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A Random Collection of Thoughts.
Jan. 17th, 2005 08:05 amIt's mid-January, getting on toward February, and there are two books out there that I would like to call to your attention as being worthy of being picked up in the store.
The first of these is a book called _The Autumn Castle_, out in hardback this February. I am, as it happens, really worried that this book isn't going to do well. It *deserves* to do well: it's a beautifully told, creepy-around-the-edges story of life and love, acceptance and appearances, all rolled into an amalgam of fairy-tale and modern-day. This is the book for anyone who, like me, read Gaiman's _Stardust_, loved it, but wished it was... more than it was.
(That is not to say that _The Autumn Castle_ is written in the same style as _Stardust_-- merely that it evokes the same bewildered sense of wonder in my brain: when I shut the book, I wanted the world in the book to be *real*.)
The second book is a book called _The Ninth Life of Louis Drax_. It is not specfic-marketed, but it *should* be. Written in very much the same narrative style as _The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time_, it's a gothic-esque look at a twisted mother-son relationship, the lines between personal and professional boundaries, the ease with which those boundaries can be violated, and the disaster that can be made of life when one chooses to garner sympathy for everything rather than to seek one's own happiness. It was a headlong ride, told mostly from a 10 year old's point of view, entirely enjoyable while I was reading it, and disturbing enough afterward that I spent several hours thinking about the issues raised before deciding to recommend the book here.
In other news, we went out with timprov and mrissa and ceej and markgritter (these worthies deserve capital letters, but my child's video is almost over and I am hurrying to write this). Ciao Bella. Excellent food. The company, however, was even better.
Robin got his christmas present, and he had to kiss it good morning this morning; it's a small alligator-piano with lots of buttons and 32 keys. I am sure there will be pictures forthcoming.
Robin has had a variety of health issues lately. A cold last week, a febrile illness (I refuse to call it a cold when he has no upper respiratory infection symptoms, just the fever) this weekend, and (likely due to neglect on my part) an inflammation of his foreskin-remnant that makes my husband shudder every time he changes a diaper.
Not being male, and being in the business of whopping foreskins off of male infants as part of my routine, I dealt with it a bit more steadily this morning, although the inevitable 'dammit, I should have cleaned that area out no matter HOW he screamed and kicked and tried to bite me, because I should *know better*' guilt has begun to swamp me.
Robin's video of choice these days-- and let me restart it again as he's asking for it-- is _Pingu_, a rather disturbing claymation about a penguin, a seal, and the penguin's family. He has two videos of _Pingu_ now. He likes to watch them over and over and over and... you get the idea. He's sick. I'm going to let him. He's got no energy to do anything else except kiss the piano good morning this morning.
I got email this morning from Jenni, who makes the most amazing cards ever. Had I more money, and more events to send cards for, I would buy out her stock. As it is, I buy stationery almost exclusively from her-- blank cards that I can then write thank you notes in, or congratulatory notes, or just 'hey, I thought I'd drop you a line' kind of notes. Anyway, Jenni has a new website that you should all go look at: www.littlejenni.com
And in terms of recent books, I finished RealLivePreacher.com (excellent), The King's Elephant by Tarr (decent for YA), the Ratastrophe Catastrophe by Hyperion Books (I don't remember the author's name, and the book was even less memorable than that), Furies of Calderon by Butcher (good solid fantasy), _Clade_ by Mark Budz (*really* good biopunk SF). I've got _Banner of Souls_ by Liz Williams sitting on my desk, courtesy of Mrissa, and I just ordered _Old Man's War_ by Mr. Scalzi.
You know what made me decide to order it? Mr. Scalzi's generous promotion of other SFnal authors in his weblog, which I read sporadically. He's plugged the hell out of _Hammered_, for my friend Bear. The least I can do is buy his book by way of a 'thank you'; and from what I hear, I'm going to enjoy it very much.
More on that later.
The first of these is a book called _The Autumn Castle_, out in hardback this February. I am, as it happens, really worried that this book isn't going to do well. It *deserves* to do well: it's a beautifully told, creepy-around-the-edges story of life and love, acceptance and appearances, all rolled into an amalgam of fairy-tale and modern-day. This is the book for anyone who, like me, read Gaiman's _Stardust_, loved it, but wished it was... more than it was.
(That is not to say that _The Autumn Castle_ is written in the same style as _Stardust_-- merely that it evokes the same bewildered sense of wonder in my brain: when I shut the book, I wanted the world in the book to be *real*.)
The second book is a book called _The Ninth Life of Louis Drax_. It is not specfic-marketed, but it *should* be. Written in very much the same narrative style as _The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time_, it's a gothic-esque look at a twisted mother-son relationship, the lines between personal and professional boundaries, the ease with which those boundaries can be violated, and the disaster that can be made of life when one chooses to garner sympathy for everything rather than to seek one's own happiness. It was a headlong ride, told mostly from a 10 year old's point of view, entirely enjoyable while I was reading it, and disturbing enough afterward that I spent several hours thinking about the issues raised before deciding to recommend the book here.
In other news, we went out with timprov and mrissa and ceej and markgritter (these worthies deserve capital letters, but my child's video is almost over and I am hurrying to write this). Ciao Bella. Excellent food. The company, however, was even better.
Robin got his christmas present, and he had to kiss it good morning this morning; it's a small alligator-piano with lots of buttons and 32 keys. I am sure there will be pictures forthcoming.
Robin has had a variety of health issues lately. A cold last week, a febrile illness (I refuse to call it a cold when he has no upper respiratory infection symptoms, just the fever) this weekend, and (likely due to neglect on my part) an inflammation of his foreskin-remnant that makes my husband shudder every time he changes a diaper.
Not being male, and being in the business of whopping foreskins off of male infants as part of my routine, I dealt with it a bit more steadily this morning, although the inevitable 'dammit, I should have cleaned that area out no matter HOW he screamed and kicked and tried to bite me, because I should *know better*' guilt has begun to swamp me.
Robin's video of choice these days-- and let me restart it again as he's asking for it-- is _Pingu_, a rather disturbing claymation about a penguin, a seal, and the penguin's family. He has two videos of _Pingu_ now. He likes to watch them over and over and over and... you get the idea. He's sick. I'm going to let him. He's got no energy to do anything else except kiss the piano good morning this morning.
I got email this morning from Jenni, who makes the most amazing cards ever. Had I more money, and more events to send cards for, I would buy out her stock. As it is, I buy stationery almost exclusively from her-- blank cards that I can then write thank you notes in, or congratulatory notes, or just 'hey, I thought I'd drop you a line' kind of notes. Anyway, Jenni has a new website that you should all go look at: www.littlejenni.com
And in terms of recent books, I finished RealLivePreacher.com (excellent), The King's Elephant by Tarr (decent for YA), the Ratastrophe Catastrophe by Hyperion Books (I don't remember the author's name, and the book was even less memorable than that), Furies of Calderon by Butcher (good solid fantasy), _Clade_ by Mark Budz (*really* good biopunk SF). I've got _Banner of Souls_ by Liz Williams sitting on my desk, courtesy of Mrissa, and I just ordered _Old Man's War_ by Mr. Scalzi.
You know what made me decide to order it? Mr. Scalzi's generous promotion of other SFnal authors in his weblog, which I read sporadically. He's plugged the hell out of _Hammered_, for my friend Bear. The least I can do is buy his book by way of a 'thank you'; and from what I hear, I'm going to enjoy it very much.
More on that later.
