What I Read: February 2016

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

Literary Stylings # 23: Obsidian

After much deliberation, I decided to base today's LitSty look on the two books of the Red Rising Trilogy, Red Rising and Golden Son:

As I said before, I wasn't actually familiar with these books prior to reading them.  I was just looking for something for my nephew and he's only 15 so I still like to pre-read any books I get for him.

And, as I also said before, I was very pleasantly surprised at how good these books are.  I won't say that Brown is the best writer, but the story is very, very good and he writes well enough to keep the reader engaged.

One thing I appreciate is how much though Brown put into the world he created.  In his version of the future, people are split into color-coded groups.  Each group has been genetically modified to do the work their group does.  Golds lead, Pinks were created for pleasure, Whites are the law, Grays are the military, Reds are the miners and Obsidians are the fighters.


Here is a hierarchy I found on Pinterest:

As you can see, Gold is at the very top and Red is at the very bottom.

The main character of the trilogy, Darrow, is a Red who finds out that although he and his people have been living underground in the mines, killing themselves to mine material so Mars can be terra-formed, it was already terra-formed hundreds of years ago and they're just slaves.

In his fight against the ruling Golds, Darrow is assisted by an Obsidian and for me, the story of the Obsidian group is one of the most fascinating of the book.  They also fought against the Golds once and as a result, the Golds took their technology, sending them back to the Middle Ages at best, and then set themselves up as Gods to the Obsidians.  They also did a bunch of other horrible stuff to them, effectually making them into killing machines to be used by the Golds to maintain their power.

Most of the groups have hair and eyes the color of their group; Reds have red hair and eyes.  Golds have golden hair and eyes and golden skin.  Obsidians, have paper-white skin and obsidian-black hair and eyes (and tattoos).


My outfit represents my fascination with the Obsidian story:

The black and white represents the Obsidians.  The bit of red represents the alliance with Darrow and his Obsidian.  And the leopard booties represent my belief that leopard is a neutral.

Poncho: Zara (save, splurge)  Tunic: Gap (similar)
Leggings: c/o Long Tall Sally (similar)  Shoes: Isola "Banner" Bootie

Sorry for the long post, but I really do appreciate the thought that Brown put into his books and wanted to share some of that with you.


But, enough about me; it's your turn!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Tuesday, All!

Gracey

What I Read: December 2015

As you may have noticed, I didn't do much blogging during the last couple of weeks of December.  So, what did I do with all my free time?  I read.  A lot.

Here are the books I read last month.

Arcadia, by Lauren Groff

I loved, loved, loved this book.  I read The Monsters of Templeton by Groff in November, and I liked it, but Arcadia is one of my favorite books ever.  It's about a commune in upstate New York, and specifically about a boy on the commune nicknamed 'Bit' because he is, as one lady said, the "littlest bit of a hippie she's ever seen."  It's also about Bit's family; his mother Hannah, and his father, Abe, and their lives on the commune, Arcadia.  And it's absolutely wonderful.  I was able to relate to a lot of this book, but I think even if you can't, it's just a fabulous read and I highly recommend it.



Love May Fail, by Matthew Quick

Love May Fail is actually the second book by Matthew Quick that I attempted to read last month.  The first was Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and the first couple chapters of that book hurt my heart so much I just gave up.  Maybe I'll try again, but I don't know.

So, I ended up reading Love May Fail instead and it was... okay.  I actually didn't really like it.  Quick is a good-enough writer, I guess, but not for me.  His writing fell flat, as did his characters.  This book should have been right up my alley what with all the references to 80s rock, but I just couldn't care.  The main character, Portia, fell especially flat for me.  No matter what happened to her; an adulterous husband, a shut-in mother, other things I won't spoil for you, I just couldn't care.  Love May Fail was my least favorite book from December.



The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine, by Alex Brunkhorst

This book was very unusual.  Or, at least the premise is.  I wasn't one hundred percent sure I would like it because it's about a young woman who never leaves her estate in Bel Air.  And never has.  She is not agoraphobic, but is, rather, the daughter of an extremely wealthy man who made the decision for her to live her entire life within the confines of his estate.  That was a hard concept for me to get my mind around because it just seems far-fetched to me in this day and age.  But, then again, I'm not super-wealthy, so who knows what nonsense those folks are up to.

All in all though, I liked this book.  It was a fun escape and it definitely had an unusual plot, which I appreciate.  One thing I will warn you about is that some fool of an editor compares the book to The Great Gatsby in the fly leaf.  I don't know why they did that because it's a disservice to the author.  Brunkhorst is a fine author, she doesn't need to be, or be compared to, F. Scott Fitzgerald.  So, to sum up.  This book is good.  Take it on your Spring Break vacation; it's great for that sort of trip.  It's not Gatsby, but it's not trying to be.



Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

In this book, the world has gone to hell and most people spend their time online in an alternate universe that lets them forget the world has gone to hell. This online world is called OASIS and when the creator of OASIS passes away, he issues a challenge to every OASIS user; finish his quest, find the keys and inherit his billions.

This quest provides the plot for the book and, I have to tell you, I wanted to like this book more than I did.  If I were a bigger geek, I think I would have.  (Damn my undeserved popularity!)  As it was, the parts that most resembled D & D were my favorite because I was most able to relate to them as a past RPG player.  But, the anime and TV shows and video games  and 80s movies failed to hold my interest. (Not The Breakfast Club, obviously, I'd be interested in The Breakfast Club).  Another problem I had with the book was that OASIS even existed.  It was free to all users so everyone spent the majority of their time online while the world just rotted around them.  I can't help but think that if OASIS weren't so readily available, people might have done more to fix the problems with the real world.

Still, it was a fun read and if you grew up in the 80s, it's even more fun.



Red Rising and Golden Son, by Pierce Brown

I read these books because I was trying to find a book for my nephew for Christmas.  And, I gotta tell you, Reader Friends, I rather like this series.  It's about a man named Darrow who is part of the lowest underclass, the Reds, on Mars.  He and his people spend their days mining materials so that Mars can be terra-formed which is necessary because the Earth is dying and humankind needs to be able to colonize Mars to survive.

Except that Mars has actually been terra-formed and colonized for hundreds of years.  The ruling class, the Golds, just keep the Reds below ground mining and dying young because that's how society works now.  People are color coded, and genetically modified to perform specific duties: the Golds are created/bred to lead, the Violets are created/bred to be artists and the Reds, the lowest of the low, are created/bred to do the back-breaking work of the mines.

Did Brown maybe lose the plot a couple of times?  Sure, maybe, but really, these books are very good and they definitely hold your interest.  I sped through the first two and am eagerly awaiting the third and final book, Morning Star.



What about you, Reader Friends?  Did you read anything good in December?  Feel like sharing it here next Tuesday?  Because Literary Stylings is back and we'll be linking up here next Tuesday!


Happy This Tuesday, All!

Gracey