(no subject)
Apparently it really is December and time won't even pause briefly to get my breath /o\ but if it's a new month then it's time to look back at last month's reading and it was a good bunch of books. I mean Who Fears Death & The Water Knife have left me somewhat traumatised and worried but the poetry I was reading was the perfect match of the mood... oh and I LOVED Ring of Swords (and am interestingly watching my Dad read it now)
Who Fears Death - Nnedi Okorafor Going from Nnedi Okorafor's young adult work, and a novella at that, to this book is quite something. It certainly cements her as an author I want to read but this isn't an easy book. This is post-apocalypse/dystopian fiction that is terrifyingly recognisable (particularly at the moment) with FGM, child soldiers and weaponised rape (you have been warned) BUT it 100% worth reading because the characters are engaging and the story is fascinating and I couldn't put it down.
The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle From modern SFF to something much older I can't believe I've never read this before, it feels like I have. There are some really dubious stereotypes outside the lost world itself but I do love the mix of excitement and fear, scientific interest and hunter's enthusiasm with which the characters face a land in which prehistoric animals have survived. It's a fun read but you'll wince quite a lot too.
The Complete Cosmicomics - Italo Calvino When my brother gave me this and On A Winter's Night he expressed surprise that I'd never read anything by Italo Calvino before and OMG was he right to be surprised. This is a series of short stories each told by Qfwfq, a being who remembers every moment in the history of the universe from the Big Bang onwards and tells they're funny and clever and full of wonderful wordplay and imagination. He complains of overcrowding before the Big Bang and plays marbles with newly formed hydrogen atoms and remembers when the moon split from the earth. I can't wait to try more of Calvino's books!
Literature & Science in the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology - Laura Otis (ed) This book brings together scientific and literary writing from the nineteenth century to show the ways each genre affected the other. So novels and poems etc. that used the latest scientific ideas (mesmerism in the Moonstone or all of Frankenstein) and then scientific writing that often uses metaphors and examples that read like stories. It was completely fascinating if a little disturbing in places (some of the nineteenth century social sciences were, well, not quite how we see the world today) but it was worth getting through those bits and the overly detailed scientific papers I couldn't 100% follow to see the threads that were shared.
Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason This book was my Yuletide Swap bookswap present and I LOVED it. Like read it in 2 days because I couldn't put it down loved it. It's about an alien race meeting humanity and being so shocked by the fact that we don't separate our genders properly that they're not sure we're actually people. So gender and sexuality and human/animal discussions and a really beautiful plot thread about theatre and Shakespeare and I had never heard of this book before so I feel like I'm already winning at yuletide ♥
Saint Maybe - Anne Tyler This was a light read after a few heavy ones. Mum picked it up somewhere and suggested I read it before we charity shop it and it's interesting. It's about a teenager who ends up responsible for three children but it's really about families and the lies they tell themselves and each other to keep everyone together and it was pretty good.
The Water Knife - Paolo Bacigalupi I've seen this book held up in a lot of places as a terrifying prediction of what will happen if we don't deal with climate change and reading it with Trump on his way to the Presidency was pretty terrifying and depressing. I mean it's a fantastic book (though one of the sex scenes did leave me a little bemused because it's far too close to a horrifying thing happening to both characters but only the man seems to have any real pain/consequences). ANYWAY. It's very good. And terrifying.
Songs from Bialik - Hayim Nahman Bialik Another book it's been interesting to read in 2016- Bialik is a Hebrew poet writing at the turn of the twentieth century and his poems are often brittle and angry and important reminders that the holocaust wasn't the start of the persecution of Jews. They've been pretty hardgoing at times because of the subject matter he tends to write about but there are are flashes of light and joy amongst the pain and anger and they are all so recognisably human reactions to suffering.
- Who Fears Death - Nnedi Okorafor
- The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Complete Cosmicomics - Italo Calvino
- Literature & Science in the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology - Laura Otis (ed)
- Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason
- Saint Maybe - Anne Tyler
- The Water Knife - Paolo Bacigalupi
- Songs from Bialik - Hayim Nahman Bialik
Who Fears Death - Nnedi Okorafor Going from Nnedi Okorafor's young adult work, and a novella at that, to this book is quite something. It certainly cements her as an author I want to read but this isn't an easy book. This is post-apocalypse/dystopian fiction that is terrifyingly recognisable (particularly at the moment) with FGM, child soldiers and weaponised rape (you have been warned) BUT it 100% worth reading because the characters are engaging and the story is fascinating and I couldn't put it down.
The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle From modern SFF to something much older I can't believe I've never read this before, it feels like I have. There are some really dubious stereotypes outside the lost world itself but I do love the mix of excitement and fear, scientific interest and hunter's enthusiasm with which the characters face a land in which prehistoric animals have survived. It's a fun read but you'll wince quite a lot too.
The Complete Cosmicomics - Italo Calvino When my brother gave me this and On A Winter's Night he expressed surprise that I'd never read anything by Italo Calvino before and OMG was he right to be surprised. This is a series of short stories each told by Qfwfq, a being who remembers every moment in the history of the universe from the Big Bang onwards and tells they're funny and clever and full of wonderful wordplay and imagination. He complains of overcrowding before the Big Bang and plays marbles with newly formed hydrogen atoms and remembers when the moon split from the earth. I can't wait to try more of Calvino's books!
Literature & Science in the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology - Laura Otis (ed) This book brings together scientific and literary writing from the nineteenth century to show the ways each genre affected the other. So novels and poems etc. that used the latest scientific ideas (mesmerism in the Moonstone or all of Frankenstein) and then scientific writing that often uses metaphors and examples that read like stories. It was completely fascinating if a little disturbing in places (some of the nineteenth century social sciences were, well, not quite how we see the world today) but it was worth getting through those bits and the overly detailed scientific papers I couldn't 100% follow to see the threads that were shared.
Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason This book was my Yuletide Swap bookswap present and I LOVED it. Like read it in 2 days because I couldn't put it down loved it. It's about an alien race meeting humanity and being so shocked by the fact that we don't separate our genders properly that they're not sure we're actually people. So gender and sexuality and human/animal discussions and a really beautiful plot thread about theatre and Shakespeare and I had never heard of this book before so I feel like I'm already winning at yuletide ♥
Saint Maybe - Anne Tyler This was a light read after a few heavy ones. Mum picked it up somewhere and suggested I read it before we charity shop it and it's interesting. It's about a teenager who ends up responsible for three children but it's really about families and the lies they tell themselves and each other to keep everyone together and it was pretty good.
The Water Knife - Paolo Bacigalupi I've seen this book held up in a lot of places as a terrifying prediction of what will happen if we don't deal with climate change and reading it with Trump on his way to the Presidency was pretty terrifying and depressing. I mean it's a fantastic book (though one of the sex scenes did leave me a little bemused because it's far too close to a horrifying thing happening to both characters but only the man seems to have any real pain/consequences). ANYWAY. It's very good. And terrifying.
Songs from Bialik - Hayim Nahman Bialik Another book it's been interesting to read in 2016- Bialik is a Hebrew poet writing at the turn of the twentieth century and his poems are often brittle and angry and important reminders that the holocaust wasn't the start of the persecution of Jews. They've been pretty hardgoing at times because of the subject matter he tends to write about but there are are flashes of light and joy amongst the pain and anger and they are all so recognisably human reactions to suffering.