October books
Nov. 13th, 2018 08:26 pmI have to read 11 more books before the end of the year in order to meet my goal. I... don't think I will make it, lol.
Heroine Complex, Sarah Kuhn: I first discovered Sarah Kuhn via One Con Glory, which established her as a nerdy fangirl who writes about nerdy fangirls (I mean that in a good way - nerdy fangirls don't get enough mainstream love). Anyway, this is in a similar vein - it's about Asian-American lady superheroes, and Kuhn is pretty clearly writing the pop culture figures she wanted to see growing up. Her storytelling style is kind of cartoonishly over the top, almost more suited to a comic book than a novel, but it's a fun, fluffy read even if it's a little predictable.
Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng: I recall that this was, like, the hot new book when I added it to my to-read list (a year ago). So maybe there's some "I expected it to be better" factor in not living up to the hype, but I just thought it was okay? Family dynamics, repressed suburbanites, class and race conflict in a small town... it all kind of feels like stuff I've read before. I wasn't super impressed with her previous book, Everything I Never Told You, either, so maybe her writing just doesn't do it for me as much as it seems to for everyone else.
Sunburn, Laura Lippman: This was a book club pick, and it has a bit of a "beach read" feel to it. It's a mystery, but it's a slow burn and the payoff really isn't worth it. At first, you're not even sure what KIND of mystery it is - the two main characters are each obviously hiding something, but it takes a while to figure out what crime (if any) has been committed, exactly, even as they are falling in love but still can't trust each other. Things get way too convoluted, and then just when it seems like there might be some excitement... it ends, in what I felt was an unsatisfying way, although my fellow book club members seemed to enjoy it more than I did.
The Orphan's Tale, Pam Jenoff: I've read quite a few of Pam Jenoff's books, with varying results, and this one's kind of in the middle. It follows a traveling circus in Europe during World War II, based on the true stories of German circuses that sheltered Jews during the Holocaust. Astrid, a Jewish aerialist who grew up in a circus family, has lost everyone and now must take refuge with a rival circus. Meanwhile, Noa, a Dutch girl, gets pregnant with a Nazi soldier's illegitimate child and is disowned by her parents. After her own child is taken from her, she rescues a Jewish baby from a train bound for a concentration camp and finds her way to the same circus, where Astrid must teach her the flying trapeze in order to maintain their cover. The friendship between the two women is compelling, and it's a new twist on a familiar historical setting. But there are some hard-to-swallow plot contrivances, not least of which is a poorly-developed romance that drives major climactic decisions.
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel: Someone (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
snickfic?) recced this book a million years ago, and I only just now got around to reading it. I am generally a fan of dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction, so I figured I'd be into this, even though I'd heard it was not your typical post-apocalypse story. It's set 20 years after a pandemic wipes out 99% of the world population, with much of it in flashbacks to various characters before the outbreak. It centers on a group of traveling musicians and actors who perform in the small towns that have developed in the years since, and while there is some drama and danger, it's mostly focused on the ripple effects people have on each others' lives and the ways that culture impacts us and why people continue to live on and build societies even after the world they know has been demolished.
Heroine Complex, Sarah Kuhn: I first discovered Sarah Kuhn via One Con Glory, which established her as a nerdy fangirl who writes about nerdy fangirls (I mean that in a good way - nerdy fangirls don't get enough mainstream love). Anyway, this is in a similar vein - it's about Asian-American lady superheroes, and Kuhn is pretty clearly writing the pop culture figures she wanted to see growing up. Her storytelling style is kind of cartoonishly over the top, almost more suited to a comic book than a novel, but it's a fun, fluffy read even if it's a little predictable.
Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng: I recall that this was, like, the hot new book when I added it to my to-read list (a year ago). So maybe there's some "I expected it to be better" factor in not living up to the hype, but I just thought it was okay? Family dynamics, repressed suburbanites, class and race conflict in a small town... it all kind of feels like stuff I've read before. I wasn't super impressed with her previous book, Everything I Never Told You, either, so maybe her writing just doesn't do it for me as much as it seems to for everyone else.
Sunburn, Laura Lippman: This was a book club pick, and it has a bit of a "beach read" feel to it. It's a mystery, but it's a slow burn and the payoff really isn't worth it. At first, you're not even sure what KIND of mystery it is - the two main characters are each obviously hiding something, but it takes a while to figure out what crime (if any) has been committed, exactly, even as they are falling in love but still can't trust each other. Things get way too convoluted, and then just when it seems like there might be some excitement... it ends, in what I felt was an unsatisfying way, although my fellow book club members seemed to enjoy it more than I did.
The Orphan's Tale, Pam Jenoff: I've read quite a few of Pam Jenoff's books, with varying results, and this one's kind of in the middle. It follows a traveling circus in Europe during World War II, based on the true stories of German circuses that sheltered Jews during the Holocaust. Astrid, a Jewish aerialist who grew up in a circus family, has lost everyone and now must take refuge with a rival circus. Meanwhile, Noa, a Dutch girl, gets pregnant with a Nazi soldier's illegitimate child and is disowned by her parents. After her own child is taken from her, she rescues a Jewish baby from a train bound for a concentration camp and finds her way to the same circus, where Astrid must teach her the flying trapeze in order to maintain their cover. The friendship between the two women is compelling, and it's a new twist on a familiar historical setting. But there are some hard-to-swallow plot contrivances, not least of which is a poorly-developed romance that drives major climactic decisions.
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel: Someone (
snickfic?) recced this book a million years ago, and I only just now got around to reading it. I am generally a fan of dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction, so I figured I'd be into this, even though I'd heard it was not your typical post-apocalypse story. It's set 20 years after a pandemic wipes out 99% of the world population, with much of it in flashbacks to various characters before the outbreak. It centers on a group of traveling musicians and actors who perform in the small towns that have developed in the years since, and while there is some drama and danger, it's mostly focused on the ripple effects people have on each others' lives and the ways that culture impacts us and why people continue to live on and build societies even after the world they know has been demolished.
