cyphomandra (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cyphomandra) wrote2008-08-03 09:53 pm
cyphomandra) wrote2008-08-03 09:53 pm
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I’m trying to catch up at the moment, and it’s easier to blog about the books that didn’t grab me than those that did, so bear that in mind if the next few posts have an awful lot of “not quite my thing.” Books that I do want to spend more time on, because they were very much my thing: Bryan Talbot’s Alice in Sunderland, Morris Gleitzman’s Then and Marian Keyes’ This Charming Man, all very good and all recommended; I also have pending posts on a couple of books that either weren’t quite there or annoyed me in ways that I want to spend more time on.
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith. I do really like this book, for voice and character and the window into a world that’s almost alien to now. It’s interesting that one of the scenes I remember most strongly about it is the writing sequence with the father, and everytime I re-read the book I’ve forgotten just how late it comes in the text, and how much other stuff is going on. Still good.
Ken Catran, Lin and the Red stranger. NZ goldfields historical, Chinese girl and escaping Irish (I think? Possibly Scottish) convict learn from each other. The problem I have with Ken Catran is that he writes perfectly serviceable one-idea books that I will never want to re-read, and this is one of them.
Gerald Morris, The squire's tale. Arthurian re-telling from the pov of Gawain’s squire. Gawain was my first favourite Arthurian knight (had subsequent phases of switching allegiance to Arthur, Kay, Mordred and Guinevere depending on books being read at the time) and I read this because of that, but it stuffs up the Lady Ragnell tale (also a very early proto-feminist favourite) and is a mix of the Malorean jousting and woods magic, neither my favourite approaches. I did like bits of it, though, and I'd read the next one but wouldn't seek it out.
JM Coeztee, Diary of a bad year. I got this as a going-away present from my last job (complete with slightly alarmed inscription about not taking the title as a bad sign, although given that I gave Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home in exchange…). It’s an interesting concept that never quite takes off for me, or becomes more than the sum of its parts – older guy gets younger woman with dodgy boyfriend to type opinionated book for him. Interactions ensue. I ended up feeling that I would have liked this much more if Russell Hoban had done it.
Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational. Nonfiction. Why we do things that don’t make sense (except for how they do). I like the descriptions of studies he does to test things out, and it’s all very readable, with moments of “aha!”, but I’m not sure it left me with much.
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith. I do really like this book, for voice and character and the window into a world that’s almost alien to now. It’s interesting that one of the scenes I remember most strongly about it is the writing sequence with the father, and everytime I re-read the book I’ve forgotten just how late it comes in the text, and how much other stuff is going on. Still good.
Ken Catran, Lin and the Red stranger. NZ goldfields historical, Chinese girl and escaping Irish (I think? Possibly Scottish) convict learn from each other. The problem I have with Ken Catran is that he writes perfectly serviceable one-idea books that I will never want to re-read, and this is one of them.
Gerald Morris, The squire's tale. Arthurian re-telling from the pov of Gawain’s squire. Gawain was my first favourite Arthurian knight (had subsequent phases of switching allegiance to Arthur, Kay, Mordred and Guinevere depending on books being read at the time) and I read this because of that, but it stuffs up the Lady Ragnell tale (also a very early proto-feminist favourite) and is a mix of the Malorean jousting and woods magic, neither my favourite approaches. I did like bits of it, though, and I'd read the next one but wouldn't seek it out.
JM Coeztee, Diary of a bad year. I got this as a going-away present from my last job (complete with slightly alarmed inscription about not taking the title as a bad sign, although given that I gave Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home in exchange…). It’s an interesting concept that never quite takes off for me, or becomes more than the sum of its parts – older guy gets younger woman with dodgy boyfriend to type opinionated book for him. Interactions ensue. I ended up feeling that I would have liked this much more if Russell Hoban had done it.
Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational. Nonfiction. Why we do things that don’t make sense (except for how they do). I like the descriptions of studies he does to test things out, and it’s all very readable, with moments of “aha!”, but I’m not sure it left me with much.