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Might as well get the post up, since the new year starts next week! The goal is at least 50 books (though I’ll count magazine issues, too).
Miles’s cousin gets his own book. There’s never any doubt on how the romance plot line will turn out, but the caper story is quite good. The characterization is wonderful — it’s always good to see familiar faces from new angles — and there are delightful gems of sentences that made me chuckle aloud. (One of my favorites was “fourteen people refrained from interrupting, in unison.”) Definitely pick this up if you’ve enjoyed any of the Vorkosigan books.
Haven’t read the whole series — just whatever the local library has — so I’ve read a bit over half, I think. Really love them.
I’ve followed Gretchen Rubin on Twitter for a long time; I first found her through Alex Fayle’s Someday Syndrome blog, I think. Last month, it finally hit me that I could stand to be happier, so I checked the book out of the library.
I think its primary value to me is in mindfulness. There are a few specific things I’ve done because of reading this — signing up for a new class to get out of the house and meet people, making more effort to be cheerful when getting my daughter up in the morning — but I’m not about to try her Resolution Chart. I’d have about as much luck with it as she did with a food diary. I just don’t track things that way well.
Definitely a valuable read, and I’ll be looking at her Happier at Home book as well.
I spent my Saturday reading this; had to wait on the hold list for two months at the library to get my hands on it. I do wonder sometimes how someone with no TV growing up knows quite so many pop culture references, but since they’re all references I get, I don’t care. Lots of fun. Loved the Wild Hunt! And Kringle. And the Mothers. . . . Okay, everything.
If you get Farland’s Daily Kick e-mails, you’ve seen a lot of this advice already. If you want to see it as a more connected whole, with a little more development in some areas, this is a good way to get that. Also, the appendix was new info for me, and definitely useful.
I enjoyed Verity’s first adventure. I’d been planning to hold off on this book, but when I read the Kindle sample, it seemed perfect for my mood — so I bought it and stayed up late, reading straight through, even though the switch to daylight saving time meant I was already giving up an hour of sleep.
All the crew is back — Verity, deadly and graceful; Dominic, who dates Verity even though the Covenant he serves thinks she’s a traitor; Sarah, Verity’s cousin; the Aeslin mice, dragons, waheela, bogeymen, and other assorted crypt ides; and Verity’s family, most often present by phone. Of course the stakes are bigger — and this time, it’s personal. An excellent read.
I’ve enjoyed Scalzi’s tales of the CDF, so I went into this expecting to like it. I was thrown off by the rapid shifts in the first few scenes, which left me confused about who I was dealing with and who I was supposed to invest my interest in. I’m hoping that the series will follow through on the current set-up, so I haven’t wasted my time engaging with Harry Wilson and Hart Schmidt.
That said, this delivered well on the serial premise, being a reasonably self-contained story (problem presented, complications ensue, problem eventually solved) plus introducing a larger problem and arc to carry through The Human Division.
I’ve already got the next two episodes in my reading queue (and I think 8 of 13 are out already, with the 9th due Tuesday, so I’ve some work to catch up on), and I fully expect to enjoy them.
Star Trek: New Frontier by Peter David (also subtitled Turnaround)
I read the first few New Frontier books back in the late 90s when they came out, and I really wanted them to do it as a TV series. When I saw this on the shelf at the library, I picked it up for fun. Now I want to go backand reread the novels.
Earthling! by Mark Fearing
A fun MG graphic novel, where a young boy who’s just moved catches the wrong schoolbus and winds up at an academy where earthlings are considered the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy.
Pandemonium by Chris Wooding
The illustration’s a bit on the manga side. A boy who looks like the crown prince is recruited to impersonate him when he disappears. This feels like the first in a series, where it’s likely that the peasant really is the twin of the prince, but I don’t know if Scholastic plans to publish more or not.
First book in the Ranger’s Apprentice series, re-reading with my son. I love the fact that my son loves reading, tackles huge books on his own, and still treasures me reading bedtime stories to him.
Book 1, The Stonekeeper
Another graphic novel, first in a series. Some lovely artwork, some nice bits of story. Bits that remind me of Howl’s Moving Castle. I’ll look for the next in the series.
It’s been a long time since I picked up a new-to-me Oz book, and I was charmed to see so many things the same in this book of accidental travelers to that magic kingdom — from characters who are wrapped up in their own view of the world to unknown corners of the land. There weren’t as many puns as in Baum’s books, and I was frustrated with the number of loose threads at the end of the book — but I truly enjoyed reading it.
A lovely little book, full of meaning and nuance that I’m probably going to have to re-read over years and years — and still never quite unpack all that it holds.
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