I got a book about reader advisory and I liked the author’s idea of the five-book challenge. She had a list of 5 books in each type. I had read the romance, horror, and fantasy books but otherwise, I didn’t do so well.
It made me want to make a list of books I’d suggest for each type. I also decided that I need to read more nonfiction since I could barely think of any books.
A fun and pointless project! (except that maybe I’ll read more nonfiction)
In preparation for watching this movie, I got a the book by John Buchan. It’s a classic spy novel. It has thrilled generations of readers. It’s short.
But I couldn’t read it. I think my problem was that I wanted the character to try to achieve a goal in a dogged manner.
This guy was bored at the book’s beginning and I guess his goal was to have fun. Not sure. He desperately travels in one direction and then returns to his original point. He makes elaborate plans and then dumps them and does something dumb. I think I simply don’t understand it.
The movie was enjoyable though. Hitchcock takes on the tale of the innocent man, hounded by authorities. It was tense when appropriate and funny in between times. The vibe between the hero and the love interest was a little weird. The ending made very little sense to me but I thought it worked on an emotional level.
The best part was the special features. Much of it was promotional material for the movie that relied heavily on the relationship of the two leads. Here are some of my favorite taglines.
tagline: she was fated to be mated to the man she hated.
tagline: he was the man who put the Man in roMANce
tagline: girl’s eye view of a cave man lover
Castle Waiting by Linda Medley. I am definitely going to buy this book.
Sleeping Beauty abandons her castle and all the people who had fallen under the curse. Some remain in the castle and take in lost causes. A young woman named Jain travels there to take refuge from a bad home life.
There are an abundance of great characters and interesting stories, all encouraging a broad acceptance of people. I liked the gentleness and humor of the stories as well.
Seven Seasons of Buffy ed. Glenn Yeffeth
My two favorite essays were Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s Lions, Gazelles, and Buffy and Sherrilyn Kenyon’s The Search for Spike’s Balls. I rather enjoyed the idea of the Buffy/lioness culling the vampire/gazelle herd to ensure the remainder qualified to survive. And although I didn’t think of it, Buffy and her men did have inverse relationships of power.
Child of Faerie, Child of Earth by Josepha Sherman.
I read this book years and years ago, and when I found it in the library, I had to get it. I think it’s based on a fairy tale found in one of Andrew Lang’s color books. A beautiful young woman is hated by her new stepmother. The stepmother is very ugly (her nickname is Toad) and she practices the Black Arts. The protagonist of the story would be in a lot of trouble except the Queen of Fairies’ son has fallen in love with her and vows to protect her.
There is a lot of subtext of the adolescent pull between following parental and social guidelines and discovering your own power. It is extremely charming, although less compelling now that I’m at least twenty years older now.
Autumn in Scotland by Karen Ranney.
An English bride is deserted by her husband after one week. She decides to travel to her husband’s castle in Scotland, only to discover that it is empty and nearly abandoned. She stays there to avoid returning to London in disgrace.
Eventually, her husband comes back but he has changed quite a bit since she last saw him. It’s very Return of Martin Guerre.
Very entertaining but not exactly believable. I was more interesting in the subplot with the Asian friend who tags along with the husband. I really wish that the story had been about him instead.
Eyes in the Storm by Jeff Smith. This series gets better and better for. The first book introduces the main characters, the second book develops the story arc; and the third one starts it all rolling.
Bone and his friends have somewhat recovered from the Great Cow Race but things are about to get interesting. Thorn starts having strange dreams and begins to search for answers about them, Bone’s cousins have to face the music with some trouble they started in Book 2, and Bone’s crush on Thorn gets progressively worse.
I like that Grandma is such a strong character despite being old and a woman. I like it that humor is thrown in when I least expect it. I like the mystery and angst. I like that Bone loves his Moby Dick. And the rat creature creep me out.
Zinnia by Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz). Back-story: frozen humans travel space; their ship wakes them up when it finds a viable planet; the ship begins to malfunction and all humanity’s knowledge is on the verge of being lost; humans frantically try to save everything they can but much is lost.
Over time, humans develop an odd social structure and certain psi abilities make themselves manifest. Humans with these abilities are useful but considered frightening and almost substandard. Some humans have matrix powers and can see patterns in numbers, weather, art forgeries and so on. However, they need a prism person to focus their powers.
The story of this book is that a woman who is deemed unmatchable in her society because of her prism powers meets a man who is a strong matrix. There is murder, scandal, ambition, sex and a cult. It was pretty entertaining. I wish more futuristic romances were like this.
Rational Magic: The Comics Get Serious has not been updated recently. However, it was one of my favorite comics guides ever. The site owner, D. Aviva Rothschild also wrote a book about graphic novels which I highly recommend.
She does have an archived section of reviews still available, and if you are looking for some thoughtful comments on comics, take a look.
We played Loot! a pirate card game which is more fun if there are a lot of people. It’s a lot like war when there are two or three players. It’s a good large party game like Apples to Apples or Lupus in Tabula.
We played Frog Juice a little. I have to admit I felt like I was in the middle of The Court Jester. They kept telling me not to put the brew that is true in the chalice with the palace. But it seemed fun and I want to try it again.
We also played ImaginIff which I happened to be very good at. Possibly because I have no original thoughts? Anyway, that was pretty good too. I think I agree with my brother that including imaginary players would make it better. I’m afraid there were a few hurt feelings too from some of the players. Oh well.
Moonlit Garden
