Best Sarah Waters book in a very long time. I loved The Paying Guests. Every character was perfect. The story line was terrific (though of course you had to know that Frances and Lilian were going to end up in that kind of mess.) Perfect ending. I loved every darn thing about it.
Another Cybils shortlist book, Pantomine was… slow. It’s also trying to do a lot of things (slowly) and not necessarily succeeding with any of them.
I didn’t dislike the characters. The intersex/Kedi idea is interesting. The weird glass things are interesting but we didn’t get enough information about the world they’re living in to really understand why they were interesting, which made Micah/Gene’s connection to them less interesting than it might otherwise be. It’s ok to keep some of the story back, but giving us just a little bit more about why we should care, well, that would have been good.
I’m not sure I’ll read the next book, we’ll see.
I was pleasantly surprised by Etched On Me. Very pleasantly surprised. Good characters that I found myself caring about more than I thought I would. Also, first time I’ve seen the use of the word “asshat” in a novel. Heh.
I can’t decide how I feel about The Sealed Letter. I liked it but… I’ve never pictured Emily Faithfull as quite so… clueless. I had a hard time not rolling my eyes because I just can’t see Faithfull in the role Donoghue creates for her. Sigh.
Oh boy. The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door pretty much had it all — oh wait, I don’t think there were any tragic deaths in there. So it had almost ALL of the things that teen problem books have.
Bullies.
Divorce.
School.
Coming Out.
And I liked it. I liked Celia. I liked Drake. I liked the way it all washed out in the end.
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I finished my first book of 2014 five days into the year. This does not bode well for my 300 book goal, does it?
I’ve been trying to read Making Love to the Minor Poets of Chicago since before Christmas. I have no idea why I stuck with it — probably because of the Chicago setting. And because I actually liked some of the characters.
But lord there were a lot of characters and the story line… gah. It left a lot to be desired. And the ending, blah.
I liked bits of it — some of the characters. I hated bits of it, the plodding OMG just get on with it. Ho hum. Not a great start to the year but I finished it.
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I didn’t do a very good job of talking about most of the books I read during the #readathon, so I’m backtracking a bit.
Astronaut Wives Club — I liked it but it wasn’t nearly as interesting as I’d hoped. I see now why someone (Julie?) said she didn’t really like it very much. It was vague where I wanted more detail. I’m glad I read it but I wish it had been better.
Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate was really good — witchery popery popery witchery, it’s really much the same when you think about it, right?
Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives — a book of short stories, very good short stories. That’s saying something since I’m not really a fan of short story compilations.
Lake Geneva: Life At the Water’s Edge was a really nice coffee table type book. Great photos. Interesting. Makes me a little sad that we cancelled our mini vacation in November. We’ll do it in the spring, instead, and I’m looking forward to it now more than ever.
Day Trips From Chicago was nothing special. I didn’t find anything unusual or extra interesting. Not a bad book of day trips it was just a little vanilla.
A Short History of Myth, I think I did write about this one a little yesterday. It was ok. Dry, as you’d expect. Something to think about (or to try not to think about?) as I read the other books in the Myth series in the months ahead.
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I like Jennifer Boylen and I liked Stuck in the Middle with You but… I also didn’t like it.
Jennifer was a dad, when she was Jim.
And then a mom when she transitioned to Jennifer.
But she was always a parent.
A parent who did change (in some ways) as a parent once she transitioned to being a woman.
The it just muddied the waters about what fatherhood, motherhood, parenthood is (or isn’t) — and why. No clear conclusions except that we’re all different, as people and as parents (and we are often different people or parents as time passes.)
Duh and also murky at the same time. Which is pretty much what life is like (for all of us.)
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Book three, Pardonable Lies was not my favorite Maisie Dobbs and not just because the narrator changed between book two and three (we’re doing this series on audio, now.)
Maisie was… not herself, which is probably as it should be but it made for a less fun adventure and a more serious, thoughtful story. I want the fun adventure with only a little bit of serious and thoughtfulness.
I also flipped from #TeamDean to #TeamInspector, Andrew Dean bugged me a lot in this one.
On to book four!
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