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January books
Feb. 3rd, 2009 12:40 pmI fell off the wagon in tracking my books for last year. Now that January is over, let's see if I can do a better job this year.
January books:
1 - Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice by Karen Traviss. I used to read on the Star Wars novels, but fell out of the habit when the prequels almost killed Star Wars for me. Now, I read occasionally in the post-Return of the Jedi-canon. But there are so damned many books out there now that it's hard to keep it all straight. This particular series, of which Sacrifice is the fifth book, is set about 30 years later and is well-written -![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
delosd tempted me into starting it by pointing out that Aaron Allston, one of my favorite SW writers, was an author in the series. I had heard enough spoilers about this series that the shocking event in it was one for which I was braced, but it still got to me. I have the next books, but am taking a break from them for a short time. It's a well-written series in a setting that is comfort reading for me.
2 - A Lick of Frost by Laurell K. Hamilton. The sixth and penultimate book in her Merry Gentry series, this book amuses me because of the evolution of the story telling. The Anita Blake books started as a vamp detective series and then slid into vamp porn with little story value (they have gotten better in the last couple, than the stars). The Merry Gentry series started as pretty much faerie porn, but developed plot as time went by. There was hardly any screwing in this one! Hamilton's style is messy and cliched, but it was great airplane reading.
3 - Dirty Little Secrets: True Tales and Twisted Trivia About Sex by Erica Orloff and Joann Baker. If I had read this book when it came out in 2001, it might have actually had something interesting to tell me. As it is, the infomation was very mundane and not that interestingly presented. If you have grown up in a convent, it is a good way to ease yourself into modern life.
4 - All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. The link is to the audiobook, which is how I experienced this book. It was extremely good and did not follow the arc I expected, but the writing reminds the reader that Robert Penn Warren was first and foremost a poet, and there are digressions that, had I been reading it on paper, would have caused me to put it down and not return to it quickly. It was very much worth listening to, though.
5 - Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky. This was a book club suggestion and definitely not a book that I would have read otherwise. I thought the book ended at just about the place where the story was getting interesting, but it was meant to be a love story and the coming ugly would have overshadowed the happy couple. Meh.
6 - Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett. Not one of his stronger novels, as the whole thing is a kind of one-note-joke commentary on Hollywood, but Pratchett is always fun and it was a good Nordic Track book.
7- The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Post apocalyptic survival fiction is always fascinating, and this is a beautiful book. McCarthy has a simple voice that describes the landscape with heartbreaking simplicity. It's not a happy book - a man and his son trying to make it south to warmer climes in a burned-over and destroyed world - but it's amazingly written. I swallowed it in about a day and a half.
8 - Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. The first book in her Hollows series. I'd made a stab at it once before and didn't get past the first few pages, but at that time I still had a lot of Laurell K. Hamilton to read. Now that I'm all caught up with her, except the final Merry Gentry book, I was looking for methadone for my habit. This series is pretty decent methadone. The writing isn't stellar, but it's entertaining. I've read a couple more of the series already this month, so they will go on the February report. But if you like creature-of-the-night detective stuff, you will probably enjoy this mind candy.
Not on track for 100 books. Guess I'll just have to read more. Oh, the pain!!!
January books:
1 - Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice by Karen Traviss. I used to read on the Star Wars novels, but fell out of the habit when the prequels almost killed Star Wars for me. Now, I read occasionally in the post-Return of the Jedi-canon. But there are so damned many books out there now that it's hard to keep it all straight. This particular series, of which Sacrifice is the fifth book, is set about 30 years later and is well-written -
delosd tempted me into starting it by pointing out that Aaron Allston, one of my favorite SW writers, was an author in the series. I had heard enough spoilers about this series that the shocking event in it was one for which I was braced, but it still got to me. I have the next books, but am taking a break from them for a short time. It's a well-written series in a setting that is comfort reading for me.2 - A Lick of Frost by Laurell K. Hamilton. The sixth and penultimate book in her Merry Gentry series, this book amuses me because of the evolution of the story telling. The Anita Blake books started as a vamp detective series and then slid into vamp porn with little story value (they have gotten better in the last couple, than the stars). The Merry Gentry series started as pretty much faerie porn, but developed plot as time went by. There was hardly any screwing in this one! Hamilton's style is messy and cliched, but it was great airplane reading.
3 - Dirty Little Secrets: True Tales and Twisted Trivia About Sex by Erica Orloff and Joann Baker. If I had read this book when it came out in 2001, it might have actually had something interesting to tell me. As it is, the infomation was very mundane and not that interestingly presented. If you have grown up in a convent, it is a good way to ease yourself into modern life.
4 - All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. The link is to the audiobook, which is how I experienced this book. It was extremely good and did not follow the arc I expected, but the writing reminds the reader that Robert Penn Warren was first and foremost a poet, and there are digressions that, had I been reading it on paper, would have caused me to put it down and not return to it quickly. It was very much worth listening to, though.
5 - Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky. This was a book club suggestion and definitely not a book that I would have read otherwise. I thought the book ended at just about the place where the story was getting interesting, but it was meant to be a love story and the coming ugly would have overshadowed the happy couple. Meh.
6 - Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett. Not one of his stronger novels, as the whole thing is a kind of one-note-joke commentary on Hollywood, but Pratchett is always fun and it was a good Nordic Track book.
7- The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Post apocalyptic survival fiction is always fascinating, and this is a beautiful book. McCarthy has a simple voice that describes the landscape with heartbreaking simplicity. It's not a happy book - a man and his son trying to make it south to warmer climes in a burned-over and destroyed world - but it's amazingly written. I swallowed it in about a day and a half.
8 - Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. The first book in her Hollows series. I'd made a stab at it once before and didn't get past the first few pages, but at that time I still had a lot of Laurell K. Hamilton to read. Now that I'm all caught up with her, except the final Merry Gentry book, I was looking for methadone for my habit. This series is pretty decent methadone. The writing isn't stellar, but it's entertaining. I've read a couple more of the series already this month, so they will go on the February report. But if you like creature-of-the-night detective stuff, you will probably enjoy this mind candy.
Not on track for 100 books. Guess I'll just have to read more. Oh, the pain!!!
