30 Day Book Meme - Day 15

[desertvixen]

Day 01 – Best book you read last year - I went back through the "book report" tag on this one, and am going to have to go with a fairly recent read, Mission of Honor by David Weber.  After 5 years of keeping us waiting for a mainline Honor Harrington book, he gave us one that rocked.  It wasn't 800 pages in hardcover, the technical stuff didn't go to insane extremes, he killed off major characters, and he made me cry a little.  The review is here, but it has SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!  I picked it as the best book because it brought me roaring back into a series that I started considering dead (especially since it was almost 5 years since the last book). 

Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times  - So this question makes me wonder what kind of audience this thing is geared for, because there are LOTS of books I've read more than 3 times. 

I'm going to go with a Christie triple feature: Murder on the Orient Express (Murder in the Calais Coach), Cards on the Table, and After the Funeral (Funerals are Fatal).  These three probably rank as my favorite mysteries featuring Poirot.

Orient Express/Calais Coach (I have copies under both titles) is just fun to watch.  I like the whole stuck-on-a-train aspect, and it's probably one of the few books where you actually root for the murderer(s).  It also has an excellent AND faithful movie adaptation, which makes it a little more accessible.  It makes an excellent book for when I don't want stress, I just want to enjoy the ride.

Cards on the Table features a race of sleuths vs. criminals.  It's fun to read, especially how the different detectives deal with the different criminals.  I don't play bridge, so that part of the book gets boring, but the rest is pretty good.  There is a Suchet adaptation, but it changes things slightly (for one, in the TV adaptation, it doesn't come down to last criminal alive, so helps the tension some) and I think it preserves the spirit of the book.

After the Funeral captures my imagination, although I'm not sure exactly why.  I think it has to do with the dysfunctional family angle, because I really enjoy those in my fiction.  It also has a Suchet adaptation that changes some aspects, but preserves the story's spirit.  It makes another good mental vacation.

Day 03 – Your favorite series - There are so many answers for this one, because I read quite a few series. 

There's the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold, the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, the Nantucket series by SM Stirling, Star Wars (pre-switch to Del Rey), the various incarnations of Star Trek, LMB's Chalion series, the Discworld books, and Elizabeth Moon's Serrano series and Vatta's War series ...and that's just on the sci-fi/fantasy shelf. 

Mysteries tend to run to series as well: the Gaslight Mysteries by Victoria Thompson, the Amelia Peabody series, Peter Wimsey, early Robert Tanenbaum Karp and Ciampi, Anne Perry's Thomas Pitt series, and The Cat Who... books. 

Let's not even open the YA box.

For favorite series, however, I'm going to go with JD Robb (Nora Roberts) and the "In Death" series.  Yes, it's like popcorn or candy for your brain.  I enjoy the range, and I love her characterizations because she does NOT overdo the characters with too many walkons, or give us the LKH treatment of page-long descriptions.  Some of them are better than others in quality and plot, and despite the series having a sort of futuristic facade (set in 2060s, with stuff like hovercars), the one that was actual sci-fi is probably my least favorite of the group.  They're an instant buy-in-hardcover, because she's never let me down yet.  I love Eve, even though in real life I'm probably more like Peabody.  :)  Yes, Roarke is pure wish fulfillment, but if you're going to dream, might as well go for the really satisfying ones.

Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series - So, having admitted how much I love the "In Death" series (so maybe I'm not a serious-all-the-time reader, your point?), let me share my favorite book with you.  There's several good contenders, but I'd have to go with Visions in Death, which is near the midpoint of the series currently.  It's the one where the psychic uses her connection with a serial killer to try covering up her own murder of a rival (in her eyes at least)... and for those of us enjoying the series continuity, it's the one where Ian McNabb finally finds out that Delia Peabody (girlfriend and about-to-be cohabitation partner) never did sleep with Charles Monroe, the sexy licensed companion (sex work is legal and regulated in Eve Dallas's world).  Overall, it has one of the better plots, and some of the better dialogue.  Runners up would include Witness in Death, where the killer commits the murder during a production of Witness for the Prosecution with Eve in the audience, and the short story "Haunted in Death", where Eve wraps up an eighty-five year old murder and a much newer one, with a few brushes with the spirit world.

Day 05 – A book that makes you happy - This one is actually pretty easy.  I love to pick up and reread Barbara Metzger's Saved by Scandal.  It's a Regency, and was my introduction to Metzger's writing, which is IMO some of the funniest in the Regency genre.  It's a book to pick up when you need to read about someone being in a way worse situation than you.  Plus, smart wealthy handsome heir to a dukedom with artistic talents - sign me up!  It never fails to make me laugh and feel better.

Day 06 – A book that makes you sad - I thought about this one on the way home, and the problem is that lots of books have PARTS that make me sad.  I also actively avoid books that are going to make me sad, because there's enough real bad stuff in the world without adding the fictional. 

I ended up picking The First Four Years, the last of the original Little House set.  It just depresses me.  I know the story was based on Laura's reality, but I just hate to think that all the good in These Happy Golden Years is followed by all the financial problems, health problems, inability to have more than one living child... It just makes me sad.  So for me, they stop at These Happy Golden Years.

Day 07 – Most underrated book - I don't really pay attention to how people "rate" books, so this question was kind of hard.  I read a lot of "genre" stuff (romance, mystery, sf/f) and it's hard not to notice the hate a lot of people have for genre stuff.  Just because something isn't critically acclaimed doesn't mean it isn't worth reading.  What's important is that you enjoy reading it. 

Day 08 – Most overrated book - I'm going to go with the Twilight saga.  I read the first one while I was in Iraq, just to see what all the buzz was about.  It wasn't the best book I'd ever read,  but I didn't feel outraged that trees died to produce it.  I got fifty or so pages into the second one and stopped, because I did feel outraged that trees died to produce it.  Also, having seen the movie, I do NOT understand why we're supposed to think that Edward is sexy.  The guy who plays Jacob is, but I feel mildly pervy thinking about it.  Basically, I felt like I didn't care if the whole town of Falls fell into a gaping chasm (lava optional).  However, to those that enjoyed it, see Day 7.

Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving - I don't usually pick up books I don't think I'll enjoy, unless they're for a class.  I'd have to go with Dickens here and A Tale of Two Cities.  I didn't have high hopes for TOTC after being forced to read Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, but I loved it.  It has adventure, romance, tragedy, action, and Mme Defarge.  It also has an awesome movie adaptation.  Ronald Colman plays Sydyney Carton in one of his best roles, Basil Rathbone is evil and class-conscious, and Mme Defarge is awesome.  Not to mention the fight between her and Miss Pross.  Maybe Dickens got paid by the word, but surely everyone who has written a paper can sympathize with the need to make word count.

Day 10 – Favorite classic book - For Christmas 1990, after my grandmother's death at Thanksgiving, I recieved a set of 8 books that would really open some doors for me in the world of reading.  She had picked out our Christmas gifts, possibly because she knew she would not be in the world on Christmas morning.  Then, of course, it was too raw for me to even take the books out of the cardboard box they were displayed in, so they went in my room.  I think it was about four months later when I finally felt able to try the books.  I picked up the first one, and stayed awake all night to read it (hiding out in my closet so my parents wouldn't see the light), with the other seven following in very short order.

That is how I was introduced to Anne Shirley, a character I had an almost instant connection with.  A character who had a temper, who forgot to do stuff because she got too busy daydreaming, a character who wasn't too afraid of seeming silly or daydreamy.  My favorite isn't actually Anne of Green Gables, but a toss between Anne of the Island and Anne of Windy Poplars, which I usually just read back to back anyway, because I love them.

Day 11 – A book you hated - Oliver Twist.  If I never hear "Please sir, I'd like some more" again, it would be too soon.  We had to read it for AP English, and ever since I have hated it with a burning passion.  To me, this book is one of the reasons people hate Dickens.  And English class.  (Well, that and Great Expectations.)

Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore - It's more like a series - Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series.  I read Guilty Pleasures back in 2000, when I had my wisdom teeth out and was up all night anyway, and really enjoyed the books until the series went to hell, or rather to the Unsexy Porn Shop.  Anita used to be cool (not likable, but cool), and now she's just stupid, and the supposedly feminist aspects of the character are insulting, IMO, to actual real-life feminists.  The badness that is now the series even contaminates earlier books, because now you know where the road is going and it's not pretty. The books have gone from having plot with porn to porn porn porn - and LKH's "sexy writing" is really NOT sexy. There's a few pitstops along the way, although a big one is Narcissus in Chains with the possible-rape scene (the scene has changes from original hardcover to paperback, but it's still disturbing) with Micah (not to mention, using soap for lubrication purposes is SOOOO NOT A GOOD IDEA) and the downward cycle that follows.  There's even a LJ comm dedicated to the subject - lkh_lashouts. 

The question has come up as to what would make those of us who have abandoned the series (at least, abdandoned paying for it) read again, and generally the answer is this: Anita realizes that she's been used, and starts shooting.

Day 13 – Your favorite writer - These questions are not making it easier.  I'm having to go with a tie between Agatha Christie and Amanda Quick, with honorable mention for Peter David. 

Dame Christie, because I enjoy mysteries, and I enjoy seeing what hat she's going to pull the rabbit out of.  That, and her mysteries aren't always the same from book to book.  I admit to being a fan of Poirot, even when everyone wants to strangle him (the reader included), and I enjoy Miss Marple now more than I did previously.  Some of her books don't have a "big name" investigator, including And Then There Were None and Crooked House.  She could write, and she's still fun to read now, and this is why her books have an entire shelf on the case dedicated to mystery.

Amanda Quick (yes, I know it's a pen name for Jayne Ann Krentz, but I don't enjoy her moderns as much) takes the place as my favorite romance writer.  I enjoy her historicals - I preferred the Regencies, but the Victorians/Arcane Society books are growing on me.  I like her heroines and the situations, even if having "modern" men makes them somewhat anachronistic.  I just really enjoy sinking into one of them for a good read, and waiting to see where we go next.

The honorable mention goes to Peter David, for his Star Trek work, because he's one of the writers who can make me cry and have me laughing five minutes later.  Some of the humor is very oriented to the subject, but he's good. 

Day 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writer - Since I picked 3 authors, you get three answers!

Agatha Christie - I've already given Murder on the Orient Express and After The Funeral some love, so for this one, I have to go with Death on the Nile or And Then There Were None.  (You may be noticing my inability to pick just ONE!)  Nile is one of my favorites because it's got that closed-room case feel mixed with the obvious suspect being unable to have done it.  Colonel Race is also part of a fabulous cast of characters.  The 1978 movie adaptation with Peter Ustinov is excellent, also.  And Then There Were None is probably one of her best-known works, and it gets read over and over because it's good.  It's creepy and intense, and I prefer the book ending where everyone dies, because otherwise there is no puzzle for the authorities to solve.  It rocks, and I wish some would do a good English-language movie that follows the book.

Amanda Quick - My favorite of hers is currently The Perfect Poison, because the characters are good, the romance is better, and the plot is very nicely done.  It's so good, I own it in hardcover and paperback, AND audiobook format.  It just has something about it that makes me love it, although I can't quite put my finger on it.  I also like how she bounces back and forth between past and present in the Arcane Society timeline, and it's setup so the writer can always have a Better Idea.
 

Peter David - Q-Squared, hands down, is his best work.  I am prejudiced by being a Picard/Crusher fan, and this book playing heavily on that relationship but - it is awesome.  His knowledge for and love of Trek shows through in the book, and it has parts that just make you want to rip your heart out, along with parts where you just cannot stop laughing.  Some of the humor is dark, but sometimes you have to laugh or cry.  It's also got an excellent time-travel/multiverse hook, and when they get a little tangled up, it's pretty intense.  It brings together TOS and TNG, and I know the book has been out for like 12 years, just go read it. 

Day 15 – Favorite male character - It's more like a top 11 list (I had hard time excluding anyone on it), but there are a lot of male characters I really enjoy - and not all of them fall into the Imaginary Boyfriend status.

#11 - Ramses Emerson (Amelia Peabody series) - What can I say?  He's smart, handsome, devoted to his wife, and he likes cats.  He loves his family, even when things get (okay, stay) crazy. He's also one of the few characters that's as much fun as a child as an adult.
 

#10 - Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie) - I know there's a lot of people who don't like him, including his creator, but I love to read the books and watch him driving everyone crazy before he solves the mystery.  He's also a man of compassion, and he respects justice.

#9 - Peter Dobbs (Judy Bolton series) - He's a lawyer who cares more about justice than money, and he loves the woman he loves enough to let her be herself (and enough to wait for her to make up her mind).

#8 - (Chief) Inspector Hemingway (Georgette Heyer mysteries) - He's up there with Poirot on the driving people crazy factor, only he's also part of the police force.  He sees stuff others don't see, and he's pretty silver-tongued when he needs to be.

#7 - Archie Goodwin (Nero Wolfe series) - He's a great right-hand man for a detective who doesn't always have great people skills - and pretty down to earth.  Even better with Timothy Hutton playing him.

#6 - Gabriel Jones and Caleb Jones (Amanda Quick's Arcane Series) - They aren't your stereotypical Victorian men-about-town, but I wouldn't like them so much if they were.  Caleb wins over Gabriel by the slightest, since he actually RUNS the paranormal detective agency.

#5 - Delaney Brown (Nora Roberts, Savor the Moment) - If I ever wanted a guy to step out of the pages of a romance novel, this one is it.  We'll hear more about him on Day 20.  Also a lawyer with a sense of justice, even if he's not dealing with criminal matters.

#4 - Gilbert Blythe (honorable mentions to sons Jem and Walter) (Anne of Green Gables series) - He's likable, what can I say?  And one of the reasons my taste for tall, dark, handsome, and SMART was set so early in life.
 

#3 - Alistair McKeon (Honor Harrington series) - One of my favorite Weber characters, from the first to the last.  I might have given up Honor here and there, but I didn't give up on him until Weber killed him off (and played with us about it).  I especially enjoyed him in books 7 & 8, and still can't read the end of At All Costs without getting choked up.

#2 - Frank Hardy (Hardy Boys series) - The other reason my taste for tall, dark, handsome, and smart was settled so early.  He's smart, and a little geeky (especially in the 80s/90s) but he's always in charge and calm.  He has a taste for justice and solving mysteries, and a sense of humor. 

#1 - Aral Vorkosigan (LMB's Vorkosigan saga) - Honestly, I could probably do a top 10 just of male characetrs from this series, because there are so many wonderful ones.  I can safely say that even though the series is technically about his son, I would never have kept reading without Aral.  He's a man of integrity and loyalty, no matter the cost for himself.  He's compelling, if not movie star handsome, and he gets the best speeches.  (honorable mentions to Ivan, Gregor, and Simon - if you read the series, you know who they are - if you haven't read the series, look up Cordelia's Honor and dive in!)


Day 16 – Favorite female character
Day 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favorite romance book
Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favorite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favorite book of all time

Comments

Vorkosigan

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Those are wonderful stories!

Re: Vorkosigan

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes they are.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Somebody else who knows who Peter Dobbs is!

I adored the Judy Bolton series when I was a kid, because Judy actually grew up and had a life (unlike almost every other series mystery heroine I knew of).

Ramses would be #2 if it were my list. And Miles, not his father (although his father would definitely be on the list) would be #1.