Book meme: Day 28!
You know what I forgot yesterday? ASSASSINS. If an assassin is the protagonist of the novel, I will read it. Bonus points if:
1. The assassin is a woman.
2. The assassin is a lesbian.
3. The assassin has an affair with a secret agent.
4. The assassin gets a happy ending.
A million bonus points if all four of those things happen.
I have to be honest, though -- my favorite books about an assassin are still C. T. Adams and Cathy Clamp's book Hunter's Moon
and its sequel Moon's Web
, about the Mafia hit man who gets turned into a werewolf. Both are romance novels, and both are told from the first person point of view of Tony, who is the hero. Full disclosure: I acquired and edited both books for the Tor Romance imprint back in 2003/2004. In fact, Hunter's Moon was one of the first books I acquired for the imprint, right at the beginning when we were first going forward.
(One of the other first books acquired? The Challenge by Susan Kearney
, which has also stood the test of time -- I'm actually rereading it right now and remembering again just how much I love it. What's it about? Why, it's a romance novel about a female Secret Service agent who gets shot protecting the president -- and pulled forward in time to compete in an intergalactic challenge. Yes, it's awesome.)
Day 28 - First favorite book or series obsession
For once, my answer is not the Anne books -- the first series I can remember being really taken with was actually Nancy Drew. When I was five years old, my kindergarten class went on a "field trip" to the school library, and I pulled a Nancy Drew book off the shelf. I think at that point I wasn't reading books with quite that much text per page at home (although I'd already started series like the Bobbsey Twins and the Boxcar Children), so Nancy Drew was new to me. I don't know why my teacher let me take that book out of the library -- maybe she thought it was funny? Maybe she thought she was just indulging me? But I read the whole thing. The mystery, I remember, was sort of boring -- but it kicked off a long obsession with Turkey. For many years, I told people that I was going to move to Constantinople when I grew up. When I learned that Constantinople was now called Instanbul, I immediately lost interest. Hah!
That was The Mysterious Mannequin
-- with the "Oriental" (cringe) rug with the messages for Nancy's father woven into it in code. I thought that was the most amazing thing ever when I was five -- and, honestly, it's still really cool.
( Other days of the book meme )
1. The assassin is a woman.
2. The assassin is a lesbian.
3. The assassin has an affair with a secret agent.
4. The assassin gets a happy ending.
A million bonus points if all four of those things happen.
I have to be honest, though -- my favorite books about an assassin are still C. T. Adams and Cathy Clamp's book Hunter's Moon
and its sequel Moon's Web, about the Mafia hit man who gets turned into a werewolf. Both are romance novels, and both are told from the first person point of view of Tony, who is the hero. Full disclosure: I acquired and edited both books for the Tor Romance imprint back in 2003/2004. In fact, Hunter's Moon was one of the first books I acquired for the imprint, right at the beginning when we were first going forward. (One of the other first books acquired? The Challenge by Susan Kearney
, which has also stood the test of time -- I'm actually rereading it right now and remembering again just how much I love it. What's it about? Why, it's a romance novel about a female Secret Service agent who gets shot protecting the president -- and pulled forward in time to compete in an intergalactic challenge. Yes, it's awesome.)Day 28 - First favorite book or series obsession
For once, my answer is not the Anne books -- the first series I can remember being really taken with was actually Nancy Drew. When I was five years old, my kindergarten class went on a "field trip" to the school library, and I pulled a Nancy Drew book off the shelf. I think at that point I wasn't reading books with quite that much text per page at home (although I'd already started series like the Bobbsey Twins and the Boxcar Children), so Nancy Drew was new to me. I don't know why my teacher let me take that book out of the library -- maybe she thought it was funny? Maybe she thought she was just indulging me? But I read the whole thing. The mystery, I remember, was sort of boring -- but it kicked off a long obsession with Turkey. For many years, I told people that I was going to move to Constantinople when I grew up. When I learned that Constantinople was now called Instanbul, I immediately lost interest. Hah!
That was The Mysterious Mannequin
-- with the "Oriental" (cringe) rug with the messages for Nancy's father woven into it in code. I thought that was the most amazing thing ever when I was five -- and, honestly, it's still really cool.( Other days of the book meme )
(that's the first book; I love the whole series)
-- or, oh! 
!! (Haha.) (But seriously.)
-- yes, please! Or 
, which incorporates many of my favorite things, including spies, fighting Nazis, a WWII setting, and a heroine from New York City. Thumbs up! I actually read Shining Through at least four times when I was nine years old. It is very important that neither of the secret agents die at the end of the book, and that they do end up together, not fighting or betraying each other! They don't need to get that "traditional romance novel happily ever after" (which I often loathe anyway!) -- I just want them to be semi-committed to a relationship (polyamorous is fine, monogamy not required!) with each other and not be killing each other or killed themselves. You see? I don't want a lot!![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
-- technically this is three books in a collection, but whatever. All bound in one paperback = one book. I've had this for months already, but I've never started it. It's so huge that it will be difficult for me to hold in my hands, much less tote around. Eventually I'm going to read it, though.
-- this was recommended to me by a dear friend who knows the sort of thing I like, and it looks pretty amazing just from the summary (30-something Chicana woman committed to a mental institution is actually not crazy at all and is talking to two different futures -- one beautiful and one horrifying!). I am super excited to read it -- it's what I'm bringing with me on the subway the next time I go into Manhattan. (From where I live now to Union Square is about 200 pages of a paperback, so one round trip = one book.)
-- this was recommended to me as something I'd enjoy since I like Criminal Minds. I admit, I've started it a couple of times and then shunted it right back to my TBR pile. It seems sort of... masturbatory. And they didn't have shows like Criminal Minds in 1963, so I can see how a book like this would be shocking or whatever to the average person, but I'm sort of like, "Oh, it's a book about a serial killer with OCD who's kidnapped a girl to keep? Ho-hum." Eventually I'm going to read it, though.
-- I love stuff about spies and the CIA, what do you want from me? It's totally bulletproof -- put a character in the CIA and I will read your book. (Especially if it's a romance novel. What? It's good to know yourself, right?) I'll watch any movie about the CIA, too; it is no surprise that I've seen 
a whole bunch of times. (Well, I'd've seen it anyway -- Alec Baldwin in a dapper hat and suit? Yes please!) Anyway, I'm looking forward to this one, but it seems like it will be a bit of a slog, so I'm sort of putting it off until I can properly sit down with it and devote some time without having to stop after an hour or two to do work or cook supper or whatever.
-- I've read this before and loved it and don't remember anything about it. I mean, I must have been... nine? Ten? I'm looking forward to reading this again and remembering it this time (I hope!). Fighting the Nazis, here I come!!
-- by far this is the book I am most excited about this year. The eponymous main character is a suicide bomber! Who runs away! Dreaming of freedom! And it's set in a dystopian near future! And it's by Elizabeth freaking Scott, one of my top three YA authors of all time!!!!! Um, give it to me now. (You cannot hear it, but my breath has sped up just typing these words!)
-- yeah, yeah, I didn't really like the first two books in the Hunger Games trilogy. So what? I still want to see where she's going with it and what she's going to do and I want to know what is actually going to happen in the canon! Plus the whole internet is reading it, and I don't want to be accidentally spoiled. Blah blah blah. Team Haymitch! (Well, and Team Cinna!!)
, but the female friendships are stellar. The depiction of the relationships between Nell, Suze, and Margie is just awesome. They are wonderful and weird and flawed and caring. Thumbs up.
. I like both characters and I like their romantic relationship -- and I like that despite the huge misunderstanding plot arc, when it really matters, they don't misunderstand each other or talk around the issues. I think she writes adult relationships really well sometimes, and this is one of those times. 
. I did some double checking, and this book, like 
, came out when I was fifteen (and was just reprinted in 1997, hence my earlier confusion). After the Night is about a woman who, as a young girl, was run out of town (with her family) by the adult man she had a crush on, who was the son of the man her mother was having an affair with. Years later, she decides she wants to move back to that small town -- which, frankly, is never quite explained to my satisfaction, since she never liked anyone there and they never liked her, but when I was fifteen, I hand-waved it -- and she keeps running into that guy, and, of course, because this is a romance novel, they fall into tragic love that nevertheless gets a very satisfying happily ever after.
. This I definitely see the appeal of -- particularly for kids. Had I read this series when I was nine, I think I'd've been a lot more willing to overlook structural, plot, and story flaws in favor of how great all the imagery is, and how creepy the story is.
was the first book I acquired and edited myself -- a really amazing literary historical novel -- and it took us a long time to find the right cover. It turned out, too, that what looked good on the hardcover and trade paperback was not the cover we wanted for the mass market edition of the book. I loved the hardcover and trade editions (still have my copies!), but the mass edition's cover really shines:
is a really good book, the kickoff of a really good series, or that the cover has an amazing design -- all of those things would be lies! But the artwork is awesome, especially the image of the heroine, and I am pretty sure that it's the first time I ever was really struck by great book art. Low res internet images are not the way to see this artwork -- it's in high res that the details are really beautiful. But whatever, here's a low res internet picture anyway:
) definitely altered the way I read the stories, although I'm not sure I can put my finger on exactly how. That's my own personal perspective, though, and I know a lot of people who loved Tiptree before her "secret identity" came out.
, which is a good intro to her most famous work.
is worthwhile and intense, and 
is also great. 
. It was originally published by Tor, so I read it when it was in proofs, and then bought copies for everyone I knew who'd love it (which was a bunch of people!). The stories are all really well written. I think most of them were originally published elsewhere, and then collected with one or two original stories for the book. Right now it's out of print, but Small Beer Press is releasing a new edition in October. (Or 
-- the setup is similar to other YA books about sad teenage girls, but the book itself is so different, and written so well... Loved it.
-- This is the best book Elizabeth Scott has written so far, in my opinion. It's about a teenage girl whose mom is a conwoman, and the girl works with her to run cons in small towns -- until one summer, the girl is ready for a change. Funny and painful in turns, and, of course, extremely well-written.
-- As some of you might remember, I read every single book by Garret and wrote long posts analyzing the books and describing what I loved about them, and also what I didn't like. They were pretty critical posts, and... that's how I became friends with Garret, who I adore beyond measure! So that worked out well for me. Stay With Me is undoubtedly my favorite of her books (although 
is also amazing, and I really enjoyed her most recent book, 
as well)... Garret's books are so powerful and great -- she should really be way more popular and famous.
-- This book is creepy, and I guess I understand why it wasn't on the shelves at any of the public libraries I frequented as a kid and teen. By today's standards, it's pretty tame, but in the 80s and early 90s, I bet it freaked some adults out.
-- I only just read this book last year, but I really wish I'd gotten to read it as a kid. It's super dated now (and sort of ridiculous on a lot of levels), but it's also from 1982, and about two lesbians who do not die or have unhappy endings as punishment for being gay. I wish I'd gotten to read it when I was seven or nine.
-- The coming of age story of an Orthodox Jewish teen girl who is also a lesbian. The writing is clunky, the plotting is not always as tight as it could be, some of the story and character choices the author made struck me as being extremely weird, but nevertheless I really enjoyed this book.
, Nancy Drew, 
, and, of course, the Anne books. I've read all of the books in those series multiple times -- way more than five.
, 
, 
, and, of course, the first Nora Roberts book I ever read: 
. 
, which I have read a bunch of times. And, of course, one of my favorite books when I was a teenager obsessed with Troi and Riker: 
! I keep meaning to go back and reread it, but I'm pretty dubious that it has stood the test of time (unlike Federation, which I just reread a few years ago and loved just as much).
, which I loved, and read several times. Another book (series!) I got from my mother when I was eight or nine was the Mrs. Pollifax series, about a gardening grandmother who gets a job working for the C.I.A., starting with 
. Oh, how I loved Mrs. Pollifax!