Recent reading
May. 9th, 2022 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
troisoiseauxI've read a book by China Miéville every year for the last three, and each one has been wildly different, jumping from urban fantasy to historical non-fiction to sci-fi. Looped back around to urban fantasy this year with The City & the City, which has similar bones to Kraken, although the magic is— subtler? The City & the City is a police procedural set in two overlapping cities: literally, two cities, or rather city-states - Besźel and Ul Qoma - that "grosstopically" occupy the same physical space, with the residents of each carefully "unseeing" any people, places, or things from the other city that they encounter while walking through their own, or risk the wrath of a nigh-supernatural force called the Breach. I was super into the world-building in this one, but I ultimately found it kind of a let-down.
Read Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, which reminded me of To Kill A Mockingbird, although it's set in 1900s Georgia rather than 1930s Alabama, the protagonist is a 14-year-old boy, and the central drama - protagonist Will's recently-widowed grandfather's elopement with a woman half his age, scandalizing their small town - is personal rather than political, which is to say, the similarities are mostly the general "coming-of-age story set in the early 20th century American South" vibes. I liked it! It's a bit of a soap opera, plot-wise, but the characters are well-developed, and I liked how how Will's narration conveys more to the audience than he himself understands.
Finally, I signed up for the Dracula Daily substack and have been reading those updates as they show up in my email! My buddy Jonathan is having the weirdest business trip.
Read Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, which reminded me of To Kill A Mockingbird, although it's set in 1900s Georgia rather than 1930s Alabama, the protagonist is a 14-year-old boy, and the central drama - protagonist Will's recently-widowed grandfather's elopement with a woman half his age, scandalizing their small town - is personal rather than political, which is to say, the similarities are mostly the general "coming-of-age story set in the early 20th century American South" vibes. I liked it! It's a bit of a soap opera, plot-wise, but the characters are well-developed, and I liked how how Will's narration conveys more to the audience than he himself understands.
Finally, I signed up for the Dracula Daily substack and have been reading those updates as they show up in my email! My buddy Jonathan is having the weirdest business trip.
