Books I Read in May

Here's my reading list from May:

1. CRYSTAL DRAGON by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (359 p.) Science Fiction, the second book in this "pre-Liaden" series--the one which explains how the Liaden universe started. (The Liaden universe, for those who don't know, being the "main" story these authors write . . . they do other writing, too, but so far as I'm concerned, the Liaden universe is the point. That said, I don't love these two "Crystal" books as much as the others, but still . . . it's kind of fascinating, watching the story come together.

2. STRAIGHT by Dick Francis (323 p.) Murder mystery. Derek Franklin's brother dies suddenly, leaving him trying to figure out his brother's gemology business . . . except, someone appears to be trying to kill him.

3. PROOF by Dick Francis (334 p.) Murder mystery. Tony Beach is a wine merchant, and when a tragic accident introduces him to Gerard MacGregor, he gets swept up into a mystery about identical wines being sold under different labels...

4. TO THE HILT by Dick Francis (322 p.) Alexander Kinloch is an artist who wants nothing more than to stay in his remote Scottish cottage, until one day he is mugged and violently beaten by men asking, "Where is it?" just before he finds that his ailing stepfather has sent him a priceless heirloom to be kept safe . . . but has no idea where it .s

5. SHATTERED by Dick Francis (289 p.) Gerard Logan is a glass-blower whose jockey best-friend is killed, leaving him with a video tape, which is apparently sought after by a lot of violent people....

6. 10 LB PENALTY by Dick Francis (273 p.) Young Ben Juliard gets pulled out of his training to be an amateur jockey and put on his father's campaign trail as he runs for office . . . but then a bullet is fired at him, and suddenly, the son must protect the father . . .

7. DRIVING FORCE by Dick Francis (318 p.) Mystery. Actually, one of my least-favorite Dick Francis mysteries--centered around an ex-jockey who now runs a horse-transportation business, whose drivers pick up a hitch-hiker who dies unexpectedly...

8. WHAT LINCOLN BELIEVED by Michael Lind (314 p.) A kind of dry little history book about, well, what Abraham Lincoln believed in--to the best of the author's knowledge at least. I didn't love it, but I suppose it had its moments.

9. LONGSHOT by Dick Francis (320 p.) A starving writer takes a job writing a biography of a successful horse trainer, but shortly after he starts the job, a dead body is found in a neaby wood....

10. THE DANGER by Dick Francis (320 p.) Andrew Douglas works for a firm that helps rescue kidnap victims, but when he discovers a "practitioner"--someone who does this for a living and is preying on the racing community, he has another problem. The villain learns about him.

11. WITCH WAY TO MURDER by Shirley Damsgaard (292 p.) First in a series of mysteries. Ophelia is a small-town librarian who just happens to also be psychic . . . not that she wants to admit to it. Add in a grandmother who's a kindly witch . . . An okay book.

12. LOST AND FOUND by Jacqueline Sheehan (278 p.) I enjoyed this one. On her husband's sudden death, Rocky quits her job as a psychiatrist and heads to a little island and becomes its animal warden, rescuing a black lab that had been shot.

13. LITTLE WHITE HORSE by Elizabeth Goudge (238 p.) A childhood classic. Orphaned Maria goes to her uncle's distant house, to find that everything is wonderful, but there's a mystery....

14. DOG'S GUIDE TO LIFE by Jack Cotton (31 p.) I spotted this at the bookstore and thought the dog on the cover looked kind of like Chappy. I picked it up and started flipping through it . . . the illustrations looked amazingly like Chappy . . . So I looked even more carefully. Yep. Moose, the dog whose "philosophy" is expounded here, was a Boykin Spaniel. Naturally, I had to buy it, right? The illustrations are adorable. The book itself is pure, sentimental fluff . . . but that's not necessarily a bad thing, right? And the illustrations that look so like Chappy were worth the $5.99.

15. MY LATEST GRIEVANCE by Elinor Lipman (243 p.) Fredericka Hatch grew up more or less as a college mascot. Her parents are house-parents, and she was born at the dorm and grew up there. Then, one day, her father's ex-wife come by too.

16. ASTRID & VERONIKA by Linda Olsson (246 p.) Veronika moves to Sweden to concentrate on writing her novel, and befriends a lonely old woman . . . nicely written and all, but I found it a little dull.

17. POCKETFUL OF NAMES by Joe Coomer (413 p.) Hannah is an artist living on a lonely little island off Maine, jealous of her privacy. Then one day, a dog washes up on shore. Then she gets a letter from her half-sister, sending her a boy desperate for a safe place away from an abusive father. Little by little, she opens up. Now, I didn't love this one as much as I liked his "Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God," mostly because I was a little dissatisfied in the ending, but still . . . a really good read.

18. HELLSPARK by Janet Kagan (332 p.) This one, I bought because I heard that this was one of the very favorite books by two of my very favorite authors. It's a sci-fi book from a couple of decades ago. Tocohl is the ultimate translator, a "hellspark," able to interpret language and customs from vastly different societies. Then, one day, she is called to a distant planet to see if a species shows signs of sapience... Really very good, despite the awful title.

19. LOCAL CUSTOM by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (296 p.) First part of the combined, sci-fi "Pilot's Choice," it tells the story of Anne Davis and Er Thom yos'Galan--two people from vastly different societies, struggling to find a way to be together, with their son, Shan. (Who, later, is one of the main heroes of the "core" books of the Liaden series.)

20. SCOUT'S PROGRESS by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (309 p.) Second novel in "Pilot's Choice," this telling how Daav yos'Phellium and mathematician Aelliana Caylon--parents-to-be of Val Con yos'Phellium--meet.

21. DARK LORD OF DERKHOLM by Diana Wynne Jones (345 p.) Young Adult fantasy, really--imagine a world right next to ours, where things like magic, dragons, griffins, wizards are all real, normal life. Except, OUR world has discovered this and turned it into basically one, big theme park. (Admit it, it's something our commercial society would DO.) Except now, after 40 years, they're fighting back and trying to figure out a way to get out of the demon-bound contract. To this end, Derk is named this year's "Dark Lord," the person the tourists are meant to defeat at the end of their 6-week tour . . .

22. WALKING ON EGGSHELLS by Jane Isay (237 p.) A non-fiction book that looks at the relationships between adult children and their parents . . . It's written by a mother who's struggling with her own. The problem for me is that I DO get along with my parents, so many of the issues she talks about don't apply to us. And, it's written more for the "bereft" parents, feeling unloved and uncared for by their adult children, than it is for the children themselves . . . pretty one-sided in that way. Which, ultimately, made me just kind of sad. I gave up halfway through because the anecdotes (which pretty much make up the entire book--there's not much "text" to link them) were just one misunderstanding blown out of proportion after another . . . almost always to the detriment of the parent. It's entirely possible that a parent would have an entirely different opinion of this book, and I'm certainly not saying it was without interest . . . just . . . it wasn't one I could really connect to.

23. YEAR OF THE GRIFFIN by Diana Wynne Jones (267 p.) The sequel to "Dark Lord of Derkholm," taking place several years later. Now, Derk's youngest daughter, the griffin Elda, has enrolled at the University to learn magic . . . except, the teachers aren't exactly the most qualified, so she and her new friends start reading and experimenting and trying new things . . . not to mention turning back a series of assassins and other catastrophes that the teachers don't seem to notice.

24. MAGICIAN'S GUILD by Trudi Canavan (365 p.) First in a trilogy. During the annual "Purging" of all the poor people from the slums of the city, a girl throws a rock in anger . . . which goes through the Magicians' shield, for the first time ever. Meaning that someone outside the Guild has magic, thus beginning a search for her--both for the politics of it, but also because untrained magic is dangerous.

25. LOST CONTINENT by Bill Bryson (299 p.) Let's see, what to say about this book? See, I was taught not to say anything if I can't say something nice and, well, that's the problem. Witty and well-written as this book was, apparently the author's sole purpose of writing about his driving tour of something like 38 U.S. states was to pick snide fun at pretty much every thing and every one. He's funny, it's true, and he certainly can write. But . . . his sniping got on my nerves. He complained about scenery, prices, food, the people, accents . . . and it took about 50 pages before he found something he actually liked enough to compliment. I try to go through the world looking for things to enjoy or appreciate, and it just seems wrong to me that he  basically went on this trip to find things to complain about, in however amusing a way. Although, I must say, that he ended the book with pure grace, bringing it full circle to Des Moines, where he started, in the nicest way.

26. WINDS OF FATE by Mercedes Lackey (458 p.) First book in a trilogy. To save Valdemar, being attacked by King Ancar's mages, Elspeth heads off to find allies and training for her own mage gift....

27. NOVICE by Trudi Canavan (461 p.) Second book in a trilogy. Sonea is now a full-blown novice at the magician's guild, but she is daily being bullied by the other less-talented but wealthy students. And then there's the High Lord--head of the guild, but a secret practitioner of black magic . . . who learns that she knows his secret.

28. HIGH LORD by Trudi Canavan (526 p.) Third book of the trilogy. Sonea is tempted to learn black magic herself, despite knowing that this could get her expelled from the guild . . . or exiled from the country altogether.

29. WINDS OF CHANGE by Mercedes Lackey (472 p.) Second book of the Mage War trilogy--Elspeth has found allies and a teacher all right, but before they can help Valdemar, they first have to defeat Mornelithe Falconsbane...

30. WINDS OF FURY by Mercedes Lackey (423 p.) Third of this trilogy--with Falconsbane (apparently) defeated, Elspeth and her allies head back to Valdemar, ready to take on Ancar.... Perfectly good trilogy and all, even if it's not my favorite of hers..... Good escapist reading for a holiday weekend.

31. BOOK BY BOOK by Michael Dirda (170 p.) I don't quite know how to explain this book. Each chapter looks at different aspects of life, followed up by good quotes and suggested books . . . all of which sounds dreadfully dull and dry, but it was actually a quite nice little book. Next, I have to go look up some of those books that I haven't heard of . . .

Comments

[Kim]

I guess you could say that May was Dick Francis month. I am always amazed at the amoutn you are able to read each month!

[marti]

I think that you have inspired me to check out some of the Dick Francis mysteries.

[Carrie K]

I'm sensing a run on Dick Francis books.....cute about A Dog's Guide to Life! Maybe it was Chappy using a pseudonym.

Sorry to read that about Bill Bryson's book. His Walk in the Woods was hilarious, but I did hear him on talk radio once and he was fairly negative, which surprised me. Also? His accent.

[Carol]

Totally agree with you about Mercedes Lackey----great escapist reading. Which is mostly the reason I read....

[minnie]

funny. i've listened to 3 bill bryson book tapes, and enjoyed all 3! my favorite was "a sunburnt country," about australia. he was funny, and positive, and well-written. maybe he's just jaded on the US? (i know he's been living in london for a large # of years)

[Danielle]

Wow! What a list!! I am lucky I can get at least two books read a month!!! Well...I have to go to Paperback Swap.com now and request a book from dick Francis..it is apparent that he is an excellent author...he is isn't he??? maybe I'll go to the library first ;)

[Kim]

Wow. Looks like I need to pick up a Dick Francis book. Have you read "The Life of Pi?" And if so, did you like it?

[Diane]

You may want to try some other Janet Kagan. Mirabile is wonderful. I first found her when I was going through a Star Trek phase - her "Uhura's Song" is a good read - even if you are not a Star Trek fan. It's a first contact novel with a twist. A member of the federation is suffering from a planetwide epidemis. The folks are basically felines and evidence suggest they are not native to their planet. Once a likely planet is found ( and the childrens folk songs play into the finding) the first contact is made. Even if you aren't a star Trek fan this would be worth reading - star trek is just a frame for a good story.

[annie]

Wowee--you are definitely an honorary Superfast Reader :)

Love the blog--I am also a knitter so I will definitely be subscribing to your feed!