While She Knits

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Today's the day!

What have you been reading? Do you recommend it?

If you have a lot to say, especially with comparisons to the Thief books, you can post yourself. If not, we'll be at play in the comments here!

And I'll be going first...

Comments

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Last Friday I finished the Deathly Hallows.

This week I've read hardly anything, but I am going to read this awesome book that's mixed pictures and young-adult level prose called the Invention of Hugo Cabret.
It's a historical novel that looks wicked awesome.

I also liked Enchanted, Inc, an urban fantasy chick-lit that's nicely safe for me.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Um...well, I missed last week's discussion, but I had just finished Twilight and ranted extensively about it in my journal. And of course DH, which I also ranted about (not as extensively) in my journal.

Other than that...oh, I just started Shade's Children by Garth Nix. It's pretty good, but I'd rather reread Spindle's End, but I promised my sister I would read the former, so there you go.

Wow...lack of books...

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

What's cool and different about Hugo Cabret is that, unlike an illustrated novel, this book tells part of the story only in text, and part only in illustrations. The drawings are an integral part of the story. And the drawings are beautifully done.

Funny thing, too, they just did it on audiobook and the narrator describes the illustrations. Somehow I think it's just not the same.

Dark is Rising

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I'm finishing the Dark Is Rising series and have liked the books very much. The family scenes are done well and are very believeable. They contrast nicely with the mystical fantasy parts. The evil is menacing and the setting very vivid. I want to go to Corwall, and Wales! And learn to speak Welsh! Cooper weaves the Arthurian legend in slowly and subtly. It's a great fantasy series for younger readers but it's so well written that it can be enjoyed by anyone.

My biggest complaint is the lack of Gurl Power. Not all girl characters have to be an Attolia, but Jane is girly and scared half the time and plays a pretty small part. She's the only girl main character against five males. Since the books were written in the 70s I'll forgive the author.

And the upcoming movie is changing Will's nationality and family! Will's British heritage is part of the reason for the whole struggle. Gah.

Re: Dark is Rising

[jazzfish]

I want to go to Corwall, and Wales! And learn to speak Welsh!

I had /exactly/ that reaction when I first read them, many moons ago. :)

Spindle's End!

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

See what a good idea this was? (Loffs Meeting Minds over Bookish Goodness)
One of my favorites ever...and I reread it frequently. [spoiler whited]

Tell me a little about Shade's Children. I read through Sir Thursday in his Keys to the Kingdom series (Love Concept--Feel Sorry for the Pat-Down Dialogue), and am feeling lost. Library doesn't have the next, and then, the others aren't even written...

[fabricalchemist.livejournal.com]

I'm re-reading Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels...they're really just a gratutious and celebratory use of words woven together in a glacial and epic story...it's really slow (and appropriately, given the plot set in a kingdom where nothing has changed for centuries), but it's more about how its being said than what's getting accomplished.

However, re-reading it I'm coming to realize that I really don't like any of the characters after all...Peake seems bent upon making them all into near-caricatures.

*shrug* I dunno. Its traditional summer reading for me =) I'm finding it harder and harder to find new books that I like.

[fabricalchemist.livejournal.com]

Dude, I loved Shade's Children for the most part -- it was so tense and action packed! Have you read his Abhorsen trilogy?

[jazzfish]

This week I plowed through HP 5-7 (boo, yay, boo, in that order). Um. The Thief books are much better plotted and have more believable characters. They take more work to get into than HP but are ultimately a /lot/ more rewarding.

I'm just about to start either _Territory_ by Emma Bull (_Tombstone_ with magic in) or _Carnival_ by Elizabeth Bear.

Re: Dark is Rising

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

I just read someone say they were cleansing their palate from the trailer by re-reading the Dark is Rising. ^_^ I loved that phrasing.

I really liked that series, too. I have a different viewpoint on Jane, since I read The Grey King first (I think...the one with Bran, who is so awesome).

Then again, I'm of a recent enough generation to be tired of the GURL POWER characters, because I was never put under the suppressive literary trend to the opposite. No implications of age or otherwise against anyone; but I thought I'd make it clear why I might not have the same viewpoint. Xp

[estarria.livejournal.com]

Shade's Children = the only Garth Nix book I ever disliked. The setting of the story is definitely interesting, but...other parts of it ticked me off.

At first I liked Twilight, but now I'm really not fond of it at all. It didn't help that I went online looking for information on the series, and the more I read, the more Sue-ish the book seemed. I found this quote from Stephenie Meyer once -- I wish I remembered where it was! -- where someone had asked her if Edward was based on her husband. Her response was something like, "no, if my husband was like Edward, I wouldn't have had to create Edward."

I haven't read much this week, been too busy...but next week I'll be traveling a lot, so I got some books from the library today. :) Hopefully I'll be able to finish some.

[estarria.livejournal.com]

So far my impression of the Gormenghast books has been similar. I got Titus Groan at the used bookstore a while back, and read part of it. I always intend to come back and finish it, but I haven't yet, and it's been over a year. I keep hoping I'll find a character I like, but it takes so long for the story to get anywhere that I get impatient and switch books.

[fabricalchemist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree. I don't think I could have stuck with it if I hadn't seen the BBC miniseries first...I'm really a sucker for elaborate costumes DXD;;

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Come now. The point of HP is not the characterizations. Or working for a reward. (~_~) It's all the surface of world-building and fun.
I do need to look over The Half-Blood Prince again. It's the only one I didn't reread after the first time, since it was in the reread queue before the last at that point.
I like both your choices equally, or I'd suggest one or the other based on the other books I read by the author. I'll be glad to hear your thoughts on either come next week, or at my journal, I guess.

[(Anonymous)]

I like your icon.

I've been reading His Majesty's Dragon (recommended by y'all), The Death of the Necromancer (ditto) and Fer-de-lance.

I have Ironside, The Ionian Mission, Zahrah the Windseeker, Assassin's Apprentice, and Time of the Eagle on hold at the library.

The Abhorsen triology is really good. I like the first book the best, but the others are also excellent. (As is Across the Wall.) Never read Shade's Children. Or Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Should I?

~Feir Dearig

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

His Majesty's Dragon is excellent, IMHO. Throne of Jade and Black Powder War are, too. But you probably know that already. Empire of Ivory is coming soon... I can't wait!

The Abhornsen Trilogy is really good.... speaking of things I need to re-read. I actually didn't like the first book (Sabriel) very much--it was very highly recommended, so a couple summers ago I checked it out of the library... I liked it enough to finish, but not to re-read. (If you know how obsessively I re-read, that tells you about how much I liked it.) Sometime this spring, I was in the teen section of the library, looking for a couple books highly recommended to me... maybe you've heard of one of them, it's called The Thief, it's quite excellent ;)... and I saw the next in the series, Lirael. I thought, Hey, what the heck? I'll give it a try. LOVED IT. And Abhornsen? AMAZING.

I just finished Cordelia's Honor an hour or two ago. Tonight, I'll dive back into Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem. Reading the series slightly out of order has actually worked really well for me.

I'm rather starved here at home for people to discuss books with, its very nice to be able to come here and read about what people are reading, and write about what I've been reading.... :D :D :D

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a must if you have any taste for Regency-era literature at all (Austen, Eliot, etc.) and like fantasy.

In other words, yes.

Thanks. I'm fond of this one, myself. I use it as my "cool" icon even where the Thief isn't going to be recognized, because, c'mon. It has the word viper on it.
Definitely a winner.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

I read that comment and was like, huh, sounds like something I should see (^_^). While your description of the book made me laugh in understanding. Never looked at the books myself but...

And then you top it off with a Lion King lyric icon juxtaposed so well visually.
Thanks so much for joining us today. That's like three smile-points for you.

(Hey, that sounds like an awesome online currency for something or other. Ack.)

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

I loved Sabriel, didn't care much for Lirael, and didn't read past the first chapter of Abhorsen. Of course, I was in high school then. Perhaps I should give them another try. :D

I'm also super excited for Empire of Ivory. And for the movie! I hope Peter Jackson actually goes through with it...

And on the topic of dragons, this week I reread Guards, Guards. I love Terry Pratchett. The Watch has some of my favorite characters ever!

[jazzfish]

they're really just a gratutious and celebratory use of words woven together in a glacial and epic story

Sounds like you should maybe try _Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell_. It's less epic than Gormenghast but the way the words are woven is very yum.

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that tendency in myself, too, to be annoyed with GURL POWER characters. I've never felt any sense of oppression (and I grew up reading books with all-male casts, like Tolkien and Kipling, and loving 'em) and so when I read books that are all about girls proving themselves better than everyone else, I get a little frustrated. I guess this happens especially when the only way a girl can prove she's awesome is to act like a boy and/or beat the boys at whatever they do. It seems that one of the really negative sides of the feminism movement, both in life and in literature, is to totally disregard everything that's wonderful about womanhood in favor of just becoming men with breasts.

This is why I really liked Jane. Her compassion, her practicality, and her intuition, all really made me feel like she was a real girl--that she wasn't just competing with the boys, but that she was a character in her own right. She's the real hero of Greenwitch, after all--and, I could argue, of Silver on the Tree.

My favorite character is still Will, of course. But Jane and Bran are really high up there. >D

[tiloo.livejournal.com]

haha, everyone should read Death Note! Graphic novels by Tsugumi Ohba!
Very good and it is very much worth the read. In a way, the main carachtor (Light) reminds me a bit of Gen, but just a little bit.

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

...I hope Light reminds you of Gen in the brilliant-schemer sort of way, and not in any of the other multitude of ways. *shudders*

I read Death Note for L. Light just scares me.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Specify for me.
What's its atmospheric bent? Its style? Its concept?

We are demanding readers here. We need more bait, please. ^_^

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

I had to read Abhorsen. Lirael never finished! So you probably do want to read the rest of it. If I remember correctly Abhorsen's first chapter was a major shocker...? Anyway. I think it gets better.

I liked Sabriel better because the story's not my style, but getting into the world was fun. (That's pretty much the only draw for me with Garth Nix.)