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books read: 2021 nov-dec
Happy 2022! Here's the last round up of books read in 2021, so I can work on my end of the year book post in the next few days. Somehow I read so much in these two months despite being busy -- I guess have dedicated breaks/time off work helped concentrate a lot of reading in short time periods. Also there were some easy comics in there, I confess.
New year, new books to tackle!
- Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian - Enemies to lovers on a road trip? Sign me up. A little more of the 1950s setting felt in the prices of things, and I enjoyed the boys slowly getting over their prickliness and getting to be actual friends.
- The Case of William Smith by Patricia Wentworth - An interesting take on a mystery with the main character coming in with amnesia, and trying to figure out his past and why people are trying to kill him. All the ways the threads tied together in the end might be a little too neat, but it maybe works for a genre story like this.
- These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong - Romeo and Juliet set in fantasy 1920s Shanghai. Interesting premise, YA in execution. What does that mean? Well, a bit too much handholding in the prose -- too many explanations and descriptions that could've been fully edited out if there were more trust in the reader. Also I struggled with liking the Extra Special Teen Protagonist with Adult Skills and Responsibilities (that even an adult irl would struggle with).
- The Alington Inheritance by Patricia Wentworth - Another interesting take on a mystery with convenient threads/chance meetings that make the plot work. This was less a mystery in figuring out who did it, but I guess in seeing how Miss Silver (the detective of choice) would come in late on the scene and be able to put it all together.
- The Game by Ken Dryden - One of the greatest goalies of all time in the NHL, and supposedly one of the best sports books of all time. Above my expectations for an average hockey player's ability to write, for sure! Ken Dryden is an interesting dude and it was kind of fun to find out more about him/his career/what the league was like back then, and how players think about the game. He is strongly against fighting in hockey today.
- How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith - While informational about the sites he visited, including their current state and historical links to slavery in the U.S., this book was also very much about the author's personal journey and reflections on his changing relationship/understanding with African American history. In a way it makes it a kind of personal journey for the reader as well, because I am also learning about these sites and history and have to process my own reaction, and figuring out where I stand in the context of this history (and today).
- The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson - A delightfully impossible little romantic Cinderella fantasy, where the good people are good and the bad people are punished. Depicts a bit of racism toward Jews, but I do think it's meant to evince that the people holding those opinions are Bad, Actually. How easy it is to not care about class in this -- and how convenient that your lower class servant was actually a noble Russian daughter with many noble friends. Still, sweet and feelgood in its escapist way.
- An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten - Follow-up to the first book, which was utterly delightful. I suppose there was no way to go except back to the past and onward into the future of Maud's life, so the stories made sense. The last story did strike me as a travelogue/tourist recommendation for South Africa with the way it went on, but I did like where it ended up with Maud and her future.
- The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian - The premise sounded cute but also like it was trying too hard. I liked the writing/prose, but struggled with the pacing and plot. What plot? It was thinly sketched with no real consequences primarily as a setup for the guys to have sexual tension and get together. Also I think Percy's self-deprecating snarkiness (particularly about his own nobility/class) is supposed to make him likeable, but it did not.
- The Old Man in the Corner by Baroness Orczy - A series of short mysteries where the murderer got away with it because the police are inept, as told to a lady journalist in casual conversation in this little tea shop. I guessed the twist to about half of them. It was a fun, quick read.
- Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez - Translated from Spanish and set in the author's native Argentina, a series of short stories that feature horror of the magical realism variety as well as the sociopolitical variety. I liked to see the world through stories like this. In some ways it's like traveling without reading nonfiction travelogues.
- A Wolf for a Spell by Karah Sutton - Very middle grade with simple plot and language, but gorgeous cover and illustrations throughout. Based off the Russian stories of Peter and the wolf, but featuring Baba Yaga and told in some parts through the eyes of the wolf. And actually more about two girls rather than Peter!
- A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske - Oh I love her prose, it just feels like you can sink into her language and descriptions without losing sight of the characters, dialogue, and action. I thought the relationship progressed nicely from antagonistic to going through shit together to a little more and bought into their interest in each other, even if I'm not personally in love with either character myself. An interesting world of magic; I look forward to the sequels.
- The Missing Hours by Julia Dahl - I think this is a YA thriller? Daughter of a rich and famous family and social media influencer in her own right is raped, hides from her family as she processes her trauma, and then goes on to seeks vengeance. I guess I kind of wanted it to go full Victoria Helen Stone's Jane Doe and get that vengeance, but perhaps not a good message to send in YA? It's tempered with a boy who helps her because he has empathy but gets in over his head, and obviously concludes that vigilante violence is Bad. But on the other hand she has a lovely family and their coming together was nice.
- Unplugged by Gordon Korman - Middle grade and fairly fun romp through a culty holistic wellness camp with a tech-obsessed kid, but not nearly as funny as the escape tactics of I Want to Go Home! and definitely nowhere near the absolute charm of the entire cast and hijinks of Macdonald Hall.
- Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day - Historical fiction set at Agatha Christie's house during WW2. Not really a mystery, honestly...there was a little bit of a twist that I saw pretty easily. It was interesting to learn more about this period in England, particularly the children who were evacuated from the cities and the resentment from locals. (Gives a little more context to Narnia, for instance.)
- The Subversive Copy Editor by Carol Fisher Saller - I thought it would be more like Q&A about the Chicago style, but rather it was a holistic presentation of how a copy editor (primarily for a book/manuscript) should carefully maintain working relationships, and how style is not nearly as rigid and unbending as some people believe.
- In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu - A speculative scifi novella, and not typically my thing, but an Asian American author and a gorgeous cover convinced me to try. It was interesting framing, stories within a larger story, some of which were pretty dark but all loosely connected and introduced the wider world. Overall I think I enjoyed it.
- Your Scandals are Way Cuter Than You by Mao Qiuqiu - Absolutely delightful little c-ent cnovel with two actors and former classmates. A mix between friends to lovers and rivals to lovers, depending on which person you ask! A pretty good translation, some silly antics, and fun characters. I liked the frankness of the MC's evaluation of his own acting skills and approach to life. Now to read the prequel, which is about a boy band dancer/idol and a pro esports player.
- The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton - Ridiculous premise of lady pirate/thieves, flying houses, and magic in Victorian England. It was probably a little too full of hijinks for me, but if you accept the constant ridiculous worldbuilding at face value, the story was a pretty typical one about parental/family relationships, coming of age, and a growing romance. But also Queen Victoria's castle flies and shoots cannons at one point, so you also gotta be cool with that.
- Oddball by Sarah Andersen - Her latest collection of comics, all of which are funny and relatable.
- File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents by Lemony Snicket - The first and only Lemony Snicket I've read! Makes many allusions to the Series of Unfortunate Events books, I believe, but many went over my head. Very simple little mysteries in this town with solutions at the end, much like Encyclopedia Brown. (I am partial to Encyclopedia Brown, however.)
- The Floating Admiral by Dorothy L. Sayers et al. - A Round Robin mystery wherein members of the Detection Club, all authors, have to earnestly write a new chapter to this book based on all the evidence and characters presented in previous chapters with a plausible solution in mind. It was...convoluted, to say the least, and characterization noticeably jumped around, and also there was a lot of racism about China as one of the characters had served in the Navy and done time in Hong Kong. I did not enjoy this.
- Winging It by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James - Hockey romance between teammates! So rare! I liked it a lot, though I probably kept trying to mentally map each character onto a real NHLer, so it distracted me a bit. (None of them quite match up well. Dante maybe looked like Auston Matthews but with Mitch Marner or Tyler Seguin's personality? Gabe could be any good Canadian boy who's blond.) But I liked the story and romance and hope they write more. (Heated Rivalry's Shane and Ilya remain tops though.)
- Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson - Marketed as a locked room mystery in space, which intrigued me even though I'm not huge on scifi/space travel. But I gave Murderbot a chance and loved it so I thought this would be a fun book to try. And I enjoyed it! Very spacey and my eyes glazed over at some of the spacecraft/space travel jargon, but I enjoyed the character voices and glimpses of Earth/other planet/space colony politics. The way the mystery unraveled or was revealed was maybe not as satisfying as a traditional whodunit reveal, but overall still an enjoyable read. (Plus it was nice to see Afro-centric space colonies instead of defaulting to European cultures.)
- Take More Vacations by Scott Keyes - From the guy behind Scott's Cheap Flights, a lot of interesting info about how to approach cheap vacations/flights, how to prioritize them versus settling first on a destination, and how to be flexible with your schedule (if possible). Some interesting tips, but mostly focused on how traveling is good for you and how to do it better and more frequently, without breaking your budget. Touched a little on climate change impacts but didn't go very substantively in that, probably because there's not a real solution to that from an individual basis that coheres with his innate principle of "more travel is good". Individual action matters but institutional action matters more, especially if you don't believe "we should all stop traveling by plane" is a feasible (or desirable) proposal.
- Dinosaur Therapy by James Stewart - From the author of
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dinosandcomics, they are sweet and melancholy and relatable, about anxiety, work, depression, therapy, and how we create happiness/meaning in spite of everything. - Longshadow by Olivia Atwater - The third and final book of the Regency Faerie Tales series, following the (adopted) child of the couple in the first book. It was charming and sweet, and I really didn't see the reveal coming and enjoyed that a lot! There were a few pearlclutching reviews really displeased by the (surprise?) f/f content -- at most some warm fuzzy feelings and one innocent shared bed. Get a grip, folks.
New year, new books to tackle!
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I think Cat Sebastian's strength as being the emotional connection she establishes between the characters, less so the plot(s). he Queer Principles of Kit Webb is probably her longest work? So that may be a factor too.
I am eye rolling at some of the people thinking f/f sharing a bed is AUDACIOUS.
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