What Are You Reading in December?

It's a new month!

I've just read and reviewed the The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge, a story told by the five men who died in the Scott expedition to the South Pole.

I'm reading And If I Perish, about frontline nurses in WWII. Excellent so far (halfway done).

I'm halfway through the second Vorkosigan omnibus, Young Miles, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Definitely a cut above your standard space opera (of which I am very fond, but it's nice to read a really good one).

I keep planning to read some Lois McMaster Bujold but never get around to it. Do you have to start at the beginning?
At present I'm reading 4 books by men, pretty doggone unusual for me, but I'll get back to women soon.

>4 Citizenjoyce:: I started with A civil campaign, which apparently is not supposed to be a good place to start the series (it's a late title). But there was enough backstory given that, although I was clearly being dropped into the middle of an ongoing storyline, I was able to follow events without being confused. I chose to start with that particular novel because it is an acknowledged hommage to the works of Austen, Sayers and Heyer. And I absolutely loved it - it had me almost crying with laughter in places, and loving the characters whole-heartedly. However, you might want to start at the beginning with the Cordelia books, as she is an awesome leading lady - Miles takes over the rest of the series.

I was wrong. I am reading (and will be for some time) a book by a woman, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Since it's a book about men I forgot that it's by a woman. Very interesting so far - an alternate history of Britain and the Napoleonic wars with magic.

Thanks for the info about Bujold, Sakerfalcon. My library system doesn't have Cordelia so I looked to see what they had in audio, I have about 1 1/2 hr a day to listen to audiobooks while I'm at the dog park. When I finish my current batch I'll start with The Warrior's Apprentice.

I'm listening to The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood) on audiobook and finding it to be great fun! In paper, I'm reading Away by Jane Urquhart. As with all her books, it's not an easy read, but when I slow down and concentrate, I find it so beautiful (even though currently I'm at the part where the Irish are dying in the potato famine).

Citizenjoyce, come back and let us know what you thought of Jonathan Strange. It's one of my favorite books, but I think it's very much a matter of personal taste.

Also reading a book about men by a woman: Troublesome Young Men, about Neville Chamberlain and Britain's appeasement and the politics early in the war.

#8 Yeah, I did finish Jonathan Strange, but for the life of me I couldn't tell what people considered so appealing about it. The writing was great, but the story didn't go anywhere meaningful to me. I couldn't even get through The Magicians by Lev Grossman at all, so maybe I just don't have a taste for literary fantasy.

I told people Atwood had lost her mojo a little with Oryx and Crake, and then came The Year of the Flood, and I took it all back.

Someone used the God's Gardners hymns as the basis for an album. http://www.amazon.com/Hymns-Gods-Gardeners-Lyrics-Flood/dp/B002OJGGJY

Finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I liked it very much in a cerebral way.

I told people Atwood had lost her mojo a little with Oryx and Crake, and then came The Year of the Flood, and I took it all back.

Oryx and Crake was the first Atwood I ever read and I liked it a lot. But then I went on to read most of her other books, and I saw that it wasn't nearly her best. So I wasn't in a hurry to read The Year of the Flood--especially since it has its share of "meh" reviews. Surprise, surprise--I think it's fabulous!

Someone used the God's Gardners hymns as the basis for an album. http://www.amazon.com/Hymns-Gods-Gardeners-Lyrics-Flood/dp/B002OJGGJY

Well now, isn't that interesting. I'm listening to The Year of the Flood on audio book, and all of these songs are on it. I was quite impressed, and it really makes the God's Gardeners so real. These songs remind me of the swaying, guitar-strumming sing-a-longs at church youth group. I'm not sure WHY someone would buy this, but I'm glad it exists. Thanks for sharing that!

Finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I liked it very much in a cerebral way.

I really need to get to this, so I'm glad to hear it's good. A friend lent me her copy last year, but I've been stalling. I think it's the length--I really like a nice 200 page book.

I'm so happy to hear good things about The Year of the Flood. I was so unimpressed with Oryx and Crake that I had no desire to read it, now I will.
Today I started A Discovery of Witches for my RL book club. I'm liking it except for the idea of yet another woman giving up tremendous power in order to appear normal. Why would a woman write such an idea? Are there books in which men give up their power in order to appear normal? In a way, this is the same reason I hated The Art of Racing in the Rain because the dog hates being a dog and wants only to be human. If a book can't show that life can be worthwhile lived as the person we truly are, then what good is it?

I'm so happy to hear good things about The Year of the Flood. I was so unimpressed with Oryx and Crake that I had no desire to read it, now I will.

I think my past experience with evangelicals has added greatly to my appreciation for what Atwood is doing with the God's Gardeners. YMMV.

Atwood's views on religion are interesting. She poked fun at Unitarians in a couple of novels (I think "Bodily Harm" and "The Edible Woman"). She hammered fundamentalists in "The Handmaid's Tale."

Bill Moyer's interview with Atwood on religion is on YouTube, starting with Part 1 here (warning: I had trouble with the sound):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMrz_ivl8jo

citizenjoyce, sorry for the late reply, but The Warrior's Apprentice is an excellent starting point. I did start at the very beginning (with Cordelia's Honor), but I can see either being good starting points.

My local sci-fi/fantasy specialist bookshop has the omnibus editions - Cordelia's Honor is the first two Cordelia books (Shards of Honor and Barrayar), then Young Miles starts the Miles Vorkosigan thread with Warrior's Apprentice, The Mountains of Mourning and The Vor Game.

All have been quite excellent, only The Vor Game did rely on a large number of coincidences and I got lost in the battle scenes. Not my favourite of the series so far, but still a mostly fun read.

I'm currently supposed to be reading There Should be More Dancing for bookgroup, but it's not grabbing me in the first few pages. (You know how some books open in the middle of a whole bunch of characters and you have to piece the relationships together from what's going on? I'm over it.)

So I've allowed myself to get distracted by The Dragon of Og by Rumer Godden. Great fun, wish I'd known about this when I was younger. :) I originally picked it up from the library for Miss Boo, but it was a bit tricky for her. But then again yesterday, she picked up The Curse of the Thirteenth Fey by Jane Yolen, which is *well* above her, but she wouldn't be dissuaded. So, she made a good first attempt yesterday afternoon, but then we decided I'd read it to her at bedtime, and we started again at the beginning. And it's definitely for much more advanced readers! But I'm loving it, so even if she gives up (and we return to Harry Potter), I'll continue. :)

And still reading The Silver Door by Emily Rodda to Mr Bear. He can pick up the plot flaws (I'm very proud of him), but we're having fun still.

So that's what? 5 books on the boil? All by women? I'm slightly boggled, usually I read many more bloke books...

>13 Citizenjoyce:: I'll be very interested in your thoughts on A discovery of witches when you get further into the book. I had many issues with it.

I'm finishing At Last, the final installment in the Patrick Melrose series by Edward St. Aubyn. Very good series, but I recommend reading them straight through so you don't forget the prodigious cast of characters and their relations.

I'm reading The Nightmare by Lars Kepler, the pen name for a literary couple ... so, half girly? It's the second novel in a series of crime fiction out of Sweden, meaning it will inevitably be compared to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo even though they are quite different books.

Sweetie, NPR had a really interesting interview with the couple known as Lars Kepler, as well as an overview of Swedish crime noir which is enjoying a lot of popularity there and worldwide.

> 20 Cool, I'll have to look out for that. Was it recent?

Ah, I think perhaps I found it. Was this it? http://www.npr.org/2011/07/11/137711860/the-authors-behind-the-author-of-the-hyp...

BBC4 has also had a fascinating series of podcasts on European crime lately, called "Foreign Bodies" and available through iTunes (and probably elsewhere, but that's where I sourced them). There was another literary couple, who wrote the Martin Beck series, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. They sounded fascinating. The series is worth a listen to, if you like crime. (And if you don't mind your wishlist being blown out.)

Hearing about Lynda La Plante's "Prime Suspect" was a great episode for me, I hadn't realised how groundbreaking it was, having a female DCI.

I just started The Romantic by Barbara Gowdy. Not sure what it's even about yet, but it was nominated for the Booker and the Commonwealth prize, so I hope it's good.

The Cutting Season by Attica Locke. Who-dun-it in which the African-American manager of an antebellum plantation/museum must cope with a murder mystery.

Suggestions of Southern gothic and secrets to be revealed abound. I hope they're headspinners, given that the pacing is a bit pokey. But generally enjoyable.

I finished A Discovery of Witches which was written by a historical scholar about a woman who has a PhD in history yet acts throughout like a petulant 15 year old who revels in being controlled by her ancient, super-controlling vampire lover. It's like Twilight for people who want to pretend they're reading adult literature. I see the 2nd in the trilogy Shadow of Night is on some Best of 2012 lists, though nothing would make me read more of this sexist drivel.
I also finished Interview With the Vampire which was probably ground breaking at the time, I certainly did like the movie, but it's pretty dated and boring now.

26> Congratulations on finishing A Discovery of Witches. I couldn't! Here's my review (rather generously 1*).

I'm crossing A Discovery of Witches off my wishlist...

Gave up on There Should be More Dancing, I just couldn't get engaged by the plot or the characters. Decided there were better things in life.

"Better" is probably not a good word to describe Cassandra Clare's City of Fallen Angels, but it was huge fun. Angsty teenage fantasy romance. Probably not good for my IQ, but a great fun read, I'm quite embarrassingly addicted to this series.

And am now nearing the end of Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, a 40 year old sci fi novel by Kate Wilhelm which reads as if it was written just recently. Soft apocalypse brought about by lack of oil and climate change, anyone? It's a great read though, I'm sorry I'd never heard of Wilhelm before, apparently she's been mostly writing mysteries of late. (Oooh, and The Book Depository tells me she's got an omnibus of three of her sci-fi works coming out in 225 days! Yay!)

>26 Citizenjoyce:, 27: My thoughts exactly, regarding Discovery of witches. I've seen reviews that say what a strong independent heroine Diana is - which book were they reading? And the two-page description of a new riding hat, followed several paragraphs where Matthew is helping Diana to put her riding boots on - gah! I'm glad I'm not alone in having hated this book.

29> Where's Stella Gibbons when we need her?

just finished The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Lovely storytelling :)

also finished Twisted Flicks by Jessica Zafra. she's always a fun read for me.

and just wanted to add...i read annabel by Kathleen Winter a couple of months back...and im still reeling from the after effects...

26,27,29 > i read a a discovery of witches and loved it :( dont shun me...

#32, Never!

I had never even heard of A Discovery of Witches, but I confess I read all four "Twilight" books, though I had to skip over large swaths that got boggy, just to see what the fuss is about.

A young woman colleague dragged me aside not long ago to confess that she had become obsessed with 50 Shades of Grey and wanted me to explain what was wrong with her. She was quite upset about it, being a liberated and assertive person, and she certainly did not want her husband to act like Grey.

Is it because these books are written by women that make them popular as "acceptable" erotica? Do these books "grab" women in a way that porn written by men cannot, even if they seem silly or even repellent on a rational level?

I think these are interesting questions. Even more interesting that women often shut down conversations about them by dismissing them as awful or degrading or whatnot.

Your friend may want to learn more about BDSM. If she grew "obsessed" with the topic, then something about it must attract or intrigue her. I have a friend who's into that scene, she recommends Screw the roses, send me the thorns as a starter book for beginners and the curious.

I haven't read 50 shades and don't plan to, but I've seen samples of the prose in a handful of reviews and plenty of negative posts about it. What I don't understand is how anyone with any love for language and literature can bear to read it. It's not the topic, not even the attitudes (which I understand are thoroughly dated and anti-feminist, as were Twilight's), it's that basic transgression against adult-level literacy that bothers me the most.

Considering practically all of literature since time immemorial showcases some kind of subjugation of women, surely there must be books like that that are actually well-written?

Lola, there were some hilariously dreadful touches in the Twilight series, but my favorite was in the fourth book where the vampires' conspicuous consumerism is forgiven because THEY GIVE THEIR OUTDATED COUTURE TO GOODWILL. Yes, they do. I kept imagining them as country club Republicans who lived forever after that.

Some magazine or other printed the 10 naughtiest bits of "50 Shades," and they didn't sound that naughty, but I really couldn't get a sense of how the book overall was written, so can't speak to its style.

I just Pearl Ruled a book that many people seem to love, Storm Front by a man, Jim Butcher. He seems to think that being sexist can be cute and charming. The main character, Dresden, calls female vampires vampiresses, he is so insistent on opening doors for women that he races his lieutenant to the door so that he can do so even though she doesn't want him to. The piece de resistance for me was that he proclaims that the perpetrator of a particularly heinous magical murder must be a woman because only a woman could hate so strongly and direct that hatred so completely. I think he must have missed several thousand years of human history in which we see which sex is best able to act on their hatred. Speaking of which, I just read a quote by Margaret Atwood: Men are afraid women will laugh at them, women are afraid men will murder them.
On a better note, I just finished the wonderful The Warrior's Apprentice and have a new favorite science fiction writer. I've also just started The Round House and am drawn again into Louise Erdrich's wonderful storytelling. I particularly like that the book begins with a 13 year old boy's mother being brutally raped. When the boy is in the hospital with the family he asks what happened to his mother and they actually tell him that she was raped and explain what rape is. Wow. Is this because the book is about Native Americans? I can imagine in many books they would tell him that his mother had been attacked or even more euphemistically that she had been hurt. I'm really liking this one.

im glad i can come out here and say...i did read all twilight books! :p i found it enjoyable...albeit in an absurd, wanna-smack-bella, what-the-heck-vampires-dont-shine kinda way :) *guilty pleasure*

in my defense, i havent watched the films (*yet*)

50 shades...a definite maybe for me :p you know, just to see what the fuss is all about :p not anytime soon, tho...

36> your jim butcher story reminded me of something i heard many years ago from a movie called m.butterfly:

Song Liling: Comrade! Why in Beijing opera are woman's roles traditionally played by men?
Comrade Chin: I don't know. Most probably a remnant of the reactionary and patriarchal social structure.
Song Liling: No. It's because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act.

makes my head spin!

a bit of context *SPOILER ALERT*SPOILER ALERT* Song Liling is a man disguised as a woman full time to spy on the french for the chinese.

>32 riida:: Life would be boring if we all liked the same books! It's always good to have new people around to discuss them with.

>38 Sakerfalcon:, :D

#35

Why, that's... PRICELESS! ;)

There was a Goodwill on the Upper East Side with frocks costing in high hundreds. I had to stick to the plebeian chic of Banana Republic and suchlike...

#36

only a woman could hate so strongly and direct that hatred so completely

That's precious, and truly ancient. "Hell hath no fury..." etc., the Bible's full of it (in fact, I'd say look there first for all the Great Classics of Misogyny).

Margaret Atwood: Men are afraid women will laugh at them, women are afraid men will murder them.

Truth.

Lola, I'd say it's a safe bet that your Goodwill is a popular vampire drop-off point. Does it have late night hours?

Joyce, I'm guessing that Atwood quote is going to show up on a lot of FB pages today.

That's where I got it.

I read V Is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton, more or less because I've been reading her alphabet series since she started in the early 80s.

Merry Christmas all! Hope we've all had a great holiday.

I just finished Wonders of the Invisible World, a collection of short stories by Patricia A. McKillip, mostly fantasy in nature, and quite excellent, all the stories were good, no duds amongst the collection. Interesting essay at the end too, about her inspiration.

And because I'm about to start book #100 for the year, I thought I might go out with a bang and *finally* read Out of Africa.

Out of Africa is an awesome book. Good choice for the big #100. Congrats!

I've read and reviewed Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Round House, a compulsively readable coming of age story with crime, injustice, and revenge thrown in.

I did love The Round House and found it very well written, also very appropriate at this time when republicans refuse to vote for the domestic violence act because they don't want Native American courts to have rights over non Native Americans.
Reading it put me in mind of a book by a male author, Mystic River by Dennis Lehane, so I've started it on audio.
I also finished Cheryl Strayed's Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. Whew, what a body punishing journey that 1100 mile hike was. She writes it very well in the present time so you feel every bit of terror, strain and joy. I think it's good for women to realize that inhabiting their body can do a great deal toward resolving problems in their mind,

I read an essay by Cheryl Strayed several years ago in which she alluded to this trip in the context of how she came to terms with her mother's death after several harrowing years. I'm not sure I could read the whole book, but I do think she's an amazing writer.