Preludes And Nocturnes

Okay, so I’m trying to figure out how to use this page. And I think it is, in fact, a single post living on its own. So this means I can copy my reviews onto this page and into this single post as I do them. But there won’t be multiple posts on this page - it isn’t a whole other blog as such. It is just this one post where I’ll put anything reviewy should you want to see my list of books over and over. So here is my post from the main page, and I still don’t know how to do a stable link from page to page. So yeah.

This past year was the first full year I’ve not been in school since, er… 1979? HOLY CRAP! And regardless of whether I was doing part-time undergrad, thesis-avoidance, or whatever, school always finds a way to tickle the back of your brain with all that you should be doing rather than reading that new book by Guy Gavriel Kay.

In my first official year out of school, I got some good reading done. Some is not worth mentioning (as my dear Laura knows, I do have a love of cheesy bodice-rippers especially if quirky or historical); those I shall not give you any lists. But I can always recommend an author or two if you are wondering. So now on to the ones I will most certainly recommend:

Novels

Sailing to Sarantium (The Sarantine Mosaic, Book 1) – Guy Gavriel Kay

Lord of Emperors (The Sarantine Mosaic, Book 2) – Guy Gavriel Kay

I love Guy Gavriel Kay. I love how he takes a historical time/place and then weaves in these characters and these events that just grab you and make you cry and you love them all and what’s going to happen!!! Very much with the small lives in extraordinary circumstances. And draws together mulitple story lines and manages to make you care/understand them all at the same time - even if they are at odds with one another. This particular series deals with an artisan who is requested at Court to do his mosaic thing (that he does so well). But the thing is that the Court is the conquoring country and his is the lesser country ruled by a young queen. One man, small life, big players, amazing story.

The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

Haven’t you read this yet? Go read it. NOW, hurry!! Is not sci-fi, but it does have time travel. Nope, I don’t know how she does it - but she does it so well. I found myself thinking about these characters months and months later. And it will have you flipping back and forth in the book seeing how various timelines meet up. Awesome.

Tipping the Velvet – Sarah Waters

This has one of the best lines ever. When the main character is starting to realise that she wants *something* from this woman she’s befriended (but she’s not sure what) and she begins to think of her often and daydream and it is all so sweet and makes my heart beat faster for her. And the friend is fancy and a star and the main character works at her father’s store shelling oysters and she worries about being pretty enough or something, and she is worried that she smells like the oysters on her hands and the singer, the star, replies “oh, you smell like a mermaid!”. Swoon.

The Glass Castle– Jeannette Wall

This TRUE STORY(!) starts with main character wondering if she were overdressed for a party as her taxi streams uptown NYC. She looks out the window and sees her mother digging through a dumpster, and she turns around and goes back home. This book kills me, but not in A Fine Balance kind of way (eek!). It is horrid - but funny. It made me laugh and love the characters, but still have moments where I’m furious at her parents and just think they cannot be real.

It traces Jeanette’s childhood with four kids and parents who don’t like the beaten path. The parents can be so endearing, but you want to scream and strangle them at the same time. I thought it was pretend (some use the word ‘fiction’ here) until talking to mom and saying “could you imagine real people like this!!” and she was like “jenn, this is a memoir”. Oh.

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I want to actually post this, so let’s call this part one and figure I’ll do another post or two for the rest. Here they are, though, should you be making a list

• Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
• The Red Tent – Anita Diamant
• A Complicated Kindness – Miriam Toews
• Sunshine – Robin McKinley
• Fall On Your Knees – Ann-Marie MacDonald
• The Wall – Marlen Haushofer, Translated by Shaun Whiteside.

Books of Essays

• Reading Sex and the City
• Finding Serenity
• Five Seasons of Angel

In Progress at the end of the year:

• Fray – Graphic Novel – Joss Whedon
• Serentity – Graphic Novel – Joss
• Whedon Blink – non-fiction – Malcolm Gladwell