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Recent reading
Dec. 7th, 2014 04:13 pmThe Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (originally in French, read in Swedish)
For my book club at work. This was okay, but it felt distant and not very engaging. It's well-written, I guess, but it's in first-person POV with basically no dialogue at all, and Hadrian does lots of philosophizing and comes across as a bit pompous and self-centered. "I am the Enlightened Despot!" But the guy was an emperor after all, so I guess that is not surprising.
The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin
Ack. I lost interest in this, which is weird since I enjoyed the first two books in the series, even if it was a while ago. Trying to articulate why this didn't work for me, I think it might be because the first two books were from a human POV, and this is from the POV of a god with the mindset of a child. That would be really hard to write, and I'm not sure the POV felt convincing to me. Anyway, I didn't finish it. I seem to be getting more quick to drop books that don't hold my interest, although I did read 250 pages of this before stopping.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (audiobook read by Karen Savage)
Reread, though it's been a long time. It turns out this is not my favorite Austen--I guess P&P is my favorite, followed by Mansfield Park (which has its issues, but I was gripped by it). But I very much recommend the reader, who has recorded all of Austen and also all of Anne of Green Gables over at Librivox.
For my book club at work. This was okay, but it felt distant and not very engaging. It's well-written, I guess, but it's in first-person POV with basically no dialogue at all, and Hadrian does lots of philosophizing and comes across as a bit pompous and self-centered. "I am the Enlightened Despot!" But the guy was an emperor after all, so I guess that is not surprising.
The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin
Ack. I lost interest in this, which is weird since I enjoyed the first two books in the series, even if it was a while ago. Trying to articulate why this didn't work for me, I think it might be because the first two books were from a human POV, and this is from the POV of a god with the mindset of a child. That would be really hard to write, and I'm not sure the POV felt convincing to me. Anyway, I didn't finish it. I seem to be getting more quick to drop books that don't hold my interest, although I did read 250 pages of this before stopping.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (audiobook read by Karen Savage)
Reread, though it's been a long time. It turns out this is not my favorite Austen--I guess P&P is my favorite, followed by Mansfield Park (which has its issues, but I was gripped by it). But I very much recommend the reader, who has recorded all of Austen and also all of Anne of Green Gables over at Librivox.
