Kevin's Watch

The Sci Fi section has a thread for books we have just acquired, but that leaves us with all our other books to gloat over, and no place to go. So here's one for the general library.

I made an ambitious trip to Powell's books yesterday. Here's my haul.

THE BURGLAR WHO STUDIED SPINOZA – Lawrence Block. I always stop for a slice of pizza on the way home after a big Powells trip, and this book seduced me while I was eating.
REMODELED TO DEATH – Valerie Wolzien. Suburban cozy series
WEDDINGS ARE MURDER – Valerie Wolzien. Same series
MOTHER OF STORMS – John Barnes. Sci fi about hurricanes, highly recommended by my sister, who met the author on a cruise.
ASSASSIN’S APPRENTICE – Robin Hobb. Fantasy author recommended by several people here, so I am trying her.
BLOOD MUSIC – Greg Bear. Sci fi about microbiology. Bear already has two stories on my Favorites shortlist for this year.
QUEEN OF ANGELS – Greg Bear. Sci fi about the nature of thought. Bear’s normal type of book is touted as being extremely complex and high-tech. The technology of thought?
REVELATION SPACE – Alastair Reynolds. Why was a civilization destroyed before it could get out into space?
DEATH OF KINGS – Philip Gooden. Elizabethan theater mystery, first of a series.
KING’S BLOOD – Judith Tarr. Fantasy about William II of England. Part of a series about the early Norman kings as magicians.
THE VIRGIN’S LOVER – Philippa Gregory. Novel about Elizabeth I and Leicester.

...and...

A FEAST FOR CROWS - George R.R. Martin. Universe, grant me time to read this!

WOW

How fast do you read!!!

Not fast enough. Besides, I've been hitting the library lately, and the latest Chelsea Quinn Yarbro book is being sent to me for review...

I will leave somebody a large unread library when I die. In the meantime, I have lots of options when I come to choose.

Another market day, another bargain:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss, only £3.50 and good as new (as was Curious Incident... last time I bought from the YUSU market)

I've always wanted to buy Eats, Shoots and Leaves . Sounded pretty funny.

REVELATION SPACE – Alastair Reynolds. Why was a civilization destroyed before it could get out into space?

Oooh, that sound interesting. Let us know if it's any good when you're done reading!

Alynna wrote:I've always wanted to buy Eats, Shoots and Leaves . Sounded pretty funny.

It's pretty interesting. Makes me want to go through my novel-in-progress and check all the commas and semicolons, though, heh.

Assuming a sentence rises into the air with the initial capital letter and lands with a soft-ish bump at the full stop, the humble comma can keep the sentence aloft all right, like this, UP, for hours if necessary, UP, like this, UP, sort-of bouncing, and then falling down, and then UP it goes again, assuming you have enough additional things to say, although in the end you may run out of ideas and then you have to roll along the ground with no commas at all until some sort of surface resistance takes over and you run out of steam anyway and then eventually with the help of three dots ... you stop.

LOL

THE VIRGIN’S LOVER – Philippa Gregory. Novel about Elizabeth I and Leicester.

That one is also in my TBR stack. I loved Gregory's other two books set in the Tudor courts, The Other Bolyen Girl and The Queen's Fool. I do not know of any other writer, other than George Martin, who does political intrigue, backstabbing, and power grabbing in a royal court so well.

Just saw part of The Virgin Queen on PBS last night... and now I'm kinda intrigued by Elizabeth. Might have to pick up The Virgin's Lover. I take it that this is historical fiction?

It is historical fiction. Elizabeth makes great copy, whether news or story. One thing you don't want to do is believe what you see in the movie "Elizabeth," the one that starred Cate Blanchett. It was only vaguely based on Elizabeth and Walsingham and Leicester -- just about everything else was wrong.

Duchess, if you like the Tudors, don't miss THIS SCEPTER'D ISLE and ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT. Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis are writing the sequel now. These two are historical fantasy, and among my very favorite reads this year.

Just purchased Milton's Paradise Lost (illustrated edition, with introduction by Philip Pullman).

And now One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Le Mort D'Arthur.

Received for Christmas

THE SERPENT ON THE CROWN – Elizabeth Peters
Historical Mystery, popular series set in WWI Egypt
SCRATCH THE SURFACE – Susan Conant
Mystery, Dog-Lovers Series
THE SAND-RECKONER – Gillian Bradshaw
Historical Novel about Archimedes
CORDELIA’S HONOR – Lois McMaster Bujold
Sci Fi recommended by Duchess
THE PARAFAITH WAR – L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Sci Fi recommended by Edge
THE DRAGON WAITING – John Maddox Ford
Historical Fantasy recommended by Fist
DEAD MAN’S HAND – George R.R. Martin & John J. Miller
Wild Cards VII

and 3 out-of-print romances under Jayne Ann Krentz's sci fi pen name Jayne Castle:
DOUBLE DEALING
TRADING SECRETS
CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Wow Dragonlily - what else did you get for Christmas? That is a lot of books!
This year was minor (since last year was when I got my signed copy of Runes). I got the "Memoirs of a Geisha" that was made into a movie this year -- my kids are into the 'anything Asian' they love reading manga or about marshal arts...
( I tried to post this and got a 'Mallory's Glitch' ~ trying again.)

THE DRAGON WAITING – John Maddox Ford is a GREAT book. The next book I want to get is Nicholas Evan's The Divide. He gets better with every book, from the beautiful The Horse Whisperer to the awesome The Loop (if you love wolves you must read The Loop!).

So YOU'RE the one who recommended it long ago, Danlo. Fist said it wasn't him, and I couldn't find it in Search. Thank you, I knew from your description I wanted it.

khatalenabwraith wrote:Wow Dragonlily - what else did you get for Christmas?

Season 6 of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

danlo wrote:THE DRAGON WAITING – John Maddox Ford is a GREAT book. The next book I want to get is Nicholas Evan's The Divide. He gets better with every book, from the beautiful The Horse Whisperer to the awesome The Loop (if you love wolves you must read The Loop!).

Is that the one with the Black Elk quote in the beginning that you and I have both posted before?

You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood and so it is in everything where power moves.

I think I will print this out and take it with me to the library, I need to get my kids out of the house this week, I think they would like to check out a few good reads as well. I need to get them away from the computer or TV.

Just picked up another Carl Hiaasen book, Powder Burn. Haven't started it yet though, but no doubt it'll be as blackly funny as his others.

--A

Gads! I wish I had the time to read like that! Too any other hobbies too.
A book a month is what I manage...