glee.
  
  Set in England in the 1930s, at Alderley, the stately country home of George, Earl of Burford, his wife Lavinia, and their daughter Geraldine, the books each concern a house party given at Alderley, affairs that invariably turn out to involve all sorts of murder and mayhem, from burglary and blackmail to impersonations and international espionage. The solutions to the mysteries are outrageously convoluted, but getting there is so hilarious that it doesn't matter, and Anderson's characters are surprisingly vivid and human. I didn't think Cufflinks quite lived up to the earlier two (the characters were a little more shallow), but it was still good fun.

Books read: 3

19 December 2004

• Diana Wynne Jones's Fire and Hemlock is on my favorites page.

Books read: 1

20 December 2004

• Manhunting is one of Jennifer Crusie's earlier efforts, and I can't say that I cared for it too much, compared with her more recent books. I'm certainly unlikely to read it again. The characters were appealing and the style witty, as usual, but the plot failed to hold my attention (mostly due to a lack of interesting conflict).
  
  
• In Diana Wynne Jones's A Tale of Time City, WWII evacuee Vivian Smith is shocked when she is unceremoniously kidnapped from a railway station by two boys and taken to Time City. There she learns that although the city was built in order to keep history moving along as it should, something seems to be going wrong, and the boys, Jonathan and Sam, have mistaken her for the mysterious Time Lady, who they think can fix the problems. The plot is on the convoluted side, involving multiple time travel trips, but Jones keeps it moving along with a witty style and engaging characters. I don't think I'd call A Tale of Time City one of my favorites Jones books, but it's excellent all the same.

Books read: 2

21 December 2004

• Kage Baker's The Anvil of the World narrates the adventures of a man named simply Smith, who takes on a job as caravan master after giving up his old job of assassin. On the way from the inland city of Troon to the coastal city of Salesh, he meets a number of bizarre people, from the caravan's cook, Mrs. Smith (no relation) to the demonic half-breed Lord Ermenwyr. When the party reaches Salesh, the story really gets started - up until then, it's a little slow - and turns into a truly rousing adventure told with wit and style. The Fatally Verbal Abuse duel between Lord Ermenwyr and the sorcerer who's after him is almost worth the price of admission by itself, but there's plenty more to like. This is Baker's first fantasy novel, and I'll certainly be reading more of her stuff - I'd like to try her earlier SF novels, which have gotten good reviews.

Books read: 1

22 December 2004

• In this off-the-wall fantasy by Diana Wynne Jones, Archer's Goon is a mysterious large man who shows up one day in Howard Sykes's kitchen, refusing to leave until Howard's father Quentin delivers the two thousand words he owes. When Quentin won't deliver, the Sykes family finds out that their town is run by seven competing siblings who are wizards - and one of them needs those words. Jones's plots are always mysterious, and I think Archer's Goon is up there with her most bizarre, but she does a wonderful job keeping the mystery intriguing right up through the end of the book, as Howard and his sister Awful try desperately to figure out what's going on before the seven siblings drive them all to distraction or worse.

Books read: 1

23 December 2004

• In Black Maria (called Aunt Maria in the US), Diana Wynne Jones examines the workings of families and the relationship between the sexes. After her father's car goes over a cliff, Mig, her brother Chris, and their mother go to stay with Mig's Aunt Maria in the little town of Cranbury-on-Sea, but they quickly realize that all is not as it seems to be: the women, under Aunt Maria's rod of iron, rule the town, the men almost all act like zombies, and the only children are locked away in an orphanage. Along with the characteristically inventive story, Black Maria is full of memorable characters, particularly the sinister Aunt Maria, so sweet and helpless on the outside and chillingly evil within - one of Jones's most remarkable villains.
  
  
• The Ogre Downstairs is probably not one of Diana Wynne Jones's best-known books, but it's always been one of my favorites. Caspar, Johnny, and Gwinny resent their new stepfather (known to them as "the Ogre") and his sons, Douglas and Malcolm, but when the Ogre gives Johnny and Malcolm new chemistry sets, all of the children get mixed up in the magical results. I've read this book multiple times, and it's always laugh-out-loud funny; Jones is really at the top of her comic form here. At the same time, she has some serious things to say about families and their relationships.

Books read: 2

26 December 2004

• Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, The Darkest Road) is on my favorites page.

Books read: 3

27 December 2004

• John Canemaker's Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation is a marvelous book about the group of men who were the most influential and prolific at the Walt Disney Studios: Les Clark, Wolfgang Reitherman, Eric Larson, Ward Kimball, Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery, and Marc Davis. Remembering their names is harder than remembering the Seven Dwarves, but my recall is much better now that I've read Canemaker's tome, which devotes a chapter to each man, with copious photographs and illustrations (as you'd expect from a book about animators). This is an essential addition to any Disney lover's library.

Books read: 1

28 December 2004

• When Maddie Faraday discovers that her husband has been cheating on her, it's only the beginning of the lies she uncovers in Jennifer Crusie's Tell Me Lies. I think Crusie has learned to blend mystery and romance rather more skillfully in her more recent books, but Tell Me Lies is still a worthwhile read, breezy yet with surprisingly serious undertones; Crusie examines the breakup of Maddie's marriage and the effects on her daughter Emily with sympathy and poignancy.
  
  
• Patrick Dennis's The Joyous Season is on my favorites page.

Books read: 2

29 December 2004

• How Firm a Foundation is one of Patrick Dennis's lesser-known efforts. The title is a play on words, as the idealistic John Wesley Smith joins the Fennessey Foundation as its Director of Projects, only to find out that his real job is to tutor the children of millionaire Justin Fennessey and his diva wife Lydia and that the Foundation is merely a sham for tax purposes. When the IRS starts breathing down the Fennesseys' necks, though, John Wesley Smith is unwillingly involved in their desperate efforts to evade the tax man. It's amusing enough, but it lacks the truly memorable characters of Auntie Mame or The Joyous Season. Since it's long out of print and can be hard to find, I'd bother to seek it out only if you're a Dennis devotee (or your library has a copy).
  
  
• Patrick Dennis's Little Me was a classic of its time, yet it's largely forgotten today. It's the purported autobiography of stage and screen star Belle Poitrine, "as told to Patrick Dennis": a tongue-in-cheek sendup of star autobiographies, with hilarious photographs by Cris Alexander, featuring model and actress Jeri Archer as Belle, Dennis himself as her second husband Cedric, and even cameos by actresses Rosalind Russell and Peggy Cass. The tone is spot-on perfect, as Belle narrates her rise to fame, with five husbands and uncounted lovers along the way, and the brilliantly staged photographs complete the picture. Happily, it's back in print now, after being very hard to find for many years.

Books read: 2

30 December 2004

• Charlie All Night is another of Jennifer Crusie's early novels, and I liked it much more than Manhunting. When radio producer Allie McGuffey is demoted from the prime-time show, she decides to make her new show, with new DJ Charlie Tenniel, a hit, but Charlie is a little more than she bargained for. In addition to the tension between Allie and Charlie, there's an interesting plot concerning goings-on at the radio station, with an unexpected outcome, and that's what kept the story interesting to me.
  
  
• Eric Myers's Uncle Mame: The Life of Patrick Dennis is a short but very readable biography of the man who created Auntie Mame. Although Edward Everett Tanner III was the very successful author of sixteen novels under the pseudonyms Patrick Dennis and Virginia Rowans, he's barely remembered today for anything but the bestseller Auntie Mame (also made into a play and a wonderful movie with Rosalind Russell). There's little in print about Tanner, and Myers does a very good job recreating his life through extensive interviews with his family and friends, from Tanner's childhood through the height of his career as a writer to his reinvention of himself as butler to the rich and famous.

Books read: 2

31 December 2004

• Paradise is one of Patrick Dennis's last books, and it suffers a little from his increasingly cynical outlook on life. The setting is a stylish hotel in Acapulco, run by socialite Liz Martinez and her husband Salvador; the guests of the hotel make up most of the zany cast of characters, who are usually funny, but more stereotyped than in Dennis's best books, and the plot is sometimes distressingly bleak. Still, the story moves along at a good rate, and there are laughs along with the grimness, so it's certainly worth reading if you're a Dennis fan.

Books read: 1

Total books read this month: 42
Total books read this year: 402

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