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altarielI haven't posted about the books I've been reading since the New Year, but I do want to keep a record. So here's the first batch. The reviews are a bit thin in places, since I had all manner of interesting things to say about them within twenty minutes of finishing them, but not really any more.
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
These were being really heavily plugged in just about every book shop I went into (still are). I was resisting them, even though the covers were so pretty, and then a friend said she thought I might enjoy them, and they were on three-for-two... Anyway, I read the first one on the train journey home from Southampton – just long enough to keep me going for a couple of hours. I have to say I thought it was slight and twee. Very romanticized, but I put that down to it being more in the tradition of Golden Age detective books than trying to accurately represent life in modern Botswana about which I know nothing anyway so this could well be a perfectly accurate representation. I haven’t exactly hastened to read the next two, which might be telling.
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
Various people have been urging me to read Dorothy Dunnett, not least my partner-in-crime Isabeau, and various others in these parts. I loved it. It hurt my head a bit to read it (not used to concentrating that hard), but I still loved it. Going to read the rest, definitely. Slowly, but definitely.
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
I missed all the sex and death first time round.
Spies by Michael Frayn
Read this for my reading group and was in the minority that was rather disappointed by it. I thought it was very evocative of a particular period, and of middle-class suburbia at that time. It’s the story of a little boy in wartime, and his misperceptions of the adult drama that is going on around him. I thought its big mistake was in the frame story that surrounded the main story, which was from the POV of the now adult main character, but the adult was so thinly drawn that it undermined the main story. It either needed to be half as long again, or have the frame story dropped.
Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
When the BBC Big Read list was going round, there was also a meme where you posted the list and asked LJ friends to suggest a book you hadn’t read, and say why you should read it.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yonmei, applegnat and merrymaia all suggested Anne of Green Gables, and I can’t thank the three of you enough. I’m resisting buying all the rest from the local children’s bookshop, and I’m going to try to find them all second-hand.
The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
Hugely enjoyed TCoC, primarily for Cazaril (cerebral, dark-haired, melancholy... hm, I think I may have a type). PoS I enjoyed less, but I think I was being grumpy about getting no more Cazaril (but then I think all the Vorkosigan books should be about Gregor). I liked the lead character in PoS, the Dowager Royina Ista, a great deal – a woman who is ‘on the shelf’ by the customs of her culture, but the Gods have something else in mind for her.
Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
Anecdotal. A few good stories. I gather from a review I read that there are some punctuation errors in it, which is sort of amusing, but not hilariously so.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
I read it very quickly, and found the start extremely moving, but the end (I won’t spoil it) pretty much wrecked it for me. One of those books where the author has written herself into a corner.
Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin
This is a book of travel essays rather than short stories. I felt a certain amount of envy at how easily UKL can invent worlds, cultures, inhabitants, any of which could support a novel or two. I mentioned the Taoist ospreys once in another post. Well, there are Taoist ospreys. Take it or leave it.
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
These were being really heavily plugged in just about every book shop I went into (still are). I was resisting them, even though the covers were so pretty, and then a friend said she thought I might enjoy them, and they were on three-for-two... Anyway, I read the first one on the train journey home from Southampton – just long enough to keep me going for a couple of hours. I have to say I thought it was slight and twee. Very romanticized, but I put that down to it being more in the tradition of Golden Age detective books than trying to accurately represent life in modern Botswana about which I know nothing anyway so this could well be a perfectly accurate representation. I haven’t exactly hastened to read the next two, which might be telling.
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
Various people have been urging me to read Dorothy Dunnett, not least my partner-in-crime Isabeau, and various others in these parts. I loved it. It hurt my head a bit to read it (not used to concentrating that hard), but I still loved it. Going to read the rest, definitely. Slowly, but definitely.
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
I missed all the sex and death first time round.
Spies by Michael Frayn
Read this for my reading group and was in the minority that was rather disappointed by it. I thought it was very evocative of a particular period, and of middle-class suburbia at that time. It’s the story of a little boy in wartime, and his misperceptions of the adult drama that is going on around him. I thought its big mistake was in the frame story that surrounded the main story, which was from the POV of the now adult main character, but the adult was so thinly drawn that it undermined the main story. It either needed to be half as long again, or have the frame story dropped.
Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
When the BBC Big Read list was going round, there was also a meme where you posted the list and asked LJ friends to suggest a book you hadn’t read, and say why you should read it.
yonmei, applegnat and merrymaia all suggested Anne of Green Gables, and I can’t thank the three of you enough. I’m resisting buying all the rest from the local children’s bookshop, and I’m going to try to find them all second-hand. The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
Hugely enjoyed TCoC, primarily for Cazaril (cerebral, dark-haired, melancholy... hm, I think I may have a type). PoS I enjoyed less, but I think I was being grumpy about getting no more Cazaril (but then I think all the Vorkosigan books should be about Gregor). I liked the lead character in PoS, the Dowager Royina Ista, a great deal – a woman who is ‘on the shelf’ by the customs of her culture, but the Gods have something else in mind for her.
Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
Anecdotal. A few good stories. I gather from a review I read that there are some punctuation errors in it, which is sort of amusing, but not hilariously so.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
I read it very quickly, and found the start extremely moving, but the end (I won’t spoil it) pretty much wrecked it for me. One of those books where the author has written herself into a corner.
Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin
This is a book of travel essays rather than short stories. I felt a certain amount of envy at how easily UKL can invent worlds, cultures, inhabitants, any of which could support a novel or two. I mentioned the Taoist ospreys once in another post. Well, there are Taoist ospreys. Take it or leave it.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 09:50 am (UTC)I read the spoilers. Howl!
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Date: 2004-08-24 01:34 pm (UTC)Unfortunately upon a recent re-read I found that it didn't hold up v. well. Montgomery's purple Edwardian prose just annoys me so much more when combined with "rally round the mother country" colonial jingoism.
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Date: 2004-08-25 01:42 am (UTC)