Dated But Readable: Ring of Fire

Anne McCaffrey writes science fiction and science fantasy, usually with a strong romance component. Her YA Dragon books are wonderful for kids; I think Dragonsinger may be the perfect comfort book for a middle school girl. She also wrote several mainstream books, most of which I enjoyed. I saw a new one in the library, and saw that it was only new to me -- the copyright of Ring of Fear is 1971. It reads like a gothic-y romance, with horses rather than ancestral buildings.

There's the young girl, struggling against adversity, with only her cat and two great horses on her side. There's the older man (about twice her age, but who is counting? Besides me, disapprovingly, I mean) who sweeps her off her feet and rescues her from danger and poverty. There's the wicked relatives, the horse only she can tame, the scheming nemesis from the past, the happy guard dogs, and the loyal retainers. All good stuff, if you like that sort of thing. I know I do.

And there were the 1970's stuff. The first love scene that skips that whole pesky consent thing. "This won't be rape, Nialla, because you'll want me as much as I want you... So I'm going to make love to you. And you're not going to resist me, because, dear heart, you can't." Um. This is what they were talking about back in Beyond Heaving Bosoms, in the rape chapter. There's a spanking scene later, where she disobeys his order to stay inside because she notices that the barn is on fire. The spanking proves he really loves her.

On a different level, another hindrance to my taking their romance seriously was his clothes. Our hero dresses very stylishly, for 1971, and McCaffrey's description is clear enough that even I saw him clearly. I'm not a very visual reader, but "the elegant dark red pongee jacket had been built for him, and the gray pants flared in swinging bells over the darker gray leather boots" had me giggling for twenty pages. It's funny how Regency clothes are quaint, but hippie era clothes are hilarious.

If you can swallow the conventions that horrify us today, it's a fun read. I have a different cover, which shows off Nialla's eyeshadow better. B.

Sunday Summary: Lost and Found

This week has seemed very long, which is odd because I don't remember anything happening. Maybe I wasn't sleeping enough? Maybe it's my micro-novel that I am poking at during NaNoWriNo or whatever this write-a-book-in-November thing is called (mine may turn out to be more picture-book length). Regardless, I'm not sure what I've read. Thank goodness LibraryThing remembers for me.

• Saplings: Four happy children made miserable through good intentions.
• The Name of the Wind: Magician reminisces on his early training.
• Must Love Hellhounds: Four tough women meet strange dogs.
• Ring of Fire: Horses, danger, and True Love, back in the bad old days.
• Grave Secret: Harper Connelly learns a few secrets. I forgot about this one since it went straight to my sister, do not pause on the "read-it" pile.

Wow, I just realized that there is not a kid's book in the batch! This may be a first for me. I hope it's not a sign that I am growing up. Only one book is shelved in the "fiction" section (well, possibly two), so I think I'm safe.

Bookmarks still lurk in a few library books:

• Serenity Found. Still missing. It wasn't under the couch. Darn.
• The Prisoner Within. I really wish this had been the one I lost. It's still dragging.
• What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I'm savoring this one. I even went and bought new sneakers just in case I start long distance running.
• Underground. Third book in a paranormal series.
• Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things. Finally a kid book!

I'm still pushing bookmarks along in a few other books, but the library crisis overshadows any home reading.

• Fairest. I'm grumpy with the protagonist.
• Flint. If L'Amour doesn't kill off the hero, I'll be disappointed. I bet he saves him, though.
• Astroturf. Now we are at gay rights in the space industry.

Missed Wednesday: Must Love Hellhounds

Well, last Wednesday was A-Z Wednesday, but it was also an all-day volunteer day at the school, as well as a hectic evening. So sadly I did not finish my M book on time. I should have gone for a kid book, but instead I grabbed a library hotspot, Must Love Hellhounds, a new book of paranormal novellas (not short stories, which was my downfall) with Charlaine Harris headlining. The cover was a bit racy to let the school kids see, which hindered my reading on the volunteer job. Many of the kids showed up at the vision screening with books, because their teachers made them carry books around. "Me too!" I'd pipe, pointing at my carefully face-down paperback on the desk.

The four stories all had to involve a scary hellhound, either as a good guy or a bad guy. Harris's story picked up on some minor characters in her Sookie Stackhouse books; the Britlingen bodyguards take on a client who is even more trouble than a vampire. Nothing fancy but a fun story with a tiny hint of love interest and some fun name dropping. Nalini Singh's story was clumsier, with an annoying instant attraction between the main characters that kept me from enjoying the plot. On the other hand, her setting is so crazy that I may seek out some books just to revel in the wackiness (see, vampires are created by angels, bossed by archangels, and with special human ninja types to keep them in line!).

Ilona Andrew's piece had another of the annoying attractions, when the protagonist spends so much time thinking about how hot the man is that she can't consider minor issues like whether he has a personality. And the special creatures of her story are were-hyenas, which are original but rather icky. Finally, Meljean Brook's story of an ex-CIA butler and her client's blind nephew gave a fun finish, as the characters were actually fleshed out and the story and world interesting.

I was expecting another lighthearted book of loosely themed stories, such as Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (werewolves at Christmas), but instead I think this is a book of introductions to an author's world, such as Mean Streets did with Jim Butcher and all. And it seems to do a decent job of this, although the only author I'm familiar with is Harris, and her story had little to do with her series. I'm interested in seeing what is happening in Singh's books (although I shall probably laugh in all the wrong places), and Brook's writing was good enough that I'd pick up more, so for me this book succeeded in its intentions.

Tiny Library Haul

Scheduling reasons force me to move my library day from Thursday to Monday; this long and complicated move takes several months to complete, as I tend to procrastinate on reading my library books until the week they are due. This means that during the painful process of transition I am often forced to go the library twice a week. Oh, the agonies of the brier patch!
On the other hand, I have almost 80 items checked out. At some point nasty reality intrudes. So I'm practically on a library fast, where I barely check anything out. Unless it's on the hold shelf for me. Or it's a picture book. Or I might need a bit more music...

This week we got a few picture books:

• Best loved tales from Beatrix Potter. Turns out my P doesn't know Beatrix Potter, seeing as he was pre-verbal the last time I read them to him. Must fix that.
• In our mothers' house, by Patricia Polacco. P's class is studying her, right after we accidentally read one of her books. So I got another.
• When lightning comes in a jar, Patricia Polacco. And another.
• When the library lights go out. I have no idea what this is about, but it seems to involve a library.
• Bobby Bramble loses his brain
• Sloppy Joe
• Sugar Would Not Eat It. P picked out these three; I didn't even see them.

The hold shelf had a few goodies for me. And for my nephew:

• Transformers Armada. Battle for the mini-cons [videorecording]
• Transformers. Season two, volume one [videorecording]. This four DVD extravaganza may require him to take a leave of absence from school, but he assures me it is worth it.
• Poison Study by Maria Snyder. I've read this YA book about a girl forced to be the poison tester for a dubious king, and now my book club is reading it.
• Storm Glass by Maria Snyder. Fourth in the series, but the first is the best.

So, the library shows me with 72 books out now, but I know it's at least down to 68 because the ones I turned in this evening aren't clear yet. I'm at least below my mother's age, if not at the official goal of my own age. I'll sign up for Library Loot at ReadingAdventures.

Blight the Branch

Noel Streatfeild is primarily known for her children's books, but she started out in the adult fiction world. Persephone Press started reprinting forgotten books, and picked on of hers. I'm a big fan of the Shoes books (Ballet Shoes, Tennis Shoes, etc.) about independent children who excel at something, so I put in a library order for Saplings.

All the strength of characterization is there -- the book follows four children from their happy beginnings in England before the start of WWII, complete with nurse, governess, boarding schools, and other accouterments of prosperous middle class life, and then follows the mostly unfortunate turns that the war forces upon them and their parents. Streatfeild gives time to each of the children as well as the adults who care for them, rarely judging but also not hiding the unpleasant parts of both the children and the adults. The mom is unstable and narcissistic, who can't cope alone after the father dies. The children mostly manage to lose themselves between their mother's unsteady care and the misunderstandings of the boarding school authorities. Without a stable home, they find themselves unable to build themselves into successful adults.

It's well done, but very sad. There are a few corners of happy endings, but not for the children we met so happily on the beach at the start (shades of Snicket here!). In his afterward, Dr Jeremy Holmes claims that "by the end of the book misery is forgotten" and I really have no idea what he is talking about. At least three of the four children are utterly miserable, with little hope in the near future, and the fourth is heading off to a superficial success that will ensure he never deepens his personality. B.

Sunday Summary

Another week, another few books read. Although I also saw a movie, Zombieland, which was fun and silly. And I watched an episode of Stargate, so I'm all over the cultural literacy thing. Hip, even. Wave those jazz hands!

From my library collection, I have a few bookmarks still in:

• Serenity Found. I probably would have finished this one, but I put it down somewhere. Kevin, is it in your car? I think it's somewhere in my kitchen...
• The Prisoner Within. I wish this had been the one I lost. It's dragging a bit.
• The Name of the Wind. It's a fun read, but the tones of impending epicness make it fairly easy to put down after a hundred pages or so.
• What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I'm enjoying this quiet memoir themed around long distance running, although I feel a bit of a fraud since my block is a long distance run for me.

This week I finished:

• The Book Whisperer, which was inspiring. I should read more!
• Liar, which was intriguing.
• The Year of the Flood, which was not as intense as I would like.
• Mercy Thompson: Homecoming, which was illustrated.
• Welcome to Lizard Motel, which was indulgent.

And thank goodness that was all, since I'm running out of adjectives that start with "i." Librarything says I read twenty two books in October, and I think that is more than I purchased. All finished books this week were library owned, because I can't fit my books into the library shelf, which is a Bad Sign. I hope to fix that by next week.

Saturday Catch-up: Books Are Great

I don't actually have to catch up, since I only have one book left. I didn't read much today, as I was cooking a bunch of food for my Halloween party, which I cleverly held at my sister's house to make clean-up easier. First, I'm not cleaning my kitchen until tomorrow, and second, I flitted off from the debris of the party itself. It was fun -- I tried making pumpkin puree for the first time in my life, and found it quite easy. I used the pumpkins from the carving party last weekend, added some of the sweet pumpkins from the school movie night, and made food. Wow! Who knew those things were edible?

Then I added the puree to a soup and to some muffins. The muffins were fun -- they had a cream cheese filling and a crumb top, so I felt all foodie. P came along to help, first showing me how to turn whole cloves into ground cloves with a hammer (I had been trying with the flat of a spoon), then creaming the filling and spurting into the muffins with our pastry thingy. Oh, and finding the pumpkin pie spice which I had hidden in my cupboard. Then I had some orange cheeses, some spinach balls, some of X's cookies, and a leftover pumpkin pie. And everyone brought tons of food. Yum. We played Apples to Apples and What Were You Thinking, and the kids trick-or-treated and then happily watched TV until very late at night. A final wrap-up with Rock Band, and then I dragged my tired sons home by midnight. Or almost.

The one book left over from this week is The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller. Mainly intended for teachers, it describes a language arts class without class books; instead each student must read 40 books a year, from a variety of genres. The students are in an elementary school 6th grade, and many of them typically read three books a year. Miller's point is that many of the traditional techniques in classrooms do not promote reading, and that reading is the best way to improve reading skills. So she sets up a classroom where everyone reads. It sounds wonderful, and I hope the approach becomes more common. The book also made teaching sound like great fun, which reminds me that I should get myself eligible to work as an aide or a sub in the schools to see what it's like from the inside. And I got some good book recommendations. A.