Books and comics read in November 2018

[usuallyhats]

(super late, I am a disaster)

Thornfruit - Felicia Davin
Power and Majesty - Tansy Rayner Roberts
Flight of Magpies - KJ Charles
Built on Bones: 15,000 Years of Urban Life and Death - Brenna Hassett
American Street - Ibi Zoboi
Middlemarch - George Eliot
A Spoonful of Murder - Robin Stevens
The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal - KJ Charles

Power and Majesty
I usually love Tansy Rayner Roberts' writing a lot, but this just didn't work for me. Partly it's because the various worldbuilding concepts aren't really ones, it turns out, that I particularly like (flappers, Roman-inspired festivals, were-creatures). But also this is an older novel that's been republished and it definitely shows, especially in the treatment of gender and sexuality - it is nowhere near as queer as her later work; there's a lot of dubcon stuff around the magic and its effect on the people who use it; one of the heroine's best friends is (it is implied) gang raped off page, and the other goes out drinking and sleeping around because deep down she hates herself (but it's ok, here comes a down to earth older man to fix it).

I feel bad being so down on this book, because the author's usually such a good, but the more I think about it the more I realise how much I didn't like it. :(

Built on Bones
Extremely entertainingly written book about what archaeology can tell us about the effects of city life on humanity's health. I felt like the central thesis wasn't that strongly articulated, but it was so interesting and fun to read that I didn't really mind. A+ use of snarky footnotes.


Didn't finish: Doctor Who: Rags
I have finished many terrible Doctor Who books in my time, but the sheer unpleasantness of this one has defeated me.

(It was at least reasonably well written, on the whole? But the subject matter was so horrible, plus all the women were described boobs first, plus the one Chinese character was constantly referred to as "the Chinese girl" rather than by her actual name, and I just couldn't go on.)

Comments

[little_brisk]

on how many tables do i have to bang my fists to get your middlemarch feelings? i will do it. i will bang my fists on all the tables!!! TALK TO ME ABOUT MARY GARTH

[usuallyhats]

MARY GARTH IS THE BEST OF THEM. I love how she's good without being soft, it's so great. I just love the whole book so much? The thing that really struck me this time round is how insightful Eliot is about how people lead themselves into bad choices through their own faults and the pressures of people around them, and how it's never just someone doing a bad thing because they're a bad person, but she's also not letting them off the hook for what they've done and how it hurts other people. (The other thing that really struck me this time round is the bit where Dorothea doesn't even notice Ladislaw's in the room because she's dazzled by how pretty Rosamond is.)

[little_brisk]

I'm very sorry for yelling at you and then running away! Now back on DW and VERY HAPPY to see this in my inbox. I knew you would love Mary <3. And YES I love how you describe Eliot's sensitivity to character, I think that's just right. I wouldn't recommend Daniel Deronda in full to anyone including myself but DO recommend reading the opening; the introduction of Gwendolyn Harleth is Eliot at her Eliotest in this regard and one of my favorite things in any novel ever.

... And "women failing to notice Will Ladislaw" should be a meme tbh

[usuallyhats]

Mary is just the greatest. <3

I did read Daniel Deronda many many years ago but I will go back and reread the opening, thank you for the rec - I feel like I will appreciate it a lot more now than I did then.