Recently read books

[luzula]

So much reading nowadays! I blame unemployment.

Harens år, by Arto Paasilinna (read in Swedish; originally in Finnish; The Year of the Hare in English)

I enjoyed aspects of this, but won't search out more by the author. It's sort of a burlesque absurdist folksy tall tale? I can't imagine how it would read in English--it seems so rooted in Scandinavia.

The City & The City, by China Miéville

I picked this up at a book-swap, and to my surprise, I loved it. I've tried Miéville before and bounced off his style--I found it rather dense and also everything seemed so dirty and sordid in a way I didn't enjoy. Another reason I thought I wouldn't enjoy this is that it's a detective story, which is not my usual genre. But the writing in this one really works for me, and wow, the worldbuilding, that's what caught and kept my attention. Really interesting and well done. (Apparently Miéville's next book is a Moby Dick AU in which the whale is replaced by a giant albino mole? *boggles*)

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (audiobook)

I know, I know, people have been telling me for years I should read Bujold. And of course, they were right! I loved this. I already want more about Cordelia and Aral (especially Cordelia), and from what I've read, the majority of the series is not so much about them? I really enjoyed the Cordelia POV narrator of the audiobook, too.

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, by Alan Garner (audiobook)

I stumbled across this audiobook, and since I have fond childhood memories of the book, I gave it a listen. Sadly, it did not evoke the same sense of wonder it did when I was a child. It's hard to predict what children's/YA books will hold up to you later, because as a child you enjoy different aspects of books.

Comments

[dragonfly]

A neighbor lent me a Mieville book, and I couldn't get into it for the same reasons. And! I'm just starting Bujold, too!

I remember reading Weirdstone as a kid, but I honestly don't remember thing one about the book.

[luzula]

Everyone seems to be reading Bujold right now! As for Weirdstone, it's basically two children helping a wizard rescue a magic stone? And they have adventures with dwarves and various other creatures along the way. Seems a bit formulaic to me now, but not when I was a kid.

[frayadjacent]

I read Mieville's Perdido Street Station last summer -- it took two or three months to get through the first third, for basically the same reasons, then the story picked up and I finished it a few weeks later. (I'm a slow reader, so that's pretty intensive for me.) SUPER WEIRD critters in that one too, which I really liked. I also enjoyed all the dialectic philosophy in it, and it had some good characters, and great world building. I downloaded The Iron Council but haven't got to it yet. Heh, maybe after I submit my dissertation to my committee, that will be my reward.

I'm also not a fan (in general) of detective stories, so The City and The City wouldn't be the first thing I'd pick up even of Mieville's. Glad to know it worked for you!

[luzula]

Perdido Street Station was one of the ones I tried and didn't get through. Yeah, I remember the weird worldbuilding--like, the people with bugs as heads but otherwise human bodies?

[frayadjacent]

They get MUCH WEIRDER. I recall complaining quite a bit about excessive prose early on, but in the end I thought it was a pretty good story. I can easily see it not being everyone's bag, though.

[isis]

Yeah, only the first two books are Cordelia-centric, but she does play an important role in many of the other ones. And there is a good deal of Cordelia/Aral fic out there. (My husband's reading the Vorkosigan books right now! It's kind of fun chatting with him about them, although he gets grumpy if I accidentally let spoilers slip.)

[luzula]

Yeah, I looked around for some fic, and read some Aral/Cordelia stuff that was spoiler-free! On to the next book in the series...

[jesse_the_k]

I really enjoy almost all of The City & The City, but was disappointed by the end.

Having any insights into the audio production of the books on tape you're reading?

[luzula]

SPOILERS AHEAD for The City & The City, for anyone else reading this.

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I see what you mean, maybe? Like, the solution to the whodunnit seemed like it was not quite enough to bear the weight of the mystery.

I also felt like it hovered on the edge of being supernatural--like, in the middle of the book, I was convinced that Breach was something not quite human. Then it turned out not to be so at the end, and I can't quite decide if I was convinced that they could work if they weren't, especially before the arrival of modern surveillance technology. What did you think?

In the end, though, I enjoyed the book as a whole so much that I was happy to suspend disbelief.

As for the audiobooks, I don't think much about their production while listening? Audiobooks feel very different from podfics to me, but the reading style feels like a bigger difference than the production values to me.

[cahn]

Yay, I love Bujold!

I wasn't nearly as interested in the Miles books for a while, but they're also quite good, and somewhere around Brothers in Arms I realized I'd fallen pretty hard for Miles and his supporting cast as well. (And then with Memory I realized I had fallen extremely hard for everything, but that's a discussion for later.)

Her Chalion fantasy series is also quite good. I didn't like Sharing Knife nearly as much, and I found it problematic in several respects, but I still liked it quite a bit more than a lot of things I read.

[luzula]

Yeah, we'll see what I think of Miles when I get to those books--I still have the second Cordelia-and-Aral book to go.

And yeah, I'll check out the Chalion series, too!

[mysticalchild_isis]

Wee, Bujold! Cordelia is pretty much my favorite book character of all time, and I was sad that she's only the main character of the first two books, but she continues to be awesome as Miles' mom, even when she's not the star.

I had a similar reaction to some of Miéville's books, but I've heard good things about The City & The City, so I feel like I should give it a shot.

[luzula]

Well, I suppose I'll have to check out the fic to get some more Cordelia--there seems to be a bit of it out there.

And yes, do try The City & The City!