book list, March and April 2020
It's time for the continuing adventures of Liz and her reading list! These are the books I read in March and April 2020. Click on the cuts for summaries and reactions. I reserve the right to spoil all hell out of any book if spoilery bits are what I feel like talking about.
A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution, by Toby Green
-----An important and interesting book, and one that talks about areas that desperately need more attention, but it hits an awkward point where it's a little too technical for a truly popular history and a little too popular/narrative for a really technical history. Which I guess is what happens when you're writing a book about a desperately under-treated area of history and are therefore trying to be all things to all people.
Swordheart, by T. Kingfisher
-----The misadventures of Halla, an unexpectedly wealthy widow whose in-laws are trying to force her into an unwanted marriage; Sarkis, a man bound to an enchanted sword and compelled to serve its wielder (currently Halla, to their mutual consternation); and Zale, a lawyer priest of the White Rat whom Halla hires to sort out her troubles. Also a gnole, an ox, Halla's terrible in-laws, some bandits, some monsters, some scholars, and some paladins.
Paladin's Grace, by T. Kingfisher
-----I think it says a lot about me as a person that I would prefer this book to have less sexual yearning and more creepy insta-zombies with pottery heads, as well as more cutthroat politics, practical details of perfumery, and theological discussion of what happens to clergy after their god dies. Look, the more plot creeps into a romance, the more I am going to get interested in that plot and the more I will start to view the romance as an annoying distraction. You have to be very clear about putting the romance front and center to keep my attention where it is narratively supposed to be. *wry*
I mean, Grace and Stephen are a cute couple! She keeps a domesticated mustelid! He knits socks! I am thrilled that they found a lifestyle compromise that works for them! But seriously, the rest of the book was SO INTERESTING.
All Systems Red, by Martha Wells
-----Murderbot Diaries, book 1. I didn't actually mean to reread this -- I was just checking a character name -- but it's very engaging, you know? :)
And then I read it again in April, for comfort-reading purposes. *wry*
Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
-----The goal was to verify that a certain quote often misattributed to the White Rabbit was not actually Carroll's writing. Which did not strictly require me to reread the whole book, but it goes quite fast so I figured why not. (The quote in question is "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get," and I assure you it does not appear anywhere in the book.)
The Threefold Tie, by Aster Glenn Gray
-----A sweet threesome romance (M/M/F) set in the decade after the American Civil War. Found via a Tumblr post.
Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells
-----Murderbot Diaries, book 2. Comfort reread.
Rogue Protocol, by Martha Wells
-----Murderbot Diaries, book 3. Comfort reread.
Exit Strategy, by Martha Wells
-----Murderbot Diaries, book 4. Comfort reread.
Knife Children, by Lois McMaster Bujold
-----A novella in the Sharing Knife universe. Comfort reread.
The Serpent Sea, by Martha Wells
-----Books of the Raksura, part 2. Comfort reread.
The Siren Depths, by Martha Wells
-----Books of the Raksura, part 3. Comfort reread.
The Edge of Worlds, by Martha Wells
-----Books of the Raksura, part 4. Comfort reread.
The Magpie Lord, by K. J. Charles
-----A Charm of Magpies, book 1. A romance set in an alternate world with semi-concealed magic, sort of like historical urban fantasy. The time period is probably mid-to-late 1800s (there's a well-established police force in London so we're post-1829, and Shanghai's operating as a treaty port so we're post-1842) but that's not terribly clear. Anyway, plot! Lucien Vaudrey, Earl Crane, falls afoul of a series of curses when he returns from a twenty-year stay in Shanghai to untangle the mess his despicable father and brother made of the family estate. Stephen Day, a magician with ample reason to hate Crane's family, is his only hope of surviving.
A Case of Possession, by K. J. Charles
-----A Charm of Magpies, book 2. In which Crane finds himself entangled in a nasty blackmail scheme, while Stephen (under suspicion of being a warlock due to fallout from the events of book 1) investigates a plague of giant rats in London. Naturally these problems prove connected, and would doubtless be easier to solve if either man was better at relationships. *wry*
Think of England, by K. J. Charles
-----In which Archie Curtis attends a country house party mostly to find out whether the host was involved in the equipment failure that devastated his regiment during the Boer War. The second-to-last thing he expected was to stumble into a massive blackmail and treason scheme. The actual last thing he expected was Daniel da Silva: a dandy, a poet, and a disturbingly attractive spy on his own investigative mission.
I started reading this mostly because Pat Merton and Fen Carruth, two minor secondary characters, are the stars of Proper English (an excellent country house murder mystery that serves as a prequel to this book) and I wanted to see them being awesome girlfriends. I finished reading it because Archie Curtis and Daniel da Silva are so very bad at relationships and I wanted to see them win. *wry*
Now I think I shall take a nap and then get back to work on my own writing projects. If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution, by Toby Green
-----An important and interesting book, and one that talks about areas that desperately need more attention, but it hits an awkward point where it's a little too technical for a truly popular history and a little too popular/narrative for a really technical history. Which I guess is what happens when you're writing a book about a desperately under-treated area of history and are therefore trying to be all things to all people.
Swordheart, by T. Kingfisher
-----The misadventures of Halla, an unexpectedly wealthy widow whose in-laws are trying to force her into an unwanted marriage; Sarkis, a man bound to an enchanted sword and compelled to serve its wielder (currently Halla, to their mutual consternation); and Zale, a lawyer priest of the White Rat whom Halla hires to sort out her troubles. Also a gnole, an ox, Halla's terrible in-laws, some bandits, some monsters, some scholars, and some paladins.
Paladin's Grace, by T. Kingfisher
-----I think it says a lot about me as a person that I would prefer this book to have less sexual yearning and more creepy insta-zombies with pottery heads, as well as more cutthroat politics, practical details of perfumery, and theological discussion of what happens to clergy after their god dies. Look, the more plot creeps into a romance, the more I am going to get interested in that plot and the more I will start to view the romance as an annoying distraction. You have to be very clear about putting the romance front and center to keep my attention where it is narratively supposed to be. *wry*
I mean, Grace and Stephen are a cute couple! She keeps a domesticated mustelid! He knits socks! I am thrilled that they found a lifestyle compromise that works for them! But seriously, the rest of the book was SO INTERESTING.
All Systems Red, by Martha Wells
-----Murderbot Diaries, book 1. I didn't actually mean to reread this -- I was just checking a character name -- but it's very engaging, you know? :)
And then I read it again in April, for comfort-reading purposes. *wry*
Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
-----The goal was to verify that a certain quote often misattributed to the White Rabbit was not actually Carroll's writing. Which did not strictly require me to reread the whole book, but it goes quite fast so I figured why not. (The quote in question is "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get," and I assure you it does not appear anywhere in the book.)
The Threefold Tie, by Aster Glenn Gray
-----A sweet threesome romance (M/M/F) set in the decade after the American Civil War. Found via a Tumblr post.
Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells
-----Murderbot Diaries, book 2. Comfort reread.
Rogue Protocol, by Martha Wells
-----Murderbot Diaries, book 3. Comfort reread.
Exit Strategy, by Martha Wells
-----Murderbot Diaries, book 4. Comfort reread.
Knife Children, by Lois McMaster Bujold
-----A novella in the Sharing Knife universe. Comfort reread.
The Serpent Sea, by Martha Wells
-----Books of the Raksura, part 2. Comfort reread.
The Siren Depths, by Martha Wells
-----Books of the Raksura, part 3. Comfort reread.
The Edge of Worlds, by Martha Wells
-----Books of the Raksura, part 4. Comfort reread.
The Magpie Lord, by K. J. Charles
-----A Charm of Magpies, book 1. A romance set in an alternate world with semi-concealed magic, sort of like historical urban fantasy. The time period is probably mid-to-late 1800s (there's a well-established police force in London so we're post-1829, and Shanghai's operating as a treaty port so we're post-1842) but that's not terribly clear. Anyway, plot! Lucien Vaudrey, Earl Crane, falls afoul of a series of curses when he returns from a twenty-year stay in Shanghai to untangle the mess his despicable father and brother made of the family estate. Stephen Day, a magician with ample reason to hate Crane's family, is his only hope of surviving.
A Case of Possession, by K. J. Charles
-----A Charm of Magpies, book 2. In which Crane finds himself entangled in a nasty blackmail scheme, while Stephen (under suspicion of being a warlock due to fallout from the events of book 1) investigates a plague of giant rats in London. Naturally these problems prove connected, and would doubtless be easier to solve if either man was better at relationships. *wry*
Think of England, by K. J. Charles
-----In which Archie Curtis attends a country house party mostly to find out whether the host was involved in the equipment failure that devastated his regiment during the Boer War. The second-to-last thing he expected was to stumble into a massive blackmail and treason scheme. The actual last thing he expected was Daniel da Silva: a dandy, a poet, and a disturbingly attractive spy on his own investigative mission.
I started reading this mostly because Pat Merton and Fen Carruth, two minor secondary characters, are the stars of Proper English (an excellent country house murder mystery that serves as a prequel to this book) and I wanted to see them being awesome girlfriends. I finished reading it because Archie Curtis and Daniel da Silva are so very bad at relationships and I wanted to see them win. *wry*
Now I think I shall take a nap and then get back to work on my own writing projects. If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)