snugglekitty

I finished Arch, by Andy Goldsworthy and David Craig, which I had out from the library. I think that Andy Goldsworthy is an amazing artist with some profound things to say about our relationship with nature. (I love his work, which I recently found out more about through the movie, Rivers and Tides, about the use of time in his art. It was loaned to me by 7j.) Arch was a short book with text and pictures, and an interesting premise, which was one arch erected and taken down in a number of places in Cumbria. I liked it, and it made me interested in sheepfolds, which had never really crossed my mind much before. I'd give it three stars, mainly for the pictures and the part of the text written by David Craig, which I liked. I have Goldsworthy's book Wood out of the library, and plan to continue exploring his work. I'd love to see it in person some time. Probably most possible at Storm King Art Center in New York, where he has a permanent installation.

I also finished Tribe of Tiger, a loan from an_gadhar which he has been incredibly patient about getting back. I loved this book. The parts about how life has changed for big cats and native people in Africa made me very sad. It never ceases to amaze me how humans fuck up the world that we live in, and a lot of it seems so far away and outside of my power to change. I mean, gosh. I think about things I do to make the world a better place, but how to help big cats... I wouldn't even know where to start. Probably my favorite parts were observations of the author's cats and their behavior, and observations of Ruby, a (relatively) tame puma rescued as a orphaned kitten. I loved how this book helped me to understand the behavior of my own cats differentely. Four stars - I'll definitely want to read this again, and I'd love to read other books like it about different animals, like wolves and dolphins. The author has two books on dogs, also, but I'm not really into dogs.

I had actually never read this book completely before. I had read an excerpt in an anthology, but not the whole thing. I found it sexy. The plot was a little lacking, and some parts of it were a bit unlikely, but hey. Erotica doesn't have to satisfy all the requirements for good literature, at least not in my book. I give it four stars, because it was quite sexy and also is a landmark book that is famous among kinky people. I am planning to read the rest of the trilogy as well.

Coming up soon: The History of Love, Tribe of Tiger (I've been halfway through that one for a while), and The Book on the Bookshelf.

This list was recently published by Time magazine - it's supposed to be the 100 best English-language books since 1923. I've read many of them, and many are pretty good. It was good to see William Gibson on the list.
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html

Now, I'm going to include a list of every book that I gave a five-star review to in 2005. They weren't all published in 2005, though. You'll be able to get to the full reviews, if you want to, by clicking on the "books 2005" tag at the bottom of this page. And yes, it's possible that I may read another five-star book (though probably not two) before the year is over. If that happens, I'll come back and edit the entry. I promise. For those who have just tuned in, I give five stars to a book that I feel is excellently written and has profoundly changed the way I think in some way.

My Husband Betty by Helen Boyd
Fledgling by Octavia Butler
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge
Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky
The Impossible Takes a Little While edited by Paul Rogat Loeb
Earth Logic by Laurie J. Marks
The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman

That's eight books out of ninety-one. (Kind of a low total for me this year. Not sure why, but it might have to do with all of my crafty time. Also, I stopped including books that I had read before.)

This morning, I finished A Sorcerer and a Gentleman, prequel to Elizabeth Willey's brilliant debut The Well-Favored Man. And this afternoon, I read the entirety of Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl.

( Read more... )

Hey, does someone want to make, or suggest, a new reading icon for 2006? I think I could use one. At the very least, an updated Hermione would be fun. I now have Photoshop, so I'd be happy to make it myself if I found the right inspiration.

Sadly, I only feel I can give this book three stars.

I liked it. I did. But I didn't think that it was the best of my favorite writing duo. It didn't have that addictive "omg, can't put it down" quality. It wasn't especially funny. It didn't have fabulous dialogue In other words, it has now replaced Carpe Diem as my least favorite Lee and Miller book.

( Spoilers )

This is the second book that I read based on a pamphlet I picked up at Medford Public Library, "Dead Men Do Tell Tales," which was a topical booklist on forensic science.

I liked this better than the fabulously named A World the Color of Salt, which was by a different author and more of a cop book than a forensic one, in my opinion. I liked the relationships between the characters and their uncertainties about how to proceed versus the confident front they show the public and even each other. I liked the detail-oriented setting and character descriptions, although some details seemed lacking. One of the main characters has a dog, which is mentioned many times in the book, but we never find out what kind of dog it is or even what it looks like, except that it's "little." Little like a terrier? Little like a chihuahua? Little like a miniature mop mutt? It makes me think the author has never owned a pet personally.

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Edit: I just found the motherload of forensic fiction. Check it out at http://www.lcl.lib.ne.us/depts/bookguide/lists/forensicfiction.htm

First, is everyone aware that we can now request AV materials through the Minuteman library system again? It's very exciting. :)

Next, a few book reviews.

( The Well-Favored Man and Flights )

The latest in her Elemental Masters series. Book five, I believe.

I was able to see immediately that this was partly adapted from a short story of Lackey's I read in Murder by Magic earlier this year - "Gray Eminence." I winced when I realized that, because I didn't particularly like the short story. However, the book was okay.

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Then I needed to re-read Local Custom, because I couldn't get a part of it out of my mind. That book leaves one with less of a warm, fuzzy feeling than most Liaden books. I like it better when the characters are standing back-to-back, fighting off the Bad Guys, then when their own errors set them against each other. That's just how I am, I find the latter kind of book a bit distressing. But still, it's Korval, and thus delicious. Lee and Miller's new book Crystal Dragon is coming out in a few weeks - huzzah huzzah.

I'm still in the midst of an embarassing number of books. I'd like to drop the number this weekend and finally finish some of them, especially since I have six more to pick up at the library on Monday.

Last week I read Ill Met by Moonlight by Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis. It was a lot like The Scepter'd Isle. A trashy Faerie book, with some court-of-England stuff. Why do fantasy authors love Henry Fitzroy so much? I've never understood that. Well, anyway - I liked the child Elizabeth as a character - she had some spunk.

I also find it interesting the way Lackey's ideas about leadership turn up in a lot of books. If you have the ability to lead, and you don't lead, then you are a Bad Person. Wanting to pursue your passions rather than leading is irresponsible. I bet she doesn't belong to Lions Club, though. Anyway, three stars.

Also, on the ten-years-later re-read, Dune was just as good as I remembered. Four and a half stars.

Finally - I tried to read Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy.

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I think that this book is trying to be in a category with The Beauty Myth, Fast Girls, etc, but it really can't compete. Pop-journalism without any deeper themes. Two stars. (I only give a book one star if I wanted to throw it across the room.)

I just finished reading Brightly Burning for the second time, and wanted to write about it.

I feel like this book is, in some ways, a reaction to her earlier work, Magic's Price. The central question, from my perspective, is, "What kind of person gives their life for their country?" Accordingly, both books end with the deaths of the main characters. (I'm not giving much away, here. And if you haven't read the Last Herald-Mage trilogy, either you don't read fantasy or you've been living under a bush for the last twenty years, and I have no sympathy.) However, the way that these deaths are treated is incredibly different.

( Some spoiling )

I think it's interesting to see how Lackey has grown as a writer in the ten-plus years in between these books. I also think that it's awesome that she is writing well again, after the nadir of the Magewinds books.