Fifty Book Update
Sep. 23rd, 2007 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltd40) Chicks 'N Chained Males. Esther Freisner, ed. My weakness: humorous feminist fantasy. A worthy entrant in the anthology series, with Harry Turtledove leading us off by taking on Perseus and Andromeda, but sorely lacking Lee Martindale.
39) Foggy Mountain Breakdown and other stories by Sharyn McCrumb.
I've loved her since Bimbos of the Death Sun. "Gerda's sense of Snow" is a brilliant take on "The Snow Queen."
38) Dracula by Bram Stoker. Don't laugh. I'd never actually read it. I've seen every Dracula from Lugosi to Oldman, but never read the whole novel.
37) A Change of Heart by Kiernan Kelley. When werewolf vet Dae Anderson is hit by a car, and taken to his own clinic, things get weird. First his assistant, then his good-for-nothing ex, then more and more. And Dae's quiet small town veternary practice is never the same again. Excellent, gripping, sexy and entertaining.
36) Undead and Unappreciated by MaryJanice Davidson. Third in the Queen Betsy series and feels like it. Everything is given short shrift from the evil sex with Sinclair to her demon-spawned sister.
35)Undead and Unemployed by MaryJanice Davidson. Very silly book about a hoard of vampire hunters who are threatening Betsy's people.
34) Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson. Screamingly funny book about an airheaded secretary with a shoe fetish who becomes a vampire. Can't wait to read "Undead and unemployed."
33) Torqued Tales edited by S.A. Clements. Cheating again. But I only have one of the nineteen great fairy tales in this twisted anthology. Everything from Puss in Boots to Sleeping Beauty, Lady Godiva to the Golden Bird gets given a galloping case of gayness from some of the best Torquere authors writing.
32) Toybox: Sappho's Chest edited by M. Rode. Okay, this is cheating, since mine is one of the three stories in this mini-anthology. Margaret Leigh gives us a very sexy toy-shop story and Jodi Payne's "Spike" is steamy beyond reason, even though I'm not into shoes. My own is a trucker-falls-for-the-waitress story with a twist.
31) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling. Everyone has said everything to be said. It was good.
30) Gai-jin by Marc Olden. Another book for the strong of stomach. In 1983 Hawaii, former code-breaker Alexis Bendor encounters her old enemy, Rupert deJongh, an Englishman turned yakuza. The rest of the novel is a tale of revenge and deceit played out between Japan, Hawaii and New York City. Gruesome, gripping and very violent.
29) The Protector's War by S.M. Stirling. Second in the Change series, this lets us see how things have progressed since we left our heroes, and villains, eight years ago. It's the middle book of the trilogy, and feels like it. That's not a compliment. It was riveting though.
28) The Freakshow by Bryan Smith. Now Bryan is a very sweet guy, and so quiet. It's always the quiet ones. In this really gruesome nightmare, he gives us a freakshow that is busily taking over a small town, killing and torturing the inhabitants. The eye bit... ewwww! *Shudder* Very good for those of strong stomach.
27) The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Bleargh. I plowed through this, making it on sheer determination and world-building. The plot is fragmented and confused until the last chapter. It postulates a Britain ruled by Charles Babbage's primal computer: the difference engines. Lord Byron is Prime Minister, and there is still a lot of Luddite trouble. It all comes together, but I was left scratching my head. A very grim alternate past, one that makes Dickens look like a sunny musical.
26) Jeremiah: Terrorist Prophet by Michael A. Smith. Creepily prescient 1997 novel about a man trying to form a breakaway white Christian state within the US: New America. Jeremiah uses the internet and news media to broadcast his terrorist acts, which are aimed at people the average American hates: a sniper shooting a pedophile who was about to walk free after a trial, two young rapists/murderers who got away with it, a poisoning of the water system at Leavenworth prison. When he moves on to killing congressmen who are taking tobacco payola and the New York Stock Exchange, a lot of people continue to follow him. This is well written, but ends too abruptly, even for the first novel of a trilogy.
25) A Cowboy's Gift by Anne McAllister. Nicely written and plotted romance. Gus Holt has to regain the trust of Mary McLean, whom he jilted 12 years before. Anne makes the tension believable, the characters real, the situations funny and the attraction hot. I defy anyone not to laugh at the Christmas Pageant chapter.
24) A Cowboy's Secretby Anne McAllister. Glad I read this one first. JD Holt has a lot of secrets, but it's no secret how much he wants his father's ranch, which was bought by the local cattle baron. When local lawyer Lydia Cochrane sticks her oar in, wackiness ensues. These were the best of the romances I've read this year.
23) Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller by Chet Williamson. A video-game based book that really doesn't overcome the limitations of the form. A very interesting premise: a theocracy has taken over and sends people straight to Hell for crimes, demons walk the earth and the population lives under very tight control. The thriller part is great, but the world-building lacks something. The hero & heroine are nearly scrubbed for running a pornovirt in Cha 1, and it takes until Cha 9 to find out what a pornovirt is. And since it's trivial, not a plot point or mystery at all, that's sloppy, IMO.
22) A Year and a Day by Sarah Harvey. Very cute and sweet. The Angel of Vengeance and the Angel of Joy share an apartment in New York City. Funny and adorable.
21) Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. Excellent Post-apoc. What happens when engines don't work and 2gunpowder doesn't fire? (The wiccan/SCA commune is brilliant)
20) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Dinah is a footnote in Genesis, Jacob's only daughter, whose brothers exacted a bloody revenge on the husband they did not choose for her. These days, she's used mostly to explain why you shouldn't have nonChristian friends. This is Dinah's story, Bible fanfic if you will, and the story of her mother Leah and her mother-aunties; Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah. (audio)
19) From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming. Famous movie. Lousy book. Fleming's style grates on me, very much about the telling and state-of-being verbs (audio)
18) The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. A series of creepy novellas linked by a forbidden book that drives the readers mad. The court of the Dragon and the Yellow Sign are both excellent. Victorian (1895) and convoluted, best experienced as an audio book. (audio)
17) Good Omens by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman. Absolutely hilarious. Prachett is always funny, and I am more in love with Aziraphale and Crowley than ever. Consenting bicycle repairmen, indeed!
16) The Four Bubbas of the Apocalypse: Flatulance, Halitosis, Incest and...Ned ed. Selina Rosen. Screamingly funny anthology of post-apocalypse zombie stories. After the Y25 virus turns all the yuppies into upwardly mobile brain eaters, bubbas are the last hope for humanity.
15) Tycoon Warrior by Sheri Whitefeather. An object lesson in how NOT to write interracial romance. I don't think there is one Native American--or Texan--cliche she didn't hit with this. The characters were hot. The plotting was pretty decent. The execution sucked.
14) Tall Dark & Western by Anne Marie Winston. Shut up. I'm "studying my craft." Pretty formula, but quite hot. Learned a few things about making het read hot.
13) Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stevenson. Never actually read it. Very straight forward adventure book.
12) Eyewitness Books: Future. Michael Tambini. Some interesting history on predictions, and some models based on things currently in use. Nonfiction.
11) Black Seas of Infinity: The best of H.P. Lovecraft. Andrew Wheeler, ed. All the good stuff: Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, Pickman's Model, The Shadow over Innsmouth, Dagon and more. Is it any wonder I can find Arkham and Innsmouth on a Massachusetts map? (much of this was audio, but some was read.)
10) Jingle Balls. Rob Knight, ed. A Christmas anthology from Torquere. Cheating perhaps, because one of the stories was mine.
9) The Instruments of Torture. Michael Kerrigan. A rather gruesome look at torture through the ages and the implements used in it. Nonfiction.
8) A Separate Peace. John Knowles. Another one I'd never read. A New England Idyll that was a tonic after all the Lovecraft. Very intense. More than a little slashy. (audio)
7) The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. No, I'd never actually read this. Not bad at all, really. (audio)
6) Herbert West, Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft Yet another very slashy Lovecraft nightmare. Two men, devoted companions, living together, practicing medicine together, grave robbing together... (audio)
5) Getting into Character; Seven secrets a novelist can learn from Actors. Brandilyn Collins. Very good. had a couple of revelations about various characters already.
4) Writers of the Future (1989) The winners of the annual short story contest judged by some of the biggest names in SF.
3) Turn the other Chick. Esther Friesner, ed. More humorous stories of women in armor. Harry Turtledove's "Of Mice and Chicks" is a scream.
2) The Pirate and the Puritan. Cheryl Howe. Basic historical romance.
1) Neuromancer by William Gibson. Great grand-daddy of the whole cyberpunk genre. (audio)
39) Foggy Mountain Breakdown and other stories by Sharyn McCrumb.
I've loved her since Bimbos of the Death Sun. "Gerda's sense of Snow" is a brilliant take on "The Snow Queen."
38) Dracula by Bram Stoker. Don't laugh. I'd never actually read it. I've seen every Dracula from Lugosi to Oldman, but never read the whole novel.
37) A Change of Heart by Kiernan Kelley. When werewolf vet Dae Anderson is hit by a car, and taken to his own clinic, things get weird. First his assistant, then his good-for-nothing ex, then more and more. And Dae's quiet small town veternary practice is never the same again. Excellent, gripping, sexy and entertaining.
36) Undead and Unappreciated by MaryJanice Davidson. Third in the Queen Betsy series and feels like it. Everything is given short shrift from the evil sex with Sinclair to her demon-spawned sister.
35)Undead and Unemployed by MaryJanice Davidson. Very silly book about a hoard of vampire hunters who are threatening Betsy's people.
34) Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson. Screamingly funny book about an airheaded secretary with a shoe fetish who becomes a vampire. Can't wait to read "Undead and unemployed."
33) Torqued Tales edited by S.A. Clements. Cheating again. But I only have one of the nineteen great fairy tales in this twisted anthology. Everything from Puss in Boots to Sleeping Beauty, Lady Godiva to the Golden Bird gets given a galloping case of gayness from some of the best Torquere authors writing.
32) Toybox: Sappho's Chest edited by M. Rode. Okay, this is cheating, since mine is one of the three stories in this mini-anthology. Margaret Leigh gives us a very sexy toy-shop story and Jodi Payne's "Spike" is steamy beyond reason, even though I'm not into shoes. My own is a trucker-falls-for-the-waitress story with a twist.
31) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling. Everyone has said everything to be said. It was good.
30) Gai-jin by Marc Olden. Another book for the strong of stomach. In 1983 Hawaii, former code-breaker Alexis Bendor encounters her old enemy, Rupert deJongh, an Englishman turned yakuza. The rest of the novel is a tale of revenge and deceit played out between Japan, Hawaii and New York City. Gruesome, gripping and very violent.
29) The Protector's War by S.M. Stirling. Second in the Change series, this lets us see how things have progressed since we left our heroes, and villains, eight years ago. It's the middle book of the trilogy, and feels like it. That's not a compliment. It was riveting though.
28) The Freakshow by Bryan Smith. Now Bryan is a very sweet guy, and so quiet. It's always the quiet ones. In this really gruesome nightmare, he gives us a freakshow that is busily taking over a small town, killing and torturing the inhabitants. The eye bit... ewwww! *Shudder* Very good for those of strong stomach.
27) The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Bleargh. I plowed through this, making it on sheer determination and world-building. The plot is fragmented and confused until the last chapter. It postulates a Britain ruled by Charles Babbage's primal computer: the difference engines. Lord Byron is Prime Minister, and there is still a lot of Luddite trouble. It all comes together, but I was left scratching my head. A very grim alternate past, one that makes Dickens look like a sunny musical.
26) Jeremiah: Terrorist Prophet by Michael A. Smith. Creepily prescient 1997 novel about a man trying to form a breakaway white Christian state within the US: New America. Jeremiah uses the internet and news media to broadcast his terrorist acts, which are aimed at people the average American hates: a sniper shooting a pedophile who was about to walk free after a trial, two young rapists/murderers who got away with it, a poisoning of the water system at Leavenworth prison. When he moves on to killing congressmen who are taking tobacco payola and the New York Stock Exchange, a lot of people continue to follow him. This is well written, but ends too abruptly, even for the first novel of a trilogy.
25) A Cowboy's Gift by Anne McAllister. Nicely written and plotted romance. Gus Holt has to regain the trust of Mary McLean, whom he jilted 12 years before. Anne makes the tension believable, the characters real, the situations funny and the attraction hot. I defy anyone not to laugh at the Christmas Pageant chapter.
24) A Cowboy's Secretby Anne McAllister. Glad I read this one first. JD Holt has a lot of secrets, but it's no secret how much he wants his father's ranch, which was bought by the local cattle baron. When local lawyer Lydia Cochrane sticks her oar in, wackiness ensues. These were the best of the romances I've read this year.
23) Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller by Chet Williamson. A video-game based book that really doesn't overcome the limitations of the form. A very interesting premise: a theocracy has taken over and sends people straight to Hell for crimes, demons walk the earth and the population lives under very tight control. The thriller part is great, but the world-building lacks something. The hero & heroine are nearly scrubbed for running a pornovirt in Cha 1, and it takes until Cha 9 to find out what a pornovirt is. And since it's trivial, not a plot point or mystery at all, that's sloppy, IMO.
22) A Year and a Day by Sarah Harvey. Very cute and sweet. The Angel of Vengeance and the Angel of Joy share an apartment in New York City. Funny and adorable.
21) Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. Excellent Post-apoc. What happens when engines don't work and 2gunpowder doesn't fire? (The wiccan/SCA commune is brilliant)
20) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Dinah is a footnote in Genesis, Jacob's only daughter, whose brothers exacted a bloody revenge on the husband they did not choose for her. These days, she's used mostly to explain why you shouldn't have nonChristian friends. This is Dinah's story, Bible fanfic if you will, and the story of her mother Leah and her mother-aunties; Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah. (audio)
19) From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming. Famous movie. Lousy book. Fleming's style grates on me, very much about the telling and state-of-being verbs (audio)
18) The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. A series of creepy novellas linked by a forbidden book that drives the readers mad. The court of the Dragon and the Yellow Sign are both excellent. Victorian (1895) and convoluted, best experienced as an audio book. (audio)
17) Good Omens by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman. Absolutely hilarious. Prachett is always funny, and I am more in love with Aziraphale and Crowley than ever. Consenting bicycle repairmen, indeed!
16) The Four Bubbas of the Apocalypse: Flatulance, Halitosis, Incest and...Ned ed. Selina Rosen. Screamingly funny anthology of post-apocalypse zombie stories. After the Y25 virus turns all the yuppies into upwardly mobile brain eaters, bubbas are the last hope for humanity.
15) Tycoon Warrior by Sheri Whitefeather. An object lesson in how NOT to write interracial romance. I don't think there is one Native American--or Texan--cliche she didn't hit with this. The characters were hot. The plotting was pretty decent. The execution sucked.
14) Tall Dark & Western by Anne Marie Winston. Shut up. I'm "studying my craft." Pretty formula, but quite hot. Learned a few things about making het read hot.
13) Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stevenson. Never actually read it. Very straight forward adventure book.
12) Eyewitness Books: Future. Michael Tambini. Some interesting history on predictions, and some models based on things currently in use. Nonfiction.
11) Black Seas of Infinity: The best of H.P. Lovecraft. Andrew Wheeler, ed. All the good stuff: Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, Pickman's Model, The Shadow over Innsmouth, Dagon and more. Is it any wonder I can find Arkham and Innsmouth on a Massachusetts map? (much of this was audio, but some was read.)
10) Jingle Balls. Rob Knight, ed. A Christmas anthology from Torquere. Cheating perhaps, because one of the stories was mine.
9) The Instruments of Torture. Michael Kerrigan. A rather gruesome look at torture through the ages and the implements used in it. Nonfiction.
8) A Separate Peace. John Knowles. Another one I'd never read. A New England Idyll that was a tonic after all the Lovecraft. Very intense. More than a little slashy. (audio)
7) The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. No, I'd never actually read this. Not bad at all, really. (audio)
6) Herbert West, Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft Yet another very slashy Lovecraft nightmare. Two men, devoted companions, living together, practicing medicine together, grave robbing together... (audio)
5) Getting into Character; Seven secrets a novelist can learn from Actors. Brandilyn Collins. Very good. had a couple of revelations about various characters already.
4) Writers of the Future (1989) The winners of the annual short story contest judged by some of the biggest names in SF.
3) Turn the other Chick. Esther Friesner, ed. More humorous stories of women in armor. Harry Turtledove's "Of Mice and Chicks" is a scream.
2) The Pirate and the Puritan. Cheryl Howe. Basic historical romance.
1) Neuromancer by William Gibson. Great grand-daddy of the whole cyberpunk genre. (audio)
