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hawkwing_lbBooks 2014: 20-33
20. Heather Rose Jones, Daughter of Mystery, Bella Books, 2014.
Written about this one elsewhere. Pretty good stuff.
21. Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Curse, FSG, 2014.
Written about this one elsewhere, too. A lot of fun, but flawed.
22-25. Carsen Taite, Beyond Innocence, Rush, Slingshot, and Battle Axe. Bold Strokes Books, electronic, various.
Lesbian romance. Not SFF, and I was deceived to the extent of the role played by mysteries. The latter two have more better mysteries, and are more enjoyable. Not particularly great quality, but not notably terrible either.
26. Tessa Dare, Romancing the Duke, electronic, 2014.
Regency romance. Slight, but entertaining. Also, fandom jokes. Recommendation came via Tansy Rayner Roberts.
27. Rjurik Davidson, Unwrapped Sky. Tor, 2014.
Reviewed on Tor.com. Did not enjoy.
28. Joanne M. Harris, The Gospel of Loki. Gollancz, 2014.
For review for SH. Breezy but slight.
29. Jacqueline Carey, Santa Olivia. Grand Central, 2009.
I hear a lot of people referring to this as YA. It doesn't feel like YA to me at all. But it is really good. All about oppression and life and comings of age in multiple directions. Also boxing. It is big on the boxing. Recommended.
30. Andrzej Sapkowski, Blood of Elves. Gollancz, 2008. Translated by Danusia Stok.
Interesting. I'm not sure I'd stick with the series if I hadn't played the videogame. It seems fairly so-so, a little bit too clearly pulling from RPG roots. And not great at its female characters. On the other hand, it does have a certain something...
nonfiction
31. Robert R. Desjarlais, Body and Emotion: The Aesthetics of Illness and Healing in the Nepal Himalayas. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1992.
Some really good, really readable, immensely interesting anthropology. Desjarlais does the difficult thing of trying to portray a cultural practice from inside and outside perspectives at once, while keeping his own position in the narrative, and the impossibility of outsiders ever achieving true inside perspectives, perfectly clear.
Also he has a really interesting angle.
32. Robert Knapp, Invisible Romans: Prostitutes, Outlaws, Slaves, Gladiators, Ordinary Men and Women... The Romans That History Forgot. Profile Books, London and New York, 2013.
A decent enough introduction, I suppose, but Knapp limits himself by concentrating solely on inscriptions, literature, and - mainly Pompeian - iconography, failing to make a remotely adequate use of archaeological evidence and research. He also generalises and simplifies in ways that are I suppose unavoidable in a general survey, but where this general survey has another point of failure is in its unwillingness to point the reader clearly to where work has been done in greater depth. It also neglects to point out that there are differences in the Roman experience from one end of the Roman empire to the other.
I'm not satisfied with it in the least. But I suppose it's a decent enough introduction to some aspects of social history.
33. Wilfrid Priest, William Blackstone: Law and Letters in the Eighteenth Century. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012.
A biography of William Blackstone, most famous for his four-volume commentary on the English common law. An Oxford fellow, an MP, a judge, something of an academic reformer, his biography makes for interesting reading - and now I want to read more about English 18th-century law, too.
History! It's fun! Recommended if you like the 18th century.
20. Heather Rose Jones, Daughter of Mystery, Bella Books, 2014.
Written about this one elsewhere. Pretty good stuff.
21. Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Curse, FSG, 2014.
Written about this one elsewhere, too. A lot of fun, but flawed.
22-25. Carsen Taite, Beyond Innocence, Rush, Slingshot, and Battle Axe. Bold Strokes Books, electronic, various.
Lesbian romance. Not SFF, and I was deceived to the extent of the role played by mysteries. The latter two have more better mysteries, and are more enjoyable. Not particularly great quality, but not notably terrible either.
26. Tessa Dare, Romancing the Duke, electronic, 2014.
Regency romance. Slight, but entertaining. Also, fandom jokes. Recommendation came via Tansy Rayner Roberts.
27. Rjurik Davidson, Unwrapped Sky. Tor, 2014.
Reviewed on Tor.com. Did not enjoy.
28. Joanne M. Harris, The Gospel of Loki. Gollancz, 2014.
For review for SH. Breezy but slight.
29. Jacqueline Carey, Santa Olivia. Grand Central, 2009.
I hear a lot of people referring to this as YA. It doesn't feel like YA to me at all. But it is really good. All about oppression and life and comings of age in multiple directions. Also boxing. It is big on the boxing. Recommended.
30. Andrzej Sapkowski, Blood of Elves. Gollancz, 2008. Translated by Danusia Stok.
Interesting. I'm not sure I'd stick with the series if I hadn't played the videogame. It seems fairly so-so, a little bit too clearly pulling from RPG roots. And not great at its female characters. On the other hand, it does have a certain something...
nonfiction
31. Robert R. Desjarlais, Body and Emotion: The Aesthetics of Illness and Healing in the Nepal Himalayas. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1992.
Some really good, really readable, immensely interesting anthropology. Desjarlais does the difficult thing of trying to portray a cultural practice from inside and outside perspectives at once, while keeping his own position in the narrative, and the impossibility of outsiders ever achieving true inside perspectives, perfectly clear.
Also he has a really interesting angle.
32. Robert Knapp, Invisible Romans: Prostitutes, Outlaws, Slaves, Gladiators, Ordinary Men and Women... The Romans That History Forgot. Profile Books, London and New York, 2013.
A decent enough introduction, I suppose, but Knapp limits himself by concentrating solely on inscriptions, literature, and - mainly Pompeian - iconography, failing to make a remotely adequate use of archaeological evidence and research. He also generalises and simplifies in ways that are I suppose unavoidable in a general survey, but where this general survey has another point of failure is in its unwillingness to point the reader clearly to where work has been done in greater depth. It also neglects to point out that there are differences in the Roman experience from one end of the Roman empire to the other.
I'm not satisfied with it in the least. But I suppose it's a decent enough introduction to some aspects of social history.
33. Wilfrid Priest, William Blackstone: Law and Letters in the Eighteenth Century. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012.
A biography of William Blackstone, most famous for his four-volume commentary on the English common law. An Oxford fellow, an MP, a judge, something of an academic reformer, his biography makes for interesting reading - and now I want to read more about English 18th-century law, too.
History! It's fun! Recommended if you like the 18th century.
