(My) Best Books of 2008

(in the order that I read them)

1. Court Duel by Sherwood Smith.  I love this story; I love the world Sherwood has created, I love the characters, I love Mel and how she's trying to do what's right and what she should while also trying to find her way.  I love Danric and everyone else and I really, really, want more about these characters.  (YA)
2. Bloom by Elizabeth Scott.  Another book whose main character I absolutely loved. Lauren doesn't live her life so much as she just goes with the flow.  It isn't until a guy she knew when she was kid comes back into her life that Lauren realizes how much she's been missing in her life.  And that's when things start to get sticky and Lauren realizes that going after what she wants and what makes her happy could be the hardest thing she does. (YA)
3. Inda by Sherwood Smith.  Hee.  Another book by Smith, but with totally different characters.  Almost a different world, but not really.  Inda is set centuries before Court Duel.  Full of families, royal strife, betrayals, war, pirates, and one boy's honor, it was an amazing story and I was thrilled to find out that there were three more parts.  The fourth (and last) book in this series should be out in 2009 and I can't wait. (YA)
4. The Spymaster's Lady by Johanna Bourne is amazing.  Yes, I know it's a romance novel. Yes, I know it's a historical romance novel.  Yes, I know that the cover has a shirtless man on the front and that that has nothing to do with the plot.  I don't care.  This is one gripping, intelligent, funny, and twisty story and I love it.  I've read it four times now, and each time I'm picking up something that I glossed over or missed the first time around.  There are clues about the characters that I didn't get until after I'd finished the novel.  Such a great book.  (HR)
5. The Host by Stephanie Meyer.  OK, say what you will about the Twilight series (yes, I have all the books; yes, I enjoyed the books; no, I haven't seen the movie although I will once my roommate finishes the first book), The Host was awesome and I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to read it.  The whole aliens thing turned me off (because, haha, I don't really like space soap operas/aliens/funny green men who want to eat my brain books) and it wasn't until I was moving this summer that I picked this up.  And promptly spent the whole night reading it.  I was engaged, I was cheering, I was so angry for Wanda that I could have spit, and I almost cried several different times.  I really, really hope that Meyer continues this series.  (SF)
6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  Go forth and read it now.  It's a cross between a post-apocalyptic world meets The Girl Who Owned a City plus The Lottery with violence and bravery and honor and survival at all costs thrown in (ala Kate, from Magic Burns) and it was so, so good.  I've heard rumors that this was the first book in a three-part series and I really hope that's true. (YA)
7. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.  Taylor was abandoned at age seven by her mother at the 7-11 on Jellicoe Road and she's spent her whole life since alternately trying to find her mother and to forget her.  Her final year at the foster home she lives in, the closest thing she has to a mother (Hannah) vanishes, people from her past show back up, secrets that Taylor has forgotten return, and Taylor realizes that the life she's living has been lived before by people she's never met, but has read about in Hannah's unfinished novel.  (And yeah, did my summary confuse you too?  Try Amazon's; it's much better.) (YA)

(Other books that I really enjoyed reading this year: Cast in Shadow (SFF), Magic Burns (UF), Black Ice (F/R), The Fox: also by S. Smith (YA), Black Ships (YA), Perfect You: also by E. Scott (YA), The King's Shield: also by S. Smith (YA), Good Omens (F), The Rites of Spring(Break) (F), Steelflower (SFF), and The Graveyard Book (SFF))

Two things of note.

1. My theme of the year: YA.  No, seriously.  YA this year rocked.
2. I really need my niece to be at least eight years older already.

Merry Christmas!

To everyone that celebrates, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Or, I hope you have a happy fifth day of Hanukkah, a wonderful Solstice, or just a great 25th!

PS: my roommate got me "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" for Christmas and I can't wait to read that later tonight.

To be productive

Means that very soon I will have to get out of my warm bed and get ready to face this day.  I have a to-do list that's as long as my arm and I really feel like everything on their needs to be done today.  Le sigh.  'Tis the season, and all that.

I'm not getting as much read on Bleak House as I wanted too; right now I'm trying to knit as much as possible and unfortunately, I need my hands for both reading and knitting.  Still, I'm getting at least a chapter read each day.  Right now, the cousins and the orphaned governess are on their way to the home of Mr.  Jarndyce, their mysterious benefactor/cousin/I don't know yet.

It's very exciting.

A light on the horizon

This story, about Harper Collins and Borders, is giving me a teensy bit of hope.  

Teensy. Bit. Of. Hope.

Starting Bleak House today

Well, I'm starting it if I can ever drag myself out of bed.  Unable to fall asleep + slight cold = very much wanting to stay in bed all day long.

ETA:  I've started Bleak House and I'm enjoying it, although I have several hundred pages to go.  It's very detailed and the perfect thing to read when I'm stuck on the subway, stopped somewhere between home and work.  I find I'm very interested to know about the Jarndyce & Jarndyce case; I want to know what the dispute is about and how all the characters (that we've met so far) relate to it.  

Looking ahead to the coming year

I find I need new challenges.  I can of course challenge myself to read new, interesting books, but it's a lot more fun when I have something (like pride) on the line.

First thing Google gave me when I typed in "2009 reading challenges" was J.Kaye's list and damn! That is a comprehensive list of challenges for 2009.

I think my search might just stop here.

(later)

Paranormal 999 Challenge.  Heh, no brainer.  Of course I'm doing this one.  I could probably do this one the first month.

The 2nd Book Challenge.  OK, again, one I'll probably do without trying, so why not?

Young Adult Book Challenge.  Once again, no brainer.

Support Your Local Library Challenge. I'll be doing the third challenge, and again, no brainer.  I

OK, it's time to join some challenging Challenges, because what's the point of joining things I'm going to do anyway?

Christian Readers 09 Challenge.  Excellent.  I'm not sure what I'll be reading yet, but I know C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters will be the first book.  I started this years ago, but never finished it.   

Genre Challenge.  Oh, this one already started (Nov to Nov), so I'm behind, but it looks like fun.  And I can totally catch up. =)

I'm not going to do the 100+ Challenge that I see mentioned everywhere because I know I'll read 100+ books.  Nope, instead I'm going to challenge myself to read 10 books more than the total I read this year.  

Hee, the 42 Science Fiction Challenge is so going on my list.

Hmm, this challenge could be interesting:  War Through the Generations.

I need a nonfiction challenge... and I'm still looking for one.  Maybe I could just challenge myself again?  I did that this year and I've read seven (I think) nonfiction books.  

That's it!  I challenge myself.  OK, here goes.

I will read six (I think) nonfiction books this year.  The catch: they have to be about something/someplace/some person in New York museums.  Awesome.

My six books are:

• Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey
• Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Thomas Hoving
• ?
• ?
• ?
• ?

So, I need on on either the V&A or the British Museum, one for Greece, one on the Louvre, and one more.  I want it to be about a museum I've been to...

(even later)

Oh, I can't help myself!  I like the looks of the Read Your Name Challenge.

And now that NaNo is done

I find that I still have no time (or energy) to post! Haha, I *love* my life.

Random things:

• Sassymonkey's post (back in November, yes I am *that* far behind) about how much money she saves a year by getting books from her library was very thought provoking. One the one hand, I am all for saving money, especially now that I have so very little of it. I'm also running low on space for books, so getting books that I can't keep is great for me. But... I want to get into book publishing (it's why I moved from Seattle to New York) and book publishers are not having a great year. (That is an understatement.) It's been said by many, many people already in the past few months about how book publishers (and book stores) need people to buy books, so I guess I almost feel guilty for the happy feeling I have inside, estimating how much money I'm saving. (Almost. I really like saving money.)

• For Christmas this year, 95% of the gifts I'm giving are books.  (Books  I bought.  At a bookstore.)
• I want to buy The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins for people for Christmas, but I don't know a single person that I think would like it. That makes me sad. I also want to buy Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, but same problem. Very sad. I need my niece to be eight years older. Or friends who like YA novels. 
• I need friends who like science fiction and fantasy. None of my friends do and it makes me very sad, because I can't talk to them about all the great books I'm reading, because they're all "eh, I don't like science fiction." I'm trying to trick them with novels like The Time Traveler's Wife and Tam Lin, but it's slow going.
• I am slogging my way through Generation Kill on the subway and I really think I should be more disturbed by some of the things the soldiers say/think/do, but... I'm *of* this generation. I watched violent movies, played first-person shooter games, and watched the Gulf War on TV. I read Ender's Game at age twelve (and every year after, I reread it) and it wasn't until this past summer, when a friend I'd given it to pointed out that it disturbed him because the kids were being raised to war, that I got "it." I was all, uh-huh, yeah, violence. It took me way too long to understand that that fact disturbed him. I just read it as normal. 
• Marg, of Reading Adventures, posted a link to Kim's 2009 Blog Improvement Challenge; it looks like an interesting idea, and I think that it might help me to remain excited about posting. It's not that I don't want to post more than I do, but I always think I'll have time "tomorrow" and I don't.  I also think that I'll have more energy "tomorrow" and I don't. 
  
• I really want to change my blog format around now.
• I think Bleak House is going to be the next book I read on the subway.  I've wanted to read it forever and it'll last me a while, but it's big and heavy and do I really need an additional five pounds in my bag?  Yes, I think I do.
• I really like the Cast in series by Michelle Sagara (West), but I'm slightly annoyed that the plot of that series has yet to move in the direction I'm waiting for it to move in.  There was all this build up, all this great tension... and then she picked up another plot.  Maybe in the fifth book, she'll get back to "my plot" and I can rejoice.

Also to be reviewed, once NaNo is over

Three Cups of Tea, One Bullet Away, Midnight's Daughter, and Cast in Fury.

*Note: two of those books are nonfiction, which means I have indeed read six nonfiction books this year!*

ETA: The Graveyard Book (wonderful), Jellicoe Road (beautiful and gripping), Saving Francesca (engaging), and A Foreign Affair (plucky) need to be reviewed too.

Awesome

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Amazing. Just... amazing.

Go. Read.

I'll have a more coherent review later.

Nonfiction books

Huh. I just realized that I've read three four nonfiction books so far, and I'm in the midst of reading two more! Will wonders never cease? Will I actually read five six nonfiction books this year?

In an incorrect order...

Looking for Trouble: One Woman, Six Wars, and a Revolution by Leslie Cockburn
The Pirate Queen: In Search of Grace O'Malley and Other Legendary Women of the Sea by Barbara Sjoholm
The Floating Brothel: The Extraordinary True Story of an Eighteenth-Century Ship and Its Cargo of Female Convicts by Sian Rees
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

Excellent. I finished two books a few days ago and look, I'm here posting in the same week. Awesome sign, totally evidence that I'm gong to do better....

Except NaNoWriMo starts in nine days and I won't have any time to read. Hmm, this might be a problem.

The Floating Brothel by Siam Rees was really interesting, if not what I thought it was going to be. In the beginning of the book, the author mentions how some of the female convicts who were sent to Sydney's Cove (Australia) became founding women of the colony there and I thought that I'd learn more about that. That didn't really happen; we do learn how some of the women end up, if they married someone there or found a way to return to England, but most of the book was from the memoirs of the ship's agent, who had been "married" to one of the women on board and who fathered a child on her. He'd always planned to go back for her, but he actually never made it and she married someone else. Like I said, interesting book with a lot of great detail. Got a bit dry sometimes, but I liked the subject material.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman was a very quick, very exciting read. I'm glad I finally picked it up; I'd started it a couple of years ago, and then for some reason never finished it. Carl's R.I.P. challenge was just the motivation I needed though to pick it up again. It's about Coraline, a young girl who moves with her family to an old house in the country. The house has been turned into a couple of flats, with two sisters, both retired actresses, living on the ground floor with their terriers, and an old man, who trains mice to play musical instruments, living upstairs. There is also a cat.

Exploring the inside of her new home, Coraline realizes that there's a door that leads to nowhere, bricked over as it is. Unable to leave it alone though, Coraline goes back and unlocks it one day when her parents are out and finds the bricks gone. Exploring (yes, that is a theme for Coraline), she goes through the doorway and finds herself in her other-apartment, with her other-parents (with creepy black button eyes), and her other-neighbors. There is also the cat.

Coraline's other-mother desperately wants Coraline to stay with her/them, but when Coraline refuses, she lets her return to her family...only for Coraline to find them missing. With no other choice, Coraline has to go back through the door and rescue her parents, facing down her other-mother at the same time.

It's the perfect blend of creepy and exciting, with great little details, that make it such an excellent book. I've said it before: I don't like Gaiman's "adult" books, but I love the ones he writes for kids. I wish my niece was old enough to read this, but she's only six and I think it'd give her nightmares. It's that awesome. You know that Coraline is going to be OK, but at the same time there's a good chance that the nightmare will get her and that is what makes it awesome, in my opinion.

I've just started One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick and it's really interesting. I don't usually like memoirs, but this one came highly recommended.

*headdesk*

Oh, I was going to do better this time about writing and reading and, oh, I don't know, posting, and yet...

At least I've been reading. Currently it's The Floating Brothel by Sian Rees, a nonfiction account of 18th century women prisoners who were shipped off to Australia in an attempt to a) help colonize the country and b) reduce the nation's expenses. I'm about half way through it and I'm in turns fascinated by these women's lives and completely horrified by what was considered "normal" by the sailors--and other men--who were in charge of these women's lives. Seriously, the hypocrisy is enough to make me want to slap someone, but of course they're all long dead.

Still with the non-reading

I don't understand why, but every now and then I just don't feel like reading. I don't know if it's the stress of life, the overwhelming stack of books I have piled everywhere, or just a slump that happens every now and then, but when it happens I don't read. At all. No magazine, no newspapers, no flyers posted on the walls, and definitely no books.

It makes me sad just thinking about it, but at least I have the satisfaction of knowing the slump is over (for now). I've torn through two books in as many days, liking one and being kind of meh about the other. I'm lucky that one of these totally counts as a R.I.P. read; way behind on that challenge as well.

The Night Villa by Carol Goodman was the meh book. I know I've written about her before and I'm a big fan of her earlier books, the ones set somewhere in upstate New York. They've got a lyrical quality to them, in my mind, and I love the say she describes things. Sadly, I've not gotten that feeling from her later books and I think it might time for me to back off reading her for a bit. The Night Villa is set in Austin, TX, briefly, before moving to Naples, Italy, and the island of Capri. Professor Sophie Chase is chasing (not an intentional pun, I promise) too many things; her past-involving her ex who turned into a cult-worshiping freak, her ex lover-a fellow professor and the head of the expedition, and her thesis-involving the life of a female slave that Sophie feels very close to. There are the usual complications-mysterious bosses, whispered conversations, sly looks-, a gorgeous setting, and of course the main plot, which is discovering what secrets survived the volcanic explosion centuries ago that covered the island in layers of ash.

Maybe it was the fact that it read like her past books that turned me off, or maybe it was that because it read like her past books and I could see what was going to happen before it did that turned me off, but I think this might be my last Goodman for a while.

The other book was Faefever by Karen Marie Moning, the third book in her latest series. Mac, a sidhe-seer, is trying to survive the ever-encroaching darkness that the Unseelie fae are spreading while juggling both her boss/mentor/enemy Jericho Barrons and V'lane, the death-by-sex Seelie Prince that is her mentor/enemy/friend. She's in way over her head, being lied (Barrons, V'lane) to and betrayed (Rowena, head of the other sidhe-seers) by pretty much everyone she comes into contact with, and nothing she does seems to matter when the Lord Master--who seems to be both Fae and human and who also seduced and killed Mac's older sister--decides that he's going to bring down the walls the separate Earth from the Fae realms. It's on Halloween night, Samhain, when Mac finally figures out part of what's going on; it's too late at that point though to try and save anyone and the most she can do is try and save herself.

I liked the first two books in this series more that this one; Mac seemed way to slow-mentally-this time. There were several obvious clues that she should have picked up on, or at least mentioned, but she's spending so much time trying to juggle Barrons and V'lane that she seems to forget. She's also way to dependent on other people; not necessarily her fault though, as no one will tell her anything, or it's doled out in such tiny pieces that it doesn't do much good. It also didn't help that this time, Mac kept "breaking into" the story to tell us stuff, like this is important, or I'm really embarrassed by this bid. Those breaks kept throwing me out of the story; I really hope book four and five have less of those Mac-moments.

Now to go outside and celebrate the changing season for a bit; I love Fall.

A lack of reading

So, I managed to catch one of those summer colds and the damn thing won't clear up and go away. No, instead I'm left with a lingering cough and the inability to do anything but sleep. This thing is even affecting my desire to read; how unfair is that? The only book I've managed to read this past week is Wren's Quest by Sherwood Smith.

Second in the series, we find the orphaned Wren staying with her best friend Teressa, the long-thought dead princess of Meldrith. Studying the art of magic, Wren is all set to take her first exam before heading off to seek out information on her long-lost family. Focusing on her studies, Wren doesn't see the trouble that's springing up in the court; people are picking fights and causing trouble in record numbers. Attacked herself during her exam, Wren sets off with young Prince Connor as her companion, leaving Teressa behind with her family and fellow magician Tyron. However, leaving the court behind doesn't solve any problems, and those seeking to cause trouble at the court aren't willing to let Wren and Connor leave without a fight.

It's another cute tale, focusing a bit more on Connor this time, with Wren learning a bit more about her family history and Tess learning how to deal with court life. There's also the usual villian--whom I spotted early on--but it's interesting how Smith ties the bad guy in to Tess's family; it isn't resolved either, so I'm sure we'll be seeing more of that story in the following books.

Book giveaway

Paranormal romance, anyone?

R.I.P. Challenge

So, as previous mentioned, Carl is doing his annual R.I.P. Challenge again and I am determined to complete this one. I've always started them, but halfway through I switch my reading "schedule" and don't finish it "in time." This year, that will not happen.

I'm going to do Peril the First:

Read Four books of any length, from any sub-genre (mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror, supernatural) of scary stories that you choose.

First up: Dead Until Dark (of which the review was just posted) by Charlaine Harris, followed by Coraline by Neil Gaiman (just posted the review), The Laughter of Dead Kings by Elizabeth Peters Faefever by Karen Marie Moning (just posted the review), a collection of short stories by Shirley Jackson and I think I might reread Macbeth this year. I know that's five titles, but it never hurts to have options, right?

Of course, I'm completely open to suggestions...

Dead Until Dark

I picked up and read Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris last night after watching the first episode of True Blood on HBO. It's about Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in a small town in Louisiana. Working her shift at the local bar, one night a vampire named Bill comes in and everything changes for Sookie. 'Cursed' all her life with the ability to hear people's thoughts, Bill is a rarity to Sookie because she can't hear him. Her determination to spend more time with Bill, and his choice to spend more time with her, causes upheaval in their small town, as most folks aren't too keen on mixed relationships. There's also the recent rash of murders lately, with two local fang-bangers ending up dead...and all marks point to Bill.

I was never interested in the series before then--despite my love of vampire novels--and sadly I'm still not. I thought the episode was OK, had the makings to be great, and I really like Anna Paquin, so I'll probably watch at least the next few episodes, but I doubt I'll read any more of the books. It just didn't draw me in at all and none of the characters were very interesting to me. Has anyone read them? Do the books get better? I really wanted to like this, and I think Pam sounds like an interesting character, but the rest of them just left me bored.

Reviews, reviews, reviews

Who knew that standing on your feet all day was so exhausting? I sure didn't, but I do now! It's hard, and I have no idea how people do this all the time; give me an office job any day. I was so tired by the end of the day that the idea of doing anything but lying down made my head hurt, hence the lack of posting.

But, that's all over now, and I can post reviews on the eight books I read in the past few weeks.

First up, Looking For Trouble by Leslie Cockburn. It's her memoir of her time in the investigative news business. She was one of the first women reporters/producers to cover Third World stories. She went everywhere, covered everything from wars to famines to drug lords--entering countries without permission at times--and she did it while pregnant (she has kids).

It was an interesting read; I learned a lot about things (wars) that I'd never really heard about before and it was inspiring to read about her adventures.

Next, The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. I read this one, my second by Hammett, because I thought the story sounded interesting. Nick and Nora are a wealthy, married couple on vacation when they run into the daughter of an old acquaintance of Nick's. It seems that her father has gone missing, two people are dead, and she wants Nick, a former investigator, to find him. Others get word of this, including the ex-wife, the mobsters, and the cops, and suddenly Nick (and Nora) are forced to look into this disappearance whether they want to or not.

I enjoyed it, but I wasn't really interested in it; it's probably going to be my last Hammett for a while.

The Disreputable Files of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart was a cute story, although I was less than happy with the ending. Frankie, a sophomore at a private high school in New York, undergoes a dramatic change from unattractive wall flower to knock out over the course of a summer. When she comes back to school, she gets the guy she's always wanted, but finds that 1) she can't really be herself and 2) he's keeping secrets from her. Following him, she finds that he's part of a secret guys-only society; pissed off, she makes herself a member without anyone being the wiser. Well, except for the guy she's impersonating.

It was cute, clever, and funny, but the end just didn't sit well. I won't tell you what happens because that would ruin it; I just thought there would be more.

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud is the first in three-book series, telling the story of a djinn named Bartimaeus and a young magician named Nick. It's set in an alternate England, where magic is quite common, science less. Magicians don't really have magic powers; what they have is the ability to call on magical creatures and command them to do things for them; like steal an amulet from someone else. Nick, angry with being treated like a child, secretly calls up Bartimaeus and forces the djinn to do several tasks for him; however it ends up backfiring and Bartimaeus and Nick are forced to work together to save their lives, much less the lives of the magicians of England.

I liked reading Bartimaeus' side of the story, Nick's much less. He was something of a whiny kid, and he could be incredibly stupid at times too. I'm not sure if I'll read the next two books; I only read the first one because a friend of mine recommended it. Maybe I'll see what he has to say about the next one.

Hunter's Prayer by Lilith Saintcrow was a book that I was eagerly anticipating. Sadly, it didn't live up to quite what I wanted it to be, although it was very good. It's set two years after the previous book (which was one of the things I didn't like) and Jill and Saul are now in an established relationship. Jill, the Hunter for her town, is called in when eviscerated prostitutes suddenly start appearing. Looking into that, she's also got to deal with the Sorrow who killed her mentor; a woman who is part of a cult to bring back the banished Elder gods. Turns out that the murdered women and the reappearance of the Sorrow might just have something in common, if only Jill can figure out what it is before she ends up chained to slab.

Again, I was disappointed when it turned out that this book was set two years into the future; I was really looking forward to reading about Jill and Saul's growing relationship. I was also surprised when Jill let the Sorrow live; it seemed slightly out of character. Other than those two points, I really did enjoy this book; there were plenty of side-stories that kept it interesting (showing us more about Jill's life) and a couple of plot twists that I didn't see coming.

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman is a non-fiction book about Jan and Antonia Zabinski, Polish zookeepers, who, during World War II, hid hundreds of people in their house and the remnants of their zoo. It was really interesting, pieced together from Antonia's diaries and letters, as well as interviews with their son and the few remaining survivors. Sickened by what was going on around them, Antonia and Jan decided to hide both Jews and members of the Polish Resistance, some of whom ended up staying with them for years. Calling them by the names of former animals, the Zabinski's were 100% successful, even with a German camp in the zoo.

In between the stories about hiding people, we also get to read about their zoo-keeping habits (they had one of the better zoos in Europe), we also get to read about Jan's adventures as a member of the resistance, and about their animals, several of which Antonia would raise in the house, alongside her son. It's a very detailed story--with a happy ending--and I think that anyone who likes history, animals, or non-fiction accounts of WWII would like it.

Jhegaala by Steven Brust, is the eleventh book in the Vlad series and I'm honestly slightly confused into where it falls in the timeline. One of the other reviews I read said that it belongs after Phoenix and before Athyra. Either way, I liked it. Vlad is on the run from the price on his head and decides that it's time he took a vacation. Seeking out his mother's side of the family, Vlad ends up in the middle of a three-way war, with all sides thinking he's the enemy. Vlad, who just wants to find his relatives, doesn't really get involved until it's too late. Then, he's thrust into the middle of it, trying to decipher history from legend from hate, all the while keeping himself alive.

Reading it only reaffirms my decision to reread all eleven books in order, because it's been years since I've read any of them and I'm slightly hazy on the details.

Women of the Silkby Gail Tsukiyama is the story of a young girl who's father sends her to a silk-making factory at a young age; the family is very poor and the village fortune-teller doesn't see marriage in Pei's future. Left alone by her family, Pei struggles to make her way in the silk factory, while rumors about Japanese soldiers and the coming war haunt everyone. She's surrounded by other girls from similar backgrounds, some of whom become friends, as well as Aunt Yee, the mother figure to every girl their. It's a very quiet story--nothing major or loud really happens--but it's very beautiful as well. We get the points of view from some of the other girls and women there at the silk-making factory, and each one is intwined around Pei's life. I wouldn't say that it has a happy ending, but it does have a satisfactory one.

Now to catch up with everyone else's post from the past few weeks.

Catching up

*waves*

Right, so I had every intention of posting when I came back from Mass, but then I started my new job as a runner in a bookstore and have been completely drained of energy every day. I had no idea how exhausting it was to be on my feet for eight hours; my legs and feet are going to hate me by the time this job ends. But, pain aside, I like it. It's a fun, fast, hectic job, but I get to spend it surrounded by books and I get to climb on shelves.

As for books though, I've got five to post about, one of which is Hunter's Prayer. I found it last night at B&N, after searching two other stores for it.

Post are going to have to wait though...I have some long-overdue editing work to finish up. Before I go though, I wanted to point out that Carl's R.I.P. Challenge is starting up (thanks, Danielle, for posting that) and that they're going to be releasing a movie version of Blindness by Jose Saramago. I'm not sure how I feel about this; the book was very interesting, if disturbing and I think that some of that might be lost in a movie version.

Steelflower

So, Hunter's Prayer doesn't come out for another eight days, but I did find Steelflower on the shelves, which almost makes up for it. I've been waiting to read this book for ages now; I had to wait until it came out in print, since I'm not a fan of e-books.

Kaia Steelflower has lived by her skills and her sword for the past eleven years, ever since her house threw her out for not having any magical ability. She doesn't care, though, really, she gets by just fine on her own. Well, she did, until she picked the wrong person's pocket and ended up with a flawed necklace, a gigantic barbarian, hordes of assassins, and a prince from her homeland; none of whom will leave her alone. It's going to take more than her sword to get her out of this one, and even that's if she's lucky.

Kaia is one of the blessed people--others call them elves, a term they hate--and at the age of five underwent the ritual testing for power. Every member of the blessed people have power, so when Kaia unexpectedly fails the test, she's shunned. At sixteen, she leaves with nothing but the sword on her back and sets off to make her own path with the outsiders. She's got herself convinced that she's not lonely, she doesn't need her people, the G'mai, or any power to survive. It's a long, lonely road that Kaia walks, but she isn't willing to leave it. Instead, she gets forced off it when the barbarian, whose pocket she picked, decides to tag along with her after she saves his life in two different fights. Unable to get rid of him, she's even more stunned when Darik shows up, chasing the necklace that she stole.

It seems that Darik has been using the necklace to find his twinmate, something that every G'mai must find if they want to survive. Kaia had always believed she was exempt from this, since she had no power anyway. But Darik, having found his twinmate, isn't willing to take no for an answer, and Kaia finds herself the leader of this ever-growing band.

It's a pretty engaging story, with an interesting group of characters. Everyone has issues they're trying to work through, none more than Kaia, and we get bits and pieces of everyone's pasts as the story goes along. This first book ends on a small cliffhanger, and although Saintcrow hasn't written the sequel, she's made noises on her blog about doing so. I really hope she does. I'd love to see more of Kaia and Darik and the rest of the group. (By the end, there are four more people tagging along. Kaia isn't exactly happy about that.)

And THAT ends the Olympic mini-challenge for me. Now, I'm off to Worcester, MA, for a bridal shower.