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Books for February
Mar. 1st, 2007 09:41 pmBarrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
The second half of Cordelia's Honor, where we find out the circumstances behind Miles's birth defects. A good read, although somewhat more difficult to read if you've been pregnant, I think. It brought back a lot of the paranoia of the middle weeks of pregnancy, where you have nothing to do but worry about some bizarre accident happening to your baby which you can't stop because they're still in the womb. For me, it was worrying about cord accidents. I'm rather glad I hadn't had poison gas suggested to me.
Terrier by Tamora Pierce
Her latest book, in the same world as her previous books but taking place several hundred years earlier. It was essentially a mystery novel with some supernatural stuff thrown in to allow her to cheat a bit. Yes, I'm a bit snobby about my mysteries. It's not that I don't think that you can't write a good mystery in a fantasy or science fiction setting - Isaac Asimov proved that. But the reason Asimov wrote his sci-fi mysteries is to disprove the claim that you can't write mysteries in those settings because it would be too tempting to resort to advanced technology to provide a deus ex machina. The same could be said about fantasy, that it's very tempting to just use magic to give you all of your clues. And while Terrie didn't fall completely into that trap, there were just a few too many clues obtained by the heroine's ability to hear ghosts for my taste.
Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
The first Miles Vorkosigan book and a rolicking good read. An amazing example of how one rash act of chutzpah can lead to a series of audacious yet completely logical steps to try and escape a situation that just dig the hero in further and further. It was part of the Young Miles omnibus, but it was due back at the library the same time that Terrier was. So I switched over to Terrier on the assumption that I would never be able to renew the latest book by a very popular YA author that I had had to wait two weeks for, but an older book like Young Miles would never be in demand. So guess which one I was able to renew and which one had a hold? So I was forced to return Young Miles half unread. Ah well. I was planning to spend some tax money on books, so I'm going to see how far Half.com can go to get us a set of Bujold at outrageously cheap prices.
Children's books:
Curious George by H.A. Rey
Curious George Visits the Hospital by Margaret and H.A. Rey
K adores Curious George. I think I'm going to knit her a stuffed monkey for her birthday
Pretzel by Margaret Rey
The story of an extraodinarily long dachshaund and the snobby bitch he loves. A childhood favorite
Max's Birthday
Max's Bedtime
Max's Toys by Rosemary Wells
Charlie's Checklist
Cute little book about a dog who searches for an owner through the personals
The second half of Cordelia's Honor, where we find out the circumstances behind Miles's birth defects. A good read, although somewhat more difficult to read if you've been pregnant, I think. It brought back a lot of the paranoia of the middle weeks of pregnancy, where you have nothing to do but worry about some bizarre accident happening to your baby which you can't stop because they're still in the womb. For me, it was worrying about cord accidents. I'm rather glad I hadn't had poison gas suggested to me.
Terrier by Tamora Pierce
Her latest book, in the same world as her previous books but taking place several hundred years earlier. It was essentially a mystery novel with some supernatural stuff thrown in to allow her to cheat a bit. Yes, I'm a bit snobby about my mysteries. It's not that I don't think that you can't write a good mystery in a fantasy or science fiction setting - Isaac Asimov proved that. But the reason Asimov wrote his sci-fi mysteries is to disprove the claim that you can't write mysteries in those settings because it would be too tempting to resort to advanced technology to provide a deus ex machina. The same could be said about fantasy, that it's very tempting to just use magic to give you all of your clues. And while Terrie didn't fall completely into that trap, there were just a few too many clues obtained by the heroine's ability to hear ghosts for my taste.
Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
The first Miles Vorkosigan book and a rolicking good read. An amazing example of how one rash act of chutzpah can lead to a series of audacious yet completely logical steps to try and escape a situation that just dig the hero in further and further. It was part of the Young Miles omnibus, but it was due back at the library the same time that Terrier was. So I switched over to Terrier on the assumption that I would never be able to renew the latest book by a very popular YA author that I had had to wait two weeks for, but an older book like Young Miles would never be in demand. So guess which one I was able to renew and which one had a hold? So I was forced to return Young Miles half unread. Ah well. I was planning to spend some tax money on books, so I'm going to see how far Half.com can go to get us a set of Bujold at outrageously cheap prices.
Children's books:
Curious George by H.A. Rey
Curious George Visits the Hospital by Margaret and H.A. Rey
K adores Curious George. I think I'm going to knit her a stuffed monkey for her birthday
Pretzel by Margaret Rey
The story of an extraodinarily long dachshaund and the snobby bitch he loves. A childhood favorite
Max's Birthday
Max's Bedtime
Max's Toys by Rosemary Wells
Charlie's Checklist
Cute little book about a dog who searches for an owner through the personals
