I'm amazed I'm actually interested in non-Japanese non-BL books...

Ack! Newest Temeraire book by Naomi Novik, Empire of Ivory, is out! But none of the local bookstores apparently carries it. ;_;

I also browsed around and found some interesting fantasy books. Will have to check them out at the bookstore next time I go (I've been trying to avoid buying books without personal recs or a chance to flip though the book first).

Has anyone read Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley? Sounds like an interesting take on the child-meets-dragon story, but a bunch of the reviews complained about the first person narrative, that it detracted from the enjoyment of the story.

Inda by Sherwood Smith sounds like a pretty good conventional fantasy book done well. I like that she gets praise for both world-building and sympathetic characters. And there are apparently pirates!

The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue is about the story of a child kidnapped by hobgoblins and the changeling that takes his place in the human world in mid-20th century America. Apparently it's been pretty hyped up, and as usual with a hyped book there are the detractors and the admirers...

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss has lots and lots of reviews praising it, but none that really give me a sense of what the book is like...well, at least the reviews I saw didn't.

there's decent and then there's why did they even waste the paper to print this crap?

I had to blather on about some books I read recently that made me appreciate even the not-very-good books I like a lot. First one's decent, the second is utter crap. Spoilers abound.

Deal by Minami Fuuko and illustrated by Sakaki Kumiko is hard for me to categorize. It's about abused uke being rescued by passing bodyguard seme and the two entering into a bizarre relationship. Seme also has a past filled with abuse, and because of that he's rather broken. He's not capable of having deep relationships with anyone. According to seme's boss (owner of the bodyguard company), seme probably has never known love. He's never been loved, never loved, doesn't know crap about it. The seme is, frankly, pretty damn interesting. The author manages to make it really feel like he just doesn't understand what he wants, what he's feeling towards the uke. There's a cliched forced sex scene that actually works, because the build-up of the seme's confusion combined with the seme's personality makes the explosion inevitable. The weakness of this story lies in the uke. He's so bland it's mind-boggling, but besides that he's one of those infinitely faithful and patient types. You know, the ones that just can't react like normal people to things. They are so saintly, it's revolting. I can see that it'd take an uke like that to be able to reasonably cope with the seme, but when one half of the equation isn't particularly interesting it's hard to really get into the story....Though I wonder if I would've gotten into it anyways, because there's an odd distant quality in the writing that made me feel like they were in a TV set or something---separate and contained. I like to be immersed in the story and the characters...

There was one amusing (if completely predictable) incident. Seme was sent on a three month bodyguard job in Italy. About two months in, his boss sent uke (who was working at his assistant) to deliver something. Uke hands envelope to seme, who looks at it then sends uke to his room. Two days of sex ensue, upon which uke leaves. Seme had signed the paper and given it back to the uke. At the end of the book, we learn that the paper actually only said "Supply." The other bodyguards had complained that seme was all tense and scary and the boss had divined that the seme was not taking the long separation with uke well...

Another plus for this book is the art--it's quite nice. The uke is waay too doe-eyed and feminine for my tastes, but the seme's sharp gaze as well as overall looks were *very* appealing. ^__^

Kanjou no kizuato by Kuibira Harumo and illustrated by Hiiro Reiichi is a totally worthless book. Geez, I can't believe I read as far as I did, it was just full of wallowing in retarded angst and self-inflicted pain. Oh, and beyond unrealistic even for BL standards. Uke is a poor orphan boy shuffled around from relative to relative until he ends up at seme's house. Seme becomes the older stepbrother who treats him nicely, until they become lovers. Seme's father finds out about the two and gets the uke to realize that it's for the seme's best if the uke broke up with him. Another guy offers to take care of uke since uke is still underage, turns out other guy (henceforth known as OG) has designs on uke. But he's willing to wait for the uke to accept him...and FIFTEEN YEARS pass. Uke is a doctor at OG's family's hospital and still living with OG not having had any physical anything with him (OG claims he's "patient" and "understanding"--I can only think of him as impotent because it's just too lame for words). Uke and OG are called to seme's father's house after seme's father collapsed or something, turns out seme just doesn't seem to be interested in marriage and seme's father wants to show off uke and OG the lovey-dovey couple to seme so that he can give up on uke and move on. In any case, uke had dumped seme by claiming that he only slept with seme because he wanted someone to protect him after a lifetime of uncertainty, and seme was just a kid and since OG, an adult, turned up he was dumping seme and moving on to better things. Uke and seme meet for the first time in fifteen years at seme's father's house, they have words and I think they end up having sex. Uke continues to act like the calculating bitch, all the while doing the angsty whining that always comes with these lame-ass "sacrifices" that always seem to hurt the person they are "sacrificing" for than help. Seme, a laywer, gets involved in a case having to do with OG and inevitably uses uke's supposed attachment to OG to get some sex. Seme will make things go well for OG if uke dishes out his hot if conniving body. They have lots of sex that totally provides more angst and confusion for the two, until the case is over. Then uke gives the seme a potted plant as a thanks and goodbye and they have one last round of sex...which I think was caught by the seme's father (at this point I had stopped reading the book very well). Seme's father possibly collapses and gets taken to the hospital, and uke decides to go to America for more training. At the airport seme arrives to sweep uke off his feet, having gone to OG and asked for the time of uke's departure because he wanted to make uke happy. I guess OG either didn't really care for uke that way or is one of those guys who just wants to see the one they love happy (I...can't care enough to find out) because he tells him. Seme says he researched the meaning of the potted plant uke gave him and realized that uke must love him! So he had words with his father and convinced his father of his feelings...And...they live happily ever after? I have no damn clue, I stopped even skimming at the point of the potted plant thing. OMG how lame can a story get? As much as I wanted to smack the uke on general "stop being stupid!" principles, I wanted to smack the seme even more for caring so much even though the uke appeared to be a shallow exploitive slut...The sad thing is I tend to like this author, no matter how sappy she gets. But this one...just killed me. The art isn't even that nice, either. The characters look just as sappy as they come across in the book. BLEAH.