bookrblog

Fire and Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits

Saturday, September 17th, 2011 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy | Comments Off

These two books are co-written by Robin McKinley and her husband Peter Dickenson. They are a series of short stories about Fire-related fantasy figures and Water-related fantasy figures. There are dragons, mermaids, the Phoenix, salamanders and sea-monsters. There is even a return to Daria, the world created by Robin McKinley. The stories are a mixed bag, in that those by McKinley are very good, and those by Dickenson are just OK. Funny, because his early books were really good, the eleventh raven for example is a masterpiece. But his later stuff is wooden and so are some of the stories in this book. No idea why. Anyway, these two books are well worth the read, if you like McKinley, even if you wish she’d done all the stories herself.

The Outlaws of Sherwood

Thursday, August 18th, 2011 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy | Comments Off

I’ve been meaning to read this early Robin Mckinley for a while but was turned off by bad reviews. This is actually a pretty good read. It’s the story of Robin Hood and it does one thing that no other Robin Hood story has done as yet – it has a real ending. The idea of being an outlaw, the reality of Richard the Lionhearted, the historical discrepancies that make the legend awkward are all sorted out in this readable tale, with great female characters and a very interesting Robin Hood. It’s in the usual Robin McKinley style, lots of thinking going on, but there’s plenty of action too. I liked it.

Caleb’s Crossing

Thursday, August 18th, 2011 | American Literature | Comments Off

This is Geraldine Brooks’ latest, I heard her talk about it on the radion the other day. The idea is really interesting – the story of the first native american guy to graduate from Harvard back in 16something or rather. The execution is a bit mills and boone and boring. You can always pick a journalist-turned-novelist, they are good at the craft but lack that spark. Anyway, this story covers Caleb “crossing” from his traditional life on Martha’s Vineyard island, to an “English” life at Harvard. The true story is incredible – this version is a bit lame. An ok read.

Early Tamora Pierce

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 | Children's Literature | Comments Off

I picked up a handful of early Tamora Pierce books for kids from the local library(the Lioness series). I really like her recent stuff, but this stuff is just so dull and two-dimensional. She really has improved out of sight, and it would be a very good study to look at exactly how she’s changed – the setting and the characters are the same, but her writing nowadays is so much better. Did she get a better editor, or has she just improved from practice over time? These early books are very much the traditional fantasy novels, in Diana Wynne Jones’ “fantasy-land” (you know, that has deserty bit with beduin types, mountainy bits, sea-side piratey bits and most of all medievaly castley bits). Usual characters, mages, warriors, girl who dresses as boy, etc etc. Basically, these early books are barely readable, and yet her later ones I’m eating up. Fascinating.

Annals of the Western Shore Series

Thursday, July 28th, 2011 | Children's Literature | No Comments

I have always been a bit ho-hum about Ursula Le Guin, ever since we had to read one of her books at school! She does tend to have a bit of a dark and grim slant on things. This series, however, was very enjoyable – dark, but not too dark. It reminded me a bit of Diana Wynne Jones’ books.  All 3 books are set in the same world, but have 3 different protaganists, although they all meet by the final book. It’s definitely older YA, with rape, child abuse, murders and war a major part of the books, but all the main characters examine the issues and make brave choices for themselves. I especially enjoyed the final one, which was set in a Romanesque society with some big ideas about slavery. Good books for older YA.

The Ringworld Series

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy | No Comments

The original Ringworld book was a sci-fi by Larry Niven was an old paperback which I picked up out of desperation, but actually it was pretty good. On a future earth, a bored man agrees to join an expedition with 2 aliens and a woman to a mysterious world which has been built around a sun. So it’s huge. They end up crashing on the world and have to work out how to get home. But while they do this, they learn a lot about each other, and exactly why things have turned out the way they have. This was a nice easy read, with some interesting ideas. Being an old book, it’s a bit sexist. There are a few things that he’s managed to predict (like global warming) which are kind of interesting.

I found the next two in the series in the library, both written several years after the first one. Basically “return to Ringworld” – the main guy is kidnapped and taken back to Ringworld in order to find some great things they’ve developed. Instead, he uses the opportunity to try to do some good, to make up for the bad things he’d done last time. The sequels both focus on new species which had developed, from vampires to pygmies to giants to ghouls, and there’s lots of detail on the weird sexual practises which bind them – yep, Larry Niven is a 70′s bloke after all!

I pretty much lost interest by the end of the last one, and got lost in some of the plot details too. Interesting and original worlds, but the storylines didn’t do it for me, by the end.

Books About Mothering

Sunday, May 15th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments

I’ve read lots and lots of books about mothering since I’ve had the baby. A large number were borrowed so I need to remember their names.

1. What Mothers Do (especially when it looks like nothing), by Naomi Stadlen. This was warm and not at all condescending, which is rare; it dealt with the reality that not all mothers feel ambivalent about mothering, which made me cheer; and it had some interesting details that no other book seems to have raised yet, such as the fact that most mothers visualise bad things happening to their kids, in order to prepare to prevent it.

2. Motherhood: how should we care for our children, by Anne Manne. This was a tome by an Australian feminist and I had to skim it. Basically saying childcare isn’t good and so forth. Nothing new.

3. Fresh Milk: the secret life of breasts, by Fiona Giles. This was also by an Australian feminist, but in contrast was very funny, very readable, but also in bits very, very weird. It was about the complexities of breastfeeding, with stories from people who suffered every horror you can imagine alongside men who breastfed and women who practised extended breastfeeding. I enjoyed this one.

4. Love, Wisdom, Motherhood by Jessica Rowe. Jessica Rowe suffered PND after having her kids; this book was her way of reaching out, not just to reassure others but also to reassure herself. She interviewed a number of well-known Australian women who talked about their early parenting experiences. Unfortunately most of those women were rich and famous career women who had lots of nannies, so they don’t really relate to the average person. I personally found this book a bit negative, and found it didn’t reflect my experience whatsoever.

I can’t really remember any other ones off-hand, but I did get through quite a few more – maybe they’ll come to me later!

One of our Thursdays is Missing

Thursday, April 21st, 2011 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy | No Comments

This is the latest in Jasper Fforde’s “thursday next” speculative fiction series, and it’s not bad. Unusually, Thursday Next only sort-of appears in it; that is, her “written self” is the protagonist, searching for the real one. Or is she the real one and doesn’t know it? This story features the usual bad-dad puns and jokes that Fforde specialises in, but the plot did draw you in and it was a lot of fun too.

Left Neglected

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 | American Literature | No Comments

This was a frustrating read; Lisa Genova’s first book, Still Alice, was very good, but this one doesn’t say anything new at all. A workaholic mum discovers there’s more to life after she gets a head injury. Yes, it’s been done before, this has the benefit of a very specific explanation of the head injury (left neglect), but it’s a drawn-out obvious metaphor. The most frustrating part was that the character has a baby and he hardly appears! My baby is with me 24/7 and is definitely not a subplot. Anyway, it was readable but should have been more tightly edited.

Room

Monday, April 18th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments

This novel by Emma Donoghue is harrowing. Told from the 5 yr old’s perspective, a boy and his mother are captives in a single room and have been for the boy’s entire life. After escaping, they have to get used to the world outside. This story was very well-told with a very convincing 5 yr old narrative voice. But it was emotionally very difficult to read and I had to skim it to get to the end!