Books 2011 - 5
Nov. 10th, 2011 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redroseEl Dorado - Baroness Orczy - yeah, um, I really liked The Scarlet Pimpernel as a 10-15 year old - so romantic - and I assumed I'd like the sequels. Well, I bounced off this. Love at first sight! Putting your mission at risk because she's just that amazing! I... just don't have the patience. Yes, that's a start. But it takes more than that to make a relationship, and I just couldn't deal with this book, so I put it down.
Lamb to the Slaughter - Roald Dahl - a small collection of some of his best stories. And they are fantastic. Much ... sharper ... than his children's books.
Naked City - ed. Ellen Datlow - I admit, I bought it for Ellen Kushner's Riverside story. So good. The rest of the book was not a bad read either. Some of the stories were good, others less so.
Legacy - Susan Kay - historical fiction - Elizabeth I this time. Fascinating read. It covers her whole life, all 70 years. I had been accustomed to sympathizing with Mary Queen of Scots, and this book put Elizabeth into a new light.
The Law of Becoming - Kate Elliot - fourth in the Jaran series. OMG. Just pulled the first three books all together. Amazing. Strongly recommend the series now!
The Freedom Maze - Delia Sherman - received free as an Early Reviewer for LibraryThing. Here is what I posted there:
An amazingly good book! I very much liked how the time travel element was handled, and that it was not an easy transition to the past for the protagonist.
The slavery at the plantation was probably about as "good" as slavery could get, with a mistress who preferred not to have her slaves whipped. The book brings out that even with that, slavery is pretty horrific. One of the slaves comments, wisely, that the overseer's job was to bully and beat people so the mistress could remain kind.
It's worth noting that I am white, and that the author did have beta readers of color.
Year's total: 154
Lamb to the Slaughter - Roald Dahl - a small collection of some of his best stories. And they are fantastic. Much ... sharper ... than his children's books.
Naked City - ed. Ellen Datlow - I admit, I bought it for Ellen Kushner's Riverside story. So good. The rest of the book was not a bad read either. Some of the stories were good, others less so.
Legacy - Susan Kay - historical fiction - Elizabeth I this time. Fascinating read. It covers her whole life, all 70 years. I had been accustomed to sympathizing with Mary Queen of Scots, and this book put Elizabeth into a new light.
The Law of Becoming - Kate Elliot - fourth in the Jaran series. OMG. Just pulled the first three books all together. Amazing. Strongly recommend the series now!
The Freedom Maze - Delia Sherman - received free as an Early Reviewer for LibraryThing. Here is what I posted there:
An amazingly good book! I very much liked how the time travel element was handled, and that it was not an easy transition to the past for the protagonist.
The slavery at the plantation was probably about as "good" as slavery could get, with a mistress who preferred not to have her slaves whipped. The book brings out that even with that, slavery is pretty horrific. One of the slaves comments, wisely, that the overseer's job was to bully and beat people so the mistress could remain kind.
It's worth noting that I am white, and that the author did have beta readers of color.
Year's total: 154
