palace of winds

I picked up The Fox Woman, by Kij Johnson last month at Magers & Quinn, which is probably my favorite used book store in the Twin Cities. It is packed full of wonderful, but I don’t feel like I’m about to be swallowed alive by towers of books. Not that I don’t love the shops were there are books crammed and stacked in every available nook, but I get overwhelmed trying to look at them all, and after a while I glaze over and just wander around running my fingers over all the spines and making sure the books are lined up flush on the shelves. (I also fold messy shirts in clothing stores. I can’t help it.)

Anyway! The Fox Woman was wonderful. It’s the story of a fox who falls in love with a man, and turns herself into a woman to seduce him. Sort of. (I’ve read it’s based on a Japanese fairytale; note to self: look up original fairytale.) It’s a beautiful book, about self and poetry and illusion, and Johnson creates complex characters; I found myself rooting for and against them all at different points. Thumbs up. (Paws up? I never know how to end these reviews.)

I also read a romance novel, which turned out to be mostly a treatise on the food, clothing, and customs of early 16th century England. It wasn’t bad, exactly, just not what I expect out of my romance novels. (I also found it difficult to get over the main character becoming a wife “in every sense of the word” at age 12.) It was, at least, quick and relatively entertaining.

2010 Book Count: 11 (+4 fluff)
January: 2 (+3 fluff)
February: 4
March: 3
April: 2 (+1)