I meant to write
Jul. 3rd, 2007 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksI meant to blather a bit about the books I looked at in Borders the other day. I know, already wrote about the ones I brought home, but what about the ones I left behind?
First, The Vampire Queen's Servant by Joey Hill. I've got this one preordered, but when I saw a copy on the shelf I had to pick it up, just to skim the opening pages. If I hadn't already preordered (and been afraid of getting stuck with two copies), I'd've bought a copy on Saturday, because the opening of the book hooked me right in.
Marjorie Liu's Soul Song looks really interesting, too. Again, I really enjoyed the first five pages, but I could not buy a copy because I still have the last two books of her Dirk & Steele series TBR. Can't buy another book in the series until I've read them.
I must confess to skimming a couple of chapters of Evanovich's Lean Mean Thirteen, middle chapters, even. Such are the chronicles of Stephanie Plum that a reader doesn't even have to begin at the beginning of any given narrative in order to grasp what's going on. A reader over at Dear Author commented about all the things about Stephanie that are subversive, but I don't really care. This one probably won't even be a library book.
Catherine Asaro did a book signing at that particular bookstore Saturday morning, so they had a bunch of autographed Luna books on display, particularly The Fire Opal. They all seemed interesting and I keep meaning to try her Luna series, but I can't start any more series til I catch up on the ones I'm already reading.
Okay, Eleanor Herman, the author of Sex With Kings, followed that book up with Sex With the Queen. I remember skimming the first couple of chapters of SWK before returning it to the library; I liked the idea but didn't get around to reading it before it was due back. SWTQ caught my eye because it had one of those "Buy 2, Get 3rd Free" stickers -- what can I say? I'm always looking for a bargain. Anyway, I read the back blurb, then was distracted by the author's photo. Why? Because she's wearing a tiara, a choker and formal wear (based on the shoulder view of the photo). And her bio indicates that she was named for Eleanor of Aquitaine, her grandmother 28 times removed, and is related to most of the royal families of Europe. Since Eleanor had 10 children and her daughters married across the continent, it makes sense that anyone claiming to be descended from her would be connected to most of the royal families of Europe. And I've read that as much of 25% of England's population can claim to be descended from the Plantagenet family, which Eleanor founded with Henry II. Maybe Herman is descended from Eleanor of Aquitaine; maybe there are thousands or tens of thousands who can claim the same. Frankly, listing that information as part of the three sentence bio on the back of a book? Seems like puffery in order to sell books. But that's just me, and maybe I'm being cynical.
First, The Vampire Queen's Servant by Joey Hill. I've got this one preordered, but when I saw a copy on the shelf I had to pick it up, just to skim the opening pages. If I hadn't already preordered (and been afraid of getting stuck with two copies), I'd've bought a copy on Saturday, because the opening of the book hooked me right in.
Marjorie Liu's Soul Song looks really interesting, too. Again, I really enjoyed the first five pages, but I could not buy a copy because I still have the last two books of her Dirk & Steele series TBR. Can't buy another book in the series until I've read them.
I must confess to skimming a couple of chapters of Evanovich's Lean Mean Thirteen, middle chapters, even. Such are the chronicles of Stephanie Plum that a reader doesn't even have to begin at the beginning of any given narrative in order to grasp what's going on. A reader over at Dear Author commented about all the things about Stephanie that are subversive, but I don't really care. This one probably won't even be a library book.
Catherine Asaro did a book signing at that particular bookstore Saturday morning, so they had a bunch of autographed Luna books on display, particularly The Fire Opal. They all seemed interesting and I keep meaning to try her Luna series, but I can't start any more series til I catch up on the ones I'm already reading.
Okay, Eleanor Herman, the author of Sex With Kings, followed that book up with Sex With the Queen. I remember skimming the first couple of chapters of SWK before returning it to the library; I liked the idea but didn't get around to reading it before it was due back. SWTQ caught my eye because it had one of those "Buy 2, Get 3rd Free" stickers -- what can I say? I'm always looking for a bargain. Anyway, I read the back blurb, then was distracted by the author's photo. Why? Because she's wearing a tiara, a choker and formal wear (based on the shoulder view of the photo). And her bio indicates that she was named for Eleanor of Aquitaine, her grandmother 28 times removed, and is related to most of the royal families of Europe. Since Eleanor had 10 children and her daughters married across the continent, it makes sense that anyone claiming to be descended from her would be connected to most of the royal families of Europe. And I've read that as much of 25% of England's population can claim to be descended from the Plantagenet family, which Eleanor founded with Henry II. Maybe Herman is descended from Eleanor of Aquitaine; maybe there are thousands or tens of thousands who can claim the same. Frankly, listing that information as part of the three sentence bio on the back of a book? Seems like puffery in order to sell books. But that's just me, and maybe I'm being cynical.
