snugglekitty

The Lambda Award finalists have been announced for 2010.

http://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/2011-finalists/

I'm happy to see that _Gender Outlaws_ is on the list. I say "Squee!" for Bear and Kate.

Dear Never After the book*,

I think it's finally time for me to be honest. I'm sorry I was holding back. And I know that you think we meant something to each other. But the truth is, I was just using you. I knew that you had a story by Laurell K. Hamilton and one by Sharon Shinn. And I also knew that I was not interested in reading anything by Yasmine Galenorn and Marjorie M. Liu, because I've not liked their books in the past. Perhaps you believed it was more. Perhaps you hoped that I might change my mind and add you to my reading total. But it wasn't meant to be.

I still don't want a relationship with you. I will never read those two stories, short of being kidnapped and held at gunpoint and forced to read them. But I didn't realize how I would feel now, today. You gave me something that in my heart of hearts, I've been longing for for years. You fulfilled a fantasy that I had started to think would just never be realized.

Between your cheap white covers, Sharon Shinn finally brought the gay. Shinn is my favorite author of romantic fantasy, bar none. She writes quickly, so there are a lot of books, and they are GOOD books. But up until now, they've also been straight. I hoped for a while with Cameron. I hoped again with Wen. I have hoped with numerous side characters. None of them were queer on the page. But finally my dream is realized!!

( Not just one but... )

I'm so grateful to you for helping me realize this dream. You're still not what I want in a partner, but can we be friends?

Again, my apologies.

LadyA

* Not to be confused with Never After the awesome musical my talented friend ceelove wrote.

Cotillion by Georgette Heyer Didn't know there was a "witty YA romance set in the Regency era" genre? Well, you do now.
The Host by Stephanie Meyer Meyer became a household name this year, with her Twilight series soaring to new heights of popularity. In what I think her best work to date, she redefines the genre of romantic SF.
Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling Think a hard sci fi writer won't tackle issues like aging, beauty, and art? Think again.
The Autumn Castle by Kim Wilkins This lyrical treasure will give hope to anyone who thinks the golden age of urban fantasy is over.

( Four and a Half Star Books. )

Click here for last year's best fiction.

As of today, I am going to switch from a five-star rating system to a grade point rating system. I've been talking about this for a while. I think it will allow me more nuance. I am also going to try out using an outline or summary outside the cut, with Title, Author, Genre, Grade, and similar categories, but that is more experimental and I may not do it beyond January.

What books would you recommend to someone who wanted to be cheered up? I'm not talking about self-help titles, but easy, gentle reads that might lift you up a bit when you need it. They shouldn't be graphic. They can be fiction or nonfiction. They can range from "older child/YA" on up. They can have spiritual overtones, but shouldn't be strongly Christian and definitely shouldn't be about Christmas.

( Click here for examples! )

A little romance or mystery is okay - again, as long as it's not graphic. Mostly I'm looking for some cozy tales to get me through the winter, since it's never been my best time of year, as I think most of you are already aware.

Thanks in advance.

As of the end of the year (January first, 2009) I will be changing from a five-star system to a letter grade system.

F = One star = It was so bad I couldn't/didn't want to finish it.
D = Two stars = I finished it but it had some serious problems.
C = Three stars = I liked it. I would recommend it at least to some people.
B = Four stars = I loved it. I would read it over and over again.
A = Five stars = It could change the genre, or it changed my life, or it could change the world.

The reason for this is that I would like to indicate further gradations, and folks generally understand the A+, A, A- system. Three stars, especially, is too general - everything that I didn't hate or love gets three, and there's a lot of middle ground. This way I can be more specific.

For the book review communities where I publish things bookshare and bookish I am also considering posting quick-and-dirty summaries in front of a cut full review, like this:

Title: Cry Wolf
Author: Patricia Briggs
Genre: Sexy-woman-with-pentacle-tattoo, aka dark romantic urban fantasy a la Laurell K Hamilton
My Grade: B+
First sentence: "No one knew better than Walter Rice that the only safe place was away from other people." (If I have a quote that I like, I'll use that instead. In this case I wasn't attached to one.)
Who Should Read This Book: Folks who like the genre or would like an introduction to Briggs' work.

I consider the folks who read this journal to be my primary audience, so I would be very interested in any suggestions or refinements you all might have to offer.

Today was my bookswap. It was a lovely time and there were tons of books and people. teratomarty, mrpet, and L were all super helpful in keeping things running smoothly. trouble4hire provided cheezy biscuits and a marvelous sense of calm (and not just to me!) tsuj went out of her way to drop off the hardcover books at More Than Words after we were done. And everyone who was there while we were closing up was great about pitching in to pack the books away.

Of course, I could not resist grabbing a few tasty titles for myself. Joining my collection are:

Blue Moon by Lori Handeland
My Immortal by Erin McCarthy
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen
The Crow: The Lazarus Heart by Poppy Z Brite
The Simpler Life by Deborah Deford
Herbal Salads by Ruth Bass

And two special books I'd been wanting for a while - Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson and Wild Side Sex by Midori. And, okay, I did pick up The Adobe Story for my sister. But considering I put close to seventy books in the "out" pile, I feel I was pretty virtuous. Make that "very virtuous." Of course, it helped that I had hostess duties - I couldn't stare at the books like a hawk every single second. :)

I hope that everyone who came had as good a time as I did. :)

At this point, we are decided - our next swap will be of music and movies. To be specific, CDs and DVDs. :) See you then.

The subtitle of this book is "The Health Drink Sweeping America." It is the only book on kombucha easily available through my library system. Of course, I had to check it out, and I read it in just a few hours. The book consists of an introduction, which describes how the two authors got involved with kombucha, thirty pages of testimonials by random folks all over America, directions for making kombucha, a chapter about drinking the tea and other uses, and a chapter on the history of kombucha and research about its properties. Of great interest to some readers will be the extensive scientific bibliography, although many of the articles referenced are not in English.

This book is a little out of date. You can tell just in the first chapter, based on the celebrities they list who drink kombucha - Ronald Reagan, Darryl Hannah, Linda Evans. It is also very much "My way is the right way." "As far as we know, this is the only way to make the purest, most effective tea." (p 47) Which way? Well, the author's way. And you can visit her website, Laurel Farms, to order your own baby. And if you really care about your friends, you should buy this book for them! Yes. It actually says that, on page 56. As well as "No ingredient or utensil substitutions. Ever. No matter what." (p 52) Oh-kay. To me, that sounds like, "You must always trust this book over your own experience." The techniques she describes are pretty standard, but some folks say you can, for example, make kombucha with part decaf tea, or part herbal tea, if you're experienced and know what you're doing and keep a "back-up baby" around in case of mishaps. According to Pryor, ANY substitution is almost guaranteed to ruin your kombucha. Also, as I understand it, the idea that you can only grow kombucha in the dark has been disproved, as well as the idea that you should never use a Mason jar to brew.*

I think that the many comprehensive kombucha websites out there make this book a bit unnecessary. Except for the testimonials, which I found a bit over-gushy, it doesn't have much to offer that they don't already have. But it was probably more ground-breaking and important at the time it was originally published. Nonetheless, I will keep on searching for a kombucha book that will be terribly helpful. I definitely still want Tietze's 1001 Ways to Brew Kombucha! It would be more useful to someone who had never heard of kombucha, but then, why would they read it? Two and a half stars.

*I also have anecdotal evidence to the contrary in both cases - the Mason jar of kombucha brewing in my sunny dining room is looking effin' awesome.

So, I was realizing recently that I was uninterested in the dozen or so library books I had out, not to mention the hundreds I own.

For those of you who don't know me well, a lack of fascination with books is a sign that the lady_anemone is Not Well. Seriously, seriously not well.

I decided to go to a different library, to see if I could get out of my rut. trouble4hire suggested going to multiple libraries, and this I did. In less than 24 hours, I visited the main branches of the Cambridge, Arlington, and Medford public libraries.

( Book geeking. )

I'm hoping this loot will get me out of my reading rut. So far it seems to be working.

Do you enjoy reading translated books? Does the experience differ depending on the original language, or on other factors? If you read other languages, do you enjoy reading books in their original languages?

Okay, I'm getting back on the question wagon. Hopefully I can finish the ones I like by the end of the month.

( Read more... )

So, I just discovered that paperbackswap does this thing where you can look at all of the books you've gotten from it, and see what ones have been wished for by other people. This is awesome, because it turns out that a few books I got and wound up not reading have been desired by other people. I will happily let them go.
(ETA: I have also discovered that PBS has a one-hour Buyer's Remorse period for you think about requests that you have made before they send them out. That's kind of awesome, and I will feel better about cancelling things now.)

I thought I had figured out a non-hold way to keep a list of books on the library website, but I was wrong. Boo.

Also, syprina suggested I try the website Goodreads. So far, it hasn't really pulled me in. The site design is bad, and it seems like most of the people who are on it aren't using it for much. Any thoughts from people who love it, hate it, or have other opinions to share?

Also also, does anyone in the Boston area have a Kindle? I just want to look at one and see what it's like before I decide whether I want one. Not that wanting one will necessarily translate to having one, of course - I'm not a corporate chick anymore.