![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What I Just Finished Reading
Pleasure Bound – Deborah Lutz
A great read from start to finish. Lutz's prose is clear and her take on her subjects sympathetic and incisive. This one is definitely going on the reread shelf.
Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire
This book had great promise but fails to deliver. Reasons why behind the cut.
Every Heart a Doorway reads like an excellent first fifth of a book, which is a problem because it's meant to be a complete story. Because McGuire only moderately develops two of the nine “main” characters, it's hard to care about them when they start dying. (Nor is this helped by the survivors' perfunctory reactions to the murders; no one even seems to experience fear, to say nothing of grief.) Likewise with the murderer's big reveal, which was obvious from far away and to which, again, none of the other characters even react. And then the story just...ends, with a conclusion that left me feeling the protagonist was obnoxiously selfish--not the response I think McGuire was going for. All of this is a shame, because the various fantasy worlds McGuire describes are beguiling, as is her cartography of them, and there are some gut-punch social commentary one-liners sprinkled throughout. But alas, these elements aren't enough to make up for the volume's weaknesses.
What I Am Currently Reading
The Windfall – Diksha Basu
Being a novel about a nouveau riche Delhi family. So far we have been introduced to the affable but bumbling father, the long-suffering mother, the son with a secret American girlfriend, and the neighborhood widow who wants to live out her missed youth.
The Devil's Feast – MJ Carter
Still truckin'.
The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom – John Pomfret
Still truckin'.
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew – Daniel Pool
There is a lot of interesting information in this volume but Pool is not a particularly lucid writer, which makes it difficult to absorb. Now that much of what he covers can also be found in Wikipedia, I'm not sure how much utility there is to be had in slogging through his presentation of it here.
The Wasting of Borneo – Alex Shoumatoff
Shoumatoff has finally made it to Malaysia. For my part, I am still truckin'.
Deathless – Catheryne Valente
I am really liking this one. Writing a novel in fairytale prose is no easy feat, but thus far Valente is doing an excellent job of it.
What I'm Reading Next
Unfinished volumes from Wednesdays past, most likely.
これで以上です。
Pleasure Bound – Deborah Lutz
A great read from start to finish. Lutz's prose is clear and her take on her subjects sympathetic and incisive. This one is definitely going on the reread shelf.
Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire
This book had great promise but fails to deliver. Reasons why behind the cut.
Every Heart a Doorway reads like an excellent first fifth of a book, which is a problem because it's meant to be a complete story. Because McGuire only moderately develops two of the nine “main” characters, it's hard to care about them when they start dying. (Nor is this helped by the survivors' perfunctory reactions to the murders; no one even seems to experience fear, to say nothing of grief.) Likewise with the murderer's big reveal, which was obvious from far away and to which, again, none of the other characters even react. And then the story just...ends, with a conclusion that left me feeling the protagonist was obnoxiously selfish--not the response I think McGuire was going for. All of this is a shame, because the various fantasy worlds McGuire describes are beguiling, as is her cartography of them, and there are some gut-punch social commentary one-liners sprinkled throughout. But alas, these elements aren't enough to make up for the volume's weaknesses.
What I Am Currently Reading
The Windfall – Diksha Basu
Being a novel about a nouveau riche Delhi family. So far we have been introduced to the affable but bumbling father, the long-suffering mother, the son with a secret American girlfriend, and the neighborhood widow who wants to live out her missed youth.
The Devil's Feast – MJ Carter
Still truckin'.
The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom – John Pomfret
Still truckin'.
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew – Daniel Pool
There is a lot of interesting information in this volume but Pool is not a particularly lucid writer, which makes it difficult to absorb. Now that much of what he covers can also be found in Wikipedia, I'm not sure how much utility there is to be had in slogging through his presentation of it here.
The Wasting of Borneo – Alex Shoumatoff
Shoumatoff has finally made it to Malaysia. For my part, I am still truckin'.
Deathless – Catheryne Valente
I am really liking this one. Writing a novel in fairytale prose is no easy feat, but thus far Valente is doing an excellent job of it.
What I'm Reading Next
Unfinished volumes from Wednesdays past, most likely.
これで以上です。
Tags: