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Recent reading
Aug. 7th, 2022 09:05 pmMy back is on the mend, yay! I have been to visit a close friend in Bohuslän for a couple of days, and now I've been doing some work preparing for my fall courses, so that I am free to go out sailing with my parents for a few days.
Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark (2020)
Read for book club; a 1920's historical fantasy where the Ku Klux Klan are actually alien monsters. I really enjoyed the writing style of this, but the author likes body horror and monster slaying more than I do. I would have preferred more space for characters and setting. I was also ambivalent about the plot element of having monsters do horrible things which were historically done by human beings--I feel like it lets the human beings off the hook? It's true that the humans were still culpable in that their hate let the monsters in, but from then on the actions were done by the monsters.
Skogslandet by Lisa Röstlund (2022)
An important journalistic scrutiny of the terrible environmental impact of the Swedish forest industry and its close ties to government authorities and politicians, so it's pretty much required reading for me. And it's very good! I knew most of it, but not all.
Inne i spegelsalen by Liv Strömquist (2021)
A feminist writer of non-fiction comic books whose previous books I have read. One of my flatmates had this one lying around, so I read it. Her theme is usually the deconstruction of romantic love; this one is more about beauty standards and pressure to conform to them. I don't feel like it's terribly relevant to my own life (I guess I don't feel much of that pressure), but she's always interesting when she brings up unexpected angles on historical persons or quotes some unexpected philosopher.
Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark (2020)
Read for book club; a 1920's historical fantasy where the Ku Klux Klan are actually alien monsters. I really enjoyed the writing style of this, but the author likes body horror and monster slaying more than I do. I would have preferred more space for characters and setting. I was also ambivalent about the plot element of having monsters do horrible things which were historically done by human beings--I feel like it lets the human beings off the hook? It's true that the humans were still culpable in that their hate let the monsters in, but from then on the actions were done by the monsters.
Skogslandet by Lisa Röstlund (2022)
An important journalistic scrutiny of the terrible environmental impact of the Swedish forest industry and its close ties to government authorities and politicians, so it's pretty much required reading for me. And it's very good! I knew most of it, but not all.
Inne i spegelsalen by Liv Strömquist (2021)
A feminist writer of non-fiction comic books whose previous books I have read. One of my flatmates had this one lying around, so I read it. Her theme is usually the deconstruction of romantic love; this one is more about beauty standards and pressure to conform to them. I don't feel like it's terribly relevant to my own life (I guess I don't feel much of that pressure), but she's always interesting when she brings up unexpected angles on historical persons or quotes some unexpected philosopher.
