Reading, 2017.
I am in danger of losing track.
13. Aaronovitch, Ben. Broken Homes. Got from my local library.
Why yes, I am enjoying the Rivers Of London series, to the point that I'm bummed out by the fact that there are only three more books to go.
I have noticed that I lose track while I'm reading, but the read itself is fun.
14. Clarke, Susannah: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell via Kobo.
I appear to be really late to the party on this one, it was first published in 2014. Funnily enough, I started it just after hurling (metaphorically) two books into the "nope!" pile because the narrative voice in each were too derivative and cliched. Maybe it's just that I don't mind the Austenesque style.
A much longer book than I'd normally read, and about two thirds of the way through I had to flip to the end just to see whether I wanted to keep going. As it happens I did, because the ending was good enough that I wanted to see how it happened.
My recall for this one is for some of the characters and the way they are presented as satirical and for some lovely imagery.
15. Gilman, Laura Anne: Miles To Go via Kobo.
A novella, not a novel. But I decided to count it because the Susannah Clarke novel was huge. Paranormal crime fiction, which I thought I was not going to like because the "noir" pastiche was very strong. But which got me in, like with Susannah Clarke's pastiche of Austen's style.
Although I remember enjoying this, I can't remember much about it.
16. Clarke, Maxine Beneba: Foreign Soil via Kobo.
I am so glad I read this book. If I had known it was a collection of short stories, some of which are more like vignettes, I might not have because if the stories are good, I tend to find myself wanting to know more. Also, I think I feel a bit lost when the only common feature is the writer themself - and her stories vary greatly in terms of time and place. However, they are bloody good. They are also really eye-opening. I do just really hope for more.
She's a local writer, which also makes me happy, of Afro-Caribbean descent. Some sound very much like autobiography focussed on growing up non-white in a white Australia, there are also stories of the African diaspora and some set in the Caribbean. I'm not sure what else to say - I don't know where I'd place her in terms of genre. But her stories have me thinking about the type of observations Margaret Atwood can make.
I guess what I'm saying here (and I had to come back to add this in) is that I'm still wondering about some of the people in this collection of stories. What else is important to them? What did happen after the story was over? So much more vivid and memorable than other stories that I read and enjoy. That sense of having only skimmed the surface.
This entry was originally posted at http://splodgenoodles.dreamwidth.org/2994523.html. You may comment here, or there using OpenID if you have no Dreamwidth account.
13. Aaronovitch, Ben. Broken Homes. Got from my local library.
Why yes, I am enjoying the Rivers Of London series, to the point that I'm bummed out by the fact that there are only three more books to go.
I have noticed that I lose track while I'm reading, but the read itself is fun.
14. Clarke, Susannah: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell via Kobo.
I appear to be really late to the party on this one, it was first published in 2014. Funnily enough, I started it just after hurling (metaphorically) two books into the "nope!" pile because the narrative voice in each were too derivative and cliched. Maybe it's just that I don't mind the Austenesque style.
A much longer book than I'd normally read, and about two thirds of the way through I had to flip to the end just to see whether I wanted to keep going. As it happens I did, because the ending was good enough that I wanted to see how it happened.
My recall for this one is for some of the characters and the way they are presented as satirical and for some lovely imagery.
15. Gilman, Laura Anne: Miles To Go via Kobo.
A novella, not a novel. But I decided to count it because the Susannah Clarke novel was huge. Paranormal crime fiction, which I thought I was not going to like because the "noir" pastiche was very strong. But which got me in, like with Susannah Clarke's pastiche of Austen's style.
Although I remember enjoying this, I can't remember much about it.
16. Clarke, Maxine Beneba: Foreign Soil via Kobo.
I am so glad I read this book. If I had known it was a collection of short stories, some of which are more like vignettes, I might not have because if the stories are good, I tend to find myself wanting to know more. Also, I think I feel a bit lost when the only common feature is the writer themself - and her stories vary greatly in terms of time and place. However, they are bloody good. They are also really eye-opening. I do just really hope for more.
She's a local writer, which also makes me happy, of Afro-Caribbean descent. Some sound very much like autobiography focussed on growing up non-white in a white Australia, there are also stories of the African diaspora and some set in the Caribbean. I'm not sure what else to say - I don't know where I'd place her in terms of genre. But her stories have me thinking about the type of observations Margaret Atwood can make.
I guess what I'm saying here (and I had to come back to add this in) is that I'm still wondering about some of the people in this collection of stories. What else is important to them? What did happen after the story was over? So much more vivid and memorable than other stories that I read and enjoy. That sense of having only skimmed the surface.
This entry was originally posted at http://splodgenoodles.dreamwidth.org/2994523.html. You may comment here, or there using OpenID if you have no Dreamwidth account.