January book log
Jan. 27th, 2021 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
troisoiseauxHi! It's been a minute! I have a heavier courseload this semester as well as more on my plate outside of school, so while I've still been taking time to read for fun and/or to distract myself from These Unprecedented Times™, something had to give and writing up weekly book reviews was it.
Recently read
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, about twin sisters whose paths diverge when one chooses to pass as white and the other to reject the colorism that their small Louisiana hometown had taken to its illogical extremes, and their daughters, who meet twenty years later, having lived very different lives. Shades of Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Bird, Snow, minus the fairy-tale elements and with a better grasp on respectfully depicting transgender characters.
- Artists in Crime by Ngiao Marsh, a country-house murder mystery with a bohemian twist. I loved the dynamic that arose from setting the story among a small group of art students, close-knit by circumstances but certainly not by personal preference. Great cast of characters, great clues, and a twist I saw coming a mile away but which still managed to be one of the creepier scenes I've encountered in Golden Age detective fiction.
- Clockwork Boys and The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher— a forger, an assassin, a disgraced paladin (which seems to be a T. Kingfisher specialty?), and a teenaged scholar-priest walk intoa bar an enemy city-state on a probably doomed mission to discover the workings of said enemy's machimagical war engines. It's got reluctant teamwork! Mutual pining! Side quests involving vengeful crime lords and demonic possession (not at the same time)! Very entertaining.
- Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony, which I initially felt kind of what the entire hell is this about, but I'm glad I kept reading because it was ultimately really good. Half ghost story and half political satire, the narrative bounces between a reclusive taxidermist in Victorian England and a young, closeted, power-hungry Republican congressman obsessed with Ronald Reagan in modern-day Washington, DC, their stories connected by a taxidermied aardvark and parallel experiences and ...possibly reincarnation?
The moment that the novel really clicked for me was the scene in which the Victorian taxidermist is unceremoniously dumped by his secret (male) lover, which was a beat-for-beat mirror image of an earlier scene in which the congressman unceremoniously dumps his secret male lover— it was like the moment an optical illusion snaps into place and you can see that the duck is also a bunny.
Currently reading
I picked up Charles Dickens' David Copperfield after watching The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020, dir. Armando Iannucci) on New Year's Eve, so I've been making my way through that. Quickly realized the filmmakers made a TON of changes from book to movie— they reshuffled a lot of the plot (smushed David's time at Creackle's school and Murdstone's factory together, shifted his meeting Steerforth to young adulthood/Strong's school, gives Mr. Mell's storyline to Micawber and sets it at Strong's school instead of Salem House, etc.) and played up a tone of comedic absurdity that I'm not getting as much from the book— it does appear in flashes (the chapter in which David gets roaringly drunk for the first time jumps to mind, as do most scenes with Miss Trotwood) but the overall tone is much bleaker than the film.
Recently read
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, about twin sisters whose paths diverge when one chooses to pass as white and the other to reject the colorism that their small Louisiana hometown had taken to its illogical extremes, and their daughters, who meet twenty years later, having lived very different lives. Shades of Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Bird, Snow, minus the fairy-tale elements and with a better grasp on respectfully depicting transgender characters.
- Artists in Crime by Ngiao Marsh, a country-house murder mystery with a bohemian twist. I loved the dynamic that arose from setting the story among a small group of art students, close-knit by circumstances but certainly not by personal preference. Great cast of characters, great clues, and a twist I saw coming a mile away but which still managed to be one of the creepier scenes I've encountered in Golden Age detective fiction.
- Clockwork Boys and The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher— a forger, an assassin, a disgraced paladin (which seems to be a T. Kingfisher specialty?), and a teenaged scholar-priest walk into
- Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony, which I initially felt kind of what the entire hell is this about, but I'm glad I kept reading because it was ultimately really good. Half ghost story and half political satire, the narrative bounces between a reclusive taxidermist in Victorian England and a young, closeted, power-hungry Republican congressman obsessed with Ronald Reagan in modern-day Washington, DC, their stories connected by a taxidermied aardvark and parallel experiences and ...possibly reincarnation?
The moment that the novel really clicked for me was the scene in which the Victorian taxidermist is unceremoniously dumped by his secret (male) lover, which was a beat-for-beat mirror image of an earlier scene in which the congressman unceremoniously dumps his secret male lover— it was like the moment an optical illusion snaps into place and you can see that the duck is also a bunny.
Currently reading
I picked up Charles Dickens' David Copperfield after watching The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020, dir. Armando Iannucci) on New Year's Eve, so I've been making my way through that. Quickly realized the filmmakers made a TON of changes from book to movie— they reshuffled a lot of the plot (smushed David's time at Creackle's school and Murdstone's factory together, shifted his meeting Steerforth to young adulthood/Strong's school, gives Mr. Mell's storyline to Micawber and sets it at Strong's school instead of Salem House, etc.) and played up a tone of comedic absurdity that I'm not getting as much from the book— it does appear in flashes (the chapter in which David gets roaringly drunk for the first time jumps to mind, as do most scenes with Miss Trotwood) but the overall tone is much bleaker than the film.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-27 01:29 pm (UTC)Heep in the book is truly evil. One of Dickens's great villainous masterpieces although Sikes remains the finest of all for me closely followed by Quilp.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-27 01:51 pm (UTC)Heep in the book is truly evil.
I am.... intrigued. The most Heep-centric scene I've encountered thus far is the one where he and his mother invite David for tea and then pump him for information, which definitely felt more sinister than it was played in the movie. I haven't quite gotten to his usurpation yet. (I suspect it's the next chapter, since Agnes has something Important to Discuss.)
I'm very interested in Steerforth as a character, because as a reader you get a sort of double-vision of him— the book is from David's perspective, and David thinks he hung the moon and stars, but also you're reading from your own perspective and you can see past David's *heart eyes* to the fact he's kind of a dick.