I am reading Tam Lin by Pamela Dean. It's an excellent book, but what I find really neat is this: when Pamela was in college in 1970 (just like the heroine of her book), Tam Lin the movie was out in theaters. I'd like to propose the theory that in 1970, young college girl Pamela Dean started writing a Tam Lin AU fanfic. And twenty years later, she had dusted it off and/or rewrote it for the 1,000th time, and finally got it published.

Next on my list: The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope, which, I am told by Wikipedia, is another retelling of Tam Lin..


**

I think everyone should have read it. It's just... excellent. I mean, Simak is mostly known for writing hard sci fi. But he also made a couple of (rather crappy, IMO) attempts at fantasy. With virgins. And unicorns, seriously. But Goblin Reservation is a perfectly balanced mix of the two. It has space travel, alien technology & culture(s), but also time travel, ghosts, goblins, a murder mystery, and the coolest happy ending to EVER have been written.

I've started reading Aurora Teagarden Series. I have Real Murders, but am reading A Bone to Pick, because I thought that was the first one... Charlaine Harris = still pretty awesome.

I thought a scream of joy would echo up the elevator shaft, so I quietly but esctatically said, "Heeheeheeheehee," all the way down and did a little jig before the doors opened on the marble lobby.

Just read The Long Way Home. It was at times a little bit confusing, because I never read any of the Buffy comics than possibly came before, nor did I ever finish watching the last season of the show. But it was really good, too. It has the feel of the earlier seasons' Buffy, and I've missed that, and didn't even know it..

I think Buffy sort of addicted me to that format of fiction, where the hero(s) is almost normal and the their world is almost like ours, and there is witty repartee and cool hand-to-hand, and cool weapons, and cool bad guys, and each new book (or episode of a show) gives us more of the people we've come to like and care about.. I don't think I could go back to "meaningful and intelligent novel" type reading, where the author writes one things, makes her/his point, and then we'll never ever see the same characters or their world again.

So I finished reading PZB's Drawing Blood.

It ...turned out pretty good. I am not at all into the horror genre so I had a LOT of doubts, and I skipped bits and skimmed through the nightmarish sequences, but it turned out OK. It sort of read like the message of hope from an unhappy and slightly lost person, IMO.

Saw Ironside by Holly Black at the library a few weeks ago. Tried reading it, because I really liked her first two books and had been looking forward to this one. It wasn't for me. Or maybe just "wrong place, wrong time", who knows. Just.. the idea of a girl going on a quest, for the sake of a man, did not appeal to me. Plus, it felt as if, instead of maturing, the main character has become more childish. *shrug*

I've discovered Poppy Z. Brite :)

Various people have recced her to me for years, and now I finally read Liquor, etc. It's awesome. I even like Value of X. I wish someone told me before that she was a slasher. Although, is it slash, if it's original characters, not created by someone else who intended them to be straight? :PP

I still have Prime & Soul Kitchen to read, so I am not sad yet.

Finally read The Harlequin, the latest Anita Blake book. It was not bad. Way less torturous dialogue and Anita!thoughts about the sex. There was mystery, plot, blood and even death. Anita didn't mouth off at any bad guys and kept all secrets to herself, mostly. She was even courteous. The customary long drawn-out scene where Richard starts same old argument while Anita and JC are in the middle of fighting Really Bad Guys? Was not even that long and drawn out. I was a little dissapointed at how many small things were left unresolved. But I guess that's what the next book is for, right?

Looking forward to the whole Asher/Anita/Nathaniel thing, so LKH better not dissapoint.

Finished reading White Night, the latest Harry Dresden book by Jim Butcher.

I forgot how much I love these books. They are witty and wise, and totally cool. Not too...anything, but just right.

I love the discussion of the anger issue. How anger is just another emotion and isn't either good or bad. How all emotions can be tools, and it's how one uses them that matters.

I'd been looking forward to this one for some time. ( cont. to the spoilerish mumblings )

I know I've posted before to say how much these books rule..

The series was recced to me a few years ago by various people, and I checked out the description on amazon.com and decided they weren't for me. I mean, another wizard named Harry?! Please! Vampires and werewolves and fairies all in one series, hmm, where have I seen this before... *mumbleanitablakemumble*.. Also? The idea of a wizard P.I. in modern-day Chicago? Almost as stupid as four cute guys living together, running a flower shop during the day and assassinating people at night.. or an ex-samurai who carries a reverse-blade sword and has red hair down to his ass :PP

..but Dresden Files are TOTALLY different from all other books about wizards, vampires, etc.. and they are cool, and witty, and inventive, and they work really well.. and everyone should read them!

I'm about to start the last Jultian Kestrel book, The Devil in Music. It makes me so sad to know there will be no more :(

Just finished reading Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross. It was sort of sad, and made even sadder when I did a search to look up the next Julian Kestrel book and instead found that the author died young recently from cancer :(

Read War for the Oaks. It was alright. But I will nit be re-reading.

Tithe by Holly Black was really good. Like, read without stopping to eat unitl finished and wish for more good.

I am obsessively reading Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. It's sort of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with the witty repartee and cool fighting with various evil creatures, except if Buffy and Giles were rolled into one person... really fills the void I didn't realise BtVS had left in its wake.

I just finished reading Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko. I suppose it had potential... if it hadn't been written by a Russian male psychiatrist deluding himself into thinking he is a philosopher. This is a badly translated (or badly written), meandering, vague SONGFIC. The writer never lets us get close to any of the characters. He presents them, and just as you start caring, he rips them away, never really allowing us to get to know ANYONE, not even the main characters. And the ending was totally dissapointing. After the beginning like that, I don't want to read the other four books.

Finished reading The Privilege of the Sword. I was a little bit afraid to read, because it's sort of a sequel to Swordpoint, but it's not about Alec and Richard. Even as I started reading it, I wasn't sure, because the women seemed silly or dull, and the men mean and snotty. But it turned out good in the end. There were loads of good moments. I wish some things were elabotated more, and things weren't so neatly done in some places, though. Good, but not as good as Swordpoint.

in a fit of curiocity, I had picked up Le Divorce (the book, not the movie) at the library while I was in NJ.. it was written very badly, and I thought it was dumb.. but now I am sort of curious about what happens in the story.. but perhaps not curious enough to get the copy from my library here..