books read: 2023 apr-jun

[meitachi]

The year is half over! Let's review books from the past three months. I have made decent inroads into my TBR list...and added a few more. I mostly wanted to make time to reread more stuff this year and I've been doing decently on that!

1. On Account of Darkness: Shining Light on Race and Sport by Ian Kennedy - A series of essays exploring the history of hockey, centered primarily around a region in Ontario (I think?) and its history with race and sport -- not just hockey, but primarily hockey. It does touch a little on the U.S. as well. A bit dry but educational and thoughtful nonetheless.



2. Unrivaled by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James - (Hockey Ever After #3) Thinly disguised Leon Draisaitl/Matthew Tkachuk expies for this m/m hockey romance, and for that reason I enjoyed it. Actual rivals on different teams hooking up and eventually falling for each other, a fun cast of characters, some convoluted angsty misunderstanding, but overall good times.



3. Damsel in Distress by Carola Dunn - (Daisy Dalrymple #5) Still really enjoying this mystery series! I like Daisy a lot and her interactions with people, even if the mysteries themselves are not particularly memorable or outstanding.



4. A Restless Truth by Freya Marske - (The Last Binding #2) I think I liked this even more than the first book! Set on a ship traveling from the U.S. to England, full of characters and ties to the first book but all ell-contained so somewhat closed circle mystery. Liked the leads and their chemistry, liked the characters who will be the leads in the third book. Sexy and fun f/f ship that's centered on a murder mystery, but with bonus fantasy!



5. Killer Crush by Eresemo - Webtoon WIP. Very ridiculous premise -- a trained assassin masquerading as a convenience store clerk falling in love with a famous movie star. Yet funny and sweet, very silly.



6. What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing From Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo - Tough to read about her what she went through in childhood (abuse) but really good read about her coming to realize that's what it was while wrestling with how it's impacted her life. The journey is not so linear as we'd like to believe, and I thought her memoir did a good job of showing that -- how deeply it affected (and fucked up) parts of her life, even while other parts of her life where flourishing. Good research into different types of therapy as well and a record of how some things worked, or didn't work, for the author.



7. The Strays of Paris by Jane Smiley - Picked this up in Edinburgh and it's called "Perestroika in Paris" elsewhere! Sweet story about a racehorse who gets loose from her stable and wanders into Paris, lives in the park, makes friends with a stray dog, a raven, a couple ducks, a little boy named Etienne and more. Very cozy and fairy tale-esque, without any particular horrors or real conflict. You know things will end well, and they do.



8. The Shortest Way to Hades by Sarah Caudwell - (Hilary Tamar #2) The wrong heiress dies! I enjoy this series and how all the mysteries tie into their legal work. I also forget how sex-positive/slightly raunchy these manage to be while being so dryly focused on legal issues. This one featured an orgy and a perceived f/f ship that seemed to be accepted with equanimity.



9. Ghost Music by An Yu - I liked this more than her first book, Braised Pork, but it had similar vague, surreal, magical realism vibes. This one focused on a mother-in-law, mushrooms, and a missing pianist along with the failing marriage in modern-day China (that part was similar to the first book).



10. The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett - I generally enjoy her style, which is to present the mystery to you in form of "firsthand" sources -- in this case recorded audio messages compared to emails/notes of "The Appeal". This one started slow for me but when I got hooked, it went quickly. As always, not all is as it seems. The unanswered questions here were interesting enough to keep me going, though a lot of the theorizing seemed so conspiratorial and I wasn't sure how much I wanted it to be true/validated. As for the ending, definitely twisty, but I'm not sure how satisfied I am by the conclusion.



11. I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee - Billed as a memoir of a young woman in Korea struggling with depression. Blew up because RM from BTS recced it, I believe. The title is extremely relatable. The memoir itself is short, more a series of therapy sessions, recorded. It was an interesting glimpse into how her therapist would frame or reframe things for her. I'm not sure how effective they were? Therapy is difficult. But also the book didn't take those sessions and do anything with them, narratively, the way a memoir would. It felt a bit like reading someone's randomly selected blog posts.



12. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty - A seafaring fantasy featuring a middle-aged woman with a kid, based on Islamic mythology and history, and very fun! I really liked the characters and the world and the mix of Amina in the present day as well as the reflections of her past adventures -- and mistakes. Lots of set-up in regathering her crew for this grand adventure and the climactic action felt a bit rushed in comparison, but I had a good time reading this and will be looking forward to the sequel.



13. Eat Malaysia and Singapore by Lonely Planet Food - An impulse buy at Kinokuniya because flipping through the book brought me back to Singapore. The food, the streets, the culture and history that are reflected in the food, yes. I want to go back.



14. A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz - His schtick of writing himself as a character in his mysteries is weird to me and I don't like it, or him particularly, or his detective character. I put this on my to-read list because it's a book fest on a tiny English Channel island with a closed circle murder. That kind of premise is my jam! This was fine.



15. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett - Another concept where the story is told via journal records. It works to some degree until the ending where too much ends up happening "off-page", as it were. I did like that the author convincingly made the main character flawed and somewhat unlikeable and it takes her time to grow and change that a bit, but she never fully transforms into a bubbly extrovert or anything. She remains more quiet and reticent and awkward, but builds a few good connections. I liked the love interest too, he was fun. The climactic action in this felt rushed compared to the lead-up, and as I mentioned before, too much happens off-page and is wrapped up too neatly. I probably won't read the sequel.



16. The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir by Karen Cheung - This was on my list after finishing Indelible City by Louisa Lim to compare two memoirs about HK in the wake of the 2019-2020 protests and national security law that transformed the city. This one is much more personal and far less about the history of HK; the narrative thread exists in scenes from the author's life as she grows from a mere resident of the city to someone who identifies with the city. It's one story among many; it's one rooted deeply in HK (she didn't move to the West really at any point, so no 'outsider' view). It's as much a story of personal transformation as it is the city's. In some ways it is an abrasive read, on purpose, as an outsider that the author is not afraid to directly call out; she knows that's her audience because she's writing in English, isn't she? I think this one will sit with me longer than Indelible City, though I still don't know what will become of HK. Who does?



17. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid - A reread of my favorite m/m hockey romance. Ilya and Shane over the years, yes, thank you very much.



18. Venetia by Georgette Heyer - A reread! Not one of my absolute favorites (not as tropey for me) but very enjoyable nonetheless; Venetia is a very likeable protagonist, and I enjoy that she and Damerel become friends, genuinely, before everything else.



19. Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe - A collection of longform essays that Keefe has written for The New Yorker. I enjoyed them! All very interesting; his narrative nonfiction is what got me back into nonfiction in recent years. He makes the people/characters shine, makes them empathetic, and that's what hooks me.



20. Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees - A very old fantasy recommended by Neil Gaiman. Definitely has that classic feel featuring the faerie world bordering the human world and the fuzzy boundaries where things intermingle. This one was also a slow start for me, but picks up well.



21. The Sirens Sang of Murder by Sarah Caudwell - (Hilary Tamar #3) Even sexier than the last one, it feels like! More trusts and estates! Flying so easily to Europe! Has that nightmare fuel trope of being trapped somewhere with the tide coming in that will kill you. I feel like I've seen this in other media and I hate it!



22. White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link - Apparently a Pulitzer Prize finalist! A collection of short stories inspired by Grimm's Fairy Tales (she notes which one on each story) except updated and adapted. Modern takes, queer relationships, different genres -- but they tended to have that almost fable-like feel that contributes to still being a fairy tale. Magic things happen that you just accept in stride. I think I liked the two first the most, based on the White Cat and on East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

I am currently looking at Jude Morgan's regencies. I know I've read at least one of his books before (I want to say "A Little Folly") but I have no recollection. I should try to read "Indiscretion".

In non-reading news, work is tough and bad for my mental health (though I do really love and appreciate my coworkers), there has been a lot of stressful car/house stuff, and bad health news for my FIL. Hockey is in offseason (or wedding season) and I am halfheartedly paying attention to baseball (well, really just Shohei Ohtani) and trying to escape reality through fic and books. As usual. This state sucks.