The Other Random Walk

The last of the 2010 reads:

The Altered I - ed. Ursula K. LeGuin - interesting results from an Australian writers workshop. I'll be letting it go.

The Best American Mystery Stories 2007 - ed. Otto Penzler & Carl Hiaasen - Really, it should have been called, "The Best American Stories with Crimes in Them." Mysteries make you try to figure out who did it, and most of these didn't. Not a keeper.

Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture - Ellen Ruppert Shell - interesing look at discounting and price setting, and how they influence people to buy. Confirms that I must look for value, not low price.

Firebirds Rising - ed. Sharyn November - simply fantastic collection of YA fantasy stories. Will be looking for my own copy.

The Jealous Extremaduran - Cervantes - meh. Not particularly interesting. Will let go.

Night's Edge - Maggie Shayne, Barbara Hambly, Charlaine Harris - collection of novellas or novellettes. The Shayne one I started, but didn't finish, I enjoyed the Hambly one, and the Harris one was okay.

Piranha to Scurfy: and Other Stories - Ruth Rendell - again, not mystery stories, but suspense, and most of the characters were unlikeable. I don't know why I thought I'd like them. I didn't really like her other collection.

Racing Classics - Dick Frances - part of a novel, and a short story. I like Dick Frances.


Year's final total: 201 + 3 mags


Added 2/8/11:
More Ms. Murder - anthology of murder mysteries written by women. Good enough, but I'm not keeping it.

Year's total: 202 + 3 mags

Asimov's March 2000 - a nice Kristine Kathryn Rusch story, and another one by Michael Swanwick, I think? that was also very good.

Starlight 2 - ed. Patrick Nielsen Hayden - a book of good short stories, including one from the Riverside world from Ellen Kushner.

Year's total: 189 + 3

Catching Fire -
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins - very good ya science fiction, sequels to Hunger Games. I'm probably giving my nieces a copy of this trilogy for Christmas.

Engaging the Enemy -
Command Decision -
Victory Conditions - Elizabeth Moon - the last 3 books of the Vatta's War set. The heroine is rather a Mary Sue, but there are a lot of kickass women in the set, which is cool. Not sure I will keep the ones I own.


Year's total: 183 + 2

Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins - excellent YA. Looking forward to the next 2 (on order from the library).

Ooku Vol. 4 - Fumi Yoshinaga - more in the series - it's fascinating.

Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold - another good Miles story. Not as fascinating as, for example, Cetaganda, because I think that crogenically preserving yourself for future revival, except in cases of emergency like Miles's, is just squicky, and wrong somehow.

Year's total: 174 + 2

All My Darling Daughters - Fumi Yoshinaga - josei, definiately for adults, very good.

Analog Sept 1999, Feb 2000 - forgettable.

Year's total: 168 + 2

Hidden Warrior - Lynn Flewelling - second of a trilogy, which is rather one book in 3 volumes. Quite good.

Joanna and Ulysses - May Sarton - a short simple book, nicely written. I suppose it is great fiction, but I will not be keeping it.

Miscalculations - Elizabeth Mansfield - nice Regency. Short on the physical descriptions of sex, which was nice.

Greywalker - Kat Richardson - first of a series - urban fantasy. Too dark for me right now. Will be letting go.

Lifelode - Jo Walton - hard to find a copy. Very, very good book, but may be hard to find. Unusual poly family. One of the few novels I've seen that brings out the amount of work keeping house is/can be. I need to reread this one in a few years.


Year's total: 165

A Taste of Life - Sara Paretsky - 3 short stories in a small book. Interesting reading, but I am not keeping them.

The Red Queen - Philippa Gregory - I am glad that this is a library book. Margaret Tudor is a very unpleasant person; I have never liked her, and this book has not changed my mind.

Dead & Buried - Barbara Hambly - excellent Benjamin January book. Recommend the series!

Year's total: 157

Except the Queen - Jane Yolen & Midori Snyder - a good fantasy book, dealing with the Faery. Liked.

Red as Blood - Tanith Lee - fantastic set of short story retellings of fairy tales, for grownups.

Year's total: 151

A Play of Knaves - Margaret Frazer - one of the Joliffe series, and a joy.

The Full Cupboard of Life - Alexander McCall Smith - another about Mma Ramotswe. I am pacing these, because individually, they are charming, but taken too closely one after another, they could get old.

Little Scarlet - Walter Mosely - decent enough Easy Rawlins mystery.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke - I prefer this book of short stories to Norrel & Strange. Easier to take in smaller doses than a gigantic tome

The Other Side of the Story - Marian Keyes - decent read, but following 3 characters splits the focus more than I liked. I do like how the plots resolved. I will not be keeping this one, as I have more than enough books by her.

Citizen Girl - Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - Very interesting exploration of feminism and idealism from a 3rd wave-ish point of view, with hard choices and dark undertones. I suspect this book is a surprise for lovers of The Nanny Diaries, and people who picked it up expecting something light and fluffy. I liked it very much.

Smoke Filled Rooms-
Thin Walls -
Stone Cribs - Kris Nelscott - Fantastic series about a black detective in Chicago in 1968-9. It started off with A Dangerous Road. In some ways, that and the first two listed here are a single story split across 3 books. Recommend.


Year's total: 145

Through the librarything.com early reviewer's program:

French Fried - Chris Dolley - This book was mildly entertaining. I never really got a feel for any character other than the author, and was irked by his attitude toward his wife and her mother. He was too self-consciously trying to be amusing to actually amuse me. The details about life in southern France were very interesting; I wish there had been more about that. I would not recommend this book.


Year's total: 134