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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!
