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What I Just Finished Reading
The Fifth Season – NK Jemisin
I support the same social positions as Jemisin, but there's no nuance to her exploration of them in this novel. Societies in Jemisin's narrative are either racist totalitarian imperia or communal parenting, polyamorous, non-gender binary xenophilic utopias whose residents implausibly lack any hint of jealousy, competition, or other dark feelings. If the possibilities were as stark as this, the real world would have figured out an end to slavery, rape, violence, and all the rest a long time ago, but it's not, which is why we haven't. Coupled with Jemisin's overreliance on italics to beat the reader over the head with her important points, you end up with a novel that largely left me cold.
Circe – Madeline Miller
This is a quieter and more meditative book than its predecessor, but every bit as lovely. Readers will find Miller's Circe a fully relatable and sympathetic character, even as they tear their hair out at the external and internally imposed constraints she battles. Miller deftly weaves in elements from throughout the Greek classics and her own brilliant The Song of Achilles into a very satisfying whole. And she trusts her readers are smart enough to understand the very incisive points she's making about human ambition, glory, and honor without needing to have their hands held through it. I highly recommend this book.
What I Am Currently Reading
Ancillary Justice – Ann Leckie
I think my favorite part of this novel is about halfway in, when Leckie's teed up enough of this world, its history, social structures, and movers and shakers, that the enormity of what the lead characters are facing really begins to dawn on you—and that's the part where I'm at right now.
The Mirador – Sarah Monette
Ooh, these scenes in the Cordelii crypt are just wonderful.
Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom – Rachel Pollack
Perhaps the best modern Tarot volume next to Cynthia Giles' book on the subject.
What I'm Reading Next
SA Chakraborty's The City of Brass is still at the top of the queue.
これで以上です。
The Fifth Season – NK Jemisin
I support the same social positions as Jemisin, but there's no nuance to her exploration of them in this novel. Societies in Jemisin's narrative are either racist totalitarian imperia or communal parenting, polyamorous, non-gender binary xenophilic utopias whose residents implausibly lack any hint of jealousy, competition, or other dark feelings. If the possibilities were as stark as this, the real world would have figured out an end to slavery, rape, violence, and all the rest a long time ago, but it's not, which is why we haven't. Coupled with Jemisin's overreliance on italics to beat the reader over the head with her important points, you end up with a novel that largely left me cold.
Circe – Madeline Miller
This is a quieter and more meditative book than its predecessor, but every bit as lovely. Readers will find Miller's Circe a fully relatable and sympathetic character, even as they tear their hair out at the external and internally imposed constraints she battles. Miller deftly weaves in elements from throughout the Greek classics and her own brilliant The Song of Achilles into a very satisfying whole. And she trusts her readers are smart enough to understand the very incisive points she's making about human ambition, glory, and honor without needing to have their hands held through it. I highly recommend this book.
What I Am Currently Reading
Ancillary Justice – Ann Leckie
I think my favorite part of this novel is about halfway in, when Leckie's teed up enough of this world, its history, social structures, and movers and shakers, that the enormity of what the lead characters are facing really begins to dawn on you—and that's the part where I'm at right now.
The Mirador – Sarah Monette
Ooh, these scenes in the Cordelii crypt are just wonderful.
Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom – Rachel Pollack
Perhaps the best modern Tarot volume next to Cynthia Giles' book on the subject.
What I'm Reading Next
SA Chakraborty's The City of Brass is still at the top of the queue.
これで以上です。
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