This is a round-up of the books I read in September. September is over?
Gross. It’s scary. It’ll be fine. I’m fine. I should stop
This is a children’s classic, about Mary Lennox who loses her parents in
a cholera epidemic in India. She’s a spoiled brat, and is sent to Yorkshire to
stay with an uncle when her parents die. She moves in with her uncle, and is
told of a secret garden she’s not allowed to go into. She grows sort of better
on the moors. She finds the secret garden and she learns about growing things,
animals and how to be a decent human being. It was sweet and cute. It wasn’t
the most amazing thing I’ve ever read, but it was sweet and nice and I liked
it.
It was amazing. It was really cool, and really weird, and it was sort of
confusing. It’s about a boy named Seth and in the first scene in the book he
drowns, alone. Then he wakes up in his childhood home in England, on the other
side of the world from where he died (Seattle). He is covered in bandages and
little cuts and he has no idea what happened. It’s hard to say more about the
plot without ruining everything, it’s the kind of book where you sort of should
walk in blind. It was gorgeous though. It was sort of amazingly beautiful. It
talks a lot about the afterlife, and whether there is “more than this” life.
The writing is beautiful and the story is interesting, the characters are just
so amazing. I loved the general story, and all that, and I also loved the
flashbacks/dreams of Seth’s life, they’re so beautiful and so goddamn heart
breaking. It was amazing. The ending is very open ended, which annoyed me a
little, because I want to know, but now I can hope, imagine, and all that good
stuff. It’s so good.
This is the second book in the Burton and Swinburne series. It is the
second book about Sir Richard Francis Burton and Algernon Swinburne solving
crimes and shit. That’s how you describe a book Inga, well done. I’m not good
at that it seems. Anyways. This is about a clockwork man, a presumed heir to a
fortune, a diamond heist, a Russian criminal, was Rasputin a criminal? I should
read more Russian history, note to self. It’s about a curmudgeonly, grumpy,
peer of the realm acting as an investigator for the king, a world full of
technology they shouldn’t have, and riots. It’s fun, and clever, and the world
building is just great and amazing, and I loved it. I love Richard Burton,
still think about him as the actor, not the explorer, fun though. I can imagine
he’s hanging out with Elizabeth Taylor. It’s really fun steam punk and I need
to get my hands on the next one.
It’s the second book in the Peter Grant series about a young magician’s
apprentice named Peter Grant, who is also a cop. He is the apprentice to a
magician named Thomas Nightingale, who is the last magician in the UK, theoretically.
He has his own department in the Metropolitan police where he investigates
supernatural crimes. He recruits Grant when he “graduates” from being a
probationary constable. It’s a mystery novel, and in the mystery is that London
jazz musicians are dropping dead for no good reason, and they seem to have been
killed by magic. Grant investigates, finds links between the jazzmen and dudes
that are being killed by having their penises bitten off and bleeding to death.
He makes some questionable career related decisions, he finds a connection
between his case and his dad, who used to be a great jazzman, but who got
messed up by drugs. This isn’t very coherent, but then, I’m me.
I didn’t finish this. I’m working through it though. I’ll finish it. I’m
getting more and more into it. It’s weird, and very unbelievable. In that the
main character gets just the most perfect help, all the time. The sidekicks are
so unlikely. But it’s so cleverly made and written. It just pulls you in. The
blogs, and the article put into the book are great. It makes it feel so
mysterious, and real, and you get real pulled in. It’s weird.
This is the last book in the first Mistborn trilogy. It is the
conclusion to the story of Vin and Elend. It’s… I have all the feels. All the
feelings. It’s amazing, it’s beautiful. There’s so much going on, there’s
non-stop action. There are so many answers to questions that I had from the
others. And things that bugged me suddenly made sense. And there are some very
interesting thoughts about religion and stuff. It’s cool, and great, and the
tears and the ugly crying. Wow. This makes no sense. I’m writing a review, which
might be more coherent.
Mah, it’s so good. I’ve had it for years and been a bit intimidated.
Because I wasn’t very comfortable with reading classics for a long time, and
felt like I didn’t get it, and then I’d be so disappointed. Then I made a TBR
jar, pulled out a paper-thing, and got Frankenstein. And I got real excited. So
I read it, it’s so good. It’s Frankenstein, it’s a dude, who makes a monster,
the monster wants love, and murders everyone Frankenstein loves, so that’s fun.
I feel like the adaptions are all so different from the book. I haven’t seen
many, admittedly, but I feel like I have always seen this hulking, grunting
monster. The monster is eloquent, and he speaks two languages, and he just
wants to be loved, and it’s so amazing.
My resolutions
I finished The Secret Garden, which is a classic, and Frankenstein,
which is also a classic, and that means I’ve hit my classics goal. Go me. I’m
also well ahead on my 70 books challenge. Well done me. My Mount TBR though.
I’m like 4 books behind schedule, which ain’t great, but it’s fine if I don’t
reach it, because what’ll happen? It’s not like the book gods are going to
punish me. Although if they want to hang, I’m up for it. This has gone to a
weird place. I’ll stop now.
The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by Mark Hodder
The Night Film by Marisha
Pessl
The Hero of Ages by Brandon
Sanderson
Frankenstein by Mary
Shelley