Undead and...

At a co-worker's request, I've been reading a surprisingly good self-published book (not written by my co-worker, btw). I have very low standards for books that aren't published by a mainstream publisher ("mainstream" isn't quite the word I want, because I respect most small presses too - I'm trying to avoid the word "real", because it's condescending. But accurate). It's not going to win any awards, but something about the tone made me put the self-published book down and find The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. Some strange echo of McKinley's elevated style that she used in the Damar books, I think.
So that has been fun, and has helped me get over the inevitable letdown when I finish a series. I'd spent last weekend reading MaryJanice Davidson's books about the vampire queen, Betsy (Undead and Unwed, etc.). They're a hoot, even if they're too graphic to recommend to most people of my acquaintance.
I'm pissed off that Lubar's Sleeping Freshmen didn't get more honors on Monday and Tuesday, when the Printz and Newbery and BBYA were announced. If Criss Cross is Newbery material (which it isn't, IMO), then so is Lubar. Lubar was robbed, and I was glad to read a lot of messages to that effect on YALSA-BK.

Company of Swans

I read Eva Ibbotson's Journey to the River Sea for a book club last week. The logical next step was a re-read of Ibbotson's A Company of Swans, which shares the same setting, time period, and even some themes (though Journey, being a book for kids, has less emphasis on romantic love). Company of Swans is a lovely book, if you're looking for romantic fiction.
This week I also re-read Ender's Game for a book club, played several games of the Book Lover's Trivial Pursuit (which I lost every time, thanks to the SO's freakish and amazing knowledge), and read more of Bronte's The Professor. But mostly, I watched figure skating. Nationals are on this weekend, which serve as de facto Olympic trials this year. This is my favorite skating event, hands down, because I get to see skaters (Rohene Ward, Parker Pennington, the girl who clearly enjoyed skating to Herbie Hancock in her short program) that I usually don't see. So my thoughts are filled with skating: could Johnny Weir possibly do a better short at the Olympics? will they send Orscher and Lucash? how can they leave Michelle Kwan off the team? why was Sasha Cohen's short program praised, when she was wobbly and uninspired by the music (and wearing an inexplicably ugly bodice)?

Speak

I'm sick. No earthly idea why, but I've been nauseated since Monday night. I went home from work Tuesday and Wednesday, and didn't work at all yesterday. Thankfully, I have today off. I finally called the Advice Nurse, and he suggested that I fast (drinking only clear liquids, especially ginger tea) for 24 hours. If I'm ravenous, I'm allowed plain rice or bread. I am so hungry by now (almost 12 hours into the fast), which irritates my well-meaning liberal self, because there are plenty of people in the world who are even hungrier, and who won't be able to start eating tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.
So what does this have to do with books, you ask? Well, in the midst of this general malaise, I found myself watching Lifetime. There was a movie - very Lifetime - about a teen girl who gets into soft porn. I got hooked by this, and I'm glad, because the next movie was the film version of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. It was pretty good - in particular, Steve Zahn and the actor who played Melinda did well. My very kind SO brought home the book tonight. I've read it before, but not for a few years. I'm not sure Melinda's voice is as convincing as the narrator's voice in Megan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts, but Speak is still quite a good book.
The other book my SO brought home is Meg Cabot's new teen novel, Avalon High. I don't have a lot of faith that it'll be good, but even a bad Cabot book is usually fun to read.

my new reading project

I've started a project for the new year (the "Girlsown re-read", I've been calling it). I collect girls' school stories, mostly from Britain. I have a lot of them - over 300. So this year I decided to re-read all of them (which adds up to roughly one per day) chronologically by the date of publication. I'm limiting myself to books I actually own, so there will be some gaps in my reading. I'll miss some seminal works, but by the end of the year I'll have read a lot of school stories, and should have some new ideas about the development of the genre.
The problem is, my first book is The Professor, by Charlotte Bronte. I've never read it before, and I'm finding it slow going. I suspect it would be easier if I weren't sick - I went home from work early today, and everything! Some sort of stomach bug or food poisoning, because I'm nauseated all the time.
So instead of reading The Professor, I've been catching up on Donna Simpson regencies. One of them, The Duke and Mrs. Douglas, included a lesbian character. It was well handled, and I was pleasantly surprised to see this in a Regency romance.
Over Christmas, I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for a book club. It has symbolism that is heavy and obvious, perfect for freshmen in high school. I never felt any connection to the characters, which is a bad sign. Anna Quindlen wrote the introduction to this edition. I was irritated to read her comparison of Tree to Little Women and the Betsy-Tacy series, because she dismissed Alcott and Lovelace as light fluffy stuff. Better that than overly-symbolic, cold prose, I'd say. This wouldn't bug me so much, except that (1) Lovelace wasn't trying to create Great Literature, so it's a straw man argument and (2) Quindlen has written in praise of the Betsy-Tacy books in the past. If she feels they're so markedly inferior to Tree, she shouldn't have bothered.