August's books
Aug. 30th, 2009 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonI bought the two paranormal romance anthologies I started reading this month just for the Meljean Brook stories and once I'd read those, I set them aside. I may get back to the other stories (because I've discovered writers I like that way), but who knows when that might be?
I loved both of the Meljean Brook stories, btw: one set in Regency England (with vampires and angel-like Guardians!) and one a sweet contemporary paranormal romance. I enjoy her stories so much because Ms. Brook's talent with characters is equal to her amazing imagination, which not every writer can pull off.
Finished
1. Solstice Wood by Patricia A. McKillip (restart) - TBR
Sylvia Lynn left her family years before, moving to a different coast to get away from the troubling aspects of her own past, and from the grandmother who raised her. Called home by the death of her beloved grandfather, she is drawn into the strange workings of the Fiber Guild, a group of magical women who literally stitch, knit, and crochet a web of protection around their little town. Sylvia must confront the dual nature of this protection, as well as her own duality, when she is forced to go up against the fae to rescue someone she loves.
This is a contemporary fantasy about complicated love, complicated families, and the quixotic nature of the fae. A modern day sequel to Ms. McKillip's historic fantasy, Winter Rose, it's beautifully written, and full of humor, mystery, tension. Ms. McKillip's wonderful understanding of the human heart—which is, after all, just as quixotic as the fae—blends well with fantastical and near-hallucinatory passages. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
2. The Stars Blue Yonder by Sandra McDonald - new
This is the third book in the trilogy begun with The Outback Stars. I loved this trilogy from start to finish and this final book didn't disappoint me. Impossible to summarize without spoiling things, but everyone I loved in the first and second books are here to finish things off. And there are new characters to love, ones I hope will find books of their own. I recommend this trilogy highly. It's ironic, since I resisted reading The Outback Stars for some time. I thought it was military sf, which I don't particularly care for. It is set in the military, but it's so much more than that: a touching love story, a mystical journey through Aboriginal myth, a mystery, and a confrontation with alien technology. Just a great read.
3. The Red Heart of Jade by Marjorie M. Liu - new
Each one of Ms. Liu's Dirk and Steele books is better than the last. She writes lyrically at times, gritty at other times, and (like Meljean Brook mentioned above) the depth of her characters is equal to her fertile imagination. By this book, the third in her series, she's also got her pacing down cold, too, telling a really engaging action-adventure-paranormal romance. Dean Campbell of the Dirk and Steele (paranormal) detective agency, is in China tracking a murderer who burns his victims alive. There he meets up with his long-lost love, archeologist Mirabelle Lee. They have believed each other dead for the last twenty years, each thinking the other was killed in a shooting when they were sixteen. Their reunion forces them to not only solve the mystery of the killer...but to save the world—of course. Much fun.
I'm also a fan of her Hunter Kiss novels, of which I am currently reading book #2 (although the series actually starts with the story, "Hunter Kiss," from the anthology, Wild Thing (which also has a great Meljean Brook story) (and which I also never finished).
1. The Stars Blue Yonder by Sandra McDonald - new
2. The Red Heart of Jade by Marjorie M. Liu – new
3. Hot Spell (anthology) by Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, Shiloh Walker, Meljean Brook – TBR
4. First Blood (anthology) by Susan Sizemore, Erin McCarthy, Chris Marie Green, Meljean Brook – new
5. Darkness Calls by Marjorie M. Liu - new
This is the first year in which I've kept track of the books I've purchased. The results have rather horrified me. I mean, I've known for some time that my TBR was way the hell out of control, but some things are better left unquantified, I think. I'll finish out the year making the list (because I am anal, yes I am), but I'm not sure I'll do it again.
1. Spider-Touched by Jory Strong – B&N
2. Eye of Heaven by Marjorie M. Liu – B&N
3. The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick – B&N
4. Tumbling Through Time by Gwyn Cready – B&N
5. The Drowning City by Amanda Downum – B&N
6. Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs – B&N
I loved both of the Meljean Brook stories, btw: one set in Regency England (with vampires and angel-like Guardians!) and one a sweet contemporary paranormal romance. I enjoy her stories so much because Ms. Brook's talent with characters is equal to her amazing imagination, which not every writer can pull off.
Finished
1. Solstice Wood by Patricia A. McKillip (restart) - TBR
Sylvia Lynn left her family years before, moving to a different coast to get away from the troubling aspects of her own past, and from the grandmother who raised her. Called home by the death of her beloved grandfather, she is drawn into the strange workings of the Fiber Guild, a group of magical women who literally stitch, knit, and crochet a web of protection around their little town. Sylvia must confront the dual nature of this protection, as well as her own duality, when she is forced to go up against the fae to rescue someone she loves.
This is a contemporary fantasy about complicated love, complicated families, and the quixotic nature of the fae. A modern day sequel to Ms. McKillip's historic fantasy, Winter Rose, it's beautifully written, and full of humor, mystery, tension. Ms. McKillip's wonderful understanding of the human heart—which is, after all, just as quixotic as the fae—blends well with fantastical and near-hallucinatory passages. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
2. The Stars Blue Yonder by Sandra McDonald - new
This is the third book in the trilogy begun with The Outback Stars. I loved this trilogy from start to finish and this final book didn't disappoint me. Impossible to summarize without spoiling things, but everyone I loved in the first and second books are here to finish things off. And there are new characters to love, ones I hope will find books of their own. I recommend this trilogy highly. It's ironic, since I resisted reading The Outback Stars for some time. I thought it was military sf, which I don't particularly care for. It is set in the military, but it's so much more than that: a touching love story, a mystical journey through Aboriginal myth, a mystery, and a confrontation with alien technology. Just a great read.
3. The Red Heart of Jade by Marjorie M. Liu - new
Each one of Ms. Liu's Dirk and Steele books is better than the last. She writes lyrically at times, gritty at other times, and (like Meljean Brook mentioned above) the depth of her characters is equal to her fertile imagination. By this book, the third in her series, she's also got her pacing down cold, too, telling a really engaging action-adventure-paranormal romance. Dean Campbell of the Dirk and Steele (paranormal) detective agency, is in China tracking a murderer who burns his victims alive. There he meets up with his long-lost love, archeologist Mirabelle Lee. They have believed each other dead for the last twenty years, each thinking the other was killed in a shooting when they were sixteen. Their reunion forces them to not only solve the mystery of the killer...but to save the world—of course. Much fun.
I'm also a fan of her Hunter Kiss novels, of which I am currently reading book #2 (although the series actually starts with the story, "Hunter Kiss," from the anthology, Wild Thing (which also has a great Meljean Brook story) (and which I also never finished).
1. The Stars Blue Yonder by Sandra McDonald - new
2. The Red Heart of Jade by Marjorie M. Liu – new
3. Hot Spell (anthology) by Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, Shiloh Walker, Meljean Brook – TBR
4. First Blood (anthology) by Susan Sizemore, Erin McCarthy, Chris Marie Green, Meljean Brook – new
5. Darkness Calls by Marjorie M. Liu - new
This is the first year in which I've kept track of the books I've purchased. The results have rather horrified me. I mean, I've known for some time that my TBR was way the hell out of control, but some things are better left unquantified, I think. I'll finish out the year making the list (because I am anal, yes I am), but I'm not sure I'll do it again.
1. Spider-Touched by Jory Strong – B&N
2. Eye of Heaven by Marjorie M. Liu – B&N
3. The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick – B&N
4. Tumbling Through Time by Gwyn Cready – B&N
5. The Drowning City by Amanda Downum – B&N
6. Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs – B&N
no subject
Date: 2009-08-30 09:19 pm (UTC)Yeah, I'm not going to keep track of how many books I buy, I think.
I have a hard enough time just writing down the books I start and/or finish!
The worrying thing is, my rate of book aquisition is still accelerating; I think I've bought about 60% of my collection (if not more) in the last 10 years.
I'm 37 years old now, I shudder to think what my apartment is going to look like by the time I'm 80! ;)
(I really should cull the flock, see what I can sell, give away, send bookcrossing etc...)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-31 03:33 am (UTC)The worrying thing is, my rate of book aquisition is still accelerating; I think I've bought about 60% of my collection (if not more) in the last 10 years.
I think the same thing happened to me.
(I really should cull the flock, see what I can sell, give away, send bookcrossing etc...)
I do this periodically. No more space. And when all the shelves are filled, I am not allowed to start stacking them sideways. AT that point, for each book I want to put into the bookshelves, one has got to go. My local libraries, the senior center, and the Boys and Girls Club reap the benefit.
It feels virtuous. At least that's what I keep telling myself.