Books of 2009, Part II
I've read hardly anything at all in terms of actual hard copies of books. I did read several novels worth of SPN fanfic, but I suppose that doesn't count.
- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert L. Stevenson - Really liked it, though I wish the ending had been handled differently - I just don't like this whole exposition-dump by letter, but the story was interesting anyway and I like Stevenson. All literary considerations apart, which aren't important to me when I read books not related to uni anyway (does this makes me a shallow reader and a bad student of English Lit? I suppose so and I couldn't care less) it was a good story to read.
- M is for Magic, by Neil Gaiman - collection of short stories, presumably for younger readers but I liked them anyway. I might yet get into the whole short story thing, it's nice to start something on the train and finish it there, without having to interrupt the flow of a story. Aaaand, I like Gaiman. I think his stories are quite clever, though some seemed a bit too abstract and without meaning to me.
- Stardust, by Neil Gaiman - liked it least of all of his novels I've read so far. It was as if it the story was trying to be a fairy tale for me, without managing to catch this peculiar magic of fairy tales. i think I'll get the edition with the illustrations anyway, maybe that would make some difference. It was still good, I think, just not the best of his books or stories.
- Knots & Crosses, by Ian Rankin - I decided I needed something short and easy I could read without thinking too much. Also I vaguely remember reading and enjoying crime fiction at some earlier point. I suppose this served the purpose (except for that original character of mine, whose name happens to be John and who's got similar mental problems as John Rebus. Yeah, right *facepalm*.) Anyway, the writing was a bit rugged, the story fairly simplistic, but I liked the main character. Not sure I'll pick up another from this series, though.
And the newer:
- Coraline by Neil Gaiman - enjoyed it a lot! Sad, sweet, chilling and exiting in all the right places. Gaiman really is much better with shorter narratives, his novels tend to be somewhat meandering on occasion.
- The Corset: a cultural history by Valerie Steele - very interesting, though the focus was heavily on fetishism in regards to corsets in the 19th century, which I'm not all that interested in. Still, there was a lot of interesting information about the origins and evolution of the garment, and modern misconceptions about the role and consequences of wearing corsets in previous centuries. If you are interested in the history of underwear, fashion, women, sexuality, or just the Victorian society, this is definitely a good book to read.
- Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale - enjoyed the first part a lot, the second was only okayish. I really liked the world the author created - she provided just the right amount of exposition to keep me curious and make me able to draw my own conclusions but not bore me with unnecessary detail. However, while in the first half I distinctly felt a chemistry between the two main characters, in the second it seemed to have been lost. Maybe because in the first part, they were two people from very different social (and legal) spheres that were certainly drawn to each other, but both held themselves back (or pretended to do so) for various reasons. The second then dumped us in the middle of their relationship and while it hadn't come out of nowhere, their wariness of each other that had made up a lot of the chemistry in the first part had practically vanished and replaced by a kind of devotion and needs time to develop and since that development had happen off-screen, it left me with a sense of sudden reversal of character. There are also a few things I didn't like about the plot in the second part, but this was rant enough for a book that only a few here know ;)
- Night, Mother (a play) by Marsha Norman - Ended up enjoying it a lot more than I'd expected. Maybe I should start reading more drama...