M: Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) & Mirror Of Her Dreams

Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
Genre: nonfiction, psychology

Just looking at this book makes me want to read it again. The subtitle describes it better than any description I can come up with: "Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts".

Written by two psychologists, it delves into all sorts of reasons why people dig in and defend beliefs or opinions even when they're clearly wrong and everyone involved knows it (e.g. why law enforcement officials might continue to insist someone is guilty or innocent because they originally labeled them as such, or why politicians make excuses and tell lies even when the amount of attention being paid is so intense that it’s only a matter of time until the truth comes out). It has chapter names like "Knaves, Fools, Villains, and Hypocrites: How Do They Live with Themselves?", "Cognitive Dissonance: The Engine of Self-justification", and "Pride and Prejudice...and Other Blind Spots".

This is a book I can safely recommend to everyone. It's easy to read, it's fascinating, and you'll never approach disagreement (or your own memory) in quite the same manner again.

The Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson

Genre: fantasy

Terisa Morgan lives in a fabulous New York apartment paid for by her neglectful-yet-overbearing father. When Geraden comes crashing through her wall-sized mirror looking for a champion to save his land, he insists she's the one he came to get.

This is one of my favorite books. It bucks the current (and I must say, IMO, very American) trend of super-active single-protagonist books. I know we like to read about people doing things and taking control of their own destiny...but there are other stories, too. Terisa spends most of the story being dragged into things she would never have done if given a choice, and it makes her story no less fascinating for me. I like books about cautious introverts. They're so rare in fiction now. Every time I hear that a recently-published book has an introvert for a protagonist, I know in a few pages that character will just turn out to be an extrovert who was having a quiet day and soon shakes it off.

http://aliettedebodard.com/2011/08/31/on-the-prevalence-of-us-tropes-in-storytelling/

This blog post is by Aliette de Bodard, winner of the Writers of the Future Contest, finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer , nominated for the Hugo and the Nebula, etc etc. She states what I feel (perhaps more strongly than I feel it), but in short, there are lots of valid stories out there. I remember feeling such relief as I read her post, because for many years now I'd feared the world had moved on without me.

I'm happy reading stories about individuals who control their own destiny, people who save the day, people who lead. But I'm also happy reading group stories, stories of people who aren't immediately equipped to deal with what life throws at them, stories where violence has lasting consequences for everyone involved, stories where someone isn't becoming a larger-than-life superhero in order to deal with problems. There's room for all of it on my bookshelf!

Think of the movie Training Day. His first day on the job as a narcotics officer, Jake (Ethan Hawke) is assigned to accompany Alonzo (Denzel Washington), and what follows is the most horrifying day of Jake’s life. Despite the awards they won (Denzel won best actor, Ethan Hawke best supporting actor), from a storytelling point of view, it’s Jake’s story we’re invested in, his thoughts, fears, and decisions that are the focus of the story, which makes him the protagonist. He spends most of the movie being dragged into things by Alonzo. I'm not sure he makes a single active decision until near the end of the movie. And yet it's one of the most thrilling, edge-of-my-seat movies I've ever seen.

I want more stories like that. Because while I’m entertained by people who always rise to the occasion, say the wittiest possible thing and do the best possible thing to resolve the current situation, I identify better with someone who’s overwhelmed by situations they’re not equipped to deal with, and have to muddle through solving problems, sometimes with the help of other people. As long as it’s written well, I see no reason why every single action that moves the story forward has to be the protagonist’s.

And that's it for M!

L: Lord of the White Hell, The Lion of Senet, & The Lost Painting

Lord of the White Hell by Ginn Hale
Genre: fantasy

Kiram is a mechanist prodigy, and the first of his people admitted to the prestigious Sagrada academy. Because he's not a native, he's bullied and ostracized, and also forced to room with a popular guy everyone else is afraid to sleep near - Javier Tornesal, whose family is powerful and rich, but cursed. Kiram is instantly attracted to Javier, and Javier seems to return the sentiment. But the relationship, acceptable in Kiram's land, is forbidden in Javier's, and it could get them killed - if the White Hell doesn't kill them first.

Stellar world-building, danger, adventure, forbidden love, and the pain of not belonging. Good stuff all round.

The Lion of Senet by Jennifer Fallon

Genre: fantasy

My favorite fantasy novel of all time: A brilliant mathematician calculated when the second sun would disappear, vital information for keeping the religious establishment in power. In the midst of war, he vanished without telling anyone when the Age of Darkness would begin. But High Priestess Belagren has found another gifted mathematician in seventeen-year-old Dirk Provin, and even though Dirk's mother is a political dissident who hates the High Priestess and everything she represents, Belagren's determined to have him.

This is probably my favorite fantasy of all time (oh, did I say that already?). It influenced my tastes so strongly that I no longer feel magic is a necessary element in fantasy, while I'm less likely to pick up a fantasy novel if it doesn't contain intrigue at high levels (politics or religion). I also love that “the fate of the world hangs in the balance” – and no one cares because they’re fighting to be in charge after the big catastrophe. Jennifer Fallon always takes tropes and turns them on their heads. Sometimes really upsetting people with her choices, as with the ending of her “Immortal Prince” series. But that’s a different discussion.

Dirk Provin is my favorite character under 30 (Alan from the Demon’s Lexicon books comes a close second, but we’re never in his POV, so I can’t count him.). Dirk is definitely a scholar (studying medicine) and not a warrior. He's also witty, brilliant, in serious trouble, and ten steps ahead of everyone, projecting confidence even when he's quailing inside (which makes the rare times he can't project confidence that much more powerful), thinking on his feet when things go wrong. If I recall correctly, Jennifer Fallon's premise for him was "How many bad things can a character do and still be sympathetic?" That surprised me, because there's obvious logic in all his decisions, and I was rooting for him the whole time. I've probably read this book once a year for the last ten years.

One more L book:

The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr

Genre: literary? Suspense?

It’s about an Italian student and an art restorer tracking down a painting by my favorite Old Master artist, Caravaggio. Caravaggio, a 16th century painter, would have fit in quite well with some of our modern celebrities. When he wasn't annoying the religious establishment by painting the saints as uneducated bumpkins with dusty feet or using local, well-known prostitutes as his models for female religious icons, he was constantly breaking the law and getting into fights. Most of what we know of his life comes from criticisms written by contemporaries and a detailed police rap sheet.


He killed someone (over a tennis match or a girl, no one’s quite sure) and fled Rome, spending the rest of his life painting on the run (and making tons of money doing so). He was taken in by the Knights of Malta, until he pissed one of them off, and they started chasing him, too. Caravaggio was only 39 when he died (possibly from complications of being wounded by someone trying to kill him, though lead poisoning from his paints is also a likely culprit), but he left a lasting impact on the art world unmatched by many of the artists people can name.

The Cardsharps, just across town at the Kimbell Art Museum.
Caravaggio made genre paintings immensely popular at a time
when most paintings were religious or mythological in subject.
But the Church is where the money was, so most of his later
paintings were religious.

The book takes place in modern times and is more about the history of one of his paintings than about his own story. But I liked the book, and I love Caravaggio.

I've seen a handful of Caravaggios in person, and there's a luminous, storytelling quality to them that doesn't come across on the internet. This one is of an innocent boy being cheated by cardsharps. A large number of 16th and 17th century artists from all over Europe made their own versions of this painting.

K: Katniss, Katsa and Kira

My original choices for K were a book I haven’t actually read yet, though I’m looking forward to it (The Kingdom of the Gods by N.K. Jemisin), a book I loved last time I read it - as a freshman in high school (Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer), and a movie I genuinely recall liking, though I no longer remember why (The King's Speech - Colin Firth might have had something to with how much I liked it). So, cool as these probably are, I decided to go with characters again.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Genre: YA dystopian

I’m sure Katniss needs no introduction. Other than her bone-deep devotion to her younger sister, I’m not sure I have all that much in common with her, but I loved reading about her very, very much. Considering I assumed I wouldn't like these books and only read them after catching an excerpt by mistake, it's ridiculous how many times I've reread them since then. Love me some Katniss!

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Genre: YA fantasy

Katsa probably needs no introduction, either, but just in case:

General premise Katsa is the king’s niece. Because she’s graced (has a rare magical ability that comes with having different-colored eyes) with extreme fighting skills that make her unbeatable, her uncle has used her since childhood to torture and punish people who have displeased him. While trying to atone for her brutal actions by secretly helping people, she meets Po, who is graced with combat skills that actually make him a challenging sparring partner for her. As their friendship develops and she realizes someone with similar skills is living a dramatically different life from hers, she begins to question whether she actually has as little control over her destiny as she’s always assumed.

Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: YA SF

General premise Kira Moore is a zero. The ability to mind-read develops in early adolescence, but Kira’s never did. Since people (classmates, teachers, bus drivers, everyone she encounters) have to speak out loud to her because they can’t read her thoughts, they view her with suspicion and revulsion. But when she accidentally controls the mind of the boy she loves and nearly kills him, she draws the attention of people who want to use her and those who want to imprison her. That’s when she realizes her problems are even bigger than she thought. I love the tag line for this book:

“When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.”

So in short, in dramatically different worlds, each teenage girl here fights against overwhelming governmental authority (and terrible odds) to change her destiny. These three characters make me very, very happy.

J: John Grey

Lord John Grey series by Diana Gabaldon
Genre: historical mystery

This is more about a character than an individual book, since I’m recommending every book he’s in. Lord John Grey is my favorite character over the age of 30. In him, Gabaldon combines every trait I eat up in fiction – brilliance, wit, caution, bravery, a certain level of reserve, and built-in conflict.

John Grey is the younger brother of a duke who (for reasons entwined in the plot of one of the books) prefers to use his father’s lesser title, something that occasionally leads to awkward moments during introductions. John is rich, cultured, good-looking, and a commissioned officer in the English army, everything a man wants to be in mid-18th century England. Being an English soldier is a core part of his identity.

Grey is also gay, at a time when “homosexual activity” is punishable by death. And he’s in love with Jamie Fraser, a married (and hetero) Scotsman who was an officer on the opposite side during the Jacobite Rebellion (or Jacobite Rising). They get to know each other (no, not in the Biblical sense) when Grey is put in charge of Ardsmuir Prison, where Fraser is a prisoner for some time.

Grey is a minor character in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, where (to me) he takes over every scene he’s in despite sharing pages with some of the most dynamic characters I’ve had the privilege of reading about. He’s the protagonist in the Lord John books, solving mysteries that bring him in contact with different branches of several militaries, different echelons of society, and in and out of Jamie Fraser’s presence.

We first meet Grey in the Outlander series as a sixteen year old. Attached to his older brother’s regiment, he’s captured by the Scots, and would rather have the laird in charge shoot him than answer any questions. But believing the English woman with the Scots is also a prisoner and in imminent danger, he offers information in exchange for a guarantee of her safety, information that leads to the Scots finding and attacking his own regiment. That laird was Jamie Fraser, and that English woman was Fraser’s wife, Claire (who is the point-of-view character with her own amazing story in Outlander, and one of several POV characters in the rest of the series).

I actually prefer the Outlander books (I’m not as much of a mystery genre reader, and the Outlander books are more historical fiction with a dash of fantasy and lots of medical emergencies, covering pretty much every war England was involved in at the time), but I recommend both series. More John Grey is better for everyone. J

H: How To Ditch Your Fairy & Hounded

This may say more about my reading habits than about what’s actually available, but today’s books have concepts I haven’t seen some version of a million times…

How To Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier

Genre: MG/YA fantasy

Charlie (short for Charlotte) goes to a sports high school, and has a personal fairy, like most people she knows. Unlike Freedom's good-skin fairy, or Rochelle's clothes-shopping fairy (the perfect outfit's always on sale), fourteen-year-old Charlie has a parking fairy. Page 17 quote:

I'm always being borrowed by Mom, or one of her sisters, or her best friend, or Jan, or Nana and Papa, or just about everyone in our neighborhood, whenever they're going to the doctor's, or grocery shopping, or anywhere that parking might be a problem. Every single day of my life someone asks me to get in their doxhead car. I hate cars. I hate drivers. I hate their little squeals of joy when they find a parking spot. But mostly I hate my benighted parking fairy.

Each chapter begins with stats: how many days since she's been in a car, the number of demerits she's racked up for being late now that she's trying to walk everywhere, the public service hours she's done to work off her demerits, how many times she's spoken to Steffan (the hot new guy with a get-away-with-anything fairy). But when Charlie teams up with Fiorenze (every-boy-will-like-you fairy) who is also on a quest to get rid of her fairy, she finds herself in far more trouble than before.

I like this lighthearted book. It's out-of-the-box, but still within range of why-didn’t-I-think-of-that. I love that it’s set in our current world, but on a continent that doesn’t currently exist. Frankly, I’m surprised there isn’t tons of fantasy like this. After all, we have alternate histories. We have portal stories. We’ve told stories about Atlantis for at least a couple thousand years. I’d love to see more fantasy set in current times, but not having to fit itself into the way currently-existing places have actually developed.

Hounded by Kevin Hearne

Genre: urban fantasy

I usually write my own summaries because too often whatever the publisher decides to put on the back cover seems to have little to do with the actual plot. But in this case, I think the publishers came up with the best possible description of the book, so I’ll quote it:

“Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old—when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.

Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power—plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish—to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.”

This is probably the first story I’ve read where the protagonist is pretty much perfect and invincible (he’s witty, he’s cute, women of all ages fall for him, he wins most fights, he adores his dog, etc) and it actually makes sense. Usually irresistible, all-powerful fictional men who can do no wrong make me roll my eyes. But in this case, with twenty one centuries of experience behind him, as a druid who draws his power from the earth, it would just be silly not to make him pretty close to unbeatable, and it makes his weak moments that much more powerful. I think the author handled that extremely well. And it’s funny. Good stuff all round.

F: The False Prince, Firefly and Freakonomics

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Genre: fantasy

I actually bought this in hardback while browsing through a store last week. I don’t remember the last time I bought fiction that way (I still buy print books, but usually nonfiction for research, sometimes from Bookins (a book swap website), but I loved the concept of The False Prince so much I was afraid I would get home and find out it wasn’t available on kindle.

First the General premise: The royal family has been murdered, and soon the nobles will no longer be able to keep it a secret. To avert a civil war, a nobleman named Conner finds four orphans who look like the younger prince (who disappeared many years before, believed to have been ambushed and killed by pirates). Connor’s plan is to train all four to impersonate the prince. Whoever does it best will gain the throne and a life far beyond what a child from an orphanage can imagine. The others won’t live long enough betray the plot.

Jennifer Nielsen didn’t disappoint, y’all. She handled her plot (and her plot twists) deftly, and the book is imbued with all the fast-paced freshness one expects of young YA. YA has gotten really dark lately. That’s fine, but that makes books like this so much more special. I highly recommend it.

And then there’s

Firefly created by Joss Whedon
Genre: Television SF

Joss Whedon is, of course, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Dollhouse. He also wrote and directed the movie adaptation of The Avengers, coming out later this year.

Firefly is the greatest television show ever, so amazing that even after it was canceled, overwhelming fan support led to Serenity, a movie based on the show. According to Wikipedia (the only place I could find all the awards listed together), “Serenity won film of the year awards from Film 2005 and FilmFocus. It also won IGN Film's Best Sci-Fi, Best Story and Best Trailer awards and was runner up for the Overall Best Movie. It also won the Nebula Award for Best Script for 2005, the 7th annual "User Tomato Awards" for best Sci-Fi movie of 2005 at Rotten Tomatoes, the 2006 viewers choice Spacey Award for favorite movie, the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form and the 2006 Prometheus Special Award.“

And, IMO, Serenity wasn’t even as good as the TV show it was based on (or maybe I’m just mad at Joss Whedon for killing off my favorite character in the movie).

I would say more, but thinking about the fate of Firefly, which was canceled before its first season even ended, depresses me (for comparison, the reality TV show Jersey Shore is entering its sixth season. Sixth. Words fail me).

Besides, the very fact that Firefly couldn’t be reduced to a pithy sentence or two was the beginning of its marketing problems. So I’ll just post a picture of The Official Companion, Volume One (it has the scripts, which I reread when I’m looking for something with great dialogue) and give it a tearful moment of silence…

Yes, that's Nathan Fillion, currently starring in Castle

…There.

One more F book!

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Genre: nonfiction (economics/psychology)

Written by an economist and a journalist, it was getting lots of press when I read it a few years back. What I liked most about it was the authors’ way of looking at the same scenarios as everyone else, but seeing them from a completely different perspective. It wasn’t necessarily the conclusions they drew (which were always unconventional) but the process they went through to arrive at those conclusions that fascinated me.

Some of the questions they addressed: Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?

And that's it for F!

D: The Demon's Lexicon and Dragon Bones

I think this officially marks the highest number of blog posts I’ve ever made in a week, so yaaay for the A to Z Challenge!
 
Now on to two of my favorite "D" books:
 

The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Genre: urban fantasy

General premise Nick and his older brother Alan have spent their lives running from magicians who want the charm keeping their mother alive. When Mae and Jamie arrive on their doorstep looking for help, Nick wants to kick them out, but Alan's attempt to help leads to his being marked by a demon. Now the only way to save his life is to fight the magicians hunting them.

And

 

Dragon Bones by Patricia Brigg

Genre: fantasy

General premise For most of his childhood, Ward pretends to be less intelligent than he is, so his father won't accuse him of treachery and kill him. When his father dies and Ward becomes ruler, he learns the family secret about the power available to him from the ghost that isn't a ghost. But Ward's also played an idiot for so long that he's now a target for nobles who think he's incapable of ruling.

 

I love both of them, but these two protagonists couldn’t be more different. Nick seems like a psychopath at first glance. I believe the author of The Demon's Lexicon said that her idea with Nick had been to write the hot, bad boy that is so common in fiction, without giving him a fairy-tale heart of gold (even though everyone around him wants to think he has a hidden, softer side). Unlike true psychopaths, Nick never lies (and therefore always keeps his word and never makes excuses), and he loves and protects his older brother Alan wholeheartedly. With Nick, what you see is what you get. At least, until you start to understand him. At which point what you see is still what you get, but now there’s nuance and shading to the stark lines of his personality and world view.

 

Ward, on the other hand, spends a good chunk of the book sacrificing himself for other people, and has cultivated a persona of being both nice and a little slow, so that no one ever actually knows what he’s really like. People don't think he's smart enough to have hidden his real self all those years, and he finds out the hard way that getting a reputation is much easier than changing one.

Both books have humor to balance dark circumstances, great sibling relationships and fascinating family problems. And Patricia Brigg’s unique take on the “family ghost” in Dragon Bones deserves special mention. Writing this reminds me how long it's been since I reread it. If I didn't have a bunch of blog posts to write (and a few letters to read books for asap - K, P, Q, X, Y, and Z, to be exact), I'd reread Dragon Bones right now...

C: The Cloud Roads

Another favorite!

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

Genre: fantasy

Most Fantasy novels have pseudo medieval-European settings. That's fine, but The Cloud Roads is nothing like that, and it's brilliant. Along with an awe-inspiring world, Martha Wells captures perfectly the pain of being lonely and different. And how being surrounded by others who are "just like you" (who really don’t understand you at all, and who you certainly don’t understand) can make that pain so much worse.

General premise Moon’s learned the hard way not to trust anyone. In his flying form, he looks too much like the Fell, who destroy cities and eat their inhabitants. When his neighbors stake him out for death, he's rescued by Stone, the first person he's met who looks like him. Not only can Stone answer all of Moon’s questions about himself, but Stone truly seems to want him around, a rare experience in Moon’s life. Intrigued and relieved not to be alone anymore, he agrees to move to Stone's settlement.

But looking like his kind doesn't mean Moon fits in. He doesn't know the things he should, doesn't do the things they do or like what they like. Worse, Stone led him to believe he was a warrior-type, but Moon finds out in an epic showdown that he's actually a consort. The reigning queen hates him for tipping the balance of power in her young rival's favor, and the challenger keeps leaving gifts for him that he's afraid will mean he owes her something it will cost him too much to repay. Moon isn't interested in power struggles - he has enough problems of his own. But the Fell intrude on his new life, too, and fighting them is the only option.

This series (the second book is The Serpent Sea; The Siren Depths comes out in January 2013, and I really hope that's not the last) pulls together the things I love best about the major “grade levels” of books. Middle grade books are written for an audience that hasn’t yet restricted its imagination and possibilities and gender into rigid boxes. YA deals exquisitely with emotions and coming-of-age stories. Adult fiction doesn’t shy away from pain or suffering or other difficult themes. Martha Wells combines all these in the Books of the Raksura, and does it in a way that just leaves me awestruck.

B: The Black Prism & Bitterblue

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
Genre fantasy

I’ve blogged about this book before, but you can't recommend a great book too many times. If you’re looking for what the Fantasy genre does best (Adventure! Politics! Magic!) without the things Fantasy has depressed us with too many times (Predictable quest! Misogyny! Racism!), this is the book for you.

General premise Kip’s village is attacked, and just before his mother dies, she gives Kip an exquisite dagger and tells him to avenge her. On the other side of the world, Gavin Guile, the most powerful drafter (or color magician) in the world, learns he has a son, and swoops in to save Kip from certain death. Now Gavin has to protect his new-found son from political enemies, placate his irate fiancé, keep his other secret from coming out, and stop the lands from falling back into a world war. Kip has his own decision to make: obey his mother’s wishes and kill the father who abandoned them, or help his father save the lands from destruction.

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Genre fantasy

When I read Graceling (Kristin Cashore’s first book – Bitterblue is her third, set in the same world), I loved it so much I flew across the country to attend a conference where Kristin Cashore was speaking. I’m the kind of introvert who prefers to stay home with the curtains drawn, pretending I didn't hear the phone ring, so this was quite an undertaking.

Incidentally, I’ve been to the Sirens Conference three times now, and they've done a brilliant job with each year's theme: Warriors, Faeries, Monsters (2012 will be Storytellers). If you want to meet authors, editors, readers and writers of fantasy by and/or about women, at a conference that’s not so large that you’re constantly lost, yet not so small that it feels like you’re the only one who doesn’t know everyone else, this is the one for you.

Since I haven’t read Bitterblue yet (available May 1^st, for those of us not lucky enough to have ARCs), I’m borrowing the publisher’s description from Amazon:

"Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck's reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle--disguised and alone--to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck's reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn't yet identified, holds a key to her heart."

Random Day: YA

I'm really impressed with the concepts of the last few YA books I've read. All of these get five stars for premise...

Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
Genre: Fantasy YA

Like a few other books, I first heard of this one because of a whitewashed cover controversy. I adore the current cover, but because so many reviews/summaries mentioned "steampunkish elements", the gorgeous cover wasn't enough to make me pick up the book. Until I stumbled onto this post at the author's blog, where she lays out seven of at least twenty drafts she wrote in getting the first chapter right. I was enthralled, both by the process and the chapter, so I read the rest of it. :)





Fair Coin by E.C. Myers
Genre: YA SF

I make a ridiculously high number of book choices based on Big Idea posts at John Scalzi's blog. This one talks about wishes. I love wish-stories, and it always bugged me that the stories never turned out well for the person making the wishes. My least favorite wish-story is The Monkey's Paw, which a classmate told us in the 7th grade in broad daylight, and which freaked me out so much that I didn't sleep well for a week afterward.

Anyway! In Fair Coin, Ephraim's having a rough time of it. His mother tries to kill herself with a handful of pills after being called to the hospital to identify Ephraim's body and claim his belongings. Of course, Ephraim isn't dead. But among his dead double's belongings is a strange coin. When Ephraim makes a wish and flips the coin, his wish comes true, but not quite the way he expected. And worse, when it comes up tails, his wishes come true with dire consequences...

And then there's
Cracked by K.M. Walton
Genre: YA

Victor is terribly unhappy. He tries to kill himself, and ends up in the psych ward, rooming with the boy who has bullied him his entire life.

I think that's the best premise for a book I've heard in a while. Well, except for...







Starters by Lissa Price
Genre: YA

This is another Big Idea post. The author was at Cosco trying to get a flu shot the year we had that dramatic flu vaccine shortage, and because she was not a child or old or sick, she couldn't get a shot. And the idea occurred to her, what if a disease came along that wiped out everyone who didn't get vaccinated the year of a shortage? We'd have a planet populated entirely by people under sixteen or over 60. And that's just the backdrop for the story.

Good stuff all round...

February reading

First television, since all the shows I'm currently watching (except Top Shot) are at or near their season finales, and these shows have a connection to the books I'll discuss:

Downton Abbey

Brought to us here in the USA by PBS/Masterpiece Theater. I was getting a little worried about Downton Abbey, Season Two. I may even have fast-forwarded through the episode where a guy showed up claiming to be the Titanic-lost heir.

I don't mind when people act out of character in any story, as long as it leads to them being more interesting as characters, rather than less. For instance, O'Brien, the lady's maid to Lady Grantham, is an unbelievable schemer. She's much nicer this season, and you can trace it directly back to when she erroneously thought Lady Grantham was planning to get rid of her, and did something horrible she's now plagued with guilt over. This also leads to conflict with Thomas the footman, who used to be her ally in all their plots for advancement, because he has no idea why she's suddenly found a conscience.

I understand why O'Brien and Lord Grantham have changed, but not why Mary or Isobel have. I was worried that several characters were dangerously close to becoming cliches I'd prefer not to see in such a...well, masterpiece. :) Fortunately the show is still fascinating, and I'm looking forward to Season Three.

I'll admit that the acerbic dowager countess is now my favorite character (I didn't have a favorite in Season One, because so many of the characters were so delightfully entertaining and flawed), and I'm finding Bates only slightly less irritating than I did last season. There's nothing more annoying than people who choose to be altruistic by hurting everyone who cares about them. There's nothing selfless about that.

Which is not to say I want him to be different. I've said it before - I don't need to like characters to find their situations fascinating. Playing Bates the valet against Thomas the footman (who is just one big steaming pile of self-interest) makes for good storytelling.

And Parenthood. People who know me may find my loving this show to be rather out of character, but I don't think it is. I don't have or want children, I tend to avoid traditional family get-togethers, and crowds involving 5 to 50 people make me nervous (smaller or larger is mostly okay). But I love Parenthood, for some of the same reasons I love Downton Abbey and Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series. Large families are the biological equivalent of boarding schools and medieval castles as far as storytelling goes. Lots of people with different goals are around each other all the time = great setting for conflict = a good story (which is obviously not the same thing as "story I want to live in real life").

My favorite character in Parenthood is Adam Braverman, the eldest, most responsible sibling who -pretty much - always does the right thing. Which is interesting, because the eldest, most responsible sibling was my least favorite of the Bridgerton siblings (not that big a deal, I liked them all, I just liked Francesca and Colin the most).

Books! After re-reading a crazy number of books, I finally picked up something new (to me).

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
Genre: fantasy

Azoth wants to escape his hellish life in the slums, stealing to pay dues in a street guild where he and his closest friends are terrorized and abused. After mistaking the wetboy Durzo Blint (P4: A wetboy was like an assassin – in the way a tiger is like a kitten) for a kind-looking man, Azoth begs to become Durzo’s apprentice, and enters a world of politics and magic where the dangers are bigger and further-reaching than anything he ever imagined in the slums.

I expected it to be good, and it was. It had many things I love - political intrigue, magic, people who are really good at what they do, impossible choices.

It also had the longest final battle sequence I think I've ever read. After wading through 200 pages or so of blood and gore before reaching "The End", I curled up into a small ball under the covers and whimpered through a minor breakdown over why people are so mean to each other and why we can't just get along.

I know this stunning amount of violence is the direction fantasy is heading (along with many if not most other genres). Brent Weeks is a brilliant writer, one of my favorite authors, repped by my favorite literary agency (because they rep several of my favorite authors), which means I plan to read everything he writes. But because I was expecting violence on the level of The Black Prism (which he wrote after the Night Angel books, and which you should read IMMEDIATELY, if you haven't already) I was a bit stunned by this. I read fantasy despite the violence, not because of it. And I get grumpy when my favorite character is killed.

So I figured I'd take some recovery time, and look for a book I'd been meaning to read for a while, a regency romance with magic in it, and more importantly, no killing.

I went looking for that book, and instead stumbled on

To Love a Thief by Julie Anne Long
Genre: Regency Romance

I think what drew my attention was that the blurb seemed so similar to another book I read and liked recently: Law-enforcing aristocrat falls in love with hot criminal. But in this case, Gideon's plan isn't to reform Lily into a non-criminal so much as to use her talent for making herself whatever she wants to be. He wants her to become a lady, and make the woman he really wants jealous.


Folks, I think I may have just found a new favorite Regency Romance author (along with Courtney Milan, Julia Quinn, and Tessa Dare). I love, love, love Julie Anne Long's voice. Lots of wit, humor, setting, adventure. Not to mention similes and metaphors that do exactly what they should do: emphasize their point rather than distract you from it.

 I'd intended to read To Love a Thief and then read Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks, but somehow I found myself reading

The Perils of Pleasure by Julie Anne Long
Genre: Regency Romance

Madeleine Greenway is a mercenary who can retrieve anything someone's lost (e.g., if you gave your wife's necklace to your mistress by mistake, and need it back asap). She's been paid to retrieve Colin Eversea from the gallows, and does so at the very last moment, using explosions and a riot. But when she takes him to the drop-off point, someone tries to kill her.

I'm not crazy about the cover, but I love the writing:

P84 quote:

“He had one of those chins what…” One of the innkeeper’s hands went up to squeeze his chin into two little folds. “…a chin what looks like an arse.”
“A chin dimple? A cleft?”
“Not cleft so much as dented, Mr. Eversea. And blue eyes. Went nicely with his costume.”
Dumbstruck silence followed this observation.
The innkeeper sighed. “It’s me wife. If ye gets yerself a wife one day, Mr. Eversea, ye’ll come ou’ wi’ things like that, too, mark my words, mark my words. ‘This matches wi’ that or with this,’ and so on. They talk like that, women do. She makes me look a’ things and give opinions. She’ll turn me into a girl yet.”
This seemed unlikely, but all Colin said was, “Blue eyes and an arse chin. Thank you, that’s very helpful, Mr. Croker.”

P323 Quote (after a group of soldiers have just been ambushed and disarmed by the criminal they were chasing)

Their three muskets lay in a row on the ground like fallen comrades.

And then I stayed up until 5:30 this morning reading the third book and trying not to giggle (or sniffle) too loudly, while my long-suffering husband pretended to sleep through it:

Like No Other Lover by Julie Anne Long
Genre: Regency Romance


I really, really like the heroine of this book.

Cynthia Brightly has committed the unforgivable sin for the belle of the London season. Her rich, titled fiancé breaks off the engagement, and no one in society will receive her, except her friend Violet. She retreats to Violet’s country home, with only five pounds to her name and nowhere to go, determined to use this last house party to find a husband before the scandal catches up with her.

Miles, Violet’s brother, was utterly dismissed by Cynthia while she was still the most desirable debutante. Now that his older brother has disappeared and Miles is the heir to the Redmond fortune, he delights in putting Cynthia in her place. Except things don’t go quite as planned, and he finds himself offering to help her find the husband she needs – in exchange for a kiss.

P10 Quote (after Miles overhears Cynthia (who he's been drooling over) say something really cruel about him to someone else):

The shock, when it arrived, was unnatural and nasty: as though a butterfly had landed on his wrist only to sink fangs into it.

P41 Quote:

The room exhaled Redmond wealth and history and comfort; the way a church always seems to exhale peace and prayers.

With these books I realized I may have just stumbled onto another series based on a family (see, there is a tie-in to all those tv shows). Not just one family, but two feuding ones, the Everseas and the Redmonds. I really, really hope that's the case. Nothing bores me more than cookie-cutter villains, and if the Pennyroyal Green series actually follows two large families, making them heroes of their own books, which makes the other family the villain, then I'm hooked.

So now I'm reading Shadow's Edge, and trying to decide whether to also go on to the third Pennyroyal Green book. I probably will. Along with the book I originally went looking for,

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal....
Genre: umm...Regency fantasy?