The Edible Garden - Alex Mitchell
I, for one, love the internet. The gardening internet is kind of a bramble, though, and it can be hard to guess what is an authoritative source and sometimes you end up reading something great that, at the end, you discover was written by someone living in the yearlong heat of Zone 7. I think one of the reasons my balcony garden in 2018 was kind of a flop was because I got so frustrated with internet balcony gardening advice that I just kind of applied my in-the-ground-gardening experience to a balcony. Enter this book, a magnificent Christmas present that was my first read of 2019. It's full of sticky notes and underlining now, because not only does it have a lot of practical advice - and how-tos, and full projects - but it also offers balcony-specific arguments for the centrality of urban agriculture to the sustainability of cities. As an urban agriculture practitioner, I'm familiar with (and often make) lots of arguments, but had never even considered the importance of specifically balcony gardens! A lovely book, a wonderful resource, and something I will be waving under people's noses for years to come.
I, for one, love the internet. The gardening internet is kind of a bramble, though, and it can be hard to guess what is an authoritative source and sometimes you end up reading something great that, at the end, you discover was written by someone living in the yearlong heat of Zone 7. I think one of the reasons my balcony garden in 2018 was kind of a flop was because I got so frustrated with internet balcony gardening advice that I just kind of applied my in-the-ground-gardening experience to a balcony. Enter this book, a magnificent Christmas present that was my first read of 2019. It's full of sticky notes and underlining now, because not only does it have a lot of practical advice - and how-tos, and full projects - but it also offers balcony-specific arguments for the centrality of urban agriculture to the sustainability of cities. As an urban agriculture practitioner, I'm familiar with (and often make) lots of arguments, but had never even considered the importance of specifically balcony gardens! A lovely book, a wonderful resource, and something I will be waving under people's noses for years to come.
The Black Tides of Heaven - J.Y. Yang
The worst thing about this novella is that it is a novella - I immediately wanted more, of everything. The best thing about this novella is that it is a novella - it allows for a simultaneous intimacy and distance, a really beautiful sense of not having, or needing, the whole picture. It is a work of magnificence, such a richly-built world (and one that evokes the Buddhist life-narration traditions that I have spent so many years reading and studying), such beautiful characters, such writing, austere and elegant and vibrantly visual. And a sense of thwarted inevitability at the end! For a story at least in part about fate, I loved that, even more than I ordinarily love inevitability. I have previously loved Yang's short stories, and am all afire to read more of their novellas (and, who knows, maybe even novels, one day? Please?).
The worst thing about this novella is that it is a novella - I immediately wanted more, of everything. The best thing about this novella is that it is a novella - it allows for a simultaneous intimacy and distance, a really beautiful sense of not having, or needing, the whole picture. It is a work of magnificence, such a richly-built world (and one that evokes the Buddhist life-narration traditions that I have spent so many years reading and studying), such beautiful characters, such writing, austere and elegant and vibrantly visual. And a sense of thwarted inevitability at the end! For a story at least in part about fate, I loved that, even more than I ordinarily love inevitability. I have previously loved Yang's short stories, and am all afire to read more of their novellas (and, who knows, maybe even novels, one day? Please?).
An Equal Music - Vikram Seth
I discussed my central problem with this novel with one of my best friends within a few hours of finishing it, and we agreed: it is neither interesting nor believable to tell stories about men who are obsessed with women to the point of harming them ("but I love you so much! How could you reject me? I'm going to accost you in front of your son's school when you go to pick him up" LITERALLY happens no less than three times in this book), and expect me to feel sorry for them. I don't feel sorry for Michael, and I am irritated with Seth for trying to use abstract and tormented language to force me into sympathy. The language might be beautiful, but like. Michael is so selfish, so self-absorbed, and the novel, despite being in the first-person, doesn't seem to be aware of the fact that he's just not a very good, likeable, or even remotely sympathetic person. The music talk, though, in this book, is so overwhelmingly good, so crystalline in its clarity, so unashamedly lush, that it made the read worthwhile, and even enjoyable. I want to go back in time, find Seth in his writing room, and say "scrap SO MUCH of this plot, and tell us more about the music."
I discussed my central problem with this novel with one of my best friends within a few hours of finishing it, and we agreed: it is neither interesting nor believable to tell stories about men who are obsessed with women to the point of harming them ("but I love you so much! How could you reject me? I'm going to accost you in front of your son's school when you go to pick him up" LITERALLY happens no less than three times in this book), and expect me to feel sorry for them. I don't feel sorry for Michael, and I am irritated with Seth for trying to use abstract and tormented language to force me into sympathy. The language might be beautiful, but like. Michael is so selfish, so self-absorbed, and the novel, despite being in the first-person, doesn't seem to be aware of the fact that he's just not a very good, likeable, or even remotely sympathetic person. The music talk, though, in this book, is so overwhelmingly good, so crystalline in its clarity, so unashamedly lush, that it made the read worthwhile, and even enjoyable. I want to go back in time, find Seth in his writing room, and say "scrap SO MUCH of this plot, and tell us more about the music."
Hawksmaid - Kathryn Lasky
I…don't think I have ever read a book with worse pacing. There are a multitude of sins here (half-assed character work, stilted dialogue, an incomprehensible set of narrative elements, an obviously poorly thought-out and overly simplistic plot, the bizarre and tortured application of metaphor-but-actually-literally-but-not-it's-metaphor, the unwillingness to commit to the supernatural element until far too late for it to be believable in-universe), but none of them would have been as bad without this horrible pacing. The book would have been mediocre, but as it is, it's just BAD. Who approved it for publication?!
I…don't think I have ever read a book with worse pacing. There are a multitude of sins here (half-assed character work, stilted dialogue, an incomprehensible set of narrative elements, an obviously poorly thought-out and overly simplistic plot, the bizarre and tortured application of metaphor-but-actually-literally-but-not-it's-metaphor, the unwillingness to commit to the supernatural element until far too late for it to be believable in-universe), but none of them would have been as bad without this horrible pacing. The book would have been mediocre, but as it is, it's just BAD. Who approved it for publication?!
The Winter of the Witch - Katherine Arden
I don't even know where to begin. I've been raving since I finished this book earlier today about the sheer brilliance of the structure of this trilogy, which is just…shockingly good. I care a lot about narrative structure and this not only ticks all my boxes, it ticks boxes I didn't even know existed. But beyond that, because many of you reading these don't actually care about structure, or at least not as much as I do - can I just say that I have only rarely found books that I felt compelled to re-read immediately? This book, like the two preceding it in the trilogy, is precisely that. It is mature, it is careful, it is dynamic and complex and so very, very human. It is full of folklore, and family (sibling feels! On so many levels!), and the meaning of "home." It is awash with symbolism, just layers and layers of meaning that somehow do not feel confusing. I want to dislike the pacing of some moments, but I can't! It still works! I love the inversion of expectations - I'm thinking in particular of two plot points set up by the previous two books, both of which happen within the first 100-ish pages, rather than, as we are set up to expect, in the climax. But also the seamless way that Arden built up to something that should have been so obvious, from the opening chapters of the first book, and is yet shocking when you read it, but still feels right, like this is the only choice that could have been made. I love the interweaving of so many important relationships, none of which are simple, none of which are free from the pain and the fear and the necessity of hard decisions, all of which are so achingly real, and without any kind of fuss or show or rhetorical heavy-handedness! Arden is so matter-of-fact, like her heroine, and that makes the magic and the mystery - and the humanity - all the more vibrant, all the more heartbreaking, all the more real. And the SCOPE! To tell such an epic in so few pages! All fantasy writers need to take a long look at how they write epics and figure out how to be more like her. I could go on about this book, this masterful trilogy, for absolutely ages, but I won't.
I don't even know where to begin. I've been raving since I finished this book earlier today about the sheer brilliance of the structure of this trilogy, which is just…shockingly good. I care a lot about narrative structure and this not only ticks all my boxes, it ticks boxes I didn't even know existed. But beyond that, because many of you reading these don't actually care about structure, or at least not as much as I do - can I just say that I have only rarely found books that I felt compelled to re-read immediately? This book, like the two preceding it in the trilogy, is precisely that. It is mature, it is careful, it is dynamic and complex and so very, very human. It is full of folklore, and family (sibling feels! On so many levels!), and the meaning of "home." It is awash with symbolism, just layers and layers of meaning that somehow do not feel confusing. I want to dislike the pacing of some moments, but I can't! It still works! I love the inversion of expectations - I'm thinking in particular of two plot points set up by the previous two books, both of which happen within the first 100-ish pages, rather than, as we are set up to expect, in the climax. But also the seamless way that Arden built up to something that should have been so obvious, from the opening chapters of the first book, and is yet shocking when you read it, but still feels right, like this is the only choice that could have been made. I love the interweaving of so many important relationships, none of which are simple, none of which are free from the pain and the fear and the necessity of hard decisions, all of which are so achingly real, and without any kind of fuss or show or rhetorical heavy-handedness! Arden is so matter-of-fact, like her heroine, and that makes the magic and the mystery - and the humanity - all the more vibrant, all the more heartbreaking, all the more real. And the SCOPE! To tell such an epic in so few pages! All fantasy writers need to take a long look at how they write epics and figure out how to be more like her. I could go on about this book, this masterful trilogy, for absolutely ages, but I won't.
The Thousandth Floor - Katherine McGee
I feel like a lot of Dystopian Teenage Fiction is like this: canon queer characters die, characters of colour are on the lowest rungs of society but racism is never mentioned, black female characters are angry and unstable, we get glimpses of fundamental economic inequality that COULD be an indictment of real-world systems but the narrative shies away from actually depicting the consequences of said inequality, and everybody has a substance problem. The setting was really ingenious, but otherwise, I've read this book before, and I haven't liked it. It's not that it's bad! It's just…mediocre. Books like this can never decide if they want to be taken seriously as speculative fiction or if they want to tell juicy, gossipy romance stories, and rather than seeking a hybrid genre (which I would LOVE to read), they waffle back and forth and produce an inconsistent novel. I won't be reading the next installment, I don't think.
I feel like a lot of Dystopian Teenage Fiction is like this: canon queer characters die, characters of colour are on the lowest rungs of society but racism is never mentioned, black female characters are angry and unstable, we get glimpses of fundamental economic inequality that COULD be an indictment of real-world systems but the narrative shies away from actually depicting the consequences of said inequality, and everybody has a substance problem. The setting was really ingenious, but otherwise, I've read this book before, and I haven't liked it. It's not that it's bad! It's just…mediocre. Books like this can never decide if they want to be taken seriously as speculative fiction or if they want to tell juicy, gossipy romance stories, and rather than seeking a hybrid genre (which I would LOVE to read), they waffle back and forth and produce an inconsistent novel. I won't be reading the next installment, I don't think.
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
Man, I did not finish this book, and it's the first book I have not finished in almost 10 years. There are books I've put aside, but this is the first one I've said, "no, someone else tell me how it ends, I don't even care anymore." It's the middle America problem (my least favourite setting), and it's the sensationalisation of sex, and it's the overdone profanity, and it's the blank characterisations, and it's the preoccupation with Atmospheric that just makes the whole narrative drag. I was bored of this book almost as soon as I started it, and I only got more bored with every boring detail.
Man, I did not finish this book, and it's the first book I have not finished in almost 10 years. There are books I've put aside, but this is the first one I've said, "no, someone else tell me how it ends, I don't even care anymore." It's the middle America problem (my least favourite setting), and it's the sensationalisation of sex, and it's the overdone profanity, and it's the blank characterisations, and it's the preoccupation with Atmospheric that just makes the whole narrative drag. I was bored of this book almost as soon as I started it, and I only got more bored with every boring detail.
Sourdough - Robin Sloan
What a perfect, perfect book for February - light and dreamy and hopeful (because the weather isn't), warm and full of life. I love, with all of my heart, stories where food captures someone, although usually it isn't quite this literal. I love the nuance that allows Lois to find who she is as a lover of food, as a baker of bread, without giving up on the other parts of herself - this narrative is so well-balanced, so tenderly crafted. I love the fact that even though it is in the first person the reader knows how Lois feels about things before she herself does. I love the whimsy. This book was an utter delight, sweet and soft and chewable, dynamic and a little wonky, just like good bread should be.
What a perfect, perfect book for February - light and dreamy and hopeful (because the weather isn't), warm and full of life. I love, with all of my heart, stories where food captures someone, although usually it isn't quite this literal. I love the nuance that allows Lois to find who she is as a lover of food, as a baker of bread, without giving up on the other parts of herself - this narrative is so well-balanced, so tenderly crafted. I love the fact that even though it is in the first person the reader knows how Lois feels about things before she herself does. I love the whimsy. This book was an utter delight, sweet and soft and chewable, dynamic and a little wonky, just like good bread should be.
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
Goodness it's been a while since I read SF of this quality. The worldbuilding is so completely Other, like, oh my GOODNESS - this did not read like it was written in the 90s. It felt so up-to-date! It felt so modern, so prescient (although the message-board-style network makes sense for the 90s, it felt utterly suited for the world, not anachronistic at all), from the technology to the sheer variety of life to the convolutedness of the plot. My excuse for a lot of the mediocre SF I've read has been "who let white men think they could write good science fiction?" Vinge is the answer. Every mediocre white male SF author thinks he's Vernor Vinge, because Vernor Vinge writes one hell of a story, builds one hell of a world, crafts absolutely unforgettable characters and if some of the dialogue is stilted or if I had a few quibbles about our main female character, they are minor concerns. I actually googled him to make sure he wasn't secretly a pseudonym for a woman - that's how complex and sensitive this SF is, that's how mind-bogglingly diverse. Our two principal viewpoint characters are a only mildly stereotypical woman and a only vaguely "not like most girls" girl! Like! Your fave man could never.
Goodness it's been a while since I read SF of this quality. The worldbuilding is so completely Other, like, oh my GOODNESS - this did not read like it was written in the 90s. It felt so up-to-date! It felt so modern, so prescient (although the message-board-style network makes sense for the 90s, it felt utterly suited for the world, not anachronistic at all), from the technology to the sheer variety of life to the convolutedness of the plot. My excuse for a lot of the mediocre SF I've read has been "who let white men think they could write good science fiction?" Vinge is the answer. Every mediocre white male SF author thinks he's Vernor Vinge, because Vernor Vinge writes one hell of a story, builds one hell of a world, crafts absolutely unforgettable characters and if some of the dialogue is stilted or if I had a few quibbles about our main female character, they are minor concerns. I actually googled him to make sure he wasn't secretly a pseudonym for a woman - that's how complex and sensitive this SF is, that's how mind-bogglingly diverse. Our two principal viewpoint characters are a only mildly stereotypical woman and a only vaguely "not like most girls" girl! Like! Your fave man could never.
Luna: New Moon - Ian McDonald
FIRSTLY, the e-book version that I read of this was in desperate need of a copyeditor. SECONDLY, oh, my goodness. I think 2019 is going to be the year of reading ACTUALLY good-quality science fiction? This book is a brilliant example of conceptual worldbuilding impacting plot and character design, a major step that a lot of specfic seems to miss. Linguistics! Gender and sexuality! Post-human and trans-human! LAW and RELIGION and FAMILY! Perhaps not the most technically well-executed book, or the most compelling in terms of character, and McDonald needs some help on believable dialogue, but an engaging story with well-achieved narrative conceits, for the most part. And a prescient vision of the kind of world that could exist if run only by profit! I will be reading the sequels, if only for more of the good, pulpy fun that scifi can be - this time sans overt racism and overwhelming misogyny (lol, both are still there, though; male specfic authors are why we can't have nice things) and super boring heternormativity!
FIRSTLY, the e-book version that I read of this was in desperate need of a copyeditor. SECONDLY, oh, my goodness. I think 2019 is going to be the year of reading ACTUALLY good-quality science fiction? This book is a brilliant example of conceptual worldbuilding impacting plot and character design, a major step that a lot of specfic seems to miss. Linguistics! Gender and sexuality! Post-human and trans-human! LAW and RELIGION and FAMILY! Perhaps not the most technically well-executed book, or the most compelling in terms of character, and McDonald needs some help on believable dialogue, but an engaging story with well-achieved narrative conceits, for the most part. And a prescient vision of the kind of world that could exist if run only by profit! I will be reading the sequels, if only for more of the good, pulpy fun that scifi can be - this time sans overt racism and overwhelming misogyny (lol, both are still there, though; male specfic authors are why we can't have nice things) and super boring heternormativity!
The Range of Ghosts - Elizabeth Bear
Why would anyone write medieval European historical fantasy when one could write medieval Central Asian historical fantasy? Especially if, as Bear has, one picks out the subtle layers upon layers of dynamics going on between Mongols, Tibetans, China, the Abbasids and Fatimids and a BEAUTIFUL setup for the Timurids, Uyghurs (thankfully, otherwise the Islamophobic undercurrents would have been too much for me to read past) and whispers of Kiev and Rus - like, no "look at my made-up Celtic tribes" historical fantasy could EVER compare. And Bear writes beautifully, with sensitivity and style, with really interesting dialectical choices and matter-of-fact description, with slowly unfolding worldbuilding and characters that inspire almost immediately. I love the folkloric elements, and the way that science and magic and religion and politics all inform not just the world, but the PLOT. An economical book, nothing wasted, nothing superfluous. I read it in a day and am already hungering for the second.
Why would anyone write medieval European historical fantasy when one could write medieval Central Asian historical fantasy? Especially if, as Bear has, one picks out the subtle layers upon layers of dynamics going on between Mongols, Tibetans, China, the Abbasids and Fatimids and a BEAUTIFUL setup for the Timurids, Uyghurs (thankfully, otherwise the Islamophobic undercurrents would have been too much for me to read past) and whispers of Kiev and Rus - like, no "look at my made-up Celtic tribes" historical fantasy could EVER compare. And Bear writes beautifully, with sensitivity and style, with really interesting dialectical choices and matter-of-fact description, with slowly unfolding worldbuilding and characters that inspire almost immediately. I love the folkloric elements, and the way that science and magic and religion and politics all inform not just the world, but the PLOT. An economical book, nothing wasted, nothing superfluous. I read it in a day and am already hungering for the second.
Autonomous - Annalee Newitz
For some reason, I could not get into this book. I enjoyed our two protagonists, and I liked the prose style, and I was fond of all of the worldbuilding, but? It just? Didn't? Click? Maybe this was a book I should have read rather than listened to, but even anti-patent pirates in Iqaluit and undercover tea shops in the Maghreb and robots learning about love couldn't grip me.
For some reason, I could not get into this book. I enjoyed our two protagonists, and I liked the prose style, and I was fond of all of the worldbuilding, but? It just? Didn't? Click? Maybe this was a book I should have read rather than listened to, but even anti-patent pirates in Iqaluit and undercover tea shops in the Maghreb and robots learning about love couldn't grip me.
Towers of the Sunset - L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
The redeeming feature of this book is that our viewpoint character realises (read: is told, and told, and finally sort-of accepts) that he has been treating his arranged-marriage-wife unfairly, and changes his behaviour (so that she will fall into bed with him, IMMEDIATELY upon his GESTURING toward change). Everything else is just ??? Did Modesitt really think that gendered psychologies would be the same under a hard-line matriarchy? Did he figure his readers would believe that his main character just, like, spontaneously develops knowledge about himself whenever the plot needs him to? Did he think ANYONE would like all 700,000 ellipses and the over-used half-heard conversation? Who led him to believe that he could write women, or dialogue, or descriptive, or poetry, or any of the things he seems to think he is capable of writing in any way but "horribly"? I Did Not Like This Book.
The redeeming feature of this book is that our viewpoint character realises (read: is told, and told, and finally sort-of accepts) that he has been treating his arranged-marriage-wife unfairly, and changes his behaviour (so that she will fall into bed with him, IMMEDIATELY upon his GESTURING toward change). Everything else is just ??? Did Modesitt really think that gendered psychologies would be the same under a hard-line matriarchy? Did he figure his readers would believe that his main character just, like, spontaneously develops knowledge about himself whenever the plot needs him to? Did he think ANYONE would like all 700,000 ellipses and the over-used half-heard conversation? Who led him to believe that he could write women, or dialogue, or descriptive, or poetry, or any of the things he seems to think he is capable of writing in any way but "horribly"? I Did Not Like This Book.
Amal Unbound - Aisha Saeed
I think this is one of the first middle-grade novels that I've read for the first time as an adult? I usually have this strong sense of being transported back to my ten- or twelve-year-old self, but here there was none of that. Instead, I would really appreciate Saeed's care for her readers: the careful placement of younger characters to allow for explanations of anything that might be too abstract, the attention paid to physicality and its interpretation, the explicit articulation of all the genuine complexities of the plot and its resolution. This book is full of love, and is written in such a loving way! As might only be expected, stories about readers and eldest sisters, about compassion and the desire for justice, about small and big actions that fight the status quo (Amal refuses from the get-go to buy into any rhetoric about needing to be tough! There is space for everyone in her big heart, and that is so profoundly revolutionary!) - these are the kinds of stories that I love. Plus, c'mon, Amal's favourite poet is Muhammad Iqbal. We can be friends.
I think this is one of the first middle-grade novels that I've read for the first time as an adult? I usually have this strong sense of being transported back to my ten- or twelve-year-old self, but here there was none of that. Instead, I would really appreciate Saeed's care for her readers: the careful placement of younger characters to allow for explanations of anything that might be too abstract, the attention paid to physicality and its interpretation, the explicit articulation of all the genuine complexities of the plot and its resolution. This book is full of love, and is written in such a loving way! As might only be expected, stories about readers and eldest sisters, about compassion and the desire for justice, about small and big actions that fight the status quo (Amal refuses from the get-go to buy into any rhetoric about needing to be tough! There is space for everyone in her big heart, and that is so profoundly revolutionary!) - these are the kinds of stories that I love. Plus, c'mon, Amal's favourite poet is Muhammad Iqbal. We can be friends.
The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
One of the big problems with a lot of post-ASOIAF fantasy is that it mistakes "a series of bad things happen" for "a plot." Addison does not have that problem, not even remotely. This plot has life and dynamism and an understated, nuanced complexity, and it is driven by its characters - these utterly believable good and bad and hurting people who exist in layers upon layers of foil and contrast and relationship. And good things happen! Nice things, lovely things, and that makes this story all the more gripping. A quiet triumph. An exercise in eloquence and humour and compassion and love. Possibly one of the best novels I have ever read, and certainly the only steampunk-adjacent anything I have ever loved. The Year of the Katherines is treating me very well indeed.
One of the big problems with a lot of post-ASOIAF fantasy is that it mistakes "a series of bad things happen" for "a plot." Addison does not have that problem, not even remotely. This plot has life and dynamism and an understated, nuanced complexity, and it is driven by its characters - these utterly believable good and bad and hurting people who exist in layers upon layers of foil and contrast and relationship. And good things happen! Nice things, lovely things, and that makes this story all the more gripping. A quiet triumph. An exercise in eloquence and humour and compassion and love. Possibly one of the best novels I have ever read, and certainly the only steampunk-adjacent anything I have ever loved. The Year of the Katherines is treating me very well indeed.
Family Trust - Kathy Wang
I picked up this novel from my TBR shelf and was prepared for it to be delightfully gossipy - and it was, but it was also profound, meditative even, a portrait of who we are and who our families make us to be. Wang's prose is wry and hopeful, utterly suited to the subject and to the characters whose overlapping foibles make up this snapshot. And it is exactly that, a painstakingly crafted tableau, not so much a story as backstory, a richness that allows us to see and know and understand. I don't know that I necessarily enjoyed it, but I liked it very much.
I picked up this novel from my TBR shelf and was prepared for it to be delightfully gossipy - and it was, but it was also profound, meditative even, a portrait of who we are and who our families make us to be. Wang's prose is wry and hopeful, utterly suited to the subject and to the characters whose overlapping foibles make up this snapshot. And it is exactly that, a painstakingly crafted tableau, not so much a story as backstory, a richness that allows us to see and know and understand. I don't know that I necessarily enjoyed it, but I liked it very much.
The Highwayman and Mr. Dickens
I...cannot handle phonetic writing. I also cannot handle like, an EXTREME amount of telling instead of showing. Or the first person. Also, it's pretty well established that the Victorians were deeply sex-obsessed and profoundly, secretively kinky, but that doesn't mean you need...like...graphic sex scenes CLEARLY written by a man that are just rubbing it in your face. And the characterisations! And the dialogue! It's just plain badly written, an example of why being a respected academic in a particular field does not mean that you should attempt fiction in that field. The FOOTNOTES that EXPLAIN his own cleverness, geez. Just the rotten cherry on top that this unpalatable sundae needed to be overwhelmingly bad.
I...cannot handle phonetic writing. I also cannot handle like, an EXTREME amount of telling instead of showing. Or the first person. Also, it's pretty well established that the Victorians were deeply sex-obsessed and profoundly, secretively kinky, but that doesn't mean you need...like...graphic sex scenes CLEARLY written by a man that are just rubbing it in your face. And the characterisations! And the dialogue! It's just plain badly written, an example of why being a respected academic in a particular field does not mean that you should attempt fiction in that field. The FOOTNOTES that EXPLAIN his own cleverness, geez. Just the rotten cherry on top that this unpalatable sundae needed to be overwhelmingly bad.
Vandana Shiva: Creative Civil Disobedience - Lionel Astruc
I have to say, about a dozen pages in I was worried that Astruc's hero-worship was going to make this extended interview utterly unreadable. But Shiva's voice soon takes over, remonstrating, correcting, banishing the almost fetishisation of eco-feminism and specifically eco-feminism in the Global South. I am uncertain whether the gender essentialism that she so openly espouses is much different, but that's really my major bone to pick with her philosophy as Astruc records it (okay, and some of her critiques of GMO seem…intentionally obfuscatory). I love the incisive critiques of the way that capitalism and white supremacy work together (and patriarchy makes three!) to hurt the most marginalised through privileging profit over actually useful foodways, over vibrant community life, over literally everything that makes life on this planet possible in a long-term sustainable way. I love more the cogent, concrete suggestions she gives for undermining that destruction, for building in defiance of it, for standing in the way of its further progression, for loving the world through actively seeking to heal it.
I have to say, about a dozen pages in I was worried that Astruc's hero-worship was going to make this extended interview utterly unreadable. But Shiva's voice soon takes over, remonstrating, correcting, banishing the almost fetishisation of eco-feminism and specifically eco-feminism in the Global South. I am uncertain whether the gender essentialism that she so openly espouses is much different, but that's really my major bone to pick with her philosophy as Astruc records it (okay, and some of her critiques of GMO seem…intentionally obfuscatory). I love the incisive critiques of the way that capitalism and white supremacy work together (and patriarchy makes three!) to hurt the most marginalised through privileging profit over actually useful foodways, over vibrant community life, over literally everything that makes life on this planet possible in a long-term sustainable way. I love more the cogent, concrete suggestions she gives for undermining that destruction, for building in defiance of it, for standing in the way of its further progression, for loving the world through actively seeking to heal it.
The Duchess Deal - Tessa Dare
I picked this up (well, picked it out from my ebook app) because I wanted something light and fun and low-stakes, with a predictable plot and lots of narrative satisfaction. I find, increasingly, that these are things I find soothing, especially as I become more aware of the times in which I cannot handle intense emotion. This book hit all the right notes - and was also spectacularly witty (I laughed loudly and with delight at least once every few chapters and spent most of the rest of the time grinning), and unexpectedly heart-warming, what with loving fathers and good friends and excellent cats and precocious youngsters sprinkled liberally. Significantly better-written than a Hallmark movie, and scratches the same itch. A just-what-I-needed book.
I picked this up (well, picked it out from my ebook app) because I wanted something light and fun and low-stakes, with a predictable plot and lots of narrative satisfaction. I find, increasingly, that these are things I find soothing, especially as I become more aware of the times in which I cannot handle intense emotion. This book hit all the right notes - and was also spectacularly witty (I laughed loudly and with delight at least once every few chapters and spent most of the rest of the time grinning), and unexpectedly heart-warming, what with loving fathers and good friends and excellent cats and precocious youngsters sprinkled liberally. Significantly better-written than a Hallmark movie, and scratches the same itch. A just-what-I-needed book.
The Inviting Life - Lara Calder
An utter delight, and an exercise in privilege all in one. I love Calder's voice, and I relate so very much to most of her opinions. I appreciate her efforts to talk about being a host regardless of budget and life circumstances, but the fact of the matter is that she doesn't actually offer a blueprint or even a rough template that it achievable below, say, 80k a year + one partner at home most of the time. Her overall ethos, her ethic of hospitality and generosity and care - I love these, I believe in them, I want to cultivate them. But the fact that she does not really offer ways to do so for the people for whom the collective wisdom of the internet or of traditional etiquette manual cannot help is upsetting at best. But! I, too, want a walk-in closet of linens and china and glassware and silver. I, too, want and love so many of the things she wants and loves. I took so much inspiration from this book, practical and theoretical, and I am so excited to cultivate more invitingness.
An utter delight, and an exercise in privilege all in one. I love Calder's voice, and I relate so very much to most of her opinions. I appreciate her efforts to talk about being a host regardless of budget and life circumstances, but the fact of the matter is that she doesn't actually offer a blueprint or even a rough template that it achievable below, say, 80k a year + one partner at home most of the time. Her overall ethos, her ethic of hospitality and generosity and care - I love these, I believe in them, I want to cultivate them. But the fact that she does not really offer ways to do so for the people for whom the collective wisdom of the internet or of traditional etiquette manual cannot help is upsetting at best. But! I, too, want a walk-in closet of linens and china and glassware and silver. I, too, want and love so many of the things she wants and loves. I took so much inspiration from this book, practical and theoretical, and I am so excited to cultivate more invitingness.
The Music Shop - Rachel Joyce
I do love books written by music-lovers, and this one was a delight! The narration is light enough to handle the very real trauma and despair in a way that feels natural, the characters lovingly rendered for all that they were very clearly Characters and not real, and the description balanced just enough to make everything feel vibrant. I enjoyed reading it, even the time jump and subsequent overly-quick pacing, although both were rather jarring, and it was a nice, easy book. Difficult to get emotionally invested in, but well-crafted nonetheless.
I do love books written by music-lovers, and this one was a delight! The narration is light enough to handle the very real trauma and despair in a way that feels natural, the characters lovingly rendered for all that they were very clearly Characters and not real, and the description balanced just enough to make everything feel vibrant. I enjoyed reading it, even the time jump and subsequent overly-quick pacing, although both were rather jarring, and it was a nice, easy book. Difficult to get emotionally invested in, but well-crafted nonetheless.
Out of the Wreckage - George Monbiot
My father is always complaining that I have criticisms about how the world is and not too many action plans for change, and so I have given him a copy of this book. I think in trying for as broad a readership as possible, Monbiot has sacrificed some crucial tenets - a critique of the economic system is toothless without an attempt to come out from under capitalism as a whole, for instance - but the introduction of a third narrative of human nature to counter the two most frequently dominant is a brilliant tactic. Written with a keen eye for accessibility and a real sensitivity to the emotions that lie beneath so many of our political choices, I think the book is ultimately a nice, concrete ray of hope that will start a great many fruitful conversations.
My father is always complaining that I have criticisms about how the world is and not too many action plans for change, and so I have given him a copy of this book. I think in trying for as broad a readership as possible, Monbiot has sacrificed some crucial tenets - a critique of the economic system is toothless without an attempt to come out from under capitalism as a whole, for instance - but the introduction of a third narrative of human nature to counter the two most frequently dominant is a brilliant tactic. Written with a keen eye for accessibility and a real sensitivity to the emotions that lie beneath so many of our political choices, I think the book is ultimately a nice, concrete ray of hope that will start a great many fruitful conversations.
Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueline Carey
Goodness but it's rare to read a debut that has writing this technically proficient! I love Carey's prose, I love her deft use of the first person - for foreshadowing, for exposition, for hitting that beautiful point between an intimate, personal story and an epic of history, for all the unreliability and flaw taken to the perfect advantage. I love the characters and their relationships, I love the careful use of alternate history, I LOVE the religious worldbuilding, I love the simple complexity of the plot, its careful pacing, its brilliant construction, the echoes of myth and folklore, the way macro and micro lls mirrored each other. And of course, enemies to friends to lovers is one of my favourite fictional tropes. I love less the idea of a whole society built on grooming children? I can't see how this particular story could have been told without it, but it was not the good kind of uncomfortable. Everything else was deftly handled, a true masterclass in using sex to drive the narrative rather than to titillate (take notes, GRRM etc.), but the grooming of children is just not something to handle in this way.
Goodness but it's rare to read a debut that has writing this technically proficient! I love Carey's prose, I love her deft use of the first person - for foreshadowing, for exposition, for hitting that beautiful point between an intimate, personal story and an epic of history, for all the unreliability and flaw taken to the perfect advantage. I love the characters and their relationships, I love the careful use of alternate history, I LOVE the religious worldbuilding, I love the simple complexity of the plot, its careful pacing, its brilliant construction, the echoes of myth and folklore, the way macro and micro lls mirrored each other. And of course, enemies to friends to lovers is one of my favourite fictional tropes. I love less the idea of a whole society built on grooming children? I can't see how this particular story could have been told without it, but it was not the good kind of uncomfortable. Everything else was deftly handled, a true masterclass in using sex to drive the narrative rather than to titillate (take notes, GRRM etc.), but the grooming of children is just not something to handle in this way.
The Clue in the Jewel Box - Carolyn Keene
Knowing what I do now about the decades when Nancy Drew was being published, the books strike me as a very interesting set of choices, none of which eight and ten and twelve year old Jessica were in any position to appreciate. I love that, despite the stress of wartime, Nancy lives in a time outside of time, an idyll where police are trustworthy and crime most emphatically does not pay, where single parents and boyish girls are unremarkable, where teenagers go laughingly about small adventures and where there is never any question about the rigors of the outside world. Nancy's inner world is far too exciting, and in many ways it seems like the optimism of her successes speak to a desire for larger, more international crimes to be handled with the same tenacity, the same care, the same yearning for justice, the same willingness to admit mistakes. Two decades and more after our first meeting, I still love Nancy.
Knowing what I do now about the decades when Nancy Drew was being published, the books strike me as a very interesting set of choices, none of which eight and ten and twelve year old Jessica were in any position to appreciate. I love that, despite the stress of wartime, Nancy lives in a time outside of time, an idyll where police are trustworthy and crime most emphatically does not pay, where single parents and boyish girls are unremarkable, where teenagers go laughingly about small adventures and where there is never any question about the rigors of the outside world. Nancy's inner world is far too exciting, and in many ways it seems like the optimism of her successes speak to a desire for larger, more international crimes to be handled with the same tenacity, the same care, the same yearning for justice, the same willingness to admit mistakes. Two decades and more after our first meeting, I still love Nancy.
The Real Jane Austen - Paula Byrne
I don't know that anyone who writes a biography can ever be expected to be impartial - not that historians are really able to be impartial anyway, but this form of history writing is particularly intimate. Byrne shows her bias right off the bat, and in such a way that her articulation of Austen's life is both convincing and approachable. I'm not up on Austen scholarship enough to say if Byrne's reading is as transgressive as she maintains, but I am enough of an Austen lover to be drawn to it, and I have nothing but intrigued respect for the style in which Byrne chose to write. I also really appreciated how little time is spent on Austen's illness and death - the vibrancy of this portrait never descends into the maudlin eulogising it so easily could, and I could love it for that alone.
I don't know that anyone who writes a biography can ever be expected to be impartial - not that historians are really able to be impartial anyway, but this form of history writing is particularly intimate. Byrne shows her bias right off the bat, and in such a way that her articulation of Austen's life is both convincing and approachable. I'm not up on Austen scholarship enough to say if Byrne's reading is as transgressive as she maintains, but I am enough of an Austen lover to be drawn to it, and I have nothing but intrigued respect for the style in which Byrne chose to write. I also really appreciated how little time is spent on Austen's illness and death - the vibrancy of this portrait never descends into the maudlin eulogising it so easily could, and I could love it for that alone.
Building the Commune - George Ciccariello-Maher
In just this slim little book, there is a whole world of narrative, a story of complexity and greyness, where it is easy to identify the villain and impossible to understand if there are even any heroes. It is a portrait of human institutions and human desires and human disagreements, and it could be bleak, but it is not. Somehow, in a little over 100 pages, Ciccariello-Maher tells a story that is hopeful and inspiring, that says, without being preachy, that theory and praxis are both essential to the revolution, that dialogue is central, and above all that to make a better world is to turn upside down the values of the current world. And he shows that it is possible, in all its messiness, and invites us tacitly to ask questions of our contexts whose answers might enable us to build a communal future.
In just this slim little book, there is a whole world of narrative, a story of complexity and greyness, where it is easy to identify the villain and impossible to understand if there are even any heroes. It is a portrait of human institutions and human desires and human disagreements, and it could be bleak, but it is not. Somehow, in a little over 100 pages, Ciccariello-Maher tells a story that is hopeful and inspiring, that says, without being preachy, that theory and praxis are both essential to the revolution, that dialogue is central, and above all that to make a better world is to turn upside down the values of the current world. And he shows that it is possible, in all its messiness, and invites us tacitly to ask questions of our contexts whose answers might enable us to build a communal future.
Ninefox Gambit - Yoon-ha Lee
The basic stripes of the narrative here make me think of Ancillary Justice, but, and I should note that I listened to the latter so my print bias may be impacting this judgement unfairly, with an infinitely more interesting set of ethical dilemmas and a chillingly possible vision of the posthuman. I honestly loved this book, the mathematics of it, the practicalities of it, the all-important reminder, rare in military SF, that war is hell because it is made up of decisions to kill and let die. The dialogue was engaging, the pace of reveals just right, the characters compelling to the point that I cried multiple times within the first few chapters in sympathy for the central character. A shockingly good science fiction story, spanning multiple sub-genres with technical proficiency and retaining that emotive core that so much otherwise good SF forgets.
The basic stripes of the narrative here make me think of Ancillary Justice, but, and I should note that I listened to the latter so my print bias may be impacting this judgement unfairly, with an infinitely more interesting set of ethical dilemmas and a chillingly possible vision of the posthuman. I honestly loved this book, the mathematics of it, the practicalities of it, the all-important reminder, rare in military SF, that war is hell because it is made up of decisions to kill and let die. The dialogue was engaging, the pace of reveals just right, the characters compelling to the point that I cried multiple times within the first few chapters in sympathy for the central character. A shockingly good science fiction story, spanning multiple sub-genres with technical proficiency and retaining that emotive core that so much otherwise good SF forgets.
Starlight - Richard Wagamese
It took me a bit to get into the style - I think largely due to the conscious decision by the publisher to leave the unfinished feeling unfinished, but I also wonder to what extent this is just Wagamese's style in general - but once I did, the loping cadences of this work carried me rather than the story. I loved the meditative nature of this distinctly active book, the careful parallels, the gentle swelling of plot. It's amazing to be reminded that good storytelling does not need to rely on anything but itself, that we can have a sequence of good things happening to sad people and feel compelled and drawn to it. The pacing here is so lovely, the characters drawn with such care, everything just so homelike. I cannot imagine a more perfect unfinished book. I think it is almost better for being so, but I am devastated that we have lost its writer.
It took me a bit to get into the style - I think largely due to the conscious decision by the publisher to leave the unfinished feeling unfinished, but I also wonder to what extent this is just Wagamese's style in general - but once I did, the loping cadences of this work carried me rather than the story. I loved the meditative nature of this distinctly active book, the careful parallels, the gentle swelling of plot. It's amazing to be reminded that good storytelling does not need to rely on anything but itself, that we can have a sequence of good things happening to sad people and feel compelled and drawn to it. The pacing here is so lovely, the characters drawn with such care, everything just so homelike. I cannot imagine a more perfect unfinished book. I think it is almost better for being so, but I am devastated that we have lost its writer.
Tell the Wolves I'm Home - Carol Rifka Brunt
I spent most of this book thinking that I did not like it - not for a specific reason, but just in general. I spent the last two chapters crying messily on the metro and becoming very confused about whether I liked this book. It is an aching kind of read, not so many sharp hurts but just long, sustained indignities upon quiet tragedies upon the colossal unfairness of the world. I cannot do anything but respect Brunt for holding all of this messy ache into a coherent bundle, for making it spark with significance, for imbuing it with a deep, resonating realness. The book is a work of artistic mastery, and tells an important story for the eve of Pride, but I still am not sure if I liked it.
I spent most of this book thinking that I did not like it - not for a specific reason, but just in general. I spent the last two chapters crying messily on the metro and becoming very confused about whether I liked this book. It is an aching kind of read, not so many sharp hurts but just long, sustained indignities upon quiet tragedies upon the colossal unfairness of the world. I cannot do anything but respect Brunt for holding all of this messy ache into a coherent bundle, for making it spark with significance, for imbuing it with a deep, resonating realness. The book is a work of artistic mastery, and tells an important story for the eve of Pride, but I still am not sure if I liked it.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
I was not prepared to love this book as much as I did - I enjoy Gaiman, but I rarely find his work lovely. This is a mature work of fairy-tale, though, a story that taps into the tropes that make up the bones of our collective folkloric past, and stages it at once as play - that thing we all share, all us children - and as deadly-serious drama. The stakes are high and not, the emotions all-too-real, and the orality of the story (I listened to it, and it sounded like it was meant to be read aloud) felt right. I think Gaiman is at his best in this liminal space - between hearth and heath, between folklore and fantasy, between adulthood and childhood. This is certainly my favourite of his books, I think.
I was not prepared to love this book as much as I did - I enjoy Gaiman, but I rarely find his work lovely. This is a mature work of fairy-tale, though, a story that taps into the tropes that make up the bones of our collective folkloric past, and stages it at once as play - that thing we all share, all us children - and as deadly-serious drama. The stakes are high and not, the emotions all-too-real, and the orality of the story (I listened to it, and it sounded like it was meant to be read aloud) felt right. I think Gaiman is at his best in this liminal space - between hearth and heath, between folklore and fantasy, between adulthood and childhood. This is certainly my favourite of his books, I think.
How to Transcend a Happy Marriage - Sarah Ruhl
I read this play to discuss it with my best friend, who is writing her dissertation on Ruhl's work, and as a result I read it through scholarly lenses rather than for pleasure. I think I was better able to appreciate the profound structural instability of the work - a solid, emotive, question-asking first act (ethics! Secrecy vs. voyeurism! Layered metaphors! Biblical allusions!) and then a second act that felt very rushed, both in terms of story and in terms of writing. There is lots of meat here, and mostly for criticism, or at least confusion. But there is also something deeply inviting about the viscerality, the physicality of ethics that is not so much explored as hinted at. It is something I will be thinking about, this embodiment of theory, this theory of embodiment.
I read this play to discuss it with my best friend, who is writing her dissertation on Ruhl's work, and as a result I read it through scholarly lenses rather than for pleasure. I think I was better able to appreciate the profound structural instability of the work - a solid, emotive, question-asking first act (ethics! Secrecy vs. voyeurism! Layered metaphors! Biblical allusions!) and then a second act that felt very rushed, both in terms of story and in terms of writing. There is lots of meat here, and mostly for criticism, or at least confusion. But there is also something deeply inviting about the viscerality, the physicality of ethics that is not so much explored as hinted at. It is something I will be thinking about, this embodiment of theory, this theory of embodiment.
Eragon - Christopher Paolini
I read this book and enjoyed (?) it when it was first published, when the homeschooling community was in a tizzy because 1) Chris P was HOMESCHOOLED and had written this book AS A TEENAGER and was thus a great role model and all their children should read him, but 2) Eragon has MAGIC SPELLS that can be SAID ALOUD so probably is satanic. It has not aged very well, and mostly serves as a canvas, I think, for talking to aspiring fantasy authors (particularly boys) about what to avoid. Speciesism is of course something that even adult fantasy writers have trouble with, as is Using Women in That Way, and inventing language poorly, and a slew of other tropes at best tired and at worst just objectively bad. It was also unavoidably obvious to me, after my husband pointed it out, that Eragon is the plot of Star Wars. I'm going to finish listening to the series, because I have lots of garden hours this summer to fill, but? At what cost?
I read this book and enjoyed (?) it when it was first published, when the homeschooling community was in a tizzy because 1) Chris P was HOMESCHOOLED and had written this book AS A TEENAGER and was thus a great role model and all their children should read him, but 2) Eragon has MAGIC SPELLS that can be SAID ALOUD so probably is satanic. It has not aged very well, and mostly serves as a canvas, I think, for talking to aspiring fantasy authors (particularly boys) about what to avoid. Speciesism is of course something that even adult fantasy writers have trouble with, as is Using Women in That Way, and inventing language poorly, and a slew of other tropes at best tired and at worst just objectively bad. It was also unavoidably obvious to me, after my husband pointed it out, that Eragon is the plot of Star Wars. I'm going to finish listening to the series, because I have lots of garden hours this summer to fill, but? At what cost?
Eurydice - Sarah Ruhl
This is supposed to be one of Ruhl's lightest plays, but it is so. Dark. Like, it's a story about a woman whose only moment of power is when she makes a choice between which man in her life she will prioritise, and then that choice is brutally stripped from her by the narrative, and it's left open-ended whether she kills herself or becomes the victim of a man who is interested only in exercising his power on her body, mind, and soul. It's deeply unsettling, mostly because of how inevitable everything feels: there is no other way open for Eurydice's story to go. And, about a third of the way through the play, the audience is instructed to imagine that they can understand what she is saying, directly implying that everything about her story from then on is imposed upon her by an audience gifted with the power of translation. Anyway! It is beautiful and heart-wrenching and I can't say that I LIKED it because oh god but I have nothing but respect for the artistry, the way of making something so awful into something so magical.
This is supposed to be one of Ruhl's lightest plays, but it is so. Dark. Like, it's a story about a woman whose only moment of power is when she makes a choice between which man in her life she will prioritise, and then that choice is brutally stripped from her by the narrative, and it's left open-ended whether she kills herself or becomes the victim of a man who is interested only in exercising his power on her body, mind, and soul. It's deeply unsettling, mostly because of how inevitable everything feels: there is no other way open for Eurydice's story to go. And, about a third of the way through the play, the audience is instructed to imagine that they can understand what she is saying, directly implying that everything about her story from then on is imposed upon her by an audience gifted with the power of translation. Anyway! It is beautiful and heart-wrenching and I can't say that I LIKED it because oh god but I have nothing but respect for the artistry, the way of making something so awful into something so magical.
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
Every time I begin this book, I remember that it is one of my favourites, and every time I end it, I wonder why that is. Certainly it has elements that I love in an uncomplicated way - worldbuilding expertise, flowing prose, several layers and types of found family, nuanced criticism of our current society, language and linguistics, interweaving timelines, profound emotionality, questions of sainthood. But the heart of the book is things that I love more complicatedly - faith and doubt, the inevitability of loss, impossible love, ethics of consumption, ethics of comparison. And, as a survivor of sexual violence, while I have nothing but respect for the care with which Russell approaches the subject and prepares the reader for its appearance in the narrative, I am always left with the question at the end: was it necessary (yes)? Would the story have come together to ask these questions about faith without it (no)? But this haunting, complicated book is one I cannot help but come back to, over and over and over again.
Every time I begin this book, I remember that it is one of my favourites, and every time I end it, I wonder why that is. Certainly it has elements that I love in an uncomplicated way - worldbuilding expertise, flowing prose, several layers and types of found family, nuanced criticism of our current society, language and linguistics, interweaving timelines, profound emotionality, questions of sainthood. But the heart of the book is things that I love more complicatedly - faith and doubt, the inevitability of loss, impossible love, ethics of consumption, ethics of comparison. And, as a survivor of sexual violence, while I have nothing but respect for the care with which Russell approaches the subject and prepares the reader for its appearance in the narrative, I am always left with the question at the end: was it necessary (yes)? Would the story have come together to ask these questions about faith without it (no)? But this haunting, complicated book is one I cannot help but come back to, over and over and over again.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
I loved Skloot's decision to weave the story of the science produced by and surrounding Henrietta's cells in with the story of Henrietta herself, and then, most significantly, the story of her children. I loved the careful line that Skloot walked between decrying human rights abuses and the very real institutional and personal racism that permitted them and allowing that the scientific advancements made possible by these abuses have saved countless lives and improved probably all human life on the planet. It is a hard line to walk, and she does it with grace, arguing, ultimately, that while ethics and science may need marriage counselling, ethics and capitalism are profoundly incompatible in the sciences, and often that scientific advancement is hampered by capitalistic manoeuvrings. At the same time, the book has such an emotional, human element, lent to it by the story of Henrietta's daughter Deborah and her search to learn about her mother, that it doesn't feel preachy or even argumentative, just like a story, at times beautiful, at times horrible, that shows us who we are as a species.
I loved Skloot's decision to weave the story of the science produced by and surrounding Henrietta's cells in with the story of Henrietta herself, and then, most significantly, the story of her children. I loved the careful line that Skloot walked between decrying human rights abuses and the very real institutional and personal racism that permitted them and allowing that the scientific advancements made possible by these abuses have saved countless lives and improved probably all human life on the planet. It is a hard line to walk, and she does it with grace, arguing, ultimately, that while ethics and science may need marriage counselling, ethics and capitalism are profoundly incompatible in the sciences, and often that scientific advancement is hampered by capitalistic manoeuvrings. At the same time, the book has such an emotional, human element, lent to it by the story of Henrietta's daughter Deborah and her search to learn about her mother, that it doesn't feel preachy or even argumentative, just like a story, at times beautiful, at times horrible, that shows us who we are as a species.
Uprooted - Naomi Novik
By now y'all know as well as I do how much I dote on folklore and folkloric narratives, and how much I enjoy fantasy literature that goes beyond some hodgepodge of England, France, and Germany in the middle ages for its inspiration. I also enjoy girls being badass whilst simultaneously being allowed to be weak, to be emotional, to be less than lovely, and to still be loved. And also strong friendships that transcend need and are more emotionally profound than all other relationships. And also prose that flows lyrically. And profound questions of ethics and justice. And breaking patriarchal structures by virtue of discerning the deep nature of the world that lies far beyond them. And side plot love stories that serve the heroine's development in beautiful ways. And finding kindred spirits and mentors in books written by older women. And the fate of the world being no more important than love for the earth and water of home. And magic that heals and purifies and calls things into their best shapes. I also loved that the narrator of this this audiobook had a very thick Polish accent, because it made the first-person narration jump off the page and into my heart, a feat if there ever was one. Basically, this book was guaranteed Jessica bait.
By now y'all know as well as I do how much I dote on folklore and folkloric narratives, and how much I enjoy fantasy literature that goes beyond some hodgepodge of England, France, and Germany in the middle ages for its inspiration. I also enjoy girls being badass whilst simultaneously being allowed to be weak, to be emotional, to be less than lovely, and to still be loved. And also strong friendships that transcend need and are more emotionally profound than all other relationships. And also prose that flows lyrically. And profound questions of ethics and justice. And breaking patriarchal structures by virtue of discerning the deep nature of the world that lies far beyond them. And side plot love stories that serve the heroine's development in beautiful ways. And finding kindred spirits and mentors in books written by older women. And the fate of the world being no more important than love for the earth and water of home. And magic that heals and purifies and calls things into their best shapes. I also loved that the narrator of this this audiobook had a very thick Polish accent, because it made the first-person narration jump off the page and into my heart, a feat if there ever was one. Basically, this book was guaranteed Jessica bait.
Eldest - Christopher Paolini
I had intended to read the remainder of this series (well, listen to; there are limits), but OOF. I just…even at like 13 and 14 I didn't bother to finish these books, and I have only grown more picky as I have aged. I renewed the audiobook twice. I listened to it on a faster speed. I could not bring myself to care about anything except the dwarvish body-mods that graft brass knuckles into your joints, which I feel like would only be an improvement on my arthritic hands, so I just stopped listening.
I had intended to read the remainder of this series (well, listen to; there are limits), but OOF. I just…even at like 13 and 14 I didn't bother to finish these books, and I have only grown more picky as I have aged. I renewed the audiobook twice. I listened to it on a faster speed. I could not bring myself to care about anything except the dwarvish body-mods that graft brass knuckles into your joints, which I feel like would only be an improvement on my arthritic hands, so I just stopped listening.
Raven Stratagem - Yoon Ha Lee
I don't think I've ever read a second book of a trilogy where the author successfully convinced me that something so crucial to the end of the first book was, in fact, a misreading on my part. A central plot point goes so utterly denied for so long that I BELIEVED I was wrong, somehow, impossibly, so that when it turned out I had been right (in understanding the very unambiguous ending of the first book), I was just completely thrown. I think I gasped out loud on the metro. Beyond the brilliant plot pacing, Lee's expansion of the narrative viewpoint to these other characters is refreshing without feeling alienating - we loose our main viewpoint character from the first book, but it feels fine, it feels earned and important. The worldbuilding is, of course, second to none, and the really careful balancing of humour and seriousness, of sly winks to the reader that nevertheless allow a completely immersive experience? Thanks, I love everything about it. I also really love that this book stands on its own, without feeling episodic. It really feels like a complete story, but also that it belongs in this set, the second movement of a really brilliant symphony.
I don't think I've ever read a second book of a trilogy where the author successfully convinced me that something so crucial to the end of the first book was, in fact, a misreading on my part. A central plot point goes so utterly denied for so long that I BELIEVED I was wrong, somehow, impossibly, so that when it turned out I had been right (in understanding the very unambiguous ending of the first book), I was just completely thrown. I think I gasped out loud on the metro. Beyond the brilliant plot pacing, Lee's expansion of the narrative viewpoint to these other characters is refreshing without feeling alienating - we loose our main viewpoint character from the first book, but it feels fine, it feels earned and important. The worldbuilding is, of course, second to none, and the really careful balancing of humour and seriousness, of sly winks to the reader that nevertheless allow a completely immersive experience? Thanks, I love everything about it. I also really love that this book stands on its own, without feeling episodic. It really feels like a complete story, but also that it belongs in this set, the second movement of a really brilliant symphony.
Revenant Gun - Yoon Ha Lee
Hemiola, the robot who makes AMVs, is perhaps the saving grace of this otherwise dark, dark book. This book, too, stands on its own, but is simultaneously the culmination of the series, and I somehow wish that some of the revelations inside its pages had been sprinkled in the previous two books. Things happened so quickly, in comparison to the timescales of the previous two books, even though the action here takes place over nine years in comparison to the several months of the others. Some things felt unearned, too, or improperly explained, or explained too late. Nevertheless, a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to one of the most inventive, emotionally mature, morally and compositionally complex pieces of science fiction I think I have ever read? I cannot wait to read whatever Lee's brilliant mind cooks up next.
Hemiola, the robot who makes AMVs, is perhaps the saving grace of this otherwise dark, dark book. This book, too, stands on its own, but is simultaneously the culmination of the series, and I somehow wish that some of the revelations inside its pages had been sprinkled in the previous two books. Things happened so quickly, in comparison to the timescales of the previous two books, even though the action here takes place over nine years in comparison to the several months of the others. Some things felt unearned, too, or improperly explained, or explained too late. Nevertheless, a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to one of the most inventive, emotionally mature, morally and compositionally complex pieces of science fiction I think I have ever read? I cannot wait to read whatever Lee's brilliant mind cooks up next.
Shattered Pillars - Elizabeth Bear
I am writing this after having read both this book and the third and final volume of the trilogy, so it is difficult to separate it out. This volume was definitely the most disappointing of the three, I think. In the grand scope of things, I can now see how necessary and how carefully built everything in this book was, but in the reading I felt that it rather dragged. I wanted more satisfaction, narratively, than this book had to give, so while the heightening stakes, and developing characters, and the unfolding plot were all beautifully done and frankly peerless, I would have liked some sense of completion in some areas? Or any area, frankly. I think the trilogy reads better as a whole then as discrete units, because nothing strictly began in this book and nothing ended, and that made it frustrating to read. When I reread it, as I certainly will, I wonder if, knowing the function it plays, I'll be able to appreciate it more?
I am writing this after having read both this book and the third and final volume of the trilogy, so it is difficult to separate it out. This volume was definitely the most disappointing of the three, I think. In the grand scope of things, I can now see how necessary and how carefully built everything in this book was, but in the reading I felt that it rather dragged. I wanted more satisfaction, narratively, than this book had to give, so while the heightening stakes, and developing characters, and the unfolding plot were all beautifully done and frankly peerless, I would have liked some sense of completion in some areas? Or any area, frankly. I think the trilogy reads better as a whole then as discrete units, because nothing strictly began in this book and nothing ended, and that made it frustrating to read. When I reread it, as I certainly will, I wonder if, knowing the function it plays, I'll be able to appreciate it more?
Steles of the Sky - Elizabeth Bear
I! Cannot! This trilogy, it turns out, is a snowball rolling downhill, gathering both weight and speed as it goes. A hundred pages from the end, I said, "I don't know how she can end this in the space we have left." Forty pages from the end, when the end still had not begun, I was even more distressed. I worried about an abrupt, unsatisfying ending, but somehow, with some potent magic, everything that needed to happen happened, and it did not feel rushed or careless (how?!). Everything in this trilogy was so meticulously planned; everything in the end had been pre-set, much of it from the very beginning. And every time I thought things couldn't get more intense, they did; even the periods of waiting were so saturated with potential that they felt electric. I have rarely felt so emotionally connected to such a large ensemble cast, en plus! Bear is obviously the master of her craft, and I am so happy to have the region of the world I love the best so well-represented, so honoured by this long and short story.
I! Cannot! This trilogy, it turns out, is a snowball rolling downhill, gathering both weight and speed as it goes. A hundred pages from the end, I said, "I don't know how she can end this in the space we have left." Forty pages from the end, when the end still had not begun, I was even more distressed. I worried about an abrupt, unsatisfying ending, but somehow, with some potent magic, everything that needed to happen happened, and it did not feel rushed or careless (how?!). Everything in this trilogy was so meticulously planned; everything in the end had been pre-set, much of it from the very beginning. And every time I thought things couldn't get more intense, they did; even the periods of waiting were so saturated with potential that they felt electric. I have rarely felt so emotionally connected to such a large ensemble cast, en plus! Bear is obviously the master of her craft, and I am so happy to have the region of the world I love the best so well-represented, so honoured by this long and short story.
Ludlow Lost - Kate Robinson Dunne
I think I shall have to get some small friends of mine to read this book and tell me what they think of it. But in my own memory, by the time I was the protagonist's age, I was reading stories in styles less condescending and contrived. I feel disloyal (Dunne is a Montrealer), but it feels like the kind of book written for children by someone who is thinking about how adults appreciate a children's book? The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Cat Valente) was a much better (and more self-aware) iteration of this style, as I couldn't help but think at least every other chapter. The story itself was good, right up until "and then no time had passed," which didn't seem to fit with the rest of everything. It felt like a mystery an eight-year-old might unravel pretty easily, which is a sure way to ensure they feel clever and thus enjoy the book, but it was a little dark for eight, what with significant murder that went unaddressed (or at least unaddressed in a way that would help an eight-year-old process). This was a book club book! We seem to independently choose amazing literature but together make disappointing choices.
I think I shall have to get some small friends of mine to read this book and tell me what they think of it. But in my own memory, by the time I was the protagonist's age, I was reading stories in styles less condescending and contrived. I feel disloyal (Dunne is a Montrealer), but it feels like the kind of book written for children by someone who is thinking about how adults appreciate a children's book? The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Cat Valente) was a much better (and more self-aware) iteration of this style, as I couldn't help but think at least every other chapter. The story itself was good, right up until "and then no time had passed," which didn't seem to fit with the rest of everything. It felt like a mystery an eight-year-old might unravel pretty easily, which is a sure way to ensure they feel clever and thus enjoy the book, but it was a little dark for eight, what with significant murder that went unaddressed (or at least unaddressed in a way that would help an eight-year-old process). This was a book club book! We seem to independently choose amazing literature but together make disappointing choices.
The Alphabet of Thorn - Patricia A. McKillip
You know, I love McKillip's writing for two very simple reasons: her writing styles echoes her subject matter (i.e. folkloric as all get out), and her female characters are dynamic and interesting without being overly described. It's a beautiful - and I suspect difficult - balance to strike, because folklore as a genre wants to be simplistic and archetypal, and to be true to the genre (which I think she is, almost all of the time), and to still have complicated female characters, seems impossible on paper. But she manages it! This particular book had no less than four utterly compelling female characters, and some pretty good male ones (McKillip just does not write men as interestingly as women), and two of my general favourite things: time wtf-ery, and language games. I described it to someone while I was reading it as "a translating librarian is implicated in the end of the known world," but it's so much more than that. McKillip's books always defy description, to me - they intertwine and overlap and are impossible to summarise. I love this world, and its magic, and its beauty, and its harshness. I love the meta-level discussion of the nature of folklore and especially of folkloric poetry - within the narrative! By its characters! By its internal texts! - and I love the conceit of a text within a text. I love the writing, always almost edible. I did not love the ending? I think McKillip's endings are always unsatisfying, and I think that's always intentional, her way of subverting her genre, but it doesn't make it any easier to like them.
You know, I love McKillip's writing for two very simple reasons: her writing styles echoes her subject matter (i.e. folkloric as all get out), and her female characters are dynamic and interesting without being overly described. It's a beautiful - and I suspect difficult - balance to strike, because folklore as a genre wants to be simplistic and archetypal, and to be true to the genre (which I think she is, almost all of the time), and to still have complicated female characters, seems impossible on paper. But she manages it! This particular book had no less than four utterly compelling female characters, and some pretty good male ones (McKillip just does not write men as interestingly as women), and two of my general favourite things: time wtf-ery, and language games. I described it to someone while I was reading it as "a translating librarian is implicated in the end of the known world," but it's so much more than that. McKillip's books always defy description, to me - they intertwine and overlap and are impossible to summarise. I love this world, and its magic, and its beauty, and its harshness. I love the meta-level discussion of the nature of folklore and especially of folkloric poetry - within the narrative! By its characters! By its internal texts! - and I love the conceit of a text within a text. I love the writing, always almost edible. I did not love the ending? I think McKillip's endings are always unsatisfying, and I think that's always intentional, her way of subverting her genre, but it doesn't make it any easier to like them.
The Water Cure - Sophie Mackintosh
Listen, I love my dystopias, and I love my narratives about sisters, and I love my ambiguity, but this book was somehow both too much and not enough of all of them? I had read a very comprehensive review of this book, which is why when I found it in my audiobook library I thought "why not?", and I have to agree with the reviewer that the frustration of the vacuum of world-building is immense. I get it: the reader has no more power in this narrative than do its principal characters. We don't know anything the sister's don’t. It's an incredibly tight, incredibly frustrating narrative, and I am deeply impressed by Mackintosh's ability to hold details out of the narrative, to focus in such a claustrophobic way on the shared and separate inner worlds of the sisters. I like that there was something ambiguous about every part of the narrative, about every character, and I love that the whole thing was a struggle for agency that was finally achieved, although achieved in a very broken, hard-to-handle way. I can't say that I enjoyed this book - some of it hit too close to home (the scenes of sexual violence that the other reviewer thought weren't there, that were recogniseable only to someone who has experienced sexual violence in this particular way? My goodness), and it was immensely frustrating throughout. But it was a good book, and I am glad that I read it.
Listen, I love my dystopias, and I love my narratives about sisters, and I love my ambiguity, but this book was somehow both too much and not enough of all of them? I had read a very comprehensive review of this book, which is why when I found it in my audiobook library I thought "why not?", and I have to agree with the reviewer that the frustration of the vacuum of world-building is immense. I get it: the reader has no more power in this narrative than do its principal characters. We don't know anything the sister's don’t. It's an incredibly tight, incredibly frustrating narrative, and I am deeply impressed by Mackintosh's ability to hold details out of the narrative, to focus in such a claustrophobic way on the shared and separate inner worlds of the sisters. I like that there was something ambiguous about every part of the narrative, about every character, and I love that the whole thing was a struggle for agency that was finally achieved, although achieved in a very broken, hard-to-handle way. I can't say that I enjoyed this book - some of it hit too close to home (the scenes of sexual violence that the other reviewer thought weren't there, that were recogniseable only to someone who has experienced sexual violence in this particular way? My goodness), and it was immensely frustrating throughout. But it was a good book, and I am glad that I read it.
The Power - Naomi Alderman
Alderman does not shy away from her point, ever, and I love it. This is a book whose thesis is: gender is entirely socially constructed, and we cannot hope to deconstruct it without absolutely tearing the society built on and around it down to nothing. This is a book about God, and faith, and what it means to finally have power. This is a book about violence, and about retribution, and about what it looks like to be utterly powerless. It is a hard book: it does not shy away from discussing or depicting gender-based violence. It does not shy away from presenting the world as it is. It is at times funny, and it is always unsettling, and it is full of characters who absolutely bleed off the page. The narrator of the audiobook did an absolutely phenomenal job with accents and vocal tics, which made it more enjoyable than most audiobooks I listen to - I found I tuned out much less often than I usually do. I will be re-reading this book, without question.
Alderman does not shy away from her point, ever, and I love it. This is a book whose thesis is: gender is entirely socially constructed, and we cannot hope to deconstruct it without absolutely tearing the society built on and around it down to nothing. This is a book about God, and faith, and what it means to finally have power. This is a book about violence, and about retribution, and about what it looks like to be utterly powerless. It is a hard book: it does not shy away from discussing or depicting gender-based violence. It does not shy away from presenting the world as it is. It is at times funny, and it is always unsettling, and it is full of characters who absolutely bleed off the page. The narrator of the audiobook did an absolutely phenomenal job with accents and vocal tics, which made it more enjoyable than most audiobooks I listen to - I found I tuned out much less often than I usually do. I will be re-reading this book, without question.
Inspired - Rachel Held Evans
It is so refreshing to hear Evans talk about the Bible! All the time, all of her work, speaks so clearly to the frustration that I have as a scholar of religious texts and as a believer in some of them. This particular book is pretty light and easy, a nice primer to Biblical genres, a nice troubler of Biblical stories and the cultural narratives we have surrounding them. It was a quick read (well, listen), and while I felt like I didn't have too many "aha!" moments, it felt very nice to hear myself so understood. I definitely did get a very good articulation out of it, of something I've been frustrated about for a while (i.e. preachers who talk about "context" without actually talking about the context of composition, genre, etc. and who rely on outdated or inaccurate information or treat their own interpretations thereof as fact), so that was very nice! Can't wait to feel that satisfaction of a puzzle piece clicking into place the next time I hear a sermon like that and am able to articulate to myself what is bugging me.
It is so refreshing to hear Evans talk about the Bible! All the time, all of her work, speaks so clearly to the frustration that I have as a scholar of religious texts and as a believer in some of them. This particular book is pretty light and easy, a nice primer to Biblical genres, a nice troubler of Biblical stories and the cultural narratives we have surrounding them. It was a quick read (well, listen), and while I felt like I didn't have too many "aha!" moments, it felt very nice to hear myself so understood. I definitely did get a very good articulation out of it, of something I've been frustrated about for a while (i.e. preachers who talk about "context" without actually talking about the context of composition, genre, etc. and who rely on outdated or inaccurate information or treat their own interpretations thereof as fact), so that was very nice! Can't wait to feel that satisfaction of a puzzle piece clicking into place the next time I hear a sermon like that and am able to articulate to myself what is bugging me.
The Lost Gate - Orson Scott Card
WHO lets this man write BOOKS. We get it, Orson: you like the Aryan Hypothesis. You have never met a woman you thought was worth talking to or understanding. You like using teenage boys (who neither act nor think like teenage boys, which is supposed to be because they're "special") as mouthpieces for your own decidedly weird views of the world. You have never met a Chosen One narrative you didn't like. You think sexual violence is funny. You like - have I mentioned? - the Aryan. Hypothesis. I am just floored that books like this get published. It's not a good book! Even if it didn't have any of those problems, the writing would still be mediocre at best, and the characters insufferably one-dimensional, even our supposedly complex main characters! I just…I feel like I'm supposed to be on board with "Orson Scott Card is a weird dude with weird and upsetting ideas, but at least he's a good writer," and there's not even that to hang onto.
WHO lets this man write BOOKS. We get it, Orson: you like the Aryan Hypothesis. You have never met a woman you thought was worth talking to or understanding. You like using teenage boys (who neither act nor think like teenage boys, which is supposed to be because they're "special") as mouthpieces for your own decidedly weird views of the world. You have never met a Chosen One narrative you didn't like. You think sexual violence is funny. You like - have I mentioned? - the Aryan. Hypothesis. I am just floored that books like this get published. It's not a good book! Even if it didn't have any of those problems, the writing would still be mediocre at best, and the characters insufferably one-dimensional, even our supposedly complex main characters! I just…I feel like I'm supposed to be on board with "Orson Scott Card is a weird dude with weird and upsetting ideas, but at least he's a good writer," and there's not even that to hang onto.
Finding Baba Yaga - Jane Yolen
I feel like Yolen and I have been long overdue for meeting, since she's kind of the living master of the folkloric fantasy I love most. This book was...not what I expected? In the best possible way; Yolen's matter-of-fact-ness is, I think, precisely what is needed when writing about someone as iconic and iconically ambiguous (although not necessarily traditionally so) as Baba Yaga. I liked the small fragments of story. I wish there had been more connective tissue, although I freely admit that not having much was probably a creative choice. I really loved the voice, and the subversion, and the imagery, but I can't say as I loved this. Maybe I have just been saturated by enough folklore and poetry that IS my taste this year?
I feel like Yolen and I have been long overdue for meeting, since she's kind of the living master of the folkloric fantasy I love most. This book was...not what I expected? In the best possible way; Yolen's matter-of-fact-ness is, I think, precisely what is needed when writing about someone as iconic and iconically ambiguous (although not necessarily traditionally so) as Baba Yaga. I liked the small fragments of story. I wish there had been more connective tissue, although I freely admit that not having much was probably a creative choice. I really loved the voice, and the subversion, and the imagery, but I can't say as I loved this. Maybe I have just been saturated by enough folklore and poetry that IS my taste this year?
Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik
Here more than in Uprooted, I really felt the dragging momentum of how Novik tells stories. It's not a bad technique; it makes the novel feel episodic, broken into neat plot-chunks. I have to say that I like my plot a little more muddled, usually, but while I definitely noticed the discrete sectioning here, I wasn't bothered by it. I was bothered by the heternormativity of the whole thing? There was so much room for a queerer, more dynamic and interesting story, and I spent the first third expecting it and the last two thirds lamenting its absence. Otherwise, though? The three protagonists were utterly entrancing, especially Maryam (but also Irina, and definitely Wanda), and I loved how religiosity was the string that kept the whole story together. I loved the different kinds of family, and the different kinds of generosity, and the overwhelming loveliness of the relationships the characters developed, particularly in how those relationships helped them to grow and change and become more themselves. Overall, a solid, compulsively readable book, and excellent exemplar of the rich well of inspiration and creativity still present in the timeless genre of the fairy tale.
Here more than in Uprooted, I really felt the dragging momentum of how Novik tells stories. It's not a bad technique; it makes the novel feel episodic, broken into neat plot-chunks. I have to say that I like my plot a little more muddled, usually, but while I definitely noticed the discrete sectioning here, I wasn't bothered by it. I was bothered by the heternormativity of the whole thing? There was so much room for a queerer, more dynamic and interesting story, and I spent the first third expecting it and the last two thirds lamenting its absence. Otherwise, though? The three protagonists were utterly entrancing, especially Maryam (but also Irina, and definitely Wanda), and I loved how religiosity was the string that kept the whole story together. I loved the different kinds of family, and the different kinds of generosity, and the overwhelming loveliness of the relationships the characters developed, particularly in how those relationships helped them to grow and change and become more themselves. Overall, a solid, compulsively readable book, and excellent exemplar of the rich well of inspiration and creativity still present in the timeless genre of the fairy tale.
Everfair - Nisi Shawl
Structurally, I did not like this book. I really like to be able to emotionally connect to characters, and the way the narrative leaps through time really hampers that for me. It's why I rarely read novels spanning decades/centuries/generations, and if I had known Everfair was written this way, I might not have read it. And what I would have been missing out on! A work of steampunk truly LIKEABLE and READABLE, where technological innovation is central but the author does not get lost in her own concepts and let them take over! A book with plausible, historically-specific ideas and fashions and discourses and DIALOGUE writing! An alternate history that actually asks how this one change ripples globally, with a longitudinal eye! I FEEL decidedly neutral about the reading experience, but have nothing but respect for it on a technical and artistic level. My goodness.
Structurally, I did not like this book. I really like to be able to emotionally connect to characters, and the way the narrative leaps through time really hampers that for me. It's why I rarely read novels spanning decades/centuries/generations, and if I had known Everfair was written this way, I might not have read it. And what I would have been missing out on! A work of steampunk truly LIKEABLE and READABLE, where technological innovation is central but the author does not get lost in her own concepts and let them take over! A book with plausible, historically-specific ideas and fashions and discourses and DIALOGUE writing! An alternate history that actually asks how this one change ripples globally, with a longitudinal eye! I FEEL decidedly neutral about the reading experience, but have nothing but respect for it on a technical and artistic level. My goodness.
Brilliance of the Moon - Lian Hearn
I feel like I don't have much to say about this book? I started reading this series in CEGEP, and I think I liked it a lot more then. It's clearly well-researched, and there's been a lot of care taken with the crafting, but it just didn't grip me. I think part of the problem was a first-person narration that didn't add in any meaningful way to the complexity of the narrative? And characters it was hard to get into, and a plot where things were just a little too obvious. I didn't dislike reading it, but I don't think I'll finish the series.
I feel like I don't have much to say about this book? I started reading this series in CEGEP, and I think I liked it a lot more then. It's clearly well-researched, and there's been a lot of care taken with the crafting, but it just didn't grip me. I think part of the problem was a first-person narration that didn't add in any meaningful way to the complexity of the narrative? And characters it was hard to get into, and a plot where things were just a little too obvious. I didn't dislike reading it, but I don't think I'll finish the series.
Witchmark - C.L. Polk
Is this the first vaguely steampunk book I actually like, comprehensively?! Although "like" is an insufficiently strong word for how I feel about this deliciously Edwardian noir-esque mystery/magical/political romance. The characters, down to tertiary figures! The misdirection all leading into one beautifully cohesive truth! The descriptive! The world! The use of LANGUAGE, proper nouns made of common nouns in the way that I love more than almost any other stylistic quirk! The CHARACTERS! The PLOT! I read it in an afternoon and would read it again in a heartbeat. If books are devourable, this one was a new dish that, as I ate, made its way to near the top of my list of comfort foods.
Is this the first vaguely steampunk book I actually like, comprehensively?! Although "like" is an insufficiently strong word for how I feel about this deliciously Edwardian noir-esque mystery/magical/political romance. The characters, down to tertiary figures! The misdirection all leading into one beautifully cohesive truth! The descriptive! The world! The use of LANGUAGE, proper nouns made of common nouns in the way that I love more than almost any other stylistic quirk! The CHARACTERS! The PLOT! I read it in an afternoon and would read it again in a heartbeat. If books are devourable, this one was a new dish that, as I ate, made its way to near the top of my list of comfort foods.
Ombria in Shadow - Patricia McKillip
I think one of my favourite things about McKillip is her endless inventiveness for types and modes of magic, always explained just enough and no more. And how she uses folkloric logic and folkloric time, so that all her books exist half in a dream state. I love the atmospheric prose. I love the sense of calamity narrowly averted. I love the strength and weakness and disaster-prone-ness of her characters, their otherworldly humanness. Her worlds never make perfect sense, and their spaces of ambiguity are things that I treasure. Discussing this book with my book club partner, I realised that I like McKillip's writing for the feelings it evokes, because it doesn't really stand up to being picked apart - but these aren't things you notice when reading, because you're so suffused by the feeling.
I think one of my favourite things about McKillip is her endless inventiveness for types and modes of magic, always explained just enough and no more. And how she uses folkloric logic and folkloric time, so that all her books exist half in a dream state. I love the atmospheric prose. I love the sense of calamity narrowly averted. I love the strength and weakness and disaster-prone-ness of her characters, their otherworldly humanness. Her worlds never make perfect sense, and their spaces of ambiguity are things that I treasure. Discussing this book with my book club partner, I realised that I like McKillip's writing for the feelings it evokes, because it doesn't really stand up to being picked apart - but these aren't things you notice when reading, because you're so suffused by the feeling.
The Odyssey - trans. Emily Wilson
I have been screaming about this translation since Wilson started tweeting excerpts and explanations, and it's just as good, and better, than I wanted it to be. Wilson has managed something unthinkable: she has retained the same number of lines as the Greek original, and she has written in verse, and she has made it immensely readable. It is enjoyable to read, and feels both familiar and altogether new. I actually appreciated the weight of the story being squarely on Ithaca, something that I've never enjoyed before. Wilson makes me understand and love that this poem is about home - leaving it, coming back to it, defending it, suffering for it, letting it embrace you. If her phrasings weren't so vigorous, if her care was not so evident, I could have loved this translation for that alone.
I have been screaming about this translation since Wilson started tweeting excerpts and explanations, and it's just as good, and better, than I wanted it to be. Wilson has managed something unthinkable: she has retained the same number of lines as the Greek original, and she has written in verse, and she has made it immensely readable. It is enjoyable to read, and feels both familiar and altogether new. I actually appreciated the weight of the story being squarely on Ithaca, something that I've never enjoyed before. Wilson makes me understand and love that this poem is about home - leaving it, coming back to it, defending it, suffering for it, letting it embrace you. If her phrasings weren't so vigorous, if her care was not so evident, I could have loved this translation for that alone.
At the Bottom of the Dark - Kay Smith
This slim collection of poems was a revelation for me when I first read it - I think because it was the first poetry I'd ever read not written by a) a giant of literature or b) someone I knew. Almost a decade later, it's less impressive, and I'm kind of sad about that. I wanted to love these poems like I remember loving them, I wanted them to speak to me, but they didn't, and I suppose that's okay.
This slim collection of poems was a revelation for me when I first read it - I think because it was the first poetry I'd ever read not written by a) a giant of literature or b) someone I knew. Almost a decade later, it's less impressive, and I'm kind of sad about that. I wanted to love these poems like I remember loving them, I wanted them to speak to me, but they didn't, and I suppose that's okay.
For a Left Populism - Chantal Mouffe
Mouffe is, like, aggressively anti-Marxist, which I suppose should be expected from someone who is so profoundly in love with statism? So much of this very short work is spent talking about how populism ONLY works and ONLY matters when it aims to prop up a state (with a throw-away comment about how "fix the state and THEN talk about how capitalism sucks, but the state is totally divorceable from capitalism" which………………okay then)? I appreciate that, as a manifesto of sorts, the work needs to articulate some very precise boundaries, but I couldn't help but feel that I don't want the same ultimate aim that Mouffe does, much as we might agree on methods. And the fact that she forecloses the possibility that her proposed method would lead to anything BUT a more robust state is offputting, to say the least. I also tire of jargon-y books clearly written for other people who share one's beliefs. But these massive caveats aside, there's a not insignificant value in Mouffe's articulation of one of the chief problems of the 21st century (neoliberal post-politics) and in her articulation of ways to undermine and ultimately overturn the order that supports it.
Mouffe is, like, aggressively anti-Marxist, which I suppose should be expected from someone who is so profoundly in love with statism? So much of this very short work is spent talking about how populism ONLY works and ONLY matters when it aims to prop up a state (with a throw-away comment about how "fix the state and THEN talk about how capitalism sucks, but the state is totally divorceable from capitalism" which………………okay then)? I appreciate that, as a manifesto of sorts, the work needs to articulate some very precise boundaries, but I couldn't help but feel that I don't want the same ultimate aim that Mouffe does, much as we might agree on methods. And the fact that she forecloses the possibility that her proposed method would lead to anything BUT a more robust state is offputting, to say the least. I also tire of jargon-y books clearly written for other people who share one's beliefs. But these massive caveats aside, there's a not insignificant value in Mouffe's articulation of one of the chief problems of the 21st century (neoliberal post-politics) and in her articulation of ways to undermine and ultimately overturn the order that supports it.
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps - Kai Ashante Wilson
This book is a stylistic nightmare, in the best possible way. A mishmash of so many things I love about specfic (non-linear narrative, religion, magic-that-is-science, science-that-is-magic, the folkloric trope of the forest, ephemera, countdown clocks, just-enough worldbuilding), and done in such a brilliant and beautiful way, full of deeply traditional literary moves worthy of some very high canon. I want more of this story, but somehow there is just enough of it, down to the perfectly ambiguous parts. Wilson leaves hungry where most he satisfies. I am delighted. I loved this book,
This book is a stylistic nightmare, in the best possible way. A mishmash of so many things I love about specfic (non-linear narrative, religion, magic-that-is-science, science-that-is-magic, the folkloric trope of the forest, ephemera, countdown clocks, just-enough worldbuilding), and done in such a brilliant and beautiful way, full of deeply traditional literary moves worthy of some very high canon. I want more of this story, but somehow there is just enough of it, down to the perfectly ambiguous parts. Wilson leaves hungry where most he satisfies. I am delighted. I loved this book,
Ghostwritten - David Mitchell
If each section of this book had been about 30% shorter, I would have enjoyed it significantly more. On a conceptual level, interlinking stories and the ways they are linked (repeated names and phrases, plot points, human connections) are a great idea! The execution was just a little too heavy-handed for me, and by about halfway through I was just ready to figure out the point and reach the end. Maybe if I liked short stories or first-person narration more I would have enjoyed it better? The all-dialogue section was particularly grating, but maybe that's more to do with my preference for descriptive writing than any flaw on Mitchell's part? I wanted to like this book much more than I did, ultimately.
If each section of this book had been about 30% shorter, I would have enjoyed it significantly more. On a conceptual level, interlinking stories and the ways they are linked (repeated names and phrases, plot points, human connections) are a great idea! The execution was just a little too heavy-handed for me, and by about halfway through I was just ready to figure out the point and reach the end. Maybe if I liked short stories or first-person narration more I would have enjoyed it better? The all-dialogue section was particularly grating, but maybe that's more to do with my preference for descriptive writing than any flaw on Mitchell's part? I wanted to like this book much more than I did, ultimately.
Dead Cold - Louise Penny
While it's a little heavy-handed in more than a few places (you can tell she's still finding her stride!), I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think it's that Penny writes a mystery as a vehicle for other, more important things - an ethical philosophy, a theology of relationship, a love song to place. As not a fan of mysteries even outside the genre, I think I'm drawn most in these books to the way the mystery is facilitative rather than constitutive. Also the linguistic choices are deeply interesting and carry such a strong sense of locality!
While it's a little heavy-handed in more than a few places (you can tell she's still finding her stride!), I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think it's that Penny writes a mystery as a vehicle for other, more important things - an ethical philosophy, a theology of relationship, a love song to place. As not a fan of mysteries even outside the genre, I think I'm drawn most in these books to the way the mystery is facilitative rather than constitutive. Also the linguistic choices are deeply interesting and carry such a strong sense of locality!
The Cruellest Month - Louise Penny
I struggle with the "not all cops" rhetoric that seems to be particularly at play in this novel. That's it. That's my sticking point. I know that this theme will keep emerging as the kind of ongoing series-spanning plot develops, but at the moment I'm not quite certain what to do with it. I do love all the different relational dynamics at play in this particular installment, though, and how earned they all feel.
I struggle with the "not all cops" rhetoric that seems to be particularly at play in this novel. That's it. That's my sticking point. I know that this theme will keep emerging as the kind of ongoing series-spanning plot develops, but at the moment I'm not quite certain what to do with it. I do love all the different relational dynamics at play in this particular installment, though, and how earned they all feel.
Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
My word! A mostly plotless book that I enjoyed? A multiple-narrator book spanning decades that I enjoyed? Maybe it was the playing with time and narrative style, the inclusion of in-universe texts, maybe it was the sense of bildungsroman - but of a world, not of a character, and of the particular world of small groups of people. I love this post-post-apocalyptic storytelling - yes, I do want to know not just how we survive, but how we live. How we build and grow. I love, too, how Lear is at the centre of plot and structure and characterization, unsurprisingly. I don't know that I can say that I loved the book entirely? But I liked it, very much.
My word! A mostly plotless book that I enjoyed? A multiple-narrator book spanning decades that I enjoyed? Maybe it was the playing with time and narrative style, the inclusion of in-universe texts, maybe it was the sense of bildungsroman - but of a world, not of a character, and of the particular world of small groups of people. I love this post-post-apocalyptic storytelling - yes, I do want to know not just how we survive, but how we live. How we build and grow. I love, too, how Lear is at the centre of plot and structure and characterization, unsurprisingly. I don't know that I can say that I loved the book entirely? But I liked it, very much.
Simple Forms - André Jolles
Genre theory at its most elemental! While I don't know how convinced I am of the existence of these intrinsic, ur-forms, these select mental dispositions, I do love how Jolles goes about arguing for and defining them. His rhetoric is lovely and open, accessible without losing rigour, and I adore! I adore! The different classifications he makes. I have found utterly convincing the way Jolles defines each form, but more than that the interrelationship, the methodological linking. The constant and circular repetition of points in new ways. How lovely a work of theory, regardless of how much it reflects some real state of affairs!
Genre theory at its most elemental! While I don't know how convinced I am of the existence of these intrinsic, ur-forms, these select mental dispositions, I do love how Jolles goes about arguing for and defining them. His rhetoric is lovely and open, accessible without losing rigour, and I adore! I adore! The different classifications he makes. I have found utterly convincing the way Jolles defines each form, but more than that the interrelationship, the methodological linking. The constant and circular repetition of points in new ways. How lovely a work of theory, regardless of how much it reflects some real state of affairs!
Radical Happiness - Lynne Segal
I have to say, firstly, that I wanted this book to be a little more theory-heavy, a little more argumentative, than it ultimately was (thankfully I have a Sarah Ahmed on the same topic to help fill the gap). I loved, though, Segal's thorough encapsulation of all the things standing in the way of happiness, her careful, well-cited, beautifully-written overviews of a huge amount of critical theory and practical analysis. And I loved that, at the heart, she finds collective joy in the very struggle for the components of happiness, in the coming together to agitate for and to demand dignity, equity, grace. This is a hopeful book, not because of any prescription Segal makes for the world to be better, but because she shows that, no matter how grim the circumstances, when we come together, it already is.
I have to say, firstly, that I wanted this book to be a little more theory-heavy, a little more argumentative, than it ultimately was (thankfully I have a Sarah Ahmed on the same topic to help fill the gap). I loved, though, Segal's thorough encapsulation of all the things standing in the way of happiness, her careful, well-cited, beautifully-written overviews of a huge amount of critical theory and practical analysis. And I loved that, at the heart, she finds collective joy in the very struggle for the components of happiness, in the coming together to agitate for and to demand dignity, equity, grace. This is a hopeful book, not because of any prescription Segal makes for the world to be better, but because she shows that, no matter how grim the circumstances, when we come together, it already is.
Magic for Liars - Sarah Gailey
I love film noir as a genre, but I do not love the misogyny that usually suffuses it, so this book was an absolute TREAT. Written in a very traditional, very "oh I recognise this trope!" noir style, the story is nevertheless both fresh and exciting. I admit that I am biased because the emotional core of the story is the main character's relationship with her sister (and with her sense of her own inadequacy - truly, a book for Me), but, honestly? The best kinds of detective fiction, for me, are less about the whodunit and more about the complicated webs of human interaction that an investigation uncovers, and Gailey really delivered on this front. The worldbuilding could have used a bit more colour, for me, but I do think one of the hallmarks of the noir genre is that sense of only glimpsing the world, the really introspective nature of it.
I love film noir as a genre, but I do not love the misogyny that usually suffuses it, so this book was an absolute TREAT. Written in a very traditional, very "oh I recognise this trope!" noir style, the story is nevertheless both fresh and exciting. I admit that I am biased because the emotional core of the story is the main character's relationship with her sister (and with her sense of her own inadequacy - truly, a book for Me), but, honestly? The best kinds of detective fiction, for me, are less about the whodunit and more about the complicated webs of human interaction that an investigation uncovers, and Gailey really delivered on this front. The worldbuilding could have used a bit more colour, for me, but I do think one of the hallmarks of the noir genre is that sense of only glimpsing the world, the really introspective nature of it.
A Gathering of Shadows - V. E. Schwab
I know lots of people have criticisms of this trilogy, and they may or may not be valid, but I love it. I do wish the queerness of it wasn't quite so sidelined, and the odd bit of stilted dialogue has escaped the editor's red pen, but as far as quibbles go, those are pretty minor. I love the world(s) that Schwab has created, and I love her characters. I am fond of the layers of cleverness, and, of course, I will never get enough of pirates or formalised duelling or excellent wardrobe choices or characters whose only vocabulary options are Snark and Unintentionally Revealing Great Depth of Feeling. I won't say that this trilogy is anywhere near the top of my favourites list, but what good fun it's been thus far! I am seriously lamenting not having the final installment on hand to dive right into.
I know lots of people have criticisms of this trilogy, and they may or may not be valid, but I love it. I do wish the queerness of it wasn't quite so sidelined, and the odd bit of stilted dialogue has escaped the editor's red pen, but as far as quibbles go, those are pretty minor. I love the world(s) that Schwab has created, and I love her characters. I am fond of the layers of cleverness, and, of course, I will never get enough of pirates or formalised duelling or excellent wardrobe choices or characters whose only vocabulary options are Snark and Unintentionally Revealing Great Depth of Feeling. I won't say that this trilogy is anywhere near the top of my favourites list, but what good fun it's been thus far! I am seriously lamenting not having the final installment on hand to dive right into.