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Books for November
Rob forgot to take the computer with him to work today. Negative: I have to wait yet longer to have my DVD drive fixed. Positive: I can post my end-of-the-month list of books on time.
A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer. Re-read. I heard Caroline talking about the system of magic in this book at World Fantasy, which is what made me pull it out again. I was surprised to find how little memory of the book I had, which is quite unusual for me. I'm glad that a sequel will be released soon.
North to Freedom by Anne Holm. Re-read. Actually, the original title which was used for this book's release in Europe is much better: I am David. World Fantasy prompted this read, too: I was on a panel at WFC on influential books read as a child, and this one sprang right to mind. This book holds up well, no matter how many times you re-read it. I read it to the girls this month, too.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Kate Bernheimer, ed. A collection of essays. Was particularly impressed by the ones by Terri Windling, A.S. Byatt, and Linda Gray Sexton and . . . oh, there were a whole host of good ones. (Alas, also one or two that were just unreadable, but out of 28 essays, they were few. The book was well worth the money).
The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy by Brian Sibley. Because yeah, I'm a fan.
The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer. Re-read. Because it's getting cold again, which means I'm starting to make butterscotch pudding in the microwave at night, and for some reason, every time I eat warm butterscotch pudding, I want to read Georgette Heyer. A very odd but extremely strong correlation. This is the only Georgette Heyer I picked up and read cover-to-cover, but I dipped and skimmed through a number of others this month (all over bowls of butterscotch pudding), including The Toll Gate, A Civil Contract, The Foundling and Cotillion.
Jane and the Prisoner of the Wool House by Stephanie Barron. I really like these books and think they are well written. The author purports to have "discovered" some hitherto unknown Jane Austen manuscripts, and Jane is a detective uncovering murder mysteries. If you love Jane Austen's novels and are very familiar with them as I am, you will be delighted to see the lines that "pop" out of the text which you recognize as coming from Jane's published work. The books are following Jane's biography (and seem to be carefully researched) and you see what inspires Jane's fiction. This one is in the newest in the series; number six or seven I think. Great fun.
Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright. Re-read. Another favorite from my childhood that I pulled out to read to the girls.
The Sandman: Prelude and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman. First time I've read this, I'm ashamed to say, thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kijjohnson who lent me her copy. I am happily reading on in the series.
Here's one book that I only had an opportunity to read about half of before I had to return it to the lender, but I'm including it because I thought quite a bit about it this month:
Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter by Jack Zipes.
Hmm. I note with disapproval that I'm not doing enough research reading for the new book. Must address this next month.
Peg
A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer. Re-read. I heard Caroline talking about the system of magic in this book at World Fantasy, which is what made me pull it out again. I was surprised to find how little memory of the book I had, which is quite unusual for me. I'm glad that a sequel will be released soon.
North to Freedom by Anne Holm. Re-read. Actually, the original title which was used for this book's release in Europe is much better: I am David. World Fantasy prompted this read, too: I was on a panel at WFC on influential books read as a child, and this one sprang right to mind. This book holds up well, no matter how many times you re-read it. I read it to the girls this month, too.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Kate Bernheimer, ed. A collection of essays. Was particularly impressed by the ones by Terri Windling, A.S. Byatt, and Linda Gray Sexton and . . . oh, there were a whole host of good ones. (Alas, also one or two that were just unreadable, but out of 28 essays, they were few. The book was well worth the money).
The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy by Brian Sibley. Because yeah, I'm a fan.
The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer. Re-read. Because it's getting cold again, which means I'm starting to make butterscotch pudding in the microwave at night, and for some reason, every time I eat warm butterscotch pudding, I want to read Georgette Heyer. A very odd but extremely strong correlation. This is the only Georgette Heyer I picked up and read cover-to-cover, but I dipped and skimmed through a number of others this month (all over bowls of butterscotch pudding), including The Toll Gate, A Civil Contract, The Foundling and Cotillion.
Jane and the Prisoner of the Wool House by Stephanie Barron. I really like these books and think they are well written. The author purports to have "discovered" some hitherto unknown Jane Austen manuscripts, and Jane is a detective uncovering murder mysteries. If you love Jane Austen's novels and are very familiar with them as I am, you will be delighted to see the lines that "pop" out of the text which you recognize as coming from Jane's published work. The books are following Jane's biography (and seem to be carefully researched) and you see what inspires Jane's fiction. This one is in the newest in the series; number six or seven I think. Great fun.
Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright. Re-read. Another favorite from my childhood that I pulled out to read to the girls.
The Sandman: Prelude and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman. First time I've read this, I'm ashamed to say, thanks to
kijjohnson who lent me her copy. I am happily reading on in the series.Here's one book that I only had an opportunity to read about half of before I had to return it to the lender, but I'm including it because I thought quite a bit about it this month:
Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter by Jack Zipes.
Hmm. I note with disapproval that I'm not doing enough research reading for the new book. Must address this next month.
Peg
You have good taste
Two questions: Have you read any Martha Wells? and Is it okay that I added you to my friends list?
~Amanda
Re: You have good taste
Sure, go ahead and add me to your friends list. And feel free to chime in with comments, anytime. I like comments.
Cheers,
Peg
Re: You have good taste
She's also written City of Bones and Death of the Necromancer; haven't read the latter, but City of Bones is also very good. She has another one out, too; can't recall the title. Tor was her original publisher and she had some problems with them; someone else publishes her now, can't recall who. If you read any of her stuff, let me know what you think.
~Amanda
no subject
The sequel to A College of Magics
See the page that David Lenander maintains for Caroline and for Patricia C. Wrede here which will give you a little more news. The other exciting tidbit from Caroline (and Pat) is that they are working on the sequel to Sorcery and Cecelia, tentatively called The Grand Tour. Harcourt will re-release Sorcery and Cecelia in Spring 2003, and The Grand Tour will come out six to twelve months later. I went to their joint reading at WFC to hear a bit read from this new book in progress, and it was hilarious. Cecy and Kate are traveling around in Europe with their new husbands. Since they are traveling together, they can't write letters to each other. Cecy is writing "the transcript of her depositions" (inscribed after the events of this book; we'll find out why during the course of the book), and interspersed with that are Kate's entries into her journal.
BTW: David Lenander, mentioned above, also very kindly maintains my webpage, here, and is highly to be praised for assembling all this information for people purely out of the goodness of his heart.
Peg