May's (Mostly) Marvelous Literary Musings

[Nesacat]

Just finished Trans Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian.
... a newly divorced schoolteacher, Allison Banks, falls in love with the man who teaches a summer course on film in which she is registered. Dana Stevens, the professor she loves, is not exactly what he seems from the outside: this well-manicured, gentle-faced man is in actuality a woman - and he is facing an upcoming sex change. Allison's daughter Carly and her ex-husband Will try to deal with her new passion as best they can. With Will the president of Vermont Public Radio, the book alternates between the transcripts of a public radio conversation about the dilemma and individual chapters narrated by each of the characters in order to tell the tale.

 

[elvet]

Oh woe is me! I'm on the last book of Michelle West's Sunsword series. I don't want it to end.

 

[Nesacat]

Ravenus - Have not got this Marguez. However, am very fond of his work and will look out for it. The last one of his I read was Strange Pilgrims.

GOLLUM - Have more Ellison waiting to be read but am taking a tiny break since reading him seems to involve not sleeping.

 

[Ice fyre]

Just finished John Connolly Nocturnes, a set short Horror stories. He reminds me a lot of Clive Barker, very well written and dark stories, but never decends into waffling as some authors do. You're never sure how his stories are going to end, and there are few happy endings. I loved it.

 

[Sirathiel]

I was gifted with Dragonflight by AnneMcCaffrey on Saturday and read it in one sitting on Sunday. It has been long that a book has captured me in such a way. I read it years ago in French and remember it as a fun read. This time around though it was more than fun.

But now I'm back to Wolfsblade by Jennifer Fallon which I've got almost completed.

 

[Nesacat]

Just finished John Connolly Nocturnes, a set short Horror stories. He reminds me a lot of Clive Barker, very well written and dark stories, but never decends into waffling as some authors do. You're never sure how his stories are going to end, and there are few happy endings. I loved it.

Read this awhile ago and it indeed is a wonderful collection of stories. A lovely collection of darkness and yes not many happy endings. But I respect that he did not try to push and shove them into uncomfortable happy endings.

He also did The Book Of Lost Things, which was very good as well. I never thought he did fantasy/horror. I first discovered him with murder mysteries of all things, although many had elements of the supernatural, superstition in them.

 

[murphy]

Oh woe is me! I'm on the last book of Michelle West's Sunsword series. I don't want it to end.

I know the feeling and emphasize with you.

 

[Ice fyre]

Read this awhile ago and it indeed is a wonderful collection of stories. A lovely collection of darkness and yes not many happy endings. But I respect that he did not try to push and shove them into uncomfortable happy ending.

Indeed he takes risk's with his stories that work rather well, some of the stories while being only a page long in some cases are very well paced. I do feel that he reminds me of a cross between Clive Barker and H.P Lovecraft. His stories have a modren and relevant feel that Barker can bring across in his work, but has an intensly chilling effect as Lovecraft was able to put over in his work.

he has shorter versions of one or two of those stories on his website, and one or two new ones.

 

[Nesacat]

Finished last night, The Charwoman's Shadow by Lord Dunsany
... Set in the Golden Age of a mythical medieval Spain, The Charwoman's Shadow is the story of Ramon Alonzo, the son of the Lord of the Tower and Rocky Forest. The Lord is in need of gold for a dowry for his daughter, Mirandola, and he decides that Ramon Alonzo is to seek out a magician and learn how to transmute metal into gold.

In the magician's house, Ramon Alonzo is visited by the elderly charwoman who warns him about the terrible prices the magician exacts. She has lost her shadow in exchange for an extended life, and she received the bad end of the bargain, for though she is immortal, still she ages. At first, Ramon Alonzo resolves to keep his shadow, even when it turns out to be the price for learning to change metals into gold. He asks instead to learn to read and resolves to find and liberate the charwoman's shadow.

Twined with Ramon Alonzo's tale is that of his sister, who, betrothed to an unpleasant, albeit wealthy neighbour, desires the Duke of the Valley of Shadow. Mirandola works a little magic of her own after the assistance her brother lends goes awry.

 

[Connavar]

Im reading The Religion by Tim Willocks.

Interesting historical fiction. The saxon main character Mattias Tannhauser is a good lead character.

 

[Sirathiel]

Finished Wolfsblade and am now onto Warrior - also by Jennifer Fallon. I am curious to see how the story around Marla develops and, especially, what becomes of Wrayan (I'm kinda very fond of this character).

 

[Nesacat]

This morning started in on E.L. Doctorow's City of God. Am about half way through and really want to put the paper to bed and get home to find out what happens next.

 

[murphy]

Im reading The Religion by Tim Willocks.

Interesting historical fiction. The saxon main character Mattias Tannhauser is a good lead character.

I really liked that book. It's supposed to be part of a trilogy and I wonder when the next one will come out. I wish it would hurry.

Now rereading Elizabeth Bear's Blood and Iron. It's an urban fantasy.

 

[Connavar]

I really liked that book. It's supposed to be part of a trilogy and I wonder when the next one will come out. I wish it would hurry.

Now rereading Elizabeth Bear's Blood and Iron. It's an urban fantasy.

I think its so far very good for a first time Historical fiction writer.

You can almost see by writing style his backround in crime fiction. Tannhouser kneading of his girl's ass in several pages like it was something you do all the time without thinking hehe

So far i havent seen the talked about violent,gory action scenes,battles but im looking forward to that.

 

[Talysia]

Going back to my anthology for a bit - currently reading Ursula Le Guin's The Rule of Names.

 

[AvoidingReality]

Finished Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay yesterday. It was very good; the tone and attitude of the protagonist was really funny for the first part, so I thought it'd be more humor than the more detective based first one, but when the detective part set in, that worked as well as the first. I must say, though, I was a bit disappointed with the end...I just found it a bit...distasteful...I think. I also wasn't sure about the first book's ending; though more because I thought it was a bit weak compared to the rest of the book and it wasn't entirely clear how or why things happened. Just seemed a bit rushed and glossed over.

Oh, woe is me. Another book to add to my want list, Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.

Still, murphy, I do recommend these books because they are on the whole, a lot of fun with a very memorable protagonist.

Now reading Killing Fear by Allison Brennan.

 

[murphy]

Finished Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay yesterday. It was very good; the tone and attitude of the protagonist was really funny for the first part, so I thought it'd be more humor than the more detective based first one, but when the detective part set in, that worked as well as the first. I must say, though, I was a bit disappointed with the end...I just found it a bit...distasteful...I think. I also wasn't sure about the first book's ending; though more because I thought it was a bit weak compared to the rest of the book and it wasn't entirely clear how or why things happened. Just seemed a bit rushed and glossed over.



Still, murphy, I do recommend these books because they are on the whole, a lot of fun with a very memorable protagonist.

Now reading Killing Fear by Allison Brennan.

I already ordered the first book.

 

[Nesacat]

Finished reading E.L. Doctorow's City of God. As always his books are a pleasure to read.
... An enormous brass cross is pilfered from a church on the Lower East Side. Father Thomas Pemberton of St. Timothy's promptly sets off in search of it, dubbing himself the Divinity Detective. Yet he suspects from the start that this is no ordinary theft, with no ordinary solution:

So now these people, whoever they are, have lifted our cross. It bothered me at first. But now I'm beginning to see it differently. That whoever stole the cross had to do it. And wouldn't that be blessed? Christ going where He is needed? ​

Where He seems to be needed is the opposite side of the ecumenical aisle. The cross turns up on the roof of the Synagogue for Evolutionary Judaism, a tiny Manhattan institution to which Pemberton has clearly been led by fate.

His encounter with the synagogue's rabbinical duo -- a husband-and-wife team struggling to reclaim a pre-scriptural state of "unmediated awe" -- transforms his life.

It also destroys what's left of his conventional Christian belief. Augustine's spin on original sin, for example, now strikes him as "a nifty little act of deconstruction--passing it on to the children, like HIV."

And as his relationship with Judaism deepens, he discards the clerical collar altogether and embarks upon a penitential exploration of the Holocaust -- which in turn allows Doctorow to loop his narrative back and forth between several generations of (mostly) Jew and Gentile.

 

[BookStop]

Finished The City of Ember, and was pleasantly rewarded. the book is pretty good, esp given the age group it is for (8-12yr olds). My kids are taking tunrs reading it now.

Read Frankenstein after that. It too was good, but I was a little surprised at how different the book is from all the film adaptations. I got a little bored as Victor was telling his whole backstory, but once the story got going, it was hard to put down. Will be visiting the Frankenstein Castle int he next couple of weeks. It will interesting to get a little more information on the original rumors surrounding the man.

Am now reading an Anna Pigeon mystery by Nevada Barr. I just love dear old Anna.

 

[Nesacat]

Have started on The Necronomicon: Selected Stories & Essays published by Chaosium and edited by Robert M Price. Have read the first three stories and it's very good thus far.

Clearly more reading to be hunted down, given the very detailed introductions to each story that offer it's background as well as other works by the author.