This is a look back at what I read in October. It was a bit of a crazy
month, so strap in. I had sort of a low point near the end, not a slump, I just
hated everything I read. Not because they’re bad, because I’m a whiny brat. So
there are two books I didn’t finish, and they will appear again in November.
This is a sort of staple of American children’s books. It’s about a
young kid named Jonas, who lives in a dystopian world where all choices are
made for them, including their jobs, spouses and children. Everything is
controlled and measured. Weather is controlled, they don’t understand love, or
devotion or anger, any emotions really. Jonas’ job is Receiver of memory, so he
gets to know everything that happened before. He learns about love and family.
And it’s really cool. It’s very clear it’s a children’s book, I’m clearly not
the demographic Lois Lowry aimed for, but I did really like it. It’s an
interesting world Lowry created. It was fascinating to see how they’d taken all
personality out of the world. People don’t see colour, which is fascinating. So
I really liked it. It was, as I said, for a child, but it was good. I wrote a
review here.
This is a novel about professor James Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes
novels. It’s told in the same style as the Sherlock Holmes stories in that
there is this is genius, man of science (Moriarty/Holmes) who lives with an
army man (Moran/ Watson), who keeps a journal of their exploits. The difference
is, Sherlock Holmes is a consulting detective, Moriarty is a consulting
criminal, and Moran is a fucking psychopath. It’s so good. Moran is the one
writing the story which means the reader gets Moran’s thoughts and views. And
he is insane. He is racist, homophobic, sexist, a huge misogynist, and the
people he hates more than anyone else: white men. Yeah, he hates everyone. I
love him so much. I wrote a review here.
The Thorn and the Blossom was given to me for free by Quirk books. It’s
a story told two times from two different perspectives. I’m not good at
explaining this. When you get to the end you just turn it over and read it
again. It’s about a young woman going to Cornwall while she’s in England for a
semester. She meets a Cornwall-man named Brendan and they talk about books and
history. And it’s hard to explain. It was really sweet and nice, and I wrote a
review here.
So I’m not sure I get this book. It feels like a lot of people love it
so much. I didn’t love it. It was fine, but it wasn’t as good as I thought it
would be. It’s about a young man in Tokyo in the late 60s, and him sort of
dealing with the loss of his best friend when he was 17. He starts a
relationship with his dead friend’s girlfriend. There’s a lot of things
happening, and it’s a bit slow, but it’s lyrical and beautiful so I liked that
aspect of it, there were just things I didn’t like so much. I wrote a review
here.
This is the third book in the Wicked Years quartet. It’s about the land
of Oz, from the book series Wizard of Oz. Anyway. This is about the Cowardly
Lion, named Brrr. He has come to the Convent of Saint Glinda, where Liir spent
a lot of time in the previous novel. Brrr has come to interview Yackle, one of
the maunts (nuns), about Elphaba, because the theory is that Elphaba had this
magic book, the Grimmerie, and Yackle knows where it is. The book sort of spans
two days of them talking, but it’s interspersed with look backs on Brrr’s life,
from when he was a little cub until now. I quite liked it. I really like
Maguire’s writing, he’s sort of honest and unflinching, which I like. Brrr is a
thoroughly unlikeable main character. He has made quite a lot of bad decisions,
and choices, and things have gone bad, but he doesn’t really view this as his
fault, he thinks the world is sort of conspiring against him. It’s not, he’s a
whiny asshole. I love that, I like unlikeable characters, if you can do them
well, and I think Maguire does them well. Liir isn’t particularly likeable
either, and liked reading Son of a Witch as well. It felt like it dragged a
bit, I don’t know why, it’s not bad, or boring, it was more me than anything
about the book.
I read this at the beginning of the month, so I’m not sure how much I
remember. It was fine. I seem to remember feeling like too much was happening. There’s
just a lot of stuff going on all at once. It was okay, it was fine. It was a
fair enough fantasy, it didn’t blow my mind. I might still finish the series,
but it wasn’t the most amazing thing I’ve ever read. I didn’t really love the
main character, which is something of a drawback. It was fine though. Fine. I
wrote a review here.
This is another book that I feel like dragged. Again, not because it’s
bad, I just, I put it down and then sort of forgot about it and then just
remembered and went, oh, right, I’m supposed to read that. Right. I did like it
though. I don’t read a lot of crime/thrillers, but I thought this sounded
interesting. It’s about an investigative journalist named Scott McGrath who is
investigating the suicide of Ashley Cordova. Why? Because Scott is obsessed
with her dad, Stanislas Cordova, who is a movie director. And Scott’s obsession
with this man almost ruined him. It’s very interesting, it’s about this man’s
obsession, being sure that Cordova has done something unspeakable, but he can’t
prove it. It’s a bit unbelievable, everyone suddenly wants to tell McGrath
exactly what he needs to hear, when he needs to hear it. He gets these
perfect-for-him perky sidekicks, but it’s good fun. It’s also sprinkled with
newspaper articles, blog posts, web page pictures. And it’s a cool way of
telling a story. So it’s fun.
This is a comic book series about a gang of beer swilling, swearing,
badass killer ladies. They are in a sort of adventure world with orcs and
elves, sorcerers and dwarves, and it was awesome. They’re snarky, and rude, and
they kill people for money. They’re badly behaved and along with the other
crews of sort of mercenaries, in their hometown they’re sort of hated. So
someone hires trolls and stuff to kill them. The sassy rat queens survive and
they go back to defend their town. I really liked it. I liked the art. I liked
the snarky, rude, unpleasant ladies in the comic. I like unpleasant characters.
I also loved Betty, who is just the sweetest.
This is about Suzie, a librarian trying to save her library, who is a
young lady with a gift. When Suzie has an orgasm time stops, literally. And she
is in this place where no one else is and everyone else has just frozen. Then
she meets Jon, and Jon has the same ability, so obviously they rob banks. Who
wouldn’t? They basically rob banks to make money for Suzie’s library, but
clearly, you can’t just have sex and rob banks in the quiet, so people show up
to tell them they have to stop. I really loved it. I liked how honest it was.
There was no sex shaming, Suzie and Jon are adults, they’re responsible and
they’re grown up. It was very cool in that sense. I feel like it jumped a bit,
and there was a lot going on, but that might have been because I read it during
the read-a-thon and I was reading a lot in a short amount of time so I was a
bit unfocused.
I finished this book this month. It was a lot of fun. I really love her on the Office. I haven't seen a lot of the Mindy Project, but I definitely should. It was adorable, I love how weird and funny she is. I think I was expecting a bit more, but I really did like it. And it was good for breaking up my grumpiness and my dislike of all books.
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles by Kim Newman
The Thorn and the Blossom
by Theodora Goss
Norwegian Wood by Haruki
Murakami
A Lion Among Men by Gregory
Maguire
Throne of Glass by Sarah J.
Maas
Night Film by Marisha Pessl