I started knitting the edging onto my shawl tonight. I just barely finished the one, squared-off corner-edge . . . there’s still about 87% to go . . . it could take a while!

Knitting, spinning, working, and playing with Chappy aren’t the only things I do. My first recreational love will always be reading, and here’s my list of the books I read in February–34 books, a total of 9,897 pages. A lot of sci-fi this month, too…

1. YEAR OF THE LUCY by Anne McCaffrey (311 pages). Set in the fifties (?), Mirelle is a mother of three who is also a sculptress, trying to find time for her art in amidst a series of crises.
2. SCARLET PIMPERNEL by Baroness de Orczy (248 p). Swords and secret identities and the French Revolution. Rather too breathlessly excited about the events it describes, it was fun to read. And, I had no idea there were sequels!
3. NINE PRINCES OF AMBER
4. GUNS OF AVALON
5. SIGN OF THE UNICORN
6. HAND OF OBERON
7. COURTS OF CHAOS by Roger Zelazny (771 p). The “original” Amber series—sci-fi with a medieval/fantasy flavored twist. A powerful ruling family who can travel the “shadows” between worlds—including our own. It starts when Corwin wakens in a hospital with amnesia . . .
8. TRUMPS OF DOOM
9. BLOOD OF AMBER
10. SIGN OF CHAOS
11. KNIGHT OF SHADOWS
12. PRINCE OF CHAOS by Roger Zelazny (1025 p). The “second” Amber series, with Merlin, son of Corwin, as the main character this time, wondering if anyone is going to try to kill him this year—the same day, every year . . .
13. SIMPLE SOCKS PLAIN AND FANCY by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts (108 p). A great and very simple sock book. Not filled with snazzy, high-fashion patterns; just with a good dose of common sense.
14. SWORD OF WINTER by Marta Randall (240 p.). A fantasy book I’ve had in my library for almost 20 years, but which has been hiding in the back of the closet. A search for an heir, in the middle of winter. Decent book if not great.
15. PRINCESS OF FLAMES by Ru Emerson (326 p). Another old fantasy book in my collection. Elfrid is a bastard daughter of the King, with a penchant for swords, banished when her half-brother stages a coup . . .
16. BOOK OF JOE by Jonathan Trooper (338 p). This book had such a great premise—a man, expecting never to go back to his hometown, writes a best-selling tell-all book under the guise of a novel . . . Then, his father gets sick and he has to go home and face all the bitter, angry, outraged people he offended. It would have been good except for the language and obsession with sex of the Joe—made it completely unpalatable to me.
17. DRAGON’S BLOOD by Todd McCaffrey (438 p). The first Pern novel written entirely by Anne McCaffrey’s son. Luckily, it was much better than their joint effort (Dragon’s Kin) which I thought was just dismal. It wasn’t as good as A.M.in her prime, but still, a decent extension of one of my favorite sci-fi universes.
18. METAL ANGEL by Nancy Springer (316 p). Another book with too much obsession with sex, but at least this had an excuse—Volos is a fallen angel . . . literally . . . cast down on Earth (with wings), he becomes a rock star with an unearthly appeal.
19. CHASING HEPBURN by Gus Lee (532 p). Really good book. It tells the true story of the author’s parents, growing up in China in the early 20^th century, emigrating to the U.S. after WWII in the pursuit of the American Dream and Katherine Hepburn. Nicely written, beautifully imaged—I learned a lot about Chinese culture I hadn’t known before and thoroughly enjoyed it.
20. SKIES OF PERN by Anne McCaffrey (427 p). It seemed a shame to just read one Pern book, so . . . I pulled this one off the shelf, too. The last one written solely by the original author, not one of the best, but it’s a stand-alone and I didn’t want to get swept into the story of F’lar, Lessa, Jaxom and the others, any more than I had to!
21. CREATING ORIGINAL HAND-KNITTED LACE by Margaret Stove (178 p). A thorough, technical approach on how to design your own lace pattern. It would probably have been more helpful if I’d actually knitted the sample swatches in each chapter, but since that would have been hard to do while reading in bed . . . glad I read it, even if I didn’t bring as much away as I could have (my own fault).
22. AGE OF HOMESPUN by Laurel Thacher Ulrich (418 p). An interesting approach for a history book—instead of simply talking about life in Colonial America, the author starts with specific items—a sampler, an indian basket, a spinning wheel—all items in museums. She traces not only their original owners, but examines their uses—whether practical or cultural—and how society affected their creation, what history was doing at the time . . . all of that. (I couldn’t help but chuckle sometimes when she’d refer to things like Niddy-Noddies in the past tense. “These were used to . . .” Darn it, I HAVE one of those!)
23. POWER OF ONE by Bryce Courteney (513 p). Recommended by one of the women reading my blog—a South African story about a young boy, Peekay, who is determined to grow up to be the Welterweight champion of the world, and on the way, learns to play classical piano, becomes a student of botany, learns boxing while visiting the Professor in prison . . . very, very good book. I’ve since learned that there is a movie based on it. . . . hmmm!
24. JOURNEY
25. DANGEROUS GAMES by Marta Randall (781 p). A pair of sci-fi books about a family who bring 200 refugees home to their planet (yes, a whole planet owned by one small family). I liked the first one better than the second, and basically, think they were just about average—not horrible, not wonderful—just sort of in the middle.
26. CONFLICT OF HONORS
27. AGENT OF CHANGE
28. CARPE DIEM
29. PLAN B
30. I DARE by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (1642 p). A series of 5 Liaden books—after the not-so-wonderful space-opera-ish pair by Marta Randall, I wanted to read GOOD space opera kind of books, and there are none better than the Liaden series. They’re just . . . fun!
31. AMERICAN JEZEBEL by Eve LaPlante (370 p). Biography of Anne Hutchinson, exiled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy, helped settle Rhode Island and establish its policy for freedom of religion and ended up being scalped by indians on Long Island . . . now that part, I didn’t know! (Explains part of why the Hutchinson River Parkway got its name, though—I never knew.)
32. DECISION ON DOONA
33. CRISIS ON DOONA
34. TREATY AT DOONA by Anne McCaffrey and Jody Lynn Nye (915 p). After reading the Liaden books, I was thinking that the Clutch Turtles reminded me vaguely of the Gringg/Bears that appear in the third book of this mostly-just-okay trilogy, so . . . I couldn’t skip to the last one, so read all three. Sci-fi, again, that starts with a colony (of 11 men, all on their own! A whole year before the women-folk and children arrived . . . but 11 families to start a colony for an entire planet? That’s just genetically irresponsible! Sorry . . . where was I?) Oh yes, a small human colony finds, to its shock and surprise, that there is a village of cat-like creatures just over the river . . . while waiting instructions from the official agencies back home, they make friends . . . but are the simple Hrubbans as simple as they appear?

• Tags: Monthly Reading List, Reading • Permalink:Never forget about the Reading //