I just bought a bunch of new books. Tom Finder is the fifth from the bottom. Two of the other books I got, I have not included in this picture, because I am going to get them for my oldest sister for Christmas, and although I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read this blog, I don’t want to take chances. See, it turns out I was entitled to get this gift card from Amazon for $100, so I claimed it, and then I spent it. I spent my money very sensibly, which allowed me to get free shipping and two of…
5 CommentsCategory: 5 Stars
Eleanor Rigby, Douglas Coupland
Published 18 Sep 2008
by
Gin Jenny
Well, wow. Looking back at my reference page, I apparently read about Eleanor Rigby first over at an adventure in reading, but I don’t remember that. I actually picked this up at the library as a substitute for Hey Nostradamus!, of which I liked the title and the cover when I saw it in audiobook form at Bongs & Noodles. I have such a love-hate relationship with new authors. On one hand, I desperately want them to be my Next Big Discovery; on the other hand, I know that Next Big Discovery people almost always disappoint, generally around the third…
8 CommentsLud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirlees
Published 11 Sep 2008
by
Gin Jenny
And once again, I have Neil Gaiman to thank for some charming fantasy reading. First Martin Millar (darling Martin Millar! My only, only regret about my recent abandonment of graduate school is that I can now no longer use the university’s interlibrary loan system to acquire for myself the rest of Martin Millar’s out-of-print books), and now Lud-in-the-Mist, to which, I have to say, I believe Stardust owes a hefty debt. I’m always so pleased when I discover that Neil Gaiman has stolen his ideas or plots, mainly because the man is about ten thousand times more weirdly creative than…
5 CommentsGreensleeves, Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Published 6 Sep 2008
by
Gin Jenny
Omens are medieval. But – so are masks and dominoes, and a merrie singing cuckoo and a song called Greensleeves that will probably haunt me all my life. To me that whole fading summer has rather the flavor of medieval music. It had the shifting key changes, the gay, skipping rhythm and minor melody, and that unresolved, inconclusive end. I never feel that any review I could write of Greensleeves will ever be adequate. But I lent it to my friend Teacher to read during the hurricane, and she loved it a lot, and it made me jealous that I…
22 CommentsGeek Love and True Love
Published 20 Jul 2008
by
Gin Jenny
The past few days have been a bit weird, reading-wise. I was reading Geek Love – recommended to me by Toryssa as an antidote to the trite blahness of Water for Elephants (Water to Elephants? I can never remember) – and then when I wasn’t reading that, I was reading the Brownings’ letters to each other when they were a-courting. It’s been strange. Geek Love is two stories running consecutively: the main character, Olympia, is a hunchback dwarf from a family that deliberately bred freaks in order to make their circus all interesting, and she’s telling the story of her…
6 CommentsLonely Werewolf Girl, Martin Millar
Published 13 Jul 2008
by
Gin Jenny
I was very skeptical about Martin Millar. I heard about Martin Millar from Neil Gaiman’s website, because he (Neil Gaiman) wrote an introduction to The Good Fairies of New York extolling its manifold virtues, so I got it from the library because I liked the title. I didn’t expect much out of it. The last time I trusted Neil Gaiman’s opinion, I read four books by Jonathan Carroll and hated them all desperately. (Yes, the obvious question is why did I read four of them then, and the answer is, I’ve no idea, it was long ago and I can’t…
4 CommentsFingersmith, Sarah Waters
Published 3 May 2008
by
Gin Jenny
I have mixed feeling about this book. I really do. Because on one hand, I enjoyed it a lot and I liked all the twists and turns it took. Except that um, when part one ended, it wasn’t quite what I expected, because I’m a big romantic, and although I (of course) had already read the end, it didn’t so much let me in on all the stuff that was going to happen in the middle. And I was all going along, dee dee dee, and all of a sudden it was part one ending and WHAM KIDNEY PUNCH. Seriously,…
3 CommentsEmily Climbs
Published 8 Mar 2008
by
Gin Jenny
One of my favorite lines in all of literature happens in Emily Climbs: “Of course,” said Mrs. Ann Cyrilla, “I think a great many of Emily’s faults come from her intimacy with Ilse Burnley. She shouldn’t be allowed to run about with Ilse as she does. Why, they say Ilse is as much an infidel as her father….She swears like a trooper, I’m told. Mrs. Mark Burns was in [her father’s] office one day and heard Ilse in the parlor say distinctly ‘out, damned Spot!’ probably to the dog.” Oh God. That’s as good as anything Valancy says in that…
Leave a CommentThe Color Purple, Alice Walker
Published 5 Mar 2008
by
Gin Jenny
You know what I don’t understand? I don’t understand why The Color Purple is so ridiculously awesome, and why when there are all these really subpar books running around, why people don’t just go ahead and read The Color Purple all the time. Why don’t people just read The Color Purple all the time, and forget about that Atonement crap? The Color Purple. Wow. When I was young, my mother had told me once that The Color Purple was one of her favorite books of all time, and I remember her telling me her favorite line (“White folks is a…
5 CommentsThe Dollmage, Martine Leavitt
Published 20 Feb 2008
by
Gin Jenny
My people, lay down your stones. Before you stone this Annakey Rainsayer, you know it is the law and her right to have her story told. It is my duty as Dollmage to tell it. Each villager has the right to one stone, and no one will forbid you to throw it. But listen to me, and when I am done each of you will decide for yourselves if this Annakey is worthy of execution. That is right. Lay the stones at your feet, keep them close by if it comforts you. So few of you? The stones will get…
2 Comments