curse of innocents; I, 84 Little Dope; Half a Stone Iron Payback; Exit, Summer the Nablus Bard;

[maribou]

The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold
I expected the Jane Austen meets George R R Martin feel of this wonderful novel, but I did not expect the well-mixed-in disquisition on the nature of sainthood. Head and shoulders above her earlier fantasy work that I'd read a year or two ago - really excellent.
(256/300)

Death of Innocents, by A. J. Orde
Slight but tasty mystery starring a married sleuth duo - the husband is an interior designer and the wife is a cop. Set in Denver, and Orde is one of Sheri Tepper's alia.
(257/300)

84 Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, by Helene Hanff (my edition was a 2-in-1)
I'd been not getting around to this for years, mostly I think because I was afraid it would be too precious - and it's marvelous! The first book is a brilliant and touching letter collection. It added extra zing to the second, otherwise-not-quite-as-good book, for me, to be reading about the author's reaction to visiting some spot in London, cherished for her historical/literary associations with the place, or some other reason like the quality of light there, and then to be remembering at the same time my own visit to that exact spot ... sometimes we cherished it for the exact same reasons even (Russell Square, I'm looking at you). If you revel in books-as-objects, London, or English history, I can't see why you wouldn't like this book.
(258/300)

Dope Sick, by Walter Dean Myers (ARC)
An odd little magical-realist sort of a thing about the miseries of thug life? Or something like that? I read it to see why people like Walter Dean Myers so much, and now I do see. Will probably need to read a few more of his things before deciding whether I want to read lots more of him or not.
(259/300)

I, Lorelei, by Yeardley Smith (ARC)
A fairly typical YA novel about being 11 and learning about the complexities of life. Better than average because it's by Yeardley Smith - much like such books by Judy Blume or Paula Danzinger are better than average because they wrote them, although maybe not QUITE as much so. The product info on Amazon says, "Yeardley Smith engages the reader with wit, candor, and authenticity." - that sums it up neatly.
(260/300)

Little by Little, by Jean Little (reread)
The author's memoir of growing up nearly blind and learning that she was a writer. I read this several times as a kid, and it was neat to reread it with fresh eyes. It held up quite well, perhaps better than the last couple of times I reread it as a kid. (Childhood rereads were often the product of being stuck at home and out of things to read, rather than an active desire to revisit something.)
(261/300)

Payback, by Margaret Atwood
Witty and incisive and full of historical and mythological reflections about how we collectively deal with debt. Sadly, not quite the omg brilliant answer to the current financial crisis that it has been touted as in some quarters, but I wasn't really expecting that. Just expecting some good company for part of my plane ride, and that is what I got.
(262/300)

The Stone War, by Madeleine E. Robins
This book was a little .. something .. jumbled? Or just plain difficult to follow? Or maybe it was flawless and it was the fault of it being taken out and put back on a succession of airplanes .. but I do feel like better editing could've made it a better book. That said, it contained many moments of grave beauty, and very very clever thinky thoughts. Story was good too. And some of the characters will stick with me for a good long time.
(263/300)

Iron Sunrise, by Charlie Stross
This was a whomping good story, full of techie stuff but not so full I couldn't still enjoy it while flying on an airplane and sick - in other words, very clearly written and with lots of plot and character development. I look forward to reading more of Stross' books. Also, I just now noticed this is a sequel to Singularity Sky - but it read just fine without any previous background in the world.
(264/300)

Half a Crown, by Jo Walton
For the most part I loved this book, but the ending didn't entirely work for me. I think it works very well for the story, especially for the overall 3-book arc, but for me, personally, it was too rushed and external. Even though, well, that's sort of how things often happen in real life, and it all made sense and everything. The book was still delightful - Walton has an incredible ability to write about very serious things with the most delicate of touches.
(265/300)

Exit Actors, Dying, by Margot Arnold
I sought this out because I'd read a later book in the series and really enjoyed it - so I thought I should start from the beginning. Well, this one isn't as good as that one was - rather clunkier, a lot more interested in mechanics and less in characters/dialogue... I'll probably try a few more though - because that later one was really good. This one wasn't bad, just nothing special.
(266/300)

Summer, by Edith Wharton
I read half of this much earlier in the year, and just finished it up a couple of days ago - I'm not sure if that is the reason why, but I wasn't very emotionally involved in this story, despite its melodramatic subject matter. Despite that, I liked it - found myself engaging with it in a more disconnected way, thinking about its historical context, the beauty of some of the descriptions, its likeness and unlikeness to LM Montgomery, etc.
(267/300)

Tales of Beedle the Bard, by J. K. Rowling
Cute, short, fluffy. I liked the commentaries better than the stories themselves, though I was put off by a couple of self-admiring footnotes (they just didn't SOUND like Dumbledore). Fun read.
(268/300)

The Zoo on the Road to Nablus, by Amelia Thomas
The writing was clunky and needed some biology-fact-checking pretty badly in places ... but the story and the people were very interesting. I'm not a big fan of 3rd-person narrative non-fiction that strives to make things more objective while in effect obscuring the actual facts - if everything happens in a narrative 3rd, I often end up mistrusting the author - I don't know how you got that info or what you've done to it - and I'm especially wary when I do see some obvious misstatements here and there. I found myself wishing Diane Ackerman had written this book, but it's still worth checking out if you're interested in zoos and/or Quixotic individuals.
(269/300)