Sakura of DOOM

This is set in the same universe as Deep Secret, though you don't need to read one to read the other.

Roddy, a member of the Royal Progress of the Isle of Blest (sort of like a royal court on a bus), ends up discovering that there's a giant conspiracy in place involving the Merlin, who's supposed to keep the magic of Blest balanced. Nick Mallory from Deep Secret manages to wander off into a parallel world, gets himself into all sorts of trouble, and generally gets tangled up in Roddy's business. Roddy manages to collect several extremely annoying relatives, while Nick manages to encounter an extremely polite elephant, a powerful magician, and a goat.

The plot doesn't feel like a plot that moves forward; instead, Jones takes assorted incidents that seem random and ties them all together in the end. Sometimes I enjoy it when she does this. This time, I felt like I wasn't interested in the book until halfway through, when things were finally starting to coalesce a bit. Jones includes her trademark horrible relatives; coffeeandink mentions that there are several cases in which children manipulate people, and the adults are sometimes just as bad.

I'm not quite sure what to say about this one. I liked the elephant and Nick and Roddy finally meeting, but something felt missing. I was never quite interested in Nick or Roddy's plight, and I never felt as though the world was threatened, even though there are supposed to be universally horribly consequences to the scheme that Roddy discovers.

Links:
- coffeeandink's review

ETA: some spoilers in the comments

I read less than last year by a bit, probably by a lot volume-wise, because so much of this year was manga, which I read much faster. I am too lazy to separate out my manga read, and so I just count a volume as a book. I also still haven't figured out how to do LJ entries on manga -- sometimes I do entries on a chunk of volumes, sometimes I do overviews after I finish a series, sometimes I just hold off on writing anything until I've completed the whole thing. I dunno. I'll figure something out, I guess.

I didn't get quite as excited over what I read this year as well, which makes doing this difficult. I don't know if it's because I was concentrating on other things, like re-picking up knitting or having a better social life, or if it's just what I read. Last year it was tough just picking ten books out of all the good stuff I had read; this year, I'm sort of struggling to fill it. It's not that what I read wasn't good, it's that not as much hit quite as hard.

Anyhow, here are my ten favorite books of the year, alphabetically by author. I don't pick books written this year, but books read this year. And my definition of favorite is very fuzzy. Basically, it's anything that left a lasting impression on me, or anything that I smile at when I go over the list of books read. While I generally don't include rereads on the list, I also reserve the right to cheat horribly.

I've blogged all of these except some of the manga, for reasons explained above. You can find everything in my books memories. I am too lazy to link all 149 books.

1. Loretta Chase, Lord of the Scoundrels
   
   This is a sort of placeholder for all the Loretta Chase books I read this year (Miss Wonderful, Mr. Impossible, and The Last Hellion). I loved all of them, though Lord of the Scoundrels is hands down my favorite. Loretta Chase is very good at taking some fairly boring and standard romance tropes, most of which I dislike, and inserting a proactive heroine, a hero who is completely ok with falling in love, and a plot that generally ends up enabling the heroine. LotS also subverts one of the romance tropes that I most dislike, that of the alpha bastard hero who treats everyone, particularly women, abominably because he had a rotten childhood. Chase writes about people who like each other while they're falling in love, which is all too rare in romance.



2. Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys
   
   This is a small, unambitious book that nonetheless made me happier than Gaiman's latest books. While the comedy relies on the awkwardness of the protagonist, there's a sense that Gaiman loves and identifies with Fat Nancy; the awkwardness isn't embarrassing, but rather, endearing. And in the end, it is, like Sandman, a story about the stories we tell ourselves and how stories shape our lives.



3. Marya Hornbacher, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
   
   Hornbacher's memoir is a stark, no-holds-barred look at the damage that eating disorders can wreak on a life; her descriptions of her ordeal are visceral and stunning. It's a painful read of someone who has dedicated her formidable intellect and willpower to destroying her own body.



4. Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle
   
   Technically, this is a reread, but I remember vaguely not getting the book the first time I read it. This time, I loved it to pieces, from the decidedly imperfect characters to the wry narrative voice. The best part is that despite the moving castle and attempts to foil the Witch of the Waste's plans, the book is about the characters growing up and growing into themselves, while remaining crotchety and flawed. Jones never tries to make anyone in the book a straight-up hero, and that's why it works so well for me.



5. Rosemary Kirstein, Steerswoman series
   
   Kirstein's Steerswoman series made me realize how much I missed traditional science fiction; her books are about knowledge and the scientific method, discovery and logic. She also does this without making the characters mere talking heads; rather, the process and not the results of uncovering knowledge and analyzing drives the main character. There's also a wonderfully rendered friendship between two women who are very different and yet respect each other.
   
   The series is yet unfinished and consists of The Steerswoman, The Outskirter's Secret, The Lost Steersman, and The Language of Power.



6. Caroline Knapp, Appetites: Why Women Want
   
   Knapp's book is also somewhat biographical, like Marya Hornbacher's, but rather than describing the experience of eating disorders, Knapp attempts to analyze the whys and hows of them. She talks of deprivation of both the body and the mind, of the complex factors that feed into eating disorders and problems with body image. Sympathetic and compassionate, Knapp never loses sight of the human in search of the universal.



7. Peter D. Kramer, Against Depression
   
   A deeply compassionate and very compelling argument on the destructiveness of depression. Kramer looks at how depression affects the people who suffer from it and the people in their lives; he gathers data on how much depression costs in terms of physical health and lost productivity. I would give this book to anyone who argued that depression wasn't a serious disease or wasn't a disease at all, as well as to anyone who argues that getting rid of depression would somehow tampers with the human condition.



8. Minekura Kazuya, Saiyuki (spoilers in second half)
   
   Minekura's gorgeous art, sharp and sinewy, and the snarky, angsty, fallible characters are hard to resist. Sanzo, Goku, Hakkai and Gojyo are all wonderful, well-rounded characters in their own right; but I love them best as a group. They're all broken people who have found each other; they're all trying to recover from their pasts, and I love how they help each other even while they snark and bitch and moan and look incredibly sexy.



9. Simon Singh, The Code Book
   
   One of the fun pieces of non-fiction I read this year. The book is deceptively simple until you realize how difficult some of the concepts that Singh is explaining. The invisible prose and effortless explanation make it an educational experience, but it isn't just a book on hows and whys. Singh never fails to show the reader how exciting he finds cryptography and code-breaking.



10. Scott Westerfeld, Peeps


This book made me go on a giant Scott Westerfeld binge that has yet to stop. Like the Steerswoman series, Peeps reminds me of why I love science fiction. Much of it lies in how enthusiastic Westerfeld is about parasites and the way they work, so much so that I didn't mind reading about gory deaths and biological details at all. Peeps takes the vampire novel, which I was getting bored of, and turns it into something else all together.

Also recommended: Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses; Rachel Manija Brown, All the Fishes Come Home to Roost; Joan Jacobs Brumberg, The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls; Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby and The Truth About Forever; Teresa Edgerton, Goblin Moon; Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Laura Kinsale, Seize the Fire; J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; and Tsuda Masami, Kare Kano.

Hrm, looks like there was a lot of non-fiction this year, particularly in the realm of eating disorders and depression. Why is this not a surprise to me? ;)

2004 book round up

Total read: 149 (6 rereads)

( All books read )

To note beforehand: I've only read the DWJ book once, and I don't quite remember all the details, so I can't really say how well the movie followed the book.

( Spoilers for movie and possibly for book )

This is one of Diana Wynne Jones' earlier books. A fun romp, not quite up there with the Chrestomanci books or with my favorite, Fire and Hemlock, but still good. Sometimes I feel like DWJ is just pulling elements together and being more clever and funny than going for depth, but she does it so lightly and so enjoyably that it's hard to be put out. I particularly liked the narrative tone of this book, with a more traditional opening for the first two chapters, in which you know you are being told a tale. It's not quite like the Victorian chapter headings Patricia C. Wrede put on her Dealing with Dragons books or that Neil Gaiman used for Season of Mists ("In which blah blah"), but it lends a nice weight to the story.

Then, of course, the voice the story is actually told in is quite different from the more traditional tale one might expect. I love how prosaic the prose is, deceptively simple. Everything is quite matter of fact (reminds me a bit of Dark Lord of Derkholm, especially the bit where Blade is thinking about his reaction to battle), and the tone serves as an interesting counterpoint to the tragedy that happens early on in the book. It's enough to make the reader realize the weight of the act, yet, not enough to terrify kids out of their minds.

I really liked Adara from the first chapter, and I was a little sad when we switched to Gair, her son. But Gair has an interesting, straight forward thought process, and it's particularly enjoyable listening to him think about his relationship with his father. Well, not enjoyable, since he's not too happy, but clear. I remember OSC once said people would complain Ender's Game wasn't very literary because it was perfectly understandable, but he said that was exactly what he was going for. I feel DWJ does the same.

I also liked the interplay between the siblings and later one with the other two races that they lived with. I particularly enjoyed it when the present day made itself heard, and several preconceptions largely due to fantasy stereotypes were overturned.

Fun book.

Woohoo! I'm home! I'm in the Taipei apartment right now sweating profusely. I always forget how hot and humid Taiwan is. It feels like one is actually wading through the air. Personally, I think air should be one of those things people don't really think about. When I have to think about air, it's almost always a bad thing: asthma attacks, coughing, itchy throats, or profoundly humid air. Yuck.

I've had a great deal of fun with books lately. I finally read parts of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series (Tomb of Atuan and Farthest Shores) and now must get my hands on Tehanu and Wizard of Earthsea. I loved them very much, although they scared me deeply, especially The Farthest Shores' pondering on death and immortality. And the utter darkness in Tomb of Atuan. I have no idea how I managed to pick up Wizard of Earthsea numerous times back in high school and never finish it!

I also read Douglas Adams' Long Dark Teatime of the Soul because I saw Sarah reading it a while back. And Douglas Adams. Nuff said. And it made me rather sad and vaguely nostalgic, not because of the book, but because I remember giggling with Sarah on the steps of Charter about large orange monsters that hide behind molecules. And I wanted to read certain lines out loud to Sarah or Todd or the boy or Timmy and make them laugh. Sigh.

Then I bought Juliet Marillier's Child of the Prophecy and Diana Wynne Jones' Tales of the Chrestomanci part one, because hey, it's two books in one! How can you go wrong? I got them at Books Inc., a very cute little independent bookstore in Stanford Mall. And while I was sitting there reading League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen (Mina Murray is awesome), I watched these two clerks try to advise this very well-read girl on what fantasy novels she should buy to hold her through her weeklong trip. And I just kept craning my neck over and desperately tried to overhear the conversation to get a load of new book recs. I also desperately wanted to just casually walk over and recommend some things to the girl, but I felt so awkward, like I might have been intruding or something. But I also really just wanted to talk good fantasy. In the end, I wimped out and didn't for fear that everyone would think I was weird for being some complete stranger and wandering in on the conversation. But now I also desperately want to work at that bookstore. Hrm.

Spoilers ahead for the above two books:

Read all of Charmed Life and the Lives of Christopher Chant, the books in Tales of the Chrestomanci and absolutely adored them. So now I'm beating myself over the head for not getting the next two books in the series, because now I have to wait for an entire three weeks!! I liked Christopher Chant much better than Charmed Life. I'm not quite sure why. I think maybe Christopher is a much more dynamic character than Cat, who mostly gets acted upon in the book. And there's Christopher's Anywheres and the Goddess. And it was lovely reading it after Charmed Life, because there were very many Aha! moments. My favorite was finding out that Chrestomanci's wife Millie was in fact the Goddess, because that was so absolutely perfect. And I also wanted to run around and make people who like Harry Potter to read these books, because they're awesome.

I reread Child of the Prophecy yesterday, which caused me to promptly get over jet lag and stay up to my usual bedtime of 2 in the morning. Reading books before bed is a horrible idea, especially for me, because I always tell myself that I'll read "just one more chapter," which naturally turns out to be half the book. Then it's, Oh, look, only one more hour and I can finish! And I sleep at another ungodly hour of the morning. Anyway, Child of the Prophecy is the third book in Marillier's Sevenwaters Trilogy (Daughter of the Forest and Son of the Shadows), and I love them all. But I especially love this one, even though the first two were very very good as well. The first one is an Irish retelling of the Seven Swans fairy tale that brings in the Sidhe/Tuatha de Danan and druids. And the romantic elements are quite strong in all three books, which satisfies the romance reader in me. I love the growing relationship between Sorcha and Hugh in the first book and most of all Darragh and Fainne in the third one. For some reason, Liadan and Bran didn't quite do it for me. I think it was because it felt almost too stereotypically romantic, the good girl rebelling and falling for the misunderstood bad boy and bringing him to the light despite strong family pressure. Hugh and Darragh's quietness worked much better for me, especially Hugh's inability to express emotion well and Marillier's beautiful telling of Hugh and Sorcha's day at the beach and the story of Tobie and the selkie wife. Come to think of it, that story is also echoed in Child of the Prophecy. Anyhow, I seem to be doing very poorly in writing about how these books make me feel. Probably because the romance is blended into the overall plot, I find them much more effective and touching than romances in romance novels. I also love Fainne because unlike Sorcha, who's pretty much good in and out, Fainne has no idea what she's doing, she's horribly misguided at times, and as such, speaks more to me. And Darragh's friendship and the very quiet, very steady nature of how he loves her always gets to me, especially at the very last bits. The ends of Child of the Prophecy and Daughter of the Forest always make me cry actual tears, instead of just tearing up, as I usually do.

Then I found that my sister's friend had borrowed my copy of Rose Daughter (now I have two!) and returned it and a book of Patricia C. Wrede's short stories. And I always seem to forget how much I used to love Patricia C. Wrede. Still do. The Enchanted Forest series is just so much fun, with its mockery of fairy tales. I remember back in high school I kind of got sick of them for a bit because Cimorene is occasionally too Mary Sue-ish -- she always knows what to do, she's eminently practical, beautiful, brave and collected. But after the first book Wrede introduces Mendanbar, who I very much adore. Then Cimorene can't save the day in the third book, and we all wait for Daystar and the fourth book. And I truly love that book. Daystar is so incredibly clueless and absolutely polite. He's not quite as self-conscious as Cimorene and Mendanbar can be, which makes him a great deal more fun to be around. And there's a small exchange between Morwen and Telemain regarding the pointy end of a sword that never fails to crack me up. I was suddently reminded of this because the final story in the anthology is an Enchanted Forest one with these set of characters and the Frying Pan of Doom.

*giggles*

Sorry, just the name Frying Pan of Doom always gets me going. Anyway, everyone should read that story ("Utensile Strengths") because Frying Pan of Doom! How could it not be good?

Now I have to hunt up the Enchanted Forest series and read them all again. I love rereading books. It's like finding old friends again and having a nice, long heart to heart.

I'm also contemplating with great joy how many of my books in Taiwan I can finally transport to California, where hopefully I will not move every year and can thus finally really start building my book collection again. It really sucks having half of them here and half of them in the States. Maybe I will just buy some new copies over Amazon too, since many have not been treated very well by Taiwan humidity. And on that happy thought, I will go catch up more on LJ business. I miss you LJ people so much!