HSU IT Department

Free books, free books, free books, still some very good 'uns left to claim!! Surely someone wants all those Terry Pratchettses, precious? Then there's The Kingdom of Little Wounds ("a fairy tale about syphilis") which is intriguing and unusual, and The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius which is absolutely wonderful. And surely someone out there wants to learn jQuery, no?

Pleeeeeeeease don't make me cram these back on my shelves ::begs::

Yep, you heard right: it's my annual free book giveaway! I was pretty aggressive in my weeding this year, and only four ended up being rescued from the cull and put back after the second review. Go me! (Alas, the number being disposed of is still less than the number acquired, so my shelves continue to bulge...)

The rules are pretty simple: You don't have to pay postage, you don't have to pass a test, you don't have to give me your credit card number or your mother's maiden name, you just have to say, "I want that one!" I would of course love it when/if you read the book(s) you claimed, you post something about them: whether you liked them, didn't like them, hated them, passed them on to a friend or a library sale, whatever. (If you wish, you can also "pay it forward" by donating to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust or Planned Parenthood, but that's totally optional.)

You can ask for one, or three, or ten -- as many as you like. I'm sitting here looking at a giant pile of 70+ books and eagerly anticipating sending them off to new homes where they'll be happy and cherished, so don't be shy about asking!

If you have questions about any of the titles listed, feel free to ask. Or, you know, use The Google :) Checking the title on GoodReads is another great way to see a summary as well as other people's reviews. Everything is a paperback unless it's starred; "BCE" means Book Club Edition. Enjoy your shopping experience!


FICTION TITLES
* Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)
Eye in the Sky (Philip K. Dick)
Brown Girl in the Ring (Nalo Hopkinson)
Mara and Dann (Doris Lessing)
The Algebraist (Iain M. Banks)
Idlewild (Nick Sagan)
* Brightness Falls from the Air (James Tiptree, Jr.)
The Infinity Concerto (Greg Bear)
Orphan of Creation (Roger MacBride Allen)
* The People of Pern (Robin Wood) (really lovely artwork: illustrations of Anne McCaffrey’s characters; BCE but in beautiful condition, good enough for a gift)
The Sentinel (Arthur C. Clarke)
The Sacred Pool (L. Warren Douglas)
The Moon of Gomrath (Alan Garner)
Terry Pratchett books:

Eric
* Feet of Clay (BCE)
* The Fifth Elephant
Going Postal
Guards! Guards!
Jingo
Making Money
* Maskerade (BCE)
Men at Arms
Moving Pictures
* Night Watch
Pyramids
Soul Music
Good Omens (Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett)

Year’s Best SF 16 (authors include Joe Haldeman, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Gregory Benford, Catherynne Valente, Michael Swanwick, more)
The Sixteen Pleasures (Hellenga)
The Virgins (Pamela Brens)
* The Kingdom of Little Wounds (Susann Cokal) (unusual book; billed as YA but definitely not)
The Eight (Katherine Neville)
* The Fire (Katherine Neville) (sequel to The Eight)
The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton)
Manic Quixotic (Blye) (Warning: This one is very weird and more than a little disturbing)
* The Clothes They Stood Up In (Alan Bennett)
Regina’s Song (David and Leigh Eddings)
Garden Spells (Sarah Addison Allen)
The Hill Bachelors (William Trevor)
White Noise (Don DeLillo)/
Fortress in the Eye of Time (C.J. Cherryh)
Silver Wedding (Maeve Binchy)
The Weird Sisters (Eleanor Brown)
Oronookoo, or, The Royal Slave (Aphra Behn) (has highlighting and marginalia)
Tuesdays at the Castle (Jessica Day George) (ARC)


NON-FICTION TITLES
* Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)
Mary Gilliatt’s Shortcuts to Great Decorating
* The Algebra of Infinite Justice (Arundhati Roy)
Better World Shopping Guide (2008 edition)
* Bizarre Books (Russell Ash) aka “Frog-Raising for Fun and Profit” (collection of hilarious but real book titles)
Family Wicca Book (Ashleen O’Gaea)
Free to Succeed: Designing the Life you Want in the New Free Agent Economy (Barbara Reinhold)
* Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad (Jacqueline Tobin)
* Men and Manners of the Eighteenth Century (Susan Hale) (this is the oldest book on the list, published in 1898, in illustrated boards)
* The Mind of the Maker (Dorothy Sayers)
* Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Time Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right (Thomas Frank)
Pocket World in Figures, 2013 Edition
* The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius (Kristine Barnett)
* Summer of the Great Grandmother (Madeleine L’Engle)
What Every American Should Know About Who’s Really Running the World (Melissa Rossi)


TECHY TITLES
CSS: The Definitive Guide (O’Reilly, 2007)
CSS3 Anthology, 4th edition (Sitepoint, 2012)
JQuery: Novice to Ninja, 2d edition (Sitepoint, 2012)
UNIX Shell Programming (Hayden Books, 1990)

Huh. I'm sure there's something important about today but I can't for the life of me remember what... ;)

...the two gifts I received this fest season; they are things of beauty!

The first is from minerva_fest last month. I had asked for a story that explored the differences between Minerva and Molly, and realmer06 delivered a thoughtful series of vignettes, anchored in the aftermath of the final battle, that shows us not only what might have been but what perhaps was always meant to be.

Title: Roads Not Taken
Author: realmer06
Word count: 10,300
Prompt: Minerva has no children; Molly has seven. Minerva led a busy and successful career; Molly was a busy and successful wife and mother. The two of them muse on why they each made these choices, and how they feel about them now.

Eighteen-year-old Minerva McGonagall had never imagined herself the
kind of person to fall madly in love. She had never imagined herself to be the
kind of person who ‘madly’ did anything. But that had been before she met Dougal...

The second is from this year's hp_holidaygen. I had asked for something about how either the Hogwarts ghosts or the Hogwarts House-Elves celebrate the season; what does it mean to them? My Mystery Author (reveals are not up yet) has written a ghostly meditation on the holiday from the viewpoint of the Fat Friar, a true gem composed of love and loss and loyalty entangled.

Title: Doorways
Author: ????
Word count: 1100

The Fat Friar leaned back in his chair and considered the glass on the table
before him. The wine was a deep, rich red, a red that whispered to him of promises to
come. Almost – he licked his lips around the word – seductive. A half-remembered quote
came to him. I have looked upon the wine when it is red. Indeed.

We've gotten several many inches of snow over the past few days (18", according to our local news, and the high -- high!! -- yesterday was 12 degrees), and the puppy is ecstatic. Here she is doing her "I am a snow gopher!!" impression:

Alan Rickman reads Sonnet 130

::melts into puddle of lustful goo::

A couple of weeks ago, on my mom's recommendation, I read Dave Eggers' The Circle. Like Orwell's 1984 or Huxley's Brave New World, it's more of a fable than a novel, social criticism rather than great characterization and plotting, but rather chilling in that this awful world is yet so very close to where we already are, and very likely where we're headed absent some sort of epiphany in our love affair with technology. In a sense he is preaching to the choir (the choir, in this case, being those who worry about the ubiquity of social media and Big Server rather than Big Brother), but it was engrossing. The ending was surprising; I think his message is that no big deus ex machina is going to rescue us from the constant stream of friending-tweeting-liking-pinning-statusupdating-rating-networking-linking-sharing-sharing-sharing-MUSTSHAREALLTHETHINGS!!! We have to rescue ourselves. I sympathized very much with Mae's friend who makes lamps out of antlers and just wants to be left alone.

Then today I ran across this rather apt quote from Neil Postman (written in 1985!!):

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.

― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

I fear very much that we're a good way down into Huxley's world: "a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy." (Honey Boo Boo or Ashley Madison, anyone?) The problem is that if 99% of the world is living in Huxley's version of the future, it's incredibly easy for a very few people to operate it like Orwell's version without anyone noticing. When everything is digital, it's easier than ever to edit the past. Or the present.

Top-notch historical fiction is hard to find. Top-notch adventure fiction is hard to find. Well-written witty anti-hero protagonists are hard to find. Good historical adventure fiction with a well-written witty anti-hero protagonist is...well, you see where I'm going with this. Game of Kings gets two thumbs up and five stars -- once I started it I couldn't put it down. I can't remember who told me I should read these books; I wish I could because I would send them lots of presents in deepest gratitude.

The story arc is not entirely original: a brilliant but dissolute younger son and a stolid older one with bad blood between them, dissolute younger son turns out to be not so dissolute after all (I shall say no more for fear of spoilers). But Dunnett executes the tale with flair, energy, inventiveness, and a remarkable level of historical detail. The 1500s is one of my favorite time periods for historical fiction -- so much going on in politics, religion, philosophy, science, an immensely active and fertile time so she's got lots to work with.

Part of my love for the book is of course due to the main character, Francis Crawford of Lymond, Master of Culter. Accused traitor and leader of a band of outlaws, yet somehow one can never quite believe the worst of him; one suspects there is more (oh how I do love a misunderstood hero). If the facts did not prove me wrong I would suspect Dorothy Dunnett of being Dorothy L. Sayers, because Lymond is very much like Lord Peter Wimsey. Lymond is less high-strung and more physically active (as you'd expect in the 16th century!), but both are aristocratic, highly (perhaps over-) educated, single-minded in pursuit of a goal, prone to quotation, chronically underestimated by their opponents, and exceedingly intelligent with a fierce sense of honor and loyalty. Both are also excellent musicians and their own harshest critic.

The supporting cast is just as much fun, particularly Will Scott, younger son of the Earl of Buccleuch, whose evolving relationship with Lymond forms one of the more interesting strands of the book. Will has been off at school in France with detrimental results:

"Moral Philosophy, that's the trouble," said Janet with gloomy relish. "They've taught poor Will moral philosophy and his father's fit to boil...He's quoting Aristotle and Boethius and the laws of chivalry and the dreicher spells of the Chevalier de Bayard on loyalty and the ethics of warfare. He's so damned moral he ought to be standing rear up under a Bo tree. And he won't keep his mouth shut. I grant," said Lady Buccleuch with a certain grim amusement, "that the pure springs of chivalry may be a little muddy in the Hawick area, but that's no proper excuse for calling his father an unprincipled old rogue and every other peer in Scotland a traitorous scoundrel."

As you can perhaps tell from Will's mother's speech above, the book's female characters are also excellent: intelligent, active, strong-willed, sensible, and perfectly willing to go behind their menfolk's backs if that's the most efficient route to the most sensible solution. (Mary Queen of Scots has a cameo as an inquisitive four-year-old to whom Lymond teaches a naughty riddle!)

The interweaving of the adventures of the Master of Culter as he tries to clear his name with the Byzantine twists and turns of Scottish, English and French politics makes for a swashbuckling story complete with duels, spies, pitched battles, cattle raids, explosions, murders, archery contests, mysterious lovers, and more. There's at least one death that will make you cry and the conclusion -- which is in doubt up until about the last ten pages -- will make you cheer.

And yay, there are five more!!

The subtitle is "unfortunate situations, flawed coping mechanisms, mayhem, and other things that happened" and yup, they're all here.

I've been a regular visitor to Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half blog for several years and many a visit has ended with me in tears and unable to speak for laughing so hard, so I was delighted to hear she was publishing a book. I was not disappointed :)

About half of the stories had been previously published on her blog, the other half are new for this book. "Depression" parts one and two, where Brosh recounts her struggle with depression, introduces a more serious note than, say, "The God of Cake" but manages to be both funny and poignant, particularly in its blunt illustration of why well-meaning friends and family are so often utterly unhelpful in the case of true depression.

As always, Brosh's artwork (done in Paint, which if you've worked with it you will know the crudeness of the medium!) is primitive but energetic and engaging, at time truly hilarious -- much livelier and more original than the vast majority of graphic novel/comic artwork which all looks very much the same. Nobody would mistake Brosh's alien-looking self-portrait, with its bug eyes, tentacular arms, pink dress, and blonde horns of hair for anyone else's work, ever, likewise her dogs with their tilted heads and mildly panicked gazes.

The stories that accompany the illustrations are endearing, funny, self-mocking, and most of all very human -- her foibles, flaws and difficulties are easy to identify with. Unfortunately I recognized a lot of myself in "This is Why I'll Never Be an Adult"!

Eerie, atmospheric, almost Victorian, Aickman's stories are all about hints and omens, tension and suspense. Very few of the mysteries in these stories are solved; instead one is left with an uneasy sense that there are some Very Nasty Things out there. Just around the corner or down the alley. In the dark.

I think my favorite was "The View," in which a man recovering from some unspecified illness goes on holiday, on his doctor's recommendation. On the boat over to the island that is his destination he meets a young woman who invites him to stay with her in her huge estate; he accepts and, although initially installed in a guest room, they are soon sleeping together. However, the ony fly in the ointment is that the view from his window keeps...changing. Between one day and the next things appear and disappear, or move from on place to another...

This collection also includes a classic "living dead" story ("Ringing the Changes"); a ghost story ("The Houses of the Russians"); one, or possibly two, "monster children" stories; the title story, an unnerving tale of a painter, an old woman and her daughter; and several more.

Aickman's stories share with those of H.P. Lovecraft a delicate balance between too much information and not enough -- too much and you get gore/splatter with nothing left to the imagination, too little and you get ho-hum, a story that doesn't compel or intrigue. There is a difference between horror and terror; Aickman is a master of the latter. He takes you by the hand and leads you to the very doorstep of seeing what's lurking out there in the dark...and then turns out the light.

(Bonus: The dust jacket is illustrated by Edward Gorey!)

This was a beauty of a book, a mix of myth, fairy tale, love story, and cautionary tale. The kitsune, the fox-woman, is a well-known figure in Japanese folklore and myth; here, Johnson places the story of a fox who wishes to become a woman against that of a young couple whose marriage is faltering under the weight of artifice and constraint. Above, in the house, Yoshifuji and his wife Shikujo communicate by writing each other haikus open to multiple interpretations, neither knowing what the other wants or thinks; beneath the floor Kitsune, the young fox, comes into season and mates with her brother because, well, that's what animals do. Kitsune wants (or thinks she wants) the trappings of humanity: to learn to read, to write, to understand art, to wear beautiful clothes and speak from behind a screen. Yoshifuji watches the foxes from his window and wishes he had their freedom.

Telling the story in diary form allows you to see through the eyes of each of the three main characters in turn, which gives the story both the immediacy of first person and the complexity of a multiple POVs.

Of all of them, though, I felt sorriest for Kitsune's mother and brother, dragged into this transformation mostly against their will; if I had one complaint about the book it's that Johnson doesn't offer a compelling explanation for why they have to pay the price for Kitsune's obsession with Yoshifuji.

Although the ending is left open, leaving me uncertain as to what if anything Yoshifuji or Kitsune learned from their experience (are they wiser? or more determined?), this was a real pleasure to read. Johnson is an artistic writer with a gift for description, evoking seasons, settings and the life and attitudes of Old Japan with a light touch and a painterly eye for detail.

...for me to contribute my mite to the Influential Books Post Meme, following in the able footsteps of kellychambliss and perverseidyll among others, you might enjoy this discussion of 10 Reasons Why Le Guin's Earthsea Books Can Still Change Your Life. Some of the comments are interesting, as people go into detail about what the books meant to them.

Spoiler alert: yeah, Le Guin will be on my list :)