Dot, I understand easily distracted.
It's good to hear you enjoyed
Skyward and
Wintersmith. I remember liking the latter, though I wasn't a huge fan of the last Tiffany Aching book for some reason.
I don't think I picked up on everything you mentioned with R. J. Anderson's fairy series, but
Knife was the least hard to handle for me too. It's good to hear that
Quicksilver is better than
Ultraviolet, but I disliked
Ultraviolet so much that I have no interest in reading
Quicksilver.
Good to "see" you on the Books thread again, Arwenel!
Also, based on my (vague) memories, I agree with your analysis of
Ultraviolet.
The romance especially rubbed me the wrong way and made me uncomfortable. Why do authors think that sort of situation is something to promote??? I also had no idea it was supposed to be sci-fi so the alien stuff pretty much came out of nowhere...It's also good to hear your review of
Skyward; I may have to see if I can scrounge a library copy to read on my time off over Christmas.
Thanks also for your review of
The Enchanted Sonata! It sounds about how I was expecting; fun but not brilliant. I requested the library system buy a copy but they said it didn't exist
so I haven't had a chance to read it. I'll keep an eye out for it, but won't make it a top priority.
Glad you liked HMC, fk!
The scenes you mentioned are a lot of fun.
So, a few books I've read since I last posted:
A Lady's Ranch Life in Montana by Isabel Randall. This was a published set of letters written in the late 1880s by an Englishwoman who set out to live on a Montana ranch with her new husband. It was an interesting enough read, but perhaps the most interesting (and saddest) detail was found in the editor's notes: Isabel Randall so angered her (American) neighbors by her derogatory comments and superior attitude that she was ostracized after publication. In her defense, she published on a trip back to England and likely didn't intend her neighbors to see it - but she does make very disparaging remarks and is rather ignorant of her own biases.
The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones. Has anyone else read this one? I wasn't impressed; the best aspects were
Nick and Mini (and there wasn't enough of that) and then Roddy and Grundo, which was terribly undone at the end by the revelation of the spell and those weren't enough to save the book for me. Plus,
Nick fixating on Roddy and the hints they'd end up together despite Roddy being very uncomfortable at the idea was unsettling.
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird. This is similar in concept to the first book on this list, but executed much differently. The author was an experienced traveler and writer with
most of her observations on Americans coming across fairly positively and her own attitude much more tempered. The largest exception was a very negative portrayal of one family in Colorado - made even harder to read by the fact they were specifically identified by religious beliefs that put them in my spiritual heritage, for lack of a better term.
The rest of the book was fairly interesting, though.
I am currently reading
Out Here at the Front, a collection of WWI letters written by Nora Saltonstall. Saltonstall was a Boston socialite who traveled to France in October 1917 (staying to 1919) to help with the war effort there. It's been informative, but I'm having trouble sympathizing with the authoress at some times - she came across to assist refugees under the auspices of the American Red Cross, decided she didn't like that work, transferred to a dispensary, didn't like that work either, and moved to management/quartermaster work with a mobile surgical hospital near the front. XD I'm only through February 1918, so while I think she sticks it out a while in the hospital, I'm not sure.
In considering it, I think it also doesn't help that I've recently been reflecting on the work of US Army and Navy Nurses in WWII and the Korean War and, bearing in mind that WWI was a different ballgame, the work of a member of the "Heiress Corps" pales a bit in comparison. I may have to read more WWI accounts to put a better perspective on Saltonstall's experience. One thing that does seem to remain the same between WWI and WWII is the constant request for items to be sent by family members and friends back home.