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books, books, books: 2015 oct
I read a lot in October, probably matching what I'd read in June-September, mostly because books were easier than having a social life. And I sort of got on a roll -- Agatha Christie novels and regencies are just so easy and quick. Do they really count? But they were always enjoyable, and easy to get lost in another world even if briefly.
And that's October! I started Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho but I still have to finish it. I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to get into, but I will have to take notes and write about it later. It's everything I adore in concept (magic! royalty/regency! poc main character! women getting to do stuff! remembering the existence of a world outside of England!) but none of it has quite fallen in step for me just yet. I'm only about a quarter in though, so we'll see how I feel in the end.
In terms of non-mystery, non-Regency, non-manga, I also have The Scarlet Pimpernel checked out, with a delightful children's book (Kat, Incorrigible, about a 12-year-old with magic in the regency period helping her older sisters find love -- a fun combination of stuff I've been reading from a new POV!) on the list. Maybe I will reread Gordon Korman's Macdonald Hall series. There are so many things I could reread! (TGE over the hols, I think.) But I've tired myself out a bit of reading and am trying to fill in the space with other stuff: almost done with Cowboy Bebop now and will probably watch Generation Kill after that. I still have all of Hikaru no Go waiting for me. And there's always H/D fic! No matter when you turn to H/D, there's always something long and plotty and good.
So I still have books instead of friends. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Bream Gives Me Hiccups by Jesse Eisenberg - Finished Jesse's book and it's lovely. Funny and self-deprecating, a little sly, but also sometimes sad and sweet. I remember some of my favorite of his pieces from McSweeney's and The New Yorker and the new additions were nice. He's more or less self-aware of his issues and ruts and privileges, and pokes at them in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. (Truth be told, I always worry a little at "humor" when coming from a very privileged perspective.) There was some cultural stuff I was queasy at, but assuming good faith, the mocking is of the stereotypes and those who buy them, but I can see how they can be an uncomfortable read too. The roommate saga also had a bit of OTT misogynistic stuff as part of the the nasty character POV, and I wasn't sure I could get through it at first, but in the end I felt surprisingly okay about it due to how human the protagonist was -- i.e., there was some believable character growth despite remaining a mostly unlikeable character. That is probably the piece with the greatest YMMV. I think some of his standalones were strongest, but I quite liked the opening series of the nine-year-old's restaurant reviews.
- Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie - One of the few non-Poirot and non-Marple mysteries! I know Christie's done excellent jobs with those stories as well but I like the easy familiarity of the well-known characters. In a sense, they give you a framework of what to expect in terms of how the mystery and unraveling of such will go. But I picked up this paperback ages ago in a cheap book sale and have kept it around since then. I thought I'd read it before but I honestly didn't recollect anything when I read it this time, so I'm not sure if I just have a terrible memory for books read (particularly whodunits) or I'd just kept it around unread for years. Anyway, a good read, with a central group of characters, among whom must lie the murderer. The usual Christie formula of red herrings and actual clues that make sense once laid out for you. As always, a quick, entertaining read.
- The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison - OK, I've heard raving reviews for this book and while sci-fi was not precisely my thing (I prefer types of fantasy if we must), but descriptions of the book as "warm" and with great worldbuilding and relationships made me want to try it out. And yeah, I adored it. Basically it's an almost Gary-Stu-fanfic type premise where the forgotten/abandoned fourth son of the emperor ascends to the throne upon the deaths of his father and brothers. And it's about how he deals with a court life and political factions he doesn't understand, all the while trying to make sense of his world, himself, and his friends. It's honestly as warm as praised and human despite being all about goblins and elves in an alien-esque world.
The world is only minimally sci-fi with a steampunk-esque backdrop for some technology, but much more familiar fantasy tropes in the political kingdoms and races of characters. The story's not quite political intrigue and scheming, but there is certainly a lot of political navigation -- and a realistic portrayal of how complicated and burdensome it can be when coming in ignorant. There's a fair bit of self-reflection and not a ton of fast-paced action scenes, but oh, such a rich cast of lovely characters. Maia is dear and is an easy protagonist to follow as so much happens to him, and you learn as much as he does along the way. The worldbuilding is really, really great, rich and detailed, with a whole language with nuance and types of address! A helpful pronunciation and glossary in the back of the book, but I found the unfamiliar terms easy enough to digest in context and not particularly confusing. YMMV. And for all that things happen to Maia, he's not a passive character and it's rewarding to see him have the strength to make his own decisions and bend others to his convictions at times. This is probably an incoherent rec but really, in summary, a wonderful world, a fun story, really, really, really lovely characters (basically everyone loves Csevet and for good reason), and...well, I got this sence of being aware of social (in)justices but in an unobtrusive way. The book never quite soapboxes, which can be annoying, but highlights some of these issues in a way fitting with the world. - The Patriotic Murders by Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot! A quick read, with the Chrsitie skill of telling stories about average, everyday people and making them interesting to the reader as well as to Poirot. And as always, you get a bit of Christie's commentary on Tradition versus New Trends, the staid and older set versus the wild and young and idealistic. For all that she often portrays the young people as silly or naive, dismissive of their elders, she surprised me a bit in this one by pointing out that the traditional, conservative way is not always the right way either. You get a sense that change happens regardless, and sometimes nostalgia is pointless (which I agree with). Hercule Poirot, for all he loves certain traditions, the way things used to be, seems at least to have accepted that. But I digress.
- The Barefoot Baroness by Joan Smith - Finally I got around to Joan Smith and she is delightful. Not quite as richly nuanced a world or characters as the peerless Georgette Heyer but quite fun and quite good nonetheless. Very PG, a good mix of the traditional frothy romance and bucking of societal expectations. This one was highly recced but probably honestly my least favorite of the four I read of hers. The main protagonist was a bit high in the instep, but her cousin was entirely tiresome. I just didn't really take to either of them despite them being likeable enough to keep me going through the story. The protagonist (Laura, I just looked up her name) and the love interest also really didn't have much of an interesting relationship: no real antagonism for interesting UST but no real sense of them truly getting along and growing to like each other. The kind of fell into being in love, or so we were told. I'm not sure I particularly bought it or cared.
I will note Joan Smith seemed much more inclined to use real people in her historical fiction. While Heyer and other regency novelists often mention real people in passing, such as the Regent or the very real patronesses of Almack's (difficult to avoid, really!), Smith often dropped these real people into her stories and fictionalized personalities for them, so they interacted with her characters in almost meaningful ways. Lord Byron seems a favorite of hers, plus Lawrence, the portrait artist, and others. They were better highlighted in Imprudent Lady so I'll move on that tone. (She also quite likes to reuse names, I've noticed.) - Imprudent Lady by Joan Smith - This seems to be most people's favorite and I'd have to agree. The protag is a lady novelist! A writer! And quite a good one. It almost reads like a Mary Sue fic with how she starts off so condescended to and unnoticed but gains fame and respect and recognition due to just how very clever and good a writer she is. And makes close friends with society's dashing and much sought after Lord Dammler, who was also a writer! But it was a fun romp and she and Dammler really do establish (and it's shown!) a close friendship before they fall into more feelings, so I enjoyed it. Her crabby uncle is a caricature and a hoot. Other characters are kindly or annoying, as needs must, and Lord Byron shows up a briefly entertaining character, iirc. (I have to admit, I read all four of Joan Smith's regencies in a row in quite a short period of time -- I was on a roll! -- so they blur together a bit.) Genuinely fond of Prudence and Dammler and the relationship felt believable, genuine, and as though they really cared about and liked each other. I was rooting for them! I would reread this one for a feel good time, as I do often with Heyer.
- Escapade by Joan Smith - Well, the protagonist in this one writes scandalous gossip columns under a penname and of course the biggest scandal is when she is inevitably exposed (and her love interest is inevitably hurt by this betrayal), etc. You could predict this from a mile away (and also I'd been reading Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series with Lady Whistledown in high school, so I admit I've seen this before, though obviously this predated Quinn, being written in 1977). And I wasn't sure at first I liked the protagonist Ella because she came off quite stupid at first, but of course she quickly discovered her wit and sharp tongue and was a delight in that she was so different from all the other ladies. OK, the other big difference between Smith and Heyer is the former's protagonists tend to be much more Mary Sue-esque than Heyer's, whose protags are allowed to be much more diverse in personality and character and whom I find much more interesting (and nuanced) as a whole. Perhaps because they don't feel as similar from book to book?
Not to denigrate Smith because I really did enjoy her books; they're exactly the fun type of lighthearted and quick read regency romances I like. Ella's likeable, the guy is likeable, and the not-quite-favorable portrayals of the other girls competing for the guy are funny, if a bit mean-spirited. They almost feel like tongue-in-cheek pastiches.
Anyhow, I did really enjoy Ella bonding with the guy's mom over novels -- Jane Austen's novels, but of course! -- and her aunt Sara was delightful. Good side characters here. Though I guess none of the love interests are particularly memorable since out of all of them I only really remember and like Dammler (from above Imprudent Lady). - Aunt Sophie's Diamonds by Joan Smith - This on reminded me a lot of Heyer's The Talisman Ring since it was much less romance and much more shenanigans and digging and running around. There were also two sets of couples, a younger flightier set and an older "main" set who were more reasonable but still game for adventures. Quite ridiculous in plot, but great fun, although I figured out the big reveal pretty early on. Maybe too much Agatha Christie! Not nearly as twisty and turny, anyway. I liked the protag of this one a lot, probably because she was not quite as missish, or perhaps because the narrative didn't push ~how different she is from all other girls~ as much, which is really the downfall of too many regencies. No, of course you want your protagonist to be unique and special, but when you've read too many of them in a row, they're all unique and special in the same way...and often in a way that denigrates other women! I'm not as into that.
This is why Kitty from Heyer's Cotillion is such a joy: she genuinely just wants the fancy dresses and fun parties, but demonstrates being different and special by her actions and convictions in helping others, not because we're told by the narrative she's just too clever or bookish or whatever. I like Arabella from, well, Arabella a lot for this reason as well. And bounced off Sophy from The Grand Sophy a bit for being a bit too much of a beautifully unique sparklepony. I'm also a sucker for genuine attachment between girls who help each other out (Francesca!) and not begrudgingly. - Jingo by Terry Pratchett - A reread because I bought a beautiful hardcover from Singapore's Kinokuniya (soooo pretty, I love a good hardcover), and I had to put it off a bit for some regencies because, while one of my favorite Watch books, it is also quite distinctly political. And after dealing with endless real life politics at work and the unfortunate realities associated with that (xenophobia, Us vs Them thinking, warmongering), I didn't quite want to face it in fiction. But when I did get around to rereading this, it really is one of Pterry's best examples of real-world satire. It's on point. It's sardonic. It is really enjoyable but unfortunately still applicable in the present with the fears of Klatch (read: the nebulous Middle East), years after he wrote it. And it made me despair that problems so easily (albeit whimsically) solved in the book don't help us as much in our reality today. Would that all our xenophobic jingoism stemmed from one island rising into existence that then later conveniently resank, taking with it our reasons for war and distrust and antagonism.
But, you know, City Watch, you're lovely. Angua and Carrot, Colon and Nobby shone (being so very them), supported by a whole new contingent of new Watchmen that Vimes can't recall ever being sworn in. And Vetinari, of course, being as delightfully Machiavellian as ever, but stirred to more action than mere scheming on the throne. - A Fashionable Indulgence by K.J. Charles - Original m/m! By the author of A Charm of Magpies series, which I have not read but is apparently delightfully full of size difference, magic, hot sex, repression? I read her Think of England a while back and all I could think of was the Thor/Loki vibes it gave me despite being about sexy spies in the Edwardian era. (In this one, the physical descriptions reminded very much of Harry and Draco, albeit with an age difference, so maybe it is Harry/Lucius, which now that I have contemplated I can't stop laughing/being horrified at in equal amounts.)
Anyhow! This one was less war-politics and more societal-politics: uprisings and revolutionary talk, and class issues. So many class issues. I confess, it was almost uncomfortable to read about when I already know the setting I'm reading about is a fantasy world (hell, this fantasy world has high ranking gentlemen fucking each other in a discreet gentlemen's club), so the intrusion of real world sensibilities was a bit jarring. But entertaining nonetheless. Hot sex, although in my opinion the main characters hooked up too early in the story, denying me slow burn UST. What's the point of a get-together story if you're going to throw them together so early on and transition the rest of the story into Plot Featuring Moral Quandaries With A Side of Established Relationship? That is not what I want from a get together story. :( But yeah, the story is much more about the revolutionary plot and class differences and moral quandaries than it is about the hooking up, which is fine, but not quite what I thought I was signing up for.
The discreet gentlemen's club of fucking obviously sets up what other characters will get their own novels, with one established couple already getting a short side story about their getting together already published. Two more books of the other couples remain for sequels. Not sure I'll read those or not. - An Affair of Interest by Barbara Metzger - Thought I'd give another regency author a try! This one ended up being a bit too shenanigans-filled for me, with the male protagonist basically lusting after the (fiery redhead) female protagonist almost immediately upon meeting her, and then sort of tiresome tale after tale of her getting herself into stupid (seriously stupid) hijinks from which he rescues her. Yet she will not learn and is a combination of naive and earnest and reckless that honestly just grated on my nerves as dumb after about the third hijink, and he is forever the hero saving her ass. Which is annoying to read about but also made me think he was kind of not that big a prize for wanting a girl this dumb just because she was hot. So he could, I don't know, tame her. I may give Metzger's other stuff another shot, since overall she has good reviews, but this one in particular was not my favorite.
- The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie - All I got out of this one was a reaffirmation of my belief that Hastings is an annoying character who is at the same time a bit dim and thinks he's smarter and cleverer than Poirot, and it's annoying. I guess I just don't like whatever purpose he serves in Christie's stories. Give me Japp any day. The twist ending was a bit...well, I've seen weirder ones. Poirot can make most things convincing.
- One Piece Vols 16-30 by Oda Eiichiro - Let's see, these volumes covered the Drum Island arc, through Alabasta, through Jaya Island, and about halfway or more of Skypiea. So Drum Island was cute, but I remembered very little of it aside from Luffy running uphill through the snow carrying Nami and Sanji (with his teeth?). But upon rereading, god, I do love Chopper. What an adorably weird backstory, fitting for an adorably weird character. And King Wapol was annoying in the arc but had a great chapter-title story arc through later chapters in his eventually creating a toy enterprise.
I always love the Alabasta arc mostly because I am fond of Vivi and her determination/optimism, and how although she can often be seen as naive, the narrative (and her friends!) don't treat her as wrong for that determination and optimism. I also enjoy the introduction of Robin and liked what more we got of her on Jaya Island and into Skypiea. I'm just discovering I'm even fonder of all the female characters than I was the first time around, and I already liked them plenty. Chopper's a dear, Zoro is just so dumb, but so intractably good despite that (and despite himself, sometimes), and I like it when he gets badass. I still am not crazy over Usopp, though I appreciate him a lot more now, and it's actually Sanji who's been less interesting to me. Luffy is still the heart of crew, of course. There's just a certain amount of love and belief you have to have in him to go along with these adventures. They're still more or less his adventures, his dream, his friends/crew. And they all have their own stories and value and dreams, but in a sense it does all still revolve around their dumb rubber captain. I love Luffy. ♥
Anyway! I remembered most of the big twist of Jaya and Skypiea, so that was fun. I did not enjoy the Skypiea arc last time and I still find it emotionally stressful and unpleasant this time around. Maybe too close to real world issues with colonialism and imperialism? And Eneru is just fucking evil. But the sense of discovery, the wider world and lore slowly being revealed about the world? That is cool. I really love Oda's worldbuilding, and how it is slowly revealed through arcs that are ostensibly about other things.
So now I have Vols 31-36, which will wrap up Skypiea and just get us started into Water 7.
And that's October! I started Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho but I still have to finish it. I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to get into, but I will have to take notes and write about it later. It's everything I adore in concept (magic! royalty/regency! poc main character! women getting to do stuff! remembering the existence of a world outside of England!) but none of it has quite fallen in step for me just yet. I'm only about a quarter in though, so we'll see how I feel in the end.
In terms of non-mystery, non-Regency, non-manga, I also have The Scarlet Pimpernel checked out, with a delightful children's book (Kat, Incorrigible, about a 12-year-old with magic in the regency period helping her older sisters find love -- a fun combination of stuff I've been reading from a new POV!) on the list. Maybe I will reread Gordon Korman's Macdonald Hall series. There are so many things I could reread! (TGE over the hols, I think.) But I've tired myself out a bit of reading and am trying to fill in the space with other stuff: almost done with Cowboy Bebop now and will probably watch Generation Kill after that. I still have all of Hikaru no Go waiting for me. And there's always H/D fic! No matter when you turn to H/D, there's always something long and plotty and good.
So I still have books instead of friends. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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I sometimes feel like I got a different copy of the Goblin Emperor. Pity I didn't like it more.
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