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14 February 2006

• Steven Brust and Emma Bull, Freedom and Necessity: reread. I love, love, love this book: the Victorian setting, the epistolary style, the vivid characters, the way the complex plot is slowly revealed, the hints of magic.
  
  
• Nancy Springer, I Am Mordred, I Am Morgan le Fay: The revisionist angle on these Arthurian retellings isn't unusual nowadays, but Springer managed to come up with stories which surprised and pleased me. I particularly liked the poignant ending of I Am Mordred.
  
  
• Laurie Colwin, Goodbye Without Leaving: reread. I find her blend of wit and poignancy irresistible, and I particularly like this book, the story of a woman struggling to reconcile her present life with her past as the only white backup singer for a black rock and roll group. Colwin's novels have much to do with love and with parenthood, and I find that I appreciate them even more now that I have a son myself; she has a knack for hitting the nail right on the head: "The look of happiness on his [the heroine's toddler's] face when he saw me waiting made my heart open and close like a sea anemone."
  
  
• Simon Schama, A History of Britain, Vol. 2: The Wars of the British, 1603-1776: like the first volume, engagingly written and interesting, with a higher level of detail than the first volume (which makes sense, since this covers considerably fewer years of history in more pages).
  
  
• P.G. Wodehouse, Psmith in the City: I loved Leave it to Psmith so much that I couldn't resist buying this one too. Psmith is equally charming, and I also really liked his friend Mike Jackson, really the protagonist of the book. I can see that Wodehouse hadn't quite perfected his style yet, but it's still highly amusing.
  
  
• Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik, Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time: a big coffee table book with many pictures, detailing the authors' (fairly idiosyncratic) choices for the best Broadway musicals of all time. I disagreed with some of their choices (and couldn't believe they left out "Rent" and "Sunday in the Park with George"), but it was definitely a fun read.
  
  
• Sarah Smith, The Vanished Child, The Knowledge of Water, A Citizen of the Country: I had odd reactions to these, I think. I almost didn't finish The Vanished Child, which hit a couple of my buttons too hard, but then ended up liking it enough to read the sequels. The Knowledge of Water I was glued to from start to finish, which I think is a reaction to being particularly in tune with the heroine's issues around marriage, children, and her career; also I liked the art plot, though I thought the murder plot wasn't too interesting. A Citizen of the Country took me about half the book to get interested in (I'd have dropped it after 50 pages if I hadn't already been fascinated with the ongoing characters), and then I thought it really took off.
  
  
• Jennifer Crusie, Anyone But You: This is one of Crusie's early novels, recently republished. I've had mixed luck with her earlier efforts (really liked Charlie All Night, disliked Manhunting), but this one was definitely worth reprinting, with a great romance between an older woman and a younger man.
  
  
• Elizabeth Gaskell, A Dark Night's Work and Other Stories: a recently acquired collection of Mrs. Gaskell's short stories (well, the title story is really a novella); I'd only read one before ("The Grey Woman"). There's an impressive range of subject, from the Gothic of "The Grey Woman" to the pastoral of "Cumberland Sheep-Shearers", and of setting, from her own Manchester in "Libbie Marsh's Three Eras" to Switzerland, in "Six Weeks in Heppenheim". I particularly liked "A Dark Night's Work", which had a suspenseful plot and some excellent character studies.
  
  
• Rumer Godden, A House with Four Rooms: the second (and final) volume of her autobiography. I read the first, A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep, last month, and I liked this one just as much. I was particularly interested in Godden's conversion to Catholicism; my favorite of her novels is In This House of Brede, which is about a middle-aged woman who suddenly gives up her career to go into a convent. (Wow, I haven't reread that in a really long time -- I should soon.)
  
  
• Sherwood Smith, Wren to the Rescue, Wren's Quest, Wren's War: I bought these a while ago and had been sort of saving them up for a treat, which I felt I needed the weekend I read them. They were as good as I expected, with an interesting world, lots of action, humor, and vivid characters. I shall look forward to Wren Journeymage with great eagerness.
  
  
• Sarah Monette, Lynn Kurland, Claire Delacroiz, Sharon Shinn,The Queen in Winter: Having never tried any of the other authors, I bought this mainly for Monette's contribution, because I liked Melusine so much; her novella (perhaps unsurprisingly) turned out to be my favorite. Lynn Kurland's "A Whisper of Spring" just bored me; it was full of gorgeous, powerful people, none of whom were interesting, in a very generic fantasy world, and the romance, between a Powerful Sorcerer King and a Beautiful Elvish Princess, was unconvincing. Sharon Shinn's "When Winter Comes" was better; the romance was given time to develop, there were other interesting relationships, and the world was much better thought out. I wanted to like Claire Delacroix's "The Kiss of the Snow Queen" more than I actually did; the medieval Frankish setting was well done, but I couldn't quite connect with the characters. Monette's "A Gift of Wings" takes place in the same world as Melusine; it has an intriguing mystery and an equally intriguing relationship between its hero and heroine, and as I said, it was easily my favorite of the four novellas.
  
  
• Jennifer Crusie, Fast Women: This is one of my favorites of hers; I think the mystery plot is better combined with the romantic plots than in some of her others (Tell Me Lies or Crazy for You particularly), and I really like the two main couples.
  
  
• Patricia A. McKillip, Solstice Wood: When word got around that Patricia McKillip's new book, Solstice Wood, was a modern-day sequel to Winter Rose, I was intrigued. Winter Rose has never struck me as being set in the real world; based on the ballad of Tam Lin, it's set in a fantastical and lush world of faeries and magic. So how well could a sequel set in modern-day upstate New York work? Happily, the answer is: pretty darn well.
  
  Sylvia Lynn left her childhood home in New York years ago for the west coast, where she owns a bookstore and tries to ignore her family and her roots. When her grandmother calls to tell her that her grandfather has died, though, Sylvia has to return to Lynn Hall and its mysterious woods. For Sylvia is the descendent of Rois Melior and Corbet Lynn of Winter Rose, and the otherworldly people who inhabited Rois's woods are still there in Sylvia's day.
  
  McKillip never says specifically how long it's been since Rois's time, but she doesn't really need to. It's clearly been many generations (Sylvia calls Rois her "great-great-great-grandmother. Maybe another great or two"), long enough that the difference between the books' settings didn't jar. Nothing modern is important to the story, and the longer Sylvia is in New York, the more drawn she is into the more fantastic setting of her old home and the woods.
  
  The narrative is in first person; about half of the chapters are from Sylvia's POV, the rest from several other characters (including her grandmother, Iris, and her younger cousin, Tyler). McKillip does an excellent job differentiating between narrators; I was never confused about which narrator I was reading. (I hate books where I have to flip back to the beginning of a chapter to figure out who's speaking.) The language is generally less intricate than McKillip's usual style, but within the confines of the first-person POVs of these modern-day characters, she still manages to inject a good dose of lyrical description and eerie atmosphere.
  
  I think I still like Winter Rose a little more (I'd like to read them both in tandem), but I liked Solstice Wood a lot. Essentially, both books are about coming to terms with the faerie world, but Solstice Wood does so in a different way from Winter Rose. I think Solstice Wood stands up well as a sequel and on its own; in fact, I'd be interested to see how it's received by folks who haven't read Winter Rose.

Books read: 19

28 February 2006

• Suzanne Enoch, Flirting with Danger: a fun contemporary romance, with a cat burglar heroine, a rich British hero, and an action-packed plot. I found it sufficiently diverting that I also read the second one, Don't Look Down.
  
  
• Rumer Godden, Take Three Tenses: I really prefer the British title, A Fugue in Time, but I suppose both titles are good descriptions of Godden's narrative technique, which weaves back and forth between past, present, and future to tell the story of a London house and the family who lives in it. I think she was more accomplished in using the technique later, in China Court, and I like that book more, but this one was still worth reading.
  
  
• Rumer Godden, A Candle for St. Jude: like Take Three Tenses, I don't think this will end up one of my favorite Goddens, but it's got a good backstage drama story (set in a ballet school) and some interestingly conflicted characters.
  
  
• Megan Whalen Turner, The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia: rereads of the first two before reading the third, which just came out. The Thief begins when the magus of Sounis releases Gen the thief from prison, only to force Gen to accompany him on a mission to discover a mysterious ancient treasure. It's been long enough that I'd actually forgotten the marvelous twist at the end of the book. (And if you wish to remain unspoiled for the twist, do NOT read the blurbs on the second and third books or any reviews of them -- I promise it's worth it.) The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia follow Gen's further adventures and explore in more depth the politics and people of the three kingdoms of Sounis, Attolia, and Eddis. I love the characters, the setting, the plots, everything -- these are excellent books, and I hope there won't be another six-year wait for the next one (because I think given the ending of The King of Attolia, there's got to be at least one more).
  
  
• Jill Billington, Planting Companions: a great book, with plant combinations considered from every different angle: color, texture, size, shape, compatibility, growing habits. Lots of good photographs and garden plans, too. I think this is going to be very useful both in working in my current garden and planning the next one.
  
  
• Carl Yasztremski, Yaz: Baseball, the Wall, and Me: easily the least interesting baseball bio I've read. The style is plodding (and not well edited); personalities and games never really come to life. Really, the most vivid chapter is the one dealing with all of the pranks the Red Sox played on each other, and since I found a lot of the pranks disturbingly vicious, even that chapter wasn't really enjoyable.
  
  
• Rachel Ferguson, The Brontes Went to Woolworth's: I first ran across this in Lucasta Miller's The Bronte Myth. Virago reprinted it a few years back, but it's currently out of print again; I was pleased when Powell's emailed me that they had a copy. The three Carne girls live with their mother and the youngest girl's governess, in a London house inhabited by the people of their imagination, real people whom the family have made up stories about and turned into imaginary friends. When Deirdre, the eldest, meets one of these imaginary friends in real life, and the Brontes appear during a séance, the Carnes have to figure out how to reconcile their fantasy life with reality. This is a very quirky but entirely fascinating book, and worth the trouble of seeking out.
  
  
• Elizabeth E. Wein, The Winter Prince, A Coalition of Lions, The Sunbird: rereads of the first two before reading The Sunbird, which just came out in paperback, for the first time. I discovered The Winter Prince years ago; it's one of my favorite Arthurian novels, a chilling tale of loyalty, jealousy, and betrayal, with Medraut torn between the love (and hate) he has for Morgause, his mother, and Arthur, his father, as well as his half-brother Lleu, heir to the British throne, and Lleu's sister Goewin. A Coalition of Lions and The Sunbird take place after the events of Camlann; I can't say a lot about their plots without spoilers, but they follow Arthur's descendents to the realm of Aksum, in Africa, where they are caught up in political intrigue involving both the African kingdom and the British.
  
  
• Frances Browne, Granny's Wonderful Chair: I think I first ran across this book while reading about Frances Hodgson Burnett, who loved it. It's essentially a Victorian collection of fairy tales, joined by an overarching narrative about a magical chair which tells stories. It's a little on the sentimental side, unsurprisingly, but the fairy tales are quite charming.

Books read: 13

Total books read this month: 32
Total books read this year: 77

Last updated 12 April 2006. All text and photographs © George Mitchell and Margaret Johnston, unless otherwise noted Comments, questions, suggestions to margaret@lonelymountain.net.