2015 Reading, Books 28-33

Wow, I hadn't realized it had been THIS long since I'd updated. Life has been a little crazy of late, especially the past week after a misstep on uneven pavement led to a faceplant, three hours in the ER, five stitches holding my lip together, and a face full of scabs.

But I'm now mostly recovered and trying to get caught up on everything that took a back seat to napping between doses of the good Tylenol. I'll have more to blog about later, but for now here's six books instead of three:

28. Rita book #8

This one came out in a near-tie with #4 as my favorite of this year's slate--and, as it happens, both are from the same imprint of the same publisher. Neither was necessarily the kind of book I rush to read in terms of setting, character type, etc., but both were strong enough that I think I'll be looking to the imprint in question for change-of-pace/palate cleanser reads in the future.

And that's it for Rita reads for the year, though I expect to be back in 2016 with more vaguely worded and cryptic contest commentary.

29. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Well, that took forever, but I finally completed my first book for March. (It wasn't this book that bogged me down--I spent too long on a book that just wasn't working for me because it's one enough other people have raved about that I kept plugging along thinking I'd eventually appreciate it. Didn't happen.)

But this book proved fascinating. It's a complex and intriguing debut SF novel, a bit more cerebral than my ideal for leisure reading, but compelling and impossible to put down for all that.

30. The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

A book that manages the neat trick of being a compelling page turner despite its depressing subject matter--how we as humans are driving an extinction event that's beginning to rival that of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs.

31. The Nile by Toby Wilkinson

A sort of historical travelogue traversing the Nile from Aswan to Cairo. The book assumes a certain familiarity with the basic outline of Egyptian history, but as long as you have that I recommend it as a way to better tie that history to the geography. And it will never not blow my mind to reflect on the fact that the pyramids are more distant and time from Jesus and Julius Caesar than we are from them.

32. The Oldest Living Things in the World by Rachel Sussman

This is more of a coffee table book than the kind you'd ordinarily read straight through. I did read it quickly, but only because A) I got it from the library, and B) in my current wounded state, a book like this hits just the right spot. It's a photography book, with each set of pictures accompanied by a short essay on the ancient subjects and Sussman's experiences visiting and photographing them. Most of the life forms--trees, along with some lichens, mosses, corals, and the like--aren't all that impressive to gaze upon, though there are some striking exceptions, like the sequoia and baobab trees. And it's striking how many of the long-lived organisms are in bleak environments like deserts or the Arctic/Antarctic. Overall, the book is a testament to both the endurance and fragility of life, since many of the ancient lives recorded here are threatened by climate change.

33. Unbound by Jim C. Hines

Third in the Magic Ex Libris series, which continues to be one of my favorite current fantasy series. Hines continues to expand his world and bring added nuance to his core characters even while the plot races along at breakneck speed. And he's finally convinced me to wish I had a fire spider like Smudge even though I hate hate HATE spiders.

2014 Reading, Books 55-57

FYI, I've at long last turned in the manuscript for my January 2015 historical romance (title and exact release date TBD), so I hope to resume a more regular blogging schedule from here.

55) Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times by Lucy Lethbridge

I'd hoped based on the title that there would be a lot more of the 19th century in this book. Since I write the Regency, that's my primary area of interest, after all. But this book is basically about how the role of domestic servants in British society declined from its Edwardian peak, with special attention to how the wars of the 20th century shook up the British class system. Fascinating, but not quite what I was hoping for. If you're a big Downton Abbey fan, you'd probably love this.

56) The Tyrant's Daughter by J.C. Carleson

A YA novel about a 15-year-old girl living with her mother and little brother as refugees near Washington DC after her father is overthrown in a coup in her unnamed Middle Eastern native country. We watch her deal with PTSD and culture shock and try to navigate her mother's ongoing political scheming. Above all, she has to come to terms with the fact her beloved, doting father was in fact an oppressive tyrant. Very well-written and compelling, though those who hate first person and/or present tense narration should stay away.

57) What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton.

This book is a compilation of author Jo Walton's blog posts at tor.com, mostly on her experiences re-reading classic science fiction and fantasy. (Though "classic" is a relative term--many of the books she discusses are from the 90's or the first decade of this century, so they haven't stood the test of much time yet.)

I read the book because I greatly enjoy Walton's posts about Lois McMaster Bujold and the Vorkosigan Saga--i.e. my favorite books by my current favorite author--even if we don't read them in quite the same way. E.g. I found the Miles-Ekaterin romance entirely convincing and moving, but I couldn't connect as well to Mark and Kareen. We're not total Vorkosigan-opposites, though. Like me, she's most interested in the Barrayar-focused parts of the series. I once ran across a reviewer whose rankings for the series was almost exactly the opposite of mine--he preferred the more space-operatic entries, while I prefer the Barrayar books.

Anyway. Walton's discussions of Bujold made her someone whose opinions on books I take notice of, even knowing her tastes don't entirely overlap mine. I saw a recent thread on tor.com where she was asking for recommendations, but very politely asked people to stop suggesting she read Naomi Novik's Temeraire books or Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy, because they're just not her thing. I adore both of those series, and for me that adoration inhabits a similar region of my reader-brain as my love for Bujold, or for Walton's own Tooth and Claw. So color me baffled. It's not like I'd expect someone who shares my taste in, say, historical romance, to also like the same nonfiction popular science I'm into, but I'm used to a bit more within-genre overlap. OTOH, there are authors out there you'd think I adore who leave me cold--I can think of one whose characters spend too much time feeling sorry for themselves and wallowing in self-abasement, and another whose heroines are too passive, and WHY ARE THOSE BOOKS SO POPULAR?! and WHY CAN'T ANYONE ELSE *SEE*?!...so Walton is allowed to have a similar reaction to authors I love.

All that said, I think the best way I can review this book is to list all the "book bullets" that got added to my TBR as I read along:

Random Acts of Senseless Violence - Jack Womack
Biting the Sun - Tanith Lee
Janissaries - Jerry Pournelle
Tam Lin - Pamela Dean (this one I've read before, but it's been years)
Kalpa Imperial - Angélica Gorodischer
A Shadow in Summer - Daniel Abraham
Kindred - Octavia Butler
Fire on the Mountain - Terry Bisson
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula LeGuin
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Midshipman's Hope - David Feintuch
The Dragon Waiting - John M. Ford
Jhereg - Steven Brust
The Interior Life - Katherine Blake
The Discovery of France - Graham Robb (nonfiction, but sounds fascinating and relevant to some of my research interests)
Planet of Exile - Ursula LeGuin
The Chronoliths - Robert Charles Wilson

The good news is that most of these seem to be available either as reasonably-priced ebooks or at my local library. Unfortunately, I couldn't find The Dragon Waiting or The Interior Life at either place, and Planet of Exile seems to be only available as an audiobook. I don't do audiobooks, at least not for fiction. I listen to nonfiction podcasts all the time, but for fiction I want to dive in, and I can't do that just listening to something. That said, it looks like I could get all three as used mass market paperbacks. Back when Amazon, eBay, and the like were newer things, I used to order used paperbacks all the time, but I've gotten out of the habit since so many authors started putting their backlists out as ebooks.

2014 Reading, Books 49-54

49. Secrets of a Bollywood Marriage by Susanna Carr.

A quick, relaxing read that hit the spot during a stressful, busy time. That said, it's definitely a "fight-fight-kiss" romance, and the last fight came so close to the end of the book I wasn't sure I believed they'd learned how to communicate well enough for the kissing to be more frequent than the fighting in their future.

50) Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception by Claudia Hammond

If you like popular science or psychology books, I recommend this exploration of how we experience time. It's fun and readable without feeling dumbed down, and it closes with a practical chapter on how to better manage your experience of time, if not time itself.

51) Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear.

Epic fantasy (which I love) with a twist (something I also generally love). The setting is recognizably similar to our world--something like Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series in that the map will look really familiar, though the fantastical elements are more forward. However, rather than being set in an alternate Europe, this story centers on an alternate central Asia. It ranges across a large chunk of its globe through the eyes of multiple characters, but its focus is a young man named Temur, grandson of a Genghis Khan-like figure, though he's surrounded by a cast of strong women. I enjoyed it very much and plan to read the sequels.

52) Only Human by Gareth Roberts.

A Doctor Who novel, and one that felt like reading an average episode of the show...in a good way. Another fun, relaxing read as I fight my way through my current writing deadline.

53) Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood by Nathan Hale.

The fourth in this series of graphic novels about American history manages, at least in my opinion, to make WWI palatable and understandable for its middle grade audience without dumbing down the material or treating the war lightly. FWIW, my 10-year-old pronounced it good, though not as funny as the previous three. If you've got a child in the right age group, get them these books. Schools don't teach enough history these days, in my not at all humble opinion, and this series strikes the perfect balance of informative and fun.

54) The Marathon Conspiracy by Gary Corby.

This must be my week for just-released Books 4. I enjoyed this latest entry in Corby's series about Nicolaos, a fictional elder brother of Socrates solving crime in Periclean Athens. Especially recommended for fans of Lindsey Davis's Falco series, since it has a similar combination of humor and modern tone with rich historical detail.

2014 Reading, Books 37-42

Still plugging away at the manuscript that's due April 30, but forcing myself to make time to read so I get the occasional brain break:

37) Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire.

This book was just plain fun. At first I missed Verity, the protagonist of the two previous InCryptid novels, but once I got used to her more serious science geek brother Alex, I enjoyed this story of paranormal murders at an Ohio zoo.

38) An Heir of Uncertainty by Alyssa Everett.

Alyssa is one of my critique partners and Carina one of my publishers, so I can't be totally objective about her books. With that caveat, this book shows Alyssa's deep understanding of the Regency era and her elegant voice. It's a well-paced, romantic story with relatable characters. My one caveat is I wish there had been a little more space in the denouement to show the hero and heroine coming to terms with the identity of the murderer.

39) The Twilight of the American Enlightenment: The 1950s and the Crisis of Liberal Belief by George M. Marsden.

Marsden looks at the subtle fault lines in American culture in the 1950s--ways the consensus worldview, a mix of Protestant faith and Enlightenment philosophy, was starting to break down, ultimately creating the culture war of the past three decades. I don't usually delve so deeply into philosophy, theology, or psychology, but I'm glad I read this book. I feel like it gave me a deeper insight into the events and ideas that created the world I was born into.

40) The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas.

A beautifully written historical romance set in late Victorian England. The hero is that staple of romance fiction, the man who won't let himself love because his parents' terrible relationship made him afraid to trust love in general or women in particular, but Thomas made the resulting conflict feel more human and believable than this trope usually is for me. That said, the heroine forgives him a lot quicker than I would've done...

41) Newton's Football: The Science Behind America's Game by Allen St. John & Ainissa Ramirez.

A quick, interesting read on some of the science behind football--everything from the West Coast offense to how improved tackling technique and better helmets could reduce concussion risk.

42) The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold.

I've read this novella once before, but I'd forgotten what a strong punch it packs. It's such a perfect encapsulation of everything important about the world of the Vorkosigan series and beautifully written and constructed to boot. I...I just wish I could write like that.

2013 Reading, Books 112-115

I'm closing out 2013 with a bang, as I expect 2 of the 4 books I've finished in the last week or so to make my Best Reads of the Year list.

112) Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell.

This book got such good buzz online that I almost expected to be disappointed by it, but I wasn't, not at all. It's a beautifully written YA coming of age novel with a good helping of romance. The heroine is a college freshman whose identical twin doesn't want to room with her and in general thinks it's high time they struck out on their own as individuals. Cath, who has intense social anxiety, struggles to cope, and we watch a year in her life as she figures it out and comes to terms with her thorny, dysfunctional-to-say-the-least family history.

The title references the fact Cath is an obsessive fan and fanfic writer within the fictional Simon Snow fandom (think Harry Potter, pretty much), and one of the best aspects of the book, IMHO, is how accurately and lovingly Rowell portrays what it's like to be part of fandom. And, best of all, she allows Cath to build a happy collegiate life and find a voice for original fiction without having to leave fandom and fanfic behind. She can still look forward to the 8th and final Simon Snow book's debut. She can still finish her slashy version of Book 8. It's such a treat to see an author understand and respect that.

113) The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, by Jennifer 8. Lee.

More a series of essays than a single unified narrative, this book looks at Chinese food and restaurants, especially in their Americanized form. (Fortune cookies and General Tso's Chicken? Not things you'd find in China.) I almost wish it had been two books, one light-hearted culinary history and a second serious look at the life of Chinese men and women working abroad in the restaurant industry, especially illegal immigrants.

114) Cracking Up: A Postpartum Faith Crisis, by Kimberlee Conway Ireton.

Full disclosure: the author is a friend of mine, or at least a friendly acquaintance, though we've lost touch since I stopped going to the same church as she does. I was a very distant observer of some of the events in this memoir, though by that point my family and I were already starting to drift out of the congregation. (Long story, and nothing to do with this book--suffice it to say I revisited my faith after my mother passed away, and ended up on a path that took me to the Episcopal Church.)

As the mother of two young children and a debut author of a struggling book, Kimberlee found herself pregnant with twins and overwhelmed with the changes coming into her life. She takes the reader along with her on a rawly honest journey through an often difficult pregnancy, one twin's stay in the NICU, and the first six months of the boys' lives as she struggles with often crippling anxiety and severe postpartum depression it took her a long time to recognize for what it was.

It's an excellent read, and one I'd recommend to anyone who's struggled with anxiety or depression, especially Christians, since so much of Kimberlee's struggle is about hanging onto God and staying grounded in her faith. And hers is a very rare book I'd recommend equally to my Baptist high school classmates and my fellow Episcopalians--the faith and doubts expressed in this book are of a kind any of us in Christianity's very big tent can relate to.

115) Fortune's Pawn, by Rachel Bach.

I picked up this book because it was described as a cross between Firefly and the Vorkosigan Saga. This intrigued me because as different as Whedon and Bujold are in many aspects, there's a certain je ne sais quoi about their work, the way the communities they create feel so multi-dimensional and tangible that Serenity and her crew and the Vorkosigan family and their friends and allies on Barrayar are almost as real to me as my own family, friends, and coworkers. I don't know what it says about me, but one of the things I love most in fiction is being able to acquire new imaginary friends, especially when they come in whole imaginary communities. There's something about that sense that if I found myself at a party at Vorkosigan House, I'd feel right at home

So. A chapter or two in to Fortune's Pawn, I was ready to set it aside, because it didn't remind me of Whedon and Bujold at all. But I've been trying to give books a longer chance lately. I'll still set a book down for awkward, inept writing or if I can tell right away I'm not going to click with the plot or characters. But I have a feeling I've been missing some good stories for not giving myself a chance to adjust to a new author's voice or to accept that a book wasn't what I was expecting and give it a chance to succeed on its own terms.

In this case, I'm very glad I gave the book another chance. I remembered that Firefly and the early Vorkosigan books are both about space mercenaries, as is Fortune's Pawn, so I stopped hoping to find another set of imaginary friends and read it as a space opera adventure story. Taken on those terms, it's a cracking good read. Devi is an excellent kick-ass heroine, ambitious and straightforward, the world-building feels well thought out, the plot rolls along at a relentless pace, and the ending left me with just the right number of questions that I'm looking forward to the sequel, which is due out in February.

And, you know, that's probably all the Twitter recommender meant. "Like stories about space mercenaries like Mal Reynolds or Miles Vorkosigan? Give this one a try!" Which is always a challenge with "Like X? Try Y!" recs--you have to figure out what it is the other reader/viewer likes about X, and whether it's the same thing you get out of it. Like, I thought about recommending Cracking Up to Anne Lamott readers, because Kimberlee also writes about motherhood with wry honesty and humor, not to mention struggling to be a writer in the face of doubt and failure and clinging to faith by one's fingernails. But I'm wary of doing so, because Lamott has such a distinctive voice, and she's Christian left while Kimberlee is more Christian center. I don't want to disappoint anyone by recommending something a book doesn't deliver, you know?

2013 Reading, Books 55-57

55) Heart of a Knight, by Barbara Samuel.

For the 2013 TBR Challenge. Detailed post to come on the 19th.

56) Napoleon in Russia, by Alan Palmer.

My newest work-in-progress is about Napoleon's invasion of Russia--really, more about his retreat from it--so I'll be reading many books in this vein in the coming months. This is one I'd recommend just as much for readers with an interest in the era as Moscow 1812. Both are highly readable narrative histories with just the right level of detail to make a good story, and I found myself reading Palmer's book just as feverishly as if I didn't know what happened at Borodino or the Berezina.

57) Jenna Starborn, by Sharon Shinn.

Jane Eyre IN SPACE! Literally. It's a plot point by plot point, character by character retelling of Jane Eyre set in a future world with stratifications in status and wealth much like those of Victorian England. It worked for me, though more as a way of revisiting my youthful love for Jane Eyre than as a story in its own right. Do note that I got it from the library--I wouldn't pay $18.99 for the Kindle edition of any book that's been out since 2002, though in general I'm happy to pay about the same price as I used to for a mass market paperback, and I wouldn't complain about $18.99 if I wanted to read, say, the new George R.R. Martin whenever he finishes writing it the instant it releases. But for an eleven-year-old book? I don't get it.

Guest Post - Angela Highland on science fiction and fantasy for romance readers

Today I'd like to welcome my fellow Carina author Angela Highland, whose epic fantasy novel Valor of the Healer was released in April.

Greetings, Susanna's readers! You all know Susanna as an author of historical romance, and I'm right there with you on that; I've quite enjoyed her books. Particularly after discovering that she was a fellow Browncoat. Which meant I got to spend all of The Sergeant's Lady imagining her hero looking like Nathan Fillion. This did not suck.

And that leads me into what I wanted to post about, which is to say, what romance readers and SF/F readers can have in common, and what books might appeal to both!

Science fiction and fantasy novels got my reading attention very early on in my life. But on the other hand, so did the author who wrote under the names of Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters. Michaels/Peters gave me a very strong introduction to Gothic-style romance via the one pen name, and mysteries with romantic elements via the other. It didn't take long at all for novels that incorporated both fantastic and romantic elements to shoot to the top of my favorites list.

Anne McCaffrey was probably the first SF author to pull this off for me. F'lar and Lessa in the Pern series were a classic romance for me early on in my reading, as were Killashandra Ree and Lars Dahl in the Crystal Singer novels. On the fantasy side of things, one name similarly leaps out: Mercedes Lackey. Her Valdemar series gave me not only Talia and Dirk as a romantic couple, but one of the earliest male couples to show up in modern fantasy: Vanyel and Tylendel.

As urban fantasy started getting its feet under it as a genre, Tanya Huff's Victory Nelson books staked their claim hard for my affections as well, with the love triangle of Vicki, her former police partner Mike, and the vampire Henry. (This remains one of my favorite romantic scenarios as well, in no small part because it is in fact eventually resolved, and not in the way I would have expected reading it at the time!)

For more modern releases, I'll give some love to Patricia Briggs and Doranna Durgin--both of whom had excellent fantasy novels before they jumped over to writing urban fantasy and paranormal romance, respectively. I'll give particular shoutouts to Briggs' When Demons Walk and Durgin's A Feral Darkness. I specifically highly recommend A Feral Darkness; not only does it have a lovely little romance in it, it's got a delightful plot, a positively adorable Corgi, and the distinction of being a contemporary fantasy not actually set in an urban setting.

Julie E. Czerneda is hands down my favorite SF author, not only for her ability to create vivid and memorable alien species from her own real-life biology expertise, but also because she tells compelling love stories as well. Her debut novel A Thousand Words for Stranger is one I return to time and again.

Now, you'll notice that these are all female authors, so let me give shoutouts to some male authors as well. J.R.R. Tolkien might not seem an obvious candidate for fantasy accessible to romance readers, but the tale of Beren and Luthien that appears in The Silmarillion remains my favorite love story in all of Tolkien's works ever. Close behind that comes Eowyn and Faramir in Return of the King.

Terry Brooks may have shamelessly ripped off Tolkien in the original Shannara trilogy, but I do have to give him props for having strong love stories in all three of those books: The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, and The Wishsong of Shannara.

And in current-day releases, I'm totally shipping Harry Dresden and Murphy in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files. Anton Strout has set up some fun romance in both of the series of his that I've read. And Chaz Brenchley has delivered me some truly lovely little romances in the fantasy novel Bridge of Dreams and his more recent horror release, House of Doors.

These are all some pretty gigantic shoes for me to fill in my own book, Valor of the Healer, Book 1 of the Rebels of Adalonia trilogy. All of them, though, have taught me that the kind of book I want to write is one that combines the excellent worldbuilding of SF/F with a love story that will resonate with readers. If you'd like to let me know if I made it work, you can pick up Valor of the Healer from Carina Press, or from any of the other places I've called out on Valor's official page!

If any of you are also SF/F readers, tell me about your own favorite love stories in that genre, won't you? I'll be taking comments for a week after this post goes up, and I'll choose someone to win a free copy of Valor of the Healer in either EPUB or PDF form!

Thanks to Susanna for hosting me!

Susanna again: Thanks for being a guest on my blog, Angela! Your list has given me some great ideas for future reads. As for my own favorite love stories in the genre, I'm fond of many couples from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga--Aral/Cordelia is probably my favorite pairing, but Miles/Ekaterin, Ivan/Tej, and Alys/Simon are right up there, too. I love Jacqueline Carey's D'Angeline series, with Joscelin/Phedre as my favorite couple, though I like Moirin/Bao too. Ilya and Tess in Kate Elliott's Jaran are also among my favorites. I really wish there was more chance she'd go back to that series someday...

2013 Reading, Books 34-36

34) Ghost Planet, by Sharon Lynn Fisher. Part of my Rita-finalist reading project, and already blogged about here.


35) Race, Sex, and Social Order in Early New Orleans, by Jennifer Spear.

Friday night I left this book on the dining room table while I was getting dinner ready, and as I brought my 9-year-old daughter's plate to the table, she looked at me in some indignation and pointed to the book. I got it from the University of Washington library, and it's in the dullest academic binding imaginable, with no cover image at all. So I asked her what was wrong, and she pointed more specifically to the word "Sex" printed on the spine. I informed her that in this case "sex" just meant gender, whether you're a man or a woman, and that the book was about how being male or female and the color of your skin impacted your life in 18th century New Orleans. At that point she looked suitably bored.

That said, the book didn't bore me. It covers how interracial relationships evolved and how they were conceptualized from New Orleans' earliest years on into the mid-19th century, an extremely relevant topic for my current work-in-progress set in 1815, whose heroine is a mixed-race fourth generation native of the city. However, it is a dryly academic work that assumes its reader has a decent grounding in the city's colonial history, so it's hardly a general-interest book.


36) Hominids, by Robert J. Sawyer.

A fascinating science fiction novel wherein, in a parallel world, Neanderthals rather than Homo sapiens are the sole surviving hominids. Neanderthal physicist Ponter Boddit accidentally passes through a portal to our Earth, leading to parallel plots as our world tries to figure out what to make of him (and he, of us) and his family and friends try to figure out what happened to him--his partner is accused of murder. I read the book in one sitting this morning, and I'll definitely get the sequel. That said, I thought the Neanderthal society was almost too ideal to be believed, in contrast to our species' warring, overpopulating, and environment-degrading ways, and I thought the use of rape as a plot device was much too heavy-handed. (One of the major Homo sapiens characters is raped by a stranger early in the book, in a scene graphic enough that I expect it would be triggering for quite a few readers.)

Best reads of 2012

When I looked over the 109 books I read in 2012, I couldn't come up with a tidy top ten. Instead, here are some books I especially enjoyed and would recommend to anyone who likes the genre in question. Note that few of them are 2012 releases. Except in a few cases, e.g. a new book by a favorite author in a series I love, I don't make it a priority to read books immediately after release.

Favorite Historical Romance (New)
My Fair Concubine, by Jeannie Lin (2012). My Fair Lady in Tang Dynasty China, and my favorite of Lin's books to date.

Favorite Historical Romance (Old But Now Available as an Ebook)
The Wives of Bowie Stone, by Maggie Osborne (1994). The hero is the most heroic and admirable bigamist you'll ever meet.

Favorite Contemporary Romance 
Doukakis's Apprentice, by Sarah Morgan (2011). I'm not usually a Harlequin Presents reader--I'm just not into wildly rich, wildly alpha heroes outside of SF or history, and even then I want them to be extra-awesome, brave, honorable, and brainy--we're talking Aral Vorkosigan or the Duke of Wellington here. But I've enjoyed Morgan's medical romances, and this book came so highly recommended that I tried it anyway. And I'm glad I did, hence its placement on this list.


Favorite YA Romance/Debut Book
Catching Jordan, by Miranda Kenneally (2011). Just a well-written book all around, and one of the few sports-themed romances I've read where I came away convinced the author thoroughly knows and loves the sport in question.

Wildly Popular Book That Actually Didn't Disappoint Me
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (2008). No need to say more, since I figure y'all have already heard of this one...


Favorite Mystery Discovered Randomly When I Heard Its Author Interviewed on NPR
Bruno, Chief of Police, by Martin Walker (2009). Lovely, leisurely-paced mystery that will make you wish yourself in France.

Favorite New Entries in Long-Running Series
Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2012). A lovely science fiction romance, albeit one that I doubt would have the same impact for readers lacking a long history with the characters and their world. Those readers should go grab Shards of Honor or The Warrior's Apprentice and start building that history!

The Scottish Prisoner, by Diana Gabaldon (2012). I really appreciate how Gabaldon writes soldiers. Jamie Fraser and John Grey remind me of the officers in my family and the ones I meet in my historical research in a way military heroes in historical romances often do not.

Most Useful Psychology/Self-Help Book
The Willpower Instinct, by Kelly McGonigal (2011). Explains why it's so hard to change and ways you can make it easier.

Best Food for My Inner History Geek
Moscow 1812, by Adam Zamoyski (2004). Gripping tale of Napoleon's invasion and retreat.

Guest of Honor, by Deborah Davis (2012). Race relations 100 years ago viewed through the lens of Teddy Roosevelt and Booker T Washington.

1493, by Charles C. Mann (2011). A history of the Columbian exchange and how it altered the course of the world in the past 500 years.

The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan (2006). If you watched Ken Burns' The Dust Bowl and want to learn more, go here.

Blog Swap! JL Hilton takes the helm

Today I'm over at fellow Carina author J.L. Hilton's blog, talking about being a historical romance author who loves science fiction and fantasy. So she's here, talking about being a science fiction author who loves historical stories.

Here's J.L.:

Where cyberpunk meets costume drama

That I love science fiction is something I've written about in many interviews and blogs. But I rarely get to talk about the fact that cameos, brass bezels, watch parts and wire surround my laptop. I design Neo-Victorian jewelry and my work has been featured in Steampunk Style Jewelry, 1000 Steampunk Creations, and Make Jewellery magazine. My favorite books are Vanity Fair, Les Miserables and Jane Eyre. Some of my favorite authors are Poe, Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I am currently reading my way through the complete works of Elizabeth Gaskell, and I love the miniseries North & South, based on her 1855 novel.

I haven't met a costume drama or period piece I didn't like. Whether it's Fingersmith, Downton Abbey, The Way We Live Now, the Sharpe series, Nicolas Nickleby, Little Dorrit, Poirot, The Devil's Whore (renamed a tamer The Devil's Mistress in North America), Emma, the Forsyte Saga or many, many more. I'm in the U.S., but I watch more BBC than American telly, thanks to Netflix. Btw my favorite adaptation of Jane Eyre is the 1996 directed by Franco Zeffirelli – who also directed my favorite versions of Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet.

Not only have I read Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, I've watched two movie versions (1945 and 2009), as well as a movie of Wilde's Canterbury Ghost, and his own life story in Wilde starring Stephan Frye and Jude Law. My favorite portrayal of Wilde, however, is by Peter Egan in Lillie, about the life of Lillie Langtry.

I'd rather read a Scottish historical or Regency romance than Neal Stephenson or William Gibson. So why am I writing a cyberpunk science fiction series? Cyberpunk is described as “high tech and low life.” The genre is about advanced science, things like digital technology and genetic modification – the “cyber” – coupled with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order – the “punk.” The Stellarnet Series takes place in 2062 and features an interstellar news blogger, a freedom fighter and a video game loving outcast. The first book, Stellarnet Rebel, is a finalist in the EPIC Awards for sci-fi ebook of 2012. The sequel, Stellarnet Prince, just came out earlier this month. Daniela Denby-Ashe as Margaret Hale in North & South was one of my inspirations for my Stellarnet Series heroine, Genevieve O'Riordan.

My favorite Victorian authors did not just write about pretty gowns and balls, they wrote about social change, women's rights, the desire for freedom and independence, the power of kindness over cruelty, compassion and reason over superstition and fear. They delved into the human heart, not only its loves but its frustrations, faults, hopes and dreams. They created characters who are still icons one hundred years later – characters like Dorian Gray, Ebeneezer Scrooge, Sherlock Holmes, Edward Rochester. In its way, the Industrial Era was also about “high tech and low life.” Think of factories and mines, orphanages, smoke, sickness, poverty, and Oliver Twist. I wanted to take those themes and move them into our immediate future. Even in a world with digital technology, Internet and social media, some things don't change. 

You may read more about my new book Stellarnet Prince, including interviews and excerpts, here: http://jlhilton.com/2012/11/stellarnet-prince-schedule/

I've had a long month of interviews, guest posts and other shenanigans, but there's still time to enter the Rafflecopter giveaways for a r'naw eye pendant and digital copies of both books in the Stellarnet Series on my giveaways page: http://jlhilton.com/giveaways/

What about you, do you enjoy science fiction or historical romance? What are your favorite genres?

J.L. Hilton is the author of the Stellarnet Series published by Carina Press, including Stellarnet Rebel (January 2012) and Stellarnet Prince (November 2012), and a regular contributor to the Contact-Infinite Futures SF/SFR blog. Her artwork is featured in the books Steampunk Style Jewelry and 1000 Steampunk Creations. Visit her at JLHilton.com or follow her on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and deviantART.

Author website: www.JLHilton.com

Stellarnet website: www.StellarnetSeries.com

Publisher website: www.CarinaPress.com

Buy link: http://www.StellarnetSeries.com/shop/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/108263004687651404592/posts

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/J.L.Hilton.author

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorJLHilton

deviantART: http://jlhilton.deviantart.com/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5344538.J_L_Hilton

Guest blogging and reading update

My blog tour is starting to wind down, but there are still a few more stops where you can comment for a chance to win a copy of An Infamous Marriage or the tour grand prize of a $50 gift certificate to your choice of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell's.

Today, 11/26, I'm at The Maiden's Court.
Tuesday, 11/27 - Everybody Needs A Little Romance
Wednesday, 11/28 - I'll be at fellow Carina author JL Hilton's blog, and she'll be here.
Thursday, 11/29 - Rose Lerner's tumblr
Friday, 11/30 - Romance Writer's Revenge
Next Monday, 12/3 - Novel Reflections

And on the evening of 12/6, I'll announce the winner of the grand prize here on my blog.

In my life as a reader, I'm almost to 100 books for 2012! Here are the latest two:

98) The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, by Dan Ariely. Behavioral economist Ariely explores the degree to which people are willing to cheat and why, and what kind of conditions make them more or less honest. Basically, people have competing urges to seek their own advantage and to portray themselves as honest, honorable people--whether as part of their self-image or to the world. A couple of the anecdotes that struck my interest:


1. College students were more likely to cheat on a test as part of a study if someone in the room neutrally dressed or wearing their school's colors and logo visibly cheated or pointed out how easy it was to do so, but less likely than a control group if the cheating person wore a rival school's logo.

2. In a study where a blind and a sighted researcher each asked growers at a farmers market to give them a pound of their best produce, which was then taken off-site to an independent evaluator, the blind researcher was consistently given better produce.

99) Redshirts, by John Scalzi. A hilarious, delightfully meta piece of SF where a bunch of ensigns on a starship realize they're characters in a TV show--and a poorly written one, at that.

Books read, week of 8/25/12

Last week ended up being a slow reading week. There's a bug of some kind making the rounds of the office at my day job. While I got a mild enough case that I didn't have to miss any work, I found myself sleeping away hours I ordinarily would've spent reading, writing, blogging, and the like.

So I'm still not quite to 75 books on the year, though I should get there next week.


73) Cetaganda, by Lois McMaster Bujold. I don't always count re-reads, but in this case I read from beginning to end, rather than skipping and skimming for the "good parts." It's funny how Ivan seems like an entirely different character to me after reading Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. Now I'm a lot more alert to the intelligence he so carefully hides, and aware that in 90% of all situations, I'd be acting like Ivan--smart but kinda lazy, doing very good work but staying in the background, and avoiding danger and trouble--rather than hyper-brainy, manic, attention-seeking Miles.

Anyway, while this isn't the best of the Vorkosigan Saga, it's a fun space opera/mystery, and a welcome chance to visit some of my favorite characters and their world.

74) Hogarth's Blacks, by David Dabydeen. More research for my current work-in-progress. Dabydeen analyzes how William Hogarth and other 18th century artists used images of blacks as social commentary--to oversimplify, in contrast to then-conventional images of Africans and other people of color in their "savage" natural state, he often shows black servants observing the corruption and savagery of wealthy British society. Reading it had the interesting side effect of making me more alert to ways I could use symbolism--my own, not Hogarth's--in my WIP.

Weekly reading, 8/1/12

My initial goal of reading 75 books in 2012 is in sight--and since it's only August, I think I'm going to expand and shoot for 100 books by December 31.

63) A political book which shall not be named. I happen to have strong political opinions, but I keep them off this blog. Any comments on the topic will be deleted even if I agree with them. There are plenty of other places for that.

64) My Fair Concubine, by Jeannie Lin. I appreciate the unusual setting (Tang Dynasty China) of Lin's historical romances, and this riff on My Fair Lady is my favorite of her books to date.

65) Falling Free, by Lois McMaster Bujold. This isn't Bujold's greatest book by any means, but her lesser works are better than 95% of authors' best works, IMO. It's a Vorkosigan prequel, set some 200 years before the main series, and an origin story for the genetically engineered four-armed freefall-dwelling quaddies who make occasional appearances in the series. I was surprised how hooked I got without Barrayar or the Vorkosigan family to draw me in. Still, if you haven't read the series, I'd recommend starting with Cordelia's Honor or Young Miles.

66) The Wives of Bowie Stone, by Maggie Osborne. Bowie Stone is the most heroic and sympathetic bigamist you'll ever encounter, and this gritty, emotional Western historical is a treat, even if I thought the main heroine's Indian and black servants were a trifle too stereotypical examples of Wise Brown People.

What I've been reading lately

So, I've had a bit of a reading drought the past couple weeks, partly because I went back and read Captain Vorpatril's Alliance again slowly, to savor it properly after bolting through it the first time around.  I do that a lot with Bujold's books--they just get richer on re-reading.

That said, I have a few novellas and graphic novels to add to my 2012 reading count:

59) Slow Summer Kisses, by Shannon Stacey. A contemporary romance novella with a heroine decompressing from a downsizing at her grandparents' summer cabin and a hero who downsized himself a long time ago. I'm not usually a huge fan of small town contemporary romances, but this story really worked for me, and also did a great job convincing me of the characters' compatibility and hopes for happiness despite the relatively short length--I finished it in three half-hour sessions over lunch last week.


60) Serenity: Better Days, by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, and Will Conrad. This graphic novel read just like an episode of Firefly--a fun one, but not one of my all-time favorites from that 'verse.

61) Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale, by Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon, and Chris Samnee. Shepherd Book's backstory. I liked this one better than the previous one, but it still felt a bit...incomplete, I guess. I would've liked a bit more of Book's post-conversion life, and some of his childhood hardships seemed a little obvious, but I still enjoyed it.

62) Kilts & Kraken, by Cindy Spencer Pape. Another Carina novella, this one a mid-19th century steampunk romance set in Scotland. I'm not inherently into steampunk, but I enjoyed this book, which like Slow Summer Kisses managed plenty of character development in its short length. (I'm working on a novella now myself, so I suppose I'm studying the form.)

Summer reading, continued

I'm now up to 58 books read on the year, 10 of which count toward my library's summer reading program.  Miss Fraser is kicking my butt in that regard--she's up to 24. Even allowing for the fact a lot of hers are manga and graphic novels, she's turning into one bookish kid, I'm proud to say.  Her chapter books are from the Warriors and Wolves of the Beyond series, neither of which is short or easy for a rising third grader.

Anyway, my latest reads:

55) Lessons After Dark, by Isabel Cooper. This is Cooper's second book, a sequel to No Proper Lady. Unlike many fantasy romance authors, Cooper gets the balance of romance and fantasy just right, with solid world-building. This book isn't as fast-paced and high-stakes as her debut, but it's still well worth reading, IMHO.


56) Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Properly speaking, the book doesn't release till November, but Baen is selling eARCs directly from their website, and I couldn't resist.

It's a fun, lovely book, and I enjoyed seeing Ivan in an adventure of his own, revealing himself when out of Miles's orbit to be capable and intelligent in his own more deliberate and level-headed style. It's something of a romantic comedy of manners meets crime caper story, and while I'd rank it below my all-time favorites, Memory and A Civil Campaign, I'll definitely be re-reading it.


57) Watching Baseball Smarter, by Zack Hample. For the most part, this book just confirmed that I'm already a fairly savvy fan, but I learned some new things. I'd never noticed that all catchers are right-handed, for example, and I'm surprised singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch only dates to 1971, since the song itself is so much older.

58) Hearts and Harbingers, by Olivia Waite, is an erotic historical romance novella, one that, frankly, is more explicit than I'd feel comfortable reading as a steady diet. That said, the writing is polished and the heroine in particular an engaging character, so if you like super-hot reads, I recommend it.

Six months of reading

Now that we're halfway through 2012, I thought I'd list my top five reads of the year so far.  I feel like I've been reading a lot that, were I to grade them, would get B's--good, enjoyable books, or I wouldn't be finishing them but not memorable "wow" reads.  These five, however, are solid A's.  I'll have to see how many make my top ten at the end of the year.

In the order I read them...

1. Catching Jordan, by Miranda Kenneally. YA romance, about a girl who happens to be the best high school quarterback in Tennessee (her football pedigree reads like a fictionalized version of the Manning family) and dreams of landing a college scholarship--only to have her plans for her senior year put in jeopardy when one of the best h.s. quarterbacks in Texas moves to her town. As a tomboy (albeit a klutzy, non-athletic one) who grew up in SEC country, I'm the target audience for this one, but I'd recommend it for anyone, teen or adult, who enjoys YA romance.

2. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. Post-apocalyptic YA. I'm late to the party on this one, so I'll just say this was a case where I thought a wildly hyped book fully deserved its popularity.

3. Moscow 1812, by Adam Zamoyski. Nonfiction (history). Dense with human detail and never dry, this is what historical nonfiction should be, IMO.

4. The Scottish Prisoner, by Diana Gabaldon. Historical fiction with a touch of mystery. I blogged about this one just the other week, so all I'll say here is that Jamie Fraser and Lord John Grey are something I rarely encounter in fiction--officers and combat veterans who actually remind me of the Army men in my family and those I've read about in my military history research--and that I love the way they work together with grudging respect despite all the tensions and fault lines in their relationship.

5. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Science fiction with a touch of crime caper and more than a touch of romance. This book doesn't officially release until November, but as soon as I heard Baen had the eARC up for purchase, I bought it. While it didn't topple Memory or A Civil Campaign from my all-time-favorite Vorkosigan books pedestal, it's a lovely, fun story and a worthy entry in one of the best series that's out there.

Books read, week of 3/21

I'm editing like mad, since my manuscript for An Infamous Marriage is due in less than two weeks, but I've managed to squeeze in some reading time:

33) The Duchess of Richmond's Ball: 15 June 1815, by David Miller. Only of interest to the SERIOUS Waterloo geek, especially if said geek is working on a novel including a scene at the famous ball. Containes a complete guest list with mini-bios of everyone present. That said, I'm not sure how far to trust any of those bios, since I caught several errors about the Duke of Wellington's background--e.g. he gets nuances of the Wellesley family's assorted titles wrong, and he says that Wellington was 3rd of 4 brothers rather than 3rd of 5 (admittedly, Gerald managed to avoid the fame/notoriety of the other four--no sex scandals that I'm aware of, for starters--but his existence isn't exactly hidden and hard to discover). Of course, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter that Richard Wellesley was Earl of Mornington before he became Marquess Wellesley, nor that there was a less famous clergyman brother named Gerald, but still, it makes it hard for me to trust the book on areas where I'm NOT coming in with preexisting expertise.

34) How to Be Black, by Baratunde Thurston. One of the blogs I followed obsessively during the run-up to the 2008 election and still check from time to time is Jack and Jill Politics, so when I heard that Thurston, the blog's cofounder, had a book out, I requested it from the library. While I'm white, you can't live in America without being aware of racial issues (especially if you've got a smart kid who asks all kinds of probing questions based on snippets of commentary she hears on the radio), and this book is a satirical, thoughtful look at where we are now.

35) While at Amazon preordering Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, I noticed Proto Zoa, a collection of Lois McMaster Bujold's early short stories that I'd never read before. I'm not a huge fan of short stories, because you don't have time to connect to the characters, but I like Bujold's writing so much I bought it anyway. I'm not sorry I did. It was a nice, quick read even if I didn't love the stories the way I do her full-length books.

Another week and a half of reading

I'm a bit behind on blogging thanks to a crazy-busy week, so here's what I've read since last time:

I just got back my favorite parts of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, which I'd loaned to Rose Lerner for several months, so this month so far I've done more re-reading than reading. (Unfortunately, I failed to hook her--apparently my tactic of giving her a summary of the early books and major characters, then handing her Memory, Komarr, and A Civil Campaign backfired, because she wasn't familiar enough with the characters to get excited about them. I see her point, and she's interested enough to want to try again from the beginning of the series. I only tried starting her midway because to me Memory is where the series goes from good fun to flat-out awesome, and also because the more Barrayar-focused books are more fun for those of us who generally read more fantasy, romance, and mystery than science fiction.

I'm not counting re-reads when I just sort of skim a favorite for relaxation, but with these I'm reading almost every word, so...

19) Memory. Not quite a coming-of-age story, more a coming-of-maturity one. With one of my all-time favorite lines: "The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart."

20) Book Which Must Not Be Named (5 of 8): Another Rita entry that I ended up enjoying quite a bit and scoring well despite it using certain characters and tropes I normally avoid like the plague.

21) Komarr. I love how Ekaterin's strength gradually reveals itself over the course of the book. I remember the first time I read it thinking, "Really? She's Miles's One True Love?" for the first half of the book, but by the end changing to, "OH, yeah. She's perfect."

22) A Civil Campaign. Just plain fun, and even though it's shelved as science fiction it's one of my favorite romance novels of all time.

23) I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui. The story of the girl you may have heard of on the news a few years back, married against her will at age 10 in Yemen, who ran away to a courthouse and successfully petitioned for divorce. A straightforward, harrowing read, all the more so because Nujood is still only 12 or 13, living with her none-too-pleasant or progressive family, so it's by no means certain she'll get the education and independence she longs for.

2011 - my year in reading

I guess I'm a little late to the party for my Best of 2011 list, but that only fits, since over half my list is books I read in 2011 with earlier copyright dates. I've never been very good about reading books the instant they come out, unless it's an ongoing series whose last book ended on a cliffhanger or one of my handful of A+++ most beloved authors.

It was a good reading year for me. Here's hoping 2012 will bring some awesome new discoveries, since it looks like something of a drought for cliffhanger/best-beloved books. Diana Gabaldon's Written in My Own Heart's Blood probably won't appear till sometime in 2013, likewise for Julia Spencer-Fleming's next Russ/Clare book. No Sharpe or Starbuck in Bernard Cornwell's pipeline that I'm aware of. I haven't heard anything about a release date for the Ivan book Lois McMaster Bujold is supposedly working on, and I'm in serious Barrayar withdrawal! Jacqueline Carey is at least on a break from and possibly done with Terre D'Ange, and I think the same may be the case for Lindsey Davis and Marcus Didius Falco (though Master & God looks interesting). And let's just say I hope George RR Martin gets his next out before the TV series catches up with it. Before my daughter starts high school is probably more realistic (she's in 2nd grade).

Don't get me wrong, none of these authors need to write faster or write what I want instead of what their muse gives them. I just don't have anything preordered months in advance right now, and I kinda miss it.

Anyway, back to 2011.

Favorite Debut Book

No Proper Lady, by Isabel Cooper. Fantasy romance that gets the balance between the two genres just right, IMO.

Favorite 2011 fiction

A Lily Among Thorns, by Rose Lerner. Solomon is one of my favorite romance heroes ever--the genre could use more brainy betas like him.

Unveiled, by Courtney Milan. Beautiful, character-driven romance.

One Was a Soldier, by Julia Spencer-Fleming. Another stunning entry in the series that won me over to contemporary-set mysteries.

Captive Bride, by Bonnie Dee. A gem of a historical romance that makes its unusual setting (1870's San Francisco) and interracial love story work.

Favorite fiction published before 2011 I just now got around to reading

The Mischief of the Mistletoe, by Lauren Willig (2010). Just a delightful, frothy Regency romp.

Linnets and Valerians, by Elizabeth Goudge (1964). Children's fantasy set in early 20th century England. I think it would appeal to readers of anything from Narnia to Harry Potter to A Wrinkle in Time to Anne of Green Gables.

Lady Elizabeth's Comet, by Sheila Simonson (1986). Traditional Regency that feels especially grounded in the voice and values of the time.

Can't Stand the Heat, by Louisa Edwards (2009). Contemporary romance after my foodie city-girl heart.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson (2010). A refreshing, subtle love story with older protagonists.

A Clash of Kings, by George RR Martin (1998). After getting hooked on Game of Thrones on HBO, I glommed the entire series, but I think this second book is the strongest.

Memory (1996), Komarr (1998), and A Civil Campaign (1999), by Lois McMaster Bujold. The brightest jewels in the sparkling crown that is the Vorkosigan Saga. I can't say enough about how much I love this whole series, but these are the ones I'd take with me to the proverbial desert island.

Buy and Read Challenge: Cordelia's Honor

One of my resolutions for 2011 was to buy at least one leisure reading book per month, and to READ at least one book purchased in 2011 each month.

I started out with Cordelia's Honor, another entry in Lois McMaster Bujold's masterly Vorkosigan series. I've already gushed about them at length, so I'll just say that this volume is an excellent entry point for newbies to the series. It's an omnibus of two prequel novels, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, about the meeting and early marriage of Aral Vorkosigan and Cordelia Naismith, parents of the series' main character, Miles Vorkosigan.

OK, I'll say a little more. As much as I enjoy Miles, it's Aral who is my latest Fictional Secret Boyfriend. They're both intelligent, decent men who serve causes larger than themselves. But where Miles is mercurial and a master manipulator (because that's the only way someone with his physical limitations can succeed in his world--I don't blame him for being sort of the good-intentioned Napoleon of the Wormhole Nexus), Aral is all steady and stalwart and kinda taciturn but with desert-dry wit. Hot.