Reading list from 2011 (on time!)
Here's my list of the new books that I read in 2011, if I remembered to write them down, with some commentary on most of them.
2011
A daughter of the samurai: how a daughter of feudal Japan, living hundreds of years in one generation, became a modern American / Sugimoto, Etsu Inagaki The most striking thing is that she is describing her childhood from the inside, as the Samurai daughter being brought up into the traditional woman's role and ALSO having the education almost of a son (both roles stiff with honor and hedged with tradition)--but from the perspective of the American acculturated woman that she became--and that this is the _same person_.
Tracking the Tempest, by Nicole Peeler-urban fantasy. Jane True has been finding out about the powers from her selkie half, training with Nell, a gnome, in her small Maine hometown, but has to solve a mystery and battle evil in Boston with her lover Ryu (not exactly a vampire) and their friends, including Anyan, whom Jane has mostly known in his big, shaggy dog form.
I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett-excellent next Tiffany Aching book.
Pegasus, by Robin McKinley-points of similarity with Lackey’s Companions, but way less adolescent angst, even when the main character is an adolescent. McKinley points out that the coming sequel is a sequel in the sense that Return of the King is a sequel to The Two Towers.
Maria Snyder, Poison Study, also Magic Study-Yelena has to be the food taster for the Commander
Patricia Briggs, River Marked-quite good new Mercy Thompson book. Mercy and Adam camp next to a river with a secret.
Sherwood Smith, Sasharia en Garde: Once a Princess-Sasha is abducted from L.A. to Sherwood Smith’s usual fantasy world (though a different part from Inda), and her ex-hippy mother pursues her; they get embroiled with politics, pirates, and princes.
Sherwood Smith, Coronets and Steel-lovely Ruritanian story set in Europe. Aurelia Kim Murray does genealogical research in Paris and Vienna, trying to discover her grandmother’s mysterious past, and finds more than she bargains for, a la Prisoner of Zenda (the plot resemblances are lampshaded here).
Sherwood Smith, Sasharia en Garde: Twice a Prince-continuation and completion of Sasha and Ataniel’s story.
Sherwood Smith, The Trouble with Kings-abductions and romances among the royalty (some rather scruffy and down-to-earth) of several small Ruritanian kingdoms in Smith’s world. The story starts when Flian has temporarily lost her memory after being abducted the first time, and is being hustled into marrying one king (Jason) by another (Garian). Flian would prefer to be left to play her music at home with her brother Maxl, but events among the kingdoms conspire against her. I enjoy the character of Jason and Jaim’s sister Jewel.
Jill Paton Walsh, The Attenbury Emeralds
Mistletoe and Wolfbane-collection of werewolf stories, some reasonably good, some not so much.
Julia Quinn, The Duke and I-regency, quite readable, characters not very period in language or manners.
Sheenagh Pugh, The Democratic Genre: Fan fiction in a literary context. Entertaining and somewhat illuminating. She basically categorizes fanfic as either “more of” - that written to provide more of the same as the original - or “more from” - that written to take the characters in other directions or put them in new contexts (most slash falls here). She identifies one source of the urge to write slash as the wish to explore the vulnerabilities of male characters. She explores the continuum of fanfic to profic. I found interesting and plausible her discussion of the way the fanfic community supports a writer (especially a woman writer)-giving tons of feedback, encouragement, shared interest, etc.-much more than the profic community with its inherent competition between writers does.
Collins, Suzanne, Mockingjay-conclusion of Hunger Games trilogy
Julia Quinn, The Viscount Who Loved Me-book 2 of Bridgerton family romances.
Julia Spencer-Fleming, One Was a Soldier-next book about Clare Fergusson, now back from her year in the army flying helicopters in Iraq, and taking up the reins again as priest in Millers Kill, NY, in spite of having trouble with re-entry-her and a handful of other veterans in the town. Much more satisfying conclusion than a couple of the recent previous books.
Julia Quinn: An offer from a gentleman-book 3 of Bridgerton family, but also a Cinderella story for Miss Sophie Beckett.
S.M. Stirling, The Scourge of God
Romancing Mister Bridgerton / Quinn, Julia - book 4; Penelope Featherington
Bossypants / Fey, Tina-the mother's prayer for a daughter is the best thing in it.
Lisa Shearin, Magic Lost, Trouble Found (Raine Benares, Book 1)-enjoyable, if somewhat slight. I think there may be problems with levels of diction; jumping down several levels of diction may have comic effect, but it distracts the reader. Also, people are called elves, humans, and goblins, but they all just seem human. No numinousness.
Brad Leithauser, Darlington’s Fall, a novel in verse
Jo Walton, Lifelode-medievalish world, but where magic (and time) alter as you go from east to west and back. Thoughtful and well-written.
Nora Roberts, The Search--pretty good; lots of dogs and dog training. Fiona does search and rescue with her dogs, as well as obedience classes with neighbors such as the hunky Simon and his puppy. Years ago her fiance was killed by a serial murderer after she escaped from him; he is in prison but his signature murders are starting again.
Patricia Veryan, the Wagered Widow. Eh.
Demon King, by Cinda Williams Chima-YA Han has left his life as the leader of a street gang, and moves between the Clans in the hills and the city. The princess Raisa starts to learn that she knows nothing about what the people really think, and neither does her mother the queen, who is disturbingly close to the chief wizard.
--The Exiled Queen-Han and Dancer are sent to Oden’s Ford to attend the school of wizardry, as is his enemy Micah; Raisa, fleeing from an unwanted marriage with Micah, comes to Oden’s Ford with her childhood friend and guard, Amon, to the school for warriors.
Across the Great Barrier, Patricia Wrede-sequel to Thirteenth Child, continues following Eff’s progress with magic (particularly the less known Aphrikan magic), and her adventures accompanying a biology professor, to assist her in cataloguing the forms of life beyond the Great Barrier, around and between the settlements.
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman-very good; more reminiscent of Pratchett than some Gaiman.
A Local Habitation, Seanan Maguire-the next October Daye book. Toby investigates killings involving several of the fae, in a computer company in a knowe.
Carousel Tides, by Sharon Lee-Kate returns to a small coastal town in Maine when her grandmother, who runs a carousel at the summer fun park, disappears. The Land is happy to see her back.
Murder Past Due, by Miranda James-an archivist with a Maine Coon cat gets involved in the death of an old classmate who had become a famous author.
Blood Spirits, by Sherwood Smith-sequel to Coronets and Steel. Excellent and meaty.
Oath of Fealty, by Elizabeth Moon [audiobook]--sequel (sort of) to Deed of Paksenarrion, involving characters who were peripheral in Paksenarrion's story.
The iron king / Kagawa, Julie-first in a series about the iron fey and Meghan Chase, who didn’t know that she wasn’t fully human. Still not sure about it (angsty and not strong on character development), but I might read the sequels anyway.
Gray Wolf Throne, by Cinda Williams Chima-third in the Demon King series (well, the Seven Realms series). These are quite good; readable, engaging characters, well drawn, good strong plot. Raisa, particularly in the second half of this book, reminds me of Iselle in Curse of Chalion.
2011
A daughter of the samurai: how a daughter of feudal Japan, living hundreds of years in one generation, became a modern American / Sugimoto, Etsu Inagaki The most striking thing is that she is describing her childhood from the inside, as the Samurai daughter being brought up into the traditional woman's role and ALSO having the education almost of a son (both roles stiff with honor and hedged with tradition)--but from the perspective of the American acculturated woman that she became--and that this is the _same person_.
Tracking the Tempest, by Nicole Peeler-urban fantasy. Jane True has been finding out about the powers from her selkie half, training with Nell, a gnome, in her small Maine hometown, but has to solve a mystery and battle evil in Boston with her lover Ryu (not exactly a vampire) and their friends, including Anyan, whom Jane has mostly known in his big, shaggy dog form.
I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett-excellent next Tiffany Aching book.
Pegasus, by Robin McKinley-points of similarity with Lackey’s Companions, but way less adolescent angst, even when the main character is an adolescent. McKinley points out that the coming sequel is a sequel in the sense that Return of the King is a sequel to The Two Towers.
Maria Snyder, Poison Study, also Magic Study-Yelena has to be the food taster for the Commander
Patricia Briggs, River Marked-quite good new Mercy Thompson book. Mercy and Adam camp next to a river with a secret.
Sherwood Smith, Sasharia en Garde: Once a Princess-Sasha is abducted from L.A. to Sherwood Smith’s usual fantasy world (though a different part from Inda), and her ex-hippy mother pursues her; they get embroiled with politics, pirates, and princes.
Sherwood Smith, Coronets and Steel-lovely Ruritanian story set in Europe. Aurelia Kim Murray does genealogical research in Paris and Vienna, trying to discover her grandmother’s mysterious past, and finds more than she bargains for, a la Prisoner of Zenda (the plot resemblances are lampshaded here).
Sherwood Smith, Sasharia en Garde: Twice a Prince-continuation and completion of Sasha and Ataniel’s story.
Sherwood Smith, The Trouble with Kings-abductions and romances among the royalty (some rather scruffy and down-to-earth) of several small Ruritanian kingdoms in Smith’s world. The story starts when Flian has temporarily lost her memory after being abducted the first time, and is being hustled into marrying one king (Jason) by another (Garian). Flian would prefer to be left to play her music at home with her brother Maxl, but events among the kingdoms conspire against her. I enjoy the character of Jason and Jaim’s sister Jewel.
Jill Paton Walsh, The Attenbury Emeralds
Mistletoe and Wolfbane-collection of werewolf stories, some reasonably good, some not so much.
Julia Quinn, The Duke and I-regency, quite readable, characters not very period in language or manners.
Sheenagh Pugh, The Democratic Genre: Fan fiction in a literary context. Entertaining and somewhat illuminating. She basically categorizes fanfic as either “more of” - that written to provide more of the same as the original - or “more from” - that written to take the characters in other directions or put them in new contexts (most slash falls here). She identifies one source of the urge to write slash as the wish to explore the vulnerabilities of male characters. She explores the continuum of fanfic to profic. I found interesting and plausible her discussion of the way the fanfic community supports a writer (especially a woman writer)-giving tons of feedback, encouragement, shared interest, etc.-much more than the profic community with its inherent competition between writers does.
Collins, Suzanne, Mockingjay-conclusion of Hunger Games trilogy
Julia Quinn, The Viscount Who Loved Me-book 2 of Bridgerton family romances.
Julia Spencer-Fleming, One Was a Soldier-next book about Clare Fergusson, now back from her year in the army flying helicopters in Iraq, and taking up the reins again as priest in Millers Kill, NY, in spite of having trouble with re-entry-her and a handful of other veterans in the town. Much more satisfying conclusion than a couple of the recent previous books.
Julia Quinn: An offer from a gentleman-book 3 of Bridgerton family, but also a Cinderella story for Miss Sophie Beckett.
S.M. Stirling, The Scourge of God
Romancing Mister Bridgerton / Quinn, Julia - book 4; Penelope Featherington
Bossypants / Fey, Tina-the mother's prayer for a daughter is the best thing in it.
Lisa Shearin, Magic Lost, Trouble Found (Raine Benares, Book 1)-enjoyable, if somewhat slight. I think there may be problems with levels of diction; jumping down several levels of diction may have comic effect, but it distracts the reader. Also, people are called elves, humans, and goblins, but they all just seem human. No numinousness.
Brad Leithauser, Darlington’s Fall, a novel in verse
Jo Walton, Lifelode-medievalish world, but where magic (and time) alter as you go from east to west and back. Thoughtful and well-written.
Nora Roberts, The Search--pretty good; lots of dogs and dog training. Fiona does search and rescue with her dogs, as well as obedience classes with neighbors such as the hunky Simon and his puppy. Years ago her fiance was killed by a serial murderer after she escaped from him; he is in prison but his signature murders are starting again.
Patricia Veryan, the Wagered Widow. Eh.
Demon King, by Cinda Williams Chima-YA Han has left his life as the leader of a street gang, and moves between the Clans in the hills and the city. The princess Raisa starts to learn that she knows nothing about what the people really think, and neither does her mother the queen, who is disturbingly close to the chief wizard.
--The Exiled Queen-Han and Dancer are sent to Oden’s Ford to attend the school of wizardry, as is his enemy Micah; Raisa, fleeing from an unwanted marriage with Micah, comes to Oden’s Ford with her childhood friend and guard, Amon, to the school for warriors.
Across the Great Barrier, Patricia Wrede-sequel to Thirteenth Child, continues following Eff’s progress with magic (particularly the less known Aphrikan magic), and her adventures accompanying a biology professor, to assist her in cataloguing the forms of life beyond the Great Barrier, around and between the settlements.
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman-very good; more reminiscent of Pratchett than some Gaiman.
A Local Habitation, Seanan Maguire-the next October Daye book. Toby investigates killings involving several of the fae, in a computer company in a knowe.
Carousel Tides, by Sharon Lee-Kate returns to a small coastal town in Maine when her grandmother, who runs a carousel at the summer fun park, disappears. The Land is happy to see her back.
Murder Past Due, by Miranda James-an archivist with a Maine Coon cat gets involved in the death of an old classmate who had become a famous author.
Blood Spirits, by Sherwood Smith-sequel to Coronets and Steel. Excellent and meaty.
Oath of Fealty, by Elizabeth Moon [audiobook]--sequel (sort of) to Deed of Paksenarrion, involving characters who were peripheral in Paksenarrion's story.
The iron king / Kagawa, Julie-first in a series about the iron fey and Meghan Chase, who didn’t know that she wasn’t fully human. Still not sure about it (angsty and not strong on character development), but I might read the sequels anyway.
Gray Wolf Throne, by Cinda Williams Chima-third in the Demon King series (well, the Seven Realms series). These are quite good; readable, engaging characters, well drawn, good strong plot. Raisa, particularly in the second half of this book, reminds me of Iselle in Curse of Chalion.