Monthly Archives: July 2005

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Random lines for the day

I saw this on someone else’s blog and thought I would steal it. You take 5 books, and take a line out of each one- the first from the 1st page of the 1st book, then the 5th page of the 2nd book, 15th page of the 3rd book, 20th page of the 4th book, and 25th page of the 5th book. Since I have 5 bookcases I’m going to further complicate it, by having the 1st book come from the 1st shelf of the 1st bookcase, the 2nd from the 2nd shelf of the 2nd bookshelf, and so on.

1. “I loathe nostalgia.” – D.V. by Diana Vreeland. It’s even the first sentence!

2. “They also look like human heads, but my brain has no precedent for human heads on tables or in roasting pans or anywhere other than on top of human bodies, and so I think it has chosen to interpret the sight in a more comforting manner” – Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

3. “Love makes promises you have to keep.” – The Complete Strangers in Paradise Vol. 3 part 3 by Terry Moore (So many 3′s!)

4. “It says something about school that the first thing our mentors tell us is to cover up tomes of knowledge with recycled paper bags.” – The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler

5. “However, if I turned it down, i was suddenly a big risk and, shortly thereafter, I suspected, a small corpse.” – The Book of Jhereg by Steven Brust

What was the point of that? I don’t know. But it was fun. :)

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Books 7/29/05

Catching up again:

The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark: Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is one of my favorite books ever. So I was really looking forward to this book. Ms. Spark has a very understated style, such that you can’t really be certain that much is happening by way of plot in her books, but the result is a detailed, near perfect snapshot of a little section of the world. In this case, its a hostel in 1945 London, and the girls of the title who live there. It’s framed with the later death of a poet the girls all knew, and the action all takes place in flashbacks. The book isn’t overwhelmingly good, you don’t walk away from it thinking “Wow, what a great book!”, but even weeks later, each of the characters and their daily lives are vividly alive in my mind, as though they were my own memories.

Styx and Stones and To Davy Jones Below by Carola Dunn: I love me a good mystery, and Dunn’s are among my favorites. Light and enjoyable and complicated enough to be interesting but still solvable. They do employ one of the cliches of mystery novels that bugs me the most: the sleuth who is just so approachable and sympathetic that everyone tells them everything without them asking, but this isn’t relied on, so it’s ok. And the characters deal with realistic situations in a realistic way, for example, Daisy (the one everyone confesses to) brings her to-be-stepdaughter to the country where she’s investigating a poison pen. When someone is murdered and her fiance, a Scotland Yard detective is called in, he finds out that she knowingly brought his daughter into a dangerous situation and is furious, and she’s hurt at his lack of faith in her. Their interactions are always great, and these two novels were very enjoyable.

Pigeon Pie by Nancy Mitford: The Honorable Miss Nancy Mitford is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. This book is absolutely hilarious, and again I can see the similarity to Evelyn Waugh. (I recently ordered The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, and can’t wait to get it.) This novel is set during the war, and is a send-up of all the people who were a part of the effort “back home”. The thing that I enjoy so much about Nancy’s books (yes, we’re on a first name basis) is the tone of her satire, it can be biting, but it’s really just nipping at heels. Her affection for the people she skewers is incredibly apparent.

Lola by Delacorta: Oh Delacorta, how I love you. How I wish you would write more books. How it kind of wierds me out that my favorite books of yours, which feel as modern as yesterday were written when I was 5. That’s just wierd, and I just realized it last night when I re-read Lola for what has to be the 65th time. If you wrote more books, it would take longer to cycle through them. But I do love them, and will continue to reread them until you write more. And after you write more. I love that Alba dresses up like a film noir star, that Serge doesn’t do the right thing and give the money to Catfish’s sister after his death, that Lola doesn’t give the reporters anything they can use. I love that even though I’ve read the book 65 times I still had to stay up to finish it. Just please write more!

Current total: 56
Just Finished: Lola by Delacorta
Currently Reading: Magic Street by Orson Scott Card

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Books 7/20/05

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was delivered to my home last evening, and I finished it about 2 hours ago. I did not read throughout the night, and I didn’t even start reading first thing out of bed. That says something. Most of what that says is that this one wasn’t as suspenseful or scary as the last; I wasn’t in such a panic to get to the end and find out what happened. A lot of the story is backstory– delving into Voldemort’s past, and while it’s interesting, it’s all in the past, so not very menacing. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K, I mean Hogwarts, but none of them are overly ominous. The book was good, don’t get me wrong, it just felt kind of empty somehow. By the climactic end I wasn’t really even terribly upset by the death that happened or the cause of the death. Startled, perhaps, but I wasn’t emotionally invested enough to be upset.

The reveal of the identity of the Half Blood Prince was exceptionally well done though, and there was some nice character development. I can’t wait for the next one to see how it all concludes, I hope Rowling has a plan for tying up the loose ends.

Current total: 51
Just Finished: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Currently reading: The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

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Books 7/18/05

Playing catch up, playing catch up.

Retreat from Love by Nancy Mitford: Nancy Mitford is one of my idols. This novel is hilarious, much in the same way that Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh is. The characters are just a touch beyond believable, but enjoyable for exactly that reason, and the madcap adventures were a treat. I need to find a copy for myself, as the one I read was from the library, and I don’t think they’d appreciate me keeping it.

Come to Me by Amy Bloom: This is a collection of some of the most heartbreaking, perfect short stories I’ve ever read. The theme is relationships/fidelity, and she does it brilliantly.

Namedropper by Emma Forrest: I flew down to San Diego for Comic-Con and needed something to read on the plane that didn’t come from the library, so I grabbed Namedropper- a book I raved about back in my first posts. It was as good this time, like being set free in a candy store. (Speaking of which- I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and it was FANTASTIC!)

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale: At Comic-Con, Orson Scott Card gave a panel about his work (which I missed since I was working, but I heard all about it, and apparently it was awesome), and in it, he mentioned this was his favorite book of late. This is suprising in that its a YA book, but I needed a book for the flight home, so I picked it up. Orson Scott Card is a smart man.

This book is perfect. It had me close to tears, laughing with delight, on the edge of my seat with worry; for the 300 or so pages of the book I was completely in the world of the book and loving every moment.

It’s about a young girl named Miri, who lives in a mountain town. The town centers around the quarry, which provides the livelihoods for everyone in the town. Miri, who is unusually small, isn’t allowed to work in the quarry by her father, and because of this she feels burdensome and unwanted. News comes to the town that the wizardy folks have divined that the girl who will marry the prince will come from this small town, and therefore all of the mountain girls have to go to a “Princess Academy”, where they will learn the ways of the court in hopes that the prince will pick them as his wife.

While this sounds like a sappy idea (and it would be in another book), Hale takes it in an unexpected direction. Before this point, the Princess Academies have been mostly for show- girls from the nobility getting together for a couple of parties before the prince comes to meet them. But in this case, the prophesy comes as a suprise, as there are no nobility in the town. In fact, the mountain people are considered the lowest of the low class. A real Princess Academy has to be created, and the girls have to be whipped into shape with very little time. The Academy ends up being makeshift and quite tortuous- more like boot camp than canopy beds and pretty clothes. The rules and punishments are unfair and the girls only stay because if they don’t their fathers will get carted off to jail.

Of course as it goes on Miri makes good, but not in the saccarine sappy way that most “girl” books would do it. As all of the girls start to learn about life outside of their secluded village, (reading, history, commerce, diplomacy) they develop and grow in different directions, and are able to take their newly acquired knowledge back to help their town progress. The reactions of the girls to their surroundings and to each other is genuine and thoroughly believable- none of the girls are stereotypes, which is refreshing. I won’t say any more so as not to ruin it, but it really is a fantastic book.

I should also mention the book I’ve been pushing all week at Comic-Con, the best graphic novel I’ve read all year, Capote in Kansas by Ande Parks and Chris Samnee. I’m passionate about this book, and I’ll be giving it to everyone I know. It’s the story of Truman Capote going to Kansas to write In Cold Blood, and it looks at how the process of writing it changed him as a person. Meditative rather than overbearing, it presents vignettes and snapshots of a very talented man becoming a better writer, and more importantly, a better human being. Its a reminder that struggling to understand someone isn’t synonymous with condoning their actions, and that empathy is infinitely more difficult than hate and judgement. It taps into my deepest held beliefs about the redemptive power of literature (although In Cold Blood was non-fiction, it still applies), and it is a truly beautiful book.

I get the new Harry Potter tomorrow, and can. not. wait!

Current total:50
Just Finished: Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Currently reading: The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark