susanna.fraser reads 2014 - the next 100 books

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susanna.fraser reads 2014 - the next 100 books

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1susanna.fraser
Set 19, 2014, 1:00 am

OK, there's no way I'm reading 100 more books by 12/31. I'm hoping for 50. But that's not so catchy a thread title.

2susanna.fraser
Set 19, 2014, 1:01 am

Archive log of January-August reads:

January
1. The Sharing Spoon
2. Rosemary and Rue
3. Hyperbole and a Half
4. Marathon: How One Battle Changed Western Civilization
5. Pugetopolis: A Mossback Takes on Growth Addicts, Weather Wimps, and the Myth of Seattle Nice
6. The Three Musketeers
7. Rita Book #1
8. Thief of Shadows
9. Rick Steves' Spain 2014
10. Rita Book #2
11. Rilla of Ingleside
12. Rita Book #3
13. Rick Steves' Amsterdam, Bruges & Brussels

February
1. Lysistrata
2. A Summer Affair
3. Rita Book #4
4. In This House of Brede
5. Rita Book #5
6. The War that Ended Peace
7. Shakespeare's Restless World: A Portrait of an Era in Twenty Objects
8. Rita Book #6
9. Coriolanus
10. The Witness Wore Red
11. The Stolen Luck
12. Rita Book #7
13. Hild

March
1. Rita Book #8
2. Daughter of the Sky
3. Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation
4. Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift Part 1
5. Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation
6. A Song at Twilight
7. Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
8. The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success
9. 101 Reasons to be Episcopalian
10. The Blythes are Quoted
11. Half-Off Ragnarok
12. An Heir of Uncertainty
13. The Twilight of the American Enlightenment: The 1950s and the Crisis of Liberal Belief

April
1. The Luckiest Lady in London
2. Newton's Football: The Science Behind America's Game
3. The Mountains of Mourning
4. Dirty Little Secret
5. Girl at the End of the World
6. The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women
7. Katie's Redemption

May
1. His Majesty's Dragon
2. On the Map
3. Secrets of a Bollywood Marriage
4. Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception
5. Range of Ghosts
6. Only Human
7. Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood
8. The Marathon Conspiracy
9. Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times
10. The Tyrant's Daughter
11. What Makes This Book So Great
12. That Weekend...
13. The War in the Peninsula: Some Letters of a Lancashire Officer
14. His Uptown Girl

June
1. The Girls of Atomic City
2. The Lucky Charm
3. Quiet
4. Steal Like an Artist
5. Saints
6. Boxers
7. The Internal Enemy
8. The Serpent Garden
9. Dare to Kiss

July
1. Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World
2. Island Beneath the Sea
3. Codex Born
4. The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food
5. Enemies at Home
6. War! What is it Good For?
7. Sisterhood Everlasting
8. The Shambling Guide to New York City
9. Countess of Scandal
10. Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift Part 2
11. Thank You For Your Service

August
1. The Improbable Primate
2. The Rise of Rome
3. The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression
4. Written in My Own Heart's Blood
5. Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution
6. White Stallion of Lipizza
7. The Regency Underworld
8. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
9. A Fighting Chance
10. The Spirit Ring
11. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed
12. How the Scots Invented the Modern World

3susanna.fraser
Modificato: Gen 4, 2015, 2:36 am

4susanna.fraser
Modificato: Gen 4, 2015, 2:37 am

The genre log:

FICTION

Classics
1. The Three Musketeers
2. Rilla of Ingleside
3. Lysistrata
4. Coriolanus
5. The Blythes are Quoted
6. White Stallion of Lipizza

Fantasy
1. Rosemary and Rue
2. Half-Off Ragnarok
3. His Majesty's Dragon
4. Range of Ghosts
5. The Serpent Garden
6. Codex Born
7. The Shambling Guide to New York City
8. The Spirit Ring
9. Sparrow Hill Road
10. The Secret Journal of Ichabod Crane
11. Dust and Light
12. Three Parts Dead
13. Shades of Milk and Honey
14. The Ocean at the End of the Lane
15. The Golem and the Jinni

General Fiction/Literature
1. In This House of Brede
2. Hild
3. Island Beneath the Sea
4. Written in My Own Heart's Blood
5. The World of Jennie G.

Graphic Novels
1. Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift Part 1
2. Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood
3. Saints
4. Boxers
5. Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift Part 2
6. The Shadow Hero
7. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
8. Manga Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing
9. Manga Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream
10. Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift Part 3

Mystery
1. The Marathon Conspiracy
2. Enemies at Home
3. Bruno and the Carol Singers
4. The Devil's Cave

Romance
1. The Sharing Spoon
2. Rita Book #1
3. Thief of Shadows
4. Rita Book #2
5. Rita Book #3
6. A Summer Affair
7. Rita Book #4
8. Rita Book #5
9. Rita Book #6
10. The Stolen Luck
11. Rita Book #7
12. Rita book #8
13. Daughter of the Sky
14. A Song at Twilight
15. An Heir of Uncertainty
16. The Luckiest Lady in London
17. Katie's Redemption
18. Secrets of a Bollywood Marriage
19. That Weekend...
20. His Uptown Girl
21. The Lucky Charm
22. Dare to Kiss
23. Countess of Scandal
24. Sweet Disorder
25. No Good Duke Goes Unpunished
26. Unraveled
27. Once Upon a Winter's Eve
28. A Home for Hannah
29. A Countess Below Stairs
30. Eight Tiny Flames
31. The Lucky Coin
32. My Beautiful Enemy
33. A Bollywood Affair
34. False Colours
35. Lighting the Flames
36. Yours Forever

Science Fiction
1. The Mountains of Mourning
2. Only Human

YA
1. Dirty Little Secret
2. The Tyrant's Daughter
3. Sisterhood Everlasting
4. Code Name Verity
5. Eleanor & Park
6. Rose Under Fire

NONFICTION

Books/Literature
1. What Makes This Book So Great

Current Events/Politics
1. Pugetopolis: A Mossback Takes on Growth Addicts, Weather Wimps, and the Myth of Seattle Nice
2. The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women
3. Thank You For Your Service
4. Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution
5. A Fighting Chance
6. And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
7. On Killing
8. Losing Our Way
9. The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives
10. All the Truth is Out

History
1. Marathon: How One Battle Changed Western Civilization
2. The War that Ended Peace
3. Shakespeare's Restless World: A Portrait of an Era in Twenty Objects
4. Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation
5. The Twilight of the American Enlightenment: The 1950s and the Crisis of Liberal Belief
6. On the Map
7. Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times
8. The War in the Peninsula: Some Letters of a Lancashire Officer
9. The Girls of Atomic City
10. The Internal Enemy
11. War! What is it Good For?
12. The Rise of Rome
13. The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression
14. The Regency Underworld
15. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed
16. How the Scots Invented the Modern World
17. The Napoleonic Revolution
18. The Scorpion's Sting
19. Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar
20. The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England
21. Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends
22. An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America

Memoir
1. Hyperbole and a Half
2. The Witness Wore Red
3. Girl at the End of the World
4. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
5. The Shelf

Religion
1. 101 Reasons to be Episcopalian
2. Good God, Lousy World & Me
3. City of God: Faith in the Streets
4. Faith Shift

Science
1. Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation
2. Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
3. Newton's Football: The Science Behind America's Game
4. Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception
5. Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World
6. The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food
7. The Improbable Primate
8. Cat Sense
9. Ancestral Journeys

Self-Help/How-To
1. The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success
2. Quiet
3. Steal Like an Artist
4. Organizing from the Inside Out
5. Wired for Story

Travel
1. Rick Steves' Spain 2014
2. Rick Steves' Amsterdam, Bruges & Brussels

5susanna.fraser
Modificato: Set 19, 2014, 10:56 am



101) No Good Duke Goes Unpunished by Sarah MacLean

This isn't my usual kind of historical romance. I tend to prefer realistic, history-geek historicals, while this is more of a fantasy romp (though with enough angst that "romp" isn't quite the right word). I'm even wary of cute play-on-words titles and monochromatic covers featuring really big dresses--though I know very well how little control most authors have over titles and cover design, so that's not very fair of me.

But I decided to read it anyway, since it won this year's Rita for Best Historical Romance and because I enjoyed an interview the author gave on the Dear Bitches, Smart Author podcast. And I'm glad I did. It's a big, romantic, angsty story where the hero and heroine's chemistry and attraction are perfectly balanced by the difficult history between them (she went missing, presumed dead, and he fell under heavy suspicion for her murder). As such it was the perfect read for unwinding after a hectic week at work.

6scaifea
Set 19, 2014, 6:48 am

Happy New Thread!! And who says you won't read another 100? You never know...

7susanna.fraser
Set 21, 2014, 12:06 pm

>6 scaifea: Well, last I checked I was on pace for about 140, and I expect to get more busy rather than less over the next three months or so...



102) On Killing by Dave Grossman

Lately I've been listening to some of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcasts, and he recommended this book. I'm glad I read it, though I took some of the author's conclusions with a grain of salt based on multiple reviewer comments stating that his statistics on infantry soldiers not firing their weapons in WWII are dubious and/or subject to more than one interpretation. (And I'm really, REALLY inclined to disagree with the amount of blame he lays on video games and violent movies and TV for desensitizing civilians to violence. I think in some cases it may be AMONG the factors, but I doubt it's the major one leading to Columbine, VA Tech, etc.) But I found the many quotes from soldiers on their memories of combat illuminating, especially as someone who writes a lot of soldier characters in my fiction.

8susanna.fraser
Modificato: Set 24, 2014, 11:43 am



103) The Shelf by Phyllis Rose

Another entry in a memoir genre I tend to find enjoyable--author takes on a quirky project, anything from cooking her way through a cookbook to living out a literal interpretation of some sacred text, and writes about her experiences. Rose takes a library shelf--fiction, with a mix of classics, modern literary fiction, and mysteries--and reads her way through it. Along the way she describes her reactions, researches the authors (even meeting two of the living ones), and digresses interestingly about issues ranging from the continued bias against women's writing to how library collections are weeded. Even though my reading tastes and Rose's don't match much beyond Harry Potter and Jane Austen, I still enjoyed her voice. I definitely recommend this for anyone who likes books about books and reading.

9susanna.fraser
Set 28, 2014, 5:37 pm



104) Unraveled

The final book in Courtney Milan's Turner family series--I'd read the other two brothers' stories, but awhile back, so my memory needed some jogging on their backstories. As is always the case, I enjoyed Milan's strong writing, gift for characterization, and ability to make standard romance tropes entirely her own. I tend to buy her books and hoard them on my Kindle against the point I'll be, say, stuck on an airplane or in a waiting room, because I know I'll get an excellent reading experience.

10susanna.fraser
Modificato: Ott 16, 2014, 1:14 am



105) Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire

My October in reading got off to a very slow start, since I've been binge-watching Sleepy Hollow in my spare time instead. And this book, while engaging, is structured almost like a series of linked short stories, so it was easy to put down after a chapter or two and take up later, at least until the last third or so when the overall narrative picks up pace. The protagonist, Rose, is the "Phantom Prom Date," a girl killed in a car accident on the way to her prom in 1952 who's been a ghost ever since, a ghost of the road who helps travelers when she can--even if it's only easing them into the world of the dead--and who's looking for revenge against...well, the man who killed her, only it's a bit more complex than that and he's not exactly a man.

In any case, a good read, and very seasonal for Halloween.

11susanna.fraser
Ott 13, 2014, 10:34 pm



106) Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

I think this book is even better than Code Name Verity, which I read last month. The heroine, Rose, is a an American girl just out of high school who uses family connections (she has an English uncle who's a high-ranking officer) to get a job with the British Air Transport Auxiliary in 1944. After she's captured in France, she's taken to Ravensbruck--in what's probably an unlikely scenario, but one that makes a certain sense given the chaos of the late stages of the war. What follows is a moving story of survival and then bearing witness.

12RosyLibrarian
Ott 14, 2014, 8:30 am

>11 susanna.fraser: I loved those two books. So unique and gripping.

13susanna.fraser
Ott 16, 2014, 1:24 am

>12 RosyLibrarian: I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what she'll write next.



107) City of God: Faith in the Streets

Sara Miles is one of my favorite Christian writers, not least because she found the Episcopal Church a few years before I did, albeit coming from the opposite direction--she wasn't a believer of any kind, while I was raised Southern Baptist and spent some time as two different flavors of Presbyterian along the way.

While I didn't love this book as much as I did Take This Bread or Jesus Freak, I still found it a very moving account of finding God in the midst of a city (San Francisco)--after all, in the Bible, Heaven is the city of God, not the floaty cloud-land of popular imagination nor the cross between New Zealand, the Scottish Highlands, and the more spectacular bits of the Pacific Coast I tend to picture--all culminating in a public Ash Wednesday service.

14susanna.fraser
Ott 19, 2014, 9:24 pm



108) Cat Sense by John Bradshaw

I got this book from the library after hearing the author interviewed on NPR because it sounded like the kind of practical science-geeky book I enjoy. And it proved to be what I was expecting--an account of how the domestic cat has evolved to live alongside humans, along with biological explanations of their behavior. The only downside is it left me a little wistful, because Mr Fraser is so severely allergic to cats that we can't have one in our household. (And yes, I know there are hairless cats. I just don't think it'd be that satisfying to own a cat without nice soft fur to stroke.)

15susanna.fraser
Ott 26, 2014, 8:30 pm



109) The World of Jennie G. by Elisabeth Ogilvie

A re-read of a childhood favorite that holds up quite well, all things considered. It's the middle book of a trilogy, but it's always been my favorite because it's the one where the protagonists fall in love.

16susanna.fraser
Ott 27, 2014, 10:51 pm



110) Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern

Another re-read, this time of a book I first read in 2010 when we were in the process of buying and moving into our current home. I could tell it had great principles, but Morgenstern advised NOT applying them in the midst of a move, because you need to settle in to your new space a bit to get a feel for how best to organize it. Mind you, I don't think she would've advocated waiting 4+ years, but here we are. I'm thinking of making 2015 the Year of Getting Organized, and maybe even beginning with my office or a closet or two this year. OTOH, next month is NaNoWriMo, then there's Christmas, AND I have books releasing 11/24/14 and 1/5/15...so maybe January is soon enough to start.

17susanna.fraser
Ott 28, 2014, 11:20 pm



111) A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld

A nonfiction graphic novel (which sounds like nonsense, but calling it a "graphic history" makes it sound like it's a particularly gory history instead of one told largely through illustrations, you know?) following the experiences of several survivors of Hurricane Katrina--both those who evacuated and those who stayed and rode out the storm. A short but intense read, and one that brought the nine-year-old memories of watching the storm from afar vividly back to life.

18susanna.fraser
Ott 29, 2014, 9:02 pm



112) The Secret Journal of Ichabod Crane by Alex Irvine

Sleepy Hollow is my latest obsession, and this book is a quick, pleasant companion read to the first season. I thought the voice and writing were quite strong. That said, it was like episode commentary--Ichabod's thoughts on the battles and monsters we saw him face on the show and his musings on Katrina and Jeremy--where I was hoping for more of a deleted scenes approach. My favorite parts of the show are Ichabod's sometimes baffled and reliably snarky commentary on 21st century life and his relationship with Abbie, so I wanted more of that. If anything, the book had less. Ah, well. That's what fanfic is for!

19susanna.fraser
Nov 2, 2014, 12:39 pm



113) Losing Our Way by Bob Herbert

This isn't the book I'd recommend if you're looking for something happy and hopeful. It's about the mistakes America has been making as a nation for almost my whole life, and certainly for as long as I've been politically active and aware. Growing income inequality. Aging infrastructure. Endless wars going on below most Americans' radar. Education "reform" that does more harm than good and doesn't address the true problem--namely that we have the highest child poverty rate of any advanced nation.

I see all this. I know all this. Mr Fraser and I are doing well, in the big scheme of things. We're far from the 1%, but we're well above the median income for our city--which is above the U.S. median. I don't worry about money on a day-to-day basis. We've never been hungry. And yet I don't feel truly secure, since we've arrived at this comfortable position fairly recently, and I know both of our industries could suffer greatly in another downturn. And Seattle is a rich city, in the big scheme of things, and we live in a good if not especially tony neighborhood--yet I still see decaying infrastructure all around me, from tire-eating potholes to bridges that probably should've been replaced a decade or two ago, but we'll just keep our fingers crossed and hope the maintenance crews know what they're doing, given that we live in earthquake country.

When the Great Recession first started, I had hopes that people would look back to the 30's and see an opportunity to revive the WPA or something like it. Rebuild those bridges. Shore up the levees. Reinvest in the basic science that will save lives 20 or 40 years down the line or see our great-grandchildren colonizing Mars. Acknowledge that Keynes was right and deficit-spend now to see the dividends in a more prosperous future. I don't know why I was so naive. I'd like to hope things will change--and Herbert tries to end on a hopeful note, calling for citizen action--but I don't think enough people are listening.

And, that's your depressing post for a Sunday morning! Well. Moving on. How about that local sports team?

20susanna.fraser
Nov 5, 2014, 11:31 pm



114) Once Upon a Winter's Eve by Tessa Dare

And on a much lighter note, this Christmas novella is a quick, engaging read about lovers reunited. It isn't a history geek historical romance--I don't think anyone was all that worried about the French invading England by 1813. If it'd been 1803, sure. But it's fun and well-written, and I always enjoy a good holiday novella at this time of year. When you're busy with your own end-of-year responsibilities, the short reads hit the spot.

21susanna.fraser
Nov 9, 2014, 8:36 pm



115) Dust and Light by Carol Berg

An interesting, intense first-person fantasy novel about a young mage trying to make sense of personal tragedies and his own falling out of favor with the magical authorities against a backdrop of war, famine, and murder. I didn't quite love the book, but I liked it a whole lot.

22susanna.fraser
Nov 11, 2014, 3:59 pm



116) A Home for Hannah by Patricia Davids

I wouldn't want a steady diet of Davids' Amish inspirational romances (though if you've followed my reading log for long you may have noticed I wouldn't want a steady diet of anything). But I do find them to be exceptionally fine palate cleansers, and reading them always makes me think of my mom, who loved gentle, sweet stories (and couldn't quite comprehend my pleasure in the grittier side of fiction). This one wasn't as tightly plotted as previous books I've read by Davids, but it was still an enjoyable way to pass a lunch hour yesterday and a chunk of a holiday morning today.

23susanna.fraser
Nov 16, 2014, 12:46 pm



117) Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar by Adam Nicolson

Rather than a standard battle history, this book is more of a series of meditations on the English national character (with thoughts on France and Spain as well) during the turbulent transitional era that was the turn of the 19th century. I didn't necessarily agree with every word, but it was a fascinating read.

24susanna.fraser
Nov 21, 2014, 2:05 pm



118) The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives by Sasha Abramsky

The second book I've read this month about growing poverty and income inequality in America, over the course of my entire 40-something year lifetime and especially in the wake of the Great Recession, and it draws much the same conclusions as Bob Herbert's Losing Our Way. Basically, it's not that we lack the resources as a nation to combat poverty, decaying infrastructure, persistent unemployment and the like--we lack the political will, empathy, compassion, and general sense that we're all in it together as a nation. And I wish I felt optimism that we could regain all those fine qualities, but I don't.

25susanna.fraser
Modificato: Nov 25, 2014, 11:02 pm



119) The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer

A fun look at what everyday life was like in Elizabethan England, more broad than deep in its scope.

26susanna.fraser
Nov 27, 2014, 5:49 pm



120) Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

An engaging, unusual fantasy novel that I recommend highly, with the caveat that this is a book that engrossed my head rather than my heart. I found myself thinking, "This is fantasy, but it feels like science fiction." When I asked myself what I meant by that (yeah, I know that sounds weird), I realized that I think of science fiction as technologically driven, while fantasy is more about sociology and/or spirituality. Which also explains why I think of the Vorkosigan Saga as being science fiction that reads like fantasy--sure, it's 1000 years into the future and humanity has colonized a bunch of planets linked by a "wormhole nexus," but the books are about people, their cultures, and where they find meaning. Whereas this book is gods and magic--as a technology. It's very well-done with intricate world-building and plotting. As such I expect to read more, but since I was reading with the head and not the heart, I doubt I'll ever turn into the kind of one-woman street team for these books that I am for the Vorkosigan series.

27susanna.fraser
Nov 28, 2014, 2:04 am



121) A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson

A fairytale of a historical romance originally published in 1981. By fairytale I mean that the good people are too good to be true while the villains are cartoonishly evil, but the writing is so elegant I was able to accept the story on its own terms and enjoy it thoroughly. If you enjoy stories set in Britain during the interwar period (this one is in 1919-20, so immediately after WWI), give this one a try.

28susanna.fraser
Nov 28, 2014, 3:32 pm



122) Manga Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing adapted by Richard Appignanesi and illustrated by Emma Vieceli

A fun adaptation of my favorite of Shakespeare's comedies. The graphic novel format works well with the sheer exuberant absurdity of the story and with Beatrice and Benedick's banter.

29susanna.fraser
Nov 29, 2014, 11:41 am



123) Eight Tiny Flames by Crista McHugh

Yesterday afternoon I chose to read the Hannukah novella from this holiday historical anthology. Set in 1944 with a nurse heroine and a doctor hero sharing the celebration of Hannukah just a few miles from the front lines in WWII Belgium, it's a well-executed, romantic take on an unusual setting.

30susanna.fraser
Nov 29, 2014, 3:05 pm



124) Manga Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream adapted by Richard Appignanesi and illustrated by Kate Brown

This one didn't work quite so well for me because the adaptation choice seemed to fight with the glorious language rather than enhance it--a sort of classical yet futuristic version of Athens that just didn't quite work for me. Still, Shakespeare.

31susanna.fraser
Dic 1, 2014, 10:40 pm



125) All the Truth is Out by Matt Bai

I was a teen when the Gary Hart scandal broke in 1987, too young to vote still but more than old enough to pay attention. The scandal horrified me to the depths of my young Baptist soul--I didn't have any idea then just how commonplace adultery was among the powerful throughout history.

Now...what would appall me as a wife I can tolerate as a voter. Hart was certainly no worse morally than earlier politicians whose affairs were ignored by the press (Kennedy, etc.), or than later ones who survived scandal and were forgiven by enough voters to win elections (Clinton, etc.). He was just caught at the exact point in history WRT journalism, mass media, and celebrity culture to be destroyed by it, and we probably lost a capable president in the process. At the very least, the last quarter century or so would look very different if Hart rather than Bush Sr. had been elected in '88.

Bai also makes a case that we've lost something in how the Hart scandal led to much more packaged and trained candidates--it makes it easier for shallower, less competent men and women to win high office, because anyone can learn the right sound bites, and it's probably easier for someone who isn't that intelligent, thoughtful, or insightful to stay "on message" and consistent.

32susanna.fraser
Dic 4, 2014, 11:53 pm



126) Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift Part 3 by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru

The final book in a trilogy and therefore interesting to fans of the series but utterly obscure to anyone else. I enjoyed this outing for a glimpse into the kind of mature avatar Aang became and some more hints at the roots of the technological and political changes that led to Korra's world decades later.

33susanna.fraser
Dic 5, 2014, 12:01 am



127) Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends by David Wilton

A quick, fun read that debunks almost everything you've ever read on Facebook about the origins of words and phrases. E.g. "Ring Around the Rosie" is not based on folk memory of the bubonic plague, a word which I will politely leave untyped (on Twitter I'm wont to use "rhymes with yuck!" when things go poorly for my chosen sportsball teams) is not an acronym of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, etc. Little of it was new to me, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless.

34susanna.fraser
Modificato: Dic 6, 2014, 6:50 pm



128) Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

The first book in Kowal's Glamourist Histories fantasy series is very much a Austen pastiche--down to using old-fashioned spellings like "chuse" for "choose" and "shewed" for "showed." The characters and situations feel very similar, too. The heroine's parents are very Bennet-like, the villain reminds me of both Willoughby and Wickham, etc. I found myself wishing it was less Austenian in spots, since the voice made the occasional small anachronisms stand out more. That said, I enjoyed this book and plan to continue with the series.

35susanna.fraser
Dic 7, 2014, 12:15 pm



129) Bruno and the Carol Singers by Martin Walker

A Christmas short story in the Bruno Courreges mystery series set in the French countryside. As a story it's quick, slight, and straightforward, but it was a pleasant visit with the characters and setting (these things are straight-up food and rural French living porn--reading them made me add the Dordogne to the itinerary for our Europe trip next summer). It also reminded me to search for any new full-length entries since I last read the series. There are two, and I'll be reading them soon.

36susanna.fraser
Dic 11, 2014, 1:16 am



130) The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

A beautifully written fantasy novel with a mythic, fairytale feel. It's more literary in feel than my usual reading, but a pleasure to read for variety. I came away from it thinking that while I don't envy Gaiman's talent in the sense of wishing I wrote like him, I wish I was as good a writer like me as Neil Gaiman is a writer like Neil Gaiman.

37susanna.fraser
Dic 16, 2014, 1:13 am



131) An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America by Nick Bunker

A history of the years immediately preceding the American Revolution told mostly from the point of view of the British, and one that places the Revolution in the larger context of worldwide economic and political events--e.g. you can make a case that the Revolution occurred when and how it did because in the midst of an economic crisis the British East India Company was deemed Too Big to Fail. :-/ A worthwhile read if you're interested in this corner of history, and one that makes clear that far from being a tyrannical power, if anything Britain lost the initiative and arguably the war by being too cautious and divided to take decisive action before it was too late.

38susanna.fraser
Dic 20, 2014, 2:31 am



132) The Lucky Coin by Barbara Metzger

An agreeable Christmas story with a fairytale feel--you have to accept the notions of lucky coins and love at first sight, something I'm not always willing to do, but found enjoyable for a lunch hour read at the end of a busy week.

39susanna.fraser
Modificato: Dic 20, 2014, 7:42 pm



133) Wired for Story by Lisa Cron

A writing craft book, and a pretty good one IMHO. I consider it worth the purchase price just for the advice in the chapter on editing to create a timeline for your story and to include what each character knows and DOESN'T know in every scene.

40scvlad
Dic 20, 2014, 9:00 pm

>37 susanna.fraser: That looks good!

41susanna.fraser
Dic 21, 2014, 6:23 pm

>40 scvlad: It's one of my favorite nonfiction reads of the year.



134) The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

An unusual historical fantasy about the unlikely friendship between a golem and a jinni in turn-of-the-20th-century New York as both of them struggle to make sense of their new surroundings (Chava the golem is recently created, while Ahmad the jinni is recently released from a long imprisonment in a flask). It's well-written, with an intricate if slow-paced plot, and somewhat in the Star Trek tradition of exploring what it means to be human through the eyes of those who aren't quite.

42susanna.fraser
Dic 21, 2014, 11:32 pm



135) My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas

A fast-paced, sweeping adventure romance set in China and England, and so compelling I read it in a single afternoon.

43ronincats
Dic 23, 2014, 11:44 pm

Susanna, we have overlapped so much this year--I should have spent more time here. I'm a huge Bujold fan too, and I love the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire and am glad you are going to continue them--there's a weak one at #3, I think, but then they just keep better and better. I enjoy the Incryptids, but this one is deeper and uses mythology excellently. The Kowal books just get better after the first one--keep going! I have The Blythes Are Quoted on my wish list, but haven't been able to find it at a reasonable price--after your review, I'm not going to push it. I read the Bear trilogy starting with Range of Ghosts this year--Bear does her usual quality job. The Golem and the Jinni was good if not great, but I LOVED Sparrow Hill Road and What Makes This Book So Great! I have Hild and the Gladstone in my tbr pile, so will be getting to them in 2015.

It's Chrismas Eve's eve, and so I am starting the rounds of wishing my 75er friends the merriest of Christmases or whatever the solstice celebration of their choice is.

44scaifea
Dic 24, 2014, 10:51 am

Happy Holidays, Susanna!

45rosylibrarian
Dic 24, 2014, 11:51 am

46susanj67
Dic 24, 2014, 3:18 pm

Happy Christmas, Susanna. I've reserved An Empire on the Edge, which is published here soon :-)

47susanna.fraser
Dic 24, 2014, 7:54 pm

Thanks for all the Christmas wishes!

>43 ronincats: Love the cat card! I'm especially glad to hear the Kowal books get better, since I met her at a conference recently and really liked her.

48susanna.fraser
Dic 25, 2014, 12:28 am



136) The Devil's Cave by Martin Walker

Another entry in a series I've become fond of because, as with many of my favorite mystery series, the discovery of a corpse serves as an excuse to visit the sleuth and his friends, enemies, and lovers again. Sure, there's a mystery to be solved. But more importantly, Bruno has a new puppy! And is still torn between Isabelle and Pamela, though I'm starting to suspect he might end up with someone else, like maybe Florence. (FWIW, I'm Team Pamela. So I guess I ship Bramela. Or maybe Pamuno.) Oh, and there are many delicious meals. I can hardly wait to get to the Dordogne region next summer myself so I can eat a bit like that myself.

49susanna.fraser
Dic 26, 2014, 8:42 pm



137) Faith Shift by Kathy Escobar

Not quite a memoir, not quite a self-help book, and not quite a book of theology, this book explores the kind of faith crisis many Christians, especially those from an evangelical or fundamentalist background, go through when we/they discover that the world doesn't necessarily match up to their carefully held, carefully taught beliefs. I wish I'd had it when I was first beginning to go through my own faith shift, and even now it felt a bit freeing to be given permission to doubt, question, not got to church EVERY Sunday, etc. That said, for someone trying to avoid Christianese, she sure talks about "seasons" a lot for stages/phases. (It's total Christian-speak: "I'm going through a season of doubt/joy/grief/etc. right now," where "season" has nothing to do with its conventional calendar/climatological meaning.)

50scvlad
Dic 27, 2014, 5:25 pm

Susanna - Just a quick note to say that all the books have now arrived and you done good. They all look spectacular and I can't wait to get at them. Hope you had a Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays or whatever) and hope you have a wonderful New Year.

51susanna.fraser
Dic 27, 2014, 8:24 pm

>50 scvlad: Thanks! You were a lot of fun to shop for because our tastes overlap and you're something of a genre omnivore too. :-)

52susanna.fraser
Dic 27, 2014, 8:32 pm



138) A Bollywood Affairby Sonali Dev

This book has been getting a lot of raves in the romance blogosphere of late, and I'd say those raves are deserved, though I'm not sure yet whether it's going to make it onto the Top 10 list for 2014 reads that I'll be making sometime next weekend. But it's a book that manages the neat trick of being laugh-out-loud funny without being at all slight, the characters are human and relatable, and reading it felt a bit like being an invited guest at an Indian wedding.

53susanna.fraser
Modificato: Dic 28, 2014, 9:25 pm



139) False Colours by Georgette Heyer

Not my favorite of Heyer's work, since it's pure farce, and really more about the hero's dealings with his flighty widowed mother than with the clever, sensible heroine. Still, it's engagingly written (Heyer being Heyer, of course!), and a fun read for a winter Sunday afternoon.

(And yes, the above is the exact cover I have. I picked this one up from a used bookstore who knows how long ago.)

54ronincats
Dic 28, 2014, 10:02 pm

I have that edition too, Susanna, and I bought mine in the 70s. I always have liked False Colours myself, but agree that his mother is irritating. On the other hand, that scene at the end with Sir Bonaby is priceless.

55susanna.fraser
Modificato: Gen 4, 2015, 2:39 am

We flew down to Oklahoma to visit my in-laws Dec. 29-Jan. 2, and I was able to get a good amount of reading done between the flights and quiet moments watching football games, so here are my last 3 books of 2014:



140) Lighting the Flames by Sarah Wendell

A Hanukkah romance set at a Jewish summer camp trying to make a go of a winter break camp to build enthusiasm between terms. The hero and heroine have known each other since childhood, but almost exclusively as campers and then counselors. They're now in their twenties, just stepping into their careers and feeling out a newfound attraction and what it means in their outside-of-camp worlds. Definitely the first book I've read where the hero is a mortician, and by the end of the book I found his career awesome rather than off-putting.



141) Yours Forever by Farrah Rochon

A fun, quick romance about an aspiring politician who wants to keep family scandals going back generations buried and a history professor who needs his family records to keep her faculty position.



142) Ancestral Journeys by Jean Manco

The simple summary: People have constantly been migrating, as DNA increasingly reveals. A little on the dry side, but worth a read if the topic is of interest to you.