Book Post: Bujold, Eger, Aaronovitch, Gaiman and Albertalli
There are my June books. I didn't post my May books and I will try to catch up but I wanted to do the June ones at least first.
Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold [Vorkosigan Saga], 316pp
This is not the best book in the Vorkosigan Saga, the main mystery is not as good, as I find more family oriented and mental anguish working better while Miles is pretty happy here overall, enjoying his new marriage and anticipating his upcoming parenthood. It is not the best one but it is still Bujold and it is still written in her highly readable style and there is plenty of funny stuff so I still had a good time with it. I really enjoyed catching up with Bel and seeing what it was up to. And it was good to see Miles on the cusp of parenthood and just realizing what that meant when he got into the potential mortal trouble.
The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eva Eger, 272pp
My Dad gave me this book for my birthday and it is a very good one despite or maybe because of the heavy topic. Edith Eva Eger is a psychologist, especially of trauma and survival, and she believes that we all personally have a choice to make to go beyond just being victims of our situations and to use it to grow to live and to enjoy life despite and maybe because of trauma that happens to us. She survived Auschwitz with her sister when she was a teenager and carried the guilt of her mother's death through her whole live before she realized what it was. Her book is about her Hungarian childhood, Auschwitz, post-war period, escaping with her husband and young daughter from Soviet-ruled lands to America, being an immigrant, and then going to college and grad school after her kids grew up and becoming a psychologist, and a famous one at that who spoke to many about surviving and moving on past trauma. Her life and ideas are fascinating. She is in her 90s and looking back on her whole life and all stages of her life are interesting. I don't think I read many accounts of what happened right after the war, right after liberation and what it took physically and mentally to get lives back on track. And her immigration experience was also fascinating. She also used case histories of some of her patients (with names changed, of course) to illustrated her methods and how she approached psychology. It is really several books in one here, all interesting. Highly recommend it.
Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch [Rivers of London 4], 293pp
I knew the main twist with Leslie already, I was spoiled for it long ago, so the book didn't pack quite the punch it was supposed it. It started with many seemingly unrelated cases with many characters' names that start with R or P, which made me think a bit too much in trying to remember them all, but of course it was all one big case. The book picked up for me once Peter and Leslie went undercover in the apartment building, I liked the subtle humor there. And I was not expecting the resolution. But because I was spoiled the ending was not a surprise. Still it felt a little unresolved. And there was just too much explanation of police procedure.
There is something about this series that is keeping me at arms' length. Maybe it is the characters, although I really like Peter. I also really liked Varvara, especially her interview with Peter and Leslie and I'm looking forward to her being the "guest" of the Folly and Peter is already thinking of learning from her. But there is something in the series that is keeping me from loving it. I like it and will keep reading it but I don't have that "love" feeling like I do with Dresden Files or Harry Potter. Maybe it is the Faceless Man - he is just not interesting to me and I don't really know what his goal is. Just pure evil for evil's sake. I really liked the third book, it worked for me better than this one. I think I was just expecting more.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman, 194pp [reread]
Olivia wanted me to read this to her since she loves the movie and I read this book out loud to her, except for the last two chapters. I don't know how much she was actually paying attention or what she was getting out of it but I enjoyed going back to this book. I read it when I was 25 or 26 since I read it when I lived in Highland Park in NJ (I have a clear memory of me in my armchair there) and then the movie version sort of took over especially in the last few years when the girls watched it over and over. So it was nice to go back to the book. I completely forgot that Wiley was the movie character and not in the book. Also reading this book out loud made me catch several things in Neil Gaiman's intonations and voice - I could totally hear his speech patterns. When I first read it I found it very creepy it was less creepy now but I liked little details I forgot about (like one of the lost children being a fairy).
Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli, 387pp
I am too old for this kind of YA - a sixteen year old theater geek girl who is crushing on the same boy as her gay best friend, only this time their mutual crush is taking a too serious turn that is threatening their friendship. It was so clearly obvious right from the start which boy Kate, the main character, will actually end up with. The book did grow on me by the end but it wasn't revelatory or anything. I am really too old for this since I am now a parent age and I just don't take high school romance that seriously. The book was also about theater and putting on a musical, since that is Kate's main interest but again that is not really something I could relate to as much. Overall it is a good YA but I'm too old for it.
Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold [Vorkosigan Saga], 316pp
This is not the best book in the Vorkosigan Saga, the main mystery is not as good, as I find more family oriented and mental anguish working better while Miles is pretty happy here overall, enjoying his new marriage and anticipating his upcoming parenthood. It is not the best one but it is still Bujold and it is still written in her highly readable style and there is plenty of funny stuff so I still had a good time with it. I really enjoyed catching up with Bel and seeing what it was up to. And it was good to see Miles on the cusp of parenthood and just realizing what that meant when he got into the potential mortal trouble.
The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eva Eger, 272pp
My Dad gave me this book for my birthday and it is a very good one despite or maybe because of the heavy topic. Edith Eva Eger is a psychologist, especially of trauma and survival, and she believes that we all personally have a choice to make to go beyond just being victims of our situations and to use it to grow to live and to enjoy life despite and maybe because of trauma that happens to us. She survived Auschwitz with her sister when she was a teenager and carried the guilt of her mother's death through her whole live before she realized what it was. Her book is about her Hungarian childhood, Auschwitz, post-war period, escaping with her husband and young daughter from Soviet-ruled lands to America, being an immigrant, and then going to college and grad school after her kids grew up and becoming a psychologist, and a famous one at that who spoke to many about surviving and moving on past trauma. Her life and ideas are fascinating. She is in her 90s and looking back on her whole life and all stages of her life are interesting. I don't think I read many accounts of what happened right after the war, right after liberation and what it took physically and mentally to get lives back on track. And her immigration experience was also fascinating. She also used case histories of some of her patients (with names changed, of course) to illustrated her methods and how she approached psychology. It is really several books in one here, all interesting. Highly recommend it.
Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch [Rivers of London 4], 293pp
I knew the main twist with Leslie already, I was spoiled for it long ago, so the book didn't pack quite the punch it was supposed it. It started with many seemingly unrelated cases with many characters' names that start with R or P, which made me think a bit too much in trying to remember them all, but of course it was all one big case. The book picked up for me once Peter and Leslie went undercover in the apartment building, I liked the subtle humor there. And I was not expecting the resolution. But because I was spoiled the ending was not a surprise. Still it felt a little unresolved. And there was just too much explanation of police procedure.
There is something about this series that is keeping me at arms' length. Maybe it is the characters, although I really like Peter. I also really liked Varvara, especially her interview with Peter and Leslie and I'm looking forward to her being the "guest" of the Folly and Peter is already thinking of learning from her. But there is something in the series that is keeping me from loving it. I like it and will keep reading it but I don't have that "love" feeling like I do with Dresden Files or Harry Potter. Maybe it is the Faceless Man - he is just not interesting to me and I don't really know what his goal is. Just pure evil for evil's sake. I really liked the third book, it worked for me better than this one. I think I was just expecting more.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman, 194pp [reread]
Olivia wanted me to read this to her since she loves the movie and I read this book out loud to her, except for the last two chapters. I don't know how much she was actually paying attention or what she was getting out of it but I enjoyed going back to this book. I read it when I was 25 or 26 since I read it when I lived in Highland Park in NJ (I have a clear memory of me in my armchair there) and then the movie version sort of took over especially in the last few years when the girls watched it over and over. So it was nice to go back to the book. I completely forgot that Wiley was the movie character and not in the book. Also reading this book out loud made me catch several things in Neil Gaiman's intonations and voice - I could totally hear his speech patterns. When I first read it I found it very creepy it was less creepy now but I liked little details I forgot about (like one of the lost children being a fairy).
Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli, 387pp
I am too old for this kind of YA - a sixteen year old theater geek girl who is crushing on the same boy as her gay best friend, only this time their mutual crush is taking a too serious turn that is threatening their friendship. It was so clearly obvious right from the start which boy Kate, the main character, will actually end up with. The book did grow on me by the end but it wasn't revelatory or anything. I am really too old for this since I am now a parent age and I just don't take high school romance that seriously. The book was also about theater and putting on a musical, since that is Kate's main interest but again that is not really something I could relate to as much. Overall it is a good YA but I'm too old for it.