Amysue's Read-o-rama

25-27

No time to really blog about them, but I've read:

So Yesterday and Peeps, by Scott Westerfield at the reccemendation of a commenter a couple of entries ago and they were wonderful.  I've requested more of his novels from my library.

His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik  This book really is a sort of Austen/O'Brien/Pern mashup and was a lot of fun.   The second in the series is out today and I'll pick it up asap.

And now for something completely different...

book 24, Alternatives To Sex, by Stephen McCauley.  I love McCauley's novels and this one is set close to the neighborhood in Cambridge that was my home for nearly 20 years.  It's a sweet story of one man's search for relevance and love as he approaches middle age.  Exquisitely written, my only regret is that I don't get to listen in on the protagonists life a few months or years after the novel ends.

A serendiptious 22 and 23

I stumbled on these books in Barnes and Noble and they looked intriguing so I picked them up at the library. Justine Larbalestier  has written two amazing books (Magic and Madness and Magic Lessons) that I have been unable to put down and intend to buy for my daughter to read.  They combine some of the very real problems of abuse, neglect and mental illness with the reality of magic existing in the world.  These are "YA" (hate that term) novels and the teenagers in them must face many obstacles and challenges that exist in the world we know and understand, with the added danger being that they themselves are magic and must either use they're magic abilities (and take years off their lives, often dying young) or suppress them (and descend into insanity).  The dilemma isn't all that strange to any teen who reads this or to adults who remember the intensity of our fears, emotions etc. when younger.

I'm looking forward to the next book and was pleasantly surprised by this little side trip on my reading journey this year.

20 and 21

Once again Diana Wynne Jones comes through with my most recent rereading of two of her Chrestomanci novels, Charmed Life and The Lives of Christopher Chant.  Still love these worlds and characters.