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

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

What I Read: August 2015

Okay, so what I read was A LOT.  Remember how I mentioned that I traveled a lot during August?  Well, all that traveling meant a whole lot of reading.  Happily, the majority of the books I read were quite good and I was really only "meh" on two of them.


The Love-Artist, by Jane Alison

I thought this book was pretty good.  Not great, but solidly middle-of-the-road and definitely interesting.  It takes place in ancient Rome and tells the story of the poet, Ovid, and his muse.  The author tends towards a poetic turn of phrase, which is nice, but can also be a bit confusing.  In addition to Ovid and his muse, the story also includes some of the infighting and political intrigue Rome was famous for, but that part is still a bit murky to me due to the author's writing style.  If you like historical fiction and flowery language, this may be the book for you.


The Spinning Man, by George Harrar

What?  I don't know.  No, really, I think that I have no idea what happened in this book.  It's about a philosophy professor who is struggling with the fact that no one wants to take philosophy anymore and the fact that he's suspected of murdering a local cheerleader.  Did he?  I don't know.  There are a lot of philosophical questions posed and some of them are answered, but apparently "who done it?" isn't a highbrow of enough question for the author to answer because he just totally leaves the reader hanging.  I'd skip this one, unless, of course, you like being confused.



Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith

NPR called this book "one of the top 100 thrillers of all time."  And, you know what?  Yeah, I accept that.  I mean, I'm no expert on thrillers, but this book really is awfully good, folks.  It takes place in Stalinist Russia in the 50s and it's fantastic.  It's about the investigation of a serial killer, but it's really about a KGB officer losing his religion and his religion is his belief in the Soviet State.  Even if you don't love thrillers, I think this is a book worth reading.



Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls, by David Sedaris

I'm usually a David Sedaris fan, but I didn't love this book.  I did laugh aloud in a couple places, but mostly I wondered if I'd outgrown Sedaris and his brand of snark.  I do recommend reading Sedaris though, but maybe not necessarily this one.



Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline

I had this book on my list forever and when I went home to visit my family, I stole it from my sister and finally had time to read it.  And I'm glad I did.  It was very interesting to me as I was unaware that we ever shipped orphan kids from the East Coast to the Midwest to be taken in by strangers.  The only thing I didn't like was the fact that the author goes back and forth between modern times with the girl interviewing a woman who was on an orphan train, and the time of the train.  The modern stuff wasn't half as interesting to me as what the orphans went through, but all in all, it was a good book and one I'd recommend.



Transmission, by Hari Kunzru

I started this book probably three times.  It starts basically in the middle of the story and that was confusing to me, but once I got going I couldn't put it down.  And I absolutely loved the end.  I haven't been that satisfied with the ending of a book in ages.  It made all of the, sometimes confusing, tech and marketing lingo in the middle worth it.  It's a strange book and I can't provide a good synopsis of the plot, but I definitely recommend it!


And that's it.  Again, I spent a lot of time on planes, in airports and on the road so I read a lot of books.  Per usual, I have no idea what to wear for the Literary Stylings Link Party next Tuesday, but I'll find something. Hopefully you will too and hopefully you'll come by and link up!


Happy Thursday, All!

Gracey

8/14/15 Five For Friday: Books

For this Friday's Five for Friday, I decided to share five books that I've read, and loved, in the past six months or so:

1. The Martian, by Andy Weir - I absolutely love this book.  I'm not a big fan of science fiction (I like it well enough, but I don't often seek it out), but this book blew my mind.  It's so very, very good.  Great even.  It's about an astronaut stranded alone on Mars and how he survives using science.  And, can I just tell you, even all the science-y bits are great.

2. I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith - I know I'm about 70 years late getting on this bandwagon, but I have to say, this is one of the best books I've ever read.  I read it months ago and it still makes me happy to think of it.  If you've read it, read it again, I know I will.  And if you haven't, you really, really should.

3. The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain - Like with science fiction, I don't generally seek out a lot of historical fiction, but this book is absolutely fantastic.  It's about Ernest Hemmingway's first wife and was so well written that I forgot that it wasn't written by Hadley, but rather by Paula McLain years later.  She is just a stellar author.

4.  Tell the Wolves I'm Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt - This book is both sad and lovely.  And the lead character is a girl you wish you knew because she is just so interesting.  It's hard for me to explain why I liked this book so much, but it's another one that I can't seem to get out of my head.

5. Brave New World, by Aldoux Huxley - I raved about this book here and here, but it bears repeating that this book is both brilliant and terrifying.  You should read it.


Happy Friday, All!

Gracey

What I Read: July 2015

So, it was a very slow month reading-wise.  I blame the heat.  No, the humidity.  Actually, probably both; this weather here in PA just sucks the life out of you.

But, I did read two books and, I am happy to report that I loved them both.

The first book I read was The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt:

This book is absolutely fantastic.

The author just happened to arrive in Venice after their famous opera house, La Fenice, burned to the ground.  He spends time in Venice both trying to learn how the fire started, but also learns a lot about Venetian society.  And let me tell you folks, it is frickin' fascinating.  He speaks with artists and poets and wealthy expats and fifth-generation palazzo owners.  I had no idea that Venice was so interesting.  I mean, sure, I knew it looked nice, but it's really, really an interesting place.  Both internally, as well as externally.  I highly, highly recommend this book.


The second book I read, and loved, this month was Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk:

I'm a big Palahniuk fan and my favorite up until now, was Invisible Monsters (so good), but I think Lullaby might be my new favorite.  It's darkly funny, as his work often is, and weird (also a Palahniuk trait) and very good.

It's about an African culling song, which is, traditionally, a song sung to the old and/or infirm, to help them pass peacefully.  But, somehow, someone accidentally (?) included it in an anthology of "poems and rhymes from around the world" and people are reading it to their loved ones.  And it's up to a reporter, a real estate agent and two Wiccans to try to save the world.  Again, a great, great book.


Per usual, I'll have my Link Party up next Tuesday, just in case you read something you'd like to share sartorially.


Happy Thursday, All!

Gracey

What I Read: June 2015

As I wrote in Tuesday's post, I read, and liked, the novel Conflicting Webs, by Darlene Quinn last month:

I also read, and for the most part, liked, two other books last month.


Outside Valentine: A Novel, by Liza Ward

It took me quite a while to finish this book.  Not because it's bad or particularly long, but because it was sad.  It is, in part, about the killing spree of Charles Starkweather and his young girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate.  I knew that going in and therefore expected it to be at least somewhat sad.  But, the book also goes into lives of the surviving son of a couple murdered by the pair, and his wife, and that was very sad.

It was the wife that I found most sad.  Her childhood seemed to lead her to identify, at least somewhat, with Caril Ann Fugate.  Not that Fugate is the most sympathetic figure, but in some ways, she was because of her need to be loved and what it drove her to do.  I also found it very disturbing how the final couple was selected to die; Caril Ann just liked their house best.

Even though it's a fictionalized account of those murders, it's quite a good one and I found it as interesting as I found it sad.  If you don't mind a little gloom during your summer, I'd say add this one to the list.



Gentlemen & Players, by Joanne Harris

I loved this book.  I mean absolutely loved.

I don't mean to brag, but it's pretty rare for me to be surprised by a twist in a book or a movie.  I am usually able to figure it out before the reveal.  Even with The Girl on the Train, which I thought had a pretty great twist, I figured it out before it was actually revealed.  But, with Gentlemen & Players?  No clue.  Completely blindsided in the best possible way.

I don't want to give too much away, but this book involves plotting and intrigue and a very old, very well-respected private school in England.  Seriously, read it.

Harris is a very good writer (I also love Five Quarters of the Orange), and her talents are on full display with this book.  If you want an great mystery to read this summer, I highly recommend this book; it was my favorite of the three I read last month.


And it probably the book I'll create an outfit for come next Tuesday, which is when I've decided to hold this month's Literary Stylings Link Party.  Hope to see you all there!


Happy Wednesday, All!

Gracey

Book Review: Conflicting Webs

Conflicting Webs, by Darlene Quinn

I just finished reading Conflicting Webs, by Darlene Quinn, and I have to say, it was the perfect summer read.  It was light and easy enough for summer reading, but also interesting enough that I stayed up late more than once to read it.

Now, let me tell you, there is a LOT going on in this book.  And I do mean a lot, but Quinn is a good enough writer to guide the reader through all the "conflicting webs" and have it all still make sense.  And that's true whether you've read the other books in the Toddman-Taylor saga or not.

Really, my only issue with this book is that it sometimes felt less like a cohesive story and more like a snapshot of several months in the lives of several characters in the book.  The main characters are April Toddman and her fiancee, Kyle.  They are getting married, moving, starting new jobs, dealing with issues with the maid-of-honor and working on securing the future happiness of Kyle's daughter.  But, I can't help but feel that the story is less about them and more about all of the other strands of the web surrounding them.

Let me say however, that even though I was a little confused on the story line, it wasn't due to poor writing.  Quinn really does somehow manage to keep all of the balls in the air and bring everything to conclusion in a manner that makes sense.  I honestly don't know how she did it.  Every character she introduces plays a role; no one is superfluous and no one is shuffled off to the side when the reader isn't looking.  It's an impressive feat.

So, if you're looking for a summer read that's both light and interesting, I definitely recommend this book.


Happy Tuesday, All!

Gracey