I read these because the protagonist is gay, which is relatively rare in the world of fantasy literature. I'd only read one other book by Lackey prior to this, and now I remember why. She has the distracting habit of writing in the first and third person -- at the same time! The thoughts of almost every character (human and otherwise) are spelled out in italics. And if the characters are communicating telepathically (Mind-Speech is Lackey's term) the italicized conversations are bracketed in colons. There is very little left to the reader's imagination. The characterizations and plots were mildly interesting if predictable. The treatment of gay themes carried a heavy after-school-special moral tone. I'll stick to Robin Hobb.

I finished the first volume of Harry Potter in Dutch. It went much more quickly as I picked up vocabulary (of course, it's written for 12-year-olds). In Dutch sentences, there certainly are a lot of little words at random intervals that don't seem to have any particular function. Anyway,on to book two. I'm looking for a used copy as new ones are in the $40 range at our local foreign-language bookstore.

Er was eens een kroonprins die geen kin had om te trouwen. Maar dat kan natuurlijk niet. Als een kroonprins ooit konig wil worden, dan moet hij getrouwd zijn.
Dus ging de oude koningin, die eindelijk wel eens met pensioen wilde, op zoek naar een geschikte partner voor haar zoon.

Science fiction/fantasy/satire all in one package! An annotated guide

After slogging through this installment, I have no desire to continue on. Over 5000 pages, you'd think there'd have been some sort of plot or character development.

A wonderful group of stories. The premise of one, though, two 39-year-old men lamenting the loss of their youth, seems faintly ridiculous to someone rather well past that particular milestone.

I'm not sure why I keep reading this series. It's not particularly well-written, but it does have a certain what-will-happen-next allure. This installment concentrates on the female characters, which is unfortunate as they tend to be rather one-dimensional. Each is assigned a single attribute - there's the stubborn one, the regal one, the icy one, etc., etc. And then there are the breasts. I wish I had counted the number of times Jordan uses the phrase "then she crossed her arms beneath her breasts". Variations on this theme hit a peak (sorry) in this book with "she crossed her arms beneath her massive bosom". (p.240 in the mass market edition) More inventive variations include "she held [the hero's] head beneath her breasts". Presumably to shelter him from inclement weather.

I thought this would be about dogs and life and stuff. It was that, but it was more about thoughtless cruelty. Not for animal lovers.

A wonderful novel set in 1980s Argentina, the time of the generals. More...

I was reading this while also reading HP (which is too heavy to carry on plane trips). Dunnett's complex plotting and fully realized characters are much more satisfying than the movie-script simplicity of Rowling's book.

First book of the Tales of the Otori, an epic fantasy set in medieval Japan, or something very like it. More...

I loved this trilogy when I first read it years ago. On re-reading I find I prefer the recent television production.

A wonderful story of love and war in Dublin circa 1916. It will break your heart.

One of the first books available on this topic, it has some flaws (such as Burke's recommendation of the dreaded disable-output-escaping feature). But I've already lifted some ideas for the project I'm currently working on.

Something's queer at Lake Merrimen! Nancy Clue and the Hardly Boys solve another mystery, involving, among other things, purloined poodles and the Space Race. Everyone has outfits for every occasion, some of them whipped up specially by Uncle Nelly. More...

A page-turner, but although the plot moves along swiftly (with rather a lot of gore), there is remarkably little drama.

Ninth of the Roma Sub Rosa series of mysteries set in in Rome at the end of the Republic. (You do know when that was, right?) More...

A search for answers to the riddle of God's existence, beautifully written. More...

The first book of the Lymond Chronicles, set in 16th-century Scotland. More...

The 7th, 8th and 9th books of the 12-novel series which spans most of twentieth-century English history. Rather like Brideshead Revisited without the melodrama.

The last of the Niccolo series. Brendan Fraser would be perfect in the movie (or anywhere, for that matter).

Willa Cather considered this one of three American novels that would endure (the others being "The Scarlet Letter" and "Huckleberry Finn"). Jewett's short novel, a meditation on place and friendship, will probably never be a movie or a Broadway musical, which is as good a reason as any to read it.

These two books are subtitled, respectively, "An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age" and "The Death of the Village in Late C20th Europe".

I'm still attempting to learn Dutch. John gave me copy of Harry Potter in Dutch, but I was thrown when the translator changed some names. Dudley Dursley has become Dirk Duffeling!

I read this before the appearence of the TV series, which I couldn't sit through. Read the book to get the real Trollope.