(some) things I have been reading recently(ish)

Feb 18, 2013 21:47

In no particular order, even chronological:

As Far As I Remember, Michael Kerr (courtesy of
fjm, and thanks,
major_clanger, for not minding me having it first). Autobiography by Judith Kerr's brother, who became a barrister and later a judge. Fascinating, mostly for the detail of the lives of his parents, Alfred Kerr, famous German drama critic and writer, and Julia Weismann. I would have loved a bit more about his sister, though. Really quite badly written, not least in the way he jumps erratically around the story, so that everything is quite disjointed, and some of the better stories for the sections about his time at the Bar and on the bench have already been told. In some ways, though, the way he writes and the things he won't write about (anything much to do with the emotions, until he gets, briefly, to his happy second marriage) seem to express his character almost despite himself. And possibly to go some way to explaining why his first marriage was unhappy. Perhaps. His reflections on the law itself were quite interesting, and I would have preferred a bit more of that to the descriptions of a few of the cases he remembers. Oh, and the illustrations are great - lots of photographs of the family.

Divine Endurance and Flowerdust, Gwyneth Jones. I was alerted to this revised edition by
owlfish on Torque Control. I'd not read either before, so got them for Kindle and thought them excellent. I can see how they were two books originally, because Flowerdust does feel very much like an intermission, though an enjoyably detective one, with a less serious tone than Divine Endurance. But I loved Cho and Divine Endurance as characters from the start, and their beautiful, strange, confusing world. It took me a while to get a grip on the politics and history, but that seemed very naturally developed as Cho travelled, and I gradually understood more of what was at stake, and how the characters might or might not resist decline and decay and change. And I loved Derveet as soon as I met her. Some of the secondary characters didn't seem very interesting, but I did enjoy Cycler Jhonni and Endang in Flowerdust. I will look for more Jones now.

Re-read - Robin Hobb, Assassin's Apprentice through to the most recent Dragon book; and the last one will be released next month, happily! Reading them all in a lump left me a bit dissatisfied with some things, such as the way Tintaglia appears and reappears, and why Selden and the others were even on that journey anyway, except to allow them to appear in a different trilogy, and why Malta doesn't seem interested in the new dragons until they are about to disappear, and how (relatively) easily some of the baddies are dealt with in the more recent volumes... but really I love these books. They are excellent at creating the impression of a real and complex world, where important things (to the characters at least) are happening in various different places quite independently of each other, and if we zoom in on another area all perspectives change. There are excellent female characters, and convincing political and economic and geographic circumstances in which they find themselves and have to cope (or not). I'm not sure how convincing I find the evil Chalced and its agents, but again I think if she focused in on that things would look different. Anyway, I hope the last book lives up to the rest.

The Jewish Annotated New Testament (Christmas present from
widgetfox). I expect to be reading this for some time, in sections and looking at particular passages, and reading the short encylopaedia-type articles. So far I have read the birth narratives, and some of the articles, particularly on Paul, and I am planning to read all the Passion narratives this Lent. Extremely interesting and thought-provoking.

A blog, not a book, but anyone who finds cats at all amusing will probably enjoy the lovely Mogspot blog. This post, about how one of their cats found them, is probably my favourite post so far.

Code-Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein. (Also courtesy of
fjm, but several months ago now, which is when I actually read it.) Brilliant, amazing book, about two women captured in occupied France, one a transport pilot, one a spy. If you identified most with Petrova Fossil, you should read this. Though it is very hard at times. Don't think I can say any more without spoilers, and though I normally don't care much myself about spoilers, I think this is a book for which they matter. Then I read it again, to see how it all worked (and live through it all once more).

There are quite a lot of other things I should put in this post, and I was going to write about the detective fiction exhibition at the BL that I went to with
antisoppist, but then it would never get posted, so I will stop here for now. Apart from anything else, I have a Widget on my knee and typing is getting increasingly uncomfortable.

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reading, books

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