Books Read in January (Part One)

(I'm reading Nick Hornby's The Complete Polysyllabic Spree and was inspired to do this round-up of what I read in the last month, given that due to lack of time my book blog seems to have died, or is at least suffering a serious illness. Unfortunately, the post was getting far too long, so this is part one of two.)

• The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (YA)
• Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier (YA)
• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (YA)
• The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (YA)
• Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce (YA)
• Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce (YA)
• White Tiger by Kylie Chan
• The Well of Shades by Juliet Marillier
• September by Rosamunde Pilcher

I began the year re-reading Pilcher's September, which I picked up in a secondhand bookshop in Cairns. I think I first read it as a teenager after discovering it shared a character with The Shell Seekers - Pilcher's most famous book, I think, and the first book of hers that I read. Pilcher's books are enormously comforting reads - the bookish equivalent of a bowl of hot soup.

I had an enjoyable plunge into YA fantasy this month, first reading New Moon, Stephenie Meyer's over-the-top follow up to her teenage vampire romance, Twilight. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy reading it, but it caused me to roll my eyes too many times to become a favourite book. (Note to Stephenie - please mention Romeo and Juliet a little less in your next book. They're star-crossed lovers, yes, we get it.) Romances are not my usual fare, although Kylie Chan's White Tiger also veers into that genre - however, it's a fantasy based on Chinese mythology with lots of martial arts, so I could cope with its pair of star-crossed lovers.

I used to read a lot of Tamora Pierce's books when I was a younger (but still older than her target audience, I think.) These two Trickster books are really good, starring a down-to-earth young heroine with a sense of humour who becomes involved in another country's budding civil war. I think younger readers would find the political machinations a bit confusing (hell, I sometimes found them a bit confusing), but for older YA readers these are excellent.

Juliet Marillier is always a hit and miss author for me - some of her books I love, some I dislike. Both Wildwood Dancing and Well of Shades were in the love category, happily. Wildwood Dancing is a YA novel, a fantasy complete with a talking frog and fairy kingdom. Based loosely, as far as I can recall, on Eastern European myths and stories, it was a very enjoyable tale. Well of Shades is the third (and final?) book in Marillier's Bridei Chronicles - a British Isles pagans vs. Christians fantasy (with druids, magic and fairies.) It is, I think, my favourite - it contains the least fantastical elements, and is at heart the story of Faolan, King Bridei's spy, and the young damaged woman he meets in his travels and gradually falls in love with. It depicts two mistrustful people learning to rely on each other in a very believable way, and really brought the whole story alive - when the focus shifted to other strands of the story, I was eager to return to those two characters.

The Princess Academy sounds awful, doesn't it? A YA book for younger readers, I listened to it as an audio book, which is an excellent way to experience this story - it involves many snatches of songs and chants, and the reader really brought these alive in a way I wouldn't have been able to do if I'd been reading it by myself. When it is time for the Prince of Danland to marry, the King's priests inform the King of the province from which the future Queen will be chosen. All eligible girls are then sent to a Princess Academy in the area, where they are educated for a year before a ball where the Prince will choose one of them to marry. The twist in this story is that the King's priests decide that the Princess will be chosen from a poor mining county, and the Princess Academy is formed from young miners who cannot read or write, and who, their tutor cries in horror, smell of goats. Miri is the smallest of the potential Princesses, and is a heroine with a wonderful sense of humour. The Princesses face various setbacks, including their cruel tutor, bullies and bandits, but work through things as a team. Princess Academy is a lovely story, with an inspirational heroine whom I think many young girls would relate to - I really enjoyed it, and wish I knew some younger readers to recommend it to.

I can't remember why I picked up Stroud's Amulet of Samarkand - the premise (magicians binding demons to do their will in an alternate Victorian (I think) England) doesn't appeal to me particularly at first glance. However, Stroud's demon narrator is so wonderfully funny and sarcastic (and uses footnotes to great affect - Terry Pratchett has made me fond of a good footnote) that it overrides any dislike I may have had of the setting. Humour seems to be what I have enjoyed most about these fantasy novels this month - you have to be in a particular mood for deadly serious fantasy. I often enjoy it, when I'm feeling particularly dramatic, but I think that style of fantasy is less realistic - real people like to laugh, even in potentially terrifying situations.