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nnyWhat I Just Finished Reading
The City We Became by N K Jemisin
I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I wanted to. It had excellent foundations and excellent ideas, but the characters didn't feel quite fleshed out enough. It's the first in a trilogy, and I will read them at some point I'm sure, but I'm not massively motivated to. I'm definitely interested to read blurbs and see where the focus is.
I'd be interested to know what people from Staten Island thought of the book. XD It's full of a lot of anger, and it's fairly directed but perhaps heavy-handed. The boroughs weren't really fleshed out to equal extents; Bronca was my favourite, as the clearest character, and I felt that Queens was given short shrift. I felt like... it would have been good if we could have had a replacement borough, at some point, some borough that emphatically Didn't Want and walked away, so that we could see that there is a consciousness of more than one encompassing view of a borough I guess. Like... that they could be represented in more than one way. As a book club we felt that it would have been awesome to have a prequel of five interconnected stories, set in the different boroughs, kind of... giving a sense of place and organically showing how those personality types make sense for the place. It is an aggressively New York book to the point that one of the book club said it felt unwelcoming to someone who hadn't been there. Like she was an outsider to the story, and I kinda get what she means.
What I'm Reading Now
The Bird King by G Willow Wilson
A book about the spanish inquisition, and a book about what it means to be free, and a book about a concubine and a magical mapmaker being led across the desert, and it is incredibly interesting and I am enjoying it immensely so far.
What I'm Reading Next
The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher
"What exactly are the Weird and the Eerie? In this new essay, Mark Fisher argues that some of the most haunting and anomalous fiction of the 20th century belongs to these two modes. The Weird and the Eerie are closely related but distinct modes, each possessing its own distinct properties. Both have often been associated with Horror, yet this emphasis overlooks the aching fascination that such texts can exercise. The Weird and the Eerie both fundamentally concern the outside and the unknown, which are not intrinsically horrifying, even if they are always unsettling.
Perhaps a proper understanding of the human condition requires examination of liminal concepts such as the weird and the eerie.
These two modes will be analysed with reference to the work of authors such as H. P. Lovecraft, H. G. Wells, M.R. James, Christopher Priest, Joan Lindsay, Nigel Kneale, Daphne Du Maurier, Alan Garner and Margaret Atwood, and films by Stanley Kubrick, Jonathan Glazer and Christoper Nolan." (Amazon blurb)
I've not done a non-fiction book for a book club before, so I'm interested to see what I'll have to say. I use feelings words a lot in book club, I may have to use my actual brain for this one. :D
The City We Became by N K Jemisin
I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I wanted to. It had excellent foundations and excellent ideas, but the characters didn't feel quite fleshed out enough. It's the first in a trilogy, and I will read them at some point I'm sure, but I'm not massively motivated to. I'm definitely interested to read blurbs and see where the focus is.
I'd be interested to know what people from Staten Island thought of the book. XD It's full of a lot of anger, and it's fairly directed but perhaps heavy-handed. The boroughs weren't really fleshed out to equal extents; Bronca was my favourite, as the clearest character, and I felt that Queens was given short shrift. I felt like... it would have been good if we could have had a replacement borough, at some point, some borough that emphatically Didn't Want and walked away, so that we could see that there is a consciousness of more than one encompassing view of a borough I guess. Like... that they could be represented in more than one way. As a book club we felt that it would have been awesome to have a prequel of five interconnected stories, set in the different boroughs, kind of... giving a sense of place and organically showing how those personality types make sense for the place. It is an aggressively New York book to the point that one of the book club said it felt unwelcoming to someone who hadn't been there. Like she was an outsider to the story, and I kinda get what she means.
What I'm Reading Now
The Bird King by G Willow Wilson
A book about the spanish inquisition, and a book about what it means to be free, and a book about a concubine and a magical mapmaker being led across the desert, and it is incredibly interesting and I am enjoying it immensely so far.
What I'm Reading Next
The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher
"What exactly are the Weird and the Eerie? In this new essay, Mark Fisher argues that some of the most haunting and anomalous fiction of the 20th century belongs to these two modes. The Weird and the Eerie are closely related but distinct modes, each possessing its own distinct properties. Both have often been associated with Horror, yet this emphasis overlooks the aching fascination that such texts can exercise. The Weird and the Eerie both fundamentally concern the outside and the unknown, which are not intrinsically horrifying, even if they are always unsettling.
Perhaps a proper understanding of the human condition requires examination of liminal concepts such as the weird and the eerie.
These two modes will be analysed with reference to the work of authors such as H. P. Lovecraft, H. G. Wells, M.R. James, Christopher Priest, Joan Lindsay, Nigel Kneale, Daphne Du Maurier, Alan Garner and Margaret Atwood, and films by Stanley Kubrick, Jonathan Glazer and Christoper Nolan." (Amazon blurb)
I've not done a non-fiction book for a book club before, so I'm interested to see what I'll have to say. I use feelings words a lot in book club, I may have to use my actual brain for this one. :D
no subject
Date: 2021-10-21 11:05 am (UTC)I like to balance out feelings books and thinking books, maybe this is a good choice?!
no subject
Date: 2021-10-22 10:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-24 02:00 am (UTC)