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Finished reading
The vanished birds by
I…don't know how to feel about this one! I was tipped off to it by Abigail Nussbam's review (don't read that, though, it spoils everything), and liked the sample enough to shell out for the Booktopia ebook. I liked the…someone referred to the first part of this novel as being like an excellent short story that you wish there was more—and then there's an entire novel of it, right there! And they're not wrong. This novel tempted me saying it was about the dislocation of space travel, of being so much older/younger than everyone else because you've been traveling outside linear time etc, and it's a bit about that, but it's also in theory about found family and finding that family on said spaceship journey, while actually attempting to deconstruct that. It's also a lot about capitalism and companies in space, and trying make a life for yourself within those restrictions.
I feel like this was excellently written (a few tiny but markedly weird sentences but that's just my editing brain), and that it hooked a lot of people in, but I wasn't one of those people. I feel like I should have been and maybe last year or next year I would have, even. I finished it. I liked it well enough. But I never had that spark with the characters that I needed in order to love it, which feels like it's both on me and that I missed out on something excellent.
Kim Jiyoung, born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
This the other part of my birthday gift from Granny, and a book I never would have read otherwise. I've read very few translated novels, so I was pleased to have this opportunity lightly shoved at me. This was both devastating and frustrating to read. It's a book detailing the discrimination and misogyny that infuses South Korean culture (and everywhere. This could have easily been written about Australian women with only surface tweaking, if that). It's written in a deliberately distanced style, and while that style has a purpose that's revealed at the end, I'm not sure it served the narrative well enough to justify it (there might also be translation hiccups in the mix). The ending was a Handmaid's Tale style gutpunch, and also didn't answer the question that had kept me reading. I'm not sure if I've just been raised in, and continue to be encircled by, feminism, but it's moderately disconcerting to me that this was apparently such a world-wide hit?
Currently reading:
Oh god. So I went from drifting along, not feeling inspired by anything, to having multiple books I want to read at once. I'm aware this is technically the opposite of a problem, but I've hit the point where reading more than one fiction/linear book at a time feels overwhelming.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel by Susanna Clarke
Yeah, I'm fifteen years behind the curve, and I'm okay with that. Right as of typing, I'm 50 pages into it, and loving the wry, 19th century tone with the hints of a 21st century smile. I impulse got this out of the library. I realise it's rather foolish to get a 1000+ page novel out of the library intending to read a few pages before sleep each night, but whatever. I'm enjoying it enough that I'm seriously tempted to buy my own copy if I don't finish this one in time.
The witch's kind by Louisa Morgan
This was one of the feel-good fantasy list from forever ago that finally arrived. Based on the sample, this one wasn't so well written, but it tugged at me nonetheless and quarter of the way through it, my instincts were so, so sound in that. Post-WW2 US, and witchy Barrie Anne (Apparently Barrie is a rare but existing girl's name. I had no idea) and her Aunt Charlotte find themselves with a baby girl that possibly fell from the sky. I am deeply hooked by this: both curious about the child, but actually perfectly okay with curling up in this little house on this little farm with everyone's feelings (emotional and witchy-premonition). I could finish this in a few days, easily, and I almost don't want to. ( Content notes )
Up next:
The house in the cerulean sea by TL Klune. So looking forward to this one!
The vanished birds by
I…don't know how to feel about this one! I was tipped off to it by Abigail Nussbam's review (don't read that, though, it spoils everything), and liked the sample enough to shell out for the Booktopia ebook. I liked the…someone referred to the first part of this novel as being like an excellent short story that you wish there was more—and then there's an entire novel of it, right there! And they're not wrong. This novel tempted me saying it was about the dislocation of space travel, of being so much older/younger than everyone else because you've been traveling outside linear time etc, and it's a bit about that, but it's also in theory about found family and finding that family on said spaceship journey, while actually attempting to deconstruct that. It's also a lot about capitalism and companies in space, and trying make a life for yourself within those restrictions.
I feel like this was excellently written (a few tiny but markedly weird sentences but that's just my editing brain), and that it hooked a lot of people in, but I wasn't one of those people. I feel like I should have been and maybe last year or next year I would have, even. I finished it. I liked it well enough. But I never had that spark with the characters that I needed in order to love it, which feels like it's both on me and that I missed out on something excellent.
Kim Jiyoung, born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
This the other part of my birthday gift from Granny, and a book I never would have read otherwise. I've read very few translated novels, so I was pleased to have this opportunity lightly shoved at me. This was both devastating and frustrating to read. It's a book detailing the discrimination and misogyny that infuses South Korean culture (and everywhere. This could have easily been written about Australian women with only surface tweaking, if that). It's written in a deliberately distanced style, and while that style has a purpose that's revealed at the end, I'm not sure it served the narrative well enough to justify it (there might also be translation hiccups in the mix). The ending was a Handmaid's Tale style gutpunch, and also didn't answer the question that had kept me reading. I'm not sure if I've just been raised in, and continue to be encircled by, feminism, but it's moderately disconcerting to me that this was apparently such a world-wide hit?
Currently reading:
Oh god. So I went from drifting along, not feeling inspired by anything, to having multiple books I want to read at once. I'm aware this is technically the opposite of a problem, but I've hit the point where reading more than one fiction/linear book at a time feels overwhelming.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel by Susanna Clarke
Yeah, I'm fifteen years behind the curve, and I'm okay with that. Right as of typing, I'm 50 pages into it, and loving the wry, 19th century tone with the hints of a 21st century smile. I impulse got this out of the library. I realise it's rather foolish to get a 1000+ page novel out of the library intending to read a few pages before sleep each night, but whatever. I'm enjoying it enough that I'm seriously tempted to buy my own copy if I don't finish this one in time.
The witch's kind by Louisa Morgan
This was one of the feel-good fantasy list from forever ago that finally arrived. Based on the sample, this one wasn't so well written, but it tugged at me nonetheless and quarter of the way through it, my instincts were so, so sound in that. Post-WW2 US, and witchy Barrie Anne (Apparently Barrie is a rare but existing girl's name. I had no idea) and her Aunt Charlotte find themselves with a baby girl that possibly fell from the sky. I am deeply hooked by this: both curious about the child, but actually perfectly okay with curling up in this little house on this little farm with everyone's feelings (emotional and witchy-premonition). I could finish this in a few days, easily, and I almost don't want to. ( Content notes )
Up next:
The house in the cerulean sea by TL Klune. So looking forward to this one!