w00t w00t booyah

29. The Fairy Godmother, Mercedes Lackey.

Yeah, I had this on the shelf gathering dust, but hadn't read it yet. Interesting hook, nicely written (as always). (I understand this one has more books in its universe...I can see how.)

30. Friday's Child, Georgette Heyer.

Another paperback romance by the one person I've been told to read everything by - this issue is copyrighted 1946. Quaint and cute.

31. The Serpent's Shadow, Mercedes Lackey.

Found this one out in the back house, while getting ready for Halloween - so raced through it. Both this one and the one above, I'd bought in hardback and then hadn't had time to read them. Probably the result of losing my train commute back in 2000 or so.

Probably not so on the shelf with you - probably out to the hospital auxiliary instead.

29. The Fairy Godmother, Mercedes Lackey.

Yeah, I had this on the shelf gathering dust, but hadn't read it yet. Interesting hook, nicely written (as always). (I understand this one has more books in its universe...I can see how.)

30. Friday's Child, Georgette Heyer.

Another paperback romance by the one person I've been told to read everything by - this issue is copyrighted 1946. Quaint and cute.

31. The Serpent's Shadow, Mercedes Lackey.

Found this one out in the back house, while getting ready for Halloween - so raced through it. Both this one and the one above, I'd bought in hardback and then hadn't had time to read them. Probably the result of losing my train commute back in 2000 or so.

Probably not so on the shelf with you - probably out to the hospital auxiliary instead.

26. The Callahan Touch, Spider Robinson.

So far, this is the ONLY 'Callahan' book I've been able to lay my hands on - and I can easily see the attraction. This one read like a extended bullshit session at your favorite convention - absolutely delightful, because in this case the bullshit was not only plausible, but you had to believe it.

27. The Inugami Clan, Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Yumiko Yamazaki.

Bargain bin at the Kinokuniya - turns of phrase quaint, filled with foreshadowing and would be frustrating to many readers unfamiliar with Japanese translated to English. The period is just postwar Japan, without reference to Allied occupation - interesting all on its own. But one loves a good mystery with a splendid detective (and Kosuke Kindaichi does not fail) as it's lynchpin.

28. Toddler Adoption: The Weaver's Craft, Mary Hopkins-Best.

Guess why. This was one book I had some really mixed feelings about obtaining - so did so through Abebooks. The reviews on Amazon were downright angry - some saying things like 'who the HELL would adopt after reading this book?!' Well. No surprises for me, but there was plenty of warnings about how much your toddler is going to hate you for years and not to be influenced by it. It does specifically deal with the toddler years, which is good - but nothing more than that, to be frank. Not a good beginning book. And I skimmed a bunch of it going 'yeah, yeah, read that before in Connected Child, yeah yeah read that in Post-Adoption Blues, yeah, yeah - ' You get my drift.

Some of you - on the shelf! Some of you, hit the road!

24. The Canary Trainer, Nicholas Meyer.

Ah. Like a breath of fresh air - here is a pastiche written by someone who has not only done his homework, he cares about continuity within his own framework. A retelling of the Phantom of the Opera - it's a nice treatment, a bit spare but a good read.

25. Sun After Dark, Pico Iyer.

I love Pico Iyer. I love the fact he acts as both observer and active participant in the essays he does on travel - in some places nobody would want to visit, in their right mind. He goes. Ethnically Indian, raised in England and California...lives in Japan these days with the girl he wrote a book about (when I heard that at the Festival of Books, I cheered. Happy ending!) and still travels. And writes. He's delightful. But he is unsparing on his attention to the world at large - an essay called "Happy Hours In The Heart of Darkness?" Visiting Cambodia. There's your start.

(Heh. Yeah, this copy is autographed. He shows up at the Festival on a regular basis - I hope to see him again next year.)

On the shelf with you!

24. The Canary Trainer, Nicholas Meyer.

Ah. Like a breath of fresh air - here is a pastiche written by someone who has not only done his homework, he cares about continuity within his own framework. A retelling of the Phantom of the Opera - it's a nice treatment, a bit spare but a good read.

25. Sun After Dark, Pico Iyer.

I love Pico Iyer. I love the fact he acts as both observer and active participant in the essays he does on travel - in some places nobody would want to visit, in their right mind. He goes. Ethnically Indian, raised in England and California...lives in Japan these days with the girl he wrote a book about (when I heard that at the Festival of Books, I cheered. Happy ending!) and still travels. And writes. He's delightful. But he is unsparing on his attention to the world at large - an essay called "Happy Hours In The Heart of Darkness?" Visiting Cambodia. There's your start.

(Heh. Yeah, this copy is autographed. He shows up at the Festival on a regular basis - I hope to see him again next year.)

On the shelf with you!

20. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer.

Oh dear GHAD, that's over. *Mails away and deletes the rest of the books from her Amazon cart.*

21. The Twelve Kingdoms, Sea of Wind, Fuyumi Ono.

Another unexpectedly delightful read - but I wonder if I'll get the rest of this series evar as it was pubbed by the Evil Empire and they're toast.

22. The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee - Observations on Not Fitting In, Paisley Rekdal.

Quick! Check the name - what race is she?

You'd never know her mother was Chinese - unless she told you and she reports that you'd likely go 'oh yeah - now I see it' - and on goes the book.

She taught in Korea, traveled in China - and her observations are painful, unsparing and unavailable to most of us. I kept thinking of caitlin and stoneself constantly.

23. Little Butterfly, manga by Hinako Takanaga.

I said manga wouldn't count for the list, but in this case I'll make an exception. It's something so far off my experience it had to be mentioned.

Guys, I picked up a G-rated Yaoi manga looking for light reading - and OMG, it's cute, fluffy and totally AWFUL.

Misery loves company. Go get a copy and suffer with me.

On the shelf with you! (Some of you, GET OUT.)

15. The Lady and the Panda, Vicki Constantine Croke.

The story of the first live capture of a panda cub in the '30s - by a woman - when nobody else had reliably even seen the animal. A really good vacation read - a giddy romp through a period of time without the media presence we taken for granted, the social structures built since then during WWII - let alone the attitude towards conservation, zoos and animals as prizes instead of living creatures. Lovely book, nicely researched and put together.

16. Knights of the Ruby Order, Torn and Crag, Kate Hill.

Oh. My.

You know, books like this one prove my point - porn for ladies needs no pictures. If I threw this against the wall, it would plooosh...and likely stick. Check your good sense at the door. Check every last brain cell. I couldn't really suspend my sense of disbelief enough to 'get into' the pr0ny goodness, which was the whole .. um .. thrust of the book(s). I though Laurel Hamilton was...blatant. This author has no shame and then some.

17. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Lauren R. King.

There was a couple of squeals at the tech desk at AX this year - someone had brought one of these 'Mary Russell' books, and we all found it hard to believe.

The hardest thing I found to believe was there was not just one book...but a whole series of them. The more I investigated, the more my stun grew. Not only was there a series, but there is every evidence they were successful, popular and WHAT?

Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Well, self-insertion at the very least. How does one pull this off? Win an Edgar for your first book, which isn't part of this series...and write well enough, and you can do just about anything you like. Proof positive.

Readable. If you suspend your sense of disbelief enough.

18. A Letter of Mary, Laurie R. King.

I'm not reading these anywhere near in order. I got these a buck a book from the used book dealer, and just read a ton of words about a really well-defined character in Mary Russell.

If she wasn't at all involved with Sherlock Holmes. And to be honest, her take on Holmes is really far off the beam - nice, cuddly, filial in his friends and his brother, and now his wife - not in the least familiar to me. Nice, sure. The book is entertaining...as long as I forget everything I ever knew about Doyle's work...and this author makes no bones about her contempt for the guy.

19. Locked Rooms, Laurie R. King.

Screaming contempt for children, Doyle, and Los Angeles. And the entire book is really about Mary Russell, with cameos by Dashiel Hammett and Sherlock Holmes. Deux es machina in the last fifty pages, the whole nine yards. Glad it was only a buck. But it was this edition - which had spent its life in a library in King County, that was both bemusing and amazing. It's battered. Its spine is broken, and there are food stains (chocolate, I think) on the pages. Not only was it read...it was loved to itty bits.

Sad.

Some go to the shelves...others to friends for more laughs and derision. Misery loves company.

15. The Lady and the Panda, Vicki Constantine Croke.

The story of the first live capture of a panda cub in the '30s - by a woman - when nobody else had reliably even seen the animal. A really good vacation read - a giddy romp through a period of time without the media presence we taken for granted, the social structures built since then during WWII - let alone the attitude towards conservation, zoos and animals as prizes instead of living creatures. Lovely book, nicely researched and put together.

16. Knights of the Ruby Order, Torn and Crag, Kate Hill.

Oh. My.

You know, books like this one prove my point - porn for ladies needs no pictures. If I threw this against the wall, it would plooosh...and likely stick. Check your good sense at the door. Check every last brain cell. I couldn't really suspend my sense of disbelief enough to 'get into' the pr0ny goodness, which was the whole .. um .. thrust of the book(s). I though Laurel Hamilton was...blatant. This author has no shame and then some.

17. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Lauren R. King.

There was a couple of squeals at the tech desk at AX this year - someone had brought one of these 'Mary Russell' books, and we all found it hard to believe.

The hardest thing I found to believe was there was not just one book...but a whole series of them. The more I investigated, the more my stun grew. Not only was there a series, but there is every evidence they were successful, popular and WHAT?

Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Well, self-insertion at the very least. How does one pull this off? Win an Edgar for your first book, which isn't part of this series...and write well enough, and you can do just about anything you like. Proof positive.

Readable. If you suspend your sense of disbelief enough.

18. A Letter of Mary, Laurie R. King.

I'm not reading these anywhere near in order. I got these a buck a book from the used book dealer, and just read a ton of words about a really well-defined character in Mary Russell.

If she wasn't at all involved with Sherlock Holmes. And to be honest, her take on Holmes is really far off the beam - nice, cuddly, filial in his friends and his brother, and now his wife - not in the least familiar to me. Nice, sure. The book is entertaining...as long as I forget everything I ever knew about Doyle's work...and this author makes no bones about her contempt for the guy.

19. Locked Rooms, Laurie R. King.

Screaming contempt for children, Doyle, and Los Angeles. And the entire book is really about Mary Russell, with cameos by Dashiel Hammett and Sherlock Holmes. Deux es machina in the last fifty pages, the whole nine yards. Glad it was only a buck. But it was this edition - which had spent its life in a library in King County, that was both bemusing and amazing. It's battered. Its spine is broken, and there are food stains (chocolate, I think) on the pages. Not only was it read...it was loved to itty bits.

Sad.

Some go to the shelves...others to friends for more laughs and derision. Misery loves company.

13. The Pleasures of Japanese Cooking. Heihachi Tanaka and Betty A. Nichols.

These two books came out of the care package caitlin sent - this one, copyrighted 1963 (and this is a 1979 reprint), really puts paid to the fact 'nobody knew about -blank-' before anime left it's mark on popular culture.

Etiquette regarding chopsticks, who pours the drinks and why - in a very unsuspecting little paperback book. Knowledge has been around a while - no excuses. And quit putting soy sauce on your rice!

14. Raising Adopted Children. Lois Ruskai Melina.

Coprighted 1988, a little less than the newest and shinest - it does take a different tone than the newer books do, one of 'adoption is NOT second-best,' but watch out for a culture that would like to tell you differently.

Whole sections on bonding and attachment. This isn't nearly the new and shiny concept I thought it was - which is encouraging, because all the centers publishing books on their methods are now publishing more than five or ten years worth of study and experience - that's reassuring.

This one? Kind of summarizes what I have already, is less frightening than most of the ones I've read before and is more AP-centric in general. Bedside book.

12. Kushiel's Justice, Jacqueline Carey.

Ghad, these books are easy to read. I was waiting for this one to come out in paperback - nearly 900 pages, gone in a few evenings.

On the shelf with you!