Reading February
Mar. 6th, 2021 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraAll the rest of February. And, hopefully, the last day of lockdown today.
Calendar Girl, Georgia Beers. Workaholic Addison will take over the family business even if it costs her her health; that is, until her family organise a personal assistant, Katie, who is struggling to look after her father as he slips deeper into dementia. Opposites attract, valuable lessons are learnt, etc. Competently handled but the workplace dynamics felt off - opening scene is Addison telling two employees having a consensual relationship that the workplace sexual harassment laws mean one of them will have to be sacked (?!) but then the whole dating your PA is apparently okay when someone else pays her salary.
Unexpected Lessons in Love, Lucy Dillon. Jeannie is on her way to her whirlwind wedding when she realises she can’t go through with it; unfortunately, when she tries to contact the groom, he is distracted by his phone, hit by a bus, and ends up in a coma. While waiting for him to come round and not knowing how to tell anyone else of her doubts, Jeannie gets entangled in the village dog rescue. Lots of good dogs, solid characters with believable emotions; enjoyed this more than I expected.
Roll for Initiative, Alex Silver. Gui is a video game creator on crunch; his new roommate Paz, is a baker, who leaves passive-aggressive notes about people coming home late and not doing the dishes. It’s unclear why Paz doesn’t realise Gui is working or why Gui doesn’t tell him; they bicker, have a bunch of sex (including with food, never my favourite trope and doubly so if Paz is supposed to be baking brownies at home that he’s going to sell in his coffee shop!) and get together. Picked this up as a freebie and it didn’t inspire me to read more.
A Lady’s Code of Conduct, Meredith Duran. Jane Mason (a name that gave me Jane Eyre/Bertha Mason vibes) is a rich heiress held captive by her evil uncle, who is bent on marrying her to her cousin and taking her fortune. Jane seizes the chance to escape when Crispin Burke, an unscrupulous politician on the make, comes to visit and - oddly - appears to show some sympathy for her. This has one of my favourite tropes in it - Crispin is beaten and left for dead, and when he recovers, he can’t remember the last five years, and is horrified when he begins to find out who he became. Meanwhile, Jane is claiming she and Crispin are married, which Crispin is much less unhappy about… I liked this a lot, actually; they’re both great characters, and the political shenanigans (evil Crispin was trying to force through a punitive Penal Reform Bill) were a entertainingly different backdrop.
Shadow of the Moon, MM Kaye. I pulled The Far Pavilions off my parents’ bookcase when I was a teenager and totally fell into it - such a compelling beginning. Eventually I resurfaced after a few re-reads and found Shadow of the Moon, which I read but didn’t like nearly as much. Re-reading it now, and knowing it was written earlier, it works much better - the characters aren’t as strong as the latter book (although Winter’s doomed determination to follow through on her marriage despite the increasing obviousness that her husband is a dissipated and incompetent drunk), but what it’s great at is portraying the inevitable historical tragedy that happened in India in 1857 (a contested title, as per wiki, ranging from Sepoy Mutiny to the 1857 Indian Rebellion to the First War of Independence). Kaye empathises with people on all sides, although perhaps without as much class range as, say, Victor Hugo; but what she also has is a deep love for India, its flora and fauna, that really comes through. I have her memoirs out from the library and am working through these.
The Unteachables, Gordon Korman. Zachary Kermit gave up on caring about teaching when he took the fall for a test cheating scandal; now, only a few months away from retirement, he’s been given the Unteachables, the worse class in the school. At the same time, Kiara, a talented student, ends up in the class by mistake while temporarily visiting the town, and decides to stay. Fun and satisfying middle school romp.
Beware of Dogs, Elizabeth Flann. As mentioned earlier, and unfortunately the ending was a damp squib with a predictable “you thought you were safe - but just as you closed the door…” twist. Deeply annoying as there’d been all these earlier hints (the sharks, the snakes) at a much more confrontational ending. Similarly, the dealing with the lead character’s family memories also petered out. I would read another book by the author because the first 2/3rds were so strong, though.
Jill and the Lost Ponies, Jane Badger. Sequel to the Jill books, in which Jill is battling with secretarial school and then - disaster - finds out that by mistake her two ponies have been sold. I have only read some of the Jill books but this is an excellently done continuation that gets the voice without my feeling that I’m being clubbed over the head with the author’s little quirks, and also isn’t afraid to advance character arcs. I hope she does another one.
The Wives, Tarryn Fisher. Thursday loves her husband Seth so much that she is happy to share him with his two other wives, whom she has never met, see him for only one day a week (I’ll let you guess which), and tell no-one else about their arrangement. But one of the other wives is pregnant, and Thursday can’t stop wanting to know more. Unfortunately what she finds out is the deeply irritating twist that she is mentally ill following a miscarriage to the point of multiple delusions. Irksome.
Calendar Girl, Georgia Beers. Workaholic Addison will take over the family business even if it costs her her health; that is, until her family organise a personal assistant, Katie, who is struggling to look after her father as he slips deeper into dementia. Opposites attract, valuable lessons are learnt, etc. Competently handled but the workplace dynamics felt off - opening scene is Addison telling two employees having a consensual relationship that the workplace sexual harassment laws mean one of them will have to be sacked (?!) but then the whole dating your PA is apparently okay when someone else pays her salary.
Unexpected Lessons in Love, Lucy Dillon. Jeannie is on her way to her whirlwind wedding when she realises she can’t go through with it; unfortunately, when she tries to contact the groom, he is distracted by his phone, hit by a bus, and ends up in a coma. While waiting for him to come round and not knowing how to tell anyone else of her doubts, Jeannie gets entangled in the village dog rescue. Lots of good dogs, solid characters with believable emotions; enjoyed this more than I expected.
Roll for Initiative, Alex Silver. Gui is a video game creator on crunch; his new roommate Paz, is a baker, who leaves passive-aggressive notes about people coming home late and not doing the dishes. It’s unclear why Paz doesn’t realise Gui is working or why Gui doesn’t tell him; they bicker, have a bunch of sex (including with food, never my favourite trope and doubly so if Paz is supposed to be baking brownies at home that he’s going to sell in his coffee shop!) and get together. Picked this up as a freebie and it didn’t inspire me to read more.
A Lady’s Code of Conduct, Meredith Duran. Jane Mason (a name that gave me Jane Eyre/Bertha Mason vibes) is a rich heiress held captive by her evil uncle, who is bent on marrying her to her cousin and taking her fortune. Jane seizes the chance to escape when Crispin Burke, an unscrupulous politician on the make, comes to visit and - oddly - appears to show some sympathy for her. This has one of my favourite tropes in it - Crispin is beaten and left for dead, and when he recovers, he can’t remember the last five years, and is horrified when he begins to find out who he became. Meanwhile, Jane is claiming she and Crispin are married, which Crispin is much less unhappy about… I liked this a lot, actually; they’re both great characters, and the political shenanigans (evil Crispin was trying to force through a punitive Penal Reform Bill) were a entertainingly different backdrop.
Shadow of the Moon, MM Kaye. I pulled The Far Pavilions off my parents’ bookcase when I was a teenager and totally fell into it - such a compelling beginning. Eventually I resurfaced after a few re-reads and found Shadow of the Moon, which I read but didn’t like nearly as much. Re-reading it now, and knowing it was written earlier, it works much better - the characters aren’t as strong as the latter book (although Winter’s doomed determination to follow through on her marriage despite the increasing obviousness that her husband is a dissipated and incompetent drunk), but what it’s great at is portraying the inevitable historical tragedy that happened in India in 1857 (a contested title, as per wiki, ranging from Sepoy Mutiny to the 1857 Indian Rebellion to the First War of Independence). Kaye empathises with people on all sides, although perhaps without as much class range as, say, Victor Hugo; but what she also has is a deep love for India, its flora and fauna, that really comes through. I have her memoirs out from the library and am working through these.
The Unteachables, Gordon Korman. Zachary Kermit gave up on caring about teaching when he took the fall for a test cheating scandal; now, only a few months away from retirement, he’s been given the Unteachables, the worse class in the school. At the same time, Kiara, a talented student, ends up in the class by mistake while temporarily visiting the town, and decides to stay. Fun and satisfying middle school romp.
Beware of Dogs, Elizabeth Flann. As mentioned earlier, and unfortunately the ending was a damp squib with a predictable “you thought you were safe - but just as you closed the door…” twist. Deeply annoying as there’d been all these earlier hints (the sharks, the snakes) at a much more confrontational ending. Similarly, the dealing with the lead character’s family memories also petered out. I would read another book by the author because the first 2/3rds were so strong, though.
Jill and the Lost Ponies, Jane Badger. Sequel to the Jill books, in which Jill is battling with secretarial school and then - disaster - finds out that by mistake her two ponies have been sold. I have only read some of the Jill books but this is an excellently done continuation that gets the voice without my feeling that I’m being clubbed over the head with the author’s little quirks, and also isn’t afraid to advance character arcs. I hope she does another one.
The Wives, Tarryn Fisher. Thursday loves her husband Seth so much that she is happy to share him with his two other wives, whom she has never met, see him for only one day a week (I’ll let you guess which), and tell no-one else about their arrangement. But one of the other wives is pregnant, and Thursday can’t stop wanting to know more. Unfortunately what she finds out is the deeply irritating twist that she is mentally ill following a miscarriage to the point of multiple delusions. Irksome.
