A Book Search Among Friends - February 2011

My daughter just spent time among the stacks at Barnes and Noble, and came back with a list of books she'd like me to mooch for her. Of these are all very current and highly wishlisted, so I know her chances are slim. But just in case...

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier
Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Nation by Terry Pratchet
The Alchemist by Michael Scott
The Magician by Michael Scott
The Necromancer by Michael Scott
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Fire by Kristin Cashore
The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
The Wizard Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
The Dragon Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima
The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
city of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Eldest by Christopher Paolini
Brsinger by Christopher Paolini
Evil Genius by C Jinks

If you have suggestions for books with similar appeal that might be more easily mooched, please let me know. My daughter is only 11, and boys still have cooties, so she's not so interested in books with a big romantic subplot.

Thanks!

Has she read The Warrior Heir already, then? I have that and The Wizard Heir, so I'll try to bump them up my list.

I have an extra copy of The True Meaning of Smekday somewhere if she hasn't read that. A young girl goes on a roadtrip (with her cat) to find her mother after an alien invasion, befriends an alien, and has adventures.

In terms of young girls kicking butt and taking names, I usually also recommend Alex and the Ironic Gentleman by Adrienne Kress and Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy. I'm not sure how moochable they are.

Thanks, chelonianmobile! She had not read yet The Warrior Heir yet; must've just missed in her perusal of the shelves. I've added it to our bookmooch wishlist. If you happen to finish those books soon, we'd love to mooch them. But please don't rearrange your TBR order on our account! :-)

I think she would enjoy The True Meaning of Smekday, and would love to mooch it. I've also added your other suggestions to our wishlist. Thanks so much!

I've a copy of City of Bones I'll look it out for you later :)

ETA... I've added it to BM now and sent you a link, its the only book on my inventory so shouldn't be hard to find

Thank you, peta158! We've mooched it.

Sugar,
I would recommend books by Tamora Pierce if you are looking for fantsay adventure with strong female heros. However I don't know your daughter and what her maturaty level is. The books are set in another "world" and in a medievil setting so characters around the age of 16 do beging to talk about sex, however there is no graphic details about it. The female heros are strong women who at least in Alanna's case are trying to prove women are as good as men when it comes to defending their relm. If you think it is too advanced for her right now they maybe books you might want to keep in mind for her when she is closer to 14.

I would also recommend Patrick Carman's The Land of Elyon series starting with The Dark Hills Divide. A strong female lead character, talking animals and adventure. It starts a little slow but once the action gets going it is increadiably hard to put the book down.

Finally I would recommend anything by Rick Riordan although in the Percy Jackson series he writes from Percy's perspective the female characters are strong young women for the most part and his other series alternates between male and female characters talking from their own perspective.

~ Missy

Missy, thanks for your suggestions! You are right on with Rick Riordan -- she loves his books and has already devoured everything available. She's reading Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce now. I didn't realize that those books may be a little more "mature". Oh, well. So far she says she loves the book, so it must not be too icky for her! The Dark Hills Divide looks like something she'd like, too. I've put in a mooch request from a "possibly inactive" moocher -- maybe I can lure him back. :-)

>7 SugarCreekRanch: Wild Magic is good, but the third and fourth ones in the quartet do have romance. It's sort of student-teacher romance so you might want to read those before her, though I was just-turned-twelve when I read 'em and was fine. Daine is much older by the time attraction happens.

The Lioness Quartet (Alanna books) and the Immortals Quartet (Wild Magic being first) were actually both slated for the 9-12 range when they came out in the 90s, so theoretically you should be okay. Frankly, I don't think they're any more mature than the Cashore or Clare books regarding sex, though I've not read the latter.

I'm less familiar with the books you mention in your first post, but since we've just started talking about Tamora Pierce -- I recall very much enjoying Patricia C. Wrede around that age too, in particular the Enchanted Forest Chronicles series. Those two were my favorite authors for quite some time. Dealing with Dragons and the rest are still books that I own and reread.

>9 pammab: OMG YES EFC. Every girl should experience Cimorene. In fact, I once gave them to an eleven-year-old. There is romance, but it's not "ROMANCE!!!" generally.

> 10 I'm not a girl, but I loved these books at that age... And gave my first copy of the series to my much younger sister (14 years younger) when she was 12, and she read the spine off. Now I've got another set, for my 10 year old daughter. Great books.

Thirding Dealing With Dragons. I had a wicked crush on Cimorene as a kid, actually.

I'm looking for books about homosexuality in the 19th century. My particular area of interest is late 19th century England, and even more specifically I'm interested in homosexuality in literature. Obviously that's very, very specific, but some of the titles I'm looking for are:

London and the Culture of Homosexuality 1855-1914 by Matt Cook
Sodom on the Thames: Sex, Love, and Scandal in Wilde Times by Morris B. Kaplan
Slumming: Sexual and Social Politics in Victorian London by Seth Koven
The London Underworld In The Victorian Period - Authentic First-Person Accounts By Beggars, Thieves And Prostitutes by Henry Mayhew

And anything else similar/on the topic.

>#1
I have a copy of Wee Free Men I am willing to let go. I will reserve it for you.

I am looking for books on Celtic art, in particular, symbols and their meanings. Does anyone have anything lying around? Thanks!

Thank you all for your suggestions in my post in message 1. I've found some books to mooch for my daughter, and she will be so pleased. Thanks again!

#14 (ah, my field of semi-expertise...rubbing hands together gleefully....this so rarely comes up!)

Regarding the meaning of symbols, it's impossible to really know ANY of the meanings. The Celtics were an oral tradition people with no real written language except for Ogham, which was really very basic. Any book that claims to know the meanings is throwing around...mullarkey!

Alas, I'm unwilling to part with any of my Celtic Art books, but if you're interested in knotwork construction, I can recommend both the Bain (father and son) books, George and Ian. Aidan Meehan also has some good knotwork books.

Is there anything in particular you're looking for?

16: In a nutshell, my grandmother was Irish, and I wish to get a tatoo in memory of her. I found a really sweet design of a tree of life, and I wanted to know more about the tree of life as well as the meaning behind some of the symbols woven into this particular design. Basically, I want to know more before I put this onto my body permanently!

14, 16> I have a spare copy of Aidan Meehan's Celtic Design: Knotwork, if you want it. It's not really about meaning, more about how to draw the stuff...but if you're making your own design that could come in handy.

19: I would love that if you wouldn't mind parting with it. I'm mareofthesea on BM as well. Thanks so much!

Looking for copies of:
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee
and
The Cygnet and the Firebird
The Sorceress and the Cygnet both by Patricia A. McKillip (happy to have those two in the combined ed, or separate)
If anyone's willing to part with any of those, that would be much appreciated!

Any specific edition/cover on the Harry Potter books? They are usually available cheap at the used bookstore here, but I don't usually buy them because a lot of people are picky about them.

Hi Heather, no, just as long as they're in reasonable condition, really :)

21> I might have a MM copy of The Silver Metal Lover that I am willing to part with. That is one of my favorite books of all time, BTW. I will check and get back to you.

You, too? I loved The Silver Metal Lover. And I'm so not a science fiction person. Hot robot love!

I loved it sooo much...That I have been unable to bring myself to read the sequel that was 20 years in the making for fear that it would somehow taint the original. I seriously love Tanith Lee more than words. I just don't understand why she isn't more popular in the U.S. I have several of her books that I re-read yearly. I am not a hard sci-fi person either for the most part. If I do read sci-fi I prefer it to be very, very soft. :)

I've only read her Claidi Journals, which I loved, so definitely want to read more of her, but her books aren't readily available here (Aus). If you do find your copy, that would be BRILLIANT :)

Her books are hard to find in the US also. :( I luckily have quite a few in hardback now but I am always on the lookout for the ones I am missing. I have located my MM copy of Silver Metal Lover. It looks pretty much brand new. I will post it on BM for you now. :)

>24 Belladonna1975:, 25

Stop making my wishlist longer :p

>24 Belladonna1975:, 25, 29

Yes, me too! Just. Stop. Now. ;-)

I am looking for a copy of Quiver by Holly Luhning (touchstone on book not working). Thanks for your help!

>31 Mareofthesea: It's not coming out here until July, but I'll try to keep an eye on the local ARC cart. They have some pretty good stuff sometimes.

32: Really? hmmm... I found it at my local book store yesterday, and it looked really interesting, but I didn't want to spend the 18 bucks for it. Thanks for keeping an eye out for it, I didn't realize it hasn't been released elsewhere yet.

I'm looking for (gasp and surprise) the following Robin McKinley books (or books that contain her short stories):

Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast
Rose Daughter
The Door in the Hedge
Dragonhaven
Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits
Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits
The Stone Fey
A Knot in the Grain
Imaginary Lands

I can't imagine anyone would want to part with them :) but perhaps someone has a spare?

**gasp & very surprised**

I would love to Mooch a copy of The Postmistress by Sarah Blake if anyone has one to spare.

Please and thankyou!
DR

19, 20> Arrgggh. I should have looked before posting. If I have the spare copy, it's buried somewhere in piles of books...I gave it to my sister but she didn't want it and I thought I took it back, but I can't find it. If it shows up, I'll ask if you still want it.

37: No problem! If you find it, let me know. It's more of a curiosity thing now anyways.

34> macsbrains, I have a copy of Rose Daughter that I recently mooched, read and finished. Hardcover, ex-library book. Let me know if you're interested; I'm in Canada, so it will be an international mooch.

>39 GreyGhost:

I'll definitely mooch it! Thank you!

I'm looking for an LT author's work
A Gentle Rain by Deborah Smith, possibly?

I'd so like to burn some points up!

One of my friends is looking for fantasy novels with lesbian protagonists. She's got Malinda Lo, Chris Anne Wolfe, and Naomi Clark down for authors, but I figured you guys might know some other stuff that I might be able to tell her about/mooch for her/stick on my wishlist.

I'm going to Japan this summer and my friend (who lives in Japan) has asked if I could bring some picture books with simple English with me (she has a daughter who will be around 1 year old when I'm there).
I was wondering if anyone has English picture books (絵本) with (very) simple English, pretty pictures and an understandable story, in like-new condition?

OK, another genre I'd like info on as well as to mooch available copies.
Fairy Tales Retold ?
I've only read Wicked.
Can anyone share on Enchantment or any of Orson Scott Card's other books?
What is a good book to try to test Robin McKinley?
**Thanks for any help guys!

Robin McKinley is amazing! I would recommend The Hero and the Crown as an introduction to her work. The Blue Sword is also very good. And Beauty. And The Outlaws of Sherwood.

Ack, posting these titles makes me want to reread them! :)

#45 blast these touchstones of late. By Wicked I was referring to the one by Gregory Maguire.

#46: I would always suggest that someone read Blue Sword BEFORE reading Hero & the Crown, even though this isn't chronological... Blue sets up Damar much better than Hero... IMO

>45 BONS: Enchantment was a fun romp into Russian tales, despite my usual veeeery strong dislike of the narrative trope that dumps a modern hero in fantasyland.

Other books I've read by Orson Scott Card weren't of the fairy tales retold type. Ender's Game was OK if overrated, my interest in the series got drowned in the overabundant christian themes in Speaker for the Dead. Alvin Maker was better, an alternate history of the early colonial era of North America / Canada where most people have some kind of magical knack, minor or major. Treason was a decent SciFi coming-of-age / rise of a hero tale.

You may want to look at :
Smoke and mirrors by Neil Gaiman (several short stories, off the top of my head I remember there was something about the Sangrail, and Snow White)

Books that are not a retelling of a specific tale, but steeped in creatures and atmosphere from them anyway :
Faery in Shadow by C. J. Cherryh, re-released in recent years by the author as the Faery Moon ebook as the initial publisher was apparently heavy-handed with the editing.
Thomas the Rhymer
Tales from the Flat Earth by Tanith Lee, beginning with Night's Master, in a more thousand & one nights setting, rather than celtic.

For retold fairy tales you can't go wrong with anything by Ellen Datlow/Terri Windling's Fairy tale anthologies and others such as Snow White, Rose Red by Patrica C. Wrede, Red as Blood by Tanith Lee, Fitcher's Brides by Gregory Frost and Jack of Kirowan by Charles De Lint. Retold fairy tales are my favorite genre...ever!

All of the Gregory Maguire books are great.

43> What about The Privilege of the Sword? I didn't read it yet (soon!) and everyone in Kushner's world tends to be bisexual, but the main character of this one is in one of the other books which highlighted one of her lesbian relationships. Since she's the main character here I assume there will be elaboration.

I know I must have others in my library, but I haven't read any of them (I plan to!) and I just got a lesbian sci-fi novel from ER this month. I don't tag for it in my library, is the problem. Perhaps I should remedy that.

45> Start with The Blue Sword for McKinley. I liked The Hero and the Crown better, but part of that is because I read The Blue Sword first.

47> I, too, also love books about the desert (thanks in no small part to Dune). So if you find more I would definitely like to hear about them! I don't know if The Devil in the Dust would be up your alley in the long run, but oh, the desert! (I loved it, so...)

>53 macsbrains: The protagonist of The privilege of the sword is a new character to the series, and though she has a very close female friend whom she stands for, and she gets to see all kinds of interesting sights, there's no explicit lesbian relationship.

The recurring character is Alec and yeah, that one is definitely omnivorous and was involved in an homosexual affair in Swordspoint.

>54 Jarandel:

Thanks for the clarification. I was under the impression that Jessica (Who made an appearance in The Fall of the Kings) was the protag, but as I said, it's still on my TBR.

#45 Not yet mentioned and very good: A Curse as Dark as Gold and Wildwood Dancing (and other books by Juliet Marillier) and Goose Girl (not really based on a Fairy Tale per se, but seems like it could be:Book of a Thousand Days)

>50 Jarandel:

Mormon themes, not necessarily Christian themes. Orson Scott Card is very Mormon and frequently uses this in his books. He's written quite a few more religious books (which are all well-written and enjoyable) in addition to his standard sci-fi and fantasy.

45> There's Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Mages series, which is all fairy tales retold in...um, neither steampunk nor urban fantasy, but somewhere in between. Late 1800s-early 1900s, mostly in England except the first which is in San Francisco, hidden magic-users as primary characters. The first is The Fire Rose, which is Beauty and the Beast (in SF, as I said); The Serpent's Shadow is Snow White, Phoenix and Ashes is Cinderella...all good. Also her 500 Kingdoms series, which explains fairy tales as The Tradition trying to force people into previously-existing stories...most of the stories are people trying to escape or bend their stories so they don't end up as tragedies. Also Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest stories...not precisely fairy tales, or at least not the standard ones, but people dealing with a fairy tale world. Talking to Dragons is the first one, with a princess who takes the advice of a frog and runs away to the dragons...and then things get interesting. If you like Russian fairy tales, try Mercedes Lackey's Firebird, or Peter Morwood's trilogy on the same story (Prince Ivan, Firebird, The Golden Horde). And...um. Can you tell I like retold fairy tales? There are a _lot_ of them.

42> BTW - have _you_ read The Blue Sword? Speaking of deserts. And really really good books. Damar is wonderful, especially if you're looking for desert stories.

>59 I-_-I: YES!!!

Um, I mean, YES!!!

>60 macsbrains:

Oh, ha, I loled at that.

>61 MyriadBooks:, 62

I was trying to contain my enthusiasm, but I failed spectacularly. :)

My enthusiasm agrees entirely with yours macs - containment is not necessary!!! :)

I am (have been for ages) looking for a copy of The Delicate Storm by Giles Blunt. I only want a mmp edition in reasonable condition so I can read it - as I have 1, 3 & 4 in the series and this is no. 2. *sigh* I have had no luck trying to mooch this book; so I thought to ask here.

#64 Oddly enough, I have that in my incomplete-series-TBR and I've been searching for Book 1. Unless this is a 'keeper' series for you, perhaps we can work out a way to enable each other.

>65 Jenni_Canuck:,
Oh, I yes. I think we can work something out...I haven't read it; let me see after that - yes?

ETA: I haven't read it because I wanted to find no. 2 first - in case I wanted to keep on reading. :)

>66 Lman:

I will check our library's book bag to see if they have a copy. :)

>67 saratoga99:
Thank you!
x

Hello everyone!

I've gotten in the mood to ge crafty, but I need some help. I'm looking for magazines with kids movies being promoted. I want Harry Potter most of all but I'm also looking for cartoons like pokemon, digimon, justice league ect. and anything relating to Eragon, The Lightning Theif, Disney, Fox it doesn't matter. I'm thinking of decoupaugeing (sp?) some binders and other things I have for a few friends into that kind of thing. Plus I want to do a Harry Potter one for myself.

So any Entertainment Weekly, Famous (from the old movie chain famous players), The Magazine not for adults, movie life ect I'd love to have them.

~ Missy

> 69 I have quite a few EW magazines from 2009/10 sitting around that I wouldn't mind getting rid of. Were you looking for any particular
issue(s)? PM me! :)

To all the LT friends that were so kind to respond to my post #45 regarding retold fairy tales..hugs and a big thank you. I'm starting with Robin McKinley and although my used book store did not have any due to popularity & well bookmooch has been like the dry, lonely Sahara desert of late = ( I was able to reserve 2 from my library.

now..I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron..anyone have it that would like to move it along?

I'm looking for Election by Tom Perrotta if someone has it! Thanks.

I've got a copy of Election on my TBR. If you're willing to wait a week, I'd be glad to read it and send it on to you. It's a trade paperback.

If anyone has a copy of the most recent New Yorker (Feb 28th, an award statue with a pharaoh's head on the cover) I would love to mooch it from you when you're done.