Book wrap up: May

[maharetr]

May

61 hours by Lee Child: Whee! that was fun, and heart-breaking in places. Contrived, of course, but a fabulous ride, even with the ’61 hours’ countdown that made no sense from a POV-perspective. There were one too many mentions of ‘women cops’ and no corresponding ‘men cops’ for my comfort. I picked the bad guy about half way through, based on a non-relevant detail that just happened to also relate to said guy. That said, there was totally enough to keep me engaged though. I loved Janet. I have to wait until September for the end of the TBC? *whines*

Broken soup by Jenny Valentine: picked up because of the authentic-pen-scribbled-looking cover and the premise (guy hands a photographic negative to main character saying: ‘you dropped this. It’s yours.’ And it’s not hers, but it totally is... The ending is just a little too pat, but it’s still a really solid read. Recommended.

Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist by two people who’s names I cannot recall. I read the first few pages at my desk and laughed so hard people stared at me. The comic timing doesn’t quite keep it up entirely, but it’s still a really good, sweet, queer-friendly, authentic sounding read about New York’s punk music scene. I was impressed by the characters and the natural swearing. Judging a film by its cover, it was made into the whitest, cleanest movie eva, although a visit to imdb is half-coaxing me to watch it.

The game by Diana Wynne Jones: This wasn’t quite as good as I expected it to be. The idea was cool, but I didn’t quite care enough about the characters to care about the plot. Also, something I learned from this book: if you’ve got your main character about to go into your second-world on a dangerous first-time mission, make sure there’s actually some danger for her to face, or at least make it look tricky.

The secret hour: by Scott Westerfeld (first of the Midnighters series). I’d been waiting for us to get this book in for aaggees (we had parts 2 and 3, not 1). It’s totally a book for the high school goth/outsider kids. The world freezes for an hour at midnight, but only certain people can tell. The idea and the world are very cool. There were some startlingly ableist insults. There are inter-team dynamics that are so realistically portrayed as to make me uncomfortable reading them – I like my teams cohesive and family-like, dang it. :P I'll read the next one.

A hat full of sky by Terry Pratchett: Here is where I confess I haven’t read many of his books. I recommend this book to every girl, young woman, and older woman, and guys too, but it feels actively significant for women. This is one of the most quietly unassuming feminist books I have ever read. It’s all about women and women’s worlds, doing women’s work and being powerful and respected for it while they’re at it. I love it so very, very much. Recommended.

Carpe jugulum by Terry Pratchett: I was surprised that I found this a bit of a drag to read. The vampires being modern and rejecting creaky stereotypes was cute, but it felt like a one-off joke that was reused rather a lot. Pratchett does get major bonus points for Granny Weatherwax choosing the life of the woman over the life of the baby at the beginning of the novel, and for Magrat promptly putting her own baby in a sling and coming along when needed. Hodgesaargh and the corresponding naming joke quietly delighted me, and the interactions between Oats and Granny were charming.

Maximum Ride: the angel experiment by James Patterson. I was irritated by the first third of this. I haven’t read any of his adult novels, but this young adult novel has ‘chapters’ of one or two pages, with the ‘chapter one hundred and three’ written out in full at the top of each. The characterisation and plot was inconsistent: he repetitively tells us that they’re panicking because their little sister has been kidnapped, and then half way through their rescue attempt they wander off to have other adventures with way too little urgency. Also, he switches from first person main character in one chapter to third person minor characters next chapter in order to follow the action, and then later switches back to first person exclusively once the characters are together again.

Mostly, it was the lack of set up and back story: it’s supposedly the first in a series, but it felt like the second, where Things happened in the past, but only get vaguely referred to here, and there was more detail needed to set up the emotional punches. Also, it’s never explained as to why the scientists made people with wings. Max is fourteen and grew up in a lab, but there’s never any mention of what they did with her for those years, other than the author thought it was cool to have kids with wings... and yeah, actually it was cool enough to keep me reading to the end of the book, but not enough to make me pick up the next one and find out about Max’s ‘destiny’. *takes notes on what not to do in my own books*