What are you reading?

[Inanna]

I read Binti & found it… a bit juvenile. Won’t be continuing it.

Abraham sounds delish, will check him out.

[Impenitent]

I read the Binti trilogy -it is indeed adolescent. I persevered through the three because I liked the writing and I was curious about the cultural perspective. I can't recall reading any other black African writers.

I also read Noor - thanks for the recommendation Narya. I enjoyed the book though I found the ending tame. Which was disappointing.

I'm now reading Akata Witch, also by Nnedi Okorafor. This is definitely young adult, with an emphasis in young. I don't know whether I'll be able to finish it; I feel like I've given Okorafor a fair shake and if this one doesn't bring it home, I'll give up on her.

I also read The Quiche of Death, by MC Beaton, and freely admit it was the title that tickled me. It's the first in a series of 36 (!!!) books starring protagonist Agatha Raisin, former PR director who fulfils her childhood dream of retiring to a cottage in the Cotswolds only to accidentally embroil herself in a murder by cheating in a local quiche-baking competition in an ill-considered attempt to ingratiate herself in the small village community.

If you want a cozy mystery with some laughs, I recommend it.

Since my last post, I also finished all the Penric and Desdemona books. Enjoyed but not sufficiently to reread in future.

I can recommend Gail Carriger's first non-fiction The Heroine's Journey: For Writers, Readers and Fans of Pop Culture. An excellent contrast to the Hero's journey that literary analysis usually uses as a lens.

Have I recommended At the Edge of the Haight, by Katherine Seligman? More or less contemporary fiction, set in San Francisco, with protagonist a young woman living rough who witnesses a murder. The focus of the novel is not the murder but rather, the nature of her day-to-day life, her immediate circle and the nature and psychology of those relationships. It makes real the lives of people who are usually relegated to the edges.

[Frelga]

I'm giving Brandon Sanderson another try with The Well of Ascension. I really wish he'd learn some action signifiers other than frowned, paused, nodded, and smiled. I kid you not, it's a complete list.

[Inanna]

Lol! I still haven’t read the last book of that very long war series.

I’m re-reading Jemisin’s broken earth. It can be really depressing.

[Maria]

I just finished The Kaiju Preservation Society and really like it.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/97807653 ... ionsociety

It's the first novel I've read with Covid times incorporated into it. Despite that it's a fun read.

I'm a tad confused, though... because when I was looking for a description to post, all the reviews said the protagonist was a man. I listened to the whole book thinking she was a woman. It doesn't make a difference to the story, really. But it does explain why they got a man to read it. Will Wheaton does an excellent job as narrator, as always.

[Frelga]

It sounds intriguing. I noticed that book's blurb calls the protagonist Jamie througout without ever using pronouns. Sounds like the book leaves it to the reader to assume Jamie's gender?

[Maria]

Maybe so? With an audiobook I'd have to listen to the whole thing again to see if there are any clues.
It's times like this when I miss having a physical book I can riffle through the pages.

[Maria]

I just went to amazon and looked at the first 14 pages as a free preview and there's no hint of the gender of the protagonist. That has to be deliberate. I feel justified in my assumption.

[Frelga]

Interesting! On audiobook, it's hard to find a narrator whose gender isn't obvious from their voice, but it would be cool if they tried.

For my comfort listen, I've been listening to the Amelia Peabody books, but both my libraries have a big gap in the middle of the series.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It sounds intriguing. I noticed that book's blurb calls the protagonist Jamie throughout without ever using pronouns. Sounds like the book leaves it to the reader to assume Jamie's gender?

That does appear to be the case, at least according to this review at Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-revi ... n-society/

[Maria]

I will take their word for it that gender is never specified.
It was funny. At lunch I asked my husband what gender he thought the protagonist was. He said, "A guy, of course."
Both of us, listening at the same time at the same pace just assumed that Jamie was our own gender.
We boggled at that for a moment, but really, it doesn't make a difference to the story.

[RoseMorninStar]

I will take their word for it that gender is never specified.
It was funny. At lunch I asked my husband what gender he thought the protagonist was. He said, "A guy, of course."
Both of us, listening at the same time at the same pace just assumed that Jamie was our own gender.
We boggled at that for a moment, but really, it doesn't make a difference to the story.

Nice!

[Impenitent]

Perfect example of unconscious bias! We all have them, of course.

[Inanna]

Hey Impish!

[Impenitent]

'Huggles Inanna'

[Frelga]

I took a break halfway through Sanderson's characters nodding, pausing, smiling, and frowning because Carpet People hold came up.

As the foreword says, it was co-written by the 17yo Terry Pratchett and the 43yo Terry Pratchett. At 43, when people who couldn't get enough Pratchett discovered that his first book was out of print, he decided to "clean it up a bit" the result being something neither Pratchett would have written alone.

It's delightful both as a fantasy book written for children and as a Pratchett book. At the end are the original stories that the 17yo Terry read to the children's reading circle.

17yo Pratchett was already a better writer than Sanderson is now.

[Inanna]

Lol. You are right about the last bit.

It’s one of Irikas fav books.

[Frelga]

Has she read Tiffany Aching books yet?

[Dave_LF]

I'm giving Brandon Sanderson another try with The Well of Ascension. I really wish he'd learn some action signifiers other than frowned, paused, nodded, and smiled. I kid you not, it's a complete list.

Mistborn reads like an earlier version of Stormlight that doesn’t take itself quite so seriously. At least at first . Same goes for Wax and Wayne—the story began as a writing exercise and is actually a lot of fun. Then he decided to turn it into another tetralogy, and you can almost feel where it takes a turn for the ponderous.

[Frelga]

Sanderson is just basic. There is a fun plot in there somewhere, and the magic system is well thought out (with an asterisk for the protagonist who keeps discovering new powers she has, but I'm willing to allow that there may be a reason for that), but there is no depth to imagery, characterization, or ideas. It could still be good entertainment, if it wasn't so interminable.

I'm also stalled on the third Iron Druid book, Hammered. The series is an example of what I mean by good entertainment without being that deep. And it has fun mythology references. But I'm not in the right brainspace for it.

I went through two more Vorkosigan books. I could have done without the torture porn in Mirror Dance, and Memory felt slow in places, but overall they were solid. I feel like Ivan doesn't get enough credit from anyone, given how often he has to rescue Miles.