I just now remembered this book!

All Flags Flying: American Patriotic Quilts as Expressions of Liberty by Robert Bishop

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I have to give it five stars since my quilt is in it as the winner for South Carolina, where I was living at the time.  :)

A nice honor.  My quilt toured the world for 5 years before it was returned to me, where it now hangs in my bedroom.



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Read this as two separate books - The Mirror of Her Dreams, and A Man Rides Through

Mordant's Need by Stephen R. Donaldson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I understand why so many people love these books.  How can anyone think of this story without a feeling of amused warmth?  My status updates reveal my progress as I read it, I think.



The writing is impeccable, the structure perfect, the story inventive and original within the framework of boy meets girl, girl follows boy, both stumble around trying to find themselves, both are in danger, they discover their true talent, they fall in love, they fight together for the right, they live together in the peaceful kingdom happily ever after.



The 'couldn't say shit if she had a mouthful' heroine finds her voice and says 'oh, shit' when she needs to.  The clumsy puppy of a hero stops stumbling around and becomes a man.  The villain comes to a fitting end, amusing and ironic.



The concept of 'image translation' is inventive.  I'm not that widely read in the fantasy literature realm, but I've never read anything like it before.



My only complaint is the size and heft of the book.  If I had it to do over, I would have read the two books separately.  It was heavy and awkward, my arms got tired, I feared the pages would get torn as I turned them against my stomach.  Finally I laid the book on a pillow in my lap and that made it a little easier.



Great read!



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10/30	page 908		93.0%	""His courage, however came as a pleasant surprise." -- lol"
10/29	page 747		76.0%	"Holy crap!"
10/29	page 697		71.0%	"They've kidnapped the queen."
10/28	page 680		69.0%	"O my word. Things is a-poppin'"
10/27	page 611		62.0%	"Holy cow!" 2 comments
10/27	page 556		57.0%	"Moving on into "A Man Rides Through" and gasp! Terisa has finally found a pair! And even she knows she should've done it halfway through the last book. Veddy interesting indeed, my dear Watson."
10/25	page 483		49.0%	"Finished The Mirror of Her Dreams. Starting A Man Rides Through." 5 comments
10/25	page 463		47.0%	"I want to shake this stupid woman until her brains rattle!"
10/25	page 420		43.0%	"Damn! Wish I'd bought the two books separately. This thing makes Sanderson look like a piker."
10/24	page 274		28.0%	"Things are looking up in my regard for our hero and heroine. Terisa is starting to grow some balls."
10/23	page 223		23.0%	"The heroine is a wimp and an idiot and the hero is cute but a total klutz. Am sure things will change, but hope it's soon."
10/21	page 157		16.0%	"Terisa needs to decide she isn't invisible :-\"
10/20	page 113		12.0%	"Getting better. More action."
10/19	page 70		7.0%	"Going back to this one tonight."
10/11	page 70		7.0%	"Fascinating."
10/11	page 3		0.0%	"Starting with Mirror of Her Dreams."

#2 in The Cycle of Fire

Keeper of the Keys by Janny Wurts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Cycle of Fire continues, with Jaeric running from his destiny because of his horror of ending like his father.  How contemporary is that?  The elements of science fiction are more plausible than they were in the first book.  Sailing and the sea are vivid elements in the story, well written, making me feel the wind and the surf and the salt spray.



The demons are nasty and disgusting critters, the magic intriguing, and the characters finely drawn.  It's interesting reading this early work after reading the Wars of Light and Shadow and seeing the hints of elements that are much further developed in the later series.



Janny does have a way of weaving an intriguing fairy tale, scary, seductive, and at the same time comfortable... a place I really like to be.



The magic has a lot to do with using the mind's telepathic abilities and 'dream sense'. I was thinking about how little we know about the mind and wondering if the brain could be developed to the point where some of these capabilities could be used by us humans.



In other books by Janny, 'mage' sense is mostly a heightened awareness achieved through rigorous training and native talent to observe things that most of us never see -- energy emitted by growing things and rocks, auras, and the like. I really don't think it's so far beyond the realm of possibility that the brain could be trained or utilized more fully to encompass some of those skills.



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As usual, Jason Linkins at The Huffington Post is being entertaining in his blog today

About The Chris Matthews Show:  "Yes, ha ha. I got the yen to watch this show today because I had to go to the Apple Store yesterday, and I was like, "Where's John Heilemann, to explain politics to me? It's Saturday afternoon and I've been drinking whiskey sours all day!" And everyone looked at me like I had grown three heads. (Much later, I learned that I had actually been in a Chico's, and not the Apple Store, as I originally thought, which explains why my iPod doesn't work.)"

Here's a link to the whole article.

Gah! I know I've read this but can't really remember it.

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher




I saw this title while browsing GR and know I've read it. My memory of the plot is vague. I do not recall it as a great read, but hey, my memory is faulty. I am therefore giving it 3 stars as I know I finished it, so I must not have hated it.



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Last night when I finished War for the Oaks, I watched the BBC production of Yellowstone, which was pretty awesome. It reminded me, for some reason, of Athera, the mythical world created by Janny Wurts in her epic Wars of Light and Shadow series.

I'm plunging on through

Mordant's Need by Stephen R. Donaldson








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What a great read!

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


4.5 stars

I understand this book was a pioneer in the urban fantasy world. One could only wish that the subsequent urban fantasy was as good.

At first it felt tired and old hat to me, but gradually, Emma Bull's world and characters began to build and before you know it, I was enchanted.

It's a tour de force of music, magic, honor, courage, and love. The Pouka is the most endearing and lovable character I've come across in a long time. Eddi's character gradually develops depth and the story takes off. The peripheral characters are delightful. Willy Silver is a true tragic hero. I'm smiling and happy.



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Anathem by Neal Stephenson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Whew, I finished it.  What a weird experience.  Like a geek telling a romance tale, filled with quasi-medieval trappings, wild speculative thought, space drama, technology aka praxis, and ending with a wedding.



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One of the advantages of being old is Mondays off!

Originally I decided to take Mondays off to do some private practice, but once taken, Monday became an alluring day to do whatever the hell I wanted. And these days what I like most doing is reading. I am today going to finish this @#$%&* Stephenson book, Anathem! Sure hope the ending is worth all the effort of slogging through it!

Went to my daughter's last night for spaghetti, my favorite, and got to see everyone, even Emily who got home from work in time to eat while she watched us eat our dessert. I stopped at Whole Foods on my way to their house and bought one of their cakes for a treat. That place was hopping on Sunday night! What recession? Ha.

Anyway, it's a beautiful day and I'm going to read and maybe do some laundry and play with my puppies and eat leftover spaghetti!

From a great article in Newsweek about the Tea Partiers and their constant harangueing about the constitution.

As usual, Thomas Jefferson put it best. In a letter to a friend in 1816, he mocked “men [who] look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the arc of the covenant, too sacred to be touched”; “who ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment.” “Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable as another of taking care of itself, and of ordering its own affairs,” he concluded. “Each generation is as independent as the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before.” Amen.

Whole Article

Finished another Guy Gavriel Kay audio book last night

Here's my review:

The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Taking place in the same world as Al Rassan and the Sarantine Mosaic, the locale of this story is far north of there and a few hundred years later. A different narrator than the other Kay books I've listened to lured me to try this one in audio format. It was a good decision.

As in all of Kay's books, there are several points of view and this time it seemed easier to follow than some of his other books. The picture he paints of the land and the characters is vivid and moving. The land is undergoing changes and the raids of the Ehrlings (read Vikings) up on the Anglcan (read English) are no longer as easy as they used to be. He follows the struggles of Alun ab Owyn, Bern Thorkellson and his father Thorkel Alannson, King Aeldred and his children, and the priest Cenion as they attempt to deal with honor and loss, cultural and religious changes, and love.

There is more magic in this book than in the others I've read. Faeries and other supernatural creatures populate the landscape while the religion of Jad harshly punishes those who are able to see and communicate with the Fey.

Some extremely gory torture and killing is hard to read about or listen to, but I'm sure it's historically accurate. All in all, a very enjoyable book.



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Now if I can finish Neal Stephenson's Anathem today, I'll be in seventh heaven. It's been a long gruelling trudge through that one, but recently it's picked up. Only about 300 pages to go.

This is too funny! Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed -- [original version]

I'm a mod for this group

Fantasy Book Club Series

155 members

Fantasy series discussions with book giveaways
Wars of Light and Shadow - J...

Books we've read

The Curse of the Mistwraith

by Janny Wurts

Start date: June 1, 2009

The Ships of Merior

by Janny Wurts

Start date: June 1, 2010

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Sigh! Thump, thump goes my heart.

Woo-Woot!!

Alex O'Loughlin in his new incarnations.  No more Mick St. John, sadly, but he's still pretty nice.

Finished this last night

Deceiver by C.J. Cherryh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The only thing wrong with this book is that I have to wait 'til April for the next one. >-< (that's a grumpy face). I like how she's changing points of view. It began a book or so ago and at first, I wasn't sure how I felt about it -- gasp! change in my comfortable atevi world? -- but now am liking it quite a lot. There were some truly hilarious scenes with Ilisidi and Cajieri, and of course the trademark tension of a potentially deadly political disaster resulting in bloodshed. And one scene where Tano puts his hand out to block Barb from hugging Bren with her typical brainlessness and she is knocked backward to the the floor, hitting her head and effectively shutting her up by rendering her unconscious. Something that should've been done to Barb several books back as I'm sure other readers of the series will agree.


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Rereading this in November

Traitor's Knot by Janny Wurts

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I could die happy wrapped in the beauty of Janny's prose. :) In this book, Arithon heals from one trauma only to plunge himself into the middle of another. His doofus brother, Lysaer, has gotten himself wrapped up with some necromancers and Arithon has to try to save the world (and his brother, btw) from their dark and nefarious crutches. Elaira is shut off from their empathic connection during this process and she (and I) nearly die of fear for his life. More of the heart stopping action, the beautiful soaring prose, and the gradual revelation of the mystery that weaves the world of Athera into such a magical and beautiful place. The only drawback is that one more book read brings me one book closer to the ending of this bewitching, compelling, and marvelous tale.



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Books I've read or plan to read this month - October 2010

Sandra\ aka\ Sleo's bookshelf: october-shelf




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The incredible finale of the Rai Kirah trilogy by Carol Berg

Restoration by Carol Berg

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is one stupendous trilogy.  I scarcely know what to say.  Each book is entire unto itself, but taken as a whole, the story told is so astounding, so emotionally satisfying, and so complete, that I truly urge you to read all three.



First of all, Carol Berg is a fine story teller and her writing style is straight forward, while at the same time, packing a punch that only comes to one gradually as the story builds.  Yes, there were times that I began to wonder where this was going; yes, there were times that I wanted her to hurry up and get on with it.  And yet, in the end, every part was necessary for the whole.



The story is about a slave and his emperor, it's about power - both temporal and supernatural - it's about love and about the interplay between the two.  It's about fighting our demons and what happens when they are banished or killed; it's about how absolute power destroys love and about how powerless we are in the face of losing what we love.  It's about how demons bring creativity and madness - an example of Lucifer being 'Bringer of Light'?



It is, in short, magnificent.  There are few books that move me so powerfully - Janny Wurts' Wars of Light and Shadow, Guy Gavriel Kay's Lions of Al Rassan, and this one - the Rai Kirah trilogy.



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Beyond Reality group on Goodreads

   

       

                  Beyond Reality       

                437 members
        Welcome to the Beyond Reality SF&F discussion group on GoodReads.  In Beyond Reality, each of our me...

         

               

Books we've read

                                           

                                     
                His Majesty's Dragon

                by Naomi Novik

                                             Start date: April  1, 2009
               
                 

                  

                                     

                                     
                Hammered

                by Elizabeth Bear

                                             Start date: April  1, 2009
               
                 

                  

                   
               
               

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This Rai Kirah trilogy by Carol Berg is FABULOUS. Of course, everything she writes is.

Revelation by Carol Berg

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


4.75 stars

It would be five stars except that there was an overly long (for me) passage in the middle with Seyonne in the land of the demons that didn't keep my interest.  Beginning and ending were fabulous.  The psychological underpinnings are spot-on and the action compelling.  This is a fabulous trilogy.  I am now beginning Restoration.



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