Books Read 2011

[rolanni]

The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope
Edie Ernst, USO Singer — Allied Spy, Brooke McEldowney
Silver Phoenix, Cindy Pon
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (e)
Foreigner, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud with Steve)
Betrayer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Right-Ho, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse (e)
American Rose, Karen Abbott
The Bull God, Roberta Gellis (e)
Sin in the Second City, Karen Abbott
Of Blood and Honey, Stina Leicht (e)
The God Engines, John Scalzi (e)
Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key, Kage Baker (e)
Unseen, Rachel Caine
Total Eclipse, Rachel Caine
Weight of Stone, Laura Anne Gilman
The Story of Chicago May, Nuala O’Faolain

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[eseme]

Enquiring minds what to know whether you liked The Perilous Guard.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I liked it.

It reminded me very much of Alan Garner, in that there were Great Pieces of Stuff Left Out, and the author expected you to know things that are not easy to learn. I don't know what I would've done with this book when I was 14. Possibly, I would have done as I did with Garner and read it over and over, loving what was there and desperately frustrated that I was too stupid to figure out what wasn't.

"Tiend" is not an everyday concept; and the ballad of Tam Lin is something I, at least, never heard of until I was a grown-up (for values, &c) speculative fiction writer and one of the Cool Kids had pity on me.

[eseme]

I did read it at about 14-16. The ending, especially, did not make sense for me until I was an adult. I didn't, at that age, realize why she turned down what is, effectively, a love potion. Teenage me thought love was important, so why risk it?

Silly teenaged me...

I think that was my first Tam Lin story, and certainly my favorite.