Typhoon

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Typhoon
Robin White

People are generally surprised when I share this, but I have a ‘thing’ for submarine stories. I’m not sure what it is – maybe it’s because the isolation of a submarine is so much akin to the isolation of a starship, and I’m a big science fiction geek. But there you have it. I like submarine stories.

Unfortunately, I tend to compare every submarine story to Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October, and most come up short. Still, Robin White’s Typhoon was an enjoyable, if predictable, read, and it had me dreaming about diving and navigating in three dimensions for two days in a row.

Sanctuary

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Sanctuary

Nora Roberts

I’ve always considered Nora Roberts to be my guilty pleasure author, partly because her books are as much mystery/suspense as they are romance, and educated readers don’t read romance novels…do they?

But the truth is, when you want to curl up in bed with something that is total entertainment, Roberts is one of the best authors to choose. I picked up Sanctuary, not realizing I’d read it years ago, because I was stuck in the apartment, and wanted to soak in the tub and escape. And even though it was an unintentional retro-read, I enjoyed the story.

It’s pretty simple. A young photographer who doesn’t get along with her family is being stalked, but the stalker keeps removing the proof of his existence, and she finally retreats to the family inn, SANCTUARY, to rest and regroup. Since this is a Nora Roberts novel, the rest of the tale is equal parts relationship (with her father, brother, sister, friends), romance (with a man she’d met years before, when both were children), and suspense (the stalker has followed her home).

It’s not the most intellectual fare, but it’s fun, and the detail Ms. Roberts gives to settings and people makes even the most predictable tale come alive.

Stormqueen, and others

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Darkover: First Contact (Darkover Omnibus)

Marion Zimmer Bradley

After a break during which I read some more modern novels, I went back to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover series, and read all the books that had been missing from my own collection, largely thanks to the folks at Half Price Books.

I’m not going to list every title, but I am going to mention that my favorite of the second batch of books was Stormqueen, though I’m certain this had to do with the weather outside the apartment matching the weather in the book.

Small things like that influence me far too greatly.

Still, it’s a great series, especially if you really want to immerse yourself in another world.

Traitor’s Sun (and others)

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Traitor's Sun: A Novel of Darkover (Darkover)

Marion Zimmer Bradley

During the months of August and September, I was under a self-imposed book-buying moratorium, while we packed the house, and moved from California to Texas. However, I was still engaged in retro-reading, and, because I hadn’t read the series in a long time, I indulged in re-reading the entire Darkover series, by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Darkover is one of my favorite fictional worlds, partly because there are so many novels in the series, and partly because the culture is believable. Rather than listing every novel in an independent entry, I offer the list (in series order, not publication order) of the novels I read before arriving in Texas.

Darkover Landfall
Hawkmistress
Two to Conquer
The Shattered Chain
Thendara House
Rediscovery
The Spell Sword
The Forbidden Tower
Star of Danger
Winds of Darkover
Heritage of Hastur
Sharra’s Exile
Exile’s Song
The Shadow Matrix
Traitor’s Sun

The Black Jewels Trilogy

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The Black Jewels Trilogy

Anne Bishop

It was my friend Liz who introduced me to Anne Bishop and the Black Jewels trilogy. I read the series as indiviudal novels, but it’s apparently available in an omnibus edition as well.

Essentially, it’s a fantasy series, that takes place in three different Realms (read: planes) of a single planet, and follows the life of a girl named Jaenelle from the age of 12 through her early adulthood. Most of the characters in the novel are witches (or warlords), and the jewels signify the depths of their powers. The fun of the books comes a lot from the names of the other characters. How can you not love a series that has folk called Saetan and Lucivar? How can you not love a race of winged humanoids, or telephathic puppies?

True, it’s not great literature, but mind candy is perfectly acceptable, and I’d argue that reading ANYTHING is better than not reading at all. And these novels may be mind candy, but they’re good mind candy.

The Moor

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The Moor (Mary Russell Novels (Paperback))

Laurie R. King

I’ve been a Sherlock Holmes fan for as long as I can remember, first because I read the stories, and second because of the Granada Television series starring (the late) Jeremy Brett. Because my reading patterns tend to be immersion-style (I read everything I can find by one author, all at once, then move on), when I was introduced to Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell series, I read the first three over the space of a weekend. I bought The Moor, started it, then apparently didn’t finish it – probably my reading mood changed mid-way through.

I finally picked it up again the other night, needing something to distract me for a while, and I finished it this morning. As with all the Mary Russell novels it’s fairly formulaic, but then, the original Holmes stories were, as well. The lead character – Holmes protege and wife, several decades his junior – is a bit too perfect at times. Yes, she gets hurt, but she still comes off as a Mary Sue too often. Still, the novels are enjoyable, written in a style very like the original Arthur Conan Doyle creations.

One note: While they can be read singly, these novels are full of in-jokes and references to previous adventures. If you haven’t read the original canon, or if you don’t read these books in order, much of it won’t make sense.

The Marysburg Chronicles: Critical Mass

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The Marysburg Chronicles: Critical Mass

Teri Peppe

It’s always a little scary reading a book by someone you know – what if you don’t like it? In the case of The Marysburg Chronicles: Critical Mass, that worry was gone by the second page.

The thriller part of the story had me going almost to the end, the romance had me rooting for the leads to finally get together, and the science involved was plausible. The details of the Mankato and Madison areas were vivid. I could feel the humidity of summer, hear the endless prairie wind.

The title implies there may be further Chronicles – I really hope that’s the case.

Ladies with Options

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Ladies With Options

Cynthia Hartwick

I don’t usually read series out of order, but I’d picked up the sequel to this book a bit over a week ago, when some woman standing next to me in the bookstore recommended it. It was funny and interesting, so I went back to find the first book in the series.

Ladies with Options tells the story of the founding of the Larksdale Ladies and their investment club – how they begin after being told they’ll have almost no financial cushion once they or their husbands retire, and how they decide to take matters into their own hands.

It’s the beginning of the ’80’s and personal computers in every house aren’t yet a reality. The Ladies have a young college student they are mentoring, who is taking computer science classes, and suggests they look at these new companies called Dell and Microsoft, and invest in them.

It’s fairly easy to predict what happens. The side stories of the Ladies are not so predictable – one has a marriage that must be rebuilt, one discovers her sexuality, and one finds true love.

This novel is a lovely light read, if you want a book that will make you laugh and cheer.

Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas

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Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

James Patterson
Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And you’re keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls – family, health, friends, integrity – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered. And once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the beginnings of balance in your life.
–from Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas, by James Patterson
Continue reading →

Catching Alice

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Catching Alice

Clare Naylor

Sometimes chick-lit can be completely engaging and entertaining. A perfect example of this is Catching Alice, the story of a young woman who loses her boyfriend and her job, and is dragged to LA for a life-makeover.

While some of the situations stretch the envelope of plausability, the dialogue is good, and the depiction of the Hollywood publicity game is completely believable.