Lorena2007BookRoll

From wsuwiki

Lorena's 2007 Book Roll: A Reading Log with Random Annotations

This is an incomplete list of most of the books I've been reading in 2007 (you can see my incomplete lists from 2006 and 2005 as well). A discussion page is available here.

The Year of Living Biblically / A.J. Jacobs. Nonfiction ; ethnographic memior (?). Personal copy (advance reader/review copy).

The Professor's Daugher / Joann Sfar & Emmanuael Guibert. Fiction, graphic novel ; personal collection. Victorian professor's daughter falls in love with a mummy. Wonderful art - I love one image of Imhotep IV in particular that recalls those jaunty photos of FDR smoking a cigarette. Wildly fun, but not for the overly faint of heart! From the jacket, "Murder, adventure, mystery, kidnapping, Queen Victoria tossed in the Thames - what more could you ask for?"

The Madonnas of Leningrad / Debra Dean. Fiction ; personal collection.

Queen & Country Declassified Volume 3: Sons & Daughters / Anthony Johnston & Christopher J. Mitten. Fiction, graphic novel, spy thriller ; personal collection.

Windshield Wilderness: Cars, Roads, and Nature in Washington's National Parks / David Louter. Nonfiction ; personal collection.

Disappearing Nightly / Laura Resnik. Fiction, supernatural fantasy ; personal collection.

No Humans Involved / Kelly Armstrong. Fiction, supernatural thriller ; Neill Public Library. Mark brought this one home and I read it too - Celebrity medium (and real-life necromancer) Jaime Vegas gets involved in a supernatural mystery when she gets a gig as a television medium. Some characters from Armstrong's other "Otherworld" novels appear. I must say, this book's title is dumb!

Piece of Work / Laura Zigman. Fiction, chick lit; Neill Public Library.

Queen & Country: Operation Broken Ground / Greg Rucka & Steve Rolston et cal Queen & Country: Operation Morningstar / Greg Rucka & Brian Hurtt et al Queeen & Country: Operation Crystal Ball / Greg Rucka & Leandro Fernandez Queen & Country: Operation Dandelion / Greg Rucka & Mike Hawthorne Fiction, graphic novels/trade paperbacks, spy fiction; personal collection. I had heard good things about this series, and finally bought the first one. Now I am addicted...

Five-Twelfths of Heaven/Silence in Solitude/The Empress of Earth // Melissa Scott. Science fiction; personal collection. I read these years ago and reread them (and re-bought them) after finding the first on sale at Bookman's in Tucson. Silence is a star-traveller, a female pilot in a system that does not approve of women star travellers. She marries 2 other star travellers to gain her freedom - adventures ensue, and she finds she has the talents of a mage. The quest for the lost planet Earth (sorta lost, that is) is the overall theme, and the magic system (and piloting system) is really cool, involving musical harmonics and symbology.

Moonrise / Mitchell Smith. Sciece fiction/fantasy, after-the-climate-apocolypse ; personal collection.

High Rhymes and Misdemeanors: A Poetic Death Mystery / Diana Killian. Fiction, mystery  ; Neill Public Library.

Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte. Fiction, romance ; Neill Public Library.

Infidel / Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nonfiction, autobiography. WSU Libraries DJ 292 .H57 A3 2007.

Jaran; An Earthly Crown; His Conquering Sword; The Law of Becoming/ Kate Elliot. Fiction, fantasy. Personal collection.

In the Palace of Repose / Holly Phillips. Fiction, fantasy short stories ; personal collection.
A collection of "dark fantasy" stories. I liked the namesake (what *is* the term for a short story title that is also the title of the collection? I forget...[update: eponyous?]) story the best...it made me want to read a longer story set in that world.

A Company of Swans / Eva Ibbotson. Fiction, romance ; Neill Public Library.

Mixed Magics: Four Tales of Chrestomanci / Diana Wynne Jones. Fiction, fantasy ; Neill Public Library.

Blood Bound / Patricial Briggs. Fiction, supernatural ; personal Collection.

A Countess Below Stairs / Eva Ibbotson. Fiction, romance; Personal collection (pre-publication reader's copy). This book was published in 1981 - I think I first read it in the late '80s. The publisher's rep who gave the book to me at the recent Midwinter meeting of the American Library Association told me that they were re-issuing Ibbotson's romances for the Young Adult market - an excellent idea. Her books are warm, romantic, and wildly fun. This one is about a young Russian noblewoman who flees to England with her family after the Bolshevik Revolution. She ends up as a housemaid in a country house, and of course brings light and life to everyone. Most of Ibbotson's romance novels have some sort of ballet and/or musical connection/name check - this one periphally brings in the Ballet Russe.

Deus Ex Machina (Animal Man, Book 3) / Grant Morrison & Artists-I-have-to-look-up. Graphic novel/comic compilation. Personal Collection.
Buddy Baker can take on the characteristics of any animal. This sequence of comics from - the 1980s is totally cool - Morrison breaks the "fourth wall" in a way that is still new and fresh. And great art, too!

Iron Sunrise / Charles Stross. Fiction, science fiction; Neill Public Library.
The second in what is clear is a series. Intelligence from beyond sends a big chunk of humanity away to other planets and back in time. Hundreds of years later, a world is fried thorugh some major illegal WMD - and the perpetuator is unknown. The iron sunset is the shockwave from the planet's explosion that is moving through space. Actually, the book focuses on a few characters who are trying to find the answers to what happened - I found it an enjoyable read.

The Dream-Maker's Magic / Sharon Shinn. Fiction, fantasy; Neill Public Library.

Plain Jane / ??. Fiction, biographical; Neill Public Library.
An OK retelling of the story of Jane Seymour (wife #3 of England's King Henry VIII), but - and I know this may sound odd - the author used too many one-sentance paragraphs. I guess I wasn't really that involved with the book if I noticed this enough to bother me!

Restoring Grace / Katie Fforde. Fiction, chick-lit; Neill Public Library.

Alpha / Catherine Asaro. Fiction, science fiction; Neill Public Library.

The Complete Ivory: The Gate of Ivory / Two-Bit Heroes / Guilt-Edged Ivory. Ficiton, SFF; personal collection
Another for my collection of academic/scholar romance. Theodora of Pyrene is born on a utilitarian planet, escapes to the academic world of Athena, and ends up marooned on the magical world of Ivory.

Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide / Henry Jenkins. Nonfiction; WSU Libraries P 94.65 U6 J46 2006.
used to think of convergence as something that meant that I could interact with what was on the television. The growth andinsideous integration of the Internet has changed my perspective, but Jenkin's book gave me entirely new insights. He looks at convergence through the lens of six case studies: the TV show Survivor and its spoilers; American Idol ; the Matrix movies and associated phenomena and the concept of transmedia storytelling; Star Wars and fandom; the Harry Potter wars surrounding both fan fiction and allegations of occult machinations; and PhotoShop, MeetUp and the 2004 presidential election. This book was a fascinating read (I read it on New Year's Day, even!), but the thing that I really took away from it is the question Jenkins asks about what happens when people who have these rich convergence/participant experiences enter school (and, of course, the work place!). Probably more significant in terms of K-12, but there are major implications for higher education as well -- and, of course, libraries.