Jane Austen: Here I am!
Leftover from last year's resolutions is the reading list, so...
Book 18 (as recommended by Tony): Persuasion by Jane Austen
Despite the satire, Persuasion is in many ways a gentle novel. There's not a huge amount of plot, and it trundles along with plenty of pauses for observation, conversation, and the occasional dig at society.
Oddly, I was reading PD James' Death Comes to Pemberley at the same time as Persuasion. A few characters crop up in both books, which I might not have otherwise noticed. Sadly, it only served to point up that Jane Austen writes much better Jane Austen novels than PD James does.
Book 19 (as recommended by undyingking): Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
This was one of the many books on my list that I'd not heard of. Having downloaded it to my e-reader, I hadn't even had the fleeting impressions of cover art or size to set up my expectations. (Does anyone else find this about e-books? I know they give you spuriously accurate reports that you are now 37% through a book, but I find I don't have the instinctive "half-way-through" or "nearly-finished" understanding that I do of a p-book.)
I don't want to spoiler this book, because it begins with a number of different threads which are apparently unrelated. It took me longer than it perhaps should to work out the relationship; and from then on I was constantly wondering "why"? Why is the book structured like this?
And, to be honest, I'm not sure I ever really worked it out. It started, some stuff happened, and then it stopped.
There is, of course, the chance the there was an important philosophical/social/literary point being made and I just missed it. I'm not a very critical reader. Possibly I should go back to reading Charlie Stross, where so long as you get the BOFH joke before someone points it out you can feel like you're intellectually ahead of the game.
Book 20 (as recommended by valkyriekaren: The Passage by Justin Cronin
This turned out to be a much longer book than I'd (for some reason!) assumed - bloody e-books again, with their lack of visual cues about size.
I think Valkyrie's description was originally something like "vampires, but not sparkly emo ones". Which is true in spades. The vampires (although they're never formally identified as such) in The Passage are monsters. Interesting monsters, I concede, but pretty unlikely to start hanging out with teenage schoolgirls on any basis other than a very, very brief and screamy one.
I really enjoyed the set-up of this book, and I enjoyed the story; sadly it ended with a whole bunch of threads left hanging and remarkably little of the rather dense plot resolved. However, it does look as if the book is the start of a trilogy, so possibly this is a problem that can be solved by doing more of it.
Although I did feel a bit let-down by the overarching plot, the characterisation was really well done. The characters are, mostly, not especially likable or especially dislikable they're just "ordinary" people living in a somewhat trying set of circumstances.
I'm currently a little undecided over whether I'm going to embark on the second book. Which surprises me, as I think enjoyed the book at the time of reading - just I appear now to be enjoying it less in hindsight. Not quite sure what's going on there.
Book 18 (as recommended by Tony): Persuasion by Jane Austen
Despite the satire, Persuasion is in many ways a gentle novel. There's not a huge amount of plot, and it trundles along with plenty of pauses for observation, conversation, and the occasional dig at society.
Oddly, I was reading PD James' Death Comes to Pemberley at the same time as Persuasion. A few characters crop up in both books, which I might not have otherwise noticed. Sadly, it only served to point up that Jane Austen writes much better Jane Austen novels than PD James does.
Book 19 (as recommended by undyingking): Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
This was one of the many books on my list that I'd not heard of. Having downloaded it to my e-reader, I hadn't even had the fleeting impressions of cover art or size to set up my expectations. (Does anyone else find this about e-books? I know they give you spuriously accurate reports that you are now 37% through a book, but I find I don't have the instinctive "half-way-through" or "nearly-finished" understanding that I do of a p-book.)
I don't want to spoiler this book, because it begins with a number of different threads which are apparently unrelated. It took me longer than it perhaps should to work out the relationship; and from then on I was constantly wondering "why"? Why is the book structured like this?
And, to be honest, I'm not sure I ever really worked it out. It started, some stuff happened, and then it stopped.
There is, of course, the chance the there was an important philosophical/social/literary point being made and I just missed it. I'm not a very critical reader. Possibly I should go back to reading Charlie Stross, where so long as you get the BOFH joke before someone points it out you can feel like you're intellectually ahead of the game.
Book 20 (as recommended by valkyriekaren: The Passage by Justin Cronin
This turned out to be a much longer book than I'd (for some reason!) assumed - bloody e-books again, with their lack of visual cues about size.
I think Valkyrie's description was originally something like "vampires, but not sparkly emo ones". Which is true in spades. The vampires (although they're never formally identified as such) in The Passage are monsters. Interesting monsters, I concede, but pretty unlikely to start hanging out with teenage schoolgirls on any basis other than a very, very brief and screamy one.
I really enjoyed the set-up of this book, and I enjoyed the story; sadly it ended with a whole bunch of threads left hanging and remarkably little of the rather dense plot resolved. However, it does look as if the book is the start of a trilogy, so possibly this is a problem that can be solved by doing more of it.
Although I did feel a bit let-down by the overarching plot, the characterisation was really well done. The characters are, mostly, not especially likable or especially dislikable they're just "ordinary" people living in a somewhat trying set of circumstances.
I'm currently a little undecided over whether I'm going to embark on the second book. Which surprises me, as I think enjoyed the book at the time of reading - just I appear now to be enjoying it less in hindsight. Not quite sure what's going on there.