Wednesday Reading
Apr. 3rd, 2019 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaidenRecently Finished
Never Grow Up
Jackie Chan's episodic autobiography. most interesting revelation: he's functionally illiterate, more literate in English than Chinese but not by much. i feel like there's a lot to be read between the lines and it makes me very curious about what it's like to have lived through the power transition in Hong Kong. this book doesn't really tell that story and i'm sure that's not allowed. also, Chan is textbook ADD.
i enjoyed reading it much like i enjoyed reading Anthony Bourdain - what a charming and talented asshole, i appreciate his work and i'm glad i'll never have to deal with him in real life.
The Seventh Bride
this is a T. Kingfisher book from 47 North that i got for free, read in one or two sittings, and don't remember that clearly. but my impression was favorable? clever girl teams up with other women to beat the odds.
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter
got this from the library based on (IIRC)rachelmanija's review. i read it cover-to-cover like a book - the recipes are organized in a sort of narrative with a lot of context - and enjoyed it a great deal. it's currently full of post-it tabs and assuming the bookmarked recipes turn out for me i will probably buy it. really nifty reference for cost and effort comparison for making things from scratch. (she's wrong about homemade coffee liqueur; it's easy and relatively cheap. but otherwise for the things i've already made from scratch i agree with her.) her voice is charming and her chicken ownership story is so true to the experiences of my chicken-raising friends.
Dragon Sword and Wind Child (Tales of Magatama Book 1)
this was in translation and i feel like i would have appreciated it more if i had a stronger Japanese cultural grounding. as it was i kind of hated the heroine and found it emotionally distant and unsatisfying.
China Mountain Zhang
this is a classic literary fiction book about a loser gay dude finding himself with a B plot about a marriage of convenience that turns into something more. it is also set in a near future where China is the world superpower and the US is their client nation and a Mars colony and there's a lot of nifty computer technology and travel and architecture. i still don't know how i feel about it because i was reading it expecting there to be a big international/interplanetary story about a government conspiracy or a revolution and apparently i was interrogating the text from the wrong perspective. it's kind of screaming for a Blade Runner-style adaptation where a moody book with great worldbuilding gets a more accessible story bolted on.
That Ain't Witchcraft (InCryptid)
a sturdy episode in the InCryptid series where we deal with the concept of the Crossroads, and hopefully the last one that is without Aeslin mice (although they are honored well). it feels like a bit of a bridge, but a fun bridge.
In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children, #4)
this tells Lundy's backstory. better than Beneath the Sugar Sky! not quite as good as Down Among the Sticks and Bones. this one i think suffered from the short length and would have blossomed with another dozen pages.
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach
loved the worldbuilding and having an elderly genetically engineered heroine with practical tentacles, but it ended abruptly and awkwardly in a way that felt like it was an excerpt from a novel rather than a complete story. hmm. noting that this might be a bigger Tor.com problem.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)
cozy SF story about life on board a ship where stuff is also happening in the galaxy sometimes. if you dig the crew interaction stuff from Firefly or The Orville, then this will be a pleasure. i had to try twice to get into it, but once i did it was like a warm bath.
The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy, #2)
i waited a long time to get this from the library, and it read slowly because a) it was due to timing and shared elements jumbled with Rebel of the Sands in my brain and b) it was the middlest middle book that ever middled. in the first book our heroine is a grifter discovering her heritage and there's this big political and religious thing happening and the end is a dramatic downer but you are primed to know how she's going to climb out of this hole. in the second book she's in the hole as is everyone else and while there's some excitement at the end it is, again, a dramatic downer.
The Kiss Quotient (The Kiss Quotient, #1)
this is a romance novel about an autistic woman who hires an escort to help her learn about sex and romance. it's got some internalized ableism and some ick around her early sexual experiences, but it was otherwise a joy to read from an allistic perspective and a fun twist on Pretty Woman. the author is on the spectrum and i appreciated her descriptions of texture and scent in general and especially in the sex scenes. (there are many sex scenes.)
An Argumentation of Historians (The Chronicles of St. Mary's #9)
i thought this series was over? but it's not? they are still hunting that one bad guy.
Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)
Magic inAfrica with colonialism and colorism and genocide. it's got a revolution and a quest with a ticking time clock and women finding their power. good times, looking forward to the next one.
Currently Reading
The Way of Kings: this has been sitting on my Kindle for years. i got it free at some point and had been warned that it was slow and i kept setting it aside. but i've also been told getting through this one is worth it to read the next ones. well, it's really slow.
right now i want to count all the times we've been shown that the one dude sucks the magic light out of the stones they use for money and then heals BUT NO ONE PUTS THIS TOGETHER INCLUDING HIM.
What's Next
library ebooks.
Never Grow Up
Jackie Chan's episodic autobiography. most interesting revelation: he's functionally illiterate, more literate in English than Chinese but not by much. i feel like there's a lot to be read between the lines and it makes me very curious about what it's like to have lived through the power transition in Hong Kong. this book doesn't really tell that story and i'm sure that's not allowed. also, Chan is textbook ADD.
i enjoyed reading it much like i enjoyed reading Anthony Bourdain - what a charming and talented asshole, i appreciate his work and i'm glad i'll never have to deal with him in real life.
The Seventh Bride
this is a T. Kingfisher book from 47 North that i got for free, read in one or two sittings, and don't remember that clearly. but my impression was favorable? clever girl teams up with other women to beat the odds.
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter
got this from the library based on (IIRC)
rachelmanija's review. i read it cover-to-cover like a book - the recipes are organized in a sort of narrative with a lot of context - and enjoyed it a great deal. it's currently full of post-it tabs and assuming the bookmarked recipes turn out for me i will probably buy it. really nifty reference for cost and effort comparison for making things from scratch. (she's wrong about homemade coffee liqueur; it's easy and relatively cheap. but otherwise for the things i've already made from scratch i agree with her.) her voice is charming and her chicken ownership story is so true to the experiences of my chicken-raising friends. Dragon Sword and Wind Child (Tales of Magatama Book 1)
this was in translation and i feel like i would have appreciated it more if i had a stronger Japanese cultural grounding. as it was i kind of hated the heroine and found it emotionally distant and unsatisfying.
China Mountain Zhang
this is a classic literary fiction book about a loser gay dude finding himself with a B plot about a marriage of convenience that turns into something more. it is also set in a near future where China is the world superpower and the US is their client nation and a Mars colony and there's a lot of nifty computer technology and travel and architecture. i still don't know how i feel about it because i was reading it expecting there to be a big international/interplanetary story about a government conspiracy or a revolution and apparently i was interrogating the text from the wrong perspective. it's kind of screaming for a Blade Runner-style adaptation where a moody book with great worldbuilding gets a more accessible story bolted on.
That Ain't Witchcraft (InCryptid)
a sturdy episode in the InCryptid series where we deal with the concept of the Crossroads, and hopefully the last one that is without Aeslin mice (although they are honored well). it feels like a bit of a bridge, but a fun bridge.
In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children, #4)
this tells Lundy's backstory. better than Beneath the Sugar Sky! not quite as good as Down Among the Sticks and Bones. this one i think suffered from the short length and would have blossomed with another dozen pages.
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach
loved the worldbuilding and having an elderly genetically engineered heroine with practical tentacles, but it ended abruptly and awkwardly in a way that felt like it was an excerpt from a novel rather than a complete story. hmm. noting that this might be a bigger Tor.com problem.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)
cozy SF story about life on board a ship where stuff is also happening in the galaxy sometimes. if you dig the crew interaction stuff from Firefly or The Orville, then this will be a pleasure. i had to try twice to get into it, but once i did it was like a warm bath.
The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy, #2)
i waited a long time to get this from the library, and it read slowly because a) it was due to timing and shared elements jumbled with Rebel of the Sands in my brain and b) it was the middlest middle book that ever middled. in the first book our heroine is a grifter discovering her heritage and there's this big political and religious thing happening and the end is a dramatic downer but you are primed to know how she's going to climb out of this hole. in the second book she's in the hole as is everyone else and while there's some excitement at the end it is, again, a dramatic downer.
The Kiss Quotient (The Kiss Quotient, #1)
this is a romance novel about an autistic woman who hires an escort to help her learn about sex and romance. it's got some internalized ableism and some ick around her early sexual experiences, but it was otherwise a joy to read from an allistic perspective and a fun twist on Pretty Woman. the author is on the spectrum and i appreciated her descriptions of texture and scent in general and especially in the sex scenes. (there are many sex scenes.)
An Argumentation of Historians (The Chronicles of St. Mary's #9)
i thought this series was over? but it's not? they are still hunting that one bad guy.
Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)
Magic in
Currently Reading
The Way of Kings: this has been sitting on my Kindle for years. i got it free at some point and had been warned that it was slow and i kept setting it aside. but i've also been told getting through this one is worth it to read the next ones. well, it's really slow.
right now i want to count all the times we've been shown that the one dude sucks the magic light out of the stones they use for money and then heals BUT NO ONE PUTS THIS TOGETHER INCLUDING HIM.
What's Next
library ebooks.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-03 08:24 pm (UTC)I finally bought The Long Way... this week. Everybody keeps reccing it!
no subject
Date: 2019-04-04 07:44 pm (UTC)i thought this series was over? but it's not? they are still hunting that one bad guy.
I laughed out loud when I read this.