Read recently
Jan. 14th, 2014 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidThe Jewels of Paradise (Donna Leon), a novel focused on baroque Venetian opera, and the history thereof. Ithought of the friends who appreciate opera, though the ending wasn't quite as satisfying as I'd hoped for.
A Bitter Truth (Charles Todd), a murder mystery set in rural England during WWI, and apparently the third in a series (oops). I enjoyed the story more than the mystery, I admit, but it is well written historical fiction, which I always like.
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (Kate Douglas Wiggin), which I'd somehow never read before; not Anne of Green Gables, but of a piece with it.
Won't Know Till I Get There (Walter Dean Myers), about a family possibly adopting a teen boy, and about teens finding out that old people, er, seniors, are actual people too. Definitely of its time and place (late 1970s edge of Harlem), the slang now feeling dated and almost making it hard to understand, but an interesting read for all that.
The River of No Return (Bee Ridgway), an interesting time-traveling sf book, focusing mostly on the modern period and the early 1800s in England. And there was a love story, too. I liked this, but was frustrated that $BigIssue question wasn't answered, in a way that makes me expect a sequel (or more), when I was expecting a stand-alone volume. (I much prefer to read such things once all the books have been published, since I read a bit faster than the books are published :-)
Mandy (Julie Edwards), the story of an orphan girl who makes a little home of her own outside the orphanage (which was not a mean cruel one, just a paragon of pleasant people), and eventually finds the family she's always wanted. Except that at the beginning of the book, she didn't really. And it was just too pat. Yet the drawings were good and the heavy paper nice to read from. Meh for content, decent for presentation. Likely would have liked it more when I was a kid.
The Enchantment Emporium (Tanya Huff), a Canadian urban fantasy about the Gale family, which has Powers, definitely gendered ones, about the ties of family and the fluidity of roles, about ties to place, and about flexibility about things not deemed essential. I enjoyed reading this, though I always felt like I never quite got as much information as I wanted, with characters already knowing things they don't bother to discuss, and new people only getting certain information.
The Wild Ways (Tanya Huff), another novel featuring the Gales, though with a different protagonist. Still enjoyable, but I would have liked more on the family/place from the previous book, rather than drawing in lots of new, Fey, plot lines.
A Bitter Truth (Charles Todd), a murder mystery set in rural England during WWI, and apparently the third in a series (oops). I enjoyed the story more than the mystery, I admit, but it is well written historical fiction, which I always like.
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (Kate Douglas Wiggin), which I'd somehow never read before; not Anne of Green Gables, but of a piece with it.
Won't Know Till I Get There (Walter Dean Myers), about a family possibly adopting a teen boy, and about teens finding out that old people, er, seniors, are actual people too. Definitely of its time and place (late 1970s edge of Harlem), the slang now feeling dated and almost making it hard to understand, but an interesting read for all that.
The River of No Return (Bee Ridgway), an interesting time-traveling sf book, focusing mostly on the modern period and the early 1800s in England. And there was a love story, too. I liked this, but was frustrated that $BigIssue question wasn't answered, in a way that makes me expect a sequel (or more), when I was expecting a stand-alone volume. (I much prefer to read such things once all the books have been published, since I read a bit faster than the books are published :-)
Mandy (Julie Edwards), the story of an orphan girl who makes a little home of her own outside the orphanage (which was not a mean cruel one, just a paragon of pleasant people), and eventually finds the family she's always wanted. Except that at the beginning of the book, she didn't really. And it was just too pat. Yet the drawings were good and the heavy paper nice to read from. Meh for content, decent for presentation. Likely would have liked it more when I was a kid.
The Enchantment Emporium (Tanya Huff), a Canadian urban fantasy about the Gale family, which has Powers, definitely gendered ones, about the ties of family and the fluidity of roles, about ties to place, and about flexibility about things not deemed essential. I enjoyed reading this, though I always felt like I never quite got as much information as I wanted, with characters already knowing things they don't bother to discuss, and new people only getting certain information.
The Wild Ways (Tanya Huff), another novel featuring the Gales, though with a different protagonist. Still enjoyable, but I would have liked more on the family/place from the previous book, rather than drawing in lots of new, Fey, plot lines.