I’m a book person. How about you?

I meant to post yesterday, but our internet was giving us fits, so walking away from the computer seemed a far saner idea.

A quick update on things:

• I finished a book on Friday. It’s the first book I’ve finished since February. Pathetic? Yes.
• I planted potatoes at the garden this weekend. Fifteen starts each got chopped into at least two pieces, often more. I’m hoping that makes for a generous crop.
• We went to our first baseball game of the season. Rick Ankiel, the center fielder, had the most impressive throw home I may have ever witnessed in person. It was like he and home plate were having a game of catch. A throw to be remembered. Plus, the Nats won.

• Sock Madness round 3 has begun. That means I knit everywhere. As opposed to when it’s not Sock Madness time and I merely knit nearly everywhere.

• I watched the space shuttle fly past D.C. yesterday. A post about that is forthcoming. Truly and surprisingly moving.
• I wrote a blog post for work that I was really proud of. (I love having written something well, which, sadly, is why you get a lot of lists like this right now, because I don’t want to spend the time and energy required to write good posts. This is a reflection on me, and not on you.)
• My volleyball team won all four games last night. We found a groove and communicated well, and it just felt right. It was nice.

That is all for now.

Among Others, by Jo Walton

From the jacket: “Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales she played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. When her mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled — and her twin sister dead.”

My take: It’s been three months since I read this book and still don’t know how to describe it. The basics are easy. The family who raised Morwenna are gone — dead, injured, or crazy — and she has just left a state-run orphanage when the system was able to track down the father who left when she was a baby. Her father is cowed by his three conservative older half-sisters, for whom he works and with whom he lives. These aunts have arranged for Morwenna to attend their alma mater. Morwenna goes — because her other options are far more unappealing — but making friends does not come naturally, as she and her recently deceased twin sister had no need for others. Gradually, though, Morwenna makes friends both in school and out of it, through a science fiction book club she joins. But are they really friends if Morwenna, who, by the way, also can see and communicate with the Fae, cast a magic spell to find them?

Okay, so maybe that wasn’t easy or basic. And my description makes it sound stupid and kind of boring, which is really not at all how I wanted it to sound, because it was a really enjoyable, meaningful book. But there’s just so much packed into it that I didn’t even mention (because then you’d never read it), but that kind of blows your mind apart as you try to sort out what’s real and what’s not and whose point of view to trust and whose not to. Is Morwenna giving you a straight-up account of the story? Or, like in Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader, does our narrator just think she knows what reality is without having the full picture because of a tragedy?

And that’s why I’ve been stumped by how to review this book for a quarter of a year. But I really did like it and wanted to share it with you, so let’s leave it at this:

Among Others is a love letter to remaining true to yourself, to the power of literature, and to finding … a family, a circle of friends, your karass, a cwm … your people. And if that sounds like something you can relate to, I recommend the book to you.

Pages: 302

Birds of a Feather, by Jacqueline Winspear

From the jacket: “Birds of a Feather finds Maisie on another dangerously intriguing adventure in London between the wars. It is the spring of 1930, and Maisie has been hired to find a runaway heiress. When three of the heiress’s old friends are found dead, Maisie must race to find out who would want to kill these seemingly respectable young women before it’s too late. As Maisie investigates, she discovers that the answers lie in the unforgettable agony of the Great War.”

My take: Empathic detective Maisie Dobbs has a new case. She and assistant Billy Beale have been hired to find and bring home the missing daughter of a self-made grocery mogul. Charlotte Waite is 32 and lonely, and this is not the first time she’s run away. Her father believes she’s being petulant and headstrong, but Maisie suspects there may be more to it than that. Could the murder of a young housewife be related? As Maisie investigates Charlotte’s past habits and contacts, she must also deal with Billy’s mood swings, stemming from lingering and chronic pain relating to a leg injury sustained during the war. And out at Lady Rowan’s country estate, it’s becoming more obvious that although her father remains optimistic about the future of the horses he’s raising that he is not as young as he once was.

The second in an ongoing series, this novel focuses much more on Maisie’s case at hand than did the previous book, which split its time between the case and Maisie’s back story. In this instance, although we’re still getting little bits of it, and although we’re still dealing with a lot of repercussions from World War I, the story is a more hopeful one, in that we can see a path forwards for the characters. In fact, that’s probably what I thought was most important in this book. Maisie specifically asks a doctor about what separates those patients who recover from their injuries quickly from those who languish. His quick answer is that it’s acceptance of the injury/illness (rather than getting stuck on the circumstances that led to it). He elaborates:

One is accepting what has happened. Three is having a picture, an idea of what they will do when they are better, or improved. Then in the middle, number two is a path to follow. (p. 221)

And that’s probably what this novel is about. Finding the path forward to the future. A good lesson to take away from characters you can’t help but like.

Pages: 311

Spring has sprung, which suggests it’s time for our annual dalliance with all things magical.

Carl has announced the Once Upon a Time VI reading challenge is beginning today, and I’m in it for the Quest the Third. I shall endeavor, before the next solstice, to read one book that fits into each of these four categories:

• Fantasy
• Folklore
• Fairy tale
• Mythology

And then I’ll follow it up with a June viewing of William Shakespeare’s comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. If someone has a favorite video interpretation (in case I can’t track down a live performance), please let me know in the comments.

As for specific choices, the mythology category is easy. The Enchantress, the final book in Michael Scott’s Immortal Secrets of Nicholas Flamel series, is due out in May, and it’s one of those series I have pursued eagerly and unabashedly since the first one hit the shelves. A rare hardcover series for me.

I think for fairy tale I’ll go with Robin McKinley’s retelling of Sleeping Beauty, Spindle’s End. I loved McKinley’s Blue Sword series, and my friend Amani adores this book, too.

I really liked Savvy when I read it a few years back, and I’ve been eyeing the sequel, Scumble, since it came out. I felt like Savvy had a folk-tale quality to it, so I may slot Ingrid Law’s follow-up into the folklore category.

Fantasy is a pretty open category, and the one I’m most likely to be able to fill without even trying. Lev Grossman’s The Magicians has been on my To Be Read list for years now, and Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone is high among my recent additions.

If you have suggestions for great books that fit into any of the categories (or know of a retelling/reinterpretation of Paul Bunyon), please feel free to share them in the comments.

Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement, by L.M. Montgomery (Edited by Rea Wilmshurst)

From the jacket: “The common thread among the 18 stories in Against the Odds is the way people can resourcefully overcome obstacles to realize their ambitions and dreams. The ‘odds’ are varied in these skilfully written tales. An obstacle to one’s success or happiness may lie in one’s own character or the prejudice of someone else.”

My take: This book, by the author of Anne of Green Gables, is a collection of short stories compiled in the early 1990s. All but one were previously published in newspapers or magazines, sometimes in more than one. And while they work together as a whole, I found them best ingested one or two stories at a time (which made them ideal commuting reading for a week).

I don’t know if Montgomery was capable of writing only one type of hero, or if that was merely the type she (or her publishers) preferred. But each of these 18 stories features, like Anne Shirley, a (usually young) protagonist best described as optimistic, smart, upright, and plucky. Usually they’re down on their luck, but combined with their good character, hard work, and a little serendipity, they’re able to turn their fortunes around. (Generally, though, Montgomery is tempered in her rewards. No one wins the lottery, discovers a rich, dying relative, or embarks upon a get-rich-quick scheme.

Whether it’s convincing a prospective employer to take a chance on them, crossing a flooded Canadian countryside to reach a wedding in time, or persuading a relative to pay for college, each of these tales will have you rooting for the protagonists to find their path to a better life.

Pages: 246