December 2009 Reads

[Isis]

... Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson. You may be surprised to learn that the Winterson is the more unconventional, bizarre, and undisciplined/self-indulgent of the two. But it has a nice twist on my favorite fairy tale - Twelve Dancing Princesses - and a mother figure who's heavier than an elephant! so you shouldn't let that dissuade you.

That's the only thing I've ever read by Winterson (but I've read a LOAD of critical reviews of her - not even of her work but her attitude to genre fiction...) but I really enjoyed it. Whimsical and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

I'm barely reading anything at all lately - my studies won't allow me. I seem to pick up and start a new book each day atm, but I just can't get into anything. Not cool. The last thing I finished was Jeff Somers's The Digital Plague. Now, I did enjoy this but I got the sensation that the first couple of chapters hadn't been edited. There were these niggly little things - nonsensical phrasing, sentences that I had to read a few times, stuff that just jarred - if I hadn't have read and enjoyed the previous book I might well have given up on this one at the very start.

[gyrehead]

Finished Warriors. Without teasing too much I'll just say I really, really liked the Martin piece. I'm an odd duck though in that I vastly prefer the Dunk and Egg stories over all the regular series books following the first. Hobb, Holland, Williams and Rollins all had some nice stuff in there as well. I've no idea how Gabaldon keeps her fans but then I could say the same for all the other L.Ron's to the current screaming squealing bevy of Tom Cruises in the fantasy reading circles. Her's and Saylors were probably yhe only two I found that had no business being in this book. The rest were pretty solid if some not exactly to my taste. And that is all you are getting out of me on the subject.

Finished Brett's second book, The Desert Spear. I kind of like where he went with this but I was a bit surprised that some of the raw roughness that I think undermined the first book a little but understandably, was still there. In plotting though I found Brett improved tremendously. Still a bit derivative, Brett's own voice manages to come through. Overall it is a nice solid second book. With slight emphasis on the fact that it also does have a moment or two of falling into the second book in a series trap.

Not sure what I am going to read next. I have a pile of Angry Robot arcs, but not a one appeals after a try or even two. I loathed Triumff, though, which was my only experience with this imprint prior so I might just toss the whole batch on to someone else and be done with them.

I have quite a few arcs on history including one on Cleopatra, one on Napoleon's Russian Campaigns and one on the Crusades, so maybe with the inattention forced by holiday happenings, I'll go with something that I can easily set aside and not fret too much about getting back to.

[williamjm]

Yesterday I read Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road (according to the author's afterword he reluctantly retitled it from his original suggestion of Jews With Swords). Less depth than The Yiddish Policeman's Union, but it was an entertaining adventure story. In retrospect, I should maybe have guessed the plot twist in advance.

Next up is Nights of Viljamur.

[Larry.]

Started reading The Children's Book last night. Too early to tell if I'll like it or not, but at least the prose for the first chapter I read was promising. Hope to finish it and a couple other books tonight.

[Calibandar]

Gyre

Hobb, Holland, Williams and Rollins all had some nice stuff in there as well

I'm looking forward to the Beagle as well, his short work in recent years has been very interesting.

The Desert Spear is of course one of my top 10 anticipated reads for 2010.

[Cuchulain]

Just finished Richard Morgan's Market Forces. Based on reviews I had read beforehand, I was expecting this to be the least good of Morgan's work. I was pleasantly surprised to find Market Forces not only a good book in its own right, but also up to par with the Kovacs novels. Oh yeah, and the part where the protagonist is reading Altered Carbon made me chuckle.

[palin99999]

Finished The Devil's Ladder by Graham Joyce - 6/10 - Very disappointing. I've liked most of Joyce's YA books, but this one was poorly written and not very engaging.

Starting The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington

[blackwater]

Finished Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch. Good and good.

[Eyelesbarrow]

Last night, I finished Fool's Errand. I like Robin Hobb, she's a great writer, IMO. But, God, even in his 30s, Fitz is still so emo. :P

[TheEvilKing]

In the last couple of days I started The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King and The Book of Joby by Mark Ferrari.

[Seak]

I've been sick all weekend, but I finally finished Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey. Like I said with Banewreaker, it was great and what an amazing ending. I'm still thinking about it.

Full Review Here

[Stone-Made-Soft]

Just started reading Christopher Moore's Fool. This is my first Moore book so I'm not sure what to expect.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irvin is my other read. I love Irvin's prose.

[kcf]

Last week I finished up Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett and I finally got a review of it written*. It's pretty good - not the best Discworld book out there, but far from the worst.

Now I'm reading Sasha by Joel Shepherd which is turning out to be very good, something I think a lot people around here would like a lot.

*complete with footnotes

[Bellis]

Finished Memory Sorrow and Thorn which indeed ends in a pretty satisfactory way (which is a huge compliment - most series don't), but takes an excessive amount of pages to get there. Might have liked this better when I was younger, though i also might have been bored to tears and given up before the first 1000 pages.

The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett. PW has little good to say about this, so despite the recommendations upthread, I tried to go in with low expectations. It has nice prose and is engrossing to read, but yet disappoints... there's a way to do Georgian/Victorian pastiche well and include homages to classic works. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The Crimson Petal and the White. The trick is to add new insights, and for your characters and your plots to proceed organically. Bah. Just go read the 3 star Amazon reviews or the PW blurb before you run out and buy. If you're intrigued by the Jacqueline Carey and Robin Hobb blurbs on the cover, I would strongly suggest you re-read their far superior works instead. Or just read the original Austen or Bronte.

REG reminded me to read some Edward Whittmore. I tried reading Quin's Shanghai Circus but I was probably too tired because I couldn't keep track of anything. I'm now starting over on a re-read and it's better and makes more sense this time. It's very Pychonesque. I'm looking forward to reading the Jerusalem Quartet over the next month or so.

I'm heading out tomorrow for my second attempt at going home for Xmas after airport craziness due to snow... expect a huge pile of reads in the next couple days depending on my travel delays.

[Larry.]

Just finished reading The Children's Book. Will try to write a full review after work this evening. Right now, it might be one of my 2-3 favorite 2009 releases, despite a few minor flaws here and there in the structure. Will say more later.

[Peadar]

Currently enjoying Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett.

[pika]

Sooo true. It used to be so nice to just be completely into the book your reading. Now I get into a series and I feel trapped thinking, Oh crap, I'm never gonna get to all those others I really wanna read right now. It's silly I know, especially since I own way more books that I haven't read than that I have read.

And what do I ask for for Christmas? Yup, gift certificates to Borders and more books.

I have nearly 800 books on my " To read shelf ".. and at the rate I go that should take me about 5 years.. Provided I don't buy any more. Which is just silly. But I've probably read about 900 of the books that I own. so its about a 55% read to un-read ratio..

I too am mostly getting books for the holidays.

[beniowa]

Last night I finished The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. Like I said earlier, this was my first time reading the Wheel of Time. I can certainly see both the strengths and weaknesses that I've heard people mention over the years. I might have enjoyed this more if I had read it when I was younger, but it was still a fairly entertaining read. I plan to pick up the next book at the very least.

Next up will be the latest Wild Card book, Suicide Kings.

[Deornoth]

Finished reading Anthony Reynolds' 'Dark Creed', Warhammer 40K tie-in fiction focussing on the 'Word Bearers' Traitor Legion. The outcome is never in any real doubt but the real fun lies in getting to the conclusion, not the conclusion itself. If you're a fan of 'over the top war in space' then you'll enjoy this one. My full review is over Here. No idea what I'll be reading next...

[Cuchulain]

Sooo true. It used to be so nice to just be completely into the book your reading. Now I get into a series and I feel trapped thinking, Oh crap, I'm never gonna get to all those others I really wanna read right now. It's silly I know, especially since I own way more books that I haven't read than that I have read.

Same here. Two days ago it took me about 25 minutes standing in front of my shelves to actually decide what to read next.