I read a LOT of books, so I thought I'd talk about some of them. (Hmm. I appear to be addicted to the word "intense" - I'll work on that. Sorry.)
I've organized them into categories and made in-page linky thingies directly to each section:
Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs is the story of a woman who becomes detective. It's set in Britain before, during, and after World War I. It's intriguing, interesting, and absorbing. Definitely a book for grown-ups. (Reviewed January 2005)
Lynne Murray's Larger Than Death, Large Target, and At Large are murder mysteries, fun but a bit emotionally overwrought, starring a plus-sized heroine. How could I resist? (Reviewed January 2005)
Akimitsu Takagi is one of Japan's most famous mystery writers - he wrote back in the 50's, but recently a couple of his books have been translated. The Tattoo Murder Case was his first and most famous, followed by Honeymoon To Nowhere and The Informer. I haven't read the 3rd yet, but the other two kicked ass. Beautifully drawn characters. The first was a very interesting study in human perception and the Japanese art of tattooing. The second was an interesting peek at reputations and marriages. I'm looking forward to the third. (Reviewed December 2000)
The Johnny Depp movie The Ninth Gate was an interesting study in evil, but not very good (it has tremendous potential, but just doesn't make it) and the ending confused me. But it was based on the book The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte (I believe he's Spanish) that's made it into English translation (along with at least 2 others of his books) so I scored a copy to read and see if it enlightened me on what the hell the movie was about. Arturo's won various International prizes and I can see why. The book is sad and lovely and strange. A very human reading on the devil's evil, very different from the movie (the two main plots of the book are made into one in the movie, to ill effect). (Reviewed December 2000)
Eliot Pattison's first novel (he's an American (I think) journalist by trade and has spent a tremendous amount of time in China and Tibet) is a mystery (political thriller on the side) set in Tibet called The Skull Mantra - it's sad and beautiful and intense. I really enjoyed it. I'm told his presentation of buddhism is pretty westernized, but then, so am I. (Reviewed December 2000)
Miyuki Miyabe wrote All She Was Worth a while back, but it got translated into English a couple of years ago and it's a very interesting study in the Japanese credit system, what it means to have a family record, and the perception of women in Japan. (Reviewed December 2000)
The Eight by Catherine Neville was intensely absorbing. It was interesing enough to get me off my ass and start learning how to play chess. The book was so intricate and full of world conspiracy that it was difficult to put down but also hard to read quickly. I was a bit let down at the end but I think it was only because it was over, and not necessarily because of the ending. (Reviewed December 2000)
Louis Owens is a Native American who has written a few mysteries (and some other stories and some critical lit.) involving Native Americans (in the present) including The Sharpest Sight and The Bone Game which involve the same characters during the Viet Nam war era and then 20 or 30 years later. He also wrote Nightland which was interesting but unrelated to the other 2 and not quite as good. The first two are very intense. (Reviewed December 2000)
Ron Querry is also a Native American writer writing Native American mysteries and both The Death of Bernadette Lefthand and Bad Medicine are intense books. The first depressed the hell out of me, but the story as told through various points of view was interesting. The second was a neat mix of medicine and tradition and how, if the medical establishment had listened to tradition during the Hanta Virus outbreak in the west a few years ago, they probably would have figured it out a lot faster. (Reviewed December 2000)
Christopher Golden is a cranker - he cranks out a couple of books a month, I think. His own series(es) as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel books. One of his series is the Body of Evidence set "starring" Jenna Blake - she's a freshman at an imaginary college in Cambridge, MA and she assists the local coroner on weird, almost supernatural mysteries. Brain candy. (Reviewed December 2000)
Mingled Science Fiction and Fantasy:
Rosemary Kirstein is my favorite find of 2004 (thanks to ctan). Books one and two were combined into The Steerswoman's Road (Book One: The Steerswoman; Book Two: The Outskirter's Secret) Del Rey; 1st Trade edition (July 1, 2003); ISBN: 0345461053. Book three: The Lost Steersman; Del Rey; 1st edition (August 26, 2003); ISBN: 0345462297. Book four: The Language of Power; Del Rey (August 31, 2004) ISBN: 034546835X. These are grown-up books. Part science fiction, part fantasy, these books are all about relationships - friendships, enemies, cultural relationships, etc. They're also about secrets and truth, knowledge and information, power and change. Fabulous female protagonists. There will be more books - looks like she's planning to hit eight in total. (Reviewed January 2005)
The Art of Arrow Cutting by Stephen Dedman - cute, way-above average for a first novel, involving an east-meets-west collision of magic and technology. Fun adventure. (Reviewed December 2000)
Garth Nix wrote Shade's Children, an odd fantasy, SF mix. Sorrowful, triumphant, brave children in a world gone off on a tangent. (Reviewed December 2000)
mojo: conjure stories is a collection of short stories edited by Nalo Hopkinson involving what I guess is called "African Diaspora fiction" or some-such. Zombies and voodoo and personal magic, it's a pretty interesting and intense set of stories. Grown-up stories. (Reviewed January 2005)
Charlaine Harris writes these interesting supernatural mystery romances starring Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress with mind-bending problems (Reviewed January 2005):
Lord Dunsany's The Collected Jorkens volumes 1 and 2 (hardcover) Re-published old-fashioned pub fiction. Yay! (Reviewed January 2005)
The High House and its sequal The False House by James Stoddard are a pair of very odd books. Traditional fantasy set in a traditional castle, but the castle leads to hundreds of other worlds and at some point you are "outside" - there's a sky and sun and grass and trees, but also ornate carvings and chairs. Odd. Neat. Many-faceted. (Reviewed December 2000)
In a goofier vein, I've been slowly putting together the Castle Perilous series of books about a castle that connects the universe together and has 144,000 doors to 144,000 alternate realities (there are more than that, but they tend to be disconnected). Similar trend. (Reviewed December 2000)
Connie Willis To Say Nothing Of The Dog - I LOVE CONNIE. She is probably my favorite author right now, even through I've probably read a hundred books since I read this one. All of her books are wonderful, although this one and Bellwether might be my favorite. She is equally comfortable in the novel as the short story and I can't recommend her short stories highly enough (there are at least 2 collections of them). I never read The Doomsday Book (couldn't get into it) but I'm told it's worth the effort - set in the same universe as To Say Nothing... and a couple of her short stories, but it's not required reading to gether either of those (although they both reference it). (Reviewed December 2000)
I've been working my way through David Weber's Honor Harrington series. She's a captain in the space navy of a far-distant future, Ante-Diaspora (after the colonists scattered from Earth). It's a little over-idealized (the good guys are really honorable, the bad guys are dastardly, and the ones in the middle admire Honor anyway) and dramatic (terrible things keep happening to this woman, she handles them well, she gets kudos which inevitably lead to more horrible things). Better than space opera, but close. I'm really REALLY enjoying reading about strong women. (Reviewed December 2000)
I've also been collecting all of Keith Laumer's RETIEF books (about Jame Retief, Ambassador to the stars) - they're very macho and imperialistic, but also a lot of fun. (Reviewed December 2000)
I just finished The Right To Arm Bears by Gordon R. Dickson - a collection of 1 short story and 2 novellas that he wrote about a particular race of bear-like beings. Again, very macho and imperialistic, but clever and funny as well. (Reviewed December 2000)
Queen of Denial by Selina Rosen is definitely a first novel. Definitely an amateur first novel, but it's so joyously rude and obnoxious and full of the author's acknowledged biases that it was pretty entertaining. Plus - bonus: strong female character. (Reviewed December 2000)
Flesh and Gold by Phyllis Gotlieb - strange story, told from various alien viewpoints (humans are around, but not very important). Very well created realities you can almost feel. Strong female protaganists. (Reviewed December 2000)
The Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - rollicking good adventure tale. Got a lot of press, so you probably already know about it. I enjoyed it thoroughly - he's finally learning how to end books (not his strong suit). (Reviewed December 2000)
The Adolescence of P-1 (prounounced "Pea-One") by Ryan Thomas Joseph - old book, but still intriguing, about one man's accidental creation of intelligence and the consequences of when it "wakes up." (Reviewed December 2000)
Fool's War by Sarah Zettel - another interesting look at the future (much more distant) and the concept of AI. (Reviewed December 2000)
Psi-Man a series of 5 or 6 books by Peter A. David, originally released under another name I think. Brain candy, dystopic future where the main character has psychokinesis and the government dept. of secrets and evil (I forget what it's called, but it's all the spy and federal law agencies rolled into one) is after him. He has various encounters with others who have power, by nature or by gov't intervention. (Reviewed December 2000)
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return are a pair of fantastic graphic novels detailing the childhood of their author, an Iranian woman named Marjane Satrapi. Looking at the life, culture, pain, and problems of living in Iran before and after the cultural revolution. Very absorbing. (Reviewed January 2005)
Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis rocks my world. It's gonzo journalism in a dystopic but distinctly human near-future. Ellis and DC Comics regularly release trade paperbacks, so almost all of the story is out (currently 4 trades available). (Reviewed December 2000)
Strangers In Paradise by Terry Moore is still one of my favorites, still difficult to describe. Two women, best friends (sometimes more sometimes less) going through very human problems as well as international conspiracies. Beautiful. The entire series is available in trades, new issues come out every 6 to 8 weeks. (Reviewed December 2000)
Bone by Jeff Smith is just the sweetest adventure with all kinds of backstory that we see more and more of as time passes. All available in trades, new issues every other month. (Reviewed December 2000)
Finder by Carla Speed McNeil is a newish find, although she's been writing for years. Sin-Eater, Volume 1 is available in trade and issues come out regularly, if slowly. It's a distant future, or an alternate reality, where magic works (sort of) and a disease that kills most people creates the occasional animorph and people generally belong to clans, which have specific body type parameters. You don't get much respect from the clan if you look too different. There are also other races that are animalistic (one where the women are human-looking-walking-on-two-feet-and-talking cats, lioness-like, while the men appear to be smarter-than-average lion-like creatures on all fours). Very strange, difficult to tease out what exactly is going on, but absorbing. A complex story, worth the effort. The book has footnotes that help you pick up on little things. (Reviewed December 2000)
Holes by Louis Sachar just rocked my world. Clever, surreal, no sugar coating but not so harsh it hurt and generally wonderful. (Reviewed December 2000)
Sabriel by Garth Nix - beautiful, sad, cold, like an ice sculpture with a young woman caught inside. Very interesting reality he created. (Reviewed December 2000)
UPDATE: Nix turned Sabriel into The Abhorsen Trilogy, AKA The Old Kingdom Trilogy - Book One: Sabriel, Book Two: Lirael, and Book Three: Abhorsen. Female protagonists with some strong male back-up. The Abhorsen is the title of the person who maintains the balance between the living and the dead. Magical, creepy, complex. (Reviewed January 2005)
Nix's stuff is mostly classified as "young adult" - and while the Keys to the Kingdom series is definitely for kids, it's still a great read. This series is completely different (different world and characters) from The Abhorsen Trilogy (Reviewed January 2005):
Nancy Farmer wrote The Ear, The Eye and the Arm which is a futuristic SF kid's novel set in Africa. It kicked ass. She's also written A Girl Named Disaster which is also a kid's book set in Africa, but is more "modern day." The books are accessible to anyone but provide an infinitely different point of view from our American experience. (Reviewed January 2005)
The House With a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs - a rollicking good mystery with magic thrown in, in the vein of Roald Dahl almost. (Reviewed December 2000)
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine is terribly clever. Ella is enchanted to do what she is told and find various creative ways to avoid it without dodging responsibility. Good story. (Reviewed December 2000)
Patricia Wrede has a small series of books (which starts with Dealing With Dragons) set in the Enchanted Forest (one of the books is a batch of short stories) that are written for adolescents but which are quick and clever and so much fun. The characters are real, the women are smart, the men aren't buffoonish and the dragons have a great deal of personality. (Reviewed December 2000)
And the Harry Potter books of course - they're getting a bit formulaic but highly enjoyable nonetheless. (Reviewed December 2000)
Anything by Jeff Noon. He wrote Vurt (which comes first), Pollen (sort of a sequel), then Automated Alice, Nymphomation, and Pixel Juice which I think are all in the same universe as well (I have them but haven't read them yet). Twisted, bizarre, beautiful slow motion art and death moments. Weird. My world looks freaky after I climb out of these books and it's hard to recover the neurons. (Reviewed December 2000)
Anything by Jonathan Lethem. The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye: Stories gave me nightmares. He also wrote Amnesia Moon which may well be my favorite post-apocalyptic vision (the apocalypse is unclear, as is whether or not it actually happened). Gun, With Occasional Music is the strangest noirish mystery I've ever encountered. He recently edited The Vintage Book of Amnesia: An Anthology which I just bought but have not yet read. (Reviewed December 2000)
Anything by Tim Powers. I have The Anubis Gates but haven't read it yet. I did read Last Call which was even more sweeping in scope than Neville's The Eight if possible. Life, death, odds, archetypes, loneliness, power, and possession. Weird, hard to read because many of the characters are hard to like at first, but worth the effort. (Reviewed December 2000)
Anything by Haruki Murakami. I read A Wild Sheep Chase and my brain overloaded. I'm sure I missed a lot of culturally-based humor (it's translated from Japanese) and strangeness, but I got it well enough. I'm told all of his novels are like this. (Reviewed December 2000)The Lost Pages by Paul Di Filippo - alternate reality short stories. (Reviewed December 2000)
Slaughtermatic by Steve Aylett - weird, stream-of-consciosness concept with most of a plot that sort of ends and sort of peters out but it works pretty well. Useful for freeing up bits of your brain that you didn't know were stuck in traditional thought. (Reviewed December 2000)
Sewer, Gas and Electric by Matt Ruff. This book kicked ass. Per Amazon.com, Neal Stephenson calls this book a "neo-Dickensian hot rod". Damn close. (Reviewed December 2000)
Without by Donald Hall - chronicles the loss of his wife, also a poet, in poems. Heart wrenching, beautiful, the only poetry book I ever got sucked into and read cover to cover in one sitting. (Reviewed December 2000)
Talking Razzmatazz: Poems by Judy Ruiz by Ruiz, Judy - beautiful, painful, clever, perfect. (Reviewed December 2000)
Covering Rough Ground by Braid, Kate - great contruction and building-related poems. Funny, clever, interesting. (Reviewed December 2000)
Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons is an intensely interesting, non-fiction look at "alternative aggression." Though mainly focused on girls, this book is a fantastic read for anyone who's had to hide, stifle, and otherwise refuse the validity of their own anger. Great book for thoughts on raising children as well. (Reviewed January 2005)
The Autobiography of Foudini M. Cat by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer - cute, sweet without being saccharine, beautiful story of a pet cat told from his point of view. (Reviewed December 2000)
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome - funny, clever, classic British humor. Reading this first helps to get an in-joke or two in Willis' To Say Nothing... (including the origin of the title). (Reviewed December 2000)
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy - good social study on the previous generation of hackers and their history (which parallels the history of technology and the Internet). (Reviewed December 2000)
Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World, edited by Kathleen Ragan, introduction by Jane Yolen. This book just plain old kicks ass. Nothing but smart or clever or brave or fearless or strong women. The stories are quick, some no more than a page, maybe page and a half, but it was just so much fun reading about nothing but women. (Reviewed December 2000)
Dreams and Nightmares: The New Theory on the Origin and Meaning of Dreams by Ernest Hartmann - very interesting theory. According to Mr. Hartmann, symbols are not as universal as people might think and dreams are much more relevant if interpreted in the context of the dreamer. So, a dreamer may escape a fire that his brother dies in, and then for months after dream of floods and dying. Within this interpretation, the dreamer's mind is trying to absorb this huge thing that happened to the dreamer and is putting it into terms that it can better understand. The floods are terrible, so they relate to the feelings of terror, but they are different from the fire, giving the dreamer a chance to distance himself slightly and come to terms with the trauma. According to the author, pregnancy is one of the few large-scale life-changing events that can be predicted (versus an accident or trauma) and that makes for very interesting dream contexts. The less life-changing or traumatic the stuff a person is going through, the harder it is to pick out what the dream is contextualizing (although it sometimes gets easier to look back and figure it out because you tend to remember the largest issues). (Reviewed December 2000)
The Anatomy of Illusion: Religious Cults and Destructive Persuasion by Thomas W. Keiser and Jacqueline L. Keiser - very interesting book. Much better than conspiracy books, this presents the idea of brainwashing in a historical context (it was originally intended to control prisoners in China - adapted to Russian politics but it was never meant to survive as a permanent mental pattern and as such extinguishes quickly the majority of the time). Then discusses the idea that cults do not brainwash people into doing things (like stay awake chanting for 12 hours or not eating) - cults narrow your context for what's right and wrong until the cults' version of those rules dominate your reality. So it's perfectly normal to chant for 12 hours or forgo food. Great, professional little scholarly text. (Reviewed December 2000)