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Books 2011: 80-85
80. Malinda Lo, Ash.
A different take on the Cinderella story, in which Ash, our titular heroine, grows up and falls in love not with the prince, but with the King's Huntress. (And yay for having a YA with a lesbian romance as its centrepiece. I hope soon this will be common enough that I don't feel the need to remark upon it.)
I liked this book a lot better than Lo's Huntress. It's a tighter, more focused story, with its emphasis on Ash's growth. For all that, the climax and denouement felt a bit rushed. I can't escape the feeling that this would've been a better book if it had spent a little more time on the resolution of Ash's conflicts.
I enjoyed it.
81. Carrie Vaughn, Kitty's Big Trouble.
Latest book in the Kitty series. Fun, light, entertaining, sarcastic. What more could a person ask for, out of a couple of hours' entertainment?
82. Jim Hines, The Snow Queen's Shadow.
The latest, and apparently for now the last, book in Hines' Princess series. The tone of this one is rather darker than that of previous installments, and for the first time, not all of our heroes come out unscathed.
It's a good book, even if it's not the book I was expecting to read.
nonfiction
83. Early Irish Myths and Sagas. Penguin Classics, London and New York, 1981. Translated with an introduction by Jeffrey Gantz.
This edition collects an English translation of a variety of accounts from the early Irish mythological and Ulster cycles. These include 'The Wooing of Etaín,' 'The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel,' 'The Dream of Óenghus,' 'The Cattle-Raid of Fróech,' 'The Labour Pains of the Ulaid & The Twins of Macha,' 'The Birth of Cú Chulaind,' 'The Boyhood Deeds of Cú Chulaind,' 'The Death of Aífe's Only Son,' (Connla, the son of Cúchulainn), 'The Wasting Sickness of Cú Cúlaind & The Only Jealousy of Emer,' 'The Tale of Macc Da Thó's Pig,' 'The Intoxication of the Ulaid,' 'Bricriu's Feast,' and 'The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu.'
The stories reflect the warrior-heroic ethos of Iron Age Ireland, and the permeability of this world and the world of impossible transformations and improbable deeds of divinities and demi-gods. It is a fascinating and complex literature, and makes me wish I had the time and space to spend more time reading it.
84. Tales of the Elders of Ireland. Acallam na Senórach. Oxford World's Classics, Oxford, 1999. Translated with an introduction and notes by Ann Dooley and Harry Roe.
Dooley and Roe here translate the 12th-century Acallam na Senórach, a comprehensive collection of stories concerning Finn and the Fíanna, as related by the fían-warrior Cáilte son of Rónán to Patrick the saint, son of Calpurn.
It's a very interesting piece of literature, for Patrician hagiography - angels, demons, conversions - meets the warrior-heroic world of Cáilte and Oisín, which in turn partakes of the otherworldly milieu of the Túathu Dé Danann, who live in the Síd mounds and fight both with each other and with the Sons of Míl.
Cáilte himself is a semi-tragic figure, for apart from Oisín, he has outlived all his companions of the Fíanna. Despite his obvious heroic attributes, more than once in the text he laments his age and weakness.
It's a very interesting window on what the twelfth century thought of the preceding centuries, not to mention the body of myth itself.
85. Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound and Other Plays. Penguin Classics, London and New York, 1961. Translated with an introduction by Philip Vellacourt.
This edition comprises Prometheus Bound, The Suppliants, Seven Against Thebes, and The Persians. Vellacourt has chosen to render his translation largely in unrhymed iambic pentameter, which gives a certain appropriate stately grace to the Greek verse while remaining quite readable.
It's a pity I find Greek tragedy generally dull, with much wailing and lamenting and next to no doing of deeds. Interesting as cultural background, and some of the translation here is actually quite beautiful, but Aeschylus is a long way from being my favourite ancient author.
So, who should I read next? Cicero, or Seneca?
This whole acquiring a Classical education business is fun. But I wish I didn't feel obliged to read quite so fast, so that I can learn stuff for the thesis with rapidity...
And speaking of the thesis, I should probably make myself a to-do list. Again. Greece in five weeks, after all.
80. Malinda Lo, Ash.
A different take on the Cinderella story, in which Ash, our titular heroine, grows up and falls in love not with the prince, but with the King's Huntress. (And yay for having a YA with a lesbian romance as its centrepiece. I hope soon this will be common enough that I don't feel the need to remark upon it.)
I liked this book a lot better than Lo's Huntress. It's a tighter, more focused story, with its emphasis on Ash's growth. For all that, the climax and denouement felt a bit rushed. I can't escape the feeling that this would've been a better book if it had spent a little more time on the resolution of Ash's conflicts.
I enjoyed it.
81. Carrie Vaughn, Kitty's Big Trouble.
Latest book in the Kitty series. Fun, light, entertaining, sarcastic. What more could a person ask for, out of a couple of hours' entertainment?
82. Jim Hines, The Snow Queen's Shadow.
The latest, and apparently for now the last, book in Hines' Princess series. The tone of this one is rather darker than that of previous installments, and for the first time, not all of our heroes come out unscathed.
It's a good book, even if it's not the book I was expecting to read.
nonfiction
83. Early Irish Myths and Sagas. Penguin Classics, London and New York, 1981. Translated with an introduction by Jeffrey Gantz.
This edition collects an English translation of a variety of accounts from the early Irish mythological and Ulster cycles. These include 'The Wooing of Etaín,' 'The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel,' 'The Dream of Óenghus,' 'The Cattle-Raid of Fróech,' 'The Labour Pains of the Ulaid & The Twins of Macha,' 'The Birth of Cú Chulaind,' 'The Boyhood Deeds of Cú Chulaind,' 'The Death of Aífe's Only Son,' (Connla, the son of Cúchulainn), 'The Wasting Sickness of Cú Cúlaind & The Only Jealousy of Emer,' 'The Tale of Macc Da Thó's Pig,' 'The Intoxication of the Ulaid,' 'Bricriu's Feast,' and 'The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu.'
The stories reflect the warrior-heroic ethos of Iron Age Ireland, and the permeability of this world and the world of impossible transformations and improbable deeds of divinities and demi-gods. It is a fascinating and complex literature, and makes me wish I had the time and space to spend more time reading it.
84. Tales of the Elders of Ireland. Acallam na Senórach. Oxford World's Classics, Oxford, 1999. Translated with an introduction and notes by Ann Dooley and Harry Roe.
Dooley and Roe here translate the 12th-century Acallam na Senórach, a comprehensive collection of stories concerning Finn and the Fíanna, as related by the fían-warrior Cáilte son of Rónán to Patrick the saint, son of Calpurn.
It's a very interesting piece of literature, for Patrician hagiography - angels, demons, conversions - meets the warrior-heroic world of Cáilte and Oisín, which in turn partakes of the otherworldly milieu of the Túathu Dé Danann, who live in the Síd mounds and fight both with each other and with the Sons of Míl.
Cáilte himself is a semi-tragic figure, for apart from Oisín, he has outlived all his companions of the Fíanna. Despite his obvious heroic attributes, more than once in the text he laments his age and weakness.
It's a very interesting window on what the twelfth century thought of the preceding centuries, not to mention the body of myth itself.
85. Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound and Other Plays. Penguin Classics, London and New York, 1961. Translated with an introduction by Philip Vellacourt.
This edition comprises Prometheus Bound, The Suppliants, Seven Against Thebes, and The Persians. Vellacourt has chosen to render his translation largely in unrhymed iambic pentameter, which gives a certain appropriate stately grace to the Greek verse while remaining quite readable.
It's a pity I find Greek tragedy generally dull, with much wailing and lamenting and next to no doing of deeds. Interesting as cultural background, and some of the translation here is actually quite beautiful, but Aeschylus is a long way from being my favourite ancient author.
So, who should I read next? Cicero, or Seneca?
This whole acquiring a Classical education business is fun. But I wish I didn't feel obliged to read quite so fast, so that I can learn stuff for the thesis with rapidity...
And speaking of the thesis, I should probably make myself a to-do list. Again. Greece in five weeks, after all.
