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jadislefeu) wrote2019-03-09 01:33 am
jadislefeu) wrote2019-03-09 01:33 am
Entry tags:
Books I've been reading
Read:
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik: I loooved this. Really glorious interweaving of different perspectives in a folkloric story that was almost but not quite a retelling of a couple of different fairy tales, with (almost) all female POVs who did their best to take charge of their own lives and do their best for the people they see as their own, whether that was an entire country or only their siblings. Really loved it. Immediately thereafter put her Uprooted on hold. I've been vaguely dithering about trying her profic for years, since I love her fanfic in my fandom, and this was a great introduction.
The Passager by Jane Yolen: It only took like 15 minutes to read, I didn't have enough time to even form an opinion. I checked it out because I'm on her poem-a-day mailing list and she asks that subscribers purchase or check out from a library one of her books each month in recompense, and this was one my library had that I hadn't read yet.
the princess saves herself in this one, by Amanda Lovelace: Lovely book of poetry, about being broken and putting yourself back together and surviving and thriving. Highlighted a mildly absurd amount of it--28 things.
Water Sings Blue by Kate Coombs: Poetry again. Very brief, very devoted to rhyming. Also had what appeared to be OCR errors. Probably works better as a physical book in which one can actually appreciate the art. Also, I think it's actually aimed at five year olds, for whom it's probably great. Really scraping the bottom of the library's ebook poetry collection. (At least as long as I'm avoiding weird Go Ask Alice-y verse novels, which I absolutely am. Why are there like 17 different YA verse novels about suicidal teenagers by the same author? Find your niche and never leave it, I guess.)
Currently reading:
Those Wild Wyndhams by Claudia Renton: Really enjoying this, need to get back to it and read more so I can finish it before my loan runs out or else I'll have to renew it, it's great.
DNF:
A Bite-Size History Of France by Stephane Henaut: Gave up at 15% in, because it just did not provide enough detail about food to be engaging on that metric and I felt very misled. Might have been otherwise interesting as a history book, but it was just too disappointing on how I felt it was sold for me to get into. My loan expired before I got any further.
A Princess In Theory by Alyssa Cole: I am clearly just not cut out for the mistaken identity genre, this was driving me nuts. I made it to 66% and I was just so angry at all of it and I wasn't enjoying it and ditched it in favor of other things. My loan doesn't expire for another week, but signs do not point towards me picking it back up before then.
She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems by Caroline Kennedy: Didn't even make it through the introduction, it was swimming in gender essentialism and then it declared that mothers are 'always right' and I ragequit and returned the ebook to the library. Also, quote, "Women have always been at the center of poetry—throughout history we have been its inspiration, and more recently, women are the authors of the most profound poetry of our time." BITCH WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AUTHORS, GO TO HELL. Clearly not a book for me, I do not respect this woman as a curator of works.
Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna: Ehhhhh. It all felt very self-conscious in a 'can you believe I'm writing poetry? kind of way and after I realized it was a youtuber's book deal I realized why it all seemed random and slipshod. I thought maybe it was great for some not-me audience, but the reviews on goodreads (including from her youtube fans) are also terrible, so it's not just me! This is a bad book. Gave up at 29%.
Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty by Christina Hoppermann: Nope, me and my (absolutely fucking battled for) decent relationship with my body do not need to read a book of poems about eating disorders. Maybe it's great for girls who have them and need to feel reassured that they're not alone, idk. I just feel annoyed that I've never fit into anything from Abercrombie in my goddamn life and shut up about being sad in their dressing room because things don't drape perfectly. This book made me feel like I should be more self-conscious about my weight. Sounded kind of rhapsodic about tiny numbers on the scale, honestly, and that's not for my fat ass. Stopped reading 33% in.
Currently on hold:
Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen
The Romanovs, by Simon Sebag Montefiore
When the Moon Was Ours, by Anna-Marie McLemore
Devotions, by Mary Oliver
Dreyer's English, by Benjamin Dreyer
Jefferson's Daughters, by Catherine Kerrison
Uprooted, by Naomi Novik
The Romanovs, by Robert K. Massie
The Personality Brokers, by Merve Emre
A Useful Woman, by Darcie Wilde
A Purely Private Matter, by Darcie Wilde
Quackery, by Lydia Kang
The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, by Ellen Oh
The Ravenmaster, by Christopher Scaife
Midnight in Chernobyl, by Addam Higginbotham
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik: I loooved this. Really glorious interweaving of different perspectives in a folkloric story that was almost but not quite a retelling of a couple of different fairy tales, with (almost) all female POVs who did their best to take charge of their own lives and do their best for the people they see as their own, whether that was an entire country or only their siblings. Really loved it. Immediately thereafter put her Uprooted on hold. I've been vaguely dithering about trying her profic for years, since I love her fanfic in my fandom, and this was a great introduction.
The Passager by Jane Yolen: It only took like 15 minutes to read, I didn't have enough time to even form an opinion. I checked it out because I'm on her poem-a-day mailing list and she asks that subscribers purchase or check out from a library one of her books each month in recompense, and this was one my library had that I hadn't read yet.
the princess saves herself in this one, by Amanda Lovelace: Lovely book of poetry, about being broken and putting yourself back together and surviving and thriving. Highlighted a mildly absurd amount of it--28 things.
Water Sings Blue by Kate Coombs: Poetry again. Very brief, very devoted to rhyming. Also had what appeared to be OCR errors. Probably works better as a physical book in which one can actually appreciate the art. Also, I think it's actually aimed at five year olds, for whom it's probably great. Really scraping the bottom of the library's ebook poetry collection. (At least as long as I'm avoiding weird Go Ask Alice-y verse novels, which I absolutely am. Why are there like 17 different YA verse novels about suicidal teenagers by the same author? Find your niche and never leave it, I guess.)
Currently reading:
Those Wild Wyndhams by Claudia Renton: Really enjoying this, need to get back to it and read more so I can finish it before my loan runs out or else I'll have to renew it, it's great.
DNF:
A Bite-Size History Of France by Stephane Henaut: Gave up at 15% in, because it just did not provide enough detail about food to be engaging on that metric and I felt very misled. Might have been otherwise interesting as a history book, but it was just too disappointing on how I felt it was sold for me to get into. My loan expired before I got any further.
A Princess In Theory by Alyssa Cole: I am clearly just not cut out for the mistaken identity genre, this was driving me nuts. I made it to 66% and I was just so angry at all of it and I wasn't enjoying it and ditched it in favor of other things. My loan doesn't expire for another week, but signs do not point towards me picking it back up before then.
She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems by Caroline Kennedy: Didn't even make it through the introduction, it was swimming in gender essentialism and then it declared that mothers are 'always right' and I ragequit and returned the ebook to the library. Also, quote, "Women have always been at the center of poetry—throughout history we have been its inspiration, and more recently, women are the authors of the most profound poetry of our time." BITCH WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AUTHORS, GO TO HELL. Clearly not a book for me, I do not respect this woman as a curator of works.
Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna: Ehhhhh. It all felt very self-conscious in a 'can you believe I'm writing poetry? kind of way and after I realized it was a youtuber's book deal I realized why it all seemed random and slipshod. I thought maybe it was great for some not-me audience, but the reviews on goodreads (including from her youtube fans) are also terrible, so it's not just me! This is a bad book. Gave up at 29%.
Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty by Christina Hoppermann: Nope, me and my (absolutely fucking battled for) decent relationship with my body do not need to read a book of poems about eating disorders. Maybe it's great for girls who have them and need to feel reassured that they're not alone, idk. I just feel annoyed that I've never fit into anything from Abercrombie in my goddamn life and shut up about being sad in their dressing room because things don't drape perfectly. This book made me feel like I should be more self-conscious about my weight. Sounded kind of rhapsodic about tiny numbers on the scale, honestly, and that's not for my fat ass. Stopped reading 33% in.
Currently on hold:
Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen
The Romanovs, by Simon Sebag Montefiore
When the Moon Was Ours, by Anna-Marie McLemore
Devotions, by Mary Oliver
Dreyer's English, by Benjamin Dreyer
Jefferson's Daughters, by Catherine Kerrison
Uprooted, by Naomi Novik
The Romanovs, by Robert K. Massie
The Personality Brokers, by Merve Emre
A Useful Woman, by Darcie Wilde
A Purely Private Matter, by Darcie Wilde
Quackery, by Lydia Kang
The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, by Ellen Oh
The Ravenmaster, by Christopher Scaife
Midnight in Chernobyl, by Addam Higginbotham
It occurred to me that since I've been finding most things with plots too stressful to bear, that non-fiction might work better for me, so I've been combing through histories and biographies available from the library for things to read. Especially after I loved The Husband Hunters. Loving Those Wild Wyndhams too, and I have a bunch more tagged as to-read in Libby that didn't have a wait. (My to-read list is randomly spread between a text file on my laptop, my Goodreads to-read shelf, and my Libby to-read shelf.)