bag of books

[ironymaiden]

fun fact: i picked up a copy of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks because i had been meaning to read it since i first heard of it - after that Amazon recommended My Life in France.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is very good. i think i would have liked it more if it was less about the author's journey, but that's the way of the creative nonfiction thing, ne? as-is, it's a popular science page-turner mashed up with the generational saga of a southern black family and the white lady who won't leave them alone.

i adored My Life in France. i do have a soft spot for Julia Child - PBS was the best tv station we had during my formative years, and i loved her shows (and later The Frugal Gourmet) long before i did anything more in the kitchen than lick the beaters. (i watched Julie & Julia a while ago, fast-forwarding through the insufferable Julie bits and reveling in the Julia parts.) anyway, My Life in France is delightful and charming. Julia was my age when she moved to France and her life just got more and more rich as the years passed...in these dark months of the year it's a balm to read about the joy of discovery, good food, good friends, and good relationships.


i seem to be skipping back and forth between YA and nonfiction right now. lots of good genre YA being published right now...not that it's news.

i recommend Guardian of the Dead, which i first came across as part of a discussion about reading comprehension and geography. this book is very very set in New Zealand. like, they say New Zealand. even if you don't know the names of any of the cities or that the Maori live there, you would read the "in New Zealand" part and understand, right? but apparently many reviewers still said "set in Australia". *headdesk* (karenhealey did a great write-up of using the process from Writing the Other, as a kiwi of European ancestry writing a story that incorporates Maori culture.) the book, right. the character writing is great and the worldbuilding is an interesting departure from the usual vampires/werewolves/fae fare. i finished satisfied with the story itself but hungry to learn more about the stories at its foundation.

as i think about it, i got to that geography discussion from Justine Larbalestier, whose Liar is excellent. (sound familiar? there was some controversy over the original cover, which whitewashed the main character and threw even the physical self-description of our unreliable narrator in doubt.) and pretty much all i can tell you without spoilers is that the story is narrated by Micah, and a popular boy at her high school died.

Justine Larbalestier is married to Scott Westerfield, who is writing my favorite books (thus far) of the steampunk boomlet: Leviathan and Behemoth, set in an alternate WWI where the great powers are squaring off - Clankers ("classic" steampunk battle mechs and whatnot) vs the Darwinists (genetic engineering of living airships and whatnot). there's royalty on the run, a plucky girl-disguised-as-boy, and a lady scientist with a pet Tasmanian devil. what's not to love? or maybe you would prefer his Peeps, where being a vampire in NYC is really about managing a parasitic infection - lots of fun (to me) digressions about parasites, in the midst of a mystery and a potential romance creeping up on our hero who is trying not to transmit his disease.

Comments

[varina8.livejournal.com]

I loved Westerfields's Peeps, also So Yesterday, his near-future novel of mystery and marketing.

Your comments on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks got at some of my issues with having to wade through the author's journey. Parts of it seemed necessary to get at the divisions within the family and their justifiable distrust of outsiders interested in Henrietta's story but there were many times I really wanted her to get out of the way.

Now I'm going to go put a hold on the Julia Childs book.

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see things getting added to my to-read list ^_^ Thanks!

[ironymaiden]

alas, the ones i read on Kindle aren't available for loan, but if i write about something that i *can* loan, i'll mention it so that people can ask for them.

[ironymaiden]

i think several of those personal bits could have been sold as magazine articles after the book was published. but i suppose the issue there is that no one knew the thing would be a hit, and would they sell without the book's coattails to ride?

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

Oh, noted!

I should see which of my Kindle books I can loan out...

[varina8.livejournal.com]

Good question. She already had a pretty strong rep as a science writer and bylines in top publications like the New York Times. She may even have published some short pieces touching on her Lacks material. I think it's more likely that she had invested so much of herself in the years of writing and research and the relationships that she had developed with the family that she couldn't let go of those sections.

[raevnos.livejournal.com]

The only Scott Westerfeld I've read is a two-part far future SF series. The Risen Empire or something like that. Pretty good, and I'd read more of him if I saw it on the shelves... I'll have to track the ones you mention down.

[ironymaiden]

try checking the YA section, that's how most of his stuff is sold now.