Bending the Landscape: FantasyA collection of short stories, all fantasy, all with queer characters or themes. Some of these were good, some were a little boring. A couple of them were interesting enough that I wanted them to keep going, which is of course the problem that I have with short fiction. And the definition of what defined 'fantasy' seemed pretty loose.
Emma Donoghue Stir-fryWhat a wonderful surprise. The write-up to this book didn't sound particularly exciting, and I wouldn't have picked it up if I hadn't read, and loved, other books by this author. But I totally fell for the book, and particularly the characters. There's not a huge amount of plot -- first year university student Maria leaves her small town and moves in with Jael and Ruth, two women in their 20's who are lovers, although Maria doesn't realize this at first. The joy in the story is Maria's relationship with the two women, both before and after she learns the truth. I loved the way the various relationships were written. In fact, I really wanted to be there - not neccessarily one of these women, but someone else there in that same circle.
Simon Winchester The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English DictionaryMy biggest regret about university is that I never took any linguistics courses (I wanted to, but the first year course conflicted with orchestra, so I never could). This was such a fascinating book, and it has totally rekindled my fascination with words. I could barely put the book down, I was enjoying it so much.
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