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I've been reading fewer books in the last month or two, mostly because I keep reading stupid internet crap on my phone. Continuing to dip in and out of mild depression is definitely part of the problem - that, and ambition. In that I asked for a bunch of books for Christmas and my birthday that are all very excellent books that I genuinely want to read, except that many of them have turned out to be more serious/challenging than my mush brain can handle. So I keep avoiding the very excellent book and reading Buzzfeed quizzes instead, which is probably contributing to the mild depression, but f it, it keeps snowing and everything sucks and I'm so freaking tired of scraping and salting the walk again. And we have yet to have ARR make it through five whole days of in-person school since the beginning of November. And the complete lack of anything like a sustainable routine has destroyed most of my exercise habits. And I keep going through cycles of interviews, because my job is driving me nuts, but they mostly end up being for things I don't actually want because I am clearly an extremely hot commodity for baby start ups looking for their very first marketing VP (which could theoretically be an interesting and lucrative thing that I don't want) and I can't get bigger companies to give me the time of day. And some intensive parenting challenges. Whee.
Yeah, so Mr-History-of-Advertising, I do think you're interesting every time I start reading you, but I can't quite get the energy to pick you up again.
So books?
1. Sorceror to the Crown by Zen Cho. 4.5. Look, there's a reason Bridgerton did so well, Regency style social conventions present a particular set of constraints-plus-costume-fantasy that is drama catnip. Add actual fantasy, even better. Include people of color so it's not the same damn thing that's been done over and over, bonus points.
2. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. 5. This starts as deeply weird and almost surrealist, with a guy who lives in some kind of endless plane of marble statuary that floods all the time and who is very clearly off his rocker. Robinson Crusoe in a Platonic nightmare. And it actually makes sense by the end. Clarke sticks an amazingly difficult landing, and the deft way she doles out information while building tension is damn impressive. That makes it all sound way less appealing than it actually is.
3. An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard. 5. Modern day fantasy (while urban, but definitely not urban fantasy, if that makes sense) featuring deadly ornate wizard duels in New York. Dark as hell, absolutely gorgeous magic.
4. The House on the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. 5. This was the gentle, personal-stakes fantasy I needed this January. Sweet and lovely, a magical orphanage that manages to just avoid twee and an incredibly sweet love story that's never over the top.
5. Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCullough. 5. Do you find pop linguistics fascinating? Are you a denizen of the internet, or ever interact with said denizens? This is your book. Funny, smart, and informative.
6. Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett. 5. I am not sure how much my kid is absorbing some of the (seriously good) moral musings in this book and how much he's in it for drunken Nac Mac Feegle shenanigans, but either way, I thoroughly enjoy doing the voices in the family readalong.
7. The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago, translated by Giovanni Pontiero. 3. It might have been the translation, but I wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to be by a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Most of the reviews seem to cite creativity and subversiveness in his sly twist of alternate history, but honestly, I've seen plenty of speculative fiction writers do sly subversiveness more creatively. Maybe I'm just over love stories featuring uninspiring and obvious stand-ins for their white dude writers (where the love interest is always significantly younger and lacking interiority.)
8. Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst. 3.5. Fun and fluffyish YA fantasy about a girl confronting her magical heritage, which I found personally extra appealing because it takes place at Princeton Reunions and is chockful of insider nods and winks.
9. Monkey by Wu Cheng'en, translated by Arthur Waley. 3.5. There's clearly a certain logic and rhythm to fairy tales, as the trappings and topics of this 16th century series of interconnected stories of the mischievous Monkey King and his gradual enlightenment (with lots of shenanigans and battles on the way) has a feeling not dissimilar from many European classics or 1001 Arabian Nights. At the same time, I thoroughly enjoyed the wildly different assumptions behind them.
10. The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson. 4. I'm not sure every single Mistborn novel actually needs to make us completely revise our understanding of the series world, as Sanderson is convinced. However, the rollicking adventure is appealing, and I love a lot of the characters. Especially the dour planner Steris, who is rapidly becoming my favorite.
11. March by Geraldine Brooks. 5. Did you find the father kind of the most annoying character in Little Women, in his pig-headed idealism? So did Brooks! This is a gorgeous, chilling exploration of what he was up to while Jo and Meg were fussing with balls and Laurie. Spoiler: the civil war would not have been kind to the illusions of a naive preacher. More importantly, a white guy in this situation is never going to be the one who suffers the most for his idealism. And yet, it's full of compassion even as you want to slap his head into a tree.
12. Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar. 4.5. Really fun spin on the YA "girl discovers her heritage, has to compete in a contest" trope. The Indian-American background is a delightful fresh set of trappings, and the world building is gorgeous.
Yeah, so Mr-History-of-Advertising, I do think you're interesting every time I start reading you, but I can't quite get the energy to pick you up again.
So books?
1. Sorceror to the Crown by Zen Cho. 4.5. Look, there's a reason Bridgerton did so well, Regency style social conventions present a particular set of constraints-plus-costume-fantasy that is drama catnip. Add actual fantasy, even better. Include people of color so it's not the same damn thing that's been done over and over, bonus points.
2. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. 5. This starts as deeply weird and almost surrealist, with a guy who lives in some kind of endless plane of marble statuary that floods all the time and who is very clearly off his rocker. Robinson Crusoe in a Platonic nightmare. And it actually makes sense by the end. Clarke sticks an amazingly difficult landing, and the deft way she doles out information while building tension is damn impressive. That makes it all sound way less appealing than it actually is.
3. An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard. 5. Modern day fantasy (while urban, but definitely not urban fantasy, if that makes sense) featuring deadly ornate wizard duels in New York. Dark as hell, absolutely gorgeous magic.
4. The House on the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. 5. This was the gentle, personal-stakes fantasy I needed this January. Sweet and lovely, a magical orphanage that manages to just avoid twee and an incredibly sweet love story that's never over the top.
5. Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCullough. 5. Do you find pop linguistics fascinating? Are you a denizen of the internet, or ever interact with said denizens? This is your book. Funny, smart, and informative.
6. Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett. 5. I am not sure how much my kid is absorbing some of the (seriously good) moral musings in this book and how much he's in it for drunken Nac Mac Feegle shenanigans, but either way, I thoroughly enjoy doing the voices in the family readalong.
7. The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago, translated by Giovanni Pontiero. 3. It might have been the translation, but I wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to be by a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Most of the reviews seem to cite creativity and subversiveness in his sly twist of alternate history, but honestly, I've seen plenty of speculative fiction writers do sly subversiveness more creatively. Maybe I'm just over love stories featuring uninspiring and obvious stand-ins for their white dude writers (where the love interest is always significantly younger and lacking interiority.)
8. Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst. 3.5. Fun and fluffyish YA fantasy about a girl confronting her magical heritage, which I found personally extra appealing because it takes place at Princeton Reunions and is chockful of insider nods and winks.
9. Monkey by Wu Cheng'en, translated by Arthur Waley. 3.5. There's clearly a certain logic and rhythm to fairy tales, as the trappings and topics of this 16th century series of interconnected stories of the mischievous Monkey King and his gradual enlightenment (with lots of shenanigans and battles on the way) has a feeling not dissimilar from many European classics or 1001 Arabian Nights. At the same time, I thoroughly enjoyed the wildly different assumptions behind them.
10. The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson. 4. I'm not sure every single Mistborn novel actually needs to make us completely revise our understanding of the series world, as Sanderson is convinced. However, the rollicking adventure is appealing, and I love a lot of the characters. Especially the dour planner Steris, who is rapidly becoming my favorite.
11. March by Geraldine Brooks. 5. Did you find the father kind of the most annoying character in Little Women, in his pig-headed idealism? So did Brooks! This is a gorgeous, chilling exploration of what he was up to while Jo and Meg were fussing with balls and Laurie. Spoiler: the civil war would not have been kind to the illusions of a naive preacher. More importantly, a white guy in this situation is never going to be the one who suffers the most for his idealism. And yet, it's full of compassion even as you want to slap his head into a tree.
12. Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar. 4.5. Really fun spin on the YA "girl discovers her heritage, has to compete in a contest" trope. The Indian-American background is a delightful fresh set of trappings, and the world building is gorgeous.
