lady_ragnell (
lady_ragnell) wrote2024-03-07 04:08 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
2024 Books, Post 3
I had been doing a bit of savoring, and then I've finished 5 books since Sunday! Some weeks I just need to read all the stories I can, I suppose, and I've had some fun ones to read. I finally seem to be making proper inroads into my TBR shelves!
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber & David Wengrow
Starting off with a banger of a nonfic read! This was a really interesting read and really plunged me back into my anthro major past. It's a look at prehistory that is largely here to say that perhaps humans have always been human, and we should let go of a lot of the biases the fields of history and philosophy and anthropology have been giving us since the days of Locke and Rousseau. Lots of indigenous North and Central American history in between all of that, and I found the writing pleasant, rather like sitting in a lecture by an interesting if dry speaker who was clearly exasperated and taking digs at the whole field. Favorite nonfic I've read in a while.
The Jinn-Bott of Shantiport by Samit Basu
This one was interesting, but it did something very very foolish: it did a rather genius camera-shift POV reveal, a solid piece of authorial work that made me smile and go back and reread just to see what it did ... and it did that on page three or four and never managed to live up to it. Overall, the concept and the character and the world (oh, ESPECIALLY the world, I have so many questions) were all really interesting, but the focus was never quite where I wanted it to be when I wanted it to be there, and it had so many elements going that it didn't have space to give the very interesting characters what they deserved. There are so many parts here that could have been genius, but the whole didn't cohere for me. Ah well!
What a Match by Mimi Grace
Sweet and slight contemporary romance. I've read another Grace, which was also sweet and slight! This one had forced proximity, it had a crush on a best friend's sibling, it had an accidental dates thing, it was all very fun! The overall conceit of the heroine signing up for a matchmaking service didn't necessarily work for me? It's part of a larger impatience with the romance genre and its scorn for arranged marriages and matchmaking and even to a decent extent online dating. Those things are absolutely not for everyone! And this book used the matchmaking service in interesting ways, at least! It just had the misfortune to remind me of a trend that annoys me.
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher
I'd read one Croucher before and not really enjoyed it, but the concept of this one intrigued me so much that I decided to give it a try. To my relief, I liked this one a whole lot better! There were definitely a few moments when I was sighing and asking myself if maybe Gwen could have an interest or a particular skill she was competent in instead of blundering around and being bossy (something I remember from my first Croucher too, not the same character flaws, but a heroine who wasn't particularly good at anything), but it built an interesting world where Arthuriana was history and not myth. I'd have loved a bit more plot, the endgame came out of nowhere, and if there isn't going to be a sequel there were a few things left dangling that I'm not sure of, but overall a fun read, and I liked it more than this paragraph is implying!
The Home I Find With You by Skye Kilaen
Post-apocalyptic poly romance (a V situation rather than a triad, if that matters to you). I follow Kilaen's monthly newsletter for queer indie and self-pubbed romance, and was glad to read more from her, since I'd only done a novella before! I did find myself disappointed in places in this book at how much more the M/M side of the relationship was developed and given an arc than the F/M one, but it was an interesting and gritty post-collapse (of the US, Kilaen does not venture into saying things about other countries other than an offhand mention of Mexico having factories) world that didn't make me annoyed at the grittiness, and I appreciated the close community and the normalized poly. The M/M romance had a bit too much fucking up and miscommunication for my taste, but overall, as with the Croucher, liked this more than my review seems to imply!
A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano by Katie Hafner
Less successful than I wanted it to be! In theory I really liked the structure of this one, which was less a biography of Gould (a mid-century Canadian concert and recording pianist) and more, as the title implies, a biography of him and the Steinway piano he loved most and the constellation of people and pianos around them. It spent more time than I liked doing the narrative version of gawking at Gould's eccentricities, and it was a bit scattered. I really liked that we got biographical details on Gould's longest-running piano tuner, who was something of a deuteragonist if you'll forgive the use of that for nonfic, and that we got some piano history on Steinway as well, but yeah. Scattered, and gawky, so a great concept never quite got off the ground for me.
Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
I liked this! I'd been debating a bit whether I really want to read the final book of Suri's Burning Kingdoms trilogy, because they're objectively good but I can't keep my attention on them, but this didn't have that problem for me! I think it's largely because the character and relationship arcs are paced for a fantasy romance rather than an epic fantasy trilogy, and also I didn't have to confront the possibility of body horror whenever I opened the book (it's there, to some extent, but it's not the "plants growing in people" sort that I can find distressing in the Burning Kingdoms books). Anyway, this is a really interesting read, even though, as with the Burning Kingdoms books, there's a secondary character who only gets the occasional POV who I wanted to spend way more time with (Lalita, here, the way it's Bhumika in the trilogy). So now this has renewed my desire to finish the trilogy, and I'll probaby read the second in this duology as well! (I feel like I am reviewing this like it was a pleasant romp, and to be clear: quite dark! Magical behavior control! Forced bleeding! Nonconsensual soulbonding essentially! But still worth a read.)
The Earl and the Executive by Kai Butler
Now THIS was a hell of a romp. Queer space regency! I picked it up on a whim in a queer self-pubbed book sale in February and I am delighted that I did. It's an absolute delight. The non-romance plot is a bit uneven and messy, and you do have to get past some very silly names (which I don't judge, it's hard to give people appropriately space-y names and don't I know it), but I was very tired and headachey and this was the absolute perfect joyous antidote. I am definitely going to keep my eye out for the next one in the series at some point.
Once More With Feeling by Elissa Sussman
Contemporary romance whose execution didn't live up to its concept for me. I love a romance set in show business, and this one (pop stars who had a thing back in the day that went very sideways now reuniting for a Broadway show) was promising, but it was more set around show business, I wanted to know so much more about the play within a play. Also, I am not fond of the current trend in contemporaries of bouncing forward and back in time, doing the set-up (and usually the break-up) in the past and the tension in the present. So often the flashbacks are totally unnecessary and the books would be served better by making the present-day chemistry and relationships clearer, and this was one of them. It would have just taken a few pages of dialogue and maybe some more press clippings (the book starts and ends with them) and there could have been so much more space for what I wanted. Especially the heroine's relationship with her best friend, who was by far the most interesting character.
A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar
YA girl group heist on the Titanic, and I think if that description appeals to you the book probably largely will too! A lot of it felt rushed and I wanted more character, but that's what you get from YA, so I suppose I can't complain about it being what it is. But it felt slick, there was lots of competence, and the ticking clock of what the audience knows and the characters don't was really effective for raising the heist stakes. (Warning: not a very happy ending! As one might expect given the topic, but given the title, I naively expected more of a triumph.) I will, as a notorious historical nitpicker, allow myself the joy of complaining that throughout, unmarried women are referred to as "Ms." Incredibly jarring! I didn't love this one (every time I go back to YA I find myself wanting the adult version of the book and that's never fair to them), but I have heists on the brain right now and it did scratch that itch competently, so I'll take it.
And that's all for this time!
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber & David Wengrow
Starting off with a banger of a nonfic read! This was a really interesting read and really plunged me back into my anthro major past. It's a look at prehistory that is largely here to say that perhaps humans have always been human, and we should let go of a lot of the biases the fields of history and philosophy and anthropology have been giving us since the days of Locke and Rousseau. Lots of indigenous North and Central American history in between all of that, and I found the writing pleasant, rather like sitting in a lecture by an interesting if dry speaker who was clearly exasperated and taking digs at the whole field. Favorite nonfic I've read in a while.
The Jinn-Bott of Shantiport by Samit Basu
This one was interesting, but it did something very very foolish: it did a rather genius camera-shift POV reveal, a solid piece of authorial work that made me smile and go back and reread just to see what it did ... and it did that on page three or four and never managed to live up to it. Overall, the concept and the character and the world (oh, ESPECIALLY the world, I have so many questions) were all really interesting, but the focus was never quite where I wanted it to be when I wanted it to be there, and it had so many elements going that it didn't have space to give the very interesting characters what they deserved. There are so many parts here that could have been genius, but the whole didn't cohere for me. Ah well!
What a Match by Mimi Grace
Sweet and slight contemporary romance. I've read another Grace, which was also sweet and slight! This one had forced proximity, it had a crush on a best friend's sibling, it had an accidental dates thing, it was all very fun! The overall conceit of the heroine signing up for a matchmaking service didn't necessarily work for me? It's part of a larger impatience with the romance genre and its scorn for arranged marriages and matchmaking and even to a decent extent online dating. Those things are absolutely not for everyone! And this book used the matchmaking service in interesting ways, at least! It just had the misfortune to remind me of a trend that annoys me.
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher
I'd read one Croucher before and not really enjoyed it, but the concept of this one intrigued me so much that I decided to give it a try. To my relief, I liked this one a whole lot better! There were definitely a few moments when I was sighing and asking myself if maybe Gwen could have an interest or a particular skill she was competent in instead of blundering around and being bossy (something I remember from my first Croucher too, not the same character flaws, but a heroine who wasn't particularly good at anything), but it built an interesting world where Arthuriana was history and not myth. I'd have loved a bit more plot, the endgame came out of nowhere, and if there isn't going to be a sequel there were a few things left dangling that I'm not sure of, but overall a fun read, and I liked it more than this paragraph is implying!
The Home I Find With You by Skye Kilaen
Post-apocalyptic poly romance (a V situation rather than a triad, if that matters to you). I follow Kilaen's monthly newsletter for queer indie and self-pubbed romance, and was glad to read more from her, since I'd only done a novella before! I did find myself disappointed in places in this book at how much more the M/M side of the relationship was developed and given an arc than the F/M one, but it was an interesting and gritty post-collapse (of the US, Kilaen does not venture into saying things about other countries other than an offhand mention of Mexico having factories) world that didn't make me annoyed at the grittiness, and I appreciated the close community and the normalized poly. The M/M romance had a bit too much fucking up and miscommunication for my taste, but overall, as with the Croucher, liked this more than my review seems to imply!
A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano by Katie Hafner
Less successful than I wanted it to be! In theory I really liked the structure of this one, which was less a biography of Gould (a mid-century Canadian concert and recording pianist) and more, as the title implies, a biography of him and the Steinway piano he loved most and the constellation of people and pianos around them. It spent more time than I liked doing the narrative version of gawking at Gould's eccentricities, and it was a bit scattered. I really liked that we got biographical details on Gould's longest-running piano tuner, who was something of a deuteragonist if you'll forgive the use of that for nonfic, and that we got some piano history on Steinway as well, but yeah. Scattered, and gawky, so a great concept never quite got off the ground for me.
Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
I liked this! I'd been debating a bit whether I really want to read the final book of Suri's Burning Kingdoms trilogy, because they're objectively good but I can't keep my attention on them, but this didn't have that problem for me! I think it's largely because the character and relationship arcs are paced for a fantasy romance rather than an epic fantasy trilogy, and also I didn't have to confront the possibility of body horror whenever I opened the book (it's there, to some extent, but it's not the "plants growing in people" sort that I can find distressing in the Burning Kingdoms books). Anyway, this is a really interesting read, even though, as with the Burning Kingdoms books, there's a secondary character who only gets the occasional POV who I wanted to spend way more time with (Lalita, here, the way it's Bhumika in the trilogy). So now this has renewed my desire to finish the trilogy, and I'll probaby read the second in this duology as well! (I feel like I am reviewing this like it was a pleasant romp, and to be clear: quite dark! Magical behavior control! Forced bleeding! Nonconsensual soulbonding essentially! But still worth a read.)
The Earl and the Executive by Kai Butler
Now THIS was a hell of a romp. Queer space regency! I picked it up on a whim in a queer self-pubbed book sale in February and I am delighted that I did. It's an absolute delight. The non-romance plot is a bit uneven and messy, and you do have to get past some very silly names (which I don't judge, it's hard to give people appropriately space-y names and don't I know it), but I was very tired and headachey and this was the absolute perfect joyous antidote. I am definitely going to keep my eye out for the next one in the series at some point.
Once More With Feeling by Elissa Sussman
Contemporary romance whose execution didn't live up to its concept for me. I love a romance set in show business, and this one (pop stars who had a thing back in the day that went very sideways now reuniting for a Broadway show) was promising, but it was more set around show business, I wanted to know so much more about the play within a play. Also, I am not fond of the current trend in contemporaries of bouncing forward and back in time, doing the set-up (and usually the break-up) in the past and the tension in the present. So often the flashbacks are totally unnecessary and the books would be served better by making the present-day chemistry and relationships clearer, and this was one of them. It would have just taken a few pages of dialogue and maybe some more press clippings (the book starts and ends with them) and there could have been so much more space for what I wanted. Especially the heroine's relationship with her best friend, who was by far the most interesting character.
A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar
YA girl group heist on the Titanic, and I think if that description appeals to you the book probably largely will too! A lot of it felt rushed and I wanted more character, but that's what you get from YA, so I suppose I can't complain about it being what it is. But it felt slick, there was lots of competence, and the ticking clock of what the audience knows and the characters don't was really effective for raising the heist stakes. (Warning: not a very happy ending! As one might expect given the topic, but given the title, I naively expected more of a triumph.) I will, as a notorious historical nitpicker, allow myself the joy of complaining that throughout, unmarried women are referred to as "Ms." Incredibly jarring! I didn't love this one (every time I go back to YA I find myself wanting the adult version of the book and that's never fair to them), but I have heists on the brain right now and it did scratch that itch competently, so I'll take it.
And that's all for this time!
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
But, you have reminded me to reread Empire of Sand one of these days, because I absolutely adored it upon first reading.
no subject
And Empire of Sand really was a gorgeous and compelling read, I read about 80% of it in one day. Excited for the sequel!
no subject
Also, I am not fond of the current trend in contemporaries of bouncing forward and back in time, doing the set-up (and usually the break-up) in the past and the tension in the present. So often the flashbacks are totally unnecessary and the books would be served better by making the present-day chemistry and relationships clearer
Oh, yes, argh, this is frustrating! I don't need to see them fall in love the first time, I need to believe they're falling back in love NOW. Grr! I didn't realize this was getting to be a trend, but now I'm feeling very "humph!" about it.
no subject
And I don't know if it's a trend as such, I suppose, but I think I've read 3 or 4 contemporaries over the past year or so that have done it? Which is more than enough for me. The point of a second chance romance is seeing them work past the hurt, seeing the part before they hurt each other is not the same thing!