books, books, books: 2015 june-sept

[meitachi]

One day when One Piece ends, it may be my favorite manga. This is on the presumption and faith that Oda still knows what he's doing, has a plan, and will end strong and epic. Luffy, our Pirate King. ♥ (I do wonder, a bit apprehensively, if he'll do another major character death. It seems unthinkable to me, and a ruination of the ultimate dream for Luffy, but I worry.)

For now, Hikaru no Go and Slam Dunk vie for that top spot in my heart. Perhaps ventures into rereading those too after I get through my current to read list. I've been making good progress!

Anyway, mostly for my own records, the books I've read in the past three months, in vague chronological order, with not quite reviews but more my impression.

1. The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer - A Heyer romance that was more mystery and less romance! I wasn't sure I'd like the characters at first, but the first pair of protagonists were balanced by the second pair, and overall they worked well. Just one or the other would've been difficult to follow through the entire book. Less romance and Society shenanigans, more mystery and smuggling shenanigans, and great fun. Quite funny in parts. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this one.



2. The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer - This one I did not enjoy as much because, although the premise was promising (as fun, though totally ludicrous in believability), I just did not like the titular main character. I don't even remember her name, but she was constantly clucking her tongue and promising she was really not that kind of girl (whatever she meant: uptight, naggy, I don't know) except the text consistently showed that she was. The love interest and plot weren't particularly remarkable or memorable either, though I remember enjoying the love interest's younger brothers. Heyer is good at siblings and giving them individual character.



3. The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer - A reread and delightful. Great characters, lots of larks, but not a particularly strongly developed relationship. Still, I liked both Hero and Lord Rule and was more or less rooting for them. But quite a romp in terms of events occurring, and quite funny. Hero's siblings (and brother and friends in particular) are great fun.



4. Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer - Oh, Heyer is so good at writing despicable characters! Two or three different ones spotlighted in this book and, oh, they were aggravating. Not a bad read: decent relationship (they interact enough to banter and actually get to know each other), adventures happen beyond just society, interesting background characters, but never going to be a favorite due to those (well-written) hateful characters. Even their comeuppance wasn't quite that, and not quite satisfying. The kid was written well, I think. Sometimes funny, precocious, oftentimes a brat or unreasonable, but overall a very believable kid.



5. The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah - Read on the flight to Singapore, a new Hercule Poirot mystery by not-Agatha Christie but written to mimic her style of twisty murder tales and red herrings and seemingly insignificant clues that lead to the truth. A quick read like most Christie novels, fast paced, constant new surprises and turns, and almost too many. I think it stayed on this side of acceptable and I enjoyed it, and I felt her Poirot was charmingly similar to Christie's. Felt very much like the original to me, anyway, both in the murder and in the development of eccentric characters and what they reveal about human nature.



6. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett - A reread on the flight back from Singapore and, man, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it. Tackles and satirizes fairy tales, which is a personal love of mine, so to see Pterry wrestle with that, wink and nudge, was great. So many familiar loves given the Discworld treatment, and Granny and Nanny and Magrat are really just such well written characters. I love this world. The witches were my initial love in getting into Discworld, and then I fell in love with the Watch, but I think overall the Witches book are still the strongest ones overall. (Some Watch books are stronger individually, but they also have the weaker ones.)



7. A Little Folly by Jude Morgan - This was written by a dude! With a carefully chosen gender-neutral pseudonym for his Regency writings. It's somewhere a combination of Austen and Heyer actually: something a biting social commentary, something of a romantic lark, but with the self-awareness of being written in the 21st Century. Often quite funny, very familiar tropes and characters to Austen (and even pointed tributes at one point), and just enough tangled plot and misunderstandings to be entertaining and somewhat vexing to the reader. With the benefit of familiarity to Austen and Heyer, the end-game romance was I think obvious, but it was still some reward to see the characters finally work themselves out.



8. The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side by Agatha Christie - Miss Marple! My introduction to Agatha Christie and my favorite to start, before Poirot also won me over. I've read enough Christie on and off through my childhood and almost never remember the killer. I don't think this one was a reread...it felt new, anyway. And was the typical Miss Marple cosy mystery, although set in a time where the cosy village was seeing New Development. Some criticism of both nostalgia and of the newfangled in this; Christie's books always have some kind of commentary on the world or human condition, I feel like. I don't always agree with said commentary but they're interesting and revealing of the times during which she lived nonetheless.



9. An Accomplished Woman by Jude Morgan - Still quite good, though I don't think this one was as lighthearted and easy to embrace as A Little Folly. Perhaps I just did not like the protagonist as much: she was very self-righteous, and while she comes to terms with her pride and prejudice at the end (yep), it felt perhaps a tad too heavy-handed an homage to Austen. It might have been stronger being a story on its own terms, with characters that stood on their own within that story, rather than being the anaologies you could see being drawn to Austen. But still well written and fairly engaging. (My caveat is perhaps I was burning out on Regency at this point. After this book I took a break to read other things, and still haven't returned to Regency yet.)



10. Uprooted by Naomi Novik - Absolutely lovely, a sheer joy to read. I've missed reading good fantasy, losing myself in a magical world that somehow still felt real, with real people populating it. Breathtaking worldbuilding and mythology, great magic and vivid, lush descriptions. A wonderful cast of female characters, from good to evil, a whole range in the foreground and background, with intricate relationships to and with each other. If anything needed more development, the love interest and the relationship, but not in a way that took away from the story or world. Really loved the Russian/Eastern European roots of the mythology, since so often Western fantasy skews to Western Europe, and I would love to live longer in this world and explore it more. Adore Nieshka and Kasta's friendship. Really, so much to enjoy here.



11. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwok - This book is like a trainwreck badfic you can't look away from, the kind where you know the writing itself is not great, the plot is ludicrous, the characters are paper thin Mary Sue/Gary Stus, but you keep reading because you want to see what new crazy thing is going to happen and what will these people do? I absolutely welcome fiction by Asian authors that isn't limited by themes of immigrant/family/identity issues or isn't historical fiction set in our exotic, mystical pasts (see, e.g., Amy Tan, Lisa See, Anchee Min). I want genre fiction! I want trainwreck badfic! I would also like better written stuff with better characterization and development, but I will give this books the fact that it's absolutely engaging. Very easy to keep going. Everyone is nuts and you don't really like 90% of these people and yet you kind of want to see what happens to them. The protagonists you're supposed to like might be the least interesting, to be honest, and described so ludicrously badfic style (as absolutely ravishing, with dewy white skin and rosy pink lips, or stunning good looks and broad shoulders and the most handsome profile). Astrid was probably the most interesting character because she was one of the few allowed to be both flawed (real flaws, not the superficially pointless ones assigned to Rachel or Nick) and sympathetic. I'm hard pressed to think of anyone else. All this said, I'll probably read the sequel China Rich Girlfriend at some point, from the library.



12. Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie - Another classic Poirot murder mystery. All went well except the unexpected side plot of Hastings falling in love that I was distracted by and didn't take seriously, only to be told that it was serious enough that he was risk his friendship with Poirot ove -- and that it was worth it because he married her in the end. Huh, OK. Similar to the Sherlock Holmes stories, the characters get Real Life Development amid sundry mysteries, but I really didn't expect this one.



13. One Piece Vols 1-12 by Oda Eiichiro - Concurrently with these other books, as I get the volumes from the library. IT IS MY HEART. The boyfriend's reading it for the first time and I told him if he didn't love it by the conclusion of Arlong Park, it wasn't for him. Fortunately, by the end of the Arlong Park arc, he was well hooked. What a creative world, creative and memorable characters. I adore this series; I adore the characters and the Straw Hats in particular, and I'm so much looking forward to the rest of the arcs as we slowly accumulate the final crew. So many emotions to go through. And I'm looking forward to the new arcs post-timeskip, which is where I stopped before. Look at the breakdown of story arcs! We are just past halfway through. Oda better know what he's doing; I don't want him to fail this series. I have such high hopes and expectations.

So that's what I've read so far these past months!


Currently reading: Bream Gives Me Hiccups by Jesse Eisenberg, a collection of his short stories, some of which have been previously published online in McSweeney's and The New Yorker (and which I've read), and some of which are new. Currently charming, moving, sardonic, amusing.

Next on the list:
-more One Piece! (Vols 13-14-15, the Whiskey Peak/Little Garden/beginning of the Drum Island arc)
-The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (well recced and received fantasy/scifi by people whose tastes I'm inclined to trust)
-Jingo by Terry Pratchett (a reread, because I bought the new beautiful hardcover in Singapore)
-Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho (Malaysian author! magic and British royalty/society! Intriguing.)
-Regencies by Joan Smith (who is billed as excellent and Heyer-esque, and quite PG, as I prefer my Regencies)

Comments

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Fascinating! Thanks for these reviews. I'm very curious as to what you will think of The Goblin Emperor--it's been on my list as well, and I'm intrigued because it's received good reviews and looks good, but I just haven't had time to dig into it yet.

Curious--have you seen One Piece the anime? In all its hundreds of episodes glory? If so, is it as good as the manga? I've been meaning to start that one as well but don't know if I'm up to the ultimate challenge!!

[meiface.livejournal.com]

I'm going out of town this weekend so my aim is to read TGE on the plane! The things I've heard about it make seem like something I'd like, even though sci-fi is not always my thing, but I'm definitely intrigued.

I haven't seen the OP anime actually; I've always been more prone to manga than anime (I am just terrible at watching most things, especially serial things). I've heard it's quite good though! But ridiculously long, of course, given that it's One Piece...

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

You have been productive!

As I've said previously, I also really enjoyed Uprooted. Hopefully we'll see more of the world, even if it is new characters. Alosha when she was young? One of her magical grandchildren? I would like that!

I've started reading Sorcerer to the Crown and it is lighter than I originally thought it was going to be (until I saw it compared to Heyer) but I'm quite enjoying it :)

I feel like I was one of the few people who didn't quite enjoy The Goblin Emperor. It had a lot of elements that I like but it didn't quite hit the mark for me.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

hahaha it comes from having a much quieter social life after moving to place where I have no friends!

Ooh, I liked everything described about Sorrcer of the Crown but I don't think I would have quite expected it be Heyer-esque either, but I will enjoy it if so (hopefully). I will get to it soon!

I'll let you know what I think about TGE! I think another plus of these lists is not only do I feel productive about reading (and listing them out helps my memory haha), but it forces me to actually stop and think about and digest what I've read. Now, not everything is Great Literature and doesn't merit analysis, necessarily, but some thought is probably not amiss.

[catskilt.livejournal.com]

Definitely going to check out Uprooted and A Little Folly :) I should get down to reading the rest of the Miss Marple series too! I don't have as many Miss Marple books as Poirot since I found her boring initially (about 1.5 decades ago) and it's only recently that I've really started to appreciate her :)

[meiface.livejournal.com]

I hope you'll enjoy Uprooted! The worldbuilding/mythology was a lot of fun and sometimes that's nice and feels richer and deeper after all the regency stuff which is of course built on our existing history (but also glamorized and glossing over real world sociopolitical ills and economic inequality and such...not as fun in a frothy romance, alas).

Have to do a post for my October books soon, since I think I read as many in Oct as all of this post, haha. I got really bored/had no social life this month!