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• Mary E. Pearson, The Adoration of Jenna Fox: Jenna Fox has just awoken from a year-long coma after an accident she barely survived and still doesn't remember, nor does she remember much else about her life. Her parents have moved the family across the country and won't let her contact her friends or anyone else from before the accident, and Jenna can only watch the home movies they've given her in order to find out about her past.
  
  I guessed the big reveal fairly early, but the process of Jenna figuring it out was so well-done that it didn't bother me; in fact, I wonder if Pearson means for the reader to figure it out first, since it gives Jenna's process of discovery more depth. This is a fascinating, character-driven exploration of medical ethics, and of issues of identity and self. Like Pearson's The Miles Between (which I also loved and highly recommend), it's excellently written and paced, thoughtful and surprising up until the very end.
  
  
• David Anthony Durham, Acacia: The War with the Mein, The Other Lands: The Akaran dynasty rules the island of Acacia, and from there, they control the Known World. Their empire is built on corruption, though, on slavery and drugs: every year, the Acacians send a large shipment of child slaves to the mysterious Other Lands, in return for drugs with which they control their subjugated nations. King Leodan is sickened by the evil trade but can't find the spine to change it, while his four children grow up in happy ignorance of the agreement. When the Mein, conquered people of the northern lands, send an assassin to kill Leodan, everything changes, and his children are scattered across the empire.
  
  It's excellent to read an epic fantasy which isn't simply cod-medieval and white-centric. The Acacians are dark-skinned, the Mein are light-skinned, and there is a multiplicity of skin colors and of cultural borrowings. And I loved the moral complexity, too: the Akaran children are ostensibly the "heroes", yet their empire is corrupt all through, and they have to confront this as they find their way back home.
  
  Writing-wise, I did have some issues, though, especially in the first book. There are simply too many point-of-view characters, switching too frequently; I would just get into one part of narrative when it would abruptly switch to someone else. There's too much exposition and not enough dialogue or action, though this does improve noticeably in the second book (as does the POV issue). And although the first book has a very satisfying conclusion, the second suffers from middle-book syndrome and doesn't have much of a climax.
  
  On the whole, though, I was more than willing to forgive the stylistic flaws for the sake of the complex plot and worldbuilding, and I really look forward to the third book in the trilogy.
  
  
• Leslie T. Chang, Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China: Chang investigates the women migrant workers of China, who leave their small villages to work in factories in industrial cities, never settling to one job for long but constantly moving to try to better their situations. The story is told largely through the lives and experiences of two particular young women whom Chang befriended, and she also weaves in her own personal family history. I thought this was exceedingly well-written, compassionate and poignant, telling the women's intimate stories as well as looking at the larger social and economic picture. I especially liked Chang's use of diaries and other written documents which allow the migrant women to speak for themselves throughout the book.
  
  
• Lisa See, Peony in Love: In seventeenth-century China, Peony is supposed to be entering into an arranged marriage, resigning herself to life with a man she's never met. For her sixteenth birthday, her father puts on a theatrical performance, of Peony's favorite opera, The Peony Pavilion, the story of a maiden who wastes away and die of lovesickness. During the performance, Peony meets a handsome man and becomes lovesick herself, leading her into a mystical world of ghosts and the afterlife.
  
  I liked many elements of this separately, especially the bits about the opera and Peony's response to it, but it never quite cohered into a truly enjoyable read for me. The plot is contrived, and the characters often feel not quite complex enough to support the complicated plot. I enjoyed Snow Flower and the Secret Fan more, because I felt the characters were better realized.
  
  
• Varian Johnson, My Life as a Rhombus: Rhonda Lee is a math-loving high-school senior, working hard to earn a college scholarship and tutoring other kids in math; she doesn't have time for fun or dating. When she has to tutor popular Sarah Gamble, Rhonda notices Sarah's queasiness and tiredness and figures out that they have something in common. Against her will, Rhonda grows to like Sarah, and her brother David, and realizes that she needs to face her past.
  
  On the plus side, I was impressed with the characterization of Rhonda, which is very vivid and convincing, and with the complex web of relationships she has with her friends and family, and I thought the plot was nicely worked out without being at all preachy. On the minus side, the dialogue often struck me as forced, and I would really have liked more resolution to Rhonda's relationship with her dad. On the whole, though, I did like this a lot and would definitely read more of Johnson's YA (looks like he's got another book coming out next year).
  
  
• Sherri L. Smith, Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet: Ana Chen is graduating from eighth grade, which should be a happy day for her. But her Chinese American father and her African American mother have invited both sets of grandparents over to dinner, and her grandparents just don't get along. To make things even worse, her best friend got Ana to invite cute Jamie Tabata and his parents, and Ana is worried that things will blow up with Jamie there. I felt this was a lot slighter than Flygirl. It was fine and reasonably entertaining as far as it went, and I appreciated the biracial heroine and her rich family cultural heritages, but there was a wealth of character background barely touched on in the final chapters, and Smith could have done a lot more with that.
  
  
• Jennifer 8. Lee, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Lee started her quest by trying to figure out how dozens of people across America had won the lottery by using the numbers in their fortune cookies, but she was quickly pulled into the larger world of Chinese restaurants in America and the question of just how Chinese American Chinese food really is. Lee investigates not only the origins of different dishes (like General Tso's chicken) and where fortune cookies came from but also more human-focused stories like the thousands of restaurant workers who make the life-threatening journey to the U.S. from China or the New York delivery people who lead an almost equally dangerous life.
  
  This was a light, fun read, but the lack of organization and scattershot investigative approach really detracted from my enjoyment of the book. The fortune cookie thing is supposed to be the main topic pulling the rest of the book together, but it's often lost sight of for chapters at a time. While I thought the human-focused parts were shocking and eye-opening (for example, the Golden Venture tragedy, which I'd never even heard of), I thought a more intense focus and investigation would have served them much better. Really, even just organizing the book into sections instead of jumping around from topic to topic would have worked better; at least there would have been some thematic unity.

• children's and young adult:
  • Susan Cooper, Victory: a good YA (maybe a bit younger than that) sort of historical with a touch of fantasy: the past-day story of Sam, an English boy who's pressed into the navy and ends up on the Victory with Lord Nelson, connecting with the modern-day life of Molly, a girl who's had to move to the United States from London when her mother remarries and who discovers a piece of Victory's flag. The historical details are well done, and the parallel stories of homesickness, loss, and acceptance are nicely handled.
  • Eva Ibbotson, A Song for Summer, A Countess Below Stairs (rereads)
  • Diana Wynne Jones, The Time of the Ghost, A Tale of Time City (rereads)
• drama
  • William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors (reread)
• fantasy and science fiction:
  • Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, The Gathering Storm: You know, I thought it was pretty decent. I don't think Sanderson's prose style is great, and he really did not get Mat (in a cringingly bad way sometimes), but he did excellent stuff with several of the other characters. And hey, stuff happened! Important stuff, that occasionally made me go "whoo-hoo!"
  • Susan Palwick, The Necessary Beggar
  • Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals: I want not to criticize too much, given Pratchett's struggle with illness, so I will just say that I didn't find this one of his best. Like the previous Discworld novel, Making Money, the various plot threads didn't come together well at the end, and the characterization was a little thin.
• general fiction:
  • Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge: This only edged up to 3 stars on Goodreads because of the excellent, tense mob scenes. Otherwise, the various plot threads didn't come together well, and most of the characters were less memorable than usual for Dickens. (Plus, Emma, Dolly, and Miggs partook of the angel/child/figure of fun portrayals of women that I dislike so much in Dickens.)
  • Margaret Kennedy, Together and Apart: like all her books, beautifully observed.
  • Barbara Pym, No Fond Return of Love, An Unsuitable Attachment: I liked the former quite a bit and the latter a little less, finding it a little scattered.
  • Anthony Trollope, The Vicar of Bullhampton: not one of his best, I fear; his portrayal of a Victorian fallen women doesn't compare at all well with Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth.
  • Edith Wharton, The Mother's Recompense: a tale of a mother and a daughter, separated when the mother deserted her husband years ago and reunited again only to find another man coming between them. It's a little on the melodramatic side, but very absorbing, and I liked Wharton's look at the changes in New York society pre- and post-WWI.
  • Elizabeth von Arnim, Mr. Skeffington, Christopher and Columbus
  • P.G. Wodehouse, Bill the Conqueror
• historical fiction:
  • Joan Aiken, The Five-Minute Marriage, If I Were You (rereads)
  • Jude Morgan, An Accomplished Woman: was almost embarrassed by how much I liked this, because it's so clearly an Austen knockoff: the plot is rather like Emma with just a dash of Persuasion. But the language is well done, although the characters are sometimes a little too modern in their actions and reactions, and it's very funny in a sly, sarcastic way.
• mystery:
  • John Dunning, Booked to Die (reread): Huh. I really liked this the first time; this time, not as much. The misogyny bothered me more, the victim blaming and the general marginalization of the female characters.
  • Sara Paretsky, Hardball: The first V.I. Warshawski in quite a while, this one is a little overly long (too much Chicago description) but has a compelling plot involving V.I.'s past family history and the 1960s civil rights movement. Paretsky really managed to keep this series alive and well over the years; I'm perfectly willing to wait two or three years at a time between books, because they're still of a good, high standard. (And hey, no marginalization of female characters here!)
• non-fiction:
  • Ben Macintyre, The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War I

Total books read this month: 33
Total books read this year: 331

Last updated 5 January 2010. All text and photographs © George Mitchell and Margaret Johnston, unless otherwise noted Comments, questions, suggestions to margaret@lonelymountain.net.