Book Log 27/2009: Kitty Goes to Washington

Carrie Vaughan: Kitty Goes to Washington – Kitty #2

Radio presenter Kitty Norville, outed publicly as a werewolf in ‘Kitty and the Midnight Hour’, is called to Washington to testify before a Senate Committee on werewolves and other supernatural beings. To her dismay she finds that the committee is chaired by antagonistic, right-wing, ultra Christian Senator Duke who is trying to start a witch-hunt. She's already crossed paths with him before and he’s dangerous. She soon realises he's determined to make sure that she won't be called to testify until the full moon (her time of the month and then some) in the hope that her control will slip and that she'll confirm his assertions that werewolves (etc.) are dangerous and need to be controlled.

With her lawyer, Ben, in tow and Cormac the bounty hunter making a welcome reappearance Kitty makes new friends and enemies in the capital, including the vampire queen Alette and her mate Leo, a sexy Brazillian were-jaguar, Luis, a psychic called Jeffrey and Stockton, a pushy reporter who’s out for the main chance. Cult leader Elijah Smith reappears, invulnerable except to groceries; and then there’s Flemming, a scientist who will go to any lengths to make sure the funding isn’t cut for his paranormal biology study. Suddenly Kitty finds that the anonymity of radio is about to give way to being a recognisable TV face.

The problems I had with the dangling plot threads in ‘Kitty and the Midnight Hour’ are not so obvious here – or maybe I’m now in the mindset of reading this as an ongoing soap-opera with ongoing characters and multi-book story arcs. Both the Elijah Smith and the Flemming threads started in the previous book, but were left dangling inconclusively. In this book, however, they’re both wrapped up – which helps the overall satisfaction levels enormously. On the whole I’m liking Kitty and very happy to read on.

Book Log 27/2009: Kitty Goes to Washington

Carrie Vaughan: Kitty Goes to Washington – Kitty #2

Radio presenter Kitty Norville, outed publicly as a werewolf in ‘Kitty and the Midnight Hour’, is called to Washington to testify before a Senate Committee on werewolves and other supernatural beings. To her dismay she finds that the committee is chaired by antagonistic, right-wing, ultra Christian Senator Duke who is trying to start a witch-hunt. She's already crossed paths with him before and he’s dangerous. She soon realises he's determined to make sure that she won't be called to testify until the full moon (her time of the month and then some) in the hope that her control will slip and that she'll confirm his assertions that werewolves (etc.) are dangerous and need to be controlled.

With her lawyer, Ben, in tow and Cormac the bounty hunter making a welcome reappearance Kitty makes new friends and enemies in the capital, including the vampire queen Alette and her mate Leo, a sexy Brazillian were-jaguar, Luis, a psychic called Jeffrey and Stockton, a pushy reporter who’s out for the main chance. Cult leader Elijah Smith reappears, invulnerable except to groceries; and then there’s Flemming, a scientist who will go to any lengths to make sure the funding isn’t cut for his paranormal biology study. Suddenly Kitty finds that the anonymity of radio is about to give way to being a recognisable TV face.

The problems I had with the dangling plot threads in ‘Kitty and the Midnight Hour’ are not so obvious here – or maybe I’m now in the mindset of reading this as an ongoing soap-opera with ongoing characters and multi-book story arcs. Both the Elijah Smith and the Flemming threads started in the previous book, but were left dangling inconclusively. In this book, however, they’re both wrapped up – which helps the overall satisfaction levels enormously. On the whole I’m liking Kitty and very happy to read on.

Too Much of a Good Thing - or - Why I'm Running Away from the likes of Robert Jordan

I have the first Jordan book waiting for me because I figure I should at least read one to see what it's like, but somehow it never seems to reach the top of the pile. I've just started Karen Chance's 'Touch the Dark' and my to-read pile includes: 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell', Kari Sperring's 'Living with Ghosts', Liz Williams' 'Winterstrike' and Ken Follett's 'World Without End'.

I've got a wish list, too, maybe thirty books long. Truth to tell, though, I also have a lot of unread books on my bookshelves - my guilt list. Am I alone in this?

I am guilty of buying more books that I have been able to read over the last decade, therefore accumulating plenty of unread books. Some are a special case, for instance I still have some unread Andre Norton's, but I'm not rushing to read them because I know there's a finite number left and I'd like to have some to look forward to. Daft, I know... A bit like leaving the best bit of food on your plate until last.

But some of the other unread books remain unread because... well... I just can't seem to face them. Specifically I have some trilogies and series where I bought the whole lot in a fit of enthusiasm only to somehow find I can't bring myself to read beyond a certain point - often the end of the first volume (but not always). In some cases I actually enjoyed the first book, too. (It's not as if I bounced off it or anything.)

Now, with Amazon, the Amazon marketplace and Abe Books I'm not generally worried about books being hard to find, so I never buy more than the first book in a series until I'm ready to read subsequent ones. A decade ago there was no guarantee that I'd be able to complete series that was only available in the USA, so sometimes, while on my travels to the US and Canada where I found books on the shelves of fantastic specialist bookstores like Bakka in Toronto I took advanyage and bought whole series that I knew I'd never be able to buy at home in the UK.

After reading the first -  I've got all of the Maggie Furey 'Artifacts of Power' series but despite enjoying 'Aurian' I haven't been able to quite get round to starting the next. Julian May's Saga of the Exiles similarly. Kate Elliot's Crown of Stars remains stubbornly stalled after volume four despite having the fifth book ready and waiting, though to be honest what pissed me off about that was that I was looking forward to the fifth book thinking it would be the final one and would wrap up the story - and then I realised that there was at least one more after that and my heart fell. For some reason I've not been able to start the final Jaran book of hers either, despite loving the others.

It's like a bad case of mental indigestion... Or maybe aversion therapy. I once went strawberry picking when I was a teen and I loved strawberries so much that it was one for the bucket, two for me; one for the bucket,
two for me, until I was so sickened of strawberries that for the last thirty years I've been very ambivalent about them. I think the same sometimes happens with books. It's no reflection on the quality of the writing - more on the psychology of the reader-writer interface.

Too Much of a Good Thing - or - Why I'm Running Away from the likes of Robert Jordan

I have the first Jordan book waiting for me because I figure I should at least read one to see what it's like, but somehow it never seems to reach the top of the pile. I've just started Karen Chance's 'Touch the Dark' and my to-read pile includes: 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell', Kari Sperring's 'Living with Ghosts', Liz Williams' 'Winterstrike' and Ken Follett's 'World Without End'.

I've got a wish list, too, maybe thirty books long. Truth to tell, though, I also have a lot of unread books on my bookshelves - my guilt list. Am I alone in this?

I am guilty of buying more books that I have been able to read over the last decade, therefore accumulating plenty of unread books. Some are a special case, for instance I still have some unread Andre Norton's, but I'm not rushing to read them because I know there's a finite number left and I'd like to have some to look forward to. Daft, I know... A bit like leaving the best bit of food on your plate until last.

But some of the other unread books remain unread because... well... I just can't seem to face them. Specifically I have some trilogies and series where I bought the whole lot in a fit of enthusiasm only to somehow find I can't bring myself to read beyond a certain point - often the end of the first volume (but not always). In some cases I actually enjoyed the first book, too. (It's not as if I bounced off it or anything.)

Now, with Amazon, the Amazon marketplace and Abe Books I'm not generally worried about books being hard to find, so I never buy more than the first book in a series until I'm ready to read subsequent ones. A decade ago there was no guarantee that I'd be able to complete series that was only available in the USA, so sometimes, while on my travels to the US and Canada where I found books on the shelves of fantastic specialist bookstores like Bakka in Toronto I took advanyage and bought whole series that I knew I'd never be able to buy at home in the UK.

After reading the first -  I've got all of the Maggie Furey 'Artifacts of Power' series but despite enjoying 'Aurian' I haven't been able to quite get round to starting the next. Julian May's Saga of the Exiles similarly. Kate Elliot's Crown of Stars remains stubbornly stalled after volume four despite having the fifth book ready and waiting, though to be honest what pissed me off about that was that I was looking forward to the fifth book thinking it would be the final one and would wrap up the story - and then I realised that there was at least one more after that and my heart fell. For some reason I've not been able to start the final Jaran book of hers either, despite loving the others.

It's like a bad case of mental indigestion... Or maybe aversion therapy. I once went strawberry picking when I was a teen and I loved strawberries so much that it was one for the bucket, two for me; one for the bucket,
two for me, until I was so sickened of strawberries that for the last thirty years I've been very ambivalent about them. I think the same sometimes happens with books. It's no reflection on the quality of the writing - more on the psychology of the reader-writer interface.