Books read, June
Oct. 1st, 2025 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraEverything that’s not Murderbot, as I also read all the rest of the extant Murderbot corpus this month. Favourites - All the Beauty in the World for new to me, Longshot for re-read, and Cat Man for manga/graphic novel.
Longshot, Dick Francis (re-read)
The Salt Path, Raynor Winn
The Wild Silence, Raynor Winn
Landlines, Raynor Winn
Bean There, Found You, Cameron Tate
A dim prognosis: our health system in crisis - and a doctor’s view on how to fix it, Ivor Popovitch
Bonds of brass, Emily Skrutskie
Invisible, Christina Diaz Gonzalez & Gabriela Epstein
Grave expectations, Alice Bell (re-read)
Turning 12, Kathryn Ormsbee & Molly Brooks
All the beauty in the world: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me, Patrick Bingley
Cat Man, Parari
She loves to cook and she loves to eat, Sakaomi Yuzaki, v 5
My darling dreadful thing, Johanna van Veen
Longshot, Dick Francis, re-read. Absentmindedly re-read this while recommending it to my sister, who does things like go on two week expeditions by snowshoe across the frozen wilderness of Canada in February. It’s great - one of my A grade Francis books - and I remained comfortably warm and dry throughout, unlike either the stoically suffering protagonist (who writes survival novels while starving in a chilly attic, until he gets offered the chance to write a racing giant's memoir at a house that proves to contain lurking dangers) or my sister.
The Salt Path, Raynor Winn
The Wild Silence, Raynor Winn
Landlines, Raynor Winn
Excellent timing on my part. I took my mother to see The Salt Path movie and we’d both enjoyed it (I didn’t recognise Gillian Anderson until the final credits, my teen obsession with the first 3 seasons of the X-Files would be appalled), so I borrowed all the books from the library. The Salt Path is the memoir of Raynor and her husband Moth walking the South West Coast Path after they lose their home to a friend’s betrayal and Moth is diagnosed with the terminal and untreatable condition of corticobasal degeneration (CBD); but as they walk, struggling with finances and physical challenges, Moth’s condition, incredibly, improves, and they achieve a fragile redemption.
And then the Observer did a big exposé on them just after I started the third book - Raynor actually lost her house after embezzling money from an employer (but still owned a property in France), Moth’s condition was a related atypical disease without the terminal diagnosis or the inexorable progression, descriptions of people and places along the way are misleading and often insulting, the dates mean they started the walk before Moth’s diagnosis anyway and quite possibly they never actually finished the walk itself. Winn’s next book launch suddenly got called off and a lot of people are very angry, not least people with CBD who’d been given what turned out to be false hope.
Did I pick this up on reading? Hmm. I thought Moth’s condition was likely an exaggeration/miscommunication, and I did find some of their encounters less than believable. The second book was odd, sandwiching together Raynor’s literary success with agoraphobia and then a trip to Iceland to walk there to provide Moth, who is flagging, with a boost, and then the third book has brain scans done before and after another massive walk that showed a restoration to normality that definitely had me questioning things - it’s far too tidy. But it's such a persuasive trope, nature as healer, physical activity as a cure-all; persuasive and toxic.
Bean There, Found You, Cameron Tate. Coffee shop lesbian get together where former mean girl takes a job in the coffee shop after her father is convicted of fraud; her supervisor Clara is one of her former bullying victims. This was fine and at least there is actual coffee shop work going on, but Clara doesn’t get much of an arc other than “save the coffee shop”.
A dim prognosis: our health system in crisis - and a doctor’s view on how to fix it, Ivor Popovitch. Semi-memoir, semi-political “what is needed in the NZ health system.” I agree with Igor’s politics and his suggestions for what to do to salvage the NZ health system, but I wasn’t actually that wild about his memoir. Possibly I was also irked by the fact that all his various anecdotes about unnamed hospital specialists only include one woman.
Bonds of brass, Emily Skrutskie. This got promo’d as the Finn/Poe we all really deserved (check the cover, which features YA versions of them both) and I GUESS it has two male pilots hunted by an evil Empire who meet up with a rebellious scrappy heroine and fall in love BUT it is also relentlessly obsessed with hereditary monarchies (it is, in fact, book 1 of the Blood Right trilogy) to a degree that actually makes Star Wars look slightly less so. Of course one of the pilots is the secret heir to the evil Empire and of course he will totally treat everyone nicely and of course there is a third act twist that you can probably guess by now but, really. Either do Finn/Poe or do Captive Prince in space, but they’re not the same thing, and for me the good bits tended to cancel out and the weak bits were amplified.
Invisible, Christina Diaz Gonzalez & Gabriela Epstein. Graphic novel where five Spanish-speaking students are made to do a community service project by their school; each takes a turn as narrator as they learn more about each other and come together to help a homeless family. Nicely done but the characters could be more developed.
Grave expectations, Alice Bell (re-read). Millennial angst and detection with ghost. I thought I’d gotten halfway through this and then had to return it to the library, so started reading it again, and as I neared the two-thirds mark realised I had actually finished it but the vibes in the first part really are what the book relies on rather than the solution at the end. I then borrowed the second and failed to read it. I did like it! I would even recommend it. But for some reason it keeps slipping out of my awareness.
Turning 12, Kathryn Ormsbee & Molly Brooks. Graphic novel - Katie, home-schooled for religious reasons, is growing up - her best friends are out of town temporarily, so she has to attend church retreat and audition for the local theatre group on her own. Her church retreat is all about purity culture for girls, but Katie realises she’s developing crush on one of her fellow female orphans in the theatre production of Annie - what is she supposed to do with all these feelings? I liked this while thinking that I really should track down some graphic novels set in the last 5-10 years for the kids - this is very explicitly early 2000s, based on the author’s own experiences.
All the beauty in the world: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me, Patrick Bingley. Patrick quit his job at the New Yorker after his brother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and instead took a job as a security guard at the Met - originally he intended this as temporary, but he stayed for ten years (and wore out nine pairs of shoes) with the other guards, all of whom also had their own fascinating stories. Meditative and surprising (it had never occurred to me to think about the relationships that security guards in these places have with the wonders they guard), thoughtful and well-written.
She loves to cook and she loves to eat, Sakaomi Yuzaki, v 5. This does have some great food in it but is also about looking for an apartment in Japan as a lesbian couple, as well as dealing with Nagumo finally getting some help for her social eating anxiety. I like this series a lot.
Cat Man, Parari. One volume manga. Hachisuke hates the way he’s perceived as “cute” and less than human for being a cat human (small, fluffy, ears and tail) in a world where humans also exist; he and his other cat human friends are exploited, casually groped/patted, and fetishised. This is not a subtle book but it’s touching, and I liked the characters.
My darling dreadful thing, Johanna van Veen. Roos is starved and exploited by her mother in fake seances, comforted only by her strange spirit companion Ruth; then Agnes, a wealthy widow, essentially buys Roos and whisks her away to her gothic estate, because Agnes, too, has a spirit guide, and wants Roos’ help - and perhaps more than that. The setting is great (it’s post WWII Netherlands, but the decaying mansion and grounds are fantastic too) and I did like the characters, but I wanted more gothic romance and less murder mystery.
Longshot, Dick Francis (re-read)
The Salt Path, Raynor Winn
The Wild Silence, Raynor Winn
Landlines, Raynor Winn
Bean There, Found You, Cameron Tate
A dim prognosis: our health system in crisis - and a doctor’s view on how to fix it, Ivor Popovitch
Bonds of brass, Emily Skrutskie
Invisible, Christina Diaz Gonzalez & Gabriela Epstein
Grave expectations, Alice Bell (re-read)
Turning 12, Kathryn Ormsbee & Molly Brooks
All the beauty in the world: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me, Patrick Bingley
Cat Man, Parari
She loves to cook and she loves to eat, Sakaomi Yuzaki, v 5
My darling dreadful thing, Johanna van Veen
Longshot, Dick Francis, re-read. Absentmindedly re-read this while recommending it to my sister, who does things like go on two week expeditions by snowshoe across the frozen wilderness of Canada in February. It’s great - one of my A grade Francis books - and I remained comfortably warm and dry throughout, unlike either the stoically suffering protagonist (who writes survival novels while starving in a chilly attic, until he gets offered the chance to write a racing giant's memoir at a house that proves to contain lurking dangers) or my sister.
The Salt Path, Raynor Winn
The Wild Silence, Raynor Winn
Landlines, Raynor Winn
Excellent timing on my part. I took my mother to see The Salt Path movie and we’d both enjoyed it (I didn’t recognise Gillian Anderson until the final credits, my teen obsession with the first 3 seasons of the X-Files would be appalled), so I borrowed all the books from the library. The Salt Path is the memoir of Raynor and her husband Moth walking the South West Coast Path after they lose their home to a friend’s betrayal and Moth is diagnosed with the terminal and untreatable condition of corticobasal degeneration (CBD); but as they walk, struggling with finances and physical challenges, Moth’s condition, incredibly, improves, and they achieve a fragile redemption.
And then the Observer did a big exposé on them just after I started the third book - Raynor actually lost her house after embezzling money from an employer (but still owned a property in France), Moth’s condition was a related atypical disease without the terminal diagnosis or the inexorable progression, descriptions of people and places along the way are misleading and often insulting, the dates mean they started the walk before Moth’s diagnosis anyway and quite possibly they never actually finished the walk itself. Winn’s next book launch suddenly got called off and a lot of people are very angry, not least people with CBD who’d been given what turned out to be false hope.
Did I pick this up on reading? Hmm. I thought Moth’s condition was likely an exaggeration/miscommunication, and I did find some of their encounters less than believable. The second book was odd, sandwiching together Raynor’s literary success with agoraphobia and then a trip to Iceland to walk there to provide Moth, who is flagging, with a boost, and then the third book has brain scans done before and after another massive walk that showed a restoration to normality that definitely had me questioning things - it’s far too tidy. But it's such a persuasive trope, nature as healer, physical activity as a cure-all; persuasive and toxic.
Bean There, Found You, Cameron Tate. Coffee shop lesbian get together where former mean girl takes a job in the coffee shop after her father is convicted of fraud; her supervisor Clara is one of her former bullying victims. This was fine and at least there is actual coffee shop work going on, but Clara doesn’t get much of an arc other than “save the coffee shop”.
A dim prognosis: our health system in crisis - and a doctor’s view on how to fix it, Ivor Popovitch. Semi-memoir, semi-political “what is needed in the NZ health system.” I agree with Igor’s politics and his suggestions for what to do to salvage the NZ health system, but I wasn’t actually that wild about his memoir. Possibly I was also irked by the fact that all his various anecdotes about unnamed hospital specialists only include one woman.
Bonds of brass, Emily Skrutskie. This got promo’d as the Finn/Poe we all really deserved (check the cover, which features YA versions of them both) and I GUESS it has two male pilots hunted by an evil Empire who meet up with a rebellious scrappy heroine and fall in love BUT it is also relentlessly obsessed with hereditary monarchies (it is, in fact, book 1 of the Blood Right trilogy) to a degree that actually makes Star Wars look slightly less so. Of course one of the pilots is the secret heir to the evil Empire and of course he will totally treat everyone nicely and of course there is a third act twist that you can probably guess by now but, really. Either do Finn/Poe or do Captive Prince in space, but they’re not the same thing, and for me the good bits tended to cancel out and the weak bits were amplified.
Invisible, Christina Diaz Gonzalez & Gabriela Epstein. Graphic novel where five Spanish-speaking students are made to do a community service project by their school; each takes a turn as narrator as they learn more about each other and come together to help a homeless family. Nicely done but the characters could be more developed.
Grave expectations, Alice Bell (re-read). Millennial angst and detection with ghost. I thought I’d gotten halfway through this and then had to return it to the library, so started reading it again, and as I neared the two-thirds mark realised I had actually finished it but the vibes in the first part really are what the book relies on rather than the solution at the end. I then borrowed the second and failed to read it. I did like it! I would even recommend it. But for some reason it keeps slipping out of my awareness.
Turning 12, Kathryn Ormsbee & Molly Brooks. Graphic novel - Katie, home-schooled for religious reasons, is growing up - her best friends are out of town temporarily, so she has to attend church retreat and audition for the local theatre group on her own. Her church retreat is all about purity culture for girls, but Katie realises she’s developing crush on one of her fellow female orphans in the theatre production of Annie - what is she supposed to do with all these feelings? I liked this while thinking that I really should track down some graphic novels set in the last 5-10 years for the kids - this is very explicitly early 2000s, based on the author’s own experiences.
All the beauty in the world: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me, Patrick Bingley. Patrick quit his job at the New Yorker after his brother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and instead took a job as a security guard at the Met - originally he intended this as temporary, but he stayed for ten years (and wore out nine pairs of shoes) with the other guards, all of whom also had their own fascinating stories. Meditative and surprising (it had never occurred to me to think about the relationships that security guards in these places have with the wonders they guard), thoughtful and well-written.
She loves to cook and she loves to eat, Sakaomi Yuzaki, v 5. This does have some great food in it but is also about looking for an apartment in Japan as a lesbian couple, as well as dealing with Nagumo finally getting some help for her social eating anxiety. I like this series a lot.
Cat Man, Parari. One volume manga. Hachisuke hates the way he’s perceived as “cute” and less than human for being a cat human (small, fluffy, ears and tail) in a world where humans also exist; he and his other cat human friends are exploited, casually groped/patted, and fetishised. This is not a subtle book but it’s touching, and I liked the characters.
My darling dreadful thing, Johanna van Veen. Roos is starved and exploited by her mother in fake seances, comforted only by her strange spirit companion Ruth; then Agnes, a wealthy widow, essentially buys Roos and whisks her away to her gothic estate, because Agnes, too, has a spirit guide, and wants Roos’ help - and perhaps more than that. The setting is great (it’s post WWII Netherlands, but the decaying mansion and grounds are fantastic too) and I did like the characters, but I wanted more gothic romance and less murder mystery.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-01 05:08 am (UTC)Without having read any of the memoirs or seen the movie, although the latter had gotten on my radar because of Jason Isaacs, that was the part I found most upsetting.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-01 10:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-01 08:07 pm (UTC)I'm really sorry it hit them like that after the fact!
no subject
Date: 2025-10-01 12:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-03 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-03 02:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 06:38 pm (UTC)Was very interested to see what you thought of My darling dreadful thing. I started that, thought it was really well written, and wanted to finish it, but was too squeamish. So now I read it vicariously through other people's reviews :D I did not guess it was going to turn into a murder mystery! I was expecting more something along the lines of psychological horror.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-07 10:15 pm (UTC)