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Books read in February (and thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladystarlightlj for reminding me):
Dinty Moore, The Accidental Buddhist: Nice narrative of meeting different kinds of Buddhism. Good overview, but very simple. Readable.
GRR Martin, A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows Not as good as the others--where ASOIAF really gets lost. Mostly new characters, and not very appealing ones.
Elizabeth Kostova, The Swan Thieves: (from my earlier comments) She does a beautiful job of showing what it's like to be in a relationship with a person who is unable to be in a relationship, but I'm not sure why we needed both a wife and a girlfriend to have the same kind of experience. But that would have been OK. What bothered me was how she led us on with the hints of something beyond the natural (and of course her previous book had fulfilled that promise, in excellent fashion). So when what lay behind the mysterious obsession that dominated one life and twisted many others turned out just to be blackmail, it was a serious let-down. There were so many intriguing things she could have done--time travel, having art come to life, etc. I'm not sure why she chose the plot she did.
Sharon Shinn, Summers at Castle Auburn: A sweet-enough YA fantasy, with a contrived romantic switch. Still, the idea of the aliora was nice.
Jody Picoult, Handle With Care: Mother of child born with fragile bones sues doctor who is also her best friend. Character and plot work for me as always.
Kimberly Pauley, Sucks to Be Me: YA by D's cousin. Teenager has to choose whether to become a vampire like her parents and also which guy to go to the prom with. Fun but very YA.
Paul Farmer, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor: how health care, drugs, etc. exploit people in Haiti and other countries. Very convincing and very sad. Not finished yet.
Sarah Paretsky, Hardball: One of her better mysteries (and VI Warshawski is one of my favorite hard-boiled-with-heart-of-gold detectives), linking a present-day corruption with killings in the Civil Rights era. She does a good job of showing angry blacks without wallowing in white guilt, and as always, pacing and characters are good. Glad to see a new love interest.
Susan Palwick, The Necessary Beggar: (from my previous comments) It was a very moving picture of what it's like to be a refugee, not damaged by the fact that the central characters are exiled from another dimension. Great combination of the real and the fantastic, and very romantic but believable love story. And like Mary Doria Russell, she has a religious perspective that's not off-putting (even to people like me from religions different from hers). Flying in Place: Not quite as good, but very appealing picture of abused child. But the abuser--unbelievably one-dimensional. The Fate of Mice: Excellent short stories. Title story is riff on "Flowers for Algernon."
Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness: Excellent as always. Title story was in New Yorker (19th century Russian woman mathematician), but others very fine also.
Alston Purvis, The Vendetta: Melvin Purvis's son's story of how his father (killer of Pretty Boy Floyd and Dillinger) was hounded to suicide by J. Edgar Hoover. Well-written, but I may not make it through the whole thing.
And Carrie Ryan's The Dead-Tossed Waves comes out March 9--the sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Zombies!!
ladystarlightlj for reminding me):Dinty Moore, The Accidental Buddhist: Nice narrative of meeting different kinds of Buddhism. Good overview, but very simple. Readable.
GRR Martin, A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows Not as good as the others--where ASOIAF really gets lost. Mostly new characters, and not very appealing ones.
Elizabeth Kostova, The Swan Thieves: (from my earlier comments) She does a beautiful job of showing what it's like to be in a relationship with a person who is unable to be in a relationship, but I'm not sure why we needed both a wife and a girlfriend to have the same kind of experience. But that would have been OK. What bothered me was how she led us on with the hints of something beyond the natural (and of course her previous book had fulfilled that promise, in excellent fashion). So when what lay behind the mysterious obsession that dominated one life and twisted many others turned out just to be blackmail, it was a serious let-down. There were so many intriguing things she could have done--time travel, having art come to life, etc. I'm not sure why she chose the plot she did.
Sharon Shinn, Summers at Castle Auburn: A sweet-enough YA fantasy, with a contrived romantic switch. Still, the idea of the aliora was nice.
Jody Picoult, Handle With Care: Mother of child born with fragile bones sues doctor who is also her best friend. Character and plot work for me as always.
Kimberly Pauley, Sucks to Be Me: YA by D's cousin. Teenager has to choose whether to become a vampire like her parents and also which guy to go to the prom with. Fun but very YA.
Paul Farmer, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor: how health care, drugs, etc. exploit people in Haiti and other countries. Very convincing and very sad. Not finished yet.
Sarah Paretsky, Hardball: One of her better mysteries (and VI Warshawski is one of my favorite hard-boiled-with-heart-of-gold detectives), linking a present-day corruption with killings in the Civil Rights era. She does a good job of showing angry blacks without wallowing in white guilt, and as always, pacing and characters are good. Glad to see a new love interest.
Susan Palwick, The Necessary Beggar: (from my previous comments) It was a very moving picture of what it's like to be a refugee, not damaged by the fact that the central characters are exiled from another dimension. Great combination of the real and the fantastic, and very romantic but believable love story. And like Mary Doria Russell, she has a religious perspective that's not off-putting (even to people like me from religions different from hers). Flying in Place: Not quite as good, but very appealing picture of abused child. But the abuser--unbelievably one-dimensional. The Fate of Mice: Excellent short stories. Title story is riff on "Flowers for Algernon."
Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness: Excellent as always. Title story was in New Yorker (19th century Russian woman mathematician), but others very fine also.
Alston Purvis, The Vendetta: Melvin Purvis's son's story of how his father (killer of Pretty Boy Floyd and Dillinger) was hounded to suicide by J. Edgar Hoover. Well-written, but I may not make it through the whole thing.
And Carrie Ryan's The Dead-Tossed Waves comes out March 9--the sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Zombies!!
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