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1 February 2005

• Anya Seton's Foxfire is a departure from her other novels, in being set in relatively recent times (during the Depression) and in the American Southwest. When eastern debutante Amanda marries mining engineer Dart and moves to a tiny Arizona mining town, she's miserable in her new life -- until she discovers a map to a lost gold mine. Maybe it's that the period and setting appealed to me less than Seton's usual English ones, but Foxfire didn't work for me all that well. The characters weren't terribly appealing, and the plot was too predictable, though Seton did manage to create some suspense near the end. I guess I'm still searching for that elusive "as good as Katherine" Seton novel.

Books read: 1

2 February 2005

• Tony Kubek was the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees from 1957 to 1965, and in Sixty-One: The Team, the Record, and the Men, he and Terry Pluto tell the story of that magical year, 1961, when Maris and Mantle competed to beat the Babe's home run record, Whitey Ford won 25 games, and the Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. The book really revolves around Maris, starting out with an in-depth look at his character and career and how the home run race affected him and Mantle. Then Kubek provides a more detailed description of the 1961 season, the pennant race with Detroit and the Series with the Reds, before finishing with brief accounts of the lives of his teammates after baseball. It's unpretentiously written, with a nicely personal and direct tone. This is certainly essential reading for any Yankee fan, but also for baseball fans interested in an insider's illuminating account of a historic year in baseball.
  
  
• Patrick Nielsen Hayden's New Magics: An Anthology of Today's Fantasy is a great collection of fantasy fiction for the young adult market; the stories are varied in subject and excellent across the board. I generally dislike short stories and tend to skip liberally when reading anthologies, but I read this one almost cover to cover; I did skip the Orson Scott Card entry, because it was essentially the first bit of Seventh Son, which I've read several times. I enjoyed all of the stories, but my favorites were: Neil Gaiman's "Chivalry", a wry take on the Holy Grail legend; Andy Duncan's "Liza and the Crazy Water Man", about a singer with an otherworldly voice; and Sherwood Smith's "Mom and Dad at the Home Front", a tale of children who visit another world -- from their parents' point of view.

Books read: 2

3 February 2005

• L. Frank Baum's Rinkitink in Oz, The Lost Princess of Oz, and The Tin Woodman of Oz are on my favorites page.
  
  

Books read: 3

4 February 2005

• Rita Mae Brown's Cat's Eyewitness is the latest in her series of cat mysteries, supposedly co-written with her cat Sneaky Pie Brown. This one was decent; although the main mystery wasn't very interesting, there were some developments in the lives of the recurring characters that were intriguing. Hopefully next time she'll come up with a more engaging plot to go with the engaging characters.

Books read: 1

5 February 2005

• I was a little worried about Carolly Erickson, because the last of her books I read, Mistress Anne, didn't impress me much. Fortunately, Our Tempestuous Day: A History of Regency England, was much better, perhaps because the period is better documented. At less than 300 pages, it's not a long book in which to document the ten tumultuous years of the Regency (when the future George IV ruled as regent for his mad father, George III), but Erickson skillfully mixes social, cultural, and political history to provide a good overview of the period. I'll go on to more detailed histories, but this was a very useful and readable starting point.

Books read: 1

6 February 2005

• Tony Lord's Gardening at Sissinghurst is a treasure trove of gardening information and history and of gorgeous photographs. This in-depth look at Sissinghurst, where Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson gardened, provides detailed descriptions of each area of the Sissinghurst garden, as Vita and Harold planned them, as they've developed over the years, and as they're gardened today. There are excellent watercolor plans of many areas, as well as Lord's beautiful photographs; those of the White Garden are particularly stunning.

Books read: 1

7 February 2005

• Enna Burning is a sequel to Shannon Hale's excellent young adult fantasy, The Goose Girl. It takes place two years after The Goose Girl and focuses on Enna, the best friend of Isi, the princess who disguised herself as a goose girl. When Enna's brother Leifer discovers a mysterious piece of vellum which describes how to wield the power of fire, in much the same way as Isi can wield the power and speak the language of air. The characters are very engaging, particularly the stubborn, bold, direct Enna, and the setting and magic intriguing. I think I might have liked The Goose Girl just a little better, but Enna Burning is a very worthy follow-up.

Books read: 1

8 February 2005

• The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel is a collection, edited by Deirdre David, of essays examining aspects of the Victorian novel, on topics from race, gender, and sexuality to industrial culture and the business of publishing, and on writers from Dickens and Thackeray to H. Rider Haggard and Wilkie Collins. It's definitely useful background reading for devotees of the Victorian novel.

Books read: 1

10 February 2005

• Laura Kinsale's Flowers from the Storm is widely heralded as being one of the best historical romances out there, and I'd have to say it certainly ranks far up on my list. The protagonists are unusual -- Christian, the Duke of Jervaulx, a rake who is struck down by a stroke and loses his ability to communicate, and Maddy Timms, a Quaker who assists her blind father with his mathematical papers. When Maddy and her father discover the Duke in her cousin's insane asylum, Maddy feels that she is called to help him get well. Christian and Maddy aren't always likable (particularly Maddy, who's often a little self-righteous), but they're undeniably an engaging couple and made Flowers from the Storm well-nigh impossible to put down.

Books read: 1

11 February 2005

• Georgette Heyer's The Grand Sophy is an effervescent Regency romance, with great characters and lots of witty repartee. When Sophia Stanton-Lacy comes to live with her aunt's family, she meddles in their lives and shocks them and London society with her unconventionality. Sophy is an enchanting character, vivacious and direct, and the tangle of romantic intrigue she creates is interesting to the end. In spite of a little bit of disturbing racial stereotyping of a Jewish moneylender, this might well be my favorite of the Heyers I've read so far.

Books read: 1

12 February 2005

• I probably should have remembered that I wasn't very impressed by Benita Eisler's book on Chopin and George Sand before picking up her biography of Lord Byron, Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame. It's certainly a full account (sometimes even too detailed), but it struck me (without knowing a ton about the subject, admittedly) as a little over-dramatized. I'm particularly suspicious of the section on Byron's marriage, which took as the main evidence the writings of Byron's wife and drew what seemed a fairly biased portrait. I also felt that the book was lacking in discussion of the English poetry scene at the time and Byron's place in it. It did leave me with a wish to read more of his poetry and perhaps some of his journals and letters, so I guess that's something, but overall, this isn't a biography I'd want to write again: I'll hope to find something a little more objective next time.

Books read: 1

13 February 2005

• L. Frank Baum's The Magic of Oz, Glinda of Oz, and Little Wizard Stories of Oz are on my favorites page.
  
  

Books read: 3

14 February 2005

• When L. Frank Baum died after writing Glinda of Oz, his widow and his publisher chose Ruth Plumly Thompson to continue the Oz series. Thompson wrote nineteen Oz books, all illustrated by John R. Neill (as were all but the first of Baum's Oz books), of which the first two are The Royal Book of Oz and Kabumpo in Oz.
  
  The Royal Book of Oz is disappointing, and it's probably lucky that I originally read Kabumpo first, as I'm not sure I'd have bothered with more Thompson after Royal Book. While looking for his ancestors, the Scarecrow slides down to Silver Island, where he's acclaimed as Emperor; when Dorothy discovers that he's missing, she and the Cowardly Lion go looking for him. Thompson does introduce several new and interesting characters -- Sir Hokus of Pokes, the Doubtful Dromedary, and the Comfortable Camel -- but I never felt as though she had a good handle on many of Baum's characters (particularly Dorothy), although she does develop the Cowardly Lion more than Baum had. Unfortunately, her effort to introduce new places goes awry; Silver Island, on the other side of the world from Oz, abounds with offensive racial stereotyping of Asian culture and customs. Perhaps it's just a product of its time, but that doesn't make it any more attractive to read.
  
  Happily, Kabumpo of Oz is a big improvement over Royal Book. There are a few mistakes (the constant misspellings of "Gillikin" as "Gilliken" and "Nome" as "gnome", for instance), but Thompson does a nice job using Ruggedo the Nome King as the villain and introducing several other excellent characters: Kabumpo the Elegant Elephant, Peg Amy the wooden doll, and Wag the rabbit, whose constant spoonerisms are very amusing. Oddly, though I do like Kabumpo a lot, I've still never felt much urge to read any more of Thompson's Oz books; perhaps I'll give the next one a try, though.

Books read: 2

15 February 2005

• I'd only ever read Eva Ibbotson's excellent children's books, so when I found out that she also writes adult novels, I immediately went and got A Song for Summer from the library. It's set just before World War II, when young Englishwoman Ellen Carr goes to Austria to take a position as matron to an unconventional boarding school and becomes caught up in the life of the school, as well as with the school's mysterious handyman and his quiet struggle against Hitler's Germany.
  
  Ibbotson's prose is often beautifully understated; she often cuts away just before a tense scene, leaving the reader to find out what happens later. I thought I would find this annoying after she'd done it a couple of times, but I ended up appreciating her trust in her readers. Her descriptions of Austria, of Vienna and also of the rural areas around Ellen's school, are warm and lyrical, and I was unsurprised to find out that Ibbotson was herself born in Vienna. The style of A Song for Summer is very different from her hilarious children's fantasy novels, but still shows the same ability to understand and illuminate human nature in her marvelous characters. Most of Ibbotson's adult novels seem to be out of print in the US (I got this one from the library), but I'll be making an effort to seek them out.

Books read: 1

16 February 2005

• A Ghost in the Machine is the latest in Caroline Graham's series of Inspector Barnaby mystery novels. It takes place in the small village of Forbes Abbot, where solicitor Dennis Brinkley is found crushed by one of the war machines he collects. As usual in this excellent series, Graham takes a leisurely approach; the crime isn't even committed until more than a hundred pages into the novel, which leaves the reader lots of time to get acquainted with the rich village setting and the intricate lives of the characters. I was a trifle disappointed with the ending, which felt a bit rushed, but overall, I enjoyed it immensely.

Books read: 1

17 February 2005

• Andrew Wilson's Influential Gardeners: The Designers Who Shaped 20th-Century Garden Style covers 56 outstanding 20th-century landscape designers and their styles, dividing them into several categories based on their main focus: color and decoration, planting, concept, form, structural emphasis, texture, and materials. Each gardener's section is necessarily short, no more than a few pages, but Wilson's discussions of each are illuminating, and the accompanying photography lovely. Though Influential Gardeners doesn't go deep, it's a great overview of 20th-century garden design and an excellent way to discover designers and styles of interest.

Books read: 1

22 February 2005

• Juliet E. McKenna's Tales of Einarinn series comprises five books: The Thief's Gamble, The Swordsman's Oath, The Gambler's Fortune, The Warrior's Bond, and The Assassin's Edge. They follow the adventures of the rogue Livak, a skilled thief and gambler, who stumbles into a wizard-led quest for lost artifacts when she tries to sell a stolen tanker, and of Ryshad, a swordsman who is on a mission for his lord which draws him into the same quest. With the wizard Shiv, they discover that their land is being threatened by a race of warriors with a kind of magic Shiv and his masters don't know how to fight.
  
  The premise is interesting; the conflict McKenna sets up between the two kinds of magic is worth exploring, and the revelations of the second book provide more emotional punch than the first book has. There's plenty of action, and the characters are taking, though I occasionally felt as though I was reading a description of a D&D campaign. However, the writing is terribly uneven; a good image here and there, but more than outweighed by the lack of commas, run-on sentences, and flat-out grammatical errors, all of which should have been caught by a competent copy editor, or not committed in the first place. (I was particularly horrified to note several instances of sentences like this: "...when me and Livak had been fighting..." - this error appeared several times.)
  
  All in all, I think McKenna had a good premise for the Tales of Einarinn, but the execution didn't quite follow through. I enjoyed them to some extent as light fantasy, but I think the real test will be whether I choose to reread them at some point.

Books read: 5

23 February 2005

• Girls in Pants is the third in Ann Brashares's young adult series, following the lives of best friends Carmen, Bee, Lena, and Tibby, who co-own a pair of jeans called the Traveling Pants, which magically fit each of them perfectly. It's the summer after their high school graduation, before they'll split up to go to different colleges, and as each girl faces a different challenge, they pass the pants back and forth to provide confidence when they need it the most. I like these books for Brashares's understanding portrayal of the girls, whose different personalities she delineates with skill, but I wasn't as taken with this installment as with the first two. Perhaps this was because so much of the plot revolved around the girls' love lives, which failed to grip me. Still, this was a nice ending to a good, well-written young adult series.

Books read: 1

24 February 2005

• The eponymous hero of Georgette Heyer's Sylvester is a very eligible match; as the Duke of Salford, he commands not only a title but also wealth, looks, and charm, when he chooses. Sylvester decides that he needs a wife and comes up with a list of six possibilities, but when his godmother adds Phoebe Marlow to the list, Sylvester is taken aback when Phoebe seems almost to despise him, little knowing that she has written a novel which casts him in the role of villain. I didn't like Sylvester quite as much as The Grand Sophy or A Civil Contract, but the sparks that fly between Sylvester and Phoebe make for a very entertaining book, a sort of take on Pride and Prejudice.

Books read: 1

25 February 2005

• Elizabeth Peters's mysteries are just plain fun; I like to pick one up when I need a beguiling and funny read, and Devil-May-Care is a great example. When Ellie housesits for her millionaire aunt Kate, she anticipates peace and quiet for a few weeks; instead she gets ghosts, tangled local history, and a charming gardener, Donald Gold, with a mysterious past. The plot is cleverly worked out, with a startling climax, but it's the characters that keep me entertained, even after several readings -- particularly the eccentric Kate, a woman of many talents and opinions, whose personality plays off well against the more laid-back Ellie. Altogether, it's an absorbing read, though perhaps not my favorite of Peters's books (that honor goes to the Vicky Bliss books and The Copenhagen Connection).

Books read: 1

28 February 2005

• Caroline of Brunswick was the German princess George III chose to marry his son George, later to become the Prince Regent (when his father went mad) and then George IV. Flora Fraser, daughter of well-known biographer Antonia Fraser, attempts to tell her story in The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline. It should be a fascinating tale, with colorful characters, from the undeniably vulgar Caroline herself, to the sybaritic Prince Regent, who took such a dislike to her that he refused to have any communication with her very soon after their marriage. However, Fraser's narrative, while packed with detail, is dry and largely lacking in analysis; she covers the events of Caroline's life, but fails to convey much sense of what made her the person she was. For me, a good biography not only provides a well-researched narrative of the subject's life, which The Unruly Queen did do, it should also leave me with a good sense of the subject's personality, and this book just didn't.

Books read: 1

Total books read this month: 31
Total books read this year: 71

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