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The cats are happily forming a heap of cat on the sofa. My motorbike has passed the technical inspection. The ficus benjamina which was in the way all the time has a new home. I have a new fandom (that I might write about soon), which is probably responsible for me dreaming about demonic chain saw murderers going after the unwary inheritors of a hundred-year-old curse (which was not as bad as it sounds). I have fanfic, tea, and chocolate cookies, and it's still Sunday.

So I think I'll catch up on reviewing books. Today: Three doorstoppers.

Kit Whitfield: Bareback (2006) )
Scott Lynch: The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006) )
Jaqueline Carey: Kushiel's Scion (2006) )

Squee!

Feb. 7th, 2008 12:13 pm
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Steven Brust's Firefly novel "My Own Kind of Freedom" is here.
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Books:

Oct 21st:
Jo Walton: "The King's Peace / The King's Name"
Rosemary Sutcliff: "The Eagle of the Ninth"

Aug 6th:
Katherine Kerr: "Polar City Blues"
Patricia Briggs: "When Demons Walk"

Jul 28th:
J.K. Rowling: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

Mar 25th:
Jane Huber: "60 Hikes within 60 miles - San Francisco"

Feb 11th:
Carrie Vaughn: "Kitty Goes to Washington"
Josephine Tey: "Daughter of Time"
Neil Gaiman: "Fragile Things"

Jan 23rd:
Emma Bull: "Falcon"
Simon Green: "Deathstalker: Legacy"
C.J. Cherryh: "40.000 in Gehenna"
Len Deighton: "Spy Story"
Alex Kava: "The Soul Catcher"
Michael Connelly: "The Last Coyote"
Laurie Graham: "Future Homemakers of America"

Comics:

Oct 21st:
Terry Moore: "Strangers in Paradise XIX"
Stan Sakai: "Usagi Yojimbo XXI -- The Mother of Mountains"

Fanfic:

Feb 20th:
daegaer: "California Dreaming" (Good Omens/BtVS)
hackthis "If You're the Answer, What's the Question?" (BSG)

Movies:

Nov 11th:
"Stardust"

Jun 11th:
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
"Ocean's 13"
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The weather forecast had prophesied mostly clouds for Saturday, and partly-sunny for Sunday, so I spent a brilliant autumn Saturday grocery shopping and riding my motorbike, and the evening bicycling all over town for the Tech and Science Open Night.

Then I went to bed early because the following day (today) I wanted to go for a hike in the hills. Only, when I awoke at 8, it was raining. I slept two more hours and it was still raining. So much for my plans for the day, and I went back to bed and slept another four hours. Only when I had breakfast, the rain ceased. In the late afternoon, some blue sky was visible through the clouds. Stupid weather forecast. It used to be that something as irrelevant as rain didn't keep me from long walks, but hiking in the flatlands in the rain is pleasant if one is dressed for the weather, in the hills it's a muddy and slippery affair.

At least I got enough sleep.

Last week I was very busy fighting entropy by putting an immense amount of energy into getting through my to-do-list, with some success.

I also read a few books.

Jo Walton: The King's Peace / The King's Name (2000/2001) )
Rosemary Sutcliff: The Eagle of the Ninth (1954) )
Terry Moore: Strangers in Paradise XIX (Comic) )
Stan Sakai: Usagi Yojimbo XXI -- The Mother of Mountains (Comic) )

Latest News: Dumbledore was gay. via Making Light.
ETA: Fandom is all over it. Neil Gaiman has some very reasonable things to say about things the author knows about the characters. There is the expected howling and gnashing of teeth from the expected non-fandom places (mocked here).

Book meme

Oct. 1st, 2007 12:50 pm
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Gakked from [livejournal.com profile] legionseagle

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of today whenever this meme started). As usual, bold what you have read, italicise what you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. To the list... )
It's amazing how many books I didn't finish not because I hated them, but just because I couldn't be bothered to pick them up again.
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This time, two books that got recommended to me as "light and fun reading", both roughly around 300 pages, both from the 1990's, one SF, one Fantasy, both with a mystery at the centre.

Polar City Blues, by Katherine Kerr, 1991 )
When Demons Walk, by Patricia Briggs, 1998 )

***

Other news: I finally managed to get my bike home. I had left it at work after the unpleasant visit to the dentist in July, and then, for two weeks, I was physically incapable of riding it (everything that drove up my pulse or blood pressure was a very bad idea), and for the next two weeks, I hadn't the bloody time to walk to work. Anyway, yesterday I took the bus and rode my bike home. Small triumphs.
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Here be spoilers, and somewhat incoherent ramblings. )
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Read it last night. Liked it.

Was right on two major plot points. Heh.
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[livejournal.com profile] kazaera tagged me.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4-7 sentences on your LJ along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest (unless it's too troublesome to reach and is really heavy. Then go back to step 1).
6. Tag five people.

***

I yielded to these arguments against my better judgement.

I must tell you a most extraordinary story that I heard about Camilla Galloway. It may perhaps have been mentioned in the English newspapers; but I don't imagine they would have thought it worth repeating in detail.

The first I heard at it was a Preveza.

(From "The Shortest Way to Hades", by Sarah Caudwell.)

***

Now comes the hard part: Tag five people. Honestly, I do not know of five people who are likely to read this who have LJ accounts. From the people on my friends list, I seem to remember that [livejournal.com profile] bellatrys dislikes game-of-tag memes.

So: [livejournal.com profile] cyrna, [livejournal.com profile] mad_freddy (come on, write something! even if it's only for a meme!), [livejournal.com profile] kindigo, and anyone (any two?) who might feel like it.
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Saturday proved that sleeping in and lazing around in a bookstore when not feeling up to something more strenuous might be a very good idea. I had fun, but I worked hard for it.

This was the last weekend, and I didn't have to work. I looked over my list of "things to do" (See redwoods. See Alcatraz. More shopping. Get chocolate truffles from The Fudge House to bring home. Hunt for books all over town.), then at the weather forecast and decided that I didn't want to climb up and down hillsides in the rain promised for Sunday.

Read more... )

And this is exactly the right time to be talking about one specific book:

Jane Huber: 60 Hikes within 60 miles - San Francisco )
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Bad dreams, again, but this time, at least, they clearly came from too-enthusiastic reading (if there is such a thing). I awoke frantic, with a long list of things I needed to do at once to prevent a bad situation from devolving into all-out catastrophe, started mentally working through the list and discovered that all of the problems were someone else's, who, author willing, would be well on top of it soon.

Which is not the worst way to wake up, all things considered.

And because I did nothing but reading this weekend (it's raining), and I haven't heard from any of you folks at home, I'll just talk about books again. I read these in November and never got around to talking about them.

Kitty Goes to Washington, by Carrie Vaughn, 2006 )
Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, 1951 )
Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman, 2006 )

I have asked myself why I am writing those reviews. It's not as if there is a lack of book reviews in the world. My first idea was that I needed something to fill the pages of my LJ. Which might be true. Or that I'm obsessive. Which is true. But mostly it's, I think, that over the years I read a lot of books and forgot them. Forgot that I read them, or forgot what was in them. And every time someone (like [livejournal.com profile] mad_freddy in his comment here) talks about them I can only say, I read it when I was in school, but I can't remember. Which I feel is embarrassing, and I do not want that to happen anymore if I can avoid it.

In short, yes, I'm obsessive.
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As some of you might know, Ceridwen and spent two weeks on Tenerife in December. We weren't as active as I thought we would be -- my fault, mostly, because I started out with a cold which I must have caught on the flight back from the US and which was just ready to roll the day we boarded the plane to Tenerife, and then I wrenched my back while petting a beautiful red cat. The cat had kind of a tabby pattern, but twisted somewhat so it formed rings and swirls.

So, I read a lot. I have none of the books around at the moment, so I'm doing this from memory. If I find that I overlooked something important, I can always update.

Falcon, by Emma Bull, 1989 )
Deathstalker: Legacy, by Simon Green, 2003 )
40.000 in Gehenna, by C.J. Cherryh, 1983 )
Spy Story, by Len Deighton, 1974 )
The Soul Catcher, by Alex Kava, 2002 )
The Last Coyote, by Michael Connelly, 1995 )
Future Homemakers of America, by Laurie Graham, 2002 )

And that's it for today.
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Just so that I find it again...

Books:

21.11.
"The Guns of August", by Barbara Tuchman
"Elsewhere", by Will Shetterly
"Darwinia", by Robert Charles Wilson
"Hangman's Holiday" by Dorothy Sayers (Short Stories)

5.11.
"Ill Wind", by Rachel Caine
"Making Book", by Teresa Nielsen Hayden (Essays)
"1491", by Charles C. Mann (Non-fiction)

27.10.
"Summer Knight", by Jim Butcher
"Kitty and the Midnight Hour", by Carrie Vaughn
"Snake Agent", by Liz Williams

18.10.
"Grave Peril", by Jim Butcher
"The Privilege of the Sword", by Ellen Kushner

11.10.
"Fool Moon", by Jim Butcher
"The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club", by Dorothy Sayers

13.9.
"Shadows over Baker Street" (Anthology)
"Teckla", by Steven Brust
"The Poison Master", by Liz Williams

21.8.
"Storm Front", by Jim Butcher.

10.7.
"We who are about to...", by Joanna Russ

25.1.
"The Iron Council", by China Miéville
"Dragon", by Steven Brust
"Kushiel's Chosen" by Jaqueline Carey


Fanfic:

24.7.
Midnight Blue: "The Mirror of Maybe" (HP)
Rorschach's Blot: "Make a Wish" (HP)
Ishtar: "Fidelius" (HP)
Le Rouret: "Pottymouth" (LotR, NC-17)

25.1.
After the Rain: "Running Close to the Ground", "The Vanishing Cabinet and what Montague Found There", "Happy Birthday, Mr. Dark Lord", "Remedial History" (all HP)

ETA: 21. Jan 07 - Found some more book entries.
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I'm working a lot at the moment and when I'm back at the hotel I often get lost in the internet, so I haven't read as much lately as I did in October. Still, there is a bunch of books to talk about.

The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman, 1962 )

Elsewhere, by Will Shetterly, 1991 )

Darwinia, by Robert Charles Wilson, 1998 )

I also read a book with short stories by Dorothy Sayers: "Hangman's Holiday". Some Lord Peter, some Montague Egg, two others. One of the Montague Egg stories was too complicated for my taste (and required a lot of knowledge about the English railway system in the 1930s, which I lack), and two were too simple, but the rest was just fine and they were all new to me.

Finally, I read "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien" (not front to back, more browsing), and marvelled at Unwin's patience. Those guys waited 17 years for Tolkien to write "more about Hobbits". And the best thing is, he did, and it was good.

At work, I spend most of my time writing scripts at a leisurely pace, which is the most relaxing thing I have done at work in years. And in only ten days I'll be flying back, and then to Tenerife, and I haven't even opened my Spanish textbook yet.

After so many words, I'll finish with a comic: Galactus is Coming -- a Marvel/Chick tract crossover.
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What is it with Saturdays? I had bad (if interesting) dreams, and when my alarm rang at 10, I had no idea where I was or how I got there and which planet I was on, or how to open my eyes, so I fell back into bed and slept for another three and a half hours. Which neatly rendered impossible any plans I might have had for the day, because three-something hours of daylight is not enough to do anything interesting. And I still felt confused.

I decided to make use of the amazing restorative properties of bookshops and coffee. And it was good. It also was 5 in the evening when I walked out again, so I got a take-away pizza and headed back to the hotel. I'm not complaining, but I feel I should have more energy, see more, get around more... Oh, and get more work done. Work out more. Write a bestselling novel. Try to take over the world.

I wrote some postcards instead.

Friday I went home from work early, because I absolutely wanted to see Doctor Who. This might seem strange to you, as I've never seen the show before, not once in 28 seasons and then some. I'd come about some fanfic, some fandom debate, some references, the usual things. But my luck -- which usually lets any show I become interested in appear on German TV within a few months (though sometimes in the form of after-midnight wrong-order re-runs), or lets a bunch of DVDs tumble unto my desk -- failed me in this. So, that was the first reason. The second one is David Tennant. Those who know me know that I'm not in the habit of actor fangirling (at least not since Harrison Ford became too old to play Indiana Jones). But when in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", Barty Crouch jr. appeared for a very short time un-polyjuiced, I was all, "Oh wow, this guy is too cute to be true!!11!eleventy-one!" I checked the IMDb, found that he was currently playing in a series I'd like to see but probably never would, sent a mental telegram to whoever is in charge of my luck to Do Something About It, and, being oh-so-old and reasonable, forgot the whole thing. Until I looked at the TV guide eight days ago and went "OMG squee!", and went home early yesterday so that I could sit in front of the TV at 7pm.

And if you expect a review of the episode, you are out of luck. I only watched one episode so far, how the heck should I review it? But I have to say, both Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, which came next, suffered badly from SciFi's commercial breaks, which came every five (or so) minutes. Life's a bitch. And I'm not enthusiastic about buying the DVDs, since I'm not convinced that DVDs will keep playable for a significant time span, and I lack the ability to make backup copies and adjust format. Sometimes life sucks. If I could assure that I could still watch my DVDs in 20 or 30 or 50 years, I'd sent a 500-Euro-order to amazon or play.com tomorrow. If a DVD box cost only 10 Euros, I'd be content with a shelf life of maybe 10 years. But they are too expensive to be disposable, and too short-lived to spend much money on them. Darned things. At least back in the Jurassic, before home video, there were no commercial breaks on TV.

None of these problems, fortunately, plague books (so far). Books (like IVAR bookshelves and tea mugs) are both cheap and durable, and require no specialized interface. What's not to like?

So: books.

Ill Wind, by Rachel Caine, 2003 )

Making Book, by Teresa Nielsen Hayden, 1994 )

1491, by Charles C. Mann, 2005 )
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... which will come as no surprise to you. In fact, I've done little else but working, sleeping and reading, and as it happens I'm currently up to my ears in urban fantasy. (And process descriptions to review, and cryptic Perl scripts, but let's not go there.)

Summer Knight, by Jim Butcher, 2002 )
Kitty and the Midnight Hour, by Carrie Vaughn, 2005 )
Snake Agent, by Liz Williams, 2005 )

That's it for today. More to come!
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My normal biorhythm is gaining on me, which is a bad thing. A normal and stable rhythm for me is waking at 1 pm and getting tired at 4 or 5 am. At least, jet lag provided me with about a week of waking up early and well-rested. I now missed two breakfasts in a row and had lunch in the cafeteria instead. The food is not bad, but every dollar spent there is a dollar that won't buy books.

OK, so I read until 2 am last night. But then, I wasn't tired.

Observations )

Next, books:

Grave Peril, by Jim Butcher, 2001 )
The Privilege of the Sword, by Ellen Kushner, 2006 )

Books

Oct. 11th, 2006 11:02 pm
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The next morning I awoke at 6 am, read a little more and studied my maps. Navigation systems, google maps and all that are quite fine, because you can never have all the maps you need, but it's like looking out of airplanes: You do not have the orientation, or the landmarks, you have no idea of the big picture and how it all fits together. One good look at the map and I understood where I had taken wrong turns, and why, and what to do instead. So, this morning, I managed to drive to work without being confused once. I still used the Navigation system and liked it, because the big picture won't get you to the right building, but I for the first time I was able to have some looks at the scenery.

Many of the buildings look a little lost, too little building with too little height in too much landscape. The small houses nearly disappearing into the woods and the hills in Sweden or Ireland do not do that, they tend to look snug and comfortable in their green and grey surroundings. Maybe it's the colour, this golden brown which I cannot compare to anything at home, and which makes even the average dull green of a meadow in Germany look inappropriate and over-coloured. It's a generous warm colour, like heather, and makes the land look even bigger than it is. Or maybe it looks that way because the land really is that big. It's quite pleasing to the eye, but makes the buildings seem lost, like kids out on their own. The industrial areas are not of a compact ugliness desiring to become a singularity, but also strewn over the amazing landscape like someone's belongings in an untidy room. The sky is bigger, and brighter, and I do not know how to name the clouds. One golden-brown-green mountain dominates the area. It's called Mount Diabolo, about 1200 m high, which is quite a lot considering how close to the sea we are. I'd like to go up there, but the Wikipedia entry on the place warns against tarantulas and black widows, especially in September and October. Eek!

Work was, well, work. My worries about dress code were, fortunately, mostly unfounded. People are dressed better than in my old office, but that doesn't mean much. Jeans and shirts are just fine. There's a small cafeteria where you can get lunch. The food looked OK, but I wasn't hungry (my metabolism is still set on "vacation"). The iced tea brand I fondly remembered from thirteen years ago had substituted sugar with high fructose corn syrup, a substance I plan to avoid, if possible. Sugar is going to be some kind of a problem, I feel, because I distrust these modern brews, and I hate the taste of artificial sweeteners. (I just read in Wikipedia that cats are the only mammals that do not care for sweets, because they have no receptors for that taste.)

Before returning to the hotel in the evening, I went grocery shopping. The best thing about grocery shopping in the US is that the aisles are actually large enough to maneuver a shopping cart in. Second best it, lots of new things to try out! The worst thing is all this "no fat" and "not-really sugar". Second worse it the prices. The groceries I paid 26 USD for would have cost 11 Euro at home. I guess I'm going to have dinner in the hotel often. Far more fun to spend the money on books!

Fool Moon, by Jim Butcher, 2001 )
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy Sayers, 1928 )
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I've got a new job, starting October, and the first thing I will have to do is to go overseas for a couple of months. Which I have exactly two problems with. Both are furry, psycho and do not take kindly to being deprived of their human. Apart from that, spending a few months in a place where I'd usually go on holiday is not a bad thing, if somewhat unexpected.

The story I've been writing since Mid-July is done! Now I need to do the first revision, check the time line and some canon details (which might be tricky because canon is inconsistent) and get it to the betas. It currently stands at 35K words, which makes it the second-longest story I've finished so far. Only I feel that it doesn't really have enough plot to support that many words. Maybe, if I cut out the boring parts, it will shrink down to a more reasonable size. And then I'll start the sequel I already have some ideas and a few scenes for.


I've been reading, too:

Storm Front, by Jim Butcher.

I like mysteries, urban fantasy and hard-boiled detectives, so that sounded like a book for me. It's also, I've been told, first in a series, so, if I enjoy it, there's more: always a good thing.

The hero, Harry Dresden, is the classic private investigator in the big city, Chandler-style. Only, he's a wizard. It takes a few chapters until it becomes obvious that we are not talking "psychic with a few tricks up his sleeve" here, but honest-to-dog staff-wielding, potion-brewing, demon-banishing, fireball-throwing bad ass WIZARD, who wouldn't look too out of place in Hogwarts, except for being American. The fact that he's set himself up with a PI's office and mode of work makes him an oddity in wizarding circles (the author never says what the other wizards live on -- maybe they are old money or routinely change lead into gold).

It starts, as usual, with a grisly murder, and a blonde in the PI's office, and goes on to mob thugs, demons, crime bosses, nosy reporters, a wizarding probation officer from hell (not literally) and a big bad dark wizard.

The structure is basic detective novel, easy to read, and the magic bits are solid and not shy of fireworks. It's fast-paced: the plot happens in a couple of days. The main character shows that "hard-boiled detective" and "mysterious, powerful wizard" are concepts that mix just fine. Despite demons, vampires and black magic the story stays solidly urban fantasy and does not drift into horror: the hero is never in doubt that the bad guys and monsters can be fought, he's only doubting that he can do it and win.

Very good reading, and would make a good plot for a role playing game, too.

Here is a review of the same book by T.M. Wagner.


Some links:

Ligers and Tigrons, again.
Science Friday Cat Blogging. (Skip the comments unless you are really bored.)
The Register on "Mass murder in the skies: was the plot feasible?"
Bush reads Camus. Funny.

New Orleans (nearly) a year after Katrina:
The Rude Pundit has a series on it. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
[livejournal.com profile] docbrite lives in New Orleans and tells about her writing, the city, cats, and other things.

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