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books read: 2021 jan-feb
Suddenly it's March, and the days are getting longer but I am still struggling on a week to week basis. Weekends are nice; weekdays are tough. Chances to get of the house may be increasing (volunteering and patio dining), for which I am grateful, though I'm still taking it slow and cautious as I won't be in line for a vaccine for a while yet. Let's look back on books from the past two months.
Currently reading: City of Miracles, plus 3 more books I own, plus 2 more I'm picking up from the library on Monday. Staying busy!
- Make Me Bark by SAGOLD - A short BL webtoon about desperate straits and roommates, and though there is petplay (as implied by the title), there's surprisingly not that much of it. It was cute and I liked the art, but not particularly memorable because, like, it's mostly porn?
- The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde - A Nursery Crime Divisions book combining nursery rhymes and mysteries! I like the concept of these two things and it was a bit weird at first, adjusting to "gritty" nursery rhyme characters, but overall I enjoyed it. It took a while for the characters to grow on me but they fell into a nice rhythm of partnership by the end.
- Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch - A great book about the evolution of language on the internet, and the use of emoji in modern communication. I definitely could pinpoint which group of internet users I fell into, as her descriptions nearly identically mirrored some of my experiences. It was fascinating to see something I'd lived described in an almost anthropological way. The dissection of emoticons/emoji really made sense to me, though, as tone/gesture indicators.
- Inner Beauty by Fairytale - Another quick webtoon about a guy who bodyswaps with his ex's new boyfriend, who happens to be a celeb. An unexpected use of indigenous Australian legend and mythos? I don't know enough to know how accurate/respectful its use was, so that always left me feeling a little bit weird, but it was a cute story. I do enjoy bodyswap as a trope.
- An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten - Translated from Swedish, an absolutely delightful set of short stories featuring an elderly lady who is very grumpy and very, uh, matter of fact about murders? I think all of us secretly wish we could so get rid of life's irritations in such a direct, practical way... No fuss.
- Minding Miss Manners in An Era of Fake Etiquette by Judith Martin - I always enjoy Miss Manners even if I don't always agree with her 100%. As always, I enjoy when she can call out a letterwriter's problem as a question of trust/relationships/etc and not etiquette. Etiquette can address many things, but sometimes there are bigger problems!
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou - The tell-all behind Theranos, and absolutely fascinating and horrifying. It really just makes me unsympathetic to everyone involved besides the well-meaning employees who got caught up and left due to their own ethics and principles. The rest of them, including Elizabeth Holmes, the investors, the arrogant men who all fixated on her as a stand-in daughter, who didn't listen to their own experts - fuck, I don't care if you deal with the consequences. Lose your money and your reputation. (Not enough of them did.) But the gall of so many people involved in this thing is absolutely breathtaking.
- Division Bells by Iona Platt Sharma - A m/m novella about two guys trying to pass legislation in UK Parliament and I ended up hate-finishing it. Clearly read like a modern/politics AU of some kind of fannish property, but really the problem I had was, given the short length of book, the balance was weighted far too heavily to "details of the legislative process" to "get to know or care about these characters". I didn't much know or like the characters or understand where their attraction came from, and therefore didn't care when they had their fallout driven by their respective individual issues. Whatever.
- Here U Are by DJun - A Chinese webtoon that was a bit longer, featuring two guys in university, that explored their friendship, family issues, homophobia in society, etc. It was actually quite sweet, but I began reading it on a site that kept skipping chapters? God, it was a pain to go back near the end and realize what bits I'd missed. There were a few side couples but the one I was most invested in was the bar owner/bratty university student.
- The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman - I am enjoying more elderly folks in my mysteries! Set in a retirement home in the UK and starring a bunch of septuagenarians, it was a fun setting with fun characters -- full of their own family issues, complicated histories, interests and hobbies and quirks.
- Rent A Boyfriend by Gloria Chao - I have got to stop reading Gloria Chao even though I want to support more Asian American authors... I just hate YA and I don't enjoy her writing in particular. The concept was silly but kind of fun, but honestly the family baggage she writes into her stories makes me want to scream-whisper: "Some of this might actually be unhealthy and abusive and you don't have to keep excusing it as cultural." You can love your family and your culture and not randomly drop untranslated words every paragraph, or justify terrible parental (and in some cases child) behavior.
- Shine by Jessica Jung - All right, I fully admit I spent this entire book trying to map her characters to specific kpop idols. I did not know she had that much beef with Taeyeon? Yikes. The dude was clearly, alas, not Donghae, but maybe some amalgamation of Taecyeon and Onew. Who knows. I was pleasantly surprised that it did tackle some of the unpleasant realities of kpop training, including the sheer unhealthy sexist way the girls are treated. And it did not end on a lovey-dovey happy-ever-after romance, with more focus on personal growth and peace. She was contracted for a two-book deal, so we'll see if there's a sequel to this or if it's a brand new book.
- The Guest List by Lucy Foley - She's a very popular mystery writer so I thought I'd give it a shot, especially as she tends to follow the formula of "house party in deserted area" or, um, closed circle mystery? There's a small cast so you know someone's got to be killed and someone's got to be the killer. This story was okay, but honestly I was rooting for so many more characters to get killed because they were so unlikeable, and even the slightly sympathetic characters just made me tired. I guessed the twist and the killer about halfway in and was proven right at the end. Again, my main gripe is that there was only one death, and way more assholes who merited a string of deaths.
- How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi - You know, I knew this was going to be good but it really was transformational in restructuring the way I thought about race and anti-racism. Weaves in the author's real life throughout the book and very deliberately uses selections from his life to transition each chapter into the next in terms of the topics and his own growth/journey on the road of anti-racism. I think it's his explanation of language, why he landed on the terms that he did, how he thinks the framing can be helpful or not helpful in what matters: real world impact and change. You can call a system racist, but if the person you're talking to doesn't understand what that means, it's hard to get them on your side in doing the necessary work. To describe racist policies over systemic or institutional racism, to ascribe the motivation to (what seems to have been obvious) self-interest: I think for some it will just make more sense than learning a new language framework around racism.
- Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell - Originally The Course of Honour on AO3 and I was happy to support its publication; the new version has much more world-building, though I'm not sure I can say it was a big hit with me. I don't mind the world-building, but I don't think it was balanced out by additional emotional heft in the relationship. It just...wasn't iddy enough to read as original m/m tropefic, because of the added political mechanizations in the background, but I also just wasn't that invested in the world and its problems. The new ending was sweet, though.
- Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall - Basically an introduction to intersectional feminism. Very good, but not new to anyone who's already familiar with intersectional feminism. So it didn't feel like it was radically transforming the way I approached or framed my understanding of feminism, but I can see it as a very good resource for some. I am lucky enough to have been growing and learning for a good decade or so in formulating my own understanding of feminism and all its complexities.
- Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata - Translated from Japanese and both weird and charming, about the struggle of one modern day Japanese woman to "fit in". Honestly, I truly relate to her love for convenience stores and the order and knowing how to be the right cog in the right machine. It's easy to fulfill these expectations. Why must the world demand so much more? I loathed the guy character, as I'm sure I'm supposed to, who is pathetic but also truly revolting. I would choose the combini too.
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune - A very sweet story but I wasn't sure if it was geared toward adults or children, honestly. Because the journey is about the transformation of the adult main character more than anything but the lesson it's teaching -- about accepting, welcoming, and celebrating differences -- is actually a bit heavy-handed for an adult reader. That said, the kids are cute, though there was more focus on a few of them over the others; also, you never really get to know Arthur (the love interest) that well, imo.
- The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden - Sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale and still just lovely and evocative writing. Had to take break from all the descriptions of Russia in winter during Houston's terrible winter storm freeze, because I deeply envied the characters' ability to at least have fire, but I finished it up afterward while warm and cozy, thank goodness. I somehow did not see the Firebird tie coming, but it was set up so well, and I love-hated Vasiya's glorious teen mix of hope and stubbornness, and her complicated relationship with her siblings who love her but see and experience the world so differently from her. I also like this romance, probably because it is not dwelt on heavily and doesn't drive all or even most of her decisions.
- Goal Lines and First Times by Eden Finley and Saxon James - Book 3 in the college hockey series, featuring the non-sporty twin of the MC in Book 1. Despite being a partial lecture on demisexuality, it was a cute story of a sweet himbo and a guy exploring what his sexuality actually is. I like stories where they meet up on chat first, even if authors are generally terrible at simulating what they think regular guys in their 20s sound like when chatting up over text. I like there was no family drama, really, just on figuring themselves out, and that one guy who did something for his boyfriend behind his back "for his own good" was called out on it. Okay, dumbass, what if we just communicated like equals who trusted each other to be honest instead of you making assumptions? Yeah.
- The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley - Somehow I had never read this, and it feels like more old school classic fantasy? I don't read widely/deeply enough in the genre to speak to that aspect, really, but it does come off more like description of lore than more focused on dialogue and character interaction. Maybe not my favorite, but it was interesting, the little pest dragons and the non-love triangle that was actually two dual loves -- almost polyamorous, except one is immortal and put on pause until the mortal relationship is over? Like I said, interesting, and definitely different from the usual fantasy I've read.
- The Answer Is... by Alex Trebek - A very quick, lovely read that is not quite biography and not quite memoir but instead a selection of fairly short essays/recollections from Trebek's life. It was fun to learn more about his past and his life outside Jeopardy! It was also nice to get a glimpse of Jeopardy from behind the scenes and some of the most memorable people and moments for him. A bittersweet ending, knowing he is gone now, but he seemed happy, content, and at peace, and lived a long, full life, all of which he acknowledged in the book.
- Roommate by Sarina Bowen - Her most recent m/m story, a little offshoot to a universe she built with an m/f series, I believe. I don't think she ever described the characters' physical appearance, besides one guy being very burly like a lumberjack with gray eyes and the other also being kinda tall with nice forearms because he's a baker? In any case, I had the hardest time building a mental image of the characters, but oh well. A little prickly at first but they get to being very good roommates pretty quickly, then to hooking up, then to wrestling with issues of coming out and family drama (honestly pretty stressful). I wasn't sure how it was going to resolve but I guess a hospital scare gets to give multiple characters new perspectives and priorities.
- The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde - The second (and so far only other) book in the Nursery Crimes mysteries. Also fun and I liked the character dynamics better in this one, probably because it was less introductory. An established relationship in the working dynamic between Jack and Mary, so more focus on their personal lives outside work, along with a pretty fun mystery around Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Currently reading: City of Miracles, plus 3 more books I own, plus 2 more I'm picking up from the library on Monday. Staying busy!
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An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good - was soooo much fun. I think I might reread it as a comfort read soon.
I just read the Hunting Game by Lucy Foley, and yea it was enjoyable enough, but nothing too out there in terms of the mystery and it seems plot repeats itself in her next book.
Agreed w/ Hood Feminism - the introduction had me wondering how out there Kendall would go. I guess the book it more geared at the neo-liberal feminist?
I actually thought that The House in the Cerulean Sea was a middle grade book for some months when I saw it pop up on GoodReads. I was wrong~~ the author is quite firm on the book being Adult.
The conbini is truly the better option in the Convenience Store Woman.
Due to my age/location, I think I haven't read a lot of fantasy 'classics' though I might try more of McKinley!
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Given my experience with The Wedding Party, I probably won't bother with Hunting Game. There are many more new-to-me mystery authors to explore, such as Josephine Tey and Carola Dunn's stuff.
I really liked McKinley's fairy tale retellings! That's mostly what I read when I was younger, rather than her pure fantasy stuff. IIRC Deerskin and Beauty were particularly good, though dark.
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You can love your family and your culture and not randomly drop untranslated words every paragraph, or justify terrible parental (and in some cases child) behavior.
Really the core of a lot of issues I have with some diaspora novels... I want to like/support them! It also reads very early 2010s to me, bc I feel like there's been more and more pushback about it?
Did you think Shine was worth the read, or just meh? I've heard not great things about the style...
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Shine was...well, I don't think you're missing anything if you skip it, but if you've got burning curiosity about how Jessica wrote a very thinly veiled barely-fictional account of her experience, it's an interesting fast read! It's more insight into her than into the kpop world, I think.