![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Dec. 29th, 2008 11:40 amI have fallen rather behind on booklogging; the idea is to catch up before the end of the year. Uh. We will see. Anyways, towards that end, several pretty much unrelated ones for today!
I saw Sherrill Tippins' February House on sale in the bookstore where I volunteer, and - did not immediately buy it, because, budget, but did go out and immediately check it out of the library, because it looked like exactly the sort of dead-author gossip I am most shamefully fond of. ( And it was! Gossipy details below. )
And then after that my list got disrupted, because the sequel to The Lion Hunter, Elizabeth Wein's The Empty Kingdom, came in for me at the library and I dove for it. And it is awesome and I think my favorite of the series so far. ( Cut for spoilers for the whole series, so . . . no one should read this except Shati, basically. )
While I was at the library getting The Empty Kingdom, I also picked up Diana Wynne Jones' Dogsbody, which I had been meaning to reread. Although I love all things Diana Wynne Jones of course, this one was never my favorite when I was little; it is still not my favorite of hers, possibly just because I am not a dog person, but I think I appreciated it a lot more as a book this time around. The plot follows Sirius - the Dog Star - who, as penalty for a crime he didn't commit, is reborn as a mortal dog and sent to look for a mysterious item that inconveniently changes in its size and shape all the time and that he can't quite remember anyways. The book is really well done in terms of portraying a powerful and intelligent consciousness trying to use a much less powerful and conscious brain to think, and being constrained by the limitations of form. As usual, Diana Wynne Jones also does a very good job with conveying the dysfunctionality of the family that takes Sirius in, and the tensions surrounding the political situation, and though Duffy is a little too straight-up evil stepmother for me - and Kathleen honestly a little too straight-up good - I really like Duffy's sons Basil and Robin, and how legitimately messed up they are by the environment they're raised in. So, this one I respect rather than adore, but as is usual for Diana Wynne Jones, recommended still!
I saw Sherrill Tippins' February House on sale in the bookstore where I volunteer, and - did not immediately buy it, because, budget, but did go out and immediately check it out of the library, because it looked like exactly the sort of dead-author gossip I am most shamefully fond of. ( And it was! Gossipy details below. )
And then after that my list got disrupted, because the sequel to The Lion Hunter, Elizabeth Wein's The Empty Kingdom, came in for me at the library and I dove for it. And it is awesome and I think my favorite of the series so far. ( Cut for spoilers for the whole series, so . . . no one should read this except Shati, basically. )
While I was at the library getting The Empty Kingdom, I also picked up Diana Wynne Jones' Dogsbody, which I had been meaning to reread. Although I love all things Diana Wynne Jones of course, this one was never my favorite when I was little; it is still not my favorite of hers, possibly just because I am not a dog person, but I think I appreciated it a lot more as a book this time around. The plot follows Sirius - the Dog Star - who, as penalty for a crime he didn't commit, is reborn as a mortal dog and sent to look for a mysterious item that inconveniently changes in its size and shape all the time and that he can't quite remember anyways. The book is really well done in terms of portraying a powerful and intelligent consciousness trying to use a much less powerful and conscious brain to think, and being constrained by the limitations of form. As usual, Diana Wynne Jones also does a very good job with conveying the dysfunctionality of the family that takes Sirius in, and the tensions surrounding the political situation, and though Duffy is a little too straight-up evil stepmother for me - and Kathleen honestly a little too straight-up good - I really like Duffy's sons Basil and Robin, and how legitimately messed up they are by the environment they're raised in. So, this one I respect rather than adore, but as is usual for Diana Wynne Jones, recommended still!
