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Books I've Read: Mar-Apr 2023
Apr. 24th, 2024 09:13 pmMarch 2023
Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo - text
This is the third novella in the Singing Hills series, set in an alternate China with light fantasy. The central character is a collector of stories, and as with the previous books, the telling of stories, and the way those stories interact with the framing action, form a complex structure that offers a slow reveal of hidden secrets. I liked that in this story, that final reveal was so subtle I had to page back to check on a point where I’d made an unsupported assumption that led me off track. (I wonder what I would have done if I'd been listening to it in audio. Possibly I would have started again from the beginning, as I usually do with the Lady Sherlock mysteries--though in that case the hidden ambiguities are deliberate and not due to my assumptions.) The series continues its tradition of including normalized queer relationships among the characters.
Christmas Masquerade by Meg Mardell - text
A holiday-themed romance which is a bit of a comedy of manners, country-house story in which everyone thinks they’re playing matchmaker while also being matched by others. I’ll give away that the conclusion involves pansexual polyamory, just in case that affects people’s inclination to try it. This one didn’t grab me as solidly as Mardell’s previous books, but I admire that she’s telling stories that are so expansive in terms of identities and outcomes.
The Unbroken by C. L. Clark - audio
A historic fantasy that employs an alternate version of an actual historic setting—in this case, colonized French Algeria—and a light overlap of fantasy—just enough to keep you guessing about possible plot twists, and is full of normalized queer relationships, including between the two female protagonists. I liked the worldbuilding, structure, colonialist critique, and queernormativity. I didn't like the body-count and significant amounts of gory body-horror. Also not fond of how the major characters are all dithering and indecisive. The protagonist never met a bad decision she didn't embrace. Those things don't make it a flawed book, just one that I’m not the target audience for.
April 2023
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles - audio
M/M Regency romance that matches up a newly-inheriting baronet, who has abandonment issues, with the head of a clan of smugglers, who is overburdened with a sense of responsibility. This book has the sort of K.J. Charles plot that I love: very individual characters whose romantic conflict comes from their personal flaws, even as they both try to be good people doing responsible things. I can wholeheartedly understand why they’re attracted to each other and why they have to struggle to get their happy ending. That hasn’t always been the case in my recent reading, so it cheers me up greatly.
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue - audio
Content warning for character death. Sapphic literary fiction set in Ireland during the Spanish Flu pandemic in the early 20th century. Reading it while still in the midst of Covid is unsettling in the parallels. (The novel was written prior to Covid but was expedited to release once the pandemic started.) The story spans only a few days in the life of a nurse in a combination flu/maternity ward and packs a lot of drama into that short period. One of the many sub-themes is harsh criticism of the treatment of unwed mothers and their children. This was a hard and painful book to read, but pandemics aren’t exactly a bed of roses to live through—or die in.
A Tempest at Sea (Lady Sherlock #7) by Sherry Thomas - audio
The latest installment in Sherry Thomas’s “Lady Sherlock” series. This one follows the pattern set previously with a lot of non-linear storytelling, unreliable narrators, and revisiting key scenes from different points of view to gradually unlock the story. This particular method of building a mystery story may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s absolute catnip for me. This is a sort of locked room mystery on board a ship, with Charlotte Holmes spending the entire story arc in disguise. The various twists are satisfying as identities and motives are sorted out. And, as in previous books in the series, the casual inclusion of historically-appropriate queer characters makes me feel much at home even without any central queer romance.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin - audio
Wow. This is every bit as amazing as the series’ 3 Hugo awards indicate. I’d been putting this book off due to reviews indicating that it was dark and traumatic. Those reviews weren’t wrong, but the flavor of the darkness wasn’t the sort that booted me out of the story. The premise involves a world of massive seismic activity, whose inhabitants include people who can psychically control or manipulate that seismic activity and who thus become pawns or scapegoats in the politics of how to maintain civilization during the periodic ecological collapses resulting from quake and eruptions.
Did you think I'd forgotten how to read books on the page? Though, to be sure, the audiobooks still outnumber the texts. About half the audiobooks in this group are the sort I'll binge-listen to in a single gulp, while the other half get stretched out across bike rides and commutes. (I went back to working in Berkeley one day a week starting November 2022, and it's amazing how much more patient I am with the commute when I'm in the middle of an audiobook.)
Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo - text
This is the third novella in the Singing Hills series, set in an alternate China with light fantasy. The central character is a collector of stories, and as with the previous books, the telling of stories, and the way those stories interact with the framing action, form a complex structure that offers a slow reveal of hidden secrets. I liked that in this story, that final reveal was so subtle I had to page back to check on a point where I’d made an unsupported assumption that led me off track. (I wonder what I would have done if I'd been listening to it in audio. Possibly I would have started again from the beginning, as I usually do with the Lady Sherlock mysteries--though in that case the hidden ambiguities are deliberate and not due to my assumptions.) The series continues its tradition of including normalized queer relationships among the characters.
Christmas Masquerade by Meg Mardell - text
A holiday-themed romance which is a bit of a comedy of manners, country-house story in which everyone thinks they’re playing matchmaker while also being matched by others. I’ll give away that the conclusion involves pansexual polyamory, just in case that affects people’s inclination to try it. This one didn’t grab me as solidly as Mardell’s previous books, but I admire that she’s telling stories that are so expansive in terms of identities and outcomes.
The Unbroken by C. L. Clark - audio
A historic fantasy that employs an alternate version of an actual historic setting—in this case, colonized French Algeria—and a light overlap of fantasy—just enough to keep you guessing about possible plot twists, and is full of normalized queer relationships, including between the two female protagonists. I liked the worldbuilding, structure, colonialist critique, and queernormativity. I didn't like the body-count and significant amounts of gory body-horror. Also not fond of how the major characters are all dithering and indecisive. The protagonist never met a bad decision she didn't embrace. Those things don't make it a flawed book, just one that I’m not the target audience for.
April 2023
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles - audio
M/M Regency romance that matches up a newly-inheriting baronet, who has abandonment issues, with the head of a clan of smugglers, who is overburdened with a sense of responsibility. This book has the sort of K.J. Charles plot that I love: very individual characters whose romantic conflict comes from their personal flaws, even as they both try to be good people doing responsible things. I can wholeheartedly understand why they’re attracted to each other and why they have to struggle to get their happy ending. That hasn’t always been the case in my recent reading, so it cheers me up greatly.
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue - audio
Content warning for character death. Sapphic literary fiction set in Ireland during the Spanish Flu pandemic in the early 20th century. Reading it while still in the midst of Covid is unsettling in the parallels. (The novel was written prior to Covid but was expedited to release once the pandemic started.) The story spans only a few days in the life of a nurse in a combination flu/maternity ward and packs a lot of drama into that short period. One of the many sub-themes is harsh criticism of the treatment of unwed mothers and their children. This was a hard and painful book to read, but pandemics aren’t exactly a bed of roses to live through—or die in.
A Tempest at Sea (Lady Sherlock #7) by Sherry Thomas - audio
The latest installment in Sherry Thomas’s “Lady Sherlock” series. This one follows the pattern set previously with a lot of non-linear storytelling, unreliable narrators, and revisiting key scenes from different points of view to gradually unlock the story. This particular method of building a mystery story may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s absolute catnip for me. This is a sort of locked room mystery on board a ship, with Charlotte Holmes spending the entire story arc in disguise. The various twists are satisfying as identities and motives are sorted out. And, as in previous books in the series, the casual inclusion of historically-appropriate queer characters makes me feel much at home even without any central queer romance.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin - audio
Wow. This is every bit as amazing as the series’ 3 Hugo awards indicate. I’d been putting this book off due to reviews indicating that it was dark and traumatic. Those reviews weren’t wrong, but the flavor of the darkness wasn’t the sort that booted me out of the story. The premise involves a world of massive seismic activity, whose inhabitants include people who can psychically control or manipulate that seismic activity and who thus become pawns or scapegoats in the politics of how to maintain civilization during the periodic ecological collapses resulting from quake and eruptions.
Did you think I'd forgotten how to read books on the page? Though, to be sure, the audiobooks still outnumber the texts. About half the audiobooks in this group are the sort I'll binge-listen to in a single gulp, while the other half get stretched out across bike rides and commutes. (I went back to working in Berkeley one day a week starting November 2022, and it's amazing how much more patient I am with the commute when I'm in the middle of an audiobook.)
