Book List 2011

Book List 2011

1) For Crying Out Loud: The World According to Clarkson Vol 3 (Jeremy Clarkson), p. 328.
2) And Another Thing: The World According to Clarkson Vol 2 (Jeremy Clarkson), p. 340.
3) Bravo Jubilee (Charlie Owen), p. 432.
4) The Lacuna (Barbara KIngsolver), p.670.
5) The Fourth Bear (Jasper Fforde), p. 383.
6) Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons), p. 233.
7) The English (Jeremy Paxman), p. 266.
8) Long Way Down: John O'Groats to Cape Town (Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman), p. 328.
9) By Any Means (Charley Boorman), p.330.
10) Car Fever (James May), p. 288.
11) The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester), p. 258.
12) War Reporting for Cowards (Chris Ayres), p. 289.
13) Affluenza (Oliver James), p. 510.
14) Vicious Circle (Mike Carey), p. 501.
15) Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel), p. 650.
16) The Edible Woman (Margaret Atwood), p. 281.
17) Coraline (Neil Gaiman), p. 185.
18) Madame de Pompadour: Mistress of France (Chriistine Pevitt Algrant), p. 302.
19) Long Way Round (Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman), p. 357.
20) Embassytown (China Mieville), p. 405.
21) A Mercy (Toni Morrison), p. 165.
22) As You Do (Richard Hammond), p. 304.
23) The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British (Sarah Lyall), p. 261.
24) Ark (Stephen Baxter), p. 455.
25) On Cars (Jeremy Clarkson), p. 242.
26) Excession (Iain M. Banks), p. 455.
27) Motorworld (Jeremy Clarkson), p. 197.
28) The Well of Lost Plots (Jasper Fforde), p. 360.
29) Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis (Jeremy Leggett), p. 281.
30) Child 44 (Tom Rob Smith), p. 470.
31) Inverted World (Christopher Priest), p. 303.
32) Miss Pettigre Lives for a Day (Winifred Watson), p. 234.
33) Against a Dark Background (Iain M. Banks), p. 487.
34) Generation Kill (Evan Wright), p. 462.
35) Victoria's Empire (Victoria Wood, Fanny Blake & Franck Walsh), p. 276.
36) We Danced All Night: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars (Martin Pugh), p. 446.
37) The Girls' Car Handbook: Everything You Need to Know About Life on the Road (Maria McCarthy), p. 271.
38) Beyond Black (Hilary Mantel), p. 457.
39) Henry (David Starkey), p.370.
40) I know You Got Soul (Jeremy Clarkson), p. 233.
41) The Hippopotamus (Stephen Fry), p.400.
42) The Steel Remains (Richard Morgan), p.391.
43) Helen of Troy (Bettany Hughes), p.343.
44) Something Rotten (Jasper Fforde), p.393.
45) The Nightmwatchman's Occurrence Book (V.S. Naipaul), p.546.
46) The Island of the Day Before (Umberto Eco), p.513.
47) The Separation (Christopher Priest), p.374.
48) Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know (Ranulph Fiennes), p.358.
49) Mary Queen of Scots (Antonia Fraser), p.691.
50) Changing Planes (Ursula Le Guin), p.214.
51) White Boots (Noel Streatfeild), p.256.
52) Emergency Sex (and Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone (Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait & Andrew Thomson), p.304.

The Year in Fic

What with one thing and another, I haven't written much this year. What I wrote was almost entirely for challenges, exchanges and fundraisers, with the odd little thing thrown in on the side.

Anyway, first up, yuletide reveal:

A Lie Agreed Upon [Mad Men] for idlerat 
Betty's mom was the one who taught Betty how to do her hair.
This was my assignment, and my first attempt at Mad Men fic. I was quite uncertain about it all the way through, and I'm really grateful to kristin for kicking it into shape. I ended up writing about Betty almost by default, because I've been reading a lot about second-wave feminism recently, and thinking about perfect-things-that-aren't, Betty's homelife of course being one of those. This is set three months before the first episode, in January 1960.

pirate superheroes (explode things and steal stuff) [Nextwave] for jennova 
How to put together an elite fighting team. With bonus lobsters.
This was a pinch-hit I picked up, and then promptly flailed over. Because it turns out that all the ideas I had for this fandom involved visual mediums, rather than pure text. Many, many thanks to Ferret & Lan for betaing, and additional thanks to alasdair for providing a much-needed kick-start by telling me all about Gomi and his cybernetic lobsters. (No, srsly, Marvel, WTF?)

a vision softly creeping [Mad Men] for idlerat 
Midge and Don conduct a business transaction during Blowing Smoke (S4).
So, I completely panicked when writing my main assignment, certain that it just wasn't going to pan out. So I wrote this concurrently, in case A Lie Agreed Upon didn't work out. I'd just seen the episode, and kristin was a star in getting it to make sense.

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On to the rest of the year, in reverse order:

Partita [Sherlock] for slowascent 
Sometimes John forgot that Sherlock lived in a completely different world.
Written for help_pakistan after many false starts.

contract negotiations (always open with a 'no') [Pretty Woman]
After they rescue each other, the fairytale relocates to New York.
queenspanky and I went to see Pretty Woman. This resulted.

Cut Time [The Big Bang Theory]
Penny hobbled home.
A horrid, mean little fic that I couldn't get out of my head until I wrote it all down.

Roses in December [Alias]
Sometimes, when he is feeling particularly masochistic, Jack likes to pretend that Laura really existed.
I wrote this in about half an hour sitting in the reception area of the Sierra Light House hotel in Freetown, before setting off for a week of field visits.

The Gorgoneion (The Epyllionic Remix) [Greek and Roman Mythology] for trascendenza 
This is no heroic verse.
Yeah, epic poetry in iambic pentameter, it nearly killed me. Many thanks to athena25 for services above and beyond the call of beta-duty.

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