Among Others, by Jo Walton
I am now just barely into the intro for Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories, by Simon Winchester
Some Short Stories I’ve read and loved recently:
“Terms of Engagement,” by M.K. Hobson
“A Clean Sweep with All the Trimmings,” by James Alan Gardner
Previously read in 2012
BOOKS
1. The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
2. Among Others, by Jo Walton
I am currently reading an intriguing fairy story called Among Others, by Jo Walton
I know a lot of you are reading, thinking and talking about this book, and it’s very talk-worthy. If you have spoiler-free thoughts or comments, I’d love to hear them.
Previously read in 2012
1. The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
This is from the intro of the book Snuffy bought me for the holidays. It’s to the point, beautifully phrased, and encapsulates something I relate to, very much, in my role as a teacher of writers. In fact, it might pass for a 2012 resolution if it weren’t something I’m trying to get others to do.
I am committed by trade to urging people to attend carefully to the verbal surfaces of what they read.
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
This is another early end-of-year wrap-up… I tell you, every year, what I read.
I have one more book that I am gonna by-Chaos read this year, and it is Elizabeth Bear‘s Range of Ghosts
Here’s the cover:
And once I’ve read it, I will tell you things about it, because I am the very lucky woman who got a sneak preview. And also because Bear rocks, and I’m excited about it.
This was not an outstanding book-reading year for me, despite my lofty intentions. I read a lot of parts of books, for research, and feel as though I may have forgotten a book or two, but here’s everything I can remember finishing:
2011 Books:
1. Killing Rocks
2. The Girl Who Played with Fire
3. American Vampire Vol. 1
4. One Ring Circus: Dispatches from the World of Boxing
5. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
6. Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence
7. Deathless
8. The Hidden Goddess
9. Resurrection Code
10. Fall from Grace
11. Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter’s
12. American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century
13. The Brahms Deception
14. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin
15. Miserere: An Autumn Tale
16. Little Face
17. The Tears of the Sun: A Novel of the Change
18. Those Across the River
19. A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.’s Scandalous Coming of Age
20. Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris
21. Shatner Rules: Your Guide to Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World at Large
22. Better off Undead, by DD Barant
22. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Century – 1910, by Alan Moore
23. Joe the Barbarian, by Grant Morrison & Sean Murphy
Rereads
1. Shadowland
2. Watchers
3. It
4. When the Wind Blows
5. Flowers in the Attic
6. The Hellbound Heart, by Clive Barker
I’d love to hear what all of you read and loved this year.
Blue Magic
Lovely, mmm? This is a composite image–the portrait is by photographer Clayton Bastiani and the nebula (here’s the original) comes to us from NASA. The exquisite design is by Jamie Stafford Hill. All of this effort was pulled together by the Tor Books art department, and in particular the wonderful Irene Gallo. Thank you, team Tor! It’s a beautiful cover and really appropriate.
What I love about this cover–besides that it looks so at home with the original Indigo Springs
P.S. If you click on the image, it gets bigger.
It’s about Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart
Not convinced? I’m just guessing from their expressions, but these guys thought it was an amazingly good essay.
My post on Flowers in the Attic (Dollanger Saga)
And here’s a faded flower, just to be thematic:
My latest horror lookback is live on TOR–I read a John Saul book called When the Wind Blows
The next post is going to be about the V.C. Andrews blockbuster gothic series, The Dollengager Saga, best known by the title of its opener, Flowers in the Attic
While some of you are madly writing, and writing, I am reading. I am starting with a series I love, something Kelly and I both read annually. This year’s edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011
I have already learned exciting things about fermentation. How cool is that?
And, since these are articles, I am also going to embark on reading a novel… just as soon as I pick one out.
I have been thinking about it a lot this past week and it is clear to me that, fun though it would be, spending all of November writing new fiction isn’t the best use of my time. So, while some of you are madly novelizing, I plan to spend the stretch from now to mid-December doing two things: putting final touches on the current novel in progress and reading as much as I possibly can.
Meego Read Mo, I’m calling it. I have a bunch of research books to mow through, and the remainder of the horror rereads, and the The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011
I’ll report how it’s going, just as I would if I were writing a book.
I like Nanowrimo. I’ve done some good writing in past Novembers and I am sure some future year will play out so that I can participate again. It was a bit tough to let the idea go, because I love writing draft and I love playing with the Nano community. But with one book 85% done and things going well, it just doesn’t make sense to hare off in a completely different direction.
