Bibliomania -- Margaret's book log

"I cannot live without books." -- Thomas Jefferson

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May 2008

I mostly skipped booklogging in May, except for a few short comments:

• Ursula K. Le Guin, Lavinia: I really wanted to like this more than I did. I loved the first hundred pages or so, but once Lavinia's meetings with Virgil (which I adored) were over, I felt the rest was just not that interesting and might have been better left unwritten. Also, I did not like Ascanius' character faults being ascribed to his sexual orientation (which happened more than once).
  
  
• Naomi Mitchison, The Corn King and the Spring Queen: very dense, complex, amazing evocation of ancient cultures: one Spartan, one Scythian. (Can I confess that I found it distracting that the protagonist's name backwards spells "red fire"?)
  
  
• Deborah Ross, ed., Lace and Blade: I bought this mainly for Sherwood Smith's story, "Rules of Engagement", and unsurprisingly, it was my favorite story in the collection (I would give it four stars), with her usual excellent worldbuilding (present even in short form) and fascinating interplay between characters. I generally enjoyed the other stories, with my usual caveat of short stories not being really my thing. The other two I found memorable were Dave Smeds' "The Beheaded Queen", which managed to make a disembodied head a genuinely engaging protagonist, and Tanith Lee's "Lace-Maker, Blade-Taker, Grave Breaker, Priest", because I do love her luscious writing.
  
  
• Sheila Simonson, Lady Elizabeth's Comet: a lovely little Regency with an excellent astronomer heroine.
  
  
• Elizabeth E. Wein, The Lion Hunter, The Empty Kingdom: Boy, am I glad I waited to read these until both were out (they're a duology in Wein's ongoing Aksum series. I love Telemakos, love Athena, love the unflinching exploration of power and politics.
  
  
• Connie Willis, The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories: oh, "The Last of the Winnebagos"...I'm not even a dog person and I cried buckets anyway. I also particularly liked "Fire Watch" and the title story.

• Marion Zimmer Bradley, Stormqueen!, Hawkmistress!
• Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark
• Wilkie Collins, Miss or Mrs?; The Haunted Hotel; The Guilty River
• Joy Chant, When Voiha Wakes
• Robertson Davies, The Cunning Man
• George MacDonald Fraser, Flash for Freedom, Flashman at the Charge
• Jessica Day George, Dragon Slippers
• Emily Giffin, Love the One You're With
• Georgette Heyer, Cousin Kate
• Jane Aiken Hodge, Savannah Purchase
• F.M. Mayor, The Rector's Daughter
• Penelope Mortimer, Daddy's Gone A-Hunting
• Philip Pullman, Once Upon a Time in the North
• George Sand, The Master Pipers
• Muriel Spark, Aiding and Abetting
• Tiffany Trent, In the Serpent's Coils, By Venom's Sweet Sting, Between Golden Jaws
• Elizabeth von Arnim, The Caravaners
• P.G. Wodehouse, Summer Lightning

• Anne de Courcy, 1939: The Last Season
• Will Durant, The Renaissance
• Francine Prose, The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired
• A.N. Wilson, After the Victorians

• Georgette Heyer, The Foundling
• Diana Wynne Jones, The Dark Lord of Derkholm, Year of the Griffin
• Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife: I still dislike Henry, but I still find this oddly, indefinably compelling (and oh, it reminded me of Paris -- none of it takes place there, but that's where I read it first, last year)

Last updated 19 June 2008. All text and photographs © George Mitchell and Margaret Johnston, unless otherwise noted Comments, questions, suggestions to margaret@lonelymountain.net.