(no subject)

[electricland]

It's been a while since I posted my reading. I got through this holiday season with only about $3.50 in library fines, which is much better than usual for me. I also returned a fair number of books unread or partly read, but such is life.

Read:
[so long ago I apparently didn't remember] I also read Spider Dance by Carole Nelson Douglas, another of the Irene Adler mysteries. I'm very fond of them. Plot outlandish but I didn't really mind.
Nightbirds on Nantucket, Joan Aiken.
King Leary, Paul Quarrington. (Turns out I had read it, after all, but so long ago I didn't remember much about it.)
Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, Connie Willis.
Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik. (Christmas present. Yay!)
The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein.
Big Boned, Meg Cabot (Jen bought as a Boxing Day present for the house).
Deep Secret, Diana Wynne Jones.
Finity's End, CJ Cherryh (reread).
The Big Over Easy, Jasper Fforde (birthday present recently unearthed; I liked it a great deal, much more than The Eyre Affair).
The Fourth Bear, Jasper Fforde (the sequel, also birthday present; I liked it less, as it was veering more into self-aware look-I'm-so-clever we-are-all-characters-in-this-book territory than I liked, but will look out for the third anyway).

Returned partly read:
If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics
A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray (I found it slowed down rather in the middle, which let me dwell on what seemed like the very, very modern outlook and speech patterns of the narrator, which proceeded to bother me; anyone out there read it? Should I try again? I probably would have finished it if it hadn't had to go back).

Returned unread because somebody else wanted them, but will try again:
Atonement, Ian McEwen
Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell
Shelter, Susan Palwick

Jen and I also watched the first season of Rebus, Miracle on 34th Street (as recommended by Connie Willis), and Sliding Doors. We tried to watch Clue, but failed as it is truly dreadful (another reason I was so pleasantly surprised by The Big Over Easy).

Comments

A Great and Terrible Beauty

[themusesbitch.livejournal.com]

...what seemed like the very, very modern outlook and speech patterns of the narrator...

That annoyed me so much I wanted to throw the book at the wall. Finished it, but never felt it was worth it.

[mrs-cake.livejournal.com]

Rebus! What, the one with the delicious John Hannah? I can't watch anything with him in it because of the uncontrollable drooling over the man's accent. Is that series out on dvd? I must have it.

[kaelsu2.livejournal.com]

Really? I loved A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray! She infact just published the third book in the series. BTW, I own the book, if you would like to try and finish it.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the one! We had a bit of a Delicious John Hannah fest, as you see.

BTW, your card arrived! Thank you so much! I love the turtle!

Re: A Great and Terrible Beauty

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Responses are all over the map! kaelsu2 loved it. doombookshelves loved it while noting the crazy modernity. I might have to give it another go.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

as I said to themusesbitch, responses seem to be all over the map on this one. I might need to give it another shot.

Re: A Great and Terrible Beauty

[themusesbitch.livejournal.com]

And to be fair, you and I seem to have quite different taste in books, so my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.

That said, I had heard good things about A Great and Terrible Beauty that suggested that it was sort of the female version of Harry Potter, as in, a "dreamworld of magic" but with a female protagonist going on the journey of self-discovery and sacrifice. And with that in mind, I felt the book really lacked the richness and authenticity that made the HP world stand out (for me).

I mean, the modern sensibilities of the protagonist bothered me the most (the author's touches to "periodify" the language and settings also felt really awkward, and sometimes outright inaccurate), but I also kind of felt like the plot barely went anywhere, that the characters were more loosely sketched "types" than fleshed out, recognizable people, and that the fantastical elements were actually kind of dull and unimaginative.

Er. I'm a real buzzkill, eh? I'll stop talking about what I disliked about it until you've had a chance to read and decide for yourself :-)