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Reading July, continued
Jul. 22nd, 2022 10:43 amThe Boys from Brazil, Ira Levin.
Hallowe’en Party, Agatha Christie.
Towards Zero, Agatha Christie.
The Long Call, Ann Cleeves.
The Registrar, Neela Janakiramanan
Percy Jackson & the Titan’s Curse, Rick Riordan.
Percy Jackson & the Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan.
Truth and Measure, Roslyn Sinclair.
The Fourth Monkey, JD Barker.
The Boys from Brazil, Ira Levin. I feel that this is highly likely to be one of those books I read in Reader’s Digest Condensed form (my grandparents had a subscription; I still remember the absolute betrayal I felt when I realised what "condensed" actually meant) but I certainly didn’t remember any details beyond the central gimmick. Unfortunately it takes over 2/3rds of the book for the main characters to discover this, so there is a certain amount of waiting for everyone to catch up and this does not work as well as it does in his The Stepford Wives. The central character, Yakov Liebermann ( a Nazi-hunter based on Simon Wiesenthal) is well-drawn (I also appreciate that when he’s phoned by a complete stranger with a wild story his first reaction is to ignore it). The conclusion - hmm. Chelsea Cain has a rather bloodthirsty intro that appears to trample all over at least half of Liebermann’s point, and that may well explain why her thrillers don’t work for me (do I read thrillers because I want revenge on bad guys? No, I read them because I want to see people cope with terrible situations. The two things may run together but it’s not the same). But I can also see her point in this situation, and I think Levin could too.
Hallowe’en Party, Agatha Christie. Poirot and Ariadne Oliver, and a girl drowned in a bucket bobbing for apples. I have read this before but still only worked out about half of it; it’s a solid later Christie, and the cruelty of the murder is well done.
Towards Zero, Agatha Christie. An Inspector Battle book, in which the murder of an elderly woman in a seaside house turns out to be the working out of a much older plot; the romances in this are rather simpering but there's an ultimate reveal that is still effectively chilling, and it all hangs together nicely.
The Long Call, Ann Cleeves. First in a series; DI Matthew Venn has recently returned to his childhood home of Devon with his husband, having been cast out by his parents, members of a small religious sect, initially for daring to question the religion as much as for being gay. At the start his father has just died and Venn was unable to attend the funeral; then, a body is found on the beach, and a young woman with Down’s Syndrome (who attends the day centre Venn’s husband runs) goes missing. Very solid on setting and did not stack up the bodies, did feel a bit claustrophobic/small townish, competent handling of plot with some interesting threads left for later books.
The Registrar, Neela Janakiramanan. Emma Swann, daughter of a famous (male) surgeon and younger sister to another (male) surgical trainee, gets a training registrar job in orthopaedic surgery in an eminent fictional Australian hospital. The writing is fine but I’ve read too many other similar books for the plot elements to have any freshness (the predatory senior doctor who grooms her into a relationship, the suicide attempt by a colleague, the exploitation of trainees by management, the misogyny and racism baked into the system). There’s one genuinely disturbing scene (with the staple gun) but otherwise Yumiko Kadota’s memoir is less well written but actually a better piece of work. In particular, Emma in this is an odd void as a main character; it’s hard to believe she existed before she walks onto the page.
Percy Jackson & the Titan’s Curse, Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson & the Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan
I listened to these as audiobooks with the kids but was rather distracted, so reading the hard copies has been helpful. Things are getting darker and it’s going to be interesting to see how he finishes the last one (in this series).
Truth and Measure, Roslyn Sinclair. Expanded, updated with tech references, and names changed, this is the first part of Telanu’s Truth & Measure series, her Devil Wears Prada Andi and Miranda fic. It’s still good and in some respects I prefer this version (in addition to being more modern I think it feels as though there’s been less careful surgery to the screen version of Miranda and so the power dynamic does not unnerve me quite as much), and I will be reading the second volume shortly.
The Fourth Monkey, JD Barker. Indistinguishable detectives hunt gimmicky serial killer interspersed with chunks of serial killer’s diary, in which any sort of coherent narrative or character development is consistently bludgeoned into pulp with SHOCKING TWISTS. First in a trilogy that I shan’t pursue.
In video gaming I have finished Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, both absolutely fabulous RPGs set in a future Earth many years after the destruction of our civilisation. The backstory is painfully on point quite often, and sometimes playing this was less escapism and more inevitable despair, but it's still a fantastic game and Aloy is a great character. I am currently casting around for a replacement; am trying the FFVII remake, but it's not quite hitting the spot yet.
Hallowe’en Party, Agatha Christie.
Towards Zero, Agatha Christie.
The Long Call, Ann Cleeves.
The Registrar, Neela Janakiramanan
Percy Jackson & the Titan’s Curse, Rick Riordan.
Percy Jackson & the Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan.
Truth and Measure, Roslyn Sinclair.
The Fourth Monkey, JD Barker.
The Boys from Brazil, Ira Levin. I feel that this is highly likely to be one of those books I read in Reader’s Digest Condensed form (my grandparents had a subscription; I still remember the absolute betrayal I felt when I realised what "condensed" actually meant) but I certainly didn’t remember any details beyond the central gimmick. Unfortunately it takes over 2/3rds of the book for the main characters to discover this, so there is a certain amount of waiting for everyone to catch up and this does not work as well as it does in his The Stepford Wives. The central character, Yakov Liebermann ( a Nazi-hunter based on Simon Wiesenthal) is well-drawn (I also appreciate that when he’s phoned by a complete stranger with a wild story his first reaction is to ignore it). The conclusion - hmm. Chelsea Cain has a rather bloodthirsty intro that appears to trample all over at least half of Liebermann’s point, and that may well explain why her thrillers don’t work for me (do I read thrillers because I want revenge on bad guys? No, I read them because I want to see people cope with terrible situations. The two things may run together but it’s not the same). But I can also see her point in this situation, and I think Levin could too.
Hallowe’en Party, Agatha Christie. Poirot and Ariadne Oliver, and a girl drowned in a bucket bobbing for apples. I have read this before but still only worked out about half of it; it’s a solid later Christie, and the cruelty of the murder is well done.
Towards Zero, Agatha Christie. An Inspector Battle book, in which the murder of an elderly woman in a seaside house turns out to be the working out of a much older plot; the romances in this are rather simpering but there's an ultimate reveal that is still effectively chilling, and it all hangs together nicely.
The Long Call, Ann Cleeves. First in a series; DI Matthew Venn has recently returned to his childhood home of Devon with his husband, having been cast out by his parents, members of a small religious sect, initially for daring to question the religion as much as for being gay. At the start his father has just died and Venn was unable to attend the funeral; then, a body is found on the beach, and a young woman with Down’s Syndrome (who attends the day centre Venn’s husband runs) goes missing. Very solid on setting and did not stack up the bodies, did feel a bit claustrophobic/small townish, competent handling of plot with some interesting threads left for later books.
The Registrar, Neela Janakiramanan. Emma Swann, daughter of a famous (male) surgeon and younger sister to another (male) surgical trainee, gets a training registrar job in orthopaedic surgery in an eminent fictional Australian hospital. The writing is fine but I’ve read too many other similar books for the plot elements to have any freshness (the predatory senior doctor who grooms her into a relationship, the suicide attempt by a colleague, the exploitation of trainees by management, the misogyny and racism baked into the system). There’s one genuinely disturbing scene (with the staple gun) but otherwise Yumiko Kadota’s memoir is less well written but actually a better piece of work. In particular, Emma in this is an odd void as a main character; it’s hard to believe she existed before she walks onto the page.
Percy Jackson & the Titan’s Curse, Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson & the Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan
I listened to these as audiobooks with the kids but was rather distracted, so reading the hard copies has been helpful. Things are getting darker and it’s going to be interesting to see how he finishes the last one (in this series).
Truth and Measure, Roslyn Sinclair. Expanded, updated with tech references, and names changed, this is the first part of Telanu’s Truth & Measure series, her Devil Wears Prada Andi and Miranda fic. It’s still good and in some respects I prefer this version (in addition to being more modern I think it feels as though there’s been less careful surgery to the screen version of Miranda and so the power dynamic does not unnerve me quite as much), and I will be reading the second volume shortly.
The Fourth Monkey, JD Barker. Indistinguishable detectives hunt gimmicky serial killer interspersed with chunks of serial killer’s diary, in which any sort of coherent narrative or character development is consistently bludgeoned into pulp with SHOCKING TWISTS. First in a trilogy that I shan’t pursue.
In video gaming I have finished Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, both absolutely fabulous RPGs set in a future Earth many years after the destruction of our civilisation. The backstory is painfully on point quite often, and sometimes playing this was less escapism and more inevitable despair, but it's still a fantastic game and Aloy is a great character. I am currently casting around for a replacement; am trying the FFVII remake, but it's not quite hitting the spot yet.
