- Wicked (1995) by Gregory Maguire (first time)
- When I borrowed Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West from a friend, I was apprehensive. I was pleasantly surprised by this story of a girl born green to surprised and troubled parents. When she moves from Munchkinland to Shiz, just north of the Emerald City, she begins a course of learning that will entangle her in dangerous politics for the rest of her life. Wicked also features a fantastic map of Oz, from the Vinkus to Munchkinland and from Gillikin to Quadling. It tells a good story without being cute -- that's the long and short of it.
- Living on Less (1997) by Mother Earth News (first time)
- This handbook offers lessons on living the simpler life, some of which may seem extreme to those who'd like to get away from it all but still have a supermarket nearby. It contains interesting stories of people who've gone back to the land to some extent and lessons on how to do so yourself.
- Commitment Hour (1998) by James Alan Gardner (first time)
- This story started with an intrigueing idea and solved several problems in a quite interesting way, but the ending pretty much turned me off. Commitment Hour describes life in a village in which one's gender changes from year to year until one makes a permanent choice and becomes an adult. I enjoyed the mythology of the community. I was surprised to find sexism where one would think sexism to be impractical, but Gardner did a fair job of explaining how people aren't continually aware of both sides of themselves; they have the memories their other self lived, but not as vividly as though they'd lived it themselves. It was worth reading, especially the first three fourths of it.
- How To Survive Without a Salary (1996) by Charles Long (first time)
- The title says it all. Unfortunately, two things are essential to breaking the yoke of work we all hate. First, it helps to have your affairs in good order to begin with and not be deeply in debt, et cetera. Second, it takes the determination to live a little more simply, drop out of the consumer frenzy a little, and quit buying junk. Interesting book!
- Interview with the Vampire (1976) by Anne Rice (reread)
- I wasn't very impressed with this book ten years ago, and i wanted to find out whether I'd misjudged it. Rice isn't much for in-depth characterizations and motivations; she's great with atmosphere, however. Interview is about a vampire telling the story of his life to a boy -- why, we don't know. It has its interesting moments and its sensual ones too, but seems to lack something in the end. Maybe it's just because the main character searches for meaning and doesn't find it, which makes us feel a little let down.
- The Bean Trees (1988) by Barbara Kingsolver (reread)
- The Bean Trees is the story of Taylor Greer, who leaves home in a beat-up car, changes her name, and hopes to find a life for herself. In high school, she'd seen classmate after classmate drop out, pregnant, and she's determined to be more successful and more unencumbered than that. So it's only natural that someone gives her a toddler right away. This is a great book, so good that each time I read it I swear I'm going to write the author a fan letter. Taylor's well-written, well-developed, and interesting, as is her situation. Kingsolver's language is at once informal and gifted. This book gets a very strong recommendation.
- Pigs in Heaven (1993) by Barbara Kingsolver (reread)
- This is the sequel to The Bean Trees and is different in many ways, but is equally exciting, funny, interesting, and moving to read. The one thing I wish each time I read it is that it was in first person, like The Bean Trees was, because I like Taylor so much and love getting in her head. After reading a while I forget about it, because this is another brilliantly written book by a fantastic writer.
- Homecoming: Harmony by Orson Scott Card (reread)
- Card is pretty much the best science fiction writer working today. This collection holds three of his novels. The Memory of Earth (1992) introduces the city Basilica on the Planet Harmony, settled by those fleeing Earth after major destruction. Those immigrants designed a master computer and genetically engineered themselves to hear the computer's voice; its purpose was to keep Earth's tragedy from happening again, and it quickly became an object of worship. In The Memory of Earth, it's been so long that the Oversoul's systems are failing and wars are breaking out. It gathers those most sensitive to its voice to prepare to journey back to Earth for repairs and further instructions from Earth's master computer, the Keeper. The most important thing, though, is Card's usual brilliant development of the characters, especially the dissent between young, brilliant Nafai and the older brothers who hate him. In The Call of Earth (1993) the Oversoul orchestrates the eight couples who will marry and begin the new society that will make the journey to Earth, if they can hold off war long enough. and in The Ships of Earth (1994), those couples have begun the journey to where the ancient starships are. The compelling part of these stories is the shape of the new society and the relationships between characters: hatred and the longing for respect between brothers, resentment and war between sisters, desolation and murder between spouses.
- Dark Rivers of the Heart (1994) by Dean R. Koontz (reread)
- Although I know I've read this book before, I didn't really remember it while reading it this time, which might be a bad sign. A man haunted by his past meets a woman fleeing from hers, yadda yadda yadda, and the government's after them and so on. The best part is the man's rescued shelter dog and his personal rule: "Never lie to the dog."
|