So, it's still winter, which means it's still cold and I'm still not leaving the house and am therefore still reading a lot.
I read another five books last month and enjoyed all but one, which is nice. I hate those months where I don't like anything I read. Last month though, I completed one trilogy and started another series so I was pretty confident in my choices.
Morning Star, by Pierce Brown
I raved about the first two books of this series in my
December recap and was super excited to read Morning Star. Happily, it did not disappoint. In fact, the only disappointing thing about it was that there wasn't more. Brown does a great job, fantastic really, of world building, but, I still wanted more.
I wanted to know more about how the Colors were engineered. I wanted to know more about the battle against Earth that led to Gold domination of the universe. And I wanted to know more about the Obsidian uprising that caused the Golds to throw them back to the Dark Ages and act as Obsidian gods.
Basically, I'm hoping Brown writes three or four more books about this world he created and I'd read every single one. If you haven't read this series, I highly recommend it. Even if Science Fiction isn't really your thing, the author puts forth a lot of interesting social and political dilemmas that are very interesting as well.
The Mechanical and
The Rising, by Ian Tregillis
Speaking of interesting social and political dilemmas, holy smokes, has Tregillis created something interesting with his Alchemy Wars series.
These books are considered to be "speculative fiction," along the lines of
The Man in the High Castle. But, instead of asking what would happen if Hitler won the war, these books speculate what it would be like if the Dutch created a race of mechanical people to do their bidding. Mechanicals that were stronger and faster than humans; mechanicals that were essentially unstoppable. To act as housemaids and coolies and soldiers and galley rowers and assassins and bounty hunters and everything and anything else the Dutch require.
And, what would happen if these mechanicals were given a soul and then that soul was bound with alchemy so that it meant not free will, but unwavering, unquestioning servitude. Slavery, if you will. And then, what would happen if one of these mechanical slaves regained their soul; regained their free will. Are they then equal to humans? The Dutch say no. The French say yes, but possibly only because it's politically expedient.
Basically, these books are awesome. Both very well written and very thought-provoking.
Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir, by Bill Clegg
I'm sad to say that this is the book I didn't very much like. The writing style was the disjointed, possibly hallucinogenic memories of a man who smoked about $50K in crack in about two months time. But, that's not actually why I didn't like it. I didn't like it because I found it very hard to be sympathetic to the author.
And I wanted to be sympathetic. I can't imagine being addicted to crack cocaine. I can't imagine what that must do to your life. But, Clegg kind of makes it seem like it's no big deal. I mean, he loses his very, very understanding (albeit possibly enabling) boyfriend, his company and his gorgeous New York apartment. And he's all like, eh, oh well, I'll just get another boyfriend, which he does. And then he borrows money from that boyfriend to get another NYC apartment. And then he gets another job as a literary agent. In NYC.
Basically, in reading this, I felt like there were no consequences to the author's actions. And I can't help but wonder if it's because he's white. No, really. I mean, he is high as hell on crack, looks like he's high as hell on crack, is wearing a dirty, smelly, stained cashmere sweater and no one calls the cops on him. Sure, they refuse him a room at their hotel, but no one calls the cops. And when he goes to buy a replacement sweater, not at a thrift store, but at a store where said sweater costs about $500, he gets high in. the. fucking. changing. room. And yep, you guessed it, no one calls the cops. Put a black person in that same situation and they would have been arrested immediately.
So, no, I didn't like this book.
Mislaid, by Nell Zink
Sorry for the above rant, but I'm happy to say we're ending on a high note. This book is fantastic. Nell Zink is a genius and I think I might love her. I'm going to read her book,
The Wallcreeper, next and I'll let you know for sure. But, mostly, yeah, pretty sure I love her.
Mislaid is about a young lesbian who ends up marrying and then leaving her gay professor. And then she, a White woman, decides to pass as a light-skinned Black woman. In the South. Why? Because it was the 60s and she knew that no one would ever expect a White woman to purposely identify as Black. It was the easiest way to hide in plain sight from her husband and his private detectives.
Oh, you should know that she also passes her blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter off as Black. And no one bats an eye because, well, the 60s.
I feel like I'm not really doing this book justice, but it really is brilliant in a quiet, yet hilarious way. You should read it; it's great.
What about you, Reader Friends? Did you read anything good, or terrible, last month? If so, you wanna share your look next week? How about Friday, the 11th? That'll give me time to figure out what to wear.
Happy Thursday, All!
Gracey
