InsaneJournal

Books, 2008
1. God's Secretaries, by Adam Nicholson, 2. American Born Chinese, by Gene Yang, 3. Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper 4. The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper, 5. Greenwitch, by Susan Cooper, 6. The Grey King, by Susan Cooper.

7. The Silver on the Tree, by Susan Cooper.

As with The Grey King, because I didn't expect anything at all, I wasn't bothered by the fact that I got -- nothing. At all.

The racism stuff in the beginning was interesting (I loved when the dad said, your son shares your views, and I'm glad to find my son shares my views), but in the end, she says (well, Owain Glyndŵr says) "The Norman always rides on the back of the Dark, as the Saxon did, and the Dane," which kind of defeats the purpose, I think: if all the immigrants to Britain before the great colonizations were behind the Dark, then...I have no idea. I've reached the point where it just doesn't matter; it won't ever make sense, so I'm not going to try.

Blodwen was excellent; just the idea was really impressive, and more like that (more like Caradog Pritchard, too) would have made for a much better series. (I just realized that in Where the Red Fern Grows, one of my favorite books ever, the bad guys are also called the Pritchards. Is there something I don't know about that name?)

Jane, the Lady, Hillary Clinton -- it really is all about the vaginas! Either that or it's all about the f/f -- I'm sure there are Jane/the Lady stories out there. Or maybe that's just in my head.

I didn't like the end either, except that on the last page, I had this wonderful image of Jane and Simon and Barney and Bran (and Will) all having real human adventures without the whole random Light/Dark business, and then they grow up and go into politics and business and art and really do change the world for the better, for good but not for Light. Simon founds Doctors without Borders or something, and Bran is a politician and Jane is an ambassador and Barney is an artist and Will does something and they all teach peace and goodwill and they do it without any memory of this stupid little interlude. I'd like that. (I'd have liked the books a lot better without any of the parts that make them high fantasy.)

8. Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott.

For a book about writing, she has a lot of good ideas to solve problems that I don't have. For a book about writing, she talks a lot about her life (but then, it seems like she'd written a lot about her life). For a book about writing, this is excellent.

One of my favorite parts is when she's describing how what her mother sounds like every time Lamott gets a book published: exactly like your mom did when you brought home your handprint in clay. "Oh honey, you made that all by yourself?" And it's true; moms are like that.

I liked, in theory, that Lamott kept saying it's okay to feel negative emotions while writing or toward other writers -- especially jealousy -- but her focus on the "oh my God I'm such a crap writer" part of things read as a little self-indulgent to me.

Either way, for a book I got out of the library, I think I'll buy it.