![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Recent reading
Nov. 24th, 2017 11:50 pmSplinterlands by John Feffer
This is not what I meant to read--I went on an overnight trip and forgot the book I was actually reading. So I selected this one on the basis of being short, since I had luckily brought my ereader along. Anyway, this is a fairly depressing and I suppose fairly realistic SF dystopia set in 2050. The trend he's extrapolating is mainly the splintering of countries and of international community. I dunno, I don't really recommend reading it (not that I advocate sticking your head in the sand, but neither is it necessarily productive to read depressing things and this book doesn't really offer any constructive alternatives either). The most interesting thing about it is maybe the end notes which are fictional scholarship about the text, which reveal that the main character is less sympathetic than we might otherwise have supposed (not that I found him terribly sympathetic to start with).
Hohaj by Elisabeth Rynell (the title is the name of a place)
Reread. This is what I meant to be reading. I remember clearly being quite blown away by this book when I first read it (maybe ten years ago?) Alas, it is not as magical on reread, though still quite good. I actually gave it to my sister last year for Christmas and she does seem to have been blown away also, so maybe it's a first-time thing. Anyway, it is set in northern Sweden, with three main characters: a contemporary woman whose husband has died, a refugee coming to Sweden in the beginning of the 20th century, and a young woman living isolated with her abusive father, also in the beginning of the 20th century. And then their lives are intertwined. It has good nature writing!
This is not what I meant to read--I went on an overnight trip and forgot the book I was actually reading. So I selected this one on the basis of being short, since I had luckily brought my ereader along. Anyway, this is a fairly depressing and I suppose fairly realistic SF dystopia set in 2050. The trend he's extrapolating is mainly the splintering of countries and of international community. I dunno, I don't really recommend reading it (not that I advocate sticking your head in the sand, but neither is it necessarily productive to read depressing things and this book doesn't really offer any constructive alternatives either). The most interesting thing about it is maybe the end notes which are fictional scholarship about the text, which reveal that the main character is less sympathetic than we might otherwise have supposed (not that I found him terribly sympathetic to start with).
Hohaj by Elisabeth Rynell (the title is the name of a place)
Reread. This is what I meant to be reading. I remember clearly being quite blown away by this book when I first read it (maybe ten years ago?) Alas, it is not as magical on reread, though still quite good. I actually gave it to my sister last year for Christmas and she does seem to have been blown away also, so maybe it's a first-time thing. Anyway, it is set in northern Sweden, with three main characters: a contemporary woman whose husband has died, a refugee coming to Sweden in the beginning of the 20th century, and a young woman living isolated with her abusive father, also in the beginning of the 20th century. And then their lives are intertwined. It has good nature writing!
