My Week in Books (October 30-November 05)

My headlong reading spree has been checked somewhat by my considerably increased writing output (not just for NaNoWriMo--I've been building toward this for a couple of months anyway), so there aren't quite as many books on this week's list.

New Books in the House
I've taken on another freelance gig (yes, another one) reviewing indie-published books for Self-Publishing Review, and got my first review book this week.

• Unexpected Destiny by Ariana N. Dickey (available from Lulu)

Currently Reading

• The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right by Pat Shipman (non-fiction)
• The Art and Craft of Handmade Paper by Vance Studley (non-fiction)
• Unexpected Destiny by Ariana N. Dickey

Recently Finished

• The Eerie Book edited by Margaret Armour (fiction anthology)
  This was my Hallowe'en reading. It's a 1980s reprint (or facsimile, really, because the type and everything appears to be the same and illustrations are intact) of an 1880s (I think; I don't have the book to hand) anthology of eerie stories. There was (of course) some Poe, a lengthy extract from Frankenstein, traditional ghost stories, and various other spooky tales. It was the perfect book for All Souls' and would only have been better if it was the original edition.

My (Two) Week(s) in Books (October 16-29)

I guess I'm not so good at these weekly update things. I keep being late or forgetting altogether, like last week. Then again, I have been awfully busy in the last month or so. But enough of that, here's what I've been reading the past two weeks.

New Books in the House
I made a trip to Value Village recently and could have brought home a huge pile of books, but I was carefully restrained and only picked up a couple of urban fantasies.

• Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong (fiction)
  
• Greywalker by Kat Richardson (fiction)
  

Currently Reading
I'm still juggling a pile of assorted non-fiction (mostly), which you can see in previous book posts if you're really curious, but what I'm actively reading most right now are these:

• The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right by Pat Shipman (non-fiction)
  
• The Eerie Book edited by Margaret Armour (fiction anthology)
• The Art and Craft of Handmade Paper by Vance Studley (non-fiction)
  

Recently Finished

• House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones (YA fiction)
  
  A book by Diana Wynne Jones never, ever fails to cheer me up. The main character in this one is a very bookish girl, which puts me on her side right away. Also, there are improbable houses, odd creatures, a magic dog, and lots and lots of books. Also, Howl, Sophie and Calcifer (from Howl's Moving Castle) put in an appearance. Yay!
• Common Wild Flowers and Plants of Nova Scotia by Diane Larue (non-fiction)
  There's not a whole lot to say about a book like this. It's a good introduction to the plants of NS, which was exactly what I was looking for. It told me that the woody shrub taking over much of what used to be landscaped garden in my yard is a native plant called sweetfern (which, incidentally, smells like pot if you burn it), and that there are 19 species of goldenrod native to the province.
• Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley (YA fiction)
  
  This is rather different from what I expected, based on the many Robin McKinley books I're read, but so, so very good! I don't often have books directly affect me in real life in a tangible way (in intangible ways, they affect me all the time), but this one gave me dragon-headache-dreams (you'll have to read the book to find out what those are). If you think dragons can't be done well any more, read this. These dragons are good.

My Week in Books (October 9-15)

Yeah, yeah, late again. But here's what I've been reading . . .

Currently Reading

• Common Wild Flowers and Plants of Nova Scotia by Diane Larue (non-fiction)
• The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right by Pat Shipman (non-fiction)
  
  

Recently Finished

• The Search for the Red Dragon by James A. Owen (fiction)
  
  I think I liked the first book in the series better, but this one is still pretty great. If you love books that include real historical people--in this case many, many favourite writers of fantasy from days past--in stories that didn't actually happen (but what if they did?), you should check this out. I won't spoil it and tell you who the three main characters actually are (if you read much, you should be able to figure out two of them, and if you know those two, you should be able to get the third, and if you don't, you need to read more), but if you've read Here, There Be Dragons, you'll already know. Actually, so much of the joy of this book (and this series) is figuring out who everyone is before it explicitly says, and having all the connections snap into place, that I don't really want to say much at all. If you can, though, get the hardcover, because it's beautiful, and the illustrations benefit from the higher quality paper.
  

My Week in Books (25 Sep to 01 Oct 2011)

Since I don't really get that many books in the mail these days, but I have started going to the library again, I thought I'd turn "Monday Mailbox" into "My Week in Books" and put it at the end of the week instead of the beginning. I'll post the books that came into my house, via purchase, library, or friends, and I'll write a few lines about whatever I've recently read.

Note: My Amazon Associates doohickey doesn't seem to be functional right now, so I'll add links and pictures later on, assuming it ever starts working again.

Arriving Via Mail
I did get one book in the mail this week, from a fellow BookMoocher in Ontario. Of course, I have now used up all but 0.8 of my points, and my budget's still a little tight for mailing books out (if you're not in Canada, you would be shocked and appalled at the cost for mailing books within the country), so I'll have to wait a while before I can mooch any more.

• Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles deLint (fiction)
  There was a time when I would run out and buy every new CdL book as soon as it came out in hardcover (of for the days of nothing but books to spend my money on), but over the years I've been a little less excited at each new release. I do still enjoy his books a great deal, just not as rabidly as I once did. Anyway, this one I hadn't picked up yet, and I got a very nice hardcover for my mooch point.

From the Library
I hadn't been to the library in some time, as I had a fine. My fine turned out to be a whopping fifty cents. Heh. So I paid it, and now I'm going to the library again. This trip, I ventured more deeply into the newly re-arranged kids' section. I was disappointed by the selection of graphic novels, but the YA book section turned out to be pretty good. So all the fiction this time is from the YA section. But I did bring home a few non-fiction, too. Also, I was disappointed to see the shelf of for-sale discards was gone. Maybe they'll do a once-a-year sale instead?

• The Fossil Cliffs of Joggins by Laing Ferguson (non-fiction)
• Common Wild Flowers & Plants of Nova Scotia by Diane Larue (non-fiction)
• The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right by Pat Shipman (non-fiction)
• The Time Travelers by Linda Buckley-Archer (fiction)
• Plain Kate by Erin Bow (fiction)
• Zombies vs Unicorns edited by Holly Black (fiction)
• The Search for the Red Dragon by James A. Owen (fiction)
• The Alchemyst by Michael Scott (fiction)

Currently Reading
I actually have quite a list of in-progress books, many of which are non-fiction of the dense and scholarly type that I tend to set aside for long periods at time, or else read in frequent, short chunks. Every now and then, though, I find one so well written I speed through it like it was a novel. I love those ones.

• Common Wild Flowers & Plants of Nova Scotia by Diane Larue (non-fiction)
• Meanwhile, In Another Part of the Forest edited by Alberto Manguel (fiction)
• Song of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake (facsimile edition; poetry)
• The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (non-fiction)
• Into the Mummy's Tomb edited by John Richard Stephens (fiction and non-fiction)
• Servants of Nature by Lewis Pyenson and Susan Sheets-Pyenson (non-fiction)
• Artists on Comic Art by Mark Salisbury (non-fiction)
• Illustrators of the Eighteen-Sixties by Forrest Reid (non-fiction)
• Written in Bones edited by Paul Bahn (non-fiction)
• Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction by Gary Westfahl (non-fiction)
• Dinosaurs of the Air: The Evolution and Loss of Flight in Dinosaurs and Birds by Gregory S. Paul (non-fiction)
• Only Connect: Readings on Children's Literature (3rd Edition) edited by Sheila A. Egoff (non-fiction)
• Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic edited by Alberto Manguel (fiction)

Yes, that is a lot of books. But this is the time of year I look with dismay on all the books I started and set aside for one reason or another, and start making an effort to finish them before the year is over. I don't usually manage to get them all back onto their proper shelves by the new year, but I generally get through quite a few of them.

Recently Finished Reading

• The Alchemyst by Michael Scott (fiction)
  If you saw my Twitter/Facebook rant yesterday, you might be expecting me to say some not very nice things about this book. But aside from having the characters' archaeologist parents discover some decidedly palaeontological fossils (if you don't know why this is annoying, I shall just point out that archaeologists study past humans. It's palaeontologists who study other--often much more ancient--fossil life), and a few other details that jarred me out of the story (really, I don't think anyone still used Altavista even in 2007 when the book was first published), it was actually quite good. Good enough, anyway, that I'll see if the library has the next one in the series. Also, though this is the first fiction I've read my Mr Scott, I have read some of his work on Celtic myth.
• The Fossil Cliffs of Joggins by Laing Ferguson (non-fiction)
  We were supposed to go to Joggins and Parrsboro for my birthday, but between car trouble and a very lean summer, it never quite happened. As soon as the weather gets better in the spring, though, I am determined to go fossil-hunting. In the meantime, this little booklet about the cliffs was a good bite-sized introduction to the geology of the area. I'll see if there's a new version out when I finally get the the Fundy Geological Museum.
• The Secret Supper by Javier Sierra (fiction)
  This was a pretty good book, though definitely not a quick read. It reminded me a lot of The Name of the Rose, though not quite as dense. Monks, art, secret heretical religions, codes. Leonardo da Vinci.

[BFG] Recent Reading: And 2 Makes 50

One more book I forgot to put on last post's list, plus one I just finished.

49. The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques by Jinks McGrath (non-fiction) buy from amazon
    
    I got this one from the library partly because I just like to learn new things, but also because I had a new project in mind (yeah, like I need *another* new project). You can see a sneak peek over on Anagram for Ink. The book isn't really in-depth, but it has really good basic introductions without getting into too much detail (which is the problem I'm having with the other jewelery book I signed out), and the pictures are nice (and colour!). I may look for a copy, or something similar, to add to my own library.
50. The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas by Fuyumi Ono (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    This third book in the series starts off much more slowly than the other two, and it's rather more confusing at the beginning (partly because it uses a lot of substantial flashbacks, which I wasn't expecting after having just read books one and two). Still, once the various details began to come together, it became a wothwhile segment of the larger story.

So, now that I've reached 50 books with a few months left to go in the year, should I just keep going and see how far I get, or should I try for 50 fiction and non, plus 50 graphic novels? Or go on a reading frenzy and try 50 fiction, 50 non-fiction and 50 GNs? (I did that last one the very first year I tried the 50 Books thing, but I had a lot more time to read that year.)

Just out of curiosity, I think I'll list each category below and see how far away from 50 I am in each one . . .

Fiction

1. Zeppelins West by Joe R. Lansdale
2. Hannah's Garden by Midori Snyder
3. The Blue Girl by Charles deLint
4. Swim the Moon by Paul Brandon
5. Widdershins by Charles deLint
6. The Rosetta Key by William Dietrich
7. The Swiss Family Robinson by Jean Rudolph Wyss
8. Fitcher's Brides by Gregory Frost
9. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
10. The Barnum Museum by Steven Millhauser
11. Good Blood by Aaron Elkins
12. Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi
13. Once by James Herbert
14. White Cat by Holly Black
15. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
16. The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred by Carl-Johan Vallgren
17. The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono
18. The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind by Fuyumi Ono
19. The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas by Fuyumi Ono

Non-Fiction

1. Crossing Over: Where Art and Science Meet by Stephen Jay Gould and Rosamond Wolff Purcell
2. The Complete Guide to Prints and Printmaking ed. John Dawson
3. Mangaka America ed. Steelriver Studio
4. Video Game Art by Nic Kelman
5. The Boilerplate Rhino by David Quammen
6. Animal Skulls: A Guide to North American Species by Mark Elbroch
7. The Decorative Illustration of Books by Walter Crane
8. How to Spot a Fox by J. David Henry
9. Anime Explosion by Patrick Drazen
10. The Nature of Coyotes: Voice of the Wilderness by Wayne Grady
11. The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques by Jinks McGrath

Graphic Novels

1. Mouse Guard by David Petersen
2. The Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity by Mike Carey and Peter Gross
3. Samurai Crusader: Sunrise over Shanghai story by Hiroi Oji, art by Ryoichi Ikegami
4. Spice and Wolf Volume 1 by Isuna Hasekura, art by Keito Koume
5. Shaman Warrior Volume 4 by Park Joong-ki
6. Bone: The Great Cow Race by Jeff Smith
7. American, Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
8. xxxHolic Volume 9 by CLAMP
9. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Volume 9 by CLAMP
10. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Volume 10 by CLAMP
11. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Volume 11 by CLAMP
12. The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim
13. Foiled by Jane Yolen, art by Mike Cavallaro
14. Shutterbug Follies by Jason Little
15. Hellboy Animated: The Menagerie by various folks, based on Mike Mignola's character
16. Slow Storm by Danica Novgorodoff
17. Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi
18. Lindbergh Child: America's Hero and the Crime of the Century by Rick Geary
19. Spice and Wolf Volume 2 by Isuna Hasekura, art by Keito Koume
20. Amulet Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi 
 

OK, it seems a little unlikely that I can get to 50 of each, especially non-fiction, but you never know.

[BFG] Recent Reading: Lots of Comics, Some Novels, One Non-Fiction

Since I seem to be neglecting this blog, and the idea of keeping my geekiness separate from the rest of my life is less appealing these days, I'm thinking that I'll probably merge BFG back in with Anagram for Ink sooner or later. Especially since AforI has an awful lot of geek posts in its early years. But anyway . . . On to the books.

I've been working my way slowing through the Truro Public Library's collection of comics a few volumes every three weeks or so. A pile of them are in this update (though not every GN in this list is a library book; a few I paid money for). I've also begun reading Japanese novels in translation quite voraciously. I wrote about Vampire Hunter D and its awfulness previously--I'm happy to say the "light novels" in this post are far better.

35. The Nature of Coyotes: Voice of the Wilderness by Wayne Grady (non-fiction)
    
    We have coyotes in this area, so I thought I'd find out more about them than their osteology. I don't know what the current consensus is, but according to this book coyotes are more ancient than wolves, and wolves evolved from coyotes. Also the two sometimes hybridize. The other thing I learned is that coyote populations tend to increase when they are aggressively hunted because under normal circumstances only alpha pairs reproduce, but when they are under pressure, lower-ranked females will also have litters.
    
    
36. The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    Three lovely short stories from this duo who also makes comics solo. The title story had a somewhat unexpected, but satisfying ending.
    
    
37. Foiled by Jane Yolen, art by Mike Cavallaro (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    Not the most original idea for a story, but Jane Yolen can take the most overdone story and make it shine, as she does here. This would make a good pick for "middle grade" readers. (Is it me, or did middle grade used to be included in the assumed audience for "young adult" fiction? Is it really helpful to divide up audiences in to smaller and smaller marketing categories?)
    
    
38. Shutterbug Follies by Jason Little (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    There really wasn't anything new or startling here, story-wise, but Little's art is so nice to look at--deceptively simple-looking--that it works anyway. Not that it's a bad story, it's perfectly serviceable, but it's the drawing that's the reason to pick this one up.
    
    
39. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    I've had this book on my shelf for ages, and only just got around to reading it, and when I did, I devoured it. Sometimes it's like that with books, You just have to wait for the right moment.
    
    
40. The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred by Carl-Johan Vallgren (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    This is one from my pile of things started and not finished, and now finished. I read almost half of it before getting distracted by other books, and read the rest a few chapters here and a few there. It's good, and well worth reading, it just didn't grab me by the throat. Sometimes it's like that with books. (It took me *years* to get through Foucault's Pendulum and I was so glad I finished it.)
    
    
41. Hellboy Animated: The Menagerie by various folks, based on Mike Mignola's character (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    I adore Hellboy. Love the original comics (though I must admit, I haven't read very many of them yet), and love the movies. Hellboy Animated is a lighter series, with a stylish animated look. There were two animated movies (straight to DVD, but I think still worth watching), and three comics (as far as I know). This one is the third. It's not nearly as dark or as serious as the main comics, and it's pretty darn short, but it's still a fun read. The main story features an odd mix of Asian and European folklore, and the backup story is all about Abe (I heart Abe Sapien).
    
    
42. Slow Storm by Danica Novgorodoff (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    This book is kind of hard to describe. It's about a woman firefighter in rural Kentucky and an illegal immigrant from Mexico, and it's about the great things and the awful things that people do. The loose ink and watercolour drawings are especially effective at depicting the looming feeling of the world just before a storm.
    
    
43. Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    It's been years since I read Persepolis the first, but it felt like just the other day as I picked this one up and got right back into the story. It's simple bio comic about a woman growing up in Iran told with simple black and white pictures, but it adds up to some incredible richness. This is the kind of book you give people who don't read comics to show them that comics *are* worth reading.
    
    
44. Lindbergh Child: America's Hero and the Crime of the Century by Rick Geary (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    I got this one from the library just because it was there, not because I thought it would be good. I expected either some dry educational book, or an overwrought dramatization. I especially had low expectations because the book has a whole list of other books in the series, all retelling crimes and murders. But this book is neither dry nor overwrought. It's a simple telling of the known facts with clean drawings and diagrams, and it somehow ends up being a thoroughly gripping tale. I don't know how Geary pulled it off, but I will definitely be looking for more of those books listed in the front.
    
    
45. Spice and Wolf Volume 2 by Isuna Hasekura, art by Keito Koume (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    I got all the way through this book and still didn't know why it had a warning for explicit content on it. There's some very tame partial nudity and one small, blurry aftermath of a rape image, but nothing really graphic. At one point the two main characters are in a suggestive position in bed together, but they're fully clothed. So I don't know. It continues to be a fun read, and somehow the bits of economic theory even work and never feel boring. But I have to admit, I read it mostly for the pretty wolf goddess.
    
    
46. The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    This is the first of seven in a series of light novels. (I've been trying to think of the Western equivalent for the Japanese light novel and I haven't quite managed it. In many ways, it fits the same niche as young adult fiction in the West, though that's not an exact fit.) So far, Tokyopop has brought out four of them in English, and I hope they bring out the other three. I had to go through considerable effort to get this one, as it's out of print and apparently collectible and so selling for outrageous prices. I finally found a reasonably priced copy at a bookseller in the UK, purchased via the bibliophile's fried, ABE. I bought it because I like the anime based on it, but I didn't know if it was any good. Turns out it's very good indeed.
    
    
47. The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind by Fuyumi Ono (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    This one is book two in the series, though it takes place before the events in book one. (If you read them, do try to read book one first, though--I think the series works better narratively that way.) When I saw the stupid prices book one was going for, I jumped on Amazon.ca and grabbed two, three and four while I had the chance to get them for retail price. And happily, one that was listed as a paperback turned out the be a hardcover when it got here. Alas, Amazon's crappy packaging came unstuck and it was only luck and a flimsy rubber band that kept all three books in there. Oh, and this volume I sat down to read one evening and ended up reading straight through in one sitting.
    
    
48. Amulet Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    I picked this up on a whim because I thought the art looked nice and it had a blurb from Jeff Smith on the back, guaranteeing I'd be hooked in three pages. Mr Smith was right, though it may have been less than three pages. At first I thought the characters looked too cartoony next to the lush backgrounds, but I very quickly changed my mind. The art just works, and the story is delightful. If you've read Spiderwick, the beginning (after the prologue) may feel awfully familiar, and the story is really good, like Spiderwick. But it's nothing like the same story once the kids make their discovery in the old family home they've just moved into. I'm going to get Book Two at the earliest opportunity.
    

And look at that, I'm almost to 50 books. When I hit 50, I guess I'll see if I can do 50 this year, not counting graphic novels.