Tag: Diana Wynne Jones

What Are You Reading…in 2013?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations, What Are You Reading?9 Comments

itsmondayWe’re about to turn the calendar to January, making this the perfect time to look ahead at reading plans for the beginning of the new year.  So here’s a new installment of the What Are You Reading meme from Book Journey!

I have been on a mad quest to clear up final reading plans before the end of the year, and so far, it’s going pretty well.  I read Superior Saturday and am midway through Lord Sunday by Garth Nix, to finish off one last series.

I reread Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig over Christmas, and I just madly, madly love this book.  It’s so sweet and adorable and witty and funny and the characters are so good and…well, I just madly love it.

I’m still working on Reflections by Diana Wynne Jones, but since it’s a series of essays, it’ll be an easy one to intersperse among new reading plans…because I start new reading challenges on January 1st and look forward to diving in.

P1020254First of all, I’m joining the Sci Fi Experience, so that should tell you the general trend of my reading for the next couple of weeks.  I think I’ll start with the Pellucidar series, reading At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs, followed by Children of the Jedi by Barbara Hambly, then maybe whichever Star Trek book is appealing to me.  Somewhere in there I also plan to read Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey for the readalong, but I haven’t quite decided where yet.  Then I might circle back to the next Pellucidar book, or else I’ll take a break for something completely different…and read Pat of Silver Bush by L. M. Montgomery.

Pat BooksYou see, all against my better judgment, I have also decided to join in with the L. M. Montgomery Reading Challenge at Reading to Know.  It only runs for the month of January which is terrible timing…but it’s an L. M. Montgomery reading challenge!  To paraphrase one of her characters, her writing is in the very core of my heart.  I can’t resist.  So, I’ll definitely be fitting in some LMM short stories and poetry in the next month, and hopefully the Pat books in there somewhere too.

WaldenWhile all of that is going on, I also want to get started on my Chunkster Challenge…because if I don’t start in the first month, I’ll never reach my goal there!  The thought of fitting a 1,000 page book into January is making me feel faint (sorry, Les Mis) so I got an audiobook of Walden instead.  I can’t see listening to Thoreau while I’m driving (it just doesn’t feel right…) but while I’m taking a morning walk…yeah, I think that’ll work.

Whew.  If I didn’t enjoy all of this so much, reading plans would be exhausting to contemplate!  But since I very often feel like I want to read all of the books right now, it’s actually quite exciting to have a big stack to pounce on.  I know how I’m spending January 1st!

Addendum: apologies for sending you two posts in one day!  This one accidentally got scheduled a day early.  Oh well…I guess I’m really looking forward to the new year!

What Are You Reading, End of the Year Edition

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations, What Are You Reading?14 Comments

itsmondayIt’s coming down to the end of the year, and a great time to look at final reading plans!  I have been fiercely concentrating for the last month on all those books I really, really wanted to read this year–and have knocked most of them out!  Right now I have my final stack lined up for the last part of December.

First, to look back at last post‘s book list…  I finished Lady Friday by Garth Nix, and I think the books are getting better as I near the end of the series.  Always nice to see!  Child of the Prophecy by Juliet Marillier was truly excellent, and it shouldn’t have taken me this far into 2012 to get to it.  I hope to finish that series in 2013.  The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom came in while I was reading Marillier.  It was an interesting fable, and I already have a review scheduled for later in the month, so I’ll save further thoughts for now.

The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz garnered the most attention in comments.  It was definitely an interesting read, not too full of psychology jargon.  He discussed many different aspects of how our brains work and theories of happiness.  If you want actionable tips on living a happier life, you may be better off with The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, but if you want to understand your own synapses, Barry Schwartz is good.  And apparently the solution to my Netflix problem is to be a satisficer, not a maximizer.

After the discussion of how the mind works, I went on to Villette by Charlotte Bronte.  It was flawed in all sorts of important ways, and yet I loved it.  There’s just something about how Bronte puts sentences together.  I do prefer Jane Eyre, but I still want to go find Bronte’s other books.

Now on to future plans…

WAYR1I just began Superior Saturday, continuing through that series, but I might set it aside briefly to read Son by Lois Lowry.  I’ve been eagerly awaiting the conclusion to the quartet, and the library delivered it this weekend.  After both of those books, if I have time before Christmas I’ll read Reflections by Diana Wynne Jones, because…essays about writing by a favorite author?  Definitely not one to put off!

Over Christmas, though, I want to reread The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig.  I read this in February, 2011 (review here), and it was one of my favorite books of the year.  I’ve been looking forward to revisiting it in the proper season, especially now that I’ve read the earlier books in the series and understand who all the characters are!

After that, I plan to finish out the year with Lord Sunday to get one last series done.

Wow, that looks like a lot written out.  But most of these will be fast reads, and I have some long weekends coming up…

And then comes January and the Sci Fi Experience and a whole new stack of books to contemplate!

Are you fitting in a few last books before the calendar page turns?  Let me know about them–and visit Book Journey for more What Are You Reading posts.

Saturday Snapshot: First and Last Books

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot20 Comments

I thought I’d share a couple of recent book purchases this week.

A Tale of Time City is one of the first Diana Wynne Jones books I ever read, and oddly enough, is the first of her books I’ve deliberately set out to buy.  I’ve read many, many of her books, but all from the library, and the only ones I own are ones I happened to stumble on at a library book sale, or got as a gift.  My collection is woefully small, and I thought I’d better do something about that–so I started by buying this lovely new edition of one of my favorites.

The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery is my last L. M. Montgomery book.  I have read and own every other published book of her writing.  Novels, short stories, poetry, letters, journals, autobiography–I have it all.  This is the last one.  At least, until someone, somewhere, somehow decides to publish the 200-odd additional short stories that exist in an archive but are not currently available.  In the meantime, I’ll just have to have a bittersweet read through the last new-to-me book of L. M. Montgomery writing. Although the name makes me laugh–having read everything else, I’ve read her journals where she commented that she didn’t like having her full name written out.  Now I’m always amused when people do that!

Visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!

Favorites Friday: Fantasy Worlds

On By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday12 Comments

I recently read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, about a future where most of humanity spends most of their time in a massive virtual world (stay tuned for a review!)  Made up of thousands of planets and universes, there’s a tantalizing mention that many fictional worlds have been created within the virtual universe.  Which got me thinking about which fictional universes I’d most like to visit…

Star Trek is an obvious first choice.  It’s such an idealized future, both in terms of technology and humanity’s advancement, that it would be an amazing place to live.  I’m not so sure about being a tourist there, because I don’t know precisely what I’d like to see–the universe in general is amazing, but isn’t so much big on the landmarks.  If I was just visiting, I’d be most interested if I could hang out with the known characters (by which I mostly mean Kirk, Spock and McCoy).  It’s a very much character-driven fictional universe for me, and they’re wonderful characters who also live in a really nice universe.  So either meeting them or having a whole life there sounds…well, fascinating!

I find more appealing a vacation on Pern, Anne McCaffrey’s dragon world.  I’d like to come by long enough to fly dragon-back and visit the Harper Hall for a concert.  If I managed to discover that I have musical ability, I could see living at the Harper Hall (the Harpers are, after all, the storytellers), but that’s a big if.  It would be a great place to visit, though, and then come home to my air conditioner and indoor plumbing.

I’d also like to visit Discworld, but only with a friendly native guide.  I love reading about the corrupt city of Ankh-Morpork, but I know I’d get into an enormous amount of trouble if I was actually there.  For one thing, I’m not paid up with the Thieves’ Guild!

I’d like a long trip to Diana Wynne Jones’ Time City, where residents seem to be able to get the best bits of every period of history, from the ancient world on up to 100,000 AD.  I’d just be so fascinated to find out about the whole sweep of history.  I could see myself spending a very long time in the library (or equivalent) and being perfectly happy.

On first thought I have doubts about going to any of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ worlds–I guess the significant one is Barsoom (or Mars).  It is, after all, a rather violent place.  I think I’d only want to live there if I could be a Burroughs heroine, because nothing really bad ever happens to them; and, of course, they all get brave, noble Burroughs heroes!

Much as I love Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books, I don’t think I’d much like to live there.  There’s magic, but it’s magic in a rather gritty, historical-fiction-type world and, well, see air conditioning and indoor plumbing above.  I’d love to visit long enough to meet my favorite characters, but the world itself doesn’t particularly draw me in.

There are lots of other worlds I love reading about, and lots of characters I’d love to meet (which I guess would mean visiting their worlds, but it’s not the world that counts there), but that covers at least some of my top choices for worlds to visit or take up residence in.  I know as soon as I post this I’ll think of somewhere else!

It’s funny how in some books, the setting is just the background, and in others, it’s really an integral part, as interesting as anything else.  The worlds I’m most drawn to, besides being reasonably pleasant places (for contrast, the world of The Hunger Games? Never want to go there), are also immensely detailed and elaborate worlds.  Perhaps I can imagine living there because I can believe in them as places, and because there are plenty of details to be fascinated by.

Your turn!  Where would you go if you could?

Stumbling Upon Diana Wynne Jones

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews6 Comments

I have somehow had the great misfortune to miss Diana Wynne Jones-related blogging events in the past–so I was thrilled to be in time for Diana Wynne Jones Days!  Thank you to Charlotte, who mentioned it a few weeks ago and tipped me off about it.  DWJ Days is a celebration of all things Diana Wynne Jones which started April 12th, featuring bloggers sharing their experiences with the wonderful, magical books of Diana Wynne Jones.

It’s a little complicated to explain how my reading of Diana Wynne Jones began, because I managed to stumble across her for the first time–twice.  Maybe three times.  The first first time, I happened across Witch Week on my library’s shelves.  I don’t know how old I was, only that I was young enough to have no context at all for the Guy Fawkes references (he isn’t heavily featured in American history books for kids!)  Considering that lack of crucial knowledge, I’m almost surprised by how much I loved the book.  I think the world-similar-but-different-from-ours concept still seemed new and exciting, I enjoyed the magical mix-ups, and I was intrigued by the boarding school setting, even if it was a bleak boarding school.

My memory of what I read that long ago has gone vague, but I think I read Witch Week at least two or three times.  And…I didn’t think about looking for anything else by the author.  I’m almost sure I also read and loved The Spellcoats at some point around this age, but I have no memory of connecting the two books at all.  I had no idea that both books were part of series, or that this (very prolific!) author had written so many other books.

Years go by.  During high school, I wrote about a character named Richard Samuel Jones.  I was still very much a browser at the library when it came to picking up new books, and there came a day when nothing on the shelves seemed to be appealing to me.  So, on a whim, I decided to go see if anyone named Jones had written anything interesting.  I found the Diana Wynne Jones shelf, and picked up something, I don’t know what but maybe A Tale of Time City.  Whatever it was, I loved it, and this time I had the good sense to keep looking for more books by the same author!

I eventually realized I knew The Spellcoats when I read an omnibus of the Dalemark Quartet, and discovered that I had already read Witch Week when I made my way through the Crestomanci books.  It turned out this “new” author was an old favorite all along…once I put the pieces together!

It was years more before I ever realized how important Diana Wynne Jones is in children’s fantasy.  I think it was really only when she died, and suddenly all the book blogs I follow started talking about her, and all the authors I follow turned out to have known her personally, that I really got it. In a way, I’m glad I didn’t know–because she was “my” author that I happened to stumble on in the silliest of ways.

And I mostly went on stumbling over her books.  I have too many books on the To Be Read list to browse much anymore, but I was a browser for years, and on days when I couldn’t find anything, I could be sure of discovering something by wandering over to the J shelf.

Part of the fun of Diana Wynne Jones Days is that Firebird is reissuing several of her books with new definitive editions.  Considering A Tale of Time City is one of my favorite books that I somehow don’t own, I may need to pick up a copy with that lovely cover up there.  Check out the list to see if they’re reissuing your favorite!

I’ve long since lost count of how many Diana Wynne Jones books I’ve read.  However, I’m a list-maker, so I can look it up for you–twenty-seven!  All in all, I think it’s a good thing I didn’t give Richard Samuel Jones the name Smith instead.  Maybe there’s some wonderful author named Smith…but it’s hard to believe it could be anyone who would top Diana Wynne Jones.