shakatany | Books Read

I haven't posted the titles of the books I've read for a few months so now I think I'll just bunch them together in one message.

The Society of S by Susan Hubbard: an unusual vampire tale, unlike most I've read, revealing a different type of vampire as the young heroine grows to realize the truth about her parents and herself. The only book that comes close to this visualization of vampire existence that I've read is The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez.

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris: another book in her Sookie Stackhouse series that leaves all in disarray - I enjoy Sookie and look forward to see what HBO does with her.

An Ice Cold Grave also by Charlaine Harris: this is the latest in her Harper Connelly series about a girl who can see dead people. This one is darker than most and the character of young Chuck Almand and his fate will stay with me for some time.

Legacy (The Sharing Knife #2) by Lois McMaster Bujold: the second book in her Sharing Knife quartet, this one taking place among the Lakedwellers. Bujold excells in her worldbuilding and is even better in her characterizations. Though her Miles Vorkosigan stories are my favorites this series comes in second.

Justice Denied by J.A. Jance: the latest in her J. P. Beaumont series that ends with his marriage to Mel Soames. Since I guessed who the guilty one was early on I don't believe it's one of the better entries in the series.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling: I finally read the book months after the big premiere. I felt it wasn't as good as it might've been if an effective editor had been able to cut it down a bit (as with the 2 previous books). JK always said she'd written the last chapter when she wrote the first book - did she mean the book proper or the epilogue? I wish I had the time and energy to read all 7 at one go (as JK has said it's really one book in 7 parts) to see if she really tied up all the plotpoints and loose ends. I wonder if it will be considered a children's classic 50 years hence but it will certainly be a long time before another series causes such worldwide hoopla.

Dead Heat by Dick Francis and Felix Francis: a fairly competent mystery though I felt there was more Felix than Dick in the writing.

D.A. by Connie Willis: a book that is really a short story in the tone of one of Robert A. Heinlein juveniles with a rather Mary Sue-ish heroine

And finally I come to Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley which I absolutely looove ( I haven't felt this about a book in ages). For devotees of Nim of "Surface" this is the perfect book. In a parallel Earth, much like our own except for the existence of "mythical" creatures like Nessie and dragons, young Jake comes upon a dying mother dragon and becomes foster mother to her surviving dragonlet named Lois. McKinley gets into the mindset of a maturing teenager beautifully and Lois is beguiling. Her take on telepathy between two disparate species is original and believable. There may be further books but it doesn't matter as this one is satisfying by itself. Robin McKinley is the author of two of my favorite books that I often re-read, Beauty and The Blue Sword (some people have comfort food - I have comfort books). I will add this one to the list. BTW McKinley is a fellow LJer as

robinmckinley, joining Wen Spencer (

wen_spencer), Suzette Haden Elgin (

ozarque), Tanya Huff (

andpuff) and other authors.

BTW does anyone know what "Arcadiae vias peregrinentur" means?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's a lot of reading!

Well considering that I've read these books over 4 months it's not that much. In the old pre-online days it would've only taken one month to read all those books.

Shakatany

I always used to have my nose in a book but like you say since being online...I am reading more at the minute though coz I can never get online for one reason or another....I'm having to fight for computer time with my daughter as she's doing a college assignment and she's on all the darned time. :(

At the moment I'm re-reading Monica Dickens and Donald E. Westlake, two of my fave authors.

I don't know - shouldn't reading all those fics online count as reading? It's just hard to measure - I mean does a long fic like "Sneer" = 1 book and what about Repo - that's certainly more than one book.

Monica Dickens? I don't think I've heard of her.

Shakatany

Repo is huge so should count really. :D Monica Dickens was Charles Dickens great granddaughter. I have all her books.

But what does she write? Mysteries? Romances? Mainstream stuff?

Shakatany

Well, she doesn't write now coz she's RIP but back in the day she wrote good stories just about ordinary peeps...minutae of London life mainly. I like kitchen-sink type stuff a lot of the time. Some of her best books are sortov autobiographical from when she was a nurse and especially when she worked below stairs back in the 1930s...with her coming from an upper class type family (she was presented at court as a deb) she did have to hide some of the time coz the guests were peeps known to her.

Sounds interesting. IF (note the if) I ever find myself without anything to read I'll give her a try (too many books - too little time *sigh*).

Shakatany

They probably wouldn't be your cup of tea. I've lost count of the times peeps have given me their fave book to read and I've been unable to get through it...my sister loves romances and I don't mind the odd one, but she reads towers of them!

I know - one person's fave book is another's what-was-she-thinking?

I gobbled down romance novels from the ages of 18 to about 23. Now I can't even bear to look at the covers (though I do have a number of Georgette Heyers and a few others in my comfort books bunch).

I went to the NYPL and the only book available is An Open Book which I think is her biography. Would you recommend it?

Shakatany

It is her autobiography and I'm racking my brains whether I've read it or not! I've just seen another on the book page that I don't think I've read ... 'The Room Upstairs' and it's dead cheap. I'm gonna get my sister to get it for me (she has credit cards and stuff). You could give it a whirl, biographies are always interesting. I'm going to buy that as well I think. It's only one pound odd...thanks for that, I'd never have looked otherwise. :D Even if I've read it I'll read it again. I'm re-reading all hers at the mo...

Lol at Georgette Heyer, I read all hers back in the day and so did my sister. She still reminisces about Bath Tangle. ;)

My favorite autobiography is "We Shook the Family Tree" by Hildegarde Dolson - she wasn't very famous but boy do I find it funny and it always cheers me up.

I also loved the books by Emily Kimbrough and Cornelia Otis Skinner (together or seperately) like "Our Hearts were Young and Gay" which has a scene were Cornelia, one of these two sheltered girls, comments on why a guy at a party was wearing make-up and thinks he must've come right from the theater and her father, the actor Otis Skinner, sputters and faintly agrees. I first read these books when I was very young and didn't quite understand the humor it the scene until I was much older *g*

Shakatany

Lol, sound like my kind of books...I shall ask Deb to look out for me. I'll look them up on Amazon. :D

Some may be OoP but "Our Hearts Were Young and Gay" I believe is a classic (it was also made into a movie in 1944).

Shakatany

Sometimes you can get second-hand copies of oops. :D

I don't understand why one entry is over £23 which is a lot! And one only £5...hmmm...

Here I mean lol...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Hildegarde+Dolson+&Go.x=8&Go.y=8

The mysteries of second hand books is not one I've really delved in. Besides pounds to dollars makes my head spin *g*

Shakatany

Just dropping by (semi lurking, really) . . .and randomly saw the Latin question.
Via = road or path, and looks to be in the accusative form.
Peregrinentur = "to be wandering" or "roaming" and appears to be a third person plural subjunctive (passive, but it doesn't make much sense as passive in the translation to our modern ears) form . . . in this case as an independent subjunctive, most likely the jussive, so = let them be wandering
Arcadia, an actual region of the Pelopennesus, has come to mean a wild/pastoral place in English poetry, with some overtones of sacredness; in this case its in the genitive form...

So, the best I can come up with is "Let them wander the paths of Arcadia" (i.e., the metaphorical wilds)
Or the clunkier, but more literal and grammatically correct: "Let the paths of Arcadia be wandered by them."

Its been a few years since I actually did any serious Latin translating, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think I'm pretty close.
I'm so excited that you loved the book, I can't wait to get my hands on it!

Thank you for the analysis. I actually asked the author and she replied that it meant May they walk in Arcadia so you are very close.

The book is terrific - I actually re-read it and intend to buy it when it comes out in paperback so it will join my collection of comfort books.

Shakatany

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"Arcadiae vias peregrinentur"

Re: "Arcadiae vias peregrinentur"