June books
Thursday, 1 July 2010 10:42![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhats
1. Grass For His Pillow by Lian Hearn I found this book slightly frustrating, because I was utterly gripped by Kaede's story (I have discovered that I really like it when a character is trapped in a difficult situation and has to negotiate it as best zie can, balancing hir desires, beliefs, duties and limitations (internal and external) to the best of hir abilities) but not so much by Takeo's, though I did enjoy his bits more as the book went along.
2. Bernice Summerfield: A Life in Pieces This was excellent! It started off in "ridiculous" mode and slowly built up to a chilling ending. Particular highlights: the dynamic between Bev and Adrian, and Benny's insights into herself in the last section.
3. The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan LOVE. I may have sat up rather too late finishing this, because the more I read, the more I wanted to read. Also there was a bit near the end that made me cry. It was tense and thrilling, and I am eager to read the sequel - I'm very pleased to see it's going to be (possible spoiler which you could also pick up from glancing at the UK cover) (skip spoiler) Mae-centric, I love her.
4. The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox I really wanted to like this book, but I had a couple of problems with it that really impeded my enjoyment of it. One of them's about me rather than the book: I just really don't like comedies of misunderstandings, I always want to fast forward to the bit where everyone explains and it all gets sorted out. Plus, I find characters who just won't listen very frustrating: so many people try to explain to Arabella that the real world doesn't actually work like it does in her romances, but she just ignores them. The other issue was to do with the end of the book, so I will spoiler-bar it: (skip spoiler) I really hated that it ended with Arabella having The Error Of Her Ways mansplained to her by a random passing doctor. For a while, it looked like the Countess was gently nudging her out of them with sympathy and good sense, and I would have loved that, but apparently it was not to be. On the other hand, I appreciated how Arabella spent most of the book getting her own way and refusing to be anything other than central to the narrative of her own life, despite the efforts of many other people to marginalise her.
5. The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan Er, yes. Apparently I loved the first one enough to override my reading-stuff-in-the-order-I-buy-it system and go straight to this one as soon as I could get my hands on it, and it didn't disappoint! It had all the stuff I loved about the first one (twisty yet sense-making plot! great characters! laugh out loud funny dialogue!), plus it made all the relationships more complicated and interesting. Also, I really liked the way Mae was trying to negotiate a tricky, changing world, hanging on to what she knows, what she needs and wants, and who she loves, and all the while trying to work out what everyone else's plans and agendas are and how they intersect with hers. I was also pleased that it never glossed over the reality of (skip Demon's Lexicon spoiler) Nick being a demon. My only complaint is that the next one isn't out yet.
6. The Lightstep by John Dickinson This was a bit of a strange book - I seemed to spend most of the time I was reading it either completely enthralled or not interested at all. It seemed to be trying to avoid falling into narrative conventions, which made it both interesting and frustrating in equal measure, and the same was true of the main character, who could be very hard to like at times. It did make me want to find out more about the setting (a (fictional) German town at the end of the eighteenth century), though!
7. Washington Square by Henry James Slender book on different ideas of what it means to be a "good" or a "bad" person. Catherine is good, but not exciting. Her father is morally right, but cold and cruel, and her aunt is warm-hearted and romantic, but foolish and ultimately treacherous. I really enjoyed reading about how their characters intersected.
2. Bernice Summerfield: A Life in Pieces This was excellent! It started off in "ridiculous" mode and slowly built up to a chilling ending. Particular highlights: the dynamic between Bev and Adrian, and Benny's insights into herself in the last section.
3. The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan LOVE. I may have sat up rather too late finishing this, because the more I read, the more I wanted to read. Also there was a bit near the end that made me cry. It was tense and thrilling, and I am eager to read the sequel - I'm very pleased to see it's going to be (possible spoiler which you could also pick up from glancing at the UK cover) (skip spoiler) Mae-centric, I love her.
4. The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox I really wanted to like this book, but I had a couple of problems with it that really impeded my enjoyment of it. One of them's about me rather than the book: I just really don't like comedies of misunderstandings, I always want to fast forward to the bit where everyone explains and it all gets sorted out. Plus, I find characters who just won't listen very frustrating: so many people try to explain to Arabella that the real world doesn't actually work like it does in her romances, but she just ignores them. The other issue was to do with the end of the book, so I will spoiler-bar it: (skip spoiler) I really hated that it ended with Arabella having The Error Of Her Ways mansplained to her by a random passing doctor. For a while, it looked like the Countess was gently nudging her out of them with sympathy and good sense, and I would have loved that, but apparently it was not to be. On the other hand, I appreciated how Arabella spent most of the book getting her own way and refusing to be anything other than central to the narrative of her own life, despite the efforts of many other people to marginalise her.
5. The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan Er, yes. Apparently I loved the first one enough to override my reading-stuff-in-the-order-I-buy-it system and go straight to this one as soon as I could get my hands on it, and it didn't disappoint! It had all the stuff I loved about the first one (twisty yet sense-making plot! great characters! laugh out loud funny dialogue!), plus it made all the relationships more complicated and interesting. Also, I really liked the way Mae was trying to negotiate a tricky, changing world, hanging on to what she knows, what she needs and wants, and who she loves, and all the while trying to work out what everyone else's plans and agendas are and how they intersect with hers. I was also pleased that it never glossed over the reality of (skip Demon's Lexicon spoiler) Nick being a demon. My only complaint is that the next one isn't out yet.
6. The Lightstep by John Dickinson This was a bit of a strange book - I seemed to spend most of the time I was reading it either completely enthralled or not interested at all. It seemed to be trying to avoid falling into narrative conventions, which made it both interesting and frustrating in equal measure, and the same was true of the main character, who could be very hard to like at times. It did make me want to find out more about the setting (a (fictional) German town at the end of the eighteenth century), though!
7. Washington Square by Henry James Slender book on different ideas of what it means to be a "good" or a "bad" person. Catherine is good, but not exciting. Her father is morally right, but cold and cruel, and her aunt is warm-hearted and romantic, but foolish and ultimately treacherous. I really enjoyed reading about how their characters intersected.