Sharp Words

Wolfblade, Jennifer Fallon. Library book, first read.
OK but not great fantasy – the first in a prequel series, for which I haven’t read the original, which left me a bit confused.

The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro. Library book, first read.
The first of the several Booker/Orange/Costa winners I want to read this year. It was a deserved win, I feel – the book is intelligent and touching and clever in its point-of-view writing.

The Time-Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger. Own copy.
Fantastic romantic sad intelligent novel.

Jo’s Boys, Louisa May Alcott. Own copy.
What Katy Did Next, Susan Coolidge. Own copy.
Lumping these two together, because they’re ones I found in my rummage in the book boxes kept in my parents’ attic. They’re both the final, ‘grown-up’ parts of series I loved as a child, and I think I got more out of reading them now than when I was younger – particularly Jo’s Boys, which has a lot about women’s suffrage which mostly went over my head then.

The Gargoyle, Andrew Davidson. Mum’s library book, first read.
My review

The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling. Own copies.
Again, these were books I fished out of the attic during my stay at my parents’. I particularly wanted to read these following my reading & review of The Graveyard Book, to make sure the parallels I’d noticed weren’t just in my imagination.

The Lives of Christopher Chant, Diana Wynne Jones. Own copy.
And another one from the attic; one I was very relieved to find. This one came home with me to join the rest of my Diana Wynne Jones collection.

The Sunne in Splendour, Sharon Penman. Nicked from Mum.
I first read this when I was in my early teens and it made a fierce impression. I’ve been wanting to read it again for years, so when I realised that Mum’s copy (the one I read originally, too) had been relegated to the attic shelves, I swiped it (with her blessing). It’s a well-researched fictionalisted account of the reigns of Edward IV and Richard III of York (yep, that same Richard III turned by Shakespeare into a hunchbacked villain) – and thankfully, it has nearly 900 pages, so it kept me well-occupied during my two-hour delay at the airport!

The Romantics, Gail Niederhoffer. Review copy, first read.
I was originally sent this for review last year, but decided not to bother because it really wasn’t my sort of thing. I picked it up in boredom though, and read it very quickly… and I’m glad I didn’t read it for review, under the premise of ‘if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything’. I really didn’t enjoy it. The characters were unlikeable, their relationships were implausible, and the story was pretty lame.

On the Prowl, an anthology – authors include Patricia Briggs. Borrowed from Marion, first read.
Four stories about shapeshifters, of variable quality; I didn’t even bother reading past the first couple of pages of the last one. The Patricia Briggs one was a nice adjunct to her Mercy Thompson series though.

Night Watch, Terry Pratchett. Own copy.
I think I’m going to stop giving my reasons for reading Terry Pratchett novels – it’s usually that I want something light and familiar after heavier-going (particularly for bath-reading). This is one of my favourites, definitely.

The Shadow Isle, Katharine Kerr. Library book, first read.
The penultimate piece of the fifteen-book Deverry cycle, and although this one was pretty short, it filled in some nice blanks and I’m looking forward to the final book…

redRobe, Jon Courtenay Grimwood. BookMooched copy, first read
I was a bit disappointed in this – although it’s a good, clever SF novel, it’s very similar to his other work and the ending felt a bit lame (even if it was unexpected).

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov. Library book, first read.
It’s hard for me to believe I’ve never read this before, but on the other hand, I think I probably needed the emotional maturity to understand everything that’s going on in it. In the afterword, Nabokov complains that he had to write in second-rate English; I wish I could read Russian so I could read something of his in his first-rate language!

Space Captain Smith, Toby Frost. Library book, first read.
A bit of Red Dwarf and Hitchhiker’s Guide and Hyperdrive, with elements of Flashman and Kipling – the British Space Empire in the 25th century, written as a comedy. Tries a bit too hard with the pop culture references though.

Dragonhaven, Robin McKinley. Borrowed from Marion, first read.
I really like her novels and this didn’t disappoint too much. Good premise – dragons being kept on a huge nature reserve, and how humans interact with them – and a good 1st person point-of-view.

Victory of Eagles, Naomi Novik. Own copy, first read.
The fifth of the Temeraire novels, and a goodie, full of battles. But Novik doesn’t write the characters out of the problems she left them with in the 4th book – and I’m actually glad of that, since it means she didn’t resort to a Deus Ex solution.

The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three and The Waste Lands, Stephen King (Books 1-3 of The Dark Tower). Borrowed copies, first reads.
I’ve been wanting to read these for years. I found the first one really hard to get in to (even though it’s the reissued, revised one which apparently is easier to read), but once I did, the next books rewarded me. Adventure, Westerns, horror, romance, thriller – lots and lots of stuff going on.

Total for February 2009: 22 + 0 re-reads
Ongoing total for 2009: 45 + 2 re-reads