Book: Humans and Demons and Elves

Just finished: Humans and Demons and Elves by Donaya Haymond.

My roommate introduced me to the term “urban fantasy” for books about mythical creatures in moderns society. It was her favorite genre for a long time, but just recently she was bemoaning the fact that “urban fantasy” has come to mean nothing but human women having lots of sex with hot vampire dudes.

This isn’t that. It is mostly about relationships, though - between, as the title suggests, humans and demons and elves. The focus is on negotiating interracial relationships between friends, neighbors, and romantic interests. No vampire sex, I promise.

Elves and Demons are popping up in the town of Laconia, home to a secret institution for helping non-humans integrate into human society. Each newcomer brings his or her emotional baggage, and they have to deal with both humans who can’t accept them and humans who think magic creatures are OMGAWESOME!

For my taste, the relationships are too cute, but then I’m not the target audience. This is a Young Adult novel, and I don’t think a young teen or pre-teen would find it too cute.

Book updates

Kitty's Big Trouble

This is the latest book I finished. It's #9 in the Kitty Norville, or "Kitty the Werewolf" series. I think it's the best one so far. I really liked the new characters.



7 Days in the Art World

This is the book I'm reading now. It's really excellent so far. It's an ethnography of the art world, although it's not like real academic anthropology; it's much more light reading.




Lord of the Dead

This is the last book I read before the Kitty one. Honestly, I didn't like it except for the Byron/Shelley almost-slash. I found it to be slow.

Product Placement.

I put a new section in my Amazon store of all my favorite personal products and health/beauty books.

Because I know everyone secretly wants to look like me. :D Okay, no, but I do get a ton of compliments on my hair!

The anti book rec

I rarely give up on a book. Today I gave up on this one:



I got to page 97. I'm a fan of Mark Twain, but this whole thing was just bitter and depressing. Also, most of the pieces feel like he gave up on them himself.

Books I haven't read

Some one was talking about trying to explain evolution to a 4-year-old, so I went on a book hunt. I haven't read any of these, they just look good. I chose them according visual appeal.

How I spent the Rapture

The weirdest thing about May 21st is that the local religion TV station was off the air when I got up. At noon it came back, but it was no longer the religion station. Still isn't. No idea what happened.

That night I went to The Blasphemer's Ball at Hell's Kitchen. We saw...

Oceancats - Drum and bass duo. I really liked them. The woman plays bass and sings lead, the man plays drums and sings backup. I thought the bass was really good.

Robots from the Future - I was not impressed.

Le Cirque Rouge - My first burlesque show ever, so I don't know how to judge it, but the singing was really good and the 4-piece band was tight.

And now, continuing my book recs of fantasy books for 11-year-olds...



Classics. Do I even need to say anything about it? Well, probably not. But since that widget is putting them in random order...

1. A Wizard of Earthsea - Our Hero, Sparrowhawk, is a young goatherd, learning magic and having his first adventures.
2. The Tombs of Atuan - Sparrowhawk is an adult wizard on a mission. We don't actually know what it is because the book is from someone else's POV.
3. The Farthest Shore - Sparrowhawk has become the Archmage. Magic is leaving Earthsea and he has to restore it.

Not sure I'd recommend the fourth one, Tehanu, for an 11-year-old. Maybe 13+. Also, no one likes it as much as the others, including me. Not that it's bad, but it's a let-down after how good the first three were.

Diane Duane's "Young Wizards" books

Because someone asked for recs of fantasy books for an 11-year-old.

There are a lot of things I like about Diane Duane's "Young Wizards" series, and I think I would have loved them when I was a kid. As an adult, the inconsistencies sort of drove me nuts.

Two kids, I think they are 13 and 11 at the beginning, become wizards. They have to save the world a lot. There are alien cultures and monsters and alternate universes and all the stuff I really like in sci-fi/fantasy. The kids also have good relationships with all the adults in their lives, so it's sort of the opposite of Harry Potter that way.

Here's the first one:

Summer reading linkorama!

New books in series I've been following. Really excited about all of these!

The Kitty Norville, or "Kitty the Werewolf" series. Fun summer reading! Kitty is a popular radio host and a werewolf.




The Benjamin January series. Historical mysteries. January is a free man of color in 19th century New Orleans. He's trained as a surgeon but can only get work as a musician.




Untitled vampire series, also historical mysteries by Barbara Hambly. Her Don Ysidro is my all-time favorite fictional vampire.