December books
Jan. 9th, 2017 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slemslempikeThe Problem with Forever - Armentrout, Jennifer L
The It Girl: Team Awkward - Birchall, Katy
The Making of Mollie -Carey, Anna
The Lost Twin - Cleverly, Sophie
The Girls -Cline, Emma
Between the World and Me - Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Where Have All the Boys Gone? - Colgan, Jenny
Sisters by a River - Comyns, Barbara
One - Crossan, Sarah
Reading the Ceiling - Forster, Dayo
The Secret Pilgrim - Le Carre, John
The Russia House - Le Carre, John
Call for the Dead - Le Carre, John
Anna-Charlotte - Mallory, Clare
Arrest the Bishop? - Peck, Winifred
The Empty House - Pilcher, Rosamunde
Diabolic Candelabra - Punshon, ER
Me Talk Pretty One Day - Sedaris, David
Hole and Corner - Wentworth, Patricia
Seems Like Old Times - Coren, Alan
More Like Old Times - Coren, Alan
The Carousel - Pilcher, Rosamunde
I had to look up what The Problem with Forever was as I have already entirely forgotten. The problem with the title is that it is no relation at all to the plot. Mallory was in foster care as a child and then after a house fire was adopted by a couple as a teen. She is going back to school after several years of homeschooling, and still finds it difficult to talk at all. At school she finds someone she'd been in foster care with, since she was about 8, and at the end of the book they're both on the way to overcoming their abuse-related demons and in lurve. I did not think it a particularly good or well-told book.
The It Girl is far fluffier and reminded me very much of the Geek Model series. This was actually the second book in the series, and while I won't be going out of my way to find it, I would happily read the first.
The Making of Mollie is a lovely epistolary YA book about suffragettes in Ireland. It is a little bit fact heavy at times, but I thought it was excellent and really enjoyed a topic I know about in a place I didn't know about it in.
In The Lost Twin a girl is sent to boarding school to take her identical twin's place after her death, and finds old parts of a diary to help her solve the mystery. It's not great.
The Girls is a fictionalised version of the Manson Family, with a teen girl from a relaively good family, and how she gets caught up in the cult. She's not involved in murder, but one of her close friends is and she can understand how it all happened. I found it quite slight, possibly because I'm not already interested in cults and the Manson Family, but would recommend it.
Between the World and Me was excellent - I had read some of Ta-Nehisi Coates' writing online, and having a longer more linked piece of work was excellent. I especially loved him writing about how he travelled from being inspired by an African Queen sitting on one of her subjects to demonstrate power when colonialists would't give her a seat, to understanding the intersections and difficuulties, and how that might not have felt super-impowering for the subject.
Still enjoying Jenny Colgan where I find her, though the two I've now read about city English woman moving to rural Scotland and finding love with a brusque physical Scotsman are blurring a bit.
Sisters by a River is apparently very autobiographical, and therefore I really want to know who is the sibling not in the book because they would not like it. I thought this was fantastic, the gradual delapidation, rather like a less self-satisfied Mitford romp with more real-world consequences.
I read One for a book meetup later this month so won't discuss much here other than admit that I cried. It's about conjoined twins and very good.
I hadn't realised until part way through that Reading the Ceiling used the tiresome technique of alternate universes, which I am generally not a fan of. However, I did like this, possibly because the lives are truly different and not just rehashed with pointed similarities. it is a much much better book than the first review on goodreads suggests:
This is a good book if you are doing one of those Around the World challenges and you are struggling to find a book from the Gambia (did you know it was THE Gambia?). It's a perfect book for this sort of thing - a perfect mix of the exotic and the familiar, not too challenging, giving you just enough of insight into the culture without making you uncomfortable.
It would of course be horrendous if enough Gambian culture was allowed out into the world to make a white woman feel uncomfortable.
Still on my Le Carre kick, still haven't been recruited (OR HAVE I I will never tire of this). I really liked the business of the Soviet Union recruiting a spy through Russian lessons on the radio (and his hope that his "friends" would still have use for him) in The Secret Pilgrim. The Russia House made me hope that there are still publishing houses like that, and Call for the Dead I liked a great deal and ca see how what he did there (it was his first book) built into others. Next I really must make an effort to read The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People so that I can get more out of his memoirs.
Margin Notes have now published two previously-unseen Clare Mallorys, and I liked Anna-Charlotte as much as Candy Nevill. Anna-Charlotte is a someone isolated schoolgirl who is bullied by a schoolmate because her father is a drunk - this is dealt with pretty sensitively, actually, with the father not really demonised, but the strain on Anna-Charlotte and her mother very apparent. The best bit for me was shopping and clothes - Anna-Charlotte is taken up by an older girl (rather like a Josephine Elder I can't remember which title though) who sees through the scruffiness and helps her to have better clothes, confidence and carry herself better.
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callmemadam recommended Furrowed Middlebrow, and so I went in search of their freebies on Amazon. They rotate these quite regularly so I've got a mini collection for very little. They are not sticking with me very much, exept the one where murder is done in a bishop's house (do I mean bishop?) and the nominal sleuth suspects the male servant because "he has the look of a sneak-thief". Ah, that we were allowed such freedom to judge poor people in these politically-constrained times.
Two more Rosamunde Pilchers following much the same path as the others, but not rising to previous heights. I found The Carousel rather startling for the alacrity with which a youngish man leapt in to adopt the daughter he only met a few days previously (after her mother runs off, and her apparent father wants no more to do with her as he's always known she wasn't his).
And ending on some laugh-out-loud collections. I got Me Talk Pretty One Day from a present hand out at a comedy gig. I saved it up to unwrap on Christmas Day, and though I'd read it before I really enjoyed revisiting everything, especially the Easter Bell. The two Alan Corens are collections of his Times columns, and though I don't necessarily think of him immediately when musing on comedy writing, they were a joy throughout, especially his pride in Victoria's first book (reviewing something else that he thought was excellent he says "if it were any better it would be nearly as good as Victoria's book").
The It Girl: Team Awkward - Birchall, Katy
The Making of Mollie -Carey, Anna
The Lost Twin - Cleverly, Sophie
The Girls -Cline, Emma
Between the World and Me - Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Where Have All the Boys Gone? - Colgan, Jenny
Sisters by a River - Comyns, Barbara
One - Crossan, Sarah
Reading the Ceiling - Forster, Dayo
The Secret Pilgrim - Le Carre, John
The Russia House - Le Carre, John
Call for the Dead - Le Carre, John
Anna-Charlotte - Mallory, Clare
Arrest the Bishop? - Peck, Winifred
The Empty House - Pilcher, Rosamunde
Diabolic Candelabra - Punshon, ER
Me Talk Pretty One Day - Sedaris, David
Hole and Corner - Wentworth, Patricia
Seems Like Old Times - Coren, Alan
More Like Old Times - Coren, Alan
The Carousel - Pilcher, Rosamunde
I had to look up what The Problem with Forever was as I have already entirely forgotten. The problem with the title is that it is no relation at all to the plot. Mallory was in foster care as a child and then after a house fire was adopted by a couple as a teen. She is going back to school after several years of homeschooling, and still finds it difficult to talk at all. At school she finds someone she'd been in foster care with, since she was about 8, and at the end of the book they're both on the way to overcoming their abuse-related demons and in lurve. I did not think it a particularly good or well-told book.
The It Girl is far fluffier and reminded me very much of the Geek Model series. This was actually the second book in the series, and while I won't be going out of my way to find it, I would happily read the first.
The Making of Mollie is a lovely epistolary YA book about suffragettes in Ireland. It is a little bit fact heavy at times, but I thought it was excellent and really enjoyed a topic I know about in a place I didn't know about it in.
In The Lost Twin a girl is sent to boarding school to take her identical twin's place after her death, and finds old parts of a diary to help her solve the mystery. It's not great.
The Girls is a fictionalised version of the Manson Family, with a teen girl from a relaively good family, and how she gets caught up in the cult. She's not involved in murder, but one of her close friends is and she can understand how it all happened. I found it quite slight, possibly because I'm not already interested in cults and the Manson Family, but would recommend it.
Between the World and Me was excellent - I had read some of Ta-Nehisi Coates' writing online, and having a longer more linked piece of work was excellent. I especially loved him writing about how he travelled from being inspired by an African Queen sitting on one of her subjects to demonstrate power when colonialists would't give her a seat, to understanding the intersections and difficuulties, and how that might not have felt super-impowering for the subject.
Still enjoying Jenny Colgan where I find her, though the two I've now read about city English woman moving to rural Scotland and finding love with a brusque physical Scotsman are blurring a bit.
Sisters by a River is apparently very autobiographical, and therefore I really want to know who is the sibling not in the book because they would not like it. I thought this was fantastic, the gradual delapidation, rather like a less self-satisfied Mitford romp with more real-world consequences.
I read One for a book meetup later this month so won't discuss much here other than admit that I cried. It's about conjoined twins and very good.
I hadn't realised until part way through that Reading the Ceiling used the tiresome technique of alternate universes, which I am generally not a fan of. However, I did like this, possibly because the lives are truly different and not just rehashed with pointed similarities. it is a much much better book than the first review on goodreads suggests:
This is a good book if you are doing one of those Around the World challenges and you are struggling to find a book from the Gambia (did you know it was THE Gambia?). It's a perfect book for this sort of thing - a perfect mix of the exotic and the familiar, not too challenging, giving you just enough of insight into the culture without making you uncomfortable.
It would of course be horrendous if enough Gambian culture was allowed out into the world to make a white woman feel uncomfortable.
Still on my Le Carre kick, still haven't been recruited (OR HAVE I I will never tire of this). I really liked the business of the Soviet Union recruiting a spy through Russian lessons on the radio (and his hope that his "friends" would still have use for him) in The Secret Pilgrim. The Russia House made me hope that there are still publishing houses like that, and Call for the Dead I liked a great deal and ca see how what he did there (it was his first book) built into others. Next I really must make an effort to read The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People so that I can get more out of his memoirs.
Margin Notes have now published two previously-unseen Clare Mallorys, and I liked Anna-Charlotte as much as Candy Nevill. Anna-Charlotte is a someone isolated schoolgirl who is bullied by a schoolmate because her father is a drunk - this is dealt with pretty sensitively, actually, with the father not really demonised, but the strain on Anna-Charlotte and her mother very apparent. The best bit for me was shopping and clothes - Anna-Charlotte is taken up by an older girl (rather like a Josephine Elder I can't remember which title though) who sees through the scruffiness and helps her to have better clothes, confidence and carry herself better.
callmemadam recommended Furrowed Middlebrow, and so I went in search of their freebies on Amazon. They rotate these quite regularly so I've got a mini collection for very little. They are not sticking with me very much, exept the one where murder is done in a bishop's house (do I mean bishop?) and the nominal sleuth suspects the male servant because "he has the look of a sneak-thief". Ah, that we were allowed such freedom to judge poor people in these politically-constrained times.Two more Rosamunde Pilchers following much the same path as the others, but not rising to previous heights. I found The Carousel rather startling for the alacrity with which a youngish man leapt in to adopt the daughter he only met a few days previously (after her mother runs off, and her apparent father wants no more to do with her as he's always known she wasn't his).
And ending on some laugh-out-loud collections. I got Me Talk Pretty One Day from a present hand out at a comedy gig. I saved it up to unwrap on Christmas Day, and though I'd read it before I really enjoyed revisiting everything, especially the Easter Bell. The two Alan Corens are collections of his Times columns, and though I don't necessarily think of him immediately when musing on comedy writing, they were a joy throughout, especially his pride in Victoria's first book (reviewing something else that he thought was excellent he says "if it were any better it would be nearly as good as Victoria's book").
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no subject
Date: 2017-01-09 07:19 pm (UTC)The Furrowed Middlebrow books are a mixed bunch. I've just read one by Winifred Peck which I enjoyed and may review.
My Kindle is now loaded with free non-FM Dean Street Press books by Patricia Wentworth and E R Punshon.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-09 08:16 pm (UTC)I just finished a Heyer novel in which the wannabe murderer is... the clever but poor relation... and not the mean-tempered but rich Old Etonian. I admit I wasn't surprised by this denouement in a Heyer story. They didn't hang the wannabe murderer though because he wasn't doing anything rly dreadful like buying prosecco with benefit money.
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Date: 2017-01-09 08:19 pm (UTC)I liked the Faviell books best of the ones I've tried so far, and not an author I've heard of before.
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Date: 2017-01-09 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-09 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-09 09:37 pm (UTC)