January

January saw me diving into a Tamora Pierce spin. Though mostly based at the young adult market, I grew up with these books and I still like to dip into them. And by "dip into them" I mean re-read the whole lot in one go and obsessively read every new one I can find.
I love to watch the development of Pierce's prose style over the books, as well as the development of the worlds she creates, but it's her heroines that make her stand out from... just about every other author I know of who writes for YA. Each one is different - it's not just the same woman recycled over again; they are "strong" women, by which I mean they are well developed characters who can stand on their own two feet and provide wonderful role models for growing girls, but they aren't without their flaws. They are real people,  who don't fit into little cliched boxes that a lot of fantasy writers seem to post women into. Her men are also real characters too, and she writes a wonderfully convincing and enthralling world that I want to go back to time and time again.

Terrier / Bloodhound / Mastiff - Tamora Pierce
Re-read / Re-read / ****

Song of the Lioness Quartet
Re-read

Immortals Quartet
Re-read

Protector of the Small Quartet
Re- read

Trickster's Choice / Trickster's Queen
Re-read

Finishing off 2011

October

The Fourth Bear - Jasper Fforde
re-read
I'm going to steal my own review that I wrote on Amazon when I first read this book... while I've mellowed a little towards it over a few more re-readings, I still think it's not as good as its predecessor. Still fantastic, but I suppose unflattering comparisons are the price you pay when your work is of such high quality to start with.

Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse - Foglio
**
The latest in the Girl Genius series. Bought because I like re-reading, and it's tiring to go through the internet archives every time. Not bad, but certainly nothing special.

Cabal - Clive Barker
***
Intense, well paced - finished this very quickly. Definitely a horror, with some quite gruesome moments, this stood out for having a love-interest who breaks a lot of conventions and to my mind was far more interesting than the protagonist. She could have done with a less whiny lead to follow.

Snuff - Terry Pratchett
****
It's Pratchett - and to his fans it can't but be good. Contrary to some opinions, I don't feel that Pratchett's work is deteriorating; the book did feel like it was running out of comedic steam in places, but overall his work is becoming more thoughtful and filled with dry wit rather than the punchy gag-a-minute humour of yesteryear. And I don't think that's a bad thing. All writers progress and change, and I'd much rather that Pratchett settled into this different style, allowing his characters to progress and tell more of a story than allowed his old one to become stale, repeating the same old jokes with characters treading water.

November

Storm Front - Jim Butcher
**
Having heard so much good about the Dresden Files, this one had to be an anti-climax. I found it predictable ... and yet another story with a dull cookie-cutter angst-ridden Straight White Male protagonist, who didn't get enough interesting development to make me care about him. I am getting very tired of this type of anti-hero being placed in front of me. Kindest thing to say about it would be that it makes decent airport reading.

Sabriel - Garth Nix
****
Fantastic opening to a cracking fantasy series. Nix's take on - effectively necromancy - is fresh, new and fascinating. His characters zing, and the plot is enthralling. Butcher and Barker should be taking notes. And this is a book aimed at the YA market. Yet more proof that we live in a golden age of children's fiction. Would recommend to all ages.

Lirael - Garth Nix
****
Continues standard of excellence as set by previous book.

December

Abhorsen - Garth Nix
****
Fantastic series all the way through. Wonderful conclusion to the trilogy.

Fly By Night - Frances Hardinge
****
Disclaimer - I actually ended up reading this because I know Frances. But, biased as I am, I would still recommend this as a brilliant read for anyone. Much like Nix, Hardinge proves that younger readers can cope with far more in-depth, complex and fascinating stuff than the fare that is often churned out for adults. Fly By Night brings to life a wonderfully detailed and imaginative world, populated by fascinating and well-developed characters. I have a penchant for any author who can name their characters well - Dickens had the skill (though in other respects I'm not a fan) as does Jasper Fforde, and so too does Hardinge, with such wonderful characters as Mosca Mye and Eponymous Clent. Not to mention Saracen the goose. I'm annoyed I put off reading it as long as I did.

September 2011

Because I couldn't put this off any longer, and it's getting silly now.

I am also trying out a new system of reviewing that's a bit more punchy, and incidentally quicker to write, so I can hopefully blast through the last few months, and still do them justice. I'd ask that you tell me if you don't think I have, but I have no illusions about the size of my readership...

I'm introducing a new 5* rating system from here on in as well; something that may make for interesting developments during the yearly review, and add a qualitative element as well as a quantative one. Re-reads are not counted in the ratings, because they're all automatically assumed to have 4 or 5 stars. Otherwise I wouldn't be re-reading them.

So here we go...

September

Wonder Woman - Oddessy

**

After the latest DC reboot, WW has been "updated", and I'm not especially keen on how. Stripping her of the rest of the Amazons and the haven of Themyscria was bad enough (like comics need fewer female characters) - but the worst was what they've done to the character. There is a reason WW carries a lasso. The new one is armed with gauntlets designed for punching and stamping their imprint on people; she's a thug, whose first impulse is violence and killing. And that's just not Wonder Woman; that's the exact opposite. It's like you can't have a Strong Female Character any more, unless we're talking physically strong, and using it to lash out because of some past trauma (that half the time we can't remember). It's not that WW shouldn't be able to dish out some damage - heck, I think one of the most interesting of her storylines is the one with Maxwell Lord - but WW has always been interesting because she thinks about it. She doesn't react on instinct, she doesn't lash out, she's always mindful of her actions; she's strong mentally and emotionally as much as she is physically.

Which is why she's such a challenging character, and why, I think, male writers are often threatened by her. Now she's been passed away from Gail Simone and on to three guys, they've almost completely neutered her as a character, and it's a crying shame.

I've only given it two stars instead of one because I think there *may* be the possibility of improvement... but I'm not holding out too much hope.

Serenity - Those Left Behind

Better Days and Other Stories

The Shepherd's Tale

***

I'm doing these collectively because it was a while ago now, and the three seem to have blurred into one.

All in all, a good addition to the collection of any Firefly/Serenity fan, but they don't stand alone too well if you're not already a fan. They fill in the gaps nicely, but I was expecting a little more of these - especially the Shepherd's tale.

The Doctor Will See You Now - Max Pemberton

***

Continuation of the previous Pemberton books - a continued look at the state of the NHS, and hospitals today. It feels like this one is catching up more with the state of things as they are now - not that these were ever talking about the dim and distant past - but the relevance is clearer. Certainly worth a read.

Don't Split the Party - Rich Burlew

Re-read

Compilation of OOTS comics. Hilarious, iconicly drawn strip, where the scale of the story and the depth of the characters go far and above and beyond their stick-figure avatars. Don't Split the party is the latest compilation from the actual story-line, and the most complex and in-depth so far. Brilliantly well done series, well worth re-reading.

The Big Over Easy - Jasper Fforde

re-read

The first in Fforde's series of Nursery Crimes novels. Very funny, very clever, a favourite and a joy to read.

2011 Round Up - Part 2

Ok, so, here's some stats for those who care...

Total Books Read: 87

Number of New Books Read: 45

Number re-reads: 42

(% RR: 48%)(All % are to nearest whole %)



Breakdown By Months

Most books read in a month: August and January = 16

(% RR: August 9/16 = 56% January 10/16 = 62.5%)

Least Books read in a month: December = 2

(% RR: 0%)

Months in order of number of Books read:

January / August = 16

March = 14

June / September = 7

February / July = 6

October = 4

April / May / November = 3

December = 2

Most New Books Read in a Month: August = 7

Months in order of number of New Books Read:

August = 7

January = 6

March / July / September = 5

February = 4

October / November = 3

April / June / December = 2

May = 0

Month with highest % New Books Read: November / December = 100%

Month with Lowest % New Books Read: May = 0%

Months in order of % New Books Read:

November / December : 100%

July = 83%

October = 75%

September = 71%

February / April = 67%

August = 44%

January = 37.5%

March = 36%

June = 29%

May = 0%

Average (mean) number of books Per Month: 7

Average (mean) number of New Books Per Month: 4



Breakdown by Genre

Number of Novels : 47 (25 N, 22 RR)

(% of Total : 54%) (% Total New: 56%)

Number of Graphic Novels / Comics : 31 (12 N, 19 RR)

(% of Total : 36%) (% Total New: 27%)

Number of Non Fiction : 7 (7 N, 0 RR)

(% of Total : 8%) (% Total New: 16%)

Number of Poetry : 2 (1 N, 1 RR)

(% of Total : 2%) (% Total New: 2%)



Breakdown By Authors

Number of books read per author (of which are re-reads)

Multi-Authored Books

Birds of Prey - 11 (9)

Girl Genius - 10 (9)

Buffy Series 8 - 3 (1)

Serenity - 3

Wonder Woman - 2

Single Authored Books

J.K Rowling - 7 (7)

Jasper Fforde - 6 (5)

Naomi Novik - 6 (5)

Agatha Christie - 5

Gail Carriger - 4

Phillipa Gregory -3 (2)

Garth Nix - 3

Max Pemberton - 3

Terry Pratchett - 3 (2)

Rich Burlew - 2 (1)

Scarlett Thomas - 2

And all with one book each:

Clive Barker, Alex Boese, Jim Butcher, Wendy Cope, Cordelia Fine, Neil Gaiman, Ben Goldacre, Francis Hardinge, Luke Kennard, Gregory Maguire, Hillary Mantel, Baroness Orczy, Sarah Waters and Gabriel Weston.



Right now, because I'm a very visual kind of person, I'm thinking about making some huge pie charts... but that, like any sort of analysis of these figures, will have to wait for another time. When I am less tired. And can do maths again.
I hope, if anyone's stuck around and is still reading this, that you enjoyed my little experiment! I hope some of you will be pleased to hear that I will get round to filling in the review part of the missing months (September - December), and I have decided that the experiment will be continuing into 2012! It'll be interesting to see if things change this year, if my habits get worse or better, or stay the same, and it's possible my Significant Other will be also joining in keeping a list of what books he's reading this year too, which I will more than likely cross post to if possible.
Anyway, hope your 2011 was fun and book-filled, and that 2012 will be likewise!

2011 Round up - Part 1

Ok, so I've fallen off with the reviews since August - I will be posting a catch-up, and hopefully later this week, but for now I'm going to do a quick zip through this year's reading trends and see if there's anything interesting that comes up...

Let's start with a full list of everything I've read...

Re-reads are in italics.

January

Harry Potter

Going Postal

Bad Science

Making Money

Trust me I'm a (Junior) doctor

Pop Co

Where Does it Hurt?

Red Queen

White Queen

Direct Red

February

Wolf Hall

Delusions of Gender

The Other Boleyn Girl

Elephants on Acid

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

The Little Stranger

March

Sparkling Cyanide

Towards Zero

The Hollow

Planet Shaped Horse

The 13 Problems

Girl Genius 1-9

April

Ordeal by Innocence

The End of My Y

Anansi Boys

May

First Among Sequels

Temariare

Empire of Jade

June

Black Powder War

Empire of Ivory

Victory of Eagles

Tongues of Serpents

One of Our Thursdays is Missing

The Eyre Affair

Lost in a Good Book

July

Buffy Season 8 - Retreat (6)

Buffy Season 8 - Twilight (7)

Buffy Season 8 - Last Gleaming (8)

I will Repay

The Hiketeia

Oracle- The Cure

August

Soulless

Sensei and Student

Perfect Pitch

Blood and Circuits

Dead of Winter

Metropolis or Dust

Club Kids

Platinum Flats

Endrun

Black Canary / Oracle / Huntress

Changeless

Snips, Snails and Dragontales

Blameless

Serious Concerns

The Battle Within

Heartless

September

Wonder Woman - Oddesy

Serenity - Those Left Behind

Serenity - The Shepherd's Tale

Serenity - Better Days

The Doctor Will See You Now

Don't Split the Party

The Big Over Easy

October

The Fourth Bear

Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse (Girl Genius 10)

Cabal

Snuff

November

Storm Front

Sabriel

Lirael

December

Abhorsen

Fly By Night

August

So August was full of quite a lot of re-reads. After reading Oracle: The Cure at the end of July, and being so pissed off with it, I decided to go back to some Birds of Prey; Sensei and Student, Perfect Pitch, Blood and Circuits, Dead of Winter, Metropolis or Dust / Club Kids / Platinum Flats, Serious Concerns and The Battle Within – all of which were re-reads, and most of which were from the Gail Simone era, so I feel ok about tackling them all together. I like Simone’s writing, and I love the BoP franchise; it’s feminist without being overtly so, and, ok, it does follow the usual heroines in skimpy costumes formula of most comics, but all of the characters feel like developed individuals, and they have actual character and plot, rather than just being vehicles for spandex. It’s a world populated with women, rather than merely decorated with them.

I also read for the first time Endrun, and an early pre-Simone compilation, simply entitled Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress. Endrun felt a little... uneven. The new characters- Hawk and Dove – really don’t add to the new line-up, and are far too generic. Large, over-muscled, angry, hitty man, and quiet, demure, pretty, worrying woman. Sorry. Seen this before and it was old then. The other compilation was a lot better. It really gives a good sense of who these characters are, and was a great insight into the early dynamic of the main three. It’s totally worth a read for anyone with an interest in the series.

August also saw me getting into – and reading the entirety of – the Alexia Tarabotti series, by Gail Carriger; Soulless, Changeless, Blameless and Heartless. These are utterly awesome, and I can’t recommend them highly enough. Steampunk/Victoriana setting, with a large touch of the supernatural, and a heroine who I adore. Alexia Tarabotti is utterly sensible, no-nonsense, and intelligent, without being too “modern” in her attitudes. She fits in perfectly in her Victorian world, but never lets it constrain her into a typically useless-feminine role. And what’s even better, she isn’t the only practical or intelligent woman in the series, or the only one who is fully fleshed out and rounded. These books are highly Bechedel compliant, with all the women being distinct and interesting. They’re also all rollicking good adventure stories, and a lot of good fun.

And in the middle of all that, I read Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales, by Rich Burlew. It’s mostly a filler book of odd comics and strips from the long running Order of the Stick series. It continues the same standard of humour as the rest of the books, but it’s really only for the die-hard fans of the comic. It’s worth a read, but nothing special, and if you missed the limited print run, then you probably haven’t lost out much.

July

Well, the last month or so, the SO and I have been moving house to a lovely little place in Oxford. In the process buying more bookshelves. I actually have empty space that I can fill with books!

However, yes, this means this update is spectacularly late.

First on my list, I eventually got around to reading the final 2 instalments of Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 8. I re-read book 6, Retreat, for the lead-in, because it's been so long since I read them, then followed that up with books 7 and 8, Twilight and Last Gleaming.

I have to say, as a series, season 8 has been a bit of a mixed bag. I rather agree with one Amazon reviewer - the first 5 books were great. Really interesting, now the series has gone global, moved out of Sunnydale, and can take advantage of a cast of thousands and unlimited budget. But these last three... The plot is convoluted, and a bit difficult to follow, I don't feel the "reveal" of the big bad is particularly believable, and the grand finale isn't as epic as you feel it ought to be, with a main-character death which lacks the emotional impact that it ought to have.

That said, the final outcome of the series is game changing, and it'll be really interesting to see where they go from here for season 9. Especially since Joss Whedon has promised a return to character driven stories and more focus on what Buffy does best.

One of my favourite books of all time, is The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, but so far I'd neglected to read any of the other books about the same characters - partly out of a fear that they couldn't possibly be as good. Then I got round to reading I Will Repay. The edition that I got wasn't a particularly good one - several glaring typos, but that's easily overlooked. Like the original book, this one is a love story as well as an adventure. The adventure itself is rollicking good fun, but it's a bit predictable. What makes the book worth reading is the characters, who all have real depth and emotion, and a real humanity to them. Especially the women. They aren't put up on pedestals - in fact this book is about the dangers of putting people on pedestals, which I sense is something of a theme in these books. Orczy's style is perhaps a little overblown, but that's more due to the period than an actual flaw in her work, and it suits the story. It's a fun adventure and might just tug your heartstrings along the way.

As some of you may know, I'm quite the Wonder Woman fan. And one of the other new reads of this month is The Hiketea - a stand alone Wonder Woman book by Greg Ruka. I like Ruka's Wonder Woman - she is possibly my favourite incarnation of the character; wise, strong, intelligent and full of compassion without being over emotional. I'm also a fan of Gail Simone's more consciously feminist take on Diana, but Ruka's Diana is just a decent and amazingly capable person, without having to make a point of it all the time. She is a feminist icon, but just by existing, rather than by trying to be one. The Hiketea is, I believe, Ruka's first attempt with the character, before he was given the series proper. The plot is very simple, but the execution is spot on, and sets up quite a few aspects of Diana that Ruka goes on to explore later. The dynamic and the conflict between Wonder Woman and Batman is explored without doing either of the characters down. With a start like this, it's easy to see why Ruka got the gig.

Finally, in a month of comics, I ended with Oracle: Cure. Sadly, it wasn't a great finish to the month. The plot is full of gaping holes and leaps of illogic. It stretches credibility, and reads like the author was trying to write a big flashy sci-fi movie, not a comic book with a history. All of whom aren't developed, and seem to bear very little relation to their already established characters. It doesn't help that I hate the art style as well. It's sharp, harsh and the buttons appear to be straining themselves constantly on Barbara's blouse. The whole thing feels flashy and trite, and the ending is harsh... almost ableist, and really out of character for the characters involved. After this I had to go back and re-read some Birds of Prey, just to remind myself of why I like Oracle, and how well it can be done...

And that's for the next month's instalment...