1. I have epically bad taste. I know that supposedly there's no such thing as bad taste anymore, but I claim it anyway. I loved Barry Manilow and ABBA and the BeeGees, Def Leppard and Celine Dion, Coldplay and I love that Creed song and even a couple Nickelback songs. My favorite movies are (not necessarily in this order) Galaxy Quest, While You Were Sleeping, LOTR, Howl's Moving Castle, and a bunch of Marvel movies. I watched Independence Day this week.
I'm just letting you know before you take any reading recommendations from me.
2.
I've always been a re-reader. When I was a
kid, I must have read the Narnia books a dozen times each. It might have
started because most of our books were library books, and the Narnia
books were some of the few children's books we owned copies of. I'm not
sure. But at any given moment, I'm usually reading a fiction book, a
non-fiction book, and I'm re-reading something I loved. My favorite books for re-reads are ones that give me the warm fuzzies, but are complex enough that you discover something new every time you read them. That's not to say nothing bad ever happens, or that the characters are all sweet and kind, they just have to be flawed in a lovable way. Or something like that.
3. Martha Wells
has frequently kept me sane over the past couple of years, going back to
lockdown. Most of my current favorite re-reads are by her--the Murderbot books, the Raksura books, and Witch King, which came out last summer, and I have already read three and a half times. In terms of reading experience, I prefer her shorter stuff (mainly the
Murderbot novellas, but I've also read some of her Raksura short
stories). Her full-length novels tend to be a little dense on the
details of world-building for my taste. But the characters she creates
are in my heart forever, no matter how cliché'd that sounds. She writes
characters that make me want to hug the book when I finish. At this
moment in my so-called reading life, few things make me happier than
re-visiting Moon, Stone, and Chime (the Raksura), or Sec Unit, Dr. Mensah, and Pin-Lee (Murderbot), or Kai, Ziede, and Bashasa (Witch King). And if you're re-reading, you can skim right over anything you want.
4. The Death of the Necromancer
(1998), an older book but the most recent one I read by Wells, is similar. The story is a
little too dense with detail for my taste. In fact, when I originally
reached (about) page 50, I decided I didn't have the patience for her
world-building at this particular moment and skipped ahead to read the
last 50 pages. (I know, I know, but my reading faults are a different
post.) I should have known better. I was so intrigued by some things
that happened at the end, and by Nicholas and Madeline, that I ended up
going back and reading the whole thing anyway. It is so rare to read
about a couple in a book that absolutely is not a romance novel--they
are already together when the story starts, the word love is
never mentioned, and there are only a handful of scenes with the two of
them alone, none of them amorous-- but they are necessary to each other, even when they're
apart or fighting. I loved them, and also Arisilde, Reynard, Crack, and all the
rest. If you like fantasy, and especially if you like ornate
world-building, highly recommended. It's a heist/revenge plot,
which is not usually my thing-- but again, the characters. <3
5. The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler. This is a weird book. That's not to say you shouldn't read it, because she has some great insights. How am I not going to love a book that says, about the interior life of a perfectionist, a personality type that is almost universally reviled, "all your most complex needs, longings, desires--all those lush, rolling, verdant, dewdrop-dotted hills of wanderlust inside you, all your curiosities big and small..." I mean, this woman loves perfectionists, and thinks that if our power is unleashed, we can change the world. I kind of love that. She sees anti-perfectionism, the continual advice to scale yourself back, to lower your expectations, to be more "realistic" and accepting of imperfection, as a not-so-hidden attempt to curb women's ambition and drive. She also makes a distinction between adaptive (healthy) perfectionism and maladaptive (unhealthy) perfectionism that is helpful.
But on the other hand, her writing style is all over the place, and about every third thought is not completed. It's maddening to read. By her definition, I think I am more of an idealist than a perfectionist, but I have my moments, and I've been known to ratchet up my expectations to spectacular heights from which I then crash in a sobbing heap (in private, later). So I'm not exactly her target audience, but I'm learning enough that I keep reading. I checked it out from our library's website, but I might actually break down and buy it, because I'm not going to finish it in two weeks (I have 3 days left and I'm about halfway through).
6. Here are some others. This isn't all of them because this post is already too long.
* Tribe by Sebastian Junger- 5 stars (it's less than 200 pages and everyone should read it)
* Lit by Mary Karr- 4.5 stars. The third of her three (so far) memoirs, this one is about getting sober. Fabulous writing, tough going at first while she is still drinking. Her struggle with acknowledging a "higher power" is especially relatable. I might need to re-read this one.
* Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones 4 stars- A philosophy professor who is physically disabled talks about life and philosophy and motherhood.
* Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (not as good as Deacon King Kong but still 5 stars from me)
* Goodbye, Vitamin (Khong) 5 stars- loved this story of a young woman returning home to help care for her beloved, flawed father who is in the early stages of dementia
* Funny Story- Emily Henry's annual romcom 3.5-4ish stars, there's a little too much armchair therapy in Henry's novels for my taste, but I read and enjoy them every year.
* A Painted House, 5 stars- my first Grisham novel since I don't usually read thrillers. I believe it's semi-autobiographical fiction (ie, not a thriller), about a boy who lives on a cotton farm and his family and the itinerant workers who pick their cotton. It was a book club book or I would prob not have picked it up. Ended up really liking it.
* The Centre (Siddiqi) 4 stars- really great unlikable-yet-lovable narrator, but the last third or so kind of flails around. Worth it for the first two thirds.
* Over My Dead Body (Evans) 4.5 stars- just for something fun, an over-achieving surgeon finds herself hanging around after she is murdered in order to right some wrongs, a few of which she is responsible for.
* The Great Divide (Henriquez) 4 stars- interesting historical fiction about the building of the Panama Canal. Actually manages to stay historical, which was refreshing, but that means you know at the end that nothing good is ahead for some of the characters.
7. My decision to stop writing Goodreads reviews lasted all of a
month. When I went back to work on this post, I couldn't remember the
books because I hadn't written anything about them. I think it was nice
to take a break, anyway.
That's all from me, maybe too much from me. Have a great weekend.
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