A Princess of Landover by Terry Brooks
Language of Bees by Laurie R. King
Puck of Pook’s Hill by Rudyard Kipling
The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
Men of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong
Rosemary & Rue by Seanan McGuire
The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
Living With the Dead by Kelley Armstrong
My Life in France by Julia Child
Namaah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
I’m sure I’m missing something, as there is a large gap between the Armstrongs and the King in my memory, but I can’t think of what it is. I probably reread something and didn’t note it down. I know I have four books on my bedside table that I’ve been reading very slowly: Pattern Recognition, The Drowning City, Music, The Brain, and Ecstasy; that’s probably what I filled it with. Yes, I read the first half of The Drowning City and the first two-thirds of Pattern Recognition. There! I feel better now.
A Princess of Landover by Terry Brooks: Why did I read this? Possibly because I enjoyed the Landover series more than the Shannara series (and no, I didn’t read all six trillion of them, I read the first two series as they came out then didn’t go any further). This book was on the new releases shelf at the library and I was looking aimlessly for another book to add to the two in my hands. It felt pretty empty.
Language of Bees by Laurie R. King: Oh, how I have missed Russell and Holmes. This had occult stuff and a tie to That Woman in it, so I was happy.
Rosemary & Rue by Seanan McGuire: I waited for this to be released, and am so glad the next two are coming out in 2010.
The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan: This disappointed me. I love SRB’s journal, and the reviews of Lexicon had me all excited, so I waited almost a year for it. And it was kind of meh. I like her characters (except the main one, and I now understand why he’s not as interesting), I love her dialogue, the world she’s created is great, but the story was kind of less than I wanted it to be and I’m not sure how or why. This is one of the books I got the library to order, and I’m glad I read it that way. This is not to say I won’t read the second one when it comes out; I like the characters and the world enough to find out what happens next.
so Rosemary and Rue is worth picking up then? I’ve been eyeing it…
Yes! A very nice modern faery thing, without the usual stereotypes. Some politics, some grittiness, not too self-involved; mostly a murder mystery about characters who happen to be faery rather than a Story About Faeries!!1! Hints at issues (abuse, segregation, social class) without bashing you over the head with them. A solid debut novel.