Book Post: Wong, Sapkowski, Wynne Jones, Albertalli, Heinlein
1.Dear Girls by Ali Wong, 213pp
I was sitting on the train and trying not to laugh out loud reading this book. I really liked Wong’s two comedy specials on Netflix so I got the book too and it was really funny. She is not writing in order of her life, more thematically but it was pretty interesting. She does not pull punches and is pretty honest about a lot of things in her life. Just like in her special, I liked the chapters on motherhood since we both have two very young daughters and I could relate a lot to what she was talking about. I also enjoyed her describing how she was advancing in comedy and what it took and also her study abroad in Vietnam, her mother’s native country. Really funny book.
2.Sword of Destiny by Andrej Sapkowski [in Russian], 525pp
The Witcher TV series really made me want to read more books, so I picked up the second collection of short stories, but in Russian this time. I heard that the Russian translation was better and it really was. I think more humor carries over in Russian, more slang and I ended up liking this book a lot more than the first one.
However reading it in Russian made me realize just how much of my fantasy reading in general was in English. I had to look up many words because I was more familiar with them in English. I started reading the first story just as I was in the middle of an episode that focused on it, so I was able to guess that a word referred to dwarf like people but the internet told me more of Slavic lore. So that was an interesting adjustment.
My favorite story was the one with the doppler because it was really funny. I was not expecting that with the doppler in the show was pretty creepy. But in the story he was a merchandizing genius and all the identity switching was hilarious. I also like the story where kid Ciri and Geralt meet for the first time - I like more background between them and a better approach to the forest and people in it, which was slightly weird in the show. And I liked the last story too - for some reason I thought the show made up the part with Geralt’s mother but it was in the books, just slightly different. It was cool to see TV show and then read some stories and also the other way around. I enjoyed both really.
I thought Sapkowski is the weakest in any romantic plots as they come off as really melodramatic. So any story with Yennifer and Geralt and the whole thing with Geralt and the poetess just mostly made me roll my eyes. Too much really. I did like the whole Little Mermaid riff - the mermaid was pretty cool overall especially when she revealed that she spoke the common tongue the whole time. I do like Sapkowski’s take on classic fairytales.
I want to read the first novel sometime this year and then read the other four over the next few years. TV show certainly made me a fan in a way the first short story collection did not.
3.Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, 267pp
I had a lot of fun reading this book. Children’s books don’t often work for me anymore but I find Diana Wynne Jones really fun. Mostly I liked this book because I couldn’t really tell where it was going - it kept surprising me. It was just this weird situation first with losing parents, then with moving to the strange castle, and then with the girl from another world (which is very Diana Wynne Jones type plot with parallel universes). By the end of the book I was having a lot of fun and I was to read the rest of the series.
4.The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli, 336pp
This books technically comes in between “Simon” book and “Leah” book and it is from the perspective of Molly, one of Abby’s cousins back in DC, who is the same age. It was my least favorite of the three books, mostly because the main conflict was pretty much just romance and not other things that much. In Leah book, she is also dealing with leaving for college and while her relationship with Abby is a big part of the book, it is not the only thing really. Here it feels like the author just wants to tick a lot of diversity boxes without huge character development. It feels like a more typical YA; and I’m not as interested in teenage romance anymore.
Molly had 26 crushes but no boyfriend and all of a sudden there is a new group of friends, a new coworker and other potential. Molly has two moms, one white/Jewish and the other black. She also has a lesbian twin sister Cassie who is embarking on her first serious relationship and who seems much more outgoing and a baby brother. There is another plot of the moms getting married as the Supreme Court passes marriage equality law. (And why did Molly only found out the news of Supreme Court ruling in the morning. I thought it came out during the day?) It was just weird to me how she referred to her moms by their names in the book even though she called them “Mom” in the dialogue with them - to avoid confusion? Her Moms also seems way too cool and with it, like the author was trying so hard. Simon’s parents were fun too but in more parental way. I don’t know. The book was OK but compared to the other two in this series it was pretty disappointing to me.
5. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, 279pp
This books was not really sc-fi; it is a love letter to the military. Sure there are two battles on other planets going on with an alien species, but most of the book is about Juan “Johnnie” Rico’s military training in Mobile Infantry from his cadet days to his promotion to second lieutenant. Heinlein goes into very loving detail of military training and discipline and also puts in a lot, a lot of philosophizing about the perfection of a military man.
In this future world, only military veterans who completed their two years get the vote since only veterans can truly put others above themselves and therefore can vote properly. Because there are no cultures today that prioritize the society over individual apparently. There is certainly a lot of ideas on how society should be. And how a true manly man have to behave. Heinlein clearly loved the military and comradery of the military service.
There are women in the book, most are pilots and pretty capable of it but Johnnie also makes a claim that it is women or “fairer species” who are the reason to fight. It is this weird balance which is very Heinlein. I don’t think I’ve read a Heinlein book that didn’t have something to drive me crazy with but he is also very readable and gives interesting things to think about. He also tends to lecture in all his books pretty much.
I don’t know how to feel about this book. I can see why it is famous but its discussions on what ideal society should be drove me nuts. I am glad I read it and I continue to enjoy my reading 5 Hugo winners every year project as it is leading me to read quiet diverse and interesting books. It is certainly classic Heinlein.
I was sitting on the train and trying not to laugh out loud reading this book. I really liked Wong’s two comedy specials on Netflix so I got the book too and it was really funny. She is not writing in order of her life, more thematically but it was pretty interesting. She does not pull punches and is pretty honest about a lot of things in her life. Just like in her special, I liked the chapters on motherhood since we both have two very young daughters and I could relate a lot to what she was talking about. I also enjoyed her describing how she was advancing in comedy and what it took and also her study abroad in Vietnam, her mother’s native country. Really funny book.
2.Sword of Destiny by Andrej Sapkowski [in Russian], 525pp
The Witcher TV series really made me want to read more books, so I picked up the second collection of short stories, but in Russian this time. I heard that the Russian translation was better and it really was. I think more humor carries over in Russian, more slang and I ended up liking this book a lot more than the first one.
However reading it in Russian made me realize just how much of my fantasy reading in general was in English. I had to look up many words because I was more familiar with them in English. I started reading the first story just as I was in the middle of an episode that focused on it, so I was able to guess that a word referred to dwarf like people but the internet told me more of Slavic lore. So that was an interesting adjustment.
My favorite story was the one with the doppler because it was really funny. I was not expecting that with the doppler in the show was pretty creepy. But in the story he was a merchandizing genius and all the identity switching was hilarious. I also like the story where kid Ciri and Geralt meet for the first time - I like more background between them and a better approach to the forest and people in it, which was slightly weird in the show. And I liked the last story too - for some reason I thought the show made up the part with Geralt’s mother but it was in the books, just slightly different. It was cool to see TV show and then read some stories and also the other way around. I enjoyed both really.
I thought Sapkowski is the weakest in any romantic plots as they come off as really melodramatic. So any story with Yennifer and Geralt and the whole thing with Geralt and the poetess just mostly made me roll my eyes. Too much really. I did like the whole Little Mermaid riff - the mermaid was pretty cool overall especially when she revealed that she spoke the common tongue the whole time. I do like Sapkowski’s take on classic fairytales.
I want to read the first novel sometime this year and then read the other four over the next few years. TV show certainly made me a fan in a way the first short story collection did not.
3.Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, 267pp
I had a lot of fun reading this book. Children’s books don’t often work for me anymore but I find Diana Wynne Jones really fun. Mostly I liked this book because I couldn’t really tell where it was going - it kept surprising me. It was just this weird situation first with losing parents, then with moving to the strange castle, and then with the girl from another world (which is very Diana Wynne Jones type plot with parallel universes). By the end of the book I was having a lot of fun and I was to read the rest of the series.
4.The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli, 336pp
This books technically comes in between “Simon” book and “Leah” book and it is from the perspective of Molly, one of Abby’s cousins back in DC, who is the same age. It was my least favorite of the three books, mostly because the main conflict was pretty much just romance and not other things that much. In Leah book, she is also dealing with leaving for college and while her relationship with Abby is a big part of the book, it is not the only thing really. Here it feels like the author just wants to tick a lot of diversity boxes without huge character development. It feels like a more typical YA; and I’m not as interested in teenage romance anymore.
Molly had 26 crushes but no boyfriend and all of a sudden there is a new group of friends, a new coworker and other potential. Molly has two moms, one white/Jewish and the other black. She also has a lesbian twin sister Cassie who is embarking on her first serious relationship and who seems much more outgoing and a baby brother. There is another plot of the moms getting married as the Supreme Court passes marriage equality law. (And why did Molly only found out the news of Supreme Court ruling in the morning. I thought it came out during the day?) It was just weird to me how she referred to her moms by their names in the book even though she called them “Mom” in the dialogue with them - to avoid confusion? Her Moms also seems way too cool and with it, like the author was trying so hard. Simon’s parents were fun too but in more parental way. I don’t know. The book was OK but compared to the other two in this series it was pretty disappointing to me.
5. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, 279pp
This books was not really sc-fi; it is a love letter to the military. Sure there are two battles on other planets going on with an alien species, but most of the book is about Juan “Johnnie” Rico’s military training in Mobile Infantry from his cadet days to his promotion to second lieutenant. Heinlein goes into very loving detail of military training and discipline and also puts in a lot, a lot of philosophizing about the perfection of a military man.
In this future world, only military veterans who completed their two years get the vote since only veterans can truly put others above themselves and therefore can vote properly. Because there are no cultures today that prioritize the society over individual apparently. There is certainly a lot of ideas on how society should be. And how a true manly man have to behave. Heinlein clearly loved the military and comradery of the military service.
There are women in the book, most are pilots and pretty capable of it but Johnnie also makes a claim that it is women or “fairer species” who are the reason to fight. It is this weird balance which is very Heinlein. I don’t think I’ve read a Heinlein book that didn’t have something to drive me crazy with but he is also very readable and gives interesting things to think about. He also tends to lecture in all his books pretty much.
I don’t know how to feel about this book. I can see why it is famous but its discussions on what ideal society should be drove me nuts. I am glad I read it and I continue to enjoy my reading 5 Hugo winners every year project as it is leading me to read quiet diverse and interesting books. It is certainly classic Heinlein.