topaz119 | Daily December #6

sperrywink asked me about some favorite books from the past year, and you know, when I went and looked at my goodreads account, this has been a pretty good year for books and me.

In the romance genre, if I had to pick a single favorite, I’d have to go with Courtney Milan’s The Countess Conspiracy (and this counts having read a fair amount of Eloisa James and some new to me Heyers.) The third of her Victorian-era Brothers Sinister series, this one focuses on an older couple, with baggage and issues that affect them separately and together, and like the others in the series, goes far beyond the usual focus on the London Season, this time with a focus on a period-appropriate biologist. I was super-happy that the couple in question found their HEA (which doesn’t happen as often as you might think.) In the contemporary romance genre, I have to go with A Bollywood Affair, by Sonali Dev. It had the feel and pace of an excellent Bollywood movie and, again, made me very happy that the couple in question ended up happy.

For fantasy, Uprooted, by Naomi Novik – I’m not sure if it was the Eastern European feel to the world-building (half my family is Italian, the other half is Russian/Polish) or whether I just needed a book to get lost in, but I read this in a day. There’s a picture somewhere of me sitting in the middle of Beach Week chaos (18 people yelling at each other, trying to get organized to go out to eat and figuring who was going to be the designated drivers) with the book up in front of my face, ignoring all the noise because I was going to finish the book before we left. The Raven Boys was a close second, but Uprooted edged them out because it’s a stand-alone story so I’m not waiting to see how it all turned out.

Non-fiction favorite goes to As You Wish, Cary Elwes’s memoir of filming The Princess Bride, because it is as delightful and charming as the movie itself, and was a lovely way to spend a rainy spring Saturday.

I feel like I should mention The Martian (Andy Weir) just because it was a rollicking good adventure with solid science and one of those books where the movie adaptation didn’t make me cringe. Also, Matt Fraction finished off his Hawkeye run, and going back and reading the whole arc from the start is really a case study in how to create something pretty cool within the very well trodden (tread?) formula of super-hero comics.

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Andy Weir, right? Peter directs movies. :)

Whoops, you're right! My love of the 80s film oeuvre, let me show you it! (And by all accounts & interviews Andy is a laid-back, chill kind of a guy--I feel bad about glossing right over him.)

Interesting choices! I will probably check some of them out. I haven't read any of Naomi Novik's books since the early Temaire ones.

I hadn't read any of her stuff since about that time, too, but she was at DragonCon the year before Uprooted came out and she had a little folio of the first few chapters and it just sucked us in.

I'm waiting for Eldest to return from university since she has our copy of Novik's fantasy.

I agree with you completely about the romances. Did you see that Milan just released her latest historical?

I did! I'm excited for it, but I have this *ridiculous* stack from the library to get through first. (Or, you know, I'll just break down and buy it next week when i can't stand the anticipation, but for now, I'm holding strong!)

Spoiler for my December meme for tomorrow: Uprooted was one of my top books also :) The Slavic connection was definitely a selling point, which I wasn't sure it would be, because I didn't like Novik's portrayal of Russia AT ALL in the Temeraire book that takes place there. But Uprooted was absolutely delightful, including on that score. (Also, I didn't realize you had Russian roots. Cool!)

I dipped into Courtney Milan this year with The Duchess War (even though I'm normally not a romance reader). It was cute, and definitely preferable to the common romance tropes (as I understand them, by fannish osmosis). I haven't read on to the other Brothers Sinister books yet, but I wouldn't rule it out. The Countess Conspiracy is the Violet book, right? I liked Violet and Sebastian in the first book, so that was the one I was most curious about.

As You Wish, Cary Elwes’s memoir of filming The Princess Bride

Ooh, I generally don't read memoirs, but this sounds like it could be a lot of fun! (Awesome, if obvious, title, too :D)

I've just started The Martian, and not totally sure what I think of it yet. I think my 12-year-old might enjoy it also, as he likes space and the survival genre. He thought the title sounded stuffy, and then I showed him the first line (which contains "I'm fucked") and he was sold XD

More Polish than Russian, but I think that's because they all married Polish girls after they came to the US. In the steel mill towns where I grew up, we were a generation or two removed from the immigration, so we all sort of celebrated everything (especially Christmas with the Orthodox calendar, because, wheee! Christmas x 2!) I never quite made it past the first one or two Temeraire books, though my kids have really enjoyed them and had the chance to meet/work with NN at a creative writing camp a few years ago (they were super-excited when she was confirmed as one of the writers in residence b/c they were all so into Temeraire.)

And yes, Violet is the countess in question, but she's so much more than she appears in the Duchess War. I haven't finished that series yet, mostly because I can't bear for it to be done, so I'm holding onto the Suffragette Scandal for when I need to totally lose myself.

The Princess Bride memoir is really straightforward, just his memories of making the movie, borne out of the reunion the cast did at the 25th anniversary and all the stories they didn't have time to tell. It's definitely geared to fans of the movie.

I enjoyed The Martian, but I also found myself reading parts of it like I'd read a tech spec at work--sort of a 'you're the subject matter expert, I'll take your word that this is going to work and not try to put it all together myself' so I could get to what was going to happen next. It reminded me of how I read The Hunt For Red October back in the day, knowing that a movie was coming at that the actors were going to add a certain depth of personality to the characters that wasn't necessarily coming across on the page. (I also enjoyed the movie and my 15 y.o. son had a blast watching it.)

A memoir of the making of Princess Bride? I'm in! I heard a bit about the making of the movie (the fencing parts) from Bob Anderson, who was the fencing master/stunt coordinator for the movie. Would be interesting to see whether the stories match!

Oh, it's lovely. Very sweet--no nasty dish at all. He does write quite a bit about the fencing training and how nerve-wracking it was to have the deadline looming over their heads.

And see if you can find the book in hardback b/c the inside of the dust jacket has a wonderful screen-print poster of Westley and Buttercup.

I really liked Uprooted, too! I'm hoping to see lots of fic for it this Yuletide. :)

Oh, yuletide fic would be excellent!

I'm glad you liked The Raven Boys--and curious to see what you think of the next books in the series.

I thought of you when I saw that this list of book podcasts (http://bookriot.com/2015/11/25/25-outstanding-podcasts-readers/) had a romance podcast (and a Disney podcast) on it.

I love that romance podcast--it's one of my weekly highlights!

Daily December #6 - books & me

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