Bookwormish, 3rd quarter of 2016
Oct. 1st, 2016 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starfishstarI didn't read quite as much this quarter because I was traveling, but apparently I still have plenty to say... Believe it or not, this is still only a portion of what I read:
VERY TOP BOOKS:
I’m gonna go for “extremely eclectic combinations” once again, and name these two as my favorite books I read this quarter:
Beloved by Toni Morrison
This is an incredible portrayal of the real, human devastation of living through slavery, and Toni Morrison’s writing is amazing, weaving so many elements together even while making the whole thing seem effortless. She’s not a legend for nothing! I’ve read/watched/learned a fair bit about slavery over the years, but I honestly think nothing has ever brought home the raw, personal trauma of it like this book did. I’m in awe of Morrison now.
On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
I think I’m developing a minor obsession with Australian YA literature, purely on the strength of Melina Marchetta. This book is so strange, almost surreal, especially in the first half where nothing’s particularly clear. (The kids at the school are having a mock war with their rivals? Or an actual war? Wait, what’s going on?) But every single detail, down to seeming throwaway bits like the cat or the Kenny Rogers song, turns out to connect to the overarching plot. Masterfully done. Plus, the characters are wonderful! I can’t remember the last time I so desperately wished I could stay inside the world of a book, that it could go on and on and never end.
OTHER TOP BOOKS:
Affinity by Sarah Waters
Another masterful piece of writing, where the ending twists on its head everything you thought you knew (even your own moral and emotional reactions!)
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Beautifully sad portrait of the life of a prickly and not always particularly likable small-town teacher, through a kaleidoscope of short stories where she does and doesn’t play a central role. The scenes between her and her son are particularly painful, like watching the worst parts of the parent-adult child relationship from the other side.
EVEN MORE GOOD BOOKS:
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin
I hadn’t read proper sci-fi in such a long time, I’d forgotten how good it can be! LeGuin’s world-building here is fascinating – although, like all “future” societies invented in an era that now lies several decades in our real-world past, the book’s assumptions of what human culture will be like in the future seems pretty dated. Which means maybe we’ve come further, in the real world, than I tend to think?
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Another writer who tells a tale so effortlessly, making it seem like no work at all despite the care that must have gone into making every detail perfect… How does she do it? I wish I could pick apart her writing and know!
Giant Days by John Allison & Lissa Treiman
Very cute and fun graphic novel about three friends in their first year of university in the UK.
The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle
Tim Federle’s YA debut (after a couple of middle-grade novels) packs quite a punch, with much heavier issues than the middle-grade ones. For some reason I can’t put my finger on, this book left me unsettled for days, although I also really liked it. Federle is also the perfect audiobook narrator of his own books, highly recommended.
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne Valente
Catherynne Valente: still totally charming and an endless fount of quirky, creative world-building.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Much less serious than the other Austen novels I’ve read so far, but also much funnier – I’d forgotten what an eye she has for the small, absurd behaviors of slightly ridiculous people.
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
The first Margaret Atwood book that didn’t depress the hell out of me! Actually quite a fun way of retelling the events of the Odyssey from the female characters’ perspectives.
GLAD-I-FINALLY-READ-IT BOOKS:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I’m one of the few people in the US who hadn’t yet read “To Kill a Mockingbird” (in my defense, I did see the play as a kid!), and was ashamed to admit it my librarian colleague, so now I finally read it. To Kill a Mockingbird probably suffered in comparison because I read it at the same time as Beloved, and the contrast between “book about racial tensions from the perspective of African-American characters” and “book about racial tensions from the perspective of white people who are supposedly the good guys here but actually are themselves pretty disturbingly racist” was so stark. It made me appreciate Beloved all the more, and To Kill a Mockingbird less. Also maybe I’m just too old to read Mockingbird naively, and not see the problematic elements. But I’m still glad I read it, of course – it fills a cultural gap in my American-ness, since this book is such a touchstone in our culture.
If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
This is one of those books that’s doing so many important things (LGBT characters, set in Iran, woman of color author, providing an inside cultural perspective of a country most people in Western culture know little about) and I had such high hopes for it…but the book itself wasn’t all that good. Not terrible, but not praiseworthy. A little clunky, a little underdeveloped. I so wanted this book to be excellent, so I suppose it’s not the book’s fault that my expectations were too high! I’m still glad I read it, but I wish I could talk it up more enthusiastically.
LOOKING AHEAD:
More than anything, I am determined to finish Independent People by Halldór Laxness – what an Icelandic friend called “the book you have to read to understand Icelandic people.” I did start it August in Iceland, but got sidetracked but other things now that I’m back home where I have bushels of books at my fingertips. But I will finish it!
Also need to finish the other two thirds of the massive 1Q84.
…And other than that maybe chill out a bit, because I have SO MANY books I want to read, and no matter how fast I read the list only gets longer, and it’s honestly a bit stressful. I have a hard time doing a thing and not doing it obsessively/over the top.
I’m also hoping to do NaNoWriMo, so I probably won’t get to read much in November!
.
VERY TOP BOOKS:
I’m gonna go for “extremely eclectic combinations” once again, and name these two as my favorite books I read this quarter:
Beloved by Toni Morrison
This is an incredible portrayal of the real, human devastation of living through slavery, and Toni Morrison’s writing is amazing, weaving so many elements together even while making the whole thing seem effortless. She’s not a legend for nothing! I’ve read/watched/learned a fair bit about slavery over the years, but I honestly think nothing has ever brought home the raw, personal trauma of it like this book did. I’m in awe of Morrison now.
On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
I think I’m developing a minor obsession with Australian YA literature, purely on the strength of Melina Marchetta. This book is so strange, almost surreal, especially in the first half where nothing’s particularly clear. (The kids at the school are having a mock war with their rivals? Or an actual war? Wait, what’s going on?) But every single detail, down to seeming throwaway bits like the cat or the Kenny Rogers song, turns out to connect to the overarching plot. Masterfully done. Plus, the characters are wonderful! I can’t remember the last time I so desperately wished I could stay inside the world of a book, that it could go on and on and never end.
OTHER TOP BOOKS:
Affinity by Sarah Waters
Another masterful piece of writing, where the ending twists on its head everything you thought you knew (even your own moral and emotional reactions!)
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Beautifully sad portrait of the life of a prickly and not always particularly likable small-town teacher, through a kaleidoscope of short stories where she does and doesn’t play a central role. The scenes between her and her son are particularly painful, like watching the worst parts of the parent-adult child relationship from the other side.
EVEN MORE GOOD BOOKS:
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin
I hadn’t read proper sci-fi in such a long time, I’d forgotten how good it can be! LeGuin’s world-building here is fascinating – although, like all “future” societies invented in an era that now lies several decades in our real-world past, the book’s assumptions of what human culture will be like in the future seems pretty dated. Which means maybe we’ve come further, in the real world, than I tend to think?
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Another writer who tells a tale so effortlessly, making it seem like no work at all despite the care that must have gone into making every detail perfect… How does she do it? I wish I could pick apart her writing and know!
Giant Days by John Allison & Lissa Treiman
Very cute and fun graphic novel about three friends in their first year of university in the UK.
The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle
Tim Federle’s YA debut (after a couple of middle-grade novels) packs quite a punch, with much heavier issues than the middle-grade ones. For some reason I can’t put my finger on, this book left me unsettled for days, although I also really liked it. Federle is also the perfect audiobook narrator of his own books, highly recommended.
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne Valente
Catherynne Valente: still totally charming and an endless fount of quirky, creative world-building.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Much less serious than the other Austen novels I’ve read so far, but also much funnier – I’d forgotten what an eye she has for the small, absurd behaviors of slightly ridiculous people.
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
The first Margaret Atwood book that didn’t depress the hell out of me! Actually quite a fun way of retelling the events of the Odyssey from the female characters’ perspectives.
GLAD-I-FINALLY-READ-IT BOOKS:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I’m one of the few people in the US who hadn’t yet read “To Kill a Mockingbird” (in my defense, I did see the play as a kid!), and was ashamed to admit it my librarian colleague, so now I finally read it. To Kill a Mockingbird probably suffered in comparison because I read it at the same time as Beloved, and the contrast between “book about racial tensions from the perspective of African-American characters” and “book about racial tensions from the perspective of white people who are supposedly the good guys here but actually are themselves pretty disturbingly racist” was so stark. It made me appreciate Beloved all the more, and To Kill a Mockingbird less. Also maybe I’m just too old to read Mockingbird naively, and not see the problematic elements. But I’m still glad I read it, of course – it fills a cultural gap in my American-ness, since this book is such a touchstone in our culture.
If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
This is one of those books that’s doing so many important things (LGBT characters, set in Iran, woman of color author, providing an inside cultural perspective of a country most people in Western culture know little about) and I had such high hopes for it…but the book itself wasn’t all that good. Not terrible, but not praiseworthy. A little clunky, a little underdeveloped. I so wanted this book to be excellent, so I suppose it’s not the book’s fault that my expectations were too high! I’m still glad I read it, but I wish I could talk it up more enthusiastically.
LOOKING AHEAD:
More than anything, I am determined to finish Independent People by Halldór Laxness – what an Icelandic friend called “the book you have to read to understand Icelandic people.” I did start it August in Iceland, but got sidetracked but other things now that I’m back home where I have bushels of books at my fingertips. But I will finish it!
Also need to finish the other two thirds of the massive 1Q84.
…And other than that maybe chill out a bit, because I have SO MANY books I want to read, and no matter how fast I read the list only gets longer, and it’s honestly a bit stressful. I have a hard time doing a thing and not doing it obsessively/over the top.
I’m also hoping to do NaNoWriMo, so I probably won’t get to read much in November!
.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-04 11:49 pm (UTC)