Books this year.

[kaberett]

Feel free to ask me more about my thoughts on any of them. Not all of the notes stand, on reflection. Approx 90ish, depending on how you count multi-novel fanfic series, & apologies for the layout but it's OpenOffice generated HTML because I wasn't hand-coding that, okay. (As for why I was storing it in OOo rather than a .csv... well, that's another matter.)

Date completed	Author	Title	Comments
01/01/11	Diana Wynne Jones	Unexpected Magic	Lots of the villains are fat. Race fail. Other than that, really quite absorbing.
03/01/11	Diana Wynne Jones	Deep Secret	Poorly-done survivor guilt. Race fail. SF con fail. Sexism (!). TRANS FAIL. :( Fat fail. Story good; narrators appalling.
05/01/11	Diana Wynne Jones	The Merlin Conspiracy	Adopting a dyslexic child who COULDN'T COPE. Oh, hold on, gets a bit more complicated. V. absorbing.
07/01/11	Jane Austen	Pride & Prejudice	Reread of about half of it, starting at gone midnight. Oops.
10/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	TSK: Beguilement	Passing mentions of homosexuality! Age-difference in relationship! Female heroine! Lush descriptions! Believably awkward sex! :)
10/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	TSK: Legacy	Interesting how, in a matriarchal society, it still seems to be women doing all the work and men talking about women as though they own 'em.
11/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	TSK: Passage	The division of labour is DEFINITELY patriarchal. The age gap is a little icky. No malices and heart-wrenching, though.
12/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	TSK: Horizon	Yep, still complex characterisation and detailed plot pulling together all the bits we've already been told.
14/01/11	Naomi Novik	Black Powder War	Lots of good use of details from previous books, and still detailed, but held me less than the earlier ones.
16/01/11	Naomi Novik	Empire of Ivory	I *think* race-fail is avoided, and still it pulls in details from before and makes me laugh out loud with its observations, and comes close to making me cry. So good at relationships.
17/01/11	Naomi Novik	Victory of Eagles	SO MANY TYPOS. Urgh.
18/01/11	Naomi Novik	Tongues of Serpents	D'awwwwwww baby dragon, and fewer typos to boot; a much more pleasurable read for it.
22/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Shards of Honor	She is trying to tell a story – same relationship pattern as in The Sharing Knife quartet.
23/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Barrayar	RIDICULOUS comment about bisexuality vs monogamy.
24/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	The Warrior's Apprentice
24/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	The Mountains of Mourning
26/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	The Vor Game
29/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Cetaganda	naath linked me to all of them online and now I am DOOMED FOREVER. I'm still not sure the logic is internally consistent, but the chemistry is also good. :-)
30/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Ethan of Athos
30/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Labyrinth	af;sjfhsalfkjedf beautiful. And – hah! Reading the afterword to MM&M, it's explicit that the themes I was spotting (sex, reproduction without, etc) were ones she was thinking of too.
31/01/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	The Borders of Infinity
01/02/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Brothers in Arms
03/02/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Mirror Dance	Cloning/rejuvenation CAN'T WORK LIKE THAT, I've just realised! Brain cells senesce just as much as the body does! And I'm getting really bored of the physical description of Miles at the beginning of each one, and upon discovering that Bel has breasts and a cock am even MORE unhappy at them being referred to as a hermaphrodite (and still really don't like “it”) :s Though an earlier book did suggest they had a cunt as well...
05/02/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Komarr	It dealt with the issue of replacing his bones & marrow! But was wrong about subduction zones :( But that's the first time it's been wrong about anything.
06/02/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	A Civil Campaign	“It is the preferred Betan pronoun for a hermaphrodite.” Oh, okay then. :) And trans is dealt with ACTUALLY WELL!
06/02/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Winter Fair Gifts	Hmm. It works, ish, though the plot-to-be-foiled takes a definite back seat to the romance, which saddens me slightly.
08/02/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Falling Free
08/02/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Diplomatic Immunity
11/02/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	CryoBurn
17/02/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Memory
23/02/11	Diana Wynne Jones	Year of the Griffin	Nothing in this one to upset me, slightly to my surprise! Except that the dysfunctional families were *very* well done.
25/02/11	Diana Wynne Jones	Dark Lord of Derkholm	Some Incorrect Science; brown people, but not brilliantly done. :s
28/02/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	The Spirit Ring	STILL AWESOME. So much better than DWJ, my word.
02/03/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	The Curse of Chalion	Tears! It is wonderful. There are queer characters! I am delighted.
08/03/11	Diana Wynne Jones	Hexwood	The stories-within-stories got a bit irritating.
25/03/11	Radclyffe Hall	The Well of Loneliness	Distressing: less lesbian, more female-attracted gender-variant in more strictly delimited times. But the cadence of the sentences is beautiful, and the racism breathtaking.
29/03/11	Diana Wynne Jones	Charmed Life	RIP. :-( Sad about Gwen being such a horrible female character, but oh well.
30/03/11	Diana Wynne Jones	The Ogre Downstairs	ARGH. Triggered major anxiety, this one, due to the portrayal of an abusive father-figure – who was REDEEMED by TALKING and UNDERSTANDING at the end. I bitterly think it's totally unrealistic, but, hey, bitter.
11/04/11	Diana Wynne Jones	The Magicians of Caprona	Aha! More interesting female characters. Rollicking would be a good word for it.
20/04/11	Susanna Clarke	Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell	Nice if there had been more female characters, but will do.
21/04/11	Diana Wynne Jones	The Lives of Christopher Chant	More fat stereotypes :-( but good story.
23/04/11	Posy Simmonds	Tamara Drewe	Many, many problems, but easy reading.
25/04/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	TSK: Beguilement	again. whoops.
29/04/11	Vorkosiverse fic	A Deeper Season	More than one novel-length! But charming.
29/04/11	Diana Wynne Jones	Mixed Magics
04/05/11	Diana Wynne Jones	The Pinhoe Egg
04/05/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Shards of Honor	again. whoops.
09/05/11	Lois McMaster Bujold	Paladin of Souls
19/05/11	Ali Smith	girl meets boy	queer people, hurrah
21/05/11	Trudi Canavan	The Ambassador's Mission	the writing is as bad as ever.
30/05/11	various	V for Vendetta	OH MY
31/05/11	Cressida Cowell	How To Train Your Dragon	Not actually very interesting. All of the worst of trying to appeal to little boys. No little girls, and the female dragons are nasty.
08/05/11	Audrey Niffenegger	The Time Traveler's Wife	Oh. OH. I was feeling sad about Grossmutti anyway; this wonderful bittersweet beauty of a book... I am so glad I worked my way into it, and properly this time.
SURF	Diana Wynne Jones	Archer's Goon	too much excusing of abusive parenting but I did not anticipate the twists...
SURF	Diana Wynne Jones	A Sudden Wild Magic	a bit exoticising but fun
SURF	Diana Wynne Jones	Dogsbody	also genuinely enjoyed!
SURF	Diana Wynne Jones	A Tale of Time City	genuinely enjoyed!
SURF	Madeleine L'Engle	A Wind In The Door	really enjoyed all three of these but can't remember much about them
SURF	Madeleine L'Engle	Many Waters
SURF	Madeleine L'Engle	A Ring of Endless Light
SURF	Kate Bornstein	Gender Outlaw	Got quite irritated by the way KB approaches trans* and binary/non-binary genders, but also picked up some really neat ideas
SURF	Kate Bornstein	Hello, Cruel World	Particularly noticed the total absence of asexuals, but reconceptualised some stuff about suicidal ideation for me in a useful way
SURF	Salman Rushdie	Haroun & the Ocean of Stories	Really, really loved – give or take the evil mother trope (“the saddest of cities”!)
SURF	Salman Rushdie	Luka & the Fire of Life	A bit less keen on but greatly enjoyed
“break”	Trudi Canavan	The Rogue	the writing is STILL SO BAD I do not understand but nonetheless a romp
“break”	Salman Rushdie	Shalimar the Clown	On the one hand: I recognised LA! It made me homesick! On the other: oh my he gets women SO, SO WRONG and doesn't even notice the irony in his criticism of enforced niqab-tragen
“break”	Evelyn Waugh	Brideshead Revisited	I actually really enjoyed this. Yes, it is crap at women, but also it is beautiful and BISEXUAL MAIN CHARACTER
01/10/11	Diana Wynne Jones	The Homebounders	Not quite escapist fantasy, which is what I was after, but very very enjoyable for all of its fail (ugh wish I gave her less leeway)
05/10/11	Vorkosiverse fic	A Deeper Season	… again, whoops, but it is SO GOOD
16/10/11	Terry Pratchett	Snuff	There is rape apologia in the voice of Sybil which breaks my heart nearly as much as “For Lyn... for always” in the dedications. Characterisation still feels off, at least one continuity error, it is clunky and frequently misogynist and woefully racist and I - I must bear witness.
01/11/11	Iain M Banks	Player of Games	My word this book was irritating. In a Culture full of supposed gender equity and gender neutrality, it is striking that (a) I'm pretty sure there isn't a Bechdel pass and (b) the viewpoint protag is a straight cis dude and (c) all transitions happen off-screen as a gimmick. Grr. Still did the usual IMB thing of being v absorbing though.
09/11/11	?	a Buffy graphic novel	yay buffy
09/11/11	Maggie Stiefvater	Shiver	teenage werewolf romance! Passes Bechdel within first ten pages! I am v endeared
10/11/11	Diana Wynne Jones	Dalemark: Cart & Cwidder	is DWJ, therefore I liked it
12/11/11	Susan Price	A Sterkam Kiss	ouch this is painful. Oh the poor people.
14/11/11	?	3xBuffy	Autumnal, Haunted, Viva Las Buffy
17/11/11	Maggie Stiefvater	Linger	yep, I still really like this! Good portrayals of PTSD, suicidal impulses, etc; if a little cliched in places...
19/11/11	Maggie Stiefvater	Forever
24/11/11	Diana Wynne Jones	Drowned Ammet	Parallels! Between characters! Also um nasty racial stereotyping. But oh my goodness what a yarn, and the simultaneous storylines separated into books, and I wonder how the rest works and when they will be brough together.
02/12/11	Diana Wynne Jones	Black Maria	Is her NOT being fail at gender roles, hurrah, and also her doing “appearances can be deceptive” which is v interesting given her normal fat=bad
02/12/11	Jean Regnaud & Emile Bravo	My Mommy...	very charming slightly distressing autobiography with, um, some lack of political correctness. Permeated by Frenchness – prob better in original.
04/12/11	Diana Wynne Jones	The Spellcoats	so good! so absorbing! so frustrated when it ended! so frustrated that there are ends left deliberately loose and I have no idea whether they've ever been explained!
06/12/11	Diana Wynne Jones	Crown of Dalemark	fffffff so good everything ties together so many parallels and so FRUSTRATINGLY unfinished (well, the books came to an end, but the story didn't)
13/12/11	Diana Wynne Jones	The Power of Three	STILL SO FOND also yes lots of people all considering each other people.
?	Neil Gaiman	Sandman: The Kindly Ones	Wah. I prefer earlier art styles and I prefer the happier books. But it's the one Devon donated to the library so.
19/12/11	Patrick O'Brian	Master & Commander	Lots of dwelling on homosexuality, and lots of detailed description of boats that to my mind get in the way of the story and can be skipped. So I do.
21/12/11	Ursula Vernon	Digger	I am so endeared by the wombat geologist, and so dismayed by the appropriation of gods rather than just making them up :-(
26/12/11	Naomi Novik	Temeraire	I kind of needed it after Master&Commander, ok.

Comments

[noldo]

in a matriarchal society, it still seems to be women doing all the work and men talking about women as though they own 'em

Not inconsistent with matriarchally organised subgroup aware of its status as part of a larger male-dominated society? It simply becomes women-as-prestige-property, rather than women-as-annoying-baggage.

[kaberett]

No, but I don't think it is matriarchally-organised subgroup? In that there are two populations, living almost entirely separate lives, one nomadic & one settled. The settled/agricultural society is patriarchal; the nomadic culture is matriarchal with some female warriors, leaders etc - the power structures seem set up in a properly egalitarian fashion; family names follow the maternal line; new husbands go to live in the wife's family's tents; and yet in spite of all this it is still women who end up doing the scutwork AFAICR.