Stella Matutina

New Blog

Wed, 06 Nov 2013 17:58:59 GMT

Psst! I'm not here anymore.

My new blog is called In The Forest Of Stories, and it's over on Blogger.

If you are so inclined, you may follow me there.

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:01:12 GMT

Title: BITTERBLUE
Author: Kristin Cashore
Series: this is a sequel to GRACELING and a companion to FIRE, though it works as a standalone if you don’t mind some spoilers for each of the previous books
Publisher: Dial Books
Publication Date: May 2012
Pages: 563
Pushed By: Charlotte
Status: keeper, keeper, keeper

LibraryThing Info

Bitterblue for purchase at The Book Depository

Bitterblue for purchase at Kobo

Review copy received at Book Expo America.

BITTERBLUE demands two reviews.

The Short, Gushy, Ungrammatical Version:

OMGBITTERBLUEOMG this book will not get out of my head I loved it I loved it I loved it OMGBITTERBLUEOMG seriously you guys I don’t remember the last time I felt this way it’s one of those instances where a book just totally and completely floored me and I keep coming back to little things like Death with his cats and all of a sudden I’m crying again and there’s so much here there’s just so much it’s a chronicle of disconnection and recovery and pain and joy and OMGBITTERBLUEOMG the characters are fantastic the prose is so wonderfully simple but also incredibly deep and there are so many levels and layers and gorgeous bits and heartwarming bits and heartbreaking bits and I am sosososo happy that the love interest was bisexual AND IT WASN’T EVEN AN ISSUE OMGBITTERBLUEOMG I have so many thoughts too many thoughts I’m leaving everything out absolutely everything I wish I could just open my mind to y’all and let you pick through it because I loved it I loved it I loved it OMGBITTERBLUEOMG.

The Version That (Sort of) Makes Sense:

I loved BITTERBLUE.

Shocking, huh?

Some summary, for those who require it: Bitterblue is the young queen of Monsea, a country struggling to regroup after thirty-five years of misrule. Leck, the former king, possessed the ability to tell lies no one could help but believe--a power he wielded with the utmost sadism. Even eight years after his death, truth remains a rare commodity.

Bitterblue is tired of accepting the past as unknowable. One night, she sneaks out of the castle in search of the truth on the streets, and gets much more than she bargained for.

I read BITTERBLUE as a chronicle of disconnection. Bitterblue is disconnected from her people by virtue of her privileged position; from the past because of the things her father did to her mind; and from her country’s traditions due to the suppression of information that stretches back through the decades. The novel is very much her attempt to make sense of what has happened; to gain the tools she needs to become connected to her country, its people, and her own purpose in its administration.

In the beginning, everything is muddled. Leck’s lies, and certain peoples’ refusal to deal with them, have made Monsea a country with many questions and few answers. The story centers on Bitterblue’s attempt to sort the lies from the truth and bring her people to a place where they can begin to heal. It’s a constant give and take; a sphere where the known and the unknown tangle together in a rich, often disturbing, tapestry that brings Bitterblue ever closer to discovering who her father truly was, what her kingdom is, and who she’ll become. She comes of age as a person, a queen, and a survivor of abuse.

I'll warn y'all, abuse remains a central theme throughout the book. Leck did more than merely hurt his subjects: he made them complicit in their own abuse and in the abuse of others, and he forced them to like it. This has made it difficult for many of Bitterblue’s people to face the past. They shy away from what their involvement in such activities means. Certain individuals have attempted to bury the pain and degradation, rather than deal with it. Cashore takes a sensitive approach to the material, placing blame where it’s due and acknowledging every victim as a victim.

Neither does she play anything for shock value. The reader can’t help but know that Leck tortured and raped his people, so there’s no need to go into detail. What little is spelled out for us comes in the nature of seemingly smaller, but painfully personal, moments; the sorts of things that matter deeply but might be dismissed as “lesser” amidst a complete chronicle of abuse. I still can’t stop crying over some of the things we learn about Bitterblue’s compatriots.

I find these sorts of revelations deeply painful even in the mostly poorly constructioned fiction; in a book like this, with supurb characterization, they hurt all the more. These characters are fantastic, y'all.

Bitterblue herself is a hell of a girl. She cares deeply for her people and for her friends, though she’s still learning how to deal with much of what she feels. I love the relationships she forges and maintains. She has a particularly complex and fascinating dynamic with the commoners she befriends, and it’s rendered all the moreso because it’s built on lies and a power imbalance she cannot correct.

This stands in contrast to her connection with Po. Po is the only relative with whom Bitterblue has regular contact, and he’s an important part of her life. Even though she and he are cousins, their interactions reminded me much more of siblings. I loved everything that passed between them, and I'm oh-so pleased with what Cashore did with Po's own continuing story.

Perhaps my favourite relationship, though, is the one Bitterblue shares with Giddon. I can’t clearly recall what I thought of Giddon in GRACELING, but I’m pretty sure I was less than impressed on account of the way he reacted to Katsa’s rejection. It seems he’s grown up a lot in the eight years between the two books. I loved him here, and I adored his friendship with Bitterblue, which is based on a refusal to lie to one another. They quickly settle into a pattern of mutual support so satisfying that I couldn’t quite decide how I felt about them. They have a wonderful platonic relationship, and y’all know I think YA needs more of those. People are perfectly capable of working closely together without falling in love, and I'm always glad to see fiction acknowledge that. Still, part of me wanted to throw my thoughts on the matter out the window and root for Giddon, because they have exactly the sort of friendship I most like to see shift into romance.

I did reach a decision before the book ended, but I’ll keep it to myself because it’s a tad spoilerish.

BITTERBLUE is a much less romantic book that neither GRACELING or FIRE, but there is a romance in the background. I’m reluctant to say too much for fear of spoiling y’all, but I was pleased with how Cashore dealt with the limitations involved and the problems that might conceivably arise between the parties. I love, too, that she doesn’t postulate a Happily Ever After ending. The text acknowledges that both Bitterblue and Saf, her love interest, are still young. They enjoy each others’ company, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll spend together forever. And that’s fine. It doesn’t impact what they have in the here and now.

Cashore also takes a realistic, laid back approach to romantic love in all its forms. While Bitterblue herself appears to be hetero, she adopts what I think of as a “dude, whatevs” attitude towards her gay friends. Their sexuality has no effect on how she views them. Her unsettled upbringing has left her far more concerned with how they make their relationships endure than the gender of the person they’re involved with. (At one point, she’s fascinated by a woman who has remained happily married to her husband for forty-eight years.) She makes no assumptions as to anyone’s sexuality, either. When she asks Giddon if he has a partner, she inquires after potential boyfriends as well as girlfriends.

Best of all, it’s a total non-issue when she learns that Saf is bisexual. She meets a guy he was involved with, confirms that said guy is an ex rather than a current flame, and never bothers to think of it again.

I can’t begin to tell you how happy this made me.

Hell, I feel that way about the whole book (which I hope you’ll take for an explanation and an apology as to this review’s jumbled state). I adored it, I adored it, I adored it. Try though I might, I can’t think of a single thing to criticize. I’m sure there must be something, but it’s not something I, personally, can wrap my mind around. So far as I’m concerned, BITTERBLUE is a perfect book.

Welcome to my itty bitty list of Favouritest Books Ever, BITTERBLUE.

6 stars (out of 5) – OMGBITTERBLUEOMG

Strange Asides:

I was lucky enough to hear Kristin Cashore read the prologue at a New York Public Library event during Book Expo America 2011. Some hella talented musicians improvised the perfect creepy music in the background as she read. It was magical, in an “I’m disturbed” kind of a way.

When I reached the front of Cashore’s BEA line the next day, I made sure to tell her how much I’d enjoyed the reading. I always feel awkward expressing such sentiments (perhaps due to some misguided feeling that my professed enjoyment is a burden to the person who caused it and I ought to stick to less in-your-face forms of appreciation), but I’m glad I did it. Should I ever meet Cashore again, I’ll be sure to tell her how much the book as a whole meant to me.

Also, I suppose I should mention that Cashore has been accused of having "an aggressively liberal agenda" with this book. If conservatism is your schtick, I doubt you’ll enjoy this as much as I did. If you’re okay with aggressively liberal agendas, though, you need to read this.

Oh! And the book reminded me of THE HERO AND THE CROWN by Robin McKinley, but without the disappointing second half. BITTERBLUE is pure gold from start to finish.

One more thing: Bitterblue is a small, eggplant-shaped person. I am a small, eggplant-shaped person, so this endeared her to me. One reads so few books about small, eggplant-shaped people.

Other Reviews:

Popular book is popular. You'll find lots of other opinions on the Book Blogs Search Engine.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: Beauty In the Beast by Christine Danse

Two Years Ago: Women In Fantasy: Jaclyn Dolamore

Three Years Ago: Emma vols. 1, 2 and 3 by Kaoru Mori

Four Years Ago: nada

The Chronicles of Clovis by Saki

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:01:17 GMT

Title: THE CHRONICLES OF CLOVIS
Author: Saki
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication Year: 1911
Pages: 171
Status: seller

LibraryThing Info

The Chronicles of Clovis for free download at Project Gutenberg

THE CHRONICLES OF CLOVIS is a collection of twenty-eight short stories. The longest tale stretches to a whopping ten pages, but most of them are more in the three- to five-page range. Clovis, an affluent young man with a troublemaker’s spirit, serves as a unifying force throughout the majority of the stories, whether he acts as instigator, storyteller, or avid listener.

I bought the book for two reasons. First, it contains “Sredni Vashtar,” one of my favourite short stories. Second, the mouldering old Penguin I snagged at the Children’s Hospital’s latest Book Market is absolutely gorgeous. It looks like it’s about to fall apart, but the binding is solid and the book feels wonderful in the hand. Reading it was always a sensual pleasure (in the literal sense), even if it sometimes left something to be desired on an intellectual level.

Gorgeous, yes?

It’s not that THE CHRONICLES OF CLOVIS is poorly written or unworthy of deeper thought; it’s just that it’s so bloody hateful. Saki is a satirist who writes in the Wildean mode. He’s concerned with upper class characters who care little for anything but their own pleasure. They’re quite happy to run roughshod over everyone else, provided it adds a little fun to their day.

The result is a set of stories about a classist, self-centered, altogether unpleasant group of people whose behavior is coded as funny. As I read, I discovered that my already low tolerance for this kind of thing takes a nosedive when there’s a humorous bend to it. The stories I loved, like “Sredni Vashtar” and “The Hounds of Fate,” are dark and cruel without much in the way of an amusement factor. The ones I loathed, like the anti-Suffragist “Hermann the Irascible – A Story of the Great Weep,” are clearly meant to offer hilarious social commentary.

To be fair, it’s entirely possible to read these stories as a condemnation of this sort of behavior; a sort of, “damn, rich folks can be stupid about their privileges” type of deal. I think the inclusion of “Hermann” proves Saki held with at least some of the attitudes his characters espouse, though. In this story, King Hermann of England “helps” women see they’d rather not have the vote by making it mandatory that they vote in every single election for every single kind of public official. By the end, they’re clamouring for a return to the old ways.

OMFG, y’all. O. M. F. G.

And yet, I couldn’t dislike THE CHRONICLES OF CLOVIS. I hated so much about the things it chose to be, but Saki’s evocative prose and his careful (if morally frustrating) delineations of character were often enough to see me through. I didn’t always like the book, but I usually enjoyed it--perhaps because I had a wonderful time scowling at it.

It’s worth noting, too, that there are many women herein, and outside of “Hermann,” I don’t think Saki treats them as appreciably more repugnant or flawed than any of his male characters. Everyone, regardless of gender, possesses a great number of faults, many of which spring from their vast privilege. Some of this privilege is gendered, but I feel like most of it has to do with social standing. Many, though not all, negotiations take place between people of the same gender. Problems arise when the characters are unable to reconcile their own faults with everyone else’s.

Basically, THE CHRONICLES OF CLOVIS is worth reading for the prose and the satisfaction of growling profanities at the dodgier bits, but don’t expect something progressive from it. It’s a product of its time and is often disgusting by modern standards.

3.5 stars – enjoyed it very much

Other Reviews:

Lizzy's Literary Life

Did I miss yours? Please let me know so I can add a link.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: Some thoughts on THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION

Two Years Ago: Night School: The Weirn Books, vol. 4, by Svetlana Chmakova

Three Years Ago: An Announcement and Giveaway

Four Years Ago: The Sunday Salon on Saturday and And the Winner Is...

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:00:38 GMT

Title: THE MADNESS UNDERNEATH
Author: Maureen Johnson
Series: book two of Shades of London
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication Date: 26 February 2013
Pages: 384
Status: electronic (ARC)

LibraryThing Info

The Madness Underneath for purchase at The Book Depository

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley. As I understand it, the version I read differs slightly from the published version.

THE MADNESS UNDERNEATH picks up shortly after THE NAME OF THE STAR ends. Rory is powerless to explain the first book's happenings to her parents, so they've withdrawn her from school and set her up with a not-so-helpful therapist--who surprises everyone by insisting that Rory should return to the scene of her unvoicable trauma. Back at boarding school, Rory struggles to cope with her changing abilities, academic pressure, and a new supernatural threat that looms over London.

Oh, friends, I do love Rory. She’s got such a quirky voice and a unique take on events. I especially like her sense of humour, which parallels my own, and the way she throws herself into the thick of things. The inside of her head is an awesome place to spend nearly four hundred pages. Her first person narration keeps the book fresh and interesting even when the action fades into the background. I can’t wait to spend some more time with her in the next book.

That said, TMU is most definitely the second book in a series and should not be approached as a standalone. Johnson offers a few reminders as to what happened in TNoTS, but she assumes the reader will remember all the most important things without prompting. Even though the focus rests firmly on Rory's journey forward, many prior events colour her worldview. They play into her character development as she deals with everything that's happened to her and gains a greater understanding of her powers. If you want to get the most out of THE MADNESS UNDERNEATH, read THE NAME OF THE STAR FIRST.

Trust me, this is no great hardship. THE NAME OF THE STAR is awesome, and THE MADNESS UNDERNEATH is a fine sequel. Johnson expands on her basic premise--that some people can see ghosts and deal directly with supernatural phenomena--and thickens the plot with involvement from an unexpected quarter. Some of what we learned in the last book no longer applies, while the new information we receive primes the pump for more developments in the future. The story gains traction as it rolls along, culminating in an “OMG did that actually happen?” ending that left me eager for the next book.

I didn’t love it the way I loved THE NAME OF THE STAR, though; probably because it’s not a complete story in its own right. It adds to TNoTS and sets things up for the as-yet-untitled third book, but it offers far more questions than answers. The stakes rise high but remain largely unresolved by the novel’s end.

Please don’t view that as a negative so much as a caution for those who dislike cliffhangers. THE MADNESS UNDERNEATH has much to offer the reader, even without a clear resolution. It features a fantastic narrator, great character and premise development, and some tantalizing hooks that look set to pay off big time in the next book.

3.5 stars – really liked it

Other Reviews:

There are already a fair number in the Book Blogs Search Engine, and I'm sure there's more to come now the book has hit shelves.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: The Sunday Salon: Non-American YA

Two Years Ago: nada

Three Years Ago: nada

Four Years Ago: A Sci Fi Experience Wrap-Up

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:00:23 GMT

Title: MOLL FLANDERS (or THE FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES OF THE FAMOUS MOLL FLANDERS, if you prefer)
Author: Daniel Defoe
Publisher: I listened to the Tantor Audio production
Publication Year: 1722
Pages: 335
Status: electronic (freebie)

LibraryThing Info

Moll Flanders for free download on Project Gutenberg

I first read MOLL FLANDERS in 2001, in the midst of an “I’ll Read Classic Lit So's I Can Be Cultured And Shit” phase. So far as I was concerned, classic novels were Good For You, but they weren’t necessarily enjoyable. I read them to give myself a sense of the wider literary tradition, not for entertainment.

Imagine my surprise when I devoured MOLL FLANDERS in three sittings, one of which took me through nearly a hundred and fifty pages.

The book is almost indecently fun. Moll schemes her way through the England of the 1600s, rising and falling at irregular intervals as her illegal undertakings bear fruit or go awry. She marries often, bears a multitude of children, turns to robbery whenever the need arises (or the opportunity presents itself), and deceives very nearly everyone she encounters. Her wild life must have seemed the height of debauchery to eighteenth century readers, many of whom I'm sure gloried in it anyway.

I suppose it’s possible to read MOLL FLANDERS as the chronicle of a woman forced into an indecent life of which she repents most ardently, but I find that a terribly boring take on the situation. I much prefer to view Moll as someone who’s ever in charge of her own destiny. She’s born into fairly low circumstances which she contrives to improve upon by any means necessary. Whether she's talking her way into a rich man’s bed or persuading an elderly fence to help her become London’s most successful pickpocket, she’s always in charge. She caters her lies to each individual, playing on their peculiar vanities in such a way that they can’t help but give in to her whims. Poor luck may set her back a step or two, but she never lets it keep her down for long. As soon as one scheme grows stale, she turns her hand to another. No matter what life throws at her, she finds a way to turn it to her advantage and come out on top.

The narrative conventions of the time dictate that she must deny receiving any satisfaction from her actions, but it’s obvious she enjoys herself immensely. The novel is full of moments where she vows to lead a somber and discreet life... right after she’s finished committing such-and-such a sin, and maybe one more for good measure. And hey, she’s never been involved in that line of illegal work, so she might as well give it a go before she throws in the towel. If it leads to another opportunity of a similar nature... well, so much the better.

Oh, Moll. I frickin’ love you.

Of course, I’m not an eighteenth century reader. It’s entirely possible that the original target audience would’ve been so scandalized by Moll’s doings that they took her cautions and lamentations at face value. Hell, maybe Defoe even intends them that way.

Me, I remain unconvinced of her penitence. She's an adept liar, after all; it's difficult to believe she'd restrain herself from practicing this skill upon the reader. I like to hope she keeps on scheming after the novel’s end, albeit in a wealthier sphere than was previously possible and with a willing partner in her final (or maybe just latest?) husband.

Godspeed to you, Moll, and good luck.

4 stars – loved it

Strange Asides:

Since I know rather a lot about the French Revolution, which happened near the end of the eighteenth century, I always think of the 1700s as having been "around two hundred years ago." It floored me when I realized MOLL FLANDERS was originally published almost three hundred years ago, and begins almost four hundred years ago. (Moll ends the narrative in 1683, when she's somewhere in her sixties or early seventies.) Wow.

Other Reviews:

Age 30+... A Lifetime of Books
Books Ahoy!
Books 'N Border Collies, with additional thoughts
Educating Petunia
Hannah Stoneham's Book Blog
Pagesofjulia's Blog
Sam Still Reading

I should add that most of these reviewers regard the text in a rather different way than I myself did. (To be honest, they made me feel a bit bad for viewing Moll as I do. Oh well. I'm used to that sort of thing.) It's worth reading through their opinions--and of course, you'll want to read the book so you can form one of your own.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: Chronicles of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

Two Years Ago: Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik

Three Years Ago: The Sunday Salon: Musical Associations

Four Years Ago: The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Seventeenth Annual Collection

Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:01:03 GMT

Title MORTAL LOVE
Author: Elizabeth Hand
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Year: 2004
Pages: 364
Pushed By: Ana
Status: keeper

LibraryThing Info

Mortal Love for purchase at The Book Depository

A part of me would rather not talk about MORTAL LOVE.

Y’all know the most beloved books sometimes render me incoherent. This incoherent state generally goes hand in hand with verbosity--I have tons to say, but I don’t know exactly how I want to say it.

This is sort of like that, but upside down. I loved MORTAL LOVE and am sure I could say tons about it in as incoherent a fashion as one might wish, but I rather want to keep it for me.

I’ve obviously chosen to ignore this impulse (spurred on, of course, but a The People Need To Know mentality), but I felt you should know where I stand.

Okay. Let’s get on with this.

Even though MORTAL LOVE came with the highly respected Seal of Ana’s Approval(TM), I found the first chapter so confusing, and so devoid of a thread I could follow through to a satisfying story, that it looked like dark days ahead. I braced myself to abandon it by Chapter Three, after which point I would conveniently forget to mention I had ever tried to read it.

I was in love with it by page 20.

The People Magazine review excerpted on the cover calls MORTAL LOVE "a delightful waking dream;" as accurate a descriptor as I could hope for, with the caveat that the reviewer clearly shares my somewhat unconventional definition of "delightful." The novel is often dark, often wretched, often disturbing. Delightful if you’re up for that sort of thing; depressing if you’re not.

The waking dream bit, though, needs no qualifier. The story is dreamlike in the extreme, merging one scene with the next as smoothly as water flowing over polished stones. It provides few concrete answers, yet it’s never confusing or opaque. Hand spells little out, but the book’s structure encourages the reader to make every connection she needs. We know exactly what’s going on, despite the lack of overt confirmation.

MORTAL LOVE is a book about madness and art and intercourse between worlds (in all senses of the word). Like all the best dreams, it’s wild and dangerous and barely controlled, with a bizarre and vivid story at its heart.

It spans centuries, commenting on art and the soul and the very nature of creation.

It’s rich and strange; grounded and ethereal.

It reminded me of THE VINTNER’S LUCK, and of THE NIGHT CIRCUS.

It made me want to create.

It has me halfway convinced I should have asked more from it, but I’m not sure what else it could have given me without undermining itself.

It refuses to get out of my head.

I think you should read it, sooner rather than later.

4 stars – loved it

Other Reviews:

A Book A Week
Puss Reboots
Shelf Love
things mean a lot
You Can Never Have Too Many Books

If I missed yours, please let me know so I can add it to my list.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: The Sunday Salon: Being Well-Read

Two Years Ago: Women In Fantasy: Diana Wynne Jones
Three Years Ago: Nicola and the Viscount by Meg Cabot

Four Years Ago: Making the Perfect Pitch, ed. by Katharine Sands

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:00:37 GMT

Title: DAYS OF BLOOD & STARLIGHT
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: this is the sequel to DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE
Publisher: Hodder UK
Publication Date: November 2011
Pages: 517
Status: keeper

LibraryThing Info

Days of Blood & Starlight for purchase at The Book Depository

Days of Blood & Starlight for purchase at Kobo

I have a soft policy of reading at least two volumes from any series that strikes my interest, even if I wasn’t painfully in love with the first book¹.

I put this system in place because of books like DAYS OF BLOOD & STARLIGHT.

I mean, I liked DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE. I didn’t love it, but that does not mean I didn’t like it. (Sorry. Pet peeve there.) I expected to feel much the same about DOB&S. I figured I’d admire the worldbuilding, the prose, and the sheer amount of creativity involved, but I’d never become as attached to the story as I might like.

Guess what happened, y’all! Guess!

Yep. I loved this one. Loved it, loved it, loved it. From the beginning, when we hang around with Zuzana (who is charming and wonderful and can she come be my best friend, please?) and worry about Karou, to the final page, I was utterly enchanted.

Understand, by "enchanted," I mean "upset and scared and terribly, horribly worried for everyone involved, which enchants me because I really, really like feeling this much for fictional characters;" though, there's a certain amount of traditional enchantedness in play, too.

DOB&S takes everything its predecessor did and improves upon it. The settings are even more vivid, unusual (in YA fiction published in English), and well-realized. The art soars to new levels. The worldbuilding deepens in complexity.

And this time around, I truly connected with the characters. They became real to me in a way they didn’t quite manage throughout DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE. By the end, I would’ve fought an army had any of them asked it of me.

(Or at least, found them some teeth so they could make an army. My fighting skills leave something to be desired.)

Their relationships struck a much stronger chord with me in this second book, making it easier for me to connect with them all. I gloried in everything Zuzana went through because of her love for Mik and for Karou. Akiva’s strong bond with his siblings sent me straight over the moon. And Karou’s grief, her desperate attempt to keep her people alive and fighting and resilient even they despised her, moved me so deeply that I all but became her while I read her chapters.

Having found the love for the characters, I couldn’t help but revel in their gorgeous (if flawed and heartbreaking) world. The story gained a new depth and richness. It won me over complete.

It almost annoyed me, this sudden and unprecedented love. I had DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE in my to-go pile, ready to pass along to my young cousins. Now I’ve gotta keep both books around so’s I can reread them as soon as the final volume comes out.

Which will be soonish, I hope? Please, Ms Taylor? Please?

4 stars – loved it

Other Reviews:

The Book Blogs Search Engine is chock full of 'em.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

Two Years Ago: The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud

Three Years Ago: The Sunday Salon: Traveling With Books

Four Years Ago: The Book Review Meme, Statuses Explained and Giveaway: The Young City by James Bow

I throw this policy out the window when I hated the first book in a series. It often happens that I rather liked the first book in a series but loved the second, but I can't think of an instance where hate transformed to love. Not where books are concerned, at least; characters are another matter entirely.

Review Rerun: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:00:56 GMT

I recently reread DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE in preparation for its sequel, DAYS OF BLOOD & STARLIGHT. Since my opinion remains largely, though not entirely, unchanged, I thought I’d rerun my old review, with an addendum where necessary.

Title: DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: a sequel, DAYS OF BLOOD & STARLIGHT, is also available
Publisher: Little, Brown
Publication Date: September 2011
Pages: 420
Status: seller, I think

LibraryThing Info

Daughter of Smoke & Bone for purchase on The Book Depository

Daughter of Smoke & Bone for purchase at Kobo

Free preview of Daughter of Smoke & Bone at Kobo

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE has received so much publicity, both publisher- and enthusiastic-reader-driven, that I’m sure most of you have at least heard of it. Everyone at BEA seemed to want it. Everyone in the blogosphere talked it up. It was the YA book of 2011.

LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES, Laini Taylor’s collection of illustrated novellas, led me to expect something rich, strange and unique from my first foray into her novel-length work. The book delivered on all three counts. This here story is chock full of beauty and wonder.

Karou is an art student with a secret: the demons who populate her sketchbook are real. They’re her family, and she helps them in their neverending quest to obtain all the animal teeth. Not that Brimstone, the chief demon, ever tells her what he does with the tubs of molars and incisors that fill his dusty old shop; or, for that matter, how human Karou came to live with him in the first place. Karou’s not the kind of girl who can let that lie, so she investigates--and discovers that Brimstone’s secret is far stranger, and far more dangerous, than she could have imagined.

I’m ever so fond of making lists, so let’s run through all the things that brought me joy:

It’s set in Prague. Not Nowheresville, USA. Not the English countryside. Prague! Capital of the Czech Republic! In Eastern Europe!

Far too many YA novels take place in featureless American towns. Those set elsewhere tend to take place somewhere in England. It means the world to me that such a high-profile title is set in a glorious, fascinating city that, in my experience, gets very little screen time in young adult literature.

Taylor’s choice of setting would’ve been enough to send me over the moon even if she’d done a cursory job of limning it, but friends! That is not the case! I quickly lost myself in the alleyways of Prague. Taylor paints such a vivid picture of the city that I finished the book well-nigh desperate to visit. I started wondering whether my library had any teach-yourself-Czech materials, and how difficult it would be to learn the language. (My guess is pretty durned. I’m not the best at languages.) I even did some low-level research on the cost of living and other such matters. The city invaded my dreams.

Prague: I want to go to there. And it’s all Laini Taylor’s fault.

It’s intimately concerned with art. Karou is a student at the European equivalent of a high school for the arts. She’s primarily a painter and sketcher, herself, but the school also offers classes in things like sculpture, costuming, and puppetry. Art plays a large role in the narrative, from Karou’s sketchbook to her BFF Zuzana’s puppets to the real reason Brimstone needs all those teeth. Even small details, like the decorations at Karou’s favourite restaurant, are steeped in artistic sensibilities. I don’t want to spoil y’all, but one might argue that the whole book is an argument for art. ‘Tis wonderful.

It’s seriously inventive. The imagination on this lady! One gets the sense that Taylor truly did spin this tale; that she took dozens of concepts and whirled them around together until they felted into a coherent whole. Her characters and their world embrace the best elements of both contemporary and secondary world fantasy. If I step back and consider each piece on its own, I can hardly believe the world building comes together so well. It’s a testament to Taylor’s skill and verve.

Don’t be fooled by the jacket copy, which promises a story about an angel and a demon in love (that old chestnut). Yeah, there are some standard tropes herein, but this book is far more original, and tells a far more complicated story, than one might expect.

Karou has blue hair. Naturally (well, wish-inducedly) blue, at that. You know how Ikindahaveathingforredheads? Well, I also kindahaveathingforrandomfunkycolouredhair. It makes me happy, right down to the core of my bones. I’ve always wished for green hair, myself, but I wouldn’t turn down blue hair either. Especially if I could get it without damaging my hair with bleach.

So, yes. There’s lots to love here; lots of squee over and consider and rave about to your friends. I liked it very much indeed, but I’m afraid I didn’t quite love it.

I’ve spent a lot of time considering why. I loved the city, I loved the art, and I loved the inventive world building; how is it that I finished the book with a sense of great liking rather than love?

It’s all down to the plot. DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE is inventive and engaging, but it takes a while to come together as a cause-and-effect narrative. There’s a lot of build-up with a few large answers right at the very end. It feels like the first chunk of a book, not a book in its own right.

The world and its mysteries were enough of a hook that I was always eager to find the story underneath, even when I had only the barest idea of where it was headed. Overall, though, I feel like the all-questions-few-answers approach, coupled with the pace at which the overarching tale unfolds, kept me from fully engaging with the text. I spent too much time wondering where the story would come out and not enough time connecting with the characters. I liked them, yes, but I never managed to love them enough that their pain became my own.

Let the Addendum Begin:

The plot wasn’t an issue for me the second time through. Since I knew where it came out, I could sit back and appreciate how Taylor structured the story. Much of what she does here only takes on its full significance in retrospect. It’s a great deal more cause-and-effect than I remembered, and it comes together quite nicely.

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the characterization. I liked Karou and her friends just fine, but I still wanted more from them on an emotional level. Big things happen--huge things--and I didn’t feel like the text gave me the tools I needed to react properly (ie, to totally freak out). The story remained a story. It never rose above its origins and became an experience.

Perhaps I’m just a mopey-puss grumpy-guts for wanting to experience stories, but there ya go. I enjoyed the book very much, but it lacked that special something that could’ve turned liking into love.

Please please please please please don’t take that to mean I disliked it, or that I don’t recommend it. I liked it very much, and I think it's well worth your time; I just failed to love it the way so many others do.

I did read the sequel, though, as planned. We’ll talk about that on Thursday.

3.5 stars – really liked it

Strange Aside:

I often think of how transparently excited Laini Taylor was when she saw her huuuuuuuuge line at BEA 2011. You could tell she was tickled pink to see that many people waiting for her book.

Other Reviews:

You can find eleventy billion more reviews on the Book Blogs Search Engine.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: nada

Two Years Ago: Women In Fantasy: Jacqueline Carey

Three Years Ago: Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale

Four Years Ago: Fathom Five by James Bow

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent, by Marie Brennan

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:00:13 GMT

Title: A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS: A MEMOIR BY LADY TRENT
Author: Marie Brennan
Illustrator: Todd Lockwood
Series: this is the first of Lady Trent’s memoirs
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: 5 February 2013
Pages: 336
Status: electronic (ARC)

LibraryThing Info

A Natural History of Dragons for purchase at The Book Depository

A Natural History of Dragons for purchase at Kobo

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley. Illustrations courtesy of Tor's publicity department.

A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS is the first in a series of memoirs by Isabella, Lady Trent, as recorded by Marie Brennan and illustrated by Todd Lockwood. This premiere volume deals with the famed dragon naturalist’s early life, including her first foray into fieldwork.

I love Brennan’s Onyx Court series, so I couldn’t wait to tackle this new offering. While it’s still a solid read, I would caution other Onyx Court fans to expect a beast of a different sort. Isabella’s memoirs are much smaller in scale, with a more linear narrative structure and a decidedly personal approach. The focus rests firmly on Isabella’s own life, and her explorations into How Things Work. The larger issues revolve around who she is and how she fits into this world.

Said world is similar to early Victorian England. Isabella is born into an affluent family in a society where respectable women are meant to be showpieces. They must marry, and once they’ve done so they’re responsible for little more than organizing their husbands’ home lives.

This isn’t enough for Isabella. She’s been interested in natural science since she was very young, but her country’s sense of propriety limits her. She can read scientific publications only if her husband will purchase them for her, and she can’t discuss them with anyone else without being considered strange and unnatural. While she’s lucky enough to marry a man who can be a friend and conversation partner, her ultimate goals remain difficult to achieve. Much of the book’s tension springs from whom Isabella is versus what society would have her be.

Sparkling by Todd Lockwood

Isabella, for all her intellect, is dependent on her husband. She must wait for his permission to pursue even so so small a goal as studying sparklings in her backyard--and Scirland’s social mores insist that he is a terrible, horrible cad if he "allows" her to explore natural science. The reader, of course, hopes he will be a cad; that he’ll support Isabella no matter how unconventional her aspirations. And of course, his desire to treat his wife well wins out over the threat of social censure, as there would be no story otherwise.

Brennan never downplays the problematic angle to this setup. Instead, she emphasizes the ways women like Isabella work within the system to make something different of their lives. Isabella’s struggle to reconcile who she is with her country’s sense of propriety reminded me of Rachel Hartman’s AMY UNBOUNDED, another book where women in a male-dominated sphere nonetheless carve themselves a welcoming space, with varying degrees of success. Isabella can’t tackle her goals the same way a man would. She has to exploit any and all loopholes the system gives her, grasping at chances as they come; however, she’s still so young that I’m not sure she quite realizes she’s doing it. She treats the expedition at the novel’s core as her one chance to study dragons. It’s not until almost the end that she realizes she could make this a regular thing.

The novel is narrated by an elderly Isabella whose life experience informs her commentary on these long-ago events. Given that she’s enjoyed great professional success, I have every hope that future installments in the series will show a shift in Scirland’s attitudes towards women, perhaps spurred on by Isabella herself. You'd better believe I love the thought of a fantasy series that deals with the way attitudes change over an extended period.

I very much enjoyed considering Brennan’s approach to gender, but I’m afraid I wasn’t quite so enamoured of the plot. While its linear approach isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it did leave me less to chew over, story-wise. The overarching stakes (ie, Isabella’s future happiness) may be high, but the plot’s driving force centers on a relatively simple mystery to which I felt little connection. I often found myself focusing on the social issues and the gorgeous, period-appropriate prose to such an extent that I lost the thread of the story. I was interested, but I’m afraid I can’t say I was gripped. I stuck with the book mostly because I’ve loved Brennan’s past work.

In the end, though, I’m glad I finished. I did like Isabella very much, and the conclusion was sufficiently enticing that I’ll certainly read the sequel. I look forward to watching Isabella take her next step on the road to becoming a famed naturalist.

3 stars – liked it

Other Reviews:

Ageless Pages Reviews
BookYurt
Liz Bourke for Tor.com
Only the Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Did I miss yours? Please let me know so I can add it to my list.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: nada

Two Years Ago: Mad Kestrel by Misty Massey

Three Years Ago: The Sunday Salon: Timewastiness

Four Years Ago: nada

Some Thoughts on S9 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, plus Angel & Faith

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 13:01:30 GMT

You know, I might make weekend comics a tradition ‘round my place. Every week or so, I’ll hole up inside (or outside, once it warms up) with a favoured series and perhaps a nice pot of tea. (Or a bottle of beer. Books + beer = happy Memory.)

Two weekends ago, I decided it was about durned time I revisit the premiere volumes of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, SEASON NINE and its cognate title, ANGEL & FAITH. My first reread (LIVE THROUGH THIS) was such a success that I promptly purchased the most recent bundled volume of each series from Dark Horse’s digital store and spent a few glorious hours wallowing in the Buffyverse.

Good times, y’all. Good times.

I’m loving both series, though I’ve found that it takes me a couple of readings to full appreciate each story arc. DADDY ISSUES and FREEFALL both began as 3.5s (books I really liked, but didn’t quite love) but jumped up to 4s (books I loved) the second time through, and it looks like FAMILY REUNION and GUARDED will run in the same vein. I remain excited about where each series is headed, though, and you can bet I’ll get the next bundles as soon as they go on sale. (Despite my recent conversion to digital comics--more on that at a later date--I’ve decided not to buy the individual issues. They're cheaper when they're bundled, and I know I wouldn't read them until the arc was complete anyways.)

ANGEL & FAITH remains my favourite of the two series. I love what writer Christos Gage and artist Rebekah Isaacs have done, and continue to do, with these characters. Faith’s in a relatively new position for her: she’s the responsible one. She’s got to look out for the other London Slayers, many of whom are still uncertain of themselves, and she’s got to keep Angel from self-destructing. She messes up along the way, but she learns from her mistakes and tries to improve. I love that about her.

Angel, now, is pretty well as obsessive as he’s always been, and it’s become apparent that this ain’t the way to live. As Faith points out to him, he’s always after the grand gesture; the one thing he can do to achieve redemption and make everything right again. Trouble is, redemption isn't a set of scales where you can balance every bad act with something good. There are no easy fixes, and the ones he tries to put in place almost inevitably hurt the people he cares about. His whole let’s-resurrect-Giles thing, for example, is dangerous on multiple levels, not least because it might destroy or fundamentally cripple the very person he’s trying to save. Even if he does succeed, there’s a good chance he’ll annihilate his own personality in the process. It’s bad news all around, as the text makes a little clearer with every volume.

I like how Gage and Isaacs make an effort to incorporate characters from Angel’s show, too. Harmony popped up at the end of LIVE THROUGH THIS, and FAMILY REUNION brings Angel back into contact with Connor and Gunn. (Though, way to do absolutely nothing with Gunn. He’s basically just a chauffeur. Doesn’t the guy deserve better than that?) I’ll admit, I’m a little sad they did away with a certain aspect of Connor’s personality (one I very much enjoyed during Brian Lynch’s run on ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL), but I can see why it would happen now that the world is cut off from magic. I hope they continue to explore the new Connor as the series rolls along, but I’ve got a feeling his appearance was a one-off type of thing.

BtVS, now, is crafted on a much more personal scale. Buffy’s sort of up against a Big Bad, insofar as Simone wants to end her, but that’s more of a side plot. The series focuses on What Happens Next. Buffy has changed the world, for good or ill, and it’s had a huge effect on her own prospects. She’s got a lot to figure out, personally and professionally, and she's reeling. As if dealing with the dramatic shift from a magic-filled world to a magicless world wasn't enough, the series has slowly stripped away her support system. Xander and Dawn are less active in her life now that they don’t all live together. Willow is off pursing her own projects, as are Buffy’s fellow Slayers. Spike got out for his own good. Andrew is more a hindrance than a help. Giles is dead, and Buffy can’t stand the sight of the guy who killed him (which: Angel).

The season feels like a testing ground for Buffy. She has the opportunity to try a bunch of different, grown-up-type things: roommates, a variety of jobs, life in a world where everyone knows about (and likes) vampires. It seems like the natural next step for her, after the epic events of S8, and I’m enjoying it all very much--even though it's utterly heartwrenching at times. The stuff with Spike and Andrew in ON YOUR OWN really got to me, but I think I'm perhaps most worried about where things are headed with Xander. We've had a couple of deeply distressing hints as to what's going on with him. I hope he'll get some more screen time nice and soon.

I believe there’ll be two more collected volumes in each series, plus two mini-series featuring Willow and Spike. (Spike’s just wrapped up, so I’ll buy it as soon as Dark Horse bundles it. I imagine that’ll be in a month or two.) I can haz tomorrow, please?

4 stars each to LIVE THROUGH THIS, FREEFALL, DADDY ISSUES, and ON YOUR OWN

3.5 stars each to FAMILY REUNION and GUARDED

Strange Asides:

YA author Mindi Scott, who is herself a big Buffy fan, has written novels called FREEFALL and LIVE THROUGH THIS. Coincidence? Probably, but it's still cool.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: nada

Two Years Ago: Women In Fantasy: Celine Kiernan

Three Years Ago: Mia the Magnificent by Ellen Boggess

Four Years Ago: For the Love of D and I Was A Teenage Fairy

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:01:14 GMT

Title: A FIRE UPON THE DEEP
Author: Vernor Vinge
Series: book one of Zones of Thought
Publisher: Tor
Publication Year: 1992
Pages: 613
Status: seller, I think

LibraryThing Info

A Fire Upon the Deep for purchase at The Book Depository

A Fire Upon the Deep for purchase at Kobo

The first three hundred pages of A FIRE UPON THE DEEP are perhaps the best science fiction I’ve ever read.

By "best" I mean, of course, "most interesting to me, personally." While I’ve done my time in the fantasy trenches, science fiction and I are still getting to know one another. We hang out a couple dozen times per year and have had a few scholarly conversations, but I’m sure many folks who believe in the concept of the "true fan" wouldn’t hesitate to sneer at my paltry knowledge base.

Given everything I’ve heard about this particular book, though, I suspect I’m far from the only person who considers it a paragon of the genre. Damn, is it ever fascinating!

If you require something resembling a plot summary: two children, Johanna and Jefri, crash land on a medieval world while fleeing a world-destroying power called the Blight. They're promptly taken into custody by two rival political groups who seek to exploit their knowledge. Ravna, a librarian, gets wind of the crash and launches a rescue mission. She hopes the children's undamaged cargo will be the key to ending the Blight before it consumes everything she loves.

Vinge weaves the sort of intricate, wallowsome tale I eat straight from the jar. I found the prose and the ideas so dense that it took me two or three minutes to read each page, but I couldn’t regard this as anything but time well spent. I did decide to break out my handy-dandy segmented reading method, though. It seemed to me I would enjoy the book more, and get more out of it overall, if I paused to read something else every hundred pages.

Pausing proved a struggle throughout those first three hundred pages, as Vinge presented me with piles of awesome including:

Aliens who are, in effect, packs of talking dogs whose intelligence depends on group minds comprised of four, five, six, or eight members working in concert. Hello, fascinating race unlike anything I've seen before.

A mythic Age of Princesses, wherein awesome ladies did awesome things to bring their people out of an artificial medieval period.

Craploads of stuff about communications technology and how it might apply on an interstellar level.

Aliens who are sort of like talking trees with memory-enhancing scooters. (A simplification, yes, but this is basically what I saw in my head as I read about the Skroderiders.)

A daring rescue founded on misinformation.

More social science than you could shake a stick at, including a keen examination of how a society might progress from medieval to technological within a short period of time due to outside influences, thereby introducing issues of colonialism.

Sympathetic, flawed characters who prove easy to connect with.

An ancient and seemingly unstoppable force that looks set to destroy every known civilization if our heroes can't complete their quest.

A (relatively) smaller conflict that is nonetheless vitally important to those involved in it.

Really cool stuff about how different parts of space allow for different kinds of space travel. (Earth, if you were wondering, is in the Slow Zone, where FTL isn't possible. Most of the book takes place in the Beyond, where it is.)

HOLY TENSION, BATMAN!

And that's leaving scads out. I loved it to bits. Vinge gave me so much to mull over that the book occupied my thoughts even when I was reading something else.

The communications technology, in particular, got me thinking about how much the Internet has changed since 1992. The people of Vinge’s far-future, intergalactic civilization love their newsgroups. Many of these newsgroup postings appear in the book so's the reader knows what's going on outside the main characters' sphere of influence.

I initially thought this was a terribly dated conception of the Internet. When I got my first computer, back in 1997, my e-mail program included a section for newsgroup subscriptions. It seemed of little value, so I ignored it. Sixteen years later, we use the Internet in such a variety of different ways that it felt odd to read a far-future story where everyone was mad for newsgroups.

Vinge is a computer scientist, though, so I’m sure he must’ve had some idea of where the Internet was headed. It’s true, too, that almost all the Net-based communication we’re privy to in A FIRE UPON THE DEEP is between worlds that are days, if not months, apart in physical space. Perhaps text-based newsgroups are the most efficient way to transfer information over such vast differences, especially with hefty data fees in place. Economics play a key role in the first half of the book, and it doesn't sound like anyone involved wants to spend extra money on fancy stuff like images when all they really need is text.

Anyways, I spent a lot of time thinking about that sort of thing while I read. Combined with all the social science (which is my favourite kind of science), the awesome characters, and the epic vision underlying the text, I decided there was no way I could keep reading A FIRE UPON THE DEEP in hundred-page increments. I would read the last three hundred pages in one big gulp (or several, consecutive big gulps, in deference to my reading speed with this particular book), and that was an end to it.

Except it wasn’t. Because as soon as I designated A FIRE UPON THE DEEP as my primary, read-all-the-way-through-with-no-breaks book, the air whooshed out of the tires. My interest in the story didn’t dry up, but it definitely moved into the Slow Zone, whereas before it had rested firmly in the High Beyond. I still liked the characters. I still liked the world building (or maybe I should call it universe building?). I just didn’t feel the same connection to anything that happened, and I’m at a loss to explain why.

I suspect it was my problem, not the book's.

Either way, it broke my heart. When I say the first three hundred pages were the best science fiction I’ve ever read, I mean it. We’re talking 5-star territory, folks. Y’all know how rarely I hand out 5-star ratings in the first place, and I've only given two previous SF novels (TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG, which one might as easily call an historical novel, and THE TIME TRAVELLER'S WIFE, which was marketed as mainstream) that honour.

Had the less engaging bits occupied the beginning or the middle, I’d probably still have given the book a 4.5. (Really, y’all, it was that awesome.) Since they occurred at the end, though, I’m afraid they’ve coloured my whole reaction to the thing. It’s THE HERO AND THE CROWN all over again, albeit somewhat less extreme.

Still, I plan to read both the prequel and the sequel, and I encourage you to read this one for that perfect beginning. You might find, too, that the ending engages you more than it engaged me.

4 stars - loved it

(It's probably more like 3.75, but y'all know I round up.)

Strange Asides:

I didn’t visualize many of the characters--this wasn’t that sort of book for me--but Ravna looked exactly like Freema Agyeman in my mind’s eye. (Hence my choice of userpic for those of you reading this right on my blog.)

The Tines all looked like a cross between German Shepherds, the Doberman from Pixar's UP, and an illustration of the Hound of the Baskervilles I saw when I was very small.

Other Reviews:

Fantasy Cafe
Jo Walton for Tor.com
The Literary Omnivore

I must have missed some. If yours was one of them, please let me know.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: Blood Rights by Kristen Painter
Two Years Ago: Flight, vol. 1, ed. by Kazu Kibuishi

Three Years Ago: nada

Four Years Ago: January In Review, Airborn by Kenneth Oppel and We Have A Winner! (for my long-defunct Ranger's Apprentice giveaway)

Some Thoughts On Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:00:13 GMT

We had a blizzard a couple of Saturdays ago. I took this as an excuse to hole up inside with every published volume of LOCKE & KEY.

Y’all know about LOCKE & KEY, right? It’s a horror comic that follows the Locke family (Tyler, Kinsey, Bode, and, to a lesser extent, their mother Nina and uncle Duncan) as they move to their ancestral home in Lovecraft, MA, after their father is murdered. They soon discover that Keyhouse isn’t just a creepy old mansion--it’s also the repository for a series of magical keys that give their users an assortment of useful, and potentially dangerous, powers.

And deep beneath the house, a dark force works to harness the keys to its own purpose.

Let’s make one thing clear, right off the bat: LOCKE & KEY is not a nice story. Truly terrible things happen to good people, sometimes at the hands of other basically good people. Violence and intolerance are ever-present entities. The series needs a hefty trigger warning and should not be undertaken lightly.

If you think your mental health can handle it, though, it’s so totally worth it. Here’s why:

It’s about family. Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode look out for one another. They have their differences, just like all siblings, but at the end of the day, they’re there for each other. They aren’t about to give up, even though they’ve been thrown into a nightmare that’s already robbed them of their father and might very well take the rest of their family before it ends.

The art and the script work together. LOCKE & KEY is one of those rare, wonderful series where the art and the script are in perfect sync. There’s no disconnect between what we see and what we read; or if there is, it’s entirely intentional and works well in service to the plot.

While we’re on the subject of art, and recently removed from the subject of family: Rodriguez does a bang-up job of making all the Lockes look like they’re related. The kids resemble both of their parents, as well as the ancestors we see in flashbacks (and, of course, each other). Ditto every other family we meet.

These are puzzle books. Hill and Rodriguez clearly know exactly where they’re headed. My first time through, I had to space the books pretty widely apart due to library availability, making it difficult to see exactly what they’d done. This time, I picked up on many (though I’m sure not all) of the clues strewn throughout the text. Many of these are visual--a key we can see but the characters can’t; a background detail that takes on new significance once we learn a little more of the family’s history. They might seem minor at the time, but small details often pay off in a big way down the line.

You can’t turn your brain off when you read LOCKE & KEY, because everything means something.

The answers, when they come, are unexpected. Everything we learn, every piece of the puzzle we unlock, adds another dimension to the story. As one character says, children always think they’ve come in at the beginning, when in fact they’ve almost reached the end. The overarching tale Hill and Rodriguez have set out to tell is more than just Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode’s story, though they’re certainly at the crux of its current act. It stretches back centuries, and the weight of the past is an ever-present influence on the future.

None of the horror is gratuitous or titillating. The violence and intolerance are never, ever condoned by the text. We’re meant to be horrified by Sam’s actions; Dodge’s cruelty; the betrayals the kids face; the racism; the homophobia. It’s terrible, all of it, and it’s never presented as cool or fun or acceptable. We’re meant to hope and pray the Lockes can escape it, even as we know that much of it is down to the imperfect world we live in, not the supernatural horror that plots their demise.

It’s genuinely moving. I hadn’t read CLOCKWORKS before this most recent binge, and I’m still shocked at how deeply one of the revelations about the antagonist affected me. And it’s far from the only place where the text shook me.

LOCKE & KEY needs one hell of a trigger warning, but if you can handle it, it’s awesome. I urge you to seek it out.

4 stars to volumes 1, 2 and 5 – loved them
3.5 stars to volumes 3 and 4 – really liked them

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: The Sunday Salon: A Month of Letters

Two Years Ago: Women In Fantasy Returns!

Three Years Ago: Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

Four Years Ago: Book Lauch for MEN OF THE OTHERWORLD

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:00:17 GMT

Title: THE NIGHT CIRCUS
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Publisher: Anchor Books
Publication Date: September 2011
Pages: 516
Status: keeper

LibraryThing Info

The Night Circus for purchase at The Book Depository

The Night Circus for purchase at Kobo

Review copy received at Book Expo America.

At first, I thought THE NIGHT CIRCUS, Erin Morgenstern’s much-lauded debut, was like a book described within a book.

Do you understand what I mean? I’m sure every bibliophile has encountered a fictional book at some point or another; that is, a book that does not exist in our world, by which has had a large impact on a character who inhabits a book that does. The fictional reader inevitably describes this fictional book, always in brief. They give us the high points; the basic plot, some memorable imagery, and the emotional crux, with few (if any) of the bits that connect the story together.

I always think these books sound fabulous--ethereal, emotionally intense, and utterly unlike most of what I read. They seem like the sort of thing one can truly lose oneself in, like a vivid dream where we needn’t be told the details because we immediately know everything we might require to make sense of the story.

As I pondered this, I realized it wasn’t so much that THE NIGHT CIRCUS was like a book within a book, but that both books within books and THE NIGHT CIRCUS have much in common with dreams.

Reading THE NIGHT CIRCUS is like reading the very best sort of dream. It doesn’t always make real-world sense. Sometimes, the connections one might expect to find are either missing or only present off the page. And yet, the reader (or dreamer) is so completely immersed that everything does make sense; every relevant detail is there for her to grasp at will. It’s beauty made tangible within the confines of someone’s mind, which I think we can all agree is a vast space indeed.

Every book I've read since I finished it has suffered in my estimation simply because it was not THE NIGHT CIRCUS.

The more I think about it, the more I love it.

4.5 stars – loved the hell out of it

Strange Asides:

The comma splices, though. The comma splices. They weren't enjoyment-destroying, but they distracted me to an unfortunate degree.

Other Reviews:

The Book Blogs Search Engine holds billions.

Back in the Day:

One Year Ago: nada

Two Years Ago: Castle Waiting, vol. 1, by Linda Medley

Three Years Ago: nada

Four Years Ago: nada

The Master of Heathcrest Hall by Galen Beckett

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:00:57 GMT

Title: THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL
Author: Galen Beckett
Series: this is the third and final novel about Ivy Lockwell
Publisher: Spectra
Publication Date: March 2012
Pages: 718
Status: keeper

LibraryThing Info

The Master of Heathcrest Hall for purchase at The Book Depository

The Master of Heathcrest Hall for purchase at Kobo

THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL was my most anticipated book of 2012¹, and I had grand plans for it. I intended to begin last April with a reread of the two books that precede it (THE MAGICIANS AND MRS QUENT and THE HOUSE ON DURROW STREET), after which I would dive straight into this one, giving myself at least a week of wonderful, wallowsome reading.

Alas, my plan went awry. Early April saw me wrestling with such intense concentration issues that I failed to enjoy the first two books as I should have done. I limped through them at a pace of no more than fifty pages a day--and y’all, I’m all but incapable of loving something I read that slowly, no matter how much I’ve adored it in the past².

So I shelved THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL and determined to wait until my reading speed was back up to snuff and my mood had evened out some.

It took a while, but early this month I finally felt like yeah, okay, I could give it a shot. Given the trouble I’d had with the first two books, though, I figured it was probably best if I tackled THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL via my handy-handy 100-pages-in-between-other-books method. I stuck an assortment of bookmarks in at hundred pages intervals and got down to it.

This didn’t work out. I managed to pause long enough to read STEALING PARKER after the first hundred pages, but I couldn't have torn myself away after that. Most times, I read two hundred pages per sitting. I made bargains with myself; I’d turn my light out after another thirty pages. Or maybe sixty. Certainly, no more than sixty.

You get the picture, yeah?

In essence, I loved THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL for the same reason I loved THE MAGICIANS AND MRS QUENT and THE HOUSE ON DURROW STREET; or, for that matter, the same reason I love almost everything I love. I adored the characters. I felt for them, I bled with them, and I couldn't help but turn their struggles into my own. My feelings ran so deep that I didn't read the book so much as live it.

I could say more than that, I suppose. There's plenty I could tell you about the setting, or the book’s wonderfully Regency feel, or the way Beckett slowly turns things around so that the first volume’s villains appear in a somewhat different light here. If you want the truth, though, I don’t fancy it. 5 stars is my "I loved it to the point of incoherence" rating because I don't much care to analyze anything I love with this intensity³. I want to bask in my love for it. I want to ramble about it just long enough that y’all can tell how I feel about it, then leave it at that.

I must say, though, that one aspect of the worldbuilding tripped me up. It wasn’t enough to destroy the book in my eyes, but it certainly led to some inconclusive thoughts about loving problematic books.

THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL, like THE HOUSE ON DURROW STREET before it, is an overtly queer book. Eldyn, one of the three protagonists, is gay. He also has a form of magic that allows him to shape light into illusions. In this book, we learn that all the men who possess this ability--and it’s exclusively a male talent--are gay.

This bothers me as much as if someone were to suggest that everyone with a particular talent must be hetero. Does it mean, then, that this world has no gay men who aren’t illusionists? Are some of the illusionists perhaps hetero but celibate (or particularly quiet about their activities because they're not what's expected of them)? And what about lesbians? Where do the lesbians fit in?

It also ties into the series-wide issue of there being different sorts of magic for men who’re descended from particular families (magicians), women who’re descended from particular families (witches), and men who’re sons of witches (illusionists). There’s too much gender essentialism for me to be truly comfortable with it; so much, in fact, that I feel bad for loving these books as much as I do.

But I do love them, make no mistake. The characters are so wonderful that I’m able to file the problematic elements under "important and worthy of consideration, but not enjoyment-destroying." This may change in the future, but for now I adore this whole series and will continue to recommend it to anyone who'll listen. Discussions with other readers have shown me that it's not for everyone, but those who love it love it a lot.

5 stars – loved it to the point of incoherence and/or verbosity

Other Reviews:

Fyrefly's Book Blog
Gripping Books

Did I miss yours? Please let me know so I can add it to my list.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: The Sunday Salon: Over and Over
Two Years Ago: Bloggiesta--Ole!

Three Years Ago: Buy One Book and Read It

Four Years Ago: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

Okay, it was tied with THE REPUBLIC OF THIEVES by Scott Lynch, but let’s not nitpick here.

I keep meaning to write something about the whole "it’s impossible to truly love something if you read it quickly; slow, deliberate sips are best, so one will read fewer books overall" mentality and how it's so, so far from the way I operate, but I haven’t managed to squeeze it out yet. My few attempts have always struck me as too judgemental, which I want to avoid. Y’all gotta do what’s best for you. If you like to sip your books, go right ahead. Me, I’m gonna keep on gulping.

Not after the first reading, at least. Nitpicks and deep insights are for readings two through eight.

Stuff From Books: Edgar Allan Poppet Takes A Trip

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 13:00:14 GMT

This is Edgar Allan Poppet. Almost two years ago, he visited Rotorua, home of black swans and therapeutic waters.

They also have great sunsets, as evidenced by this totally unedited picture.

Edgar Allan Poppet went to Rotorua with some friends who wanted to Do All The Touristy Things. One of these Things involved a van ride with a friendly orc, who took Edgar Allan Poppet and his friends to a place you might recognize.

The friendly orc also gave Edgar Allan Poppet and his friends a stern (but cheerful) (but stern) lecture about keeping their many, many pictures to themselves so this place could be a surprise for everyone. (Well, everyone who didn't pay a friendly orc to drive them forty-five minutes out of Rotorua.) This is why Edgar Allan Poppet waited almost two years to show you his photos. He hopes it's okay for him to do so now, since the movie has been out for a while and millions of people have gone to see it. Also, much nicer pictures have appeared on all the major news sites.

So pretty! It was ever so slightly rainy when Edgar Allan Poppet went, which made it magical but a tad difficult to photograph.

There were no obliging fenceposts near any of the houses, so Edgar Allen Poppet got his friend Michelle to hold him while I snapped this picture.

Michelle got me to take a picture of her outside this door, since she's always wanted to visit it. (She asked Edgar Allan Poppet first, but he had some trouble with the camera on account of his arms are molded against his body.) Michelle is not fond of sharing her visage with the world, so Edgar Allan Poppet urged me to show you the Michelle-free photo.

This pub was closed to the public back then, but you can go there, if you want. You lucky duck.

Back in Rotorua, Edgar Allan Poppet's friends dumped him at the hostel. They ate a delicious hāngi dinner and watched some talented dancers, including a guy who'd spent 55 hours getting traditional tattoos on his upper legs and buttocks.

They took few pictures, since they were too busy enjoying themselves.

It was a good day¹.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: nada

Two Years Ago: Ten Ruby Trick by Julia Knight

Three Years Ago: The Sci Fi Experience 2010

Four Years Ago: The Good Prince by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham et al

Well, other than the point in the evening when the MC asked Michelle if she could sing a Zulu song. Michelle is Canadian, as he ought to have known from the start of the festivities, when everyone shared their nationalities. She and I sang "Oh," Canada" instead.

The rest of it was great, though. Pretty, green spaces! Friendly orcs! A van Seth Green had also ridden in! (I didn't think I was the kind of person who'd get excited about riding in a van that had previously held someone who'd been on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. I was wrong.) Delicious food! Talented people! Yay!

Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:00:17 GMT

Title: STEALING PARKER
Author: Miranda Kenneally
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication Date: October 2012
Pages: 256
Status: electronic (purchased)

Stealing Parker for purchase at The Book Depository

Stealing Parker for purchase at Kobo.

We’ve got a problem here. I loved STEALING PARKER so very, very, very much that I want the whole world to know it, but I’m not sure I’m capable of discussing it in a coherent fashion. If I had my way, I’d send y’all a psychic blast that would at once communicate my deep love for the book and a wealth of textual evidence to support that love.

Alas, we do not yet possess the necessary technology.

How ‘bout a short, gushy, ungrammatical review instead?

OMG YOU GUYS STEALING PARKER is even better than CATCHING JORDAN there’s still lots of sports stuff but there’s also even deeper emotion and FAMILY STUFF and TROUBLED FEELINGS and Parker is so so so wonderful and I felt terrible for her and could totally understand how she felt about her mum being a lesbian because even though she does some objectionable things they make sense within her cultural context and anyway she’s not upset about her mum being gay she’s down because her mum LEFT and that’s gotta hurt and anyways the text gives her the tools she needs to make peace with it and OMG HOW AWESOME IS CORNDOG I LOVE CORNDOG and romances like this one are the BEST the absolute BEST because there’s a genuine and tangible connection between both parties but all these totally in-character things keep them apart and I LIVE FOR THE TERRIBLE HORRIBLE POSSIBILITY THAT TWO PEOPLE WHO BELONG TOGETHER MAY END UP WITH OTHER PEOPLE YOU GUYS DON’T EVEN KNOW and I thought Brian was creepy and there's also some great religious stuff which isn't creepy but is instead balanced and meaningful and I cried SO DAMNED HARD when Parker made that particular phone call I couldn’t even see my e-reader’s screen for all the tears and then the ending was perfect and y’all, I implore you to read it, because it is GOLD, Jerry, GOLD.

5 stars – loved it to the point of incoherence and/or verbosity

Other Reviews:

You'll find lots over at the Book Blogs Search Engine.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: nada

Two Years Ago: Glimpses by Lynn Flewelling

Three Years Ago: The Sunday Salon: Transitory Reading

Four Years Ago: Foundation by Mercedes Lackey

The Diviners by Libba Bray

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:00:45 GMT

Title: THE DIVINERS
Author: Libba Bray
Series: four sequels (or perhaps companion volumes?) will follow
Publisher: Little, Brown Books For Young Readers
Publication Date: September 2012
Pages: 592
Status: keeper

LibraryThing Info

The Diviners for purchase at The Book Depository

The Diviners for purchase at Kobo

Free preview of The Diviners at Kobo

Review copy received at Book Expo America.

I have an odd relationship with Libba Bray’s books. We’ve spoken before of my love for GOING BOVINE, but my feelings for the Gemma Doyle books are less positive¹.

THE DIVINERS, I decided, would serve as a tie-breaker (assuming a tie exists when you've loved one book and disliked three). It wouldn’t affect how I felt about the Gemma Doyle series, but perhaps it could help me decide whether I wanted to read BEAUTY QUEENS and Bray’s future releases.

And y’know what? I’m gonna read the fuck out of everything Bray publishes from hereon out.

Hell, if the rest of the Diviners books were already available, I’d be smack-dab in the middle of a feels-ridden binge of historical awesomeness.

Part of the reason I pushed that pesky 3:1 negative ratio to the side and nabbed a copy of THE DIVINERS off that large, enticing pile at BEA is that it’s about ghosts. In the 1920s. In New Frickin’ York².

Evie’s a total rabble-rouser, thanks in part to her ability to read a person’s past from the objects they’ve handled and her inability to keep quiet about what she’s learned, so her parents ship her off to New York City to live with her Uncle Will. (Because life in New York is somehow a punishment?) Evie’s thrilled with the arrangement; she and her best NYC friend, Mabel, will party all the live-long day at Manhattan’s many cinemas, theatres, and speakeasies. And hey, if Will’s consulting work with the NYPD gives her a chance to help with a murder investigation or two (and, by extension, get her name in the papers), so much the better. These murders aren’t the work of an ordinary killer, though. Before long, Evie is enmeshed in a supernatural web stretching back fifty years--as are a surprising number of her new friends.

And it is frickin’ awesome.

Really, y’all, there were times when I felt like Libba Bray wrote THE DIVINERS just for me. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of topics that come up at one point or another:

ghosts

dreams

dark forces that threaten to engulf the world

girls with guts

the theatre

the impact of history

creepy-ass cults

houses that think for themselves

the fast-paced life of a 1920s flapper

strong friendships

cyborgs

pickpockets

seriously dark shit

Remember: this list is non-exhaustive. There's tons more in THE DIVINERS. Tons more.

It seems like I lot, I know--perhaps even too much--but Bray brings it all together with verve and flair. The results are thick and glorious and immersive; the sort of thing I, at least, can wallow in for hours with nary a care. It wasn’t long before the inside of my head was a great big mass of OMG THE DIVINERS OMG MUST READ MORE OH GOD OH GOD THE DIVINERS OMG.

I knew in my bones that I loved it, but I still felt like there was something... not missing, exactly, but not as present as I might have liked. As dearly as I loved the setting and the trappings and the wealth of glorious detail, I wasn’t sure I felt much for the characters. I liked them, yes, but could I truly say I cared about them? I didn’t know.

Then Bray placed one of them in mortal danger, and there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I would suffer and suffer and suffer if they were to die. And when the smoke cleared, I felt exactly the same about every other character.

That clinched that.

I can’t wait for the sequel. Bray’s website doesn’t give a release date, but her FAQ do state that THE DIVINERS is the start of a four-book series. Bring it on.

4.5 stars – loved the hell out of it

Other Reviews:

There are lots, so I'll direct you to the Book Blogs Search Engine.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: The Sunday Salon: A General Update

Two Years Ago: A Library Loot Vlog

Two Years Ago: Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon

Three Years Ago: The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr

I’ve deliberately avoided sharing my in-depth reaction to the Gemma Doyle books on the internet because there’s enough negativity in the world and Libba Bray seems like a lovely person besides. Only, right after I picked up THE DIVINERS at BEA, I ran into a blogging friend with whom I compared the books we’d selected so far, and the subject came up. I thought I was safe because, hey, I was airing these views in public! Nothing was written down!

About an hour later, I remembered that I was at frickin’ Book Expo America, where Libba Bray or one of her dear friends might very well be lurking in the crowd, listening to my every word. Then I felt super-duper bad.

Reminder: when I like things, I swear at them. A lot. I had to remove a fair few profanities from this post, lest I overwhelm those of you who regard such things in a different light. I’ve also changed most of the non-omittable fucks to fricks, except in cases where nothing else would do.

My Awesome Year of Awesome

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:03:24 GMT

This picture of Murchie has nothing to do with anything.

2007 was my best reading year ever. I discovered scads of wonderful new authors, expanded my list of Favouritest of Favourite Books from a Top 3 to a Top 5, and read so many amazing novels that I had to exclude some painfully good material from my year-end Best Of list lest it become bloated and unwieldy.

Every year since then has been a let-down. Yeah, I've found a few new Favouritest of Favourite Books (enough to turn my Top 5 into a Top 10, for which we can mostly blame Sarah Monette), and I've added a couple of new authors to my must-read-everything-they-write-oh-god-oh-god list, but the mediocre has always won out over the awesome when it comes time to crunch the numbers.

I'm determined that 2013 will be different. My reading plan for this year is as follows:

Read awesome stuff.

Ignore books that fail to meet my standard of awesome.

WALLOW IN AWESOMENESS.

This will be my Awesome Year of Awesome.

I've made a good start. As of yesterday, I've finished one 4.5-star book (THE DIVINERS by Libba Bray) and two 5-star books (STEALING PARKER by Miranda Kenneally and THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL by Galen Beckett). I also abandoned a book that failed to meet my standard of awesome, and I'm prepared to do so again whensoever the need arises¹.

In the past, I've had excellent luck with asking y'all to look through my TBR and tell me which books you think I should read ASAP, so I thought I'd try again. If you'd be so kind as to browse la TBR and tell me which books you consider the awesomest of awesome reads, you will win my undying gratitude.

My standard of awesome is oddly flexible, but in the past I've most ardently enjoyed the following sorts of things:

Thick, wallowsome books with lots of fascinating detail.

Dark stuff.

Intense relationships of all varieties. I have a particular fondness for sibling relationships and romantic relationships wherein two people who totally belong together may end up with other people.

Things that rip my heart out and stop on it.

Daring rescues. Bonus points if there are, like, twelve of them crammed into one book.

The theatre. I have a total soft spot for books set in and around theatres.

An awesome-to-Memory book need not include all these elements. Hell, it might not include any of them (though I can think of precious few books that entranced me without providing an intense relationship of some sort). They're just guidelines.

So, what should I read in the near future?

Back in the Day:

One Year Ago: The Legacy by R.A. Salvatore

Two Years Ago: The Sunday Salon: Penguin By Design, Again

Three Years Ago: TBR Additions

Four Years Ago: Hello Lurkers! Welcome Back!

Or so I tell myself. My hardassery skills are not always what they could be.

2012 In Review

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:09:23 GMT

Happy New Year, y'all!

So. Year in review post. Let's dive right in with a series of compartmentalized categories that should, in theory, allow you to skip over anything that doesn't strike your fancy.

Notable Rereads

I never consider rereads for potential inclusion in my yearly Top 5 (or 6, or 7, or whatever) lists because they have an unfair advantage, but I do like to highlight the books that continue to wow me time and again.

I normally limit my reread shout-outs to 4.5-star books and above, but I did revisit some awesome 4-star reads in 2012. It would feel wrong to leave them out.

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery - 4 stars

Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming by Rachel Hartman - 4.5 stars

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Eight, by various authors and artists - basically 4 stars all around

Sunshine by Robin McKinley - 4 stars

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley - 5 stars to the first bit; 3 stars overall

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner - 4.5 stars

The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner - 5 stars

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - 4 stars

It's worth noting that I enjoyed BtVS S8 so much that I read it twice back to back, and I don't do that.

I hummed and hawed over whether I should put THE HERO AND THE CROWN on the list, since I ended up eliminating it from my personal library due to the disappointing second half, but I stuck it on there because the first chunk was the most marvellous thing I read all year and that's worth a hell of a lot. Shame about the rest of it.

My 2012 Top 5

This proved remarkably easy to pick, as I only gave 5 new-to-me books 4.5 stars. (How depressing.) In the order I read them, they are:

SERAPHINA by Rachel Hartman - 4.5 stars

This YA fantasy is perhaps my most recommended book of 2012. If we've talked books for any length of time, I've told you to read it. There are GIRLS WITH GUTS and an AWESOME LOVE STORY and MUSIC and also DRAGONS.

So, go read it. Now, if you please.

CATCHING JORDAN by Miranda Kenneally - 4.5 stars

Sports stories rarely fail to delight me, and this was one hell of a sports story. I became deeply invested in quarterback Jordan's life on and off the field. She's a hell of a girl, y'all. I want you to meet her.

CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein - 4.5 stars

I never reviewed this historical spy novel because my reaction is intimately tied to the narrative's many unreliabilities, none of which I wish to spoil. Suffice it to say that every good thing you've heard about it is true. (I assume you have heard good things about it, on account of you spent time perusing the bookish parts of the Internet last year.) It's a deeply affecting book about the friendship between two young women, and my god, is the climax ever stupendous.

If I think about it any more, I'll start crying.

SORCERY & CECELIA and THE GRAND TOUR by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer - 4.5 stars each

I had every intention of writing (and posting) gushy reviews for these wonderful epistolary novels, but I'm no longer sure it'll happen. Sigh. Please, don't let that reflect on the books themselves, which are delightful. They're chock full of witty women who clash with maddening (but not unattractive) men as they untangle mannerly magical mysteries in an alternate version of Regency England. I discovered the books in late November and am now on a quest to read every single thing the authors have published, separately or together. It'll be one of my big 2013 reading projects.

And that's that. Five wonderful books by six talented ladies.

Short Fiction:

My insatiable craving for short fiction desserted me a few months into the year, so I fell short of my goal to read 500 short stories in 2012. I didn't do too badly, though, all things considered, ending the year with a respectable tally of 439 stories read.

I don't think I'll set so much as an unofficial goal for 2013. If I feel like reading short fiction, I will. If not, I won't beat myself up over it.

Non-American Activities:

I set out to read at least 60% non-American in 2012, and I surpassed my goal. 68% of my 2012 reading consisted of books by non-American authors, or with non-American contributers (in the case of short fiction anthologies and magazines). Whee!

The obvious course is to aim for 65%, or perhaps even 70%, non-American reading in 2013, but I think I'll take a year off from tracking these sorts of things. More on that in a few days.

Stats, Stats, and More Stats:

I read 248 books and 69,316 pages in 2012. This is down from 293 books and 85,953 pages in 2011.

48 of those books were keepers (ie, books I kept in or added to my permanent collection).

I borrowed 66 of them from the library.

44 of them were sellers (ie, books I sold or gave away).

85 were e-books. Some were purchased, some were ARCs, some were loaners, some were library books, and some were freebies. None of the e-books overlap with my keepers or my sellers.

3 of the books I read in 2012 were loaners (ie, books I borrowed from private individuals).

60 of them were rereads, including the comics I reread multiple times.

As far as genres and marketing categories go, 149 of my 2012 reads were fantasy.

56 were comics.

51 were children's or young adult novels.

47 were horror.

43 were science fiction.

41 were historical.

35 were general fiction.

32 were romance or erotica.

30 were short fiction anthologies, collections, and magazines/journals.

12 were nonfiction.

6 were crime fiction.

1 was poetry.

There's some overlap between these categories.

A few other stats I tracked last year:

155 of the books I read were by women. 105 were by men. There's some overlap between these, as a few had both male and female coauthors.

Around 167 were by non-Americans. I think I missed a couple on this tally, since the percentage doesn't match up with the stats my reading spreadsheet calculated for me.

30 were by Canadians.

59 had significant LGBT content.

I rated 63 books 4 stars or higher.

I abandoned 10 books after the 100 page mark. I also bailed on several before this cut-off point (which determines whether or not I'll count the book in my yearly reading tally).

My handy-dandy reading spreadsheet tells me my 2012 reads cost me $242.85. I paid for 37% of my reading list.

And that's it. How did your 2012 reading go?

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: 2011 In Review

Two Years Ago: 2010 In Review

Three Years Ago: 2009 In Review

Four Years Ago: Down, TBR, Down!

Red Hot Holiday by K.A. Mitchell, Leah Braemel, and Anne Calhoun

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 21:59:24 GMT

Title: RED HOT HOLIDAY, which contains WISH LIST, I NEED YOU FOR CHRISTMAS, and BREATH ON EMBERS
Authors: K.A. Mitchell, Leah Braemel, and Anne Calhoun
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: 5 December 2012
Pages:
Status: electronic (ARC)

Red Hot Holiday for purchase at Kobo

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

How d’you fancy a little last minute holiday erotica?

RED HOT HOLIDAY collects three erotic romance novellas, each of which tells what I think of as a next-level story. The characters are all in a holding pattern with their relationships, until the holidays give them the push they need to take things further.

The collection opens with WISH LIST by K.A. Mitchell. Jonah is halfway horrified when he finds a ring in his boyfriend’s desk. Yeah, he loves Evan, but there’s still so much he wants to try before he gets hitched. He drafts a list of kinky scenarios, never dreaming that straight-laced Evan might be just the man to fulfill all his fantasies.

WISH LIST is very much a figuring-it-out narrative. Jonah is at a crossroads. Even though he’s happy with his life, he’s not sure he’s ready to fully commit to it. Evan, in contrast, is comfortable with the way things are, with perhaps one exception: he misses certain parts of the BDSM scene, which he left because he wanted more of an emotional connection alongside the physicality. The narrative gives them the space they need to figure out where they stand in relation to one another and how they’re going to use their mutual, if unexpressed, desires to strengthen their relationship. Mitchell immediately takes us inside the lovers’ connection and lets us get a firm grip on what they feel for each other, even as we watch them engage in some steamy experimentation. Miscommunication and misinterpretation add to the tension, ensuring both characters remain in real danger of a broken heart. It's not until they learn to trust each other, and themselves, that they can move forward.

I had a great time with the novella and give it 3.5 stars (my "I really liked this" rating). As an added bonus, the story stretches through to New Year’s Eve, making this the perfect way to your holiday reading down once Christmas has passed.

I NEED YOU FOR CHRISTMAS by Leah Braemel continues things with an m/f story. Megan loves being a Mountie, but she hates how her northern posting keeps her away from her boyfriend, Ryan, for most of the year. This Christmas, she’s determined to give him the best present of all: her new commission with the Ontario Provincial Police, which will let her stay close to the man who’s sacrificed so much for his loved ones. Ryan has plans of his own, though, and holiday secrets soon conspire to put the lovers at odds.

This story is hot, y’all. The sex sizzles, if you’ll allow me a clichéd turn of phrase, and they’re both plentiful and varied. The reader has the pleasure of experiencing Megan and Ryan’s lust in a multitude of locales and positions. Such a large number of sex scenes might feel gratuitous in other hands, but Braemel never loses control of the situation. Her red hot story works beautifully because the sex, great as it is, is never just about sex. Each encounter is intimately tied into Megan and Ryan’s larger relationship. These scenes are a means of establishing how the lovers feel about one another and what effect the long-distance thing has had on them. It’s highly emotional as well as physical.

This emotional look at Megan and Ryan’s connection also makes it easy for the reader to believe in the compromises each character makes so they can stay together. I sometimes find these sorts of stories questionable because the woman always seems to give up more than the man, but Braemel avoids that hiccup. She shows us that Megan isn’t giving up her dream so much as discovering a new one--one that lets her serve the people of Canada while staying close to the man she loves. Ryan, too, makes compromises--he’s determined to move up north to be with Megan, even though it means leaving his family behind and applying the brakes to his career as a sculptor. They've made these choices as much for themselves as for each other, and they feel earned on all counnts--especially since both characters, particularly Ryan, have a history of self-sacrifice.

This was my favourite of the three novellas. I give it 4 stars (my "I loved this" rating) and highly recommend it to you. You can bet I'll be reading more of Braemel's work in the near future.

BREATH ON EMBERS by Anne Calhoun closes the collection. Ronan, an NYC firefighter, figures Christmas is the perfect time to deepen things with his adventurous regular hookup. Thea, however, is still reeling from the death of her husband two years ago. She cares about Ronan, but she’s not sure she can commit to anything more than sex with him, least of all around the holiday that meant so much to her throughout her marriage. Certain he can help her accept that their connection is more than just physical, Ronan proposes a challenge Thea can’t possibly refuse: a threesome with one of his buddies from the station.

This final novella works beautifully on a number of levels. Calhoun tackles Thea’s grief with sensitivity and care. We delve deep into the way her husband's death has changed Thea’s life, with particular emphasis on how she feels pressured to forget and to move on. Thea is well paired with Ronan, who’s also grieving to the best friend he lost in the course of his duties. Together, they come to realize that continuing to live doesn’t mean forgetting about their loved ones.

The sex is nice and hot, as is par for the course with this collection; and, as one might expect, it’s more than simply physical. As was the case with the previous two novellas, sex serves as a means of helping the characters come to a better understanding of their relationship. It show us what they’re going through emotionally, and it gives them a way to heal.

I found this very affecting, and give it 3.5 stars (my "I really liked this" rating).

Other Reviews:

Dear Author
Fiction Vixen Book Reviews (covers BREATH ON EMBERS)
From the TBR Pile

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: Stuff From Books: Latkes and Christmas Ornaments

Two Years Ago: Crown of Shadows by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, The Crowded Shadows by Celine Kiernan and All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear

Three Years Ago: 2009: The Long List

Four Years Ago: nada

Stuff From Books: A Lannister Tree

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 13:00:18 GMT

Happy late Hanukkah, slightly late Solstice, early Christmas, and early Kwanzaa, everyone!

Last December, my family got a new tree with built-in clear lights. This was quite a departure for us, as we've always been coloured light folk, but y'all know how it goes--the trees with the coloured lights cost more at last year's after-Christmas sales, so we went with the cheaper option.

I was sad at first, until I realized the clear lights looked golden. Combined with the large number of red-tinged ornaments we've collected over the years, they conspired to create a red and gold tree.

"It's a Gryffindor tree!" I said to Murchie (who was the only one around at the time).

Murchie gave me a look that at once reminded me I am not, in fact, a Gryffindor¹ and thus have no business displaying a Gryffindor tree in my home.

"Okay," I said. "You're right. We've got to make this literary, though, so we'll call it a Lannister tree. After all, you're a Lannister dog²."

Murchie, being a dog, had no opinion on this one way or the other, but Twitter told me it was the right move.

Later, I found some red and gold garland. I'll always be sorry there isn't enough of it to wrap around the handrail on my stairs, turning it into a Lannister Bannister³.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: nada

Two Years Ago: Devil's Bride by Stephanie Laurens and The Poison Throne by Celine Kiernan

Three Years Ago: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Four Years Ago: Fray by Joss Whedon, Karl Moline, and Andy Owens

I'm a Hufflepuff. We're smart, brave, sneaky, hard-working, and loyal.

Murchie always pays his debts. Do not fuck with him, because he will destroy you. People always think I'm being ironic about that since Murchie is small and adorable, but really: be glad he doesn't have opposable thumbs.

On the flip side, he pays good debts as well as bad. Make friends with Murchie and he will love you until the end of time (or until you screw him over, at which point he will have his revenge. I seem to have a free pass on this, being Murchie's favourite person and all, but there's days I figure it's only a matter of time before I do something unforgiveable and he goes after my dad with a crossbow).

A confession: even though my handrail is wrapped in a lengthy piece of holly garland (the red and gold bits went to the tree and a small lamp), I still think of it as a Lannister Bannister whenever I go upstairs. And yes, I giggle every time.

Romancing the Holiday by HelenKay Dimon, Christi Barth, and Jaci Burton

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:01:08 GMT

Title: ROMANCING THE HOLIDAY, which contains WE’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, ASK HER AT CHRISTMAS, and THE BEST THING
Authors: HelenKay Dimon, Christi Barth, and Jaci Burton
Series: WBHFC is part of the Holloway series; TBT is part of the Kent Brothers series
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: 5 December, 2012
Pages: 132, 96, and 124
Status: electronic (ARC)

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

ROMANCING THE HOLIDAY is one of those wonderfully annoying collections that adds about a million books to your wishlist, since you can't help but want to read everything else the authors have published.

Sigh. At least it's a nice problem to have.

It's also an excellent argument for collections like this one. They aren't just enjoyable stories in their own right; they're also a gateway to more great reading. Yay!

The collection kicks off with WE’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS by HelenKay Dimon, a standalone addition to her Holloway series. Lila Payne is appalled to learn that the super-hot three-night stand she met a few months back is both a resident of her new hometown and a liar--he told her he was his brother. Spence regrets the deception and is determined to make it up to Lila by helping her restore the downtrodden resort she’s just inherited. But as their business relationship morphs into something more, both lovers wonder if they can put their past disappointments behind them.

To be perfectly honest with you, WE’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS almost lost me with its first chapter. The beginning, in which Lila discovers Spence’s deception, felt abrupt and off-key. I’ve had difficulty pointing to any concrete reason why it failed to flow for me, but I definitely felt disconnected from the narrative. I feared I was in for a disappointment.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. As soon as the characters began to interact with the rest of the town of Holloway, I was hooked. Dimon won me over with her snappy dialogue and keen eye for small town dynamics. She writes banter oh-so well and has a real feel for the way close-knit communities operate. I quickly came to care for both Spence and Lila (due, in large part, to their many chemistry-laden exchanges), but I was almost as engaged with the town as a whole as I was with their relationship. As an added bonus, the town’s keen interest in their burgeoning affair has a real impact on the way it plays out.

Irrepressible townsfolk get me every single time, and few things make me happier than the chance to view them from multiple angles in a series of interconnected standalones. I’m eager to seek out Dimon’s past books so I can spend some more time in Holloway and get the skinny on Spence’s friends and relations! Last year’s holiday offering, IT’S NOT CHRISTMAS WITHOUT YOU, is already on my e-reader, and I doubt the follow-up, LEAN ON ME, is far behind. I'll save that one until after Christmas, though, so I can cram a few more holiday romances. :)

I give WE'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS 3.5 stars (my "I really liked this" rating).

ASK HER AT CHRISTMAS by Christi Barth is a friends-to-lovers story. Caitlin is shocked when her best friend and secret love, Kyle, proposes to her. Turns out, Kyle isn't serious--he just needs help crafting the perfect proposal for his hotel-heiress girlfriend so he can cement a merger between their family businesses and impress the dying father who’s always looked down on him. Caitlin is determined to put her feelings aside and help her best friend, but as the reality of his almost-arranged marriage closes in around Kyle, he has trouble remembering why he can't date Caitlin instead.

I adored this! Friends-to-lovers stories are among my favourites because they come with built in chemistry on multiple levels. Caitlin and Kyle are attracted to one another, sure, but it’s the less physical connections that really make their relationship burst off the page. Barth builds off their years of in-jokes and shared experiences to convince the reader that these two totally belong together. Their established friendship ensures that the stakes are sky high, too. Not only do we face the terrible, horrible possibility that two people who belong together may end up with other people (ie, the THP), but we must also contend with the possibility that their friendship won’t survive. Eek!

Given the chemistry between these two, one might suppose there could be no true impediment to their future happiness; however, Barth gives them both compelling, in-character reasons for resisting their attraction. Their friendship itself serves as a barrier, as both are reluctant to do anything that might mess it up. Caitlin, too, is well aware of how badly Kyle wants his father’s approval, and her desire to see her best friend gain acceptance before his father dies takes precedence over her own happiness. Kyle must contend with both the fatherly approval issue and the very real possibility that the merger won’t go through if he backs out of the marriage, causing problems for his family and the company alike. The complications are realistic and legitimately troublesome, even when you know how any romance must naturally end.

I love the novella, in the main, but I did feel like a couple of key scenes were a tad abrupt. The groundwork is certainly there, but I wanted more of a transition into them. Still, the rest of the story was so good that I couldn’t think of giving it less than 4 stars (my "I loved this" rating). I’ll be reading more by Christi Barth; you can bet on it.

The collection ends with THE BEST THING, a new standalone entry in Jaci Burton’s Kent Brothers series. Things have been tense between Brody Kent and his office manager, Tori, ever since he kissed her at last year’s Christmas party. Tori has been in love with her hunky boss since high school, but his reputation as a lady’s man who doesn’t do relationships convinces her she’s in for a world of heartache if she gives into the attraction. A girl can only hold out for so long, though, especially when the object of her affections is out to convince her he’s changed--even if he won't admit it to the rest of the town just yet.

This, now, is one of those rare, wonderful, utterly maddening books where I can’t quite tell you why I loved it so much. I stayed up late to finish it, and you’d better believe I cried, but I can't explain why I found it so compelling. It was certainly engaging and immersive. I could relate to both Tori and Brody by turns, and to the pressure they felt to live up to their extended family’s expectations. THE BEST THING, like WE’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, is a small town story where everyone and their dog is invested in whether or not the couple makes it. This has a huge influence on how Brody, at least, conducts himself within the relationship, paving the way for the THP to kick in. I couldn’t tear myself away.

So, if you don’t mind, I’ll leave it that that. Suffice it to say that I gave this 4 stars (my "I loved it" rating) and quickly purchased A RARE GIFT, last year’s Kent Brothers novella. (It kept me entertained until the week hours last night--and yes, I loved it, too.) I hope I’m also able to get to ALL SHE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS, the first in the series, before Christmas rolls around. If not, it’ll be on my wishlist for next year.

Other Reviews:

The Book Girl on WE'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, ASK HER AT CHRISTMAS, and THE BEST THING
Cheryl's Book Nook (covers ASK HER AT CHRISTMAS)
Geeky Bloggers Book Blog (covers WE'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS)
Rachel Cotterill Book Reviews

Did I miss your review? Please let me know so I can add it to my list!

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: Lost At Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Two Years Ago: Kilmeny of the Orchard by L.M. Montgomery

Three Years Ago: The Sunday Salon: TBR Additions

Four Years Ago: Fall Into Reading Wrap-Up

12-12-12, Complete

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:13:11 GMT

I chose not to participate in any official challenges this year, but I did set myself an unofficial one. I made a list of twelve categories and set out to read twelve books by twelve different authors in each.

I finished the challenge last week, so I thought I'd share the results with y'all.

Secondary World Fantasy:

Arvore by Memory Scarlett

Wintertide by Michael J. Sullivan

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

The Magicians and Mrs Quent by Galen Beckett

Doppelganger by Marie Brennan

Wake of the Bloody Angel by Alex Bledsoe

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

The False Price by Jennifer A. Nielsen

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Contemporary Fantasy:

Inside Man by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

The Price of Freedom by Jenny Schwartz

Daylight by Elizabeth Knox

Elfland by Freda Warrington

Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, vol. 2, by Tove Jansson

The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon & Georges Jeanty et al

Last Angel In Hell by Brian Lynch et al

God Save the Queen by Kate Locke

Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

Historical Fantasy & Science Fiction:

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

Beauty In the Beast by Christine Danse

The Greyfriar by Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith

Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove

Ripper by Amy Carol Reeves

Beauty by Robin McKinley

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

Bayou vol. 2 by Jeremy Love

The Map of the Sky by Felix J. Palma

Tommy Taylor and the War of Words by Mike Carey, Peter Gross, M.K. Parker et al

Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer

The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson

Historical Fiction:

His Client by Ava March

A Song For Summer by Eva Ibbotson

A Brush With Darkness by Erastes

Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran

A Bride's Story, vol. 2 by Kaoru Mori

Meet Marie-Grace by Sarah Masters Buckey

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

A Groom of One's Own by Maya Rodale

Comics:

Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming by Rachel Hartman

Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity by Mike Carey and Peter Gross et al

Keys to the Kingdom by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez et al

Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip vol. 1 by Tove Jansson

A Bride's Story vol. 1 by Kaoru Mori

No Future For You by Brian K. Vaughan, Joss Whedon & Georges Jeanty et al

Live Through This by Christos Gage & Rebekah Isaacs et al

Spike: After the Fall by Brian Lynch & Franco Urru et al

Only Human by Scott Lobdell & David Messina et al

Immortality For Dummies by Bill Willingham et al

Marvels by Kurt Busiek & Alex Ross

Bayou vol. 1 by Jeremy Love

Fiction Magazines:

Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2011

On Spec, Summer 2011

On Spec, Fall 2011

Analog, January/February 2012

On Spec, Summer 2004

Asimov's, October/November 2011

Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2012

Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2012

Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2012

Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2012

Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October 2012

On Spec, Winter 2011/2012

Short Story Collections and Anthologies:

Steampunk!, ed. by Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant

Chronicles of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Year One, ed. by Scott H. Andrews

The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, vol. 6, ed. by Jonathan Strahan

Somewhere Beneath Those Waves by Sarah Monette

Fat Girl In A Strange Land, ed. by Kay T. Holt & Barry R. Leib

Looking For Jake and Other Stories by China Mieville

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

Salsa Nocturna by Daniel Jose Older

Some of the Best From Tor.com, ed. by Patrick Nielsen Hayden & Liz Gorinsky

Flight vol 8, ed. by Kazu Kibuishi

The Best Horror of the Year, vol. 4, ed. by Ellen Datlow

Nonfiction:

In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood

Fear of Frying by James Barber

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Seven Seasons of Buffy, ed. by Glenn Yeffeth

Science Fiction: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. by Mark Rose

The Histories by Herodotus

A Feast of Ice and Fire by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel & Sariann Lehrer

Gentleman by Bernhard Roetzel

Beyond the Wall, ed. by James Lowder

Situations Matter by Sam Sommers

Indie Girl by Arne Johnson & Karen Macklin

Russia by Andrew Moore & Boris Fishman

Canadian Authors:

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

The Bartered Virgin by Chevon Gael

Beyond This Dark House by Guy Gavriel Kay

Angel: Aftermath by Kelley Armstrong et al

The White Swan Affair by Elyse Mady

What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies

Bootleg My Heart by A.M. Westerling

I Need You For Christmas by Leah Braemel

On Spec, Spring 2012, ed. by Diane L. Walton

Rogue Ship by A.E. Van Vogt

Science Fiction:

Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey

Vanishing Acts, ed. by Ellen Datlow

Empire State by Adam Christopher

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer

Fray by Joss Whedon, Karl Moline & Andy Owens et al

Matched by Ally Condie

Legend by Marie Lu

Shift by Kim Curran

The Jewels of Aptor by Samuel R. Delaney

Origin by Jessica Khoury

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Young Adult Fiction:

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Pink Smog by Francesca Lia Block

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

You Are My Only by Beth Kephart

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier & Sarah Rees Brennan

Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

LGBT Lit:

Pantomime by Laura Lam

Brook Street: Thief by Ava March

Muffled Drum by Erastes

The House on Durrow Street by Galen Beckett

Wolves at the Gate by Drew Goddard, Georges Jeanty & Joss Whedon et al

Alien 'n' Outlaw by KC Burn

Beyond Binary, ed. by Brit Mandelo

A Gentlemen's Arrangement by Memory Scarlett

Life After Joe by Harper Fox

The Midnight Court by Jane Kindred

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

Mistletoe At Midnight by LB Gregg

And that's that! I've drafted a list of potential 13-13-13 categories, but I'm not sure if I'll commit to it. We'll see how I feel come January.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago:

Two Years Ago: Head Games by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

Three Years Ago: Virtual Advent Tour, Day 17

Four Years Ago: Children of the Night by Mercedes Lackey

The Sunday Salon: The Long List

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 13:01:13 GMT

Every year around this time, I comb through my reading list in search of the books that made the biggest impression on me. They aren't my absolute top reads--I never post those until January 1st in case I encounter something truly awesome at the end of December--but they form a Long List from which I'll eventually choose my much-vaunted Top 5.

The list may grow between now and December 31st, but here's where it currently stands. As always, I've included books published prior to 2012 and excluded rereads:

In Other Worlds by Margaret Atwood

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Somewhere Beneath Those Waves by Sarah Monette

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Elfland by Fred Warrington

Tove Jansson's collected Moomin comic strips

Live Through This by Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs et al

Last Angel In Hell by Brian Lynch et a

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

On Your Own by Andrew Chambliss, Georges Jeanty, Cliff Richards et al

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

Science Fiction: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. by Mark Rose

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

The Midnight Court by Jane Kindred

Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

The Grand Tour by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

What are your top books of 2012? Do you have a formal Best Of list yet, or are you waiting until the end of the year?

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: Oogy by Larry Levin

Two Years Ago: Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier

Three Years Ago: Television: True Blood, Season One

Four Years Ago: Fantasy Picks For the Holidays - Part IV

Felt Tips Is Here!

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:42:00 GMT

Psst. The world's first anthology of office supply erotica is now available for purchase.

I think y'all should buy it because:

The proceeds go to charities that help kids get school supplies and adults get work clothes. Hurray for just causes!

It's filled with smut. Smut is happy-making.

It's $4.99, which is an excellent price for scads of happy-making smut.

I've got a story in it, as do 43 other awesome authors.

The e-book is currently available at Barnes & Noble for Nook or Smashwords in multiple formats including mobi, epub, and PDF. It'll be on a bunch of other sites in the coming days, too, but the retailers have been a bit slow to process it. A print edition is also forthcoming.

Buy it. Read it. Revel in it.

Back In the Day:

One Year Ago: Rise of Empire by Michael J. Sullivan

Two Years Ago: Like Clockwork by Bonnie Dee

Three Years Ago: The Sunday Salon: Random Recommendations

Four Years Ago: nada