14 posts tagged “books”
#14 Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. Book two of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy saga. Not as good as the first but still pretty darn good.
And oh my god, I've been rereading Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books. It seems to be a theme this year and last year. I've just been drawn to my old favs, some of which I haven't read since high school. It's a good old fashioned fantasy. I call it my "junk food reading" - it's not literature or groundbreaking fiction, it's just a cute, entertaining story with some good battles, a few odds to overcome, and magical telepathic horses. It's actually a pretty well developed diverse world. My personal favorites are The Black Gryphon, Brightly Burning, and Vows and Honor set (the "Oath" books). I really need to find that Gryphon book or buy a new one...I think I let a friend borrow it years ago.
#15 Arrows of the Queen
#16 Arrow's Flight
#17 Arrow's Fall
#18 Winds of Fate
#19 Winds of Change
#20 Winds of Fury
#21 Storm Warning
#22 Storm Rising
#23 Storm Breaking
#24 Sword of Ice and Other Tales of Valdemar (a collection of short stories written by multiple authors)
There have been a few books I've started but haven't finished. The third Hitchhiker book, Life, the Universe, and Everything just didn't keep me interested. It wasn't as quick and random as the first two (especially the first) and I got distracted by other reading. I also tried the third Shannara book by Terry Brooks, The Wishsong of Shannara, and even though I really tried slogging through it, got about 3/4 of the way through and just couldn't bring myself to finish it. The second book had really gotten my hopes up with those Shannara books too.
I've also been slowly working my way through the Guide to Getting It On! by Paul Joannides (3rd ed.). I know I've read it all but it's neat to read it cover to cover...and if you saw how massive this thing is, you'd understand. It's simply the best "couple's" book I think you'll ever come across. It really does cover everything...especially the newer editions. Holy crap, I think the new 6th edition is a good inch thicker than the one I have. The best thing is that it covers what is "normal", health issues, romance, emotional issues, techniques, sex ed for kids, pregnancy, disability, impotence, and so on (name a topic, I think it's covered) and does it all with a great sense of humor and is written very accessibly. Even if you don't do half of what's in there and a third doesn't even apply to you, you'll still enjoy reading it. It's also kind of fun to go through with a highlighter and a pen/pencil and mark up things you'd like your partner to know about or try. *wink wink*
Sorry for the mass book postings...
Sorry for the massive book post! It's been awhile since I posted anything!
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Books #3, 4, 5, and 6: The Freedom Series by Anne McCaffrey (Freedom's Landing, Freedom's Choice, Freedom's Challenge, Freedom's Ransom) - This would have to be my favorite series by AM after the Dragonriders of Pern. I love that she write strong, independent female characters and that the characters all have strengths and weaknesses. The first would have to be my favorite of these four...the fourth wasn't as strong as the previous books. I know I read the first one last year but I wanted to read them all in a row so I'm kind of cheating and counting it again this year. :p
Book #7 Watership Down by Richard Adams - A wonderful, beautiful, magical book. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I particularly like the rabbit mythology and culture.
Book #8 Tales From Watership Down by Richard Adams - This book revisits the rabbits and their mythology. It's a very nice followup to the first book.
Book #9 The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks - Ok, so I had read the first Shannara book last year, revisiting an old favorite from my youth, and was sorely disappointed. I decided to attempt the sequel and actually liked it. There was some stuff that definitely could have been cut out (the whole elf vs demon battle got boring and the old guy and his dog were pretty pointless) but on the whole the characters were more complex, the plot original, and there was a merciful lack of repetition.
Book #10 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - Beautiful, haunting, disturbing, full of love and hope. It's written from the point of view of a 14 year old girl who was raped and murdered and is watching those she left behind live out their lives from her heaven. It took me two tries to get past the beginning because it is rather graphic but I would totally recommend this book.
Book #11 Inkheart by Cornelia Funke - Not a bad read, interesting concepts and enjoyable characters. There were a few things that seemed a little "off" as I was reading it but I'm guessing it was because this book was translated from German to English.
Book #12 Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten - Bambi has to be one of my favorite Disney movies so I was excited when I ran across this book which the movie was based on. It was a very sweet book. I enjoyed it very much...I think this is one I need to see if I can find at one of our local bookstores.
Book #13 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - Do you know where your towel is? This is a fantastic book...if you haven't read it then I demand you get your butt down to a bookstore or library and pick it up! That's all I'll say on the subject!
Show us someone reading.
Submitted by Empress Nasi Goreng.
So I've been sick the last few days and had plenty of reading time to gt started on my 50 this year!
Book #1
Marley and Me: Life and love with the world's worst dog
by John Grogan
From the back of the book: "The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life."
This was an utterly adorable book. It starts with the author and his wife, young and newly married deciding to get a "test puppy" (the typical test of "lets see if we can keep a puppy alive before we try to see if we can keep a baby alive") and bringing home the rambunctious lab puppy, Marley. The book follows the author and his growing family through the thirteen years that Marley was in their lives.
I loved this book! I laughed, I cried (oh how I cried!) and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who loves dogs.
Book #2
The Woman who Loved Reindeer
by Meredith Ann Pierce
From the back of the book: "Beneath a double moon in a beautiful land where winter winds blow, a woman loved a reindeer... and lost him again. Her love was a trangl, a shapechanger -- part mortal man, part golden stag, torn between the human world and his own. As fires and quakes ravage her land, she must follow him across magic realms, through the Trollwoman's hedge, to the Fireking's Hall. Only there will she find an answer to the problems that plague her land...and the questions that plague her heart."
Ok, so the back-cover blurb sounds really cheesy but it was a good read. A friend lent it to me thinking I might like it and I did. It's a kind of paleo-fantasy...elements of it are familar but the author automatically sets it in a different world from ours (double moons, yo) which lends itself to the reality of the legends and dreams the characters encounter. The characters were wonderfully written as well with a strong, likeable heroine who does have her faults (don't you just hate saintly main characters?).
It may not have been as deep and touching as Marley & Me but it was a good piece of well written fantasy fluff!
Alright, so the grand total of books read for 2008 is............. *drum roll please* .................. 28! Ok ok, so it's not the 50 book goal, but it's not bad right? I had a 56% success rate. :p
I loved pretty much everything I read except the first one (it definitely wasn't what I remembered from my teenhood) and Nurk (although I think it's just because I expected more...I was a bit dissappointed although it's a cute book). I will definitely be looking for more by several of these authors!
1. The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
2. The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs
3. Sabriel by Garth Nix
4. Lirael by Garth Nix
5. Abhorsen by Garth Nix
6. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
7. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
8. King's Dragon by Kate Elliott
9. Prince of Dogs by Kate Elliott
10. The Burning Stone by Kate Elliott
11. Child of Flame by Kate Elliott
12. The Gathering Storm by Kate Elliott
13. In the Ruins by Kate Elliott
14. Crown of Stars by Kate Elliott
15. Furry! The World's Best Anthropomorphic Fiction edited by Fred Patten
16. Nurk: The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew by Ursula Vernon
17. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
18. Freedom's Landing by Anne McCaffrey
19. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
20. Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
21. The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey
22. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
23. Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
24. Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey
25. The Renegades of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
26. All the Weyrs of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
27. The Dolphins of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
28. The Skies of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
Book #16
Nurk: The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew by Ursula Vernon
From Ursula Vernon's website: "Nurk is a quiet homebody of a shrew. But when a mysterious plea for help arrives in the mail, he invokes the spirit of his fearless warrior-shrew grandmother, Surka, and sets off to find the sender. It seems the prince of the dragonflies has been kidnapped, and Nurk is his last hope for rescue. Such a mission would be daunting for even the biggest, baddest, and bravest of shrews, and Nurk is neither big nor bad, and only a little brave. But he does his very best--and hopes his grandmother would be proud."
It was a cute book, adorable little black and white illustrations, but a little disappointing. My husband read it too and summed it up rather well by saying it was probably a good kid's book but just not as funny as you'd expect coming from Ms.V. My guess though, is that if you aren't familiar with her other work then you'd probably enjoy it. I think she had to hold back alot to keep it kid friendly....and not holding back is one of the things that make her so entertaining.
Book #15
Furry! The World's Best Anthropomorphic Fiction edited by Fred Patten
This is a collection of several short stories from various authors with one theme in mind: anthropomorphs or furry characters.
I've never read much furry fiction before, even though I do like the art, because whenever I've run across it the story might as well be about your average person who just happens to look like a wolf or some other animal...kind of boring really, especially since my favorite type of stories are sci-fi and fantasy. I gave this book a shot because it was a gift from a friend and she had enjoyed it. I was pleasantly surprised! Most of the stories were of a fantasy/sci-fi kind. Some of the stories were about furries who had been created to serve humans (one story had them as pleasure slaves, another had a character who was basically a superior version of today's seeing eye and disabled assistant dogs...quite a touching story actually), some were about anthropomorphic aliens, and others were about people turning into animals (werewolves, transforming foxes, and a disease that seemed to do some weird things). I particularly liked the stories that dealt with how society seemed to deal with furries and how the furries seemed to deal with society.
All in all, a good read....very different from what I've read before and not what I expected...I was pleasantly surprised!
Book: 8,9,10,11,12,13, and 14
The Crown of Stars series (7 books): King's Dragon, Prince of Dogs, The Burning Stone, Child of Flame, The Gathering Storm, In the Ruins, Crown of Stars.
By Kate Elliott
Because I'm bad at writing synopses I'm pulling these from the web:
From the official Kate Elliott website: Set in an alternate Europe, a world where bloody conflicts rage and
sorcery holds sway, both human and other-than-human forces vie for
supremacy. In this land, Alain, a young man seeking the destiny
promised him by the Lady of Battles, and Liath, a young woman gifted
with a power that can alter the course of history, are about to be
swept up in a world-shaking conflict for the survival of humanity.
From the SFF Kate Elliott page: In the kingdom of Wendar, strange and dreadful portents sweep across the land: old ruins appear whole under the light of the full moon; the shades of dead elves hunt in the deep forest; dark spirits walk abroad in daylight; a saint appears to the faithful; hummings rise from the stonecircles, called crowns, that stand in ancient places of power. The Lost Ones -- elves known as the Aoi, who vanished from human sight centuries before -- speak through fire to those few who can hear them. Civil war between King Henry and his sister Sabella threatens the kingdom, and barbarians -- the inhuman Eika raiders who strike from the northern seas and the Quman horsemen, the "winged" riders, who raid from the east -- loot and burn farms and villages.
Into the midst of these troubles walk three young people: Sanglant, Liath, and Alain.
Sanglant is a prince, bastard son of King Henry. Born and bred to become captain of the elite cavalry -- the King's Dragons -- and to give his life to protect his father's kingdom, he cannot know the terrible fate that awaits him.
Liath is the child of sorcerers, trained as a mathematici, one who knows the secrets of the stars. But she and her father have been running for their lives for the past eight years, and soon that which hunts them is going to catch up.
Alain is a fosterling, seeking the truth of his parentage. Only when he accepts his destiny will he learn the truth.
I really liked this series. I've had a hard time explaining it to people but if you like fantasy novels as well as historical fiction then you might like this series as well. It's very well written with complex characters set in a rich background of history, religion, and society with a dash of magic and mystery. There were tons of twists and turns and I never knew what was coming. All in all, fantastic reads.
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Submitted by Strive2Be.
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