The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Men at Arms (Discworld) Terry Pratchett, 1993 Premise: Book 2 starring the Night Watch. Vimes is getting married and retiring, the other members of the Night Watch are dealing with nonhuman recruits, and somewhere in the city, a dangerous weapon has been found... This is more like what I remember. This book is the source of the famous Samuel Vimes “Boots” Theory of Economic Unfairness. A lot of it is about the danger of the one gun that has been invented, and how it is as seductive and deadly as Sauron’s Ring. (Quite literally, as this is a fantasy world, but metaphorically as well - when you can kill so easily, it’s tempting to find a reason...) The murders that bring the weapon to the attention of the watch really affect the characters (even though there is a literal Assassin's Guild in the city) because of their power and randomness. It’s appropriate that for this book, while there is a villain, several in fact, they aren’t major characters. The villain who sets the plot in moti...

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows (Feminine Pursuits, Book 2) Olivia Waite, 2020 Premise: Agatha Griffin has been running her printing company alone since the death of her husband, so she knows when to delegate. A swarm of bees in the storage room demands delegation. Penelope Flood is a beekeeping expert and local eccentric, thought to be too kind for her own good and oddly okay with her husband always being gone at sea. Together they’ll dare local politics, potential scandal, and the possibility of love. I didn’t love this book quite as much as The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics , but I did enjoy it a lot. It’s a fantastic balance, combining a gorgeous romance, interesting history, and just enough tension and danger.  Our heroines first have to admit their attraction for each other through a long and lovely progression of acquaintances to friends to more. Dramatic turns in English politics cause widespread upheaval, including in Penelope’s tiny town, first taking a few t...

Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett, 1989 Premise: The introduction of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. The men of the Night Watch (all three of them, plus a new recruit) mostly muddle along unnoticed and unheeded until a dragon unexpectedly appears in the city. In a search for some reading that would feel worth my time but not take too much brain power, I recently decided to re-read the Discworld books about the Watch.  This first volume is good, but not as polished as later ones. Some jokes or side comments feel a bit dated. The characters are sort of sketches of who they become later. Carrot in particular is more of a by-the-book simpleton than the straightforward, good-hearted person he is later. Vimes and The Patrician are closer to later portrayals but both lack nuance.  There’s a strong subplot starring the Librarian. I thought the rest was fine, but I didn’t love it... although then I happened to read a tumblr post which made some excellent observations about the parallels bet...

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell Susanna Clarke, 2004 Hugo Winner - 2005 Premise: In the early 1800s, Englishmen study magic, but don’t have any practical abilities, until Mr. Norrell. He and Mr. Strange seek to bring magic back to England, but they will contend with mundane politicians, fairy lords, and their own rivalry.  I read this book back when it was new, and I remember liking it, but I remembered nothing about the characters or plot when I picked it up to reread it. It’s been a couple weeks since that reread as I sit down to write this, and I’m already forgetting it again.  The style is striking and strong - I like the dry humor of the footnotes and the surreal way that the magic is described. The multiple plots weave delicately in and out of each other. But the many characters are mostly ciphers, and the major plot element of the two women trapped or tormented by the fairy always feels strangely distant. The situation with Stephen Black is more central, but I wish it ...

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen, 1813 I first read Pride and Prejudice back in high school, and I remember enjoying it very much. I thought about rereading it a few years ago when I tried reading and was utterly bored by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies .  A few months ago, I was reminded of my plan to reread it by a bunch of memes about life in lockdown being like living in an Austen novel (limited contact with those outside the household, courting through letters, etc.)  Seeking something engaging but light, I picked this book up again. And it was... fine, I guess. I was still largely charmed by the style of the prose, but I had forgotten the entire plot. I can't recall what I thought of it back in high school, but on this read-through, I couldn't get past how petty the characters are. I'm not talking about the initial misunderstandings between Elizabeth and Darcy, I'm talking about the "funny" way Elizabeth and her father look down on everyone, especially h...

Tipping the Velvet Sarah Waters, 1998 Premise: Nan works in her family’s restaurant and assumes she’ll have an average small-town life until her crush on another girl eventually brings her into an entirely new world. Even though I loved Fingersmith , it took me a while to track down this, possibly the author’s most well-known work. The story follows the romantic and sexual misadventures of a young Englishwoman in the 1890s. Nan first falls in love with Kitty, a male impersonator, and due to that relationship moves to the city to pursue a glamorous and dangerous life in the performing arts. Once in London, her later escapades push her physical and mental limits until she finally figures out what she wants from life and love. For some reason, I thought this would be a romance, but while it’s romantic in sections (and full of sex scenes), I definitely classify this as a melodrama. Nan’s story is full of dramatic turns and heightened emotion, explicit sexual situations as well as sweet fr...

Paladin of Souls Lois McMaster Bujold, 2003 Hugo Winner - 2004 Premise: Ista’s children are grown, and the kingdom of Chalion is relatively safe (after the events of the previous book). Why does she feel so dissatisfied? I know I read this book before, both it and The Curse of Chalion, but I have little memory of either book. I didn’t feel at a disadvantage, though; I definitely picked up everything I needed to know along the way and none of the exposition felt overbearing. This was a fascinating book to come back to essentially cold. I loved it. I loved Ista. I loved that she’s a grown woman, with mature attitudes, but not immune to a bit of romance. I loved her attitude toward everyone’s expectations for her and the way she slowly forges her own path. There were moments where Ista reminded me strongly of Cordelia from the Vorkosigan series, but the world can only be better for more wise, strong, practical middle-aged women in its genre fiction. The world and the relationship between ...