It’s About Making Babies!

Booking Through Thursday asks about favorite heroine:

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

It seems lately that many of my favorite books have had female leads. Sometime the lead character just happened to be female, others the fact that the lead is female is central to the story.

A favorite for many years now, is Pyanfar Chanur, of C. J. Cherryh’s “Pride of Chanur”. Of the Hani race, Pyanfar trades among the outworld species - she finds she has little taste for the petty gossip and infighting at home, and a knack for the trade.

Robin McKinley tells wonderful stories. Aerin, from “The Hero and the Crown” is classic fantasy story, and Beauty, from “Beauty” (a telling of Beauty and the Beast, McKinley style - wonderful) is both headstrong, dutiful, and very devoted.

Tamora Pierce makes a living writing wonderful young adult and young reader fantasy. Alanna, from her first quartet of novels, The Song of the Lioness, starting with “Alanna: The First Adventure”, and Keladry (’Kel’ to her friends) of the Protector of the Small quartet starting with “First Test” are sturdy, heroic warriors - in training. Aly - Alianne - of “Trickster’s Choice” and “Trickster’s Queen” is bright, cunning, resourceful - and daughter of a spy that wants to follow in her father’s footsteps in a world of sword and sorcery. Three of the four lead characters of Magic Circle and The Circle Opens quartets are girls, growing into their magic powers, mastering the world they live in, and overcoming their pasts - Sandry, Daja, and Tris are different people that learn to make a family with their fellow mage, Briar, to replace the families each has lost.

David Weber has written an immense body of space opera, following the career of Honor Harrington. From On Basilisk Station through In Enemy Hands, and on through a war between star nations, Honor, in some books happens to be female, in others, she is granted titles in a neighbor nation that is strictly patriarchal - and gender equality is central to the story on Grayson. But I think I like Helen better, from “Shadow of Saganami”, as a person.

Elizabeth Moon has impressed me with several story lines. I think the one I respect the most, was fantasy in the Tolkein sense, The Deed of Paksennarion trilogy started with “Sheep Farmers Daughter” and takes rustic Paksennarion from her family farm to a mercenary training camp, to wars-for hire and a call to serve her gods as a paladin. Wonderful to read and re-read. Esmay Suiza, daughter of a prominent planetary government, chose a space navy career in “Once A Hero” and the following novels.

Anne McCaffrey enchanted me with “The Ship Who Sang” - a tale of a mentally brilliant girl, born in a body incapable of sustaining life. The child is encased in a metal ’shell’ that provides contact and support, until she graduates and is installed at the ‘brain’ part of a scout ship, partnered with mobile ‘Brawn’ companion to perform such courier, investigation, and rescue assignments as come their way. One of Ms. McCaffrey’s longer running story lines centers on the colony planet Pern. “Nerilka’s Story” is a twist, a nearly historic romance set in a fantasy universe - and lovely to read and re-read.

More recently, Patricia Briggs wrote ‘Moon Called’ the first of her Mercy Thompsen stories. Mercedes Thompsen, auto mechanic, lives next door to the Alpha of the local werewolf pack, is friends with one of the friendlier vampires in the area, and works with the fae Zee Adlebertsmiter with a personal past longer than the middle ages. What I call a paranormal adventure, the story is great and Mercy is a good person; I feel I am better for having met her.

Mercedes Lackey as written a lot of books. The “Arrows of the Queen” introduces Talia, a girl wiser than her years growing up bereft of family and destined for awesome duties.

Mike Shepherd introduces Kris Longknife, a very competent and talented rich girl that wants to be taken seriously for herself. This space opera tale begins with “Kris Longknife: Mutineer”. I think my biggest criticism of this series is the author’s fascination with ‘boobie bombs’, introduced in “Kris Longknife: Deserter”. *sigh*

Kelley Armstrong wrote a loose collection of paranormal adventure. I think my favorite might be Paige from “Dime Store Magic” and “Industrial Magic”. I enjoyed all her paranormal fantasy novels. Her latest, though, is a mundane detective novel that I found disappointing, “Exit Strategy”.

Almost forgot - Ayla. From the series of Earth’s Children books by Jean Auel, the one that I like best, by far, is “Valley of Horses”. The others are OK, including the first, “Clan of the Cave Bear” that is way better than the movie with Darryl Hannah.

Wow. Procrastination sure seems to be a simple form of self-sustaining lifestyle .. This question was asked a WEEK AGO. Booking Through Thursday asked - Format:

All other things (like price and storage space) being equal, given a choice in a perfect world, would you rather have paperbacks in your library? Or hardcovers? And why?

I have to go with hard cover.

I have gotten to an age (past 30 .. ahem) that the (usually) larger print is more comfortable.

Also, the book is larger. The larger size blocks out a larger portion (a bit) of my view, making the story take a slightly larger portion of my view of the world - and a larger portion of my world view, while I am reading. I think it may be easier to immerse myself in the story, with a hard cover book.

I have a couple of books that I have both hard cover and paperback. Elizabeth Moon’s “Once a Hero“, Christopher Stasheff’s “A Company of Stars” are two. I have the following books in hard cover, in these story lines. I picked up the dual formats so I could read the hard cover at home - it just feels better - and the paperback at work. The paperback is easier to read while I am walking to and from my car, or after lunch. Then I just remember the page number where I left off, and sharing the story between two books is a snap!

Dust jacket protectors

Almost 20 years ago I ran into a private book seller, a Mr. Anderson, in Mountain View, CA. He had a plastic protector for all his hardcover books. Since then I have been using the Demco Polyfit covers on all my hardcover dust jackets. Some people confuse my books with library books, from the glossy clear protective appearance.

Polyfit covers come in several sizes - I use mostly the 9″ and 10″. They come in packs of 25 or 50 - Demco changed the minimum order around a couple of times, I don’t recall which is the minimum the last time. They come in a cardboard envelope that makes a great storage container, and a good surface for applying the cover. The Polyfit is a clear band wider than the height of the book with paper borders. To apply, I take the dust jacket off the (brand-spanking new or used) book. I lay the polyfit face down on the cardboard sleeve it came in, lift the paper borders on the back, and lay the dust jacket face down inside the polyfit. I slide the book dustjacket snugly up into the top crease of the polyfit all the way across, this can take a bit of smoothing, but I try not to flatten the creases of the book dust jacket more than I have to, to get the dust jacket snug all the way across the top. It doesn’t matter if the ends of the dust jacket are longer or shorter than the polyfit protector, just be sure to center them with each other. Then I pull the bottom paper boarder up, curling the bottom polyfit crease up over the bottom of the dust jacket, and smooth out the bottom polyfit crease with firm pressure with the back of my thumb nail. I imagine a spoon would also work to smoothly flatten the bottom polyfit crease. I then snug the bottom of the polyfit against the bottom of the dust jacket, taking care not to pull too much and curl the dust jacket, nor to leave any space below the bottom of the dust jacket. I double check that the polyfit now fits the dust jacket all the way from left to right on both bottom and top, and crease the polyfit in place with the back of my thumb or spoon, with firm pressure (one reason the full length cardboard sleeve the Polyfits came in makes a handy place to apply them).

Note that this whole process takes moments to do. Once you do one or two, it is easy to recall the steps to get a really sharp, really protective, attractive, water proof, wear resistant cover that protects the book as well as the dust jacket.

Next I lay the book, right side up with respect to the dust cover. I line up the spine of the book the center of the polyfit/dust cover, the original dust cover creases make this easy. Then I fold the end flaps of the dust cover/polyfit back around the book. Almost done. I life the cover of the book (doesn’t matter front or back cover), and gently semi-crease the dust cover/polyfit where the original dust cover crease was, and wrap the dust jacket/polyfit back around the book cover. Turn the book over. Next I repeat the end fitting crease on the opposite cover - but I crease it just a tad snuggly, to assure a snug fit to the book, without pulling the covers or stressing the book binding. Re-wrap the dust jacket/polyfit on this cover, too. Then I hold the book face up, and run my thumb (not thumbnail) down the binding depression next to the spine, and repeat on the back.

With a bit of practice the fit is snug, sturdy, and looks quite professional. And doesn’t need tape or glue or anything to keep the dust cover in place while reading - it is actually a bit easier to manage with the polyfit that before you protect the dust jacket.

Demco sells polyfit sheets in 8″, 9″, 9 1/2″, 10″, 12″, 14″, and 16″ sizes, 50 sheets to a box or boxes of 500 or 300′ rolls - their main business is library supplies, fixtures, and materials. Search for ‘polyfit’. Demco is a stable, long standing and reputable company I have been buying Poly-Fit covers from them since about 1987 - and none have yellowed or torn yet.