Never Down a Quiquiriqui; Libyrinth Darkness Ramblas; Edge of Making Crow; Souvenir Blood Horses

[maribou]

Never After, by Rebecca Lickiss
As fractured fairy tales go, this was pretty meh (not awful, just meh) for the first hundred pages - none of the characters grabbed me and I didn't find it funny or particularly original - but then something clicked and I really enjoyed the rest of it, thought the characters were particularly fun. Maybe it just took too long to set things up? Anyway, worth reading if you like light takes on old stories.
(194/275)

Down a Sunny Dirt Road, by Stan and Jan Berenstain
The illustrations were the best part of this - it was written to be simple and factual and while I loved the Berenstain bears as a kid, I'm not THAT hugely interested in the chronology of the Berenstain's lives. Still, it was fairly neat to trace the arc of their separate childhoods and shared adulthood - the WW2 part was spifferific - and I love love loved seeing all their non-Berenstain artwork including art-school paintings and things like that.
(195/275)

Quiquiriqui/Kikiriki, by Diane de Anda (read in Spanish)
Cute story about two kids whose gramma brings them a rooster... suspenseful without a bad ending or an overly sappy moral. The pictures were lovely as well.
(196/275)

Libyrinth, by Pearl North
Page-turner of a YA ... science-fantasy? Far future but with magic bits in. Charming characters (most important to me), compelling narrative voice, very interesting world-building. Like Ursula K. LeGuin if UKL wasn't BRILLIANT but merely solidly awesome. Tracked down author's real name (Anne Harris) and checked out a previous book by her. Will report back.
(197/275)

Tapas on the Ramblas, by Anthony Bidulka
This series has become a trusted "relaxing read" for me. In this case the main character, Russell Quant, PI, goes along on a Mediterranean cruise at the request of an aged and fiercely eccentric client who expects one of her family members to try to kill her while aboard. These are so entertaining and sweet, as mysteries where people get killed and brood quite a lot go - and it makes me happy to read books where people are just as likely to be queer as straight and almost everyone is Canadian, doncha know. It's soothing.
(198/275)

Darkness Calls, by Marjorie M. Liu
I confess that I found this book kind of confusing to follow and so some parts of the time I didn't like it as well as the previous book. But I did still love the protagonists' interactions with her demons, and the world-building was (weirdly enough) NOT the confusing part, and it was awesome. I sort of felt like there was a surfeit of plot though, not enough time for the characters to interact because they were too busy dodging peril without sufficient tension-breaks. It was good, but it didn't leave me panting for more the way the last book did. Just kind of cheerfully interested in more.
(199/275)

The Drop Edge of Yonder, by Donis Casey
These historical Oklahoman mysteries are still totally keen. Alastair Tucker is someone I would like to have in my life, and she reminds me some of some of my strong-jawed female relatives. And even though there are a jillion people in her family, the author makes them very distinctive and easy to tell apart & care for. And this is the first one of this series where I *haven't* guessed the whodunnit miles before I thought I was meant to. Not sure if it's because I was less clever or because the plots are getting more intricate.
(200/275)

Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation, by Gregory Maguire
So so so very nifty. Full of Sendak art and interesting thoughts from Maguire. (Sometimes Maguire gets a bit pretentious-sounding but the pretentious bits and the "whoa, COOL" bits are so closely linked that I don't think you could get rid of the former without risking the latter... so that's alright then.) I really really recommend this book (although with a caveat that it has a few frankly erotic drawings/paintings in it so if you are thinking of giving it to a kid you may want to look at it yourself first).
(201/275)

Voice of Crow, by Jeri Smith-Ready
For some reason I always start out reading this author's books with a chip on my shoulder of "well, this isn't possibly going to be as engaging as I remember it being" and then I prove myself wrong in short order. Silly maribou is silly, I guess. Very satisfying fantasy, second in the series, DO NOT read it until you've read Eye of Crow first, but they are both tasty tasty books.
(202/275)

Blood from Stone, by Laura Anne Gilman
This book wraps up the six-volume Retrievers series and it kind of hearkens back to the early volumes where the stuff going on in the moment is more important than the Overarching Back Story of Grave Portentousness. It was a good OBSGP but it is nice to have gotten back to a simpler story, the story of Wren and Sergei and PB and their efforts to live well and safely in the world, before the end of the series. Even though stuff happens and there is a lot of plot & peril, I still found this book more restful than anything else. Good way to finish the story off.
(203/275)

The Shadowy Horses, by Susanna Kearsley
There is a very precise itch which Elizabeth Peters' non-Amelia-Peabody books scratch (the ones where people run around being romance writers or archeologists or whatever while also being gently witty and brave and desirable and in love and also FIGHTING CRIME WOO), and this book scratched that rather demanding itch, very very well. While also having a touch of the ghostie in it, suitable to the time of year and a fun resonance with my youthful days when I read quite a few gothic romances. The comparison everyone keeps making is Barbara Michaels (which makes sense to me since Elizabeth Peters is one of Michaels' pen-names). Suspenseful without ever really being scary, and I loved it. Will be tracking down everything Kearsley's written, eventually.
(204/275)

Souvenir of Canada, by Douglas Coupland
Weird and funny and deeply pleasing of the pattern recognition brain that loves to go "HEY I KNOW WHAT THAT IS HEY I REMEMBER THAT HEY HE IS FUNNY HA HA I REMEMBER THINKING SOMETHING LIKE THAT ONCE". It's not, like, some big earthshattering work of art... but it's playful and quirky and kept my attention.
(205/275)

Comments

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

Have you read The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines yet? If not, I highly recommend it and the sequel, which just came out, The Mermaid's Madness.

[maribou]

Nope, but it is definitely on my list. Sounds really nifty.

[ilmarinen.livejournal.com]

Your posts make me feel woefully under-accomplished as a reader.

-B.

[maribou]

I assume you're just referriing to quantity? If so, well, reading is the primary thing-what-I-do (after, maybe, being married and being the human for my cats). It's just further down the list for you, is all.