Midweek Reading Meme Thing
Jul. 3rd, 2015 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I've Just Finished Reading
Mary Stewart's Rose Cottage, which I enjoyed very much. It's a sweet, gentle book, set in a charming English village in 1947; World War II is a shadow in the background, but everyone is moving on. A good comfort read.
I also finished Sarah Rees Brennan's Unmade (FINALLY). This book is kind of a mess, starting with the fact that the heroine is magically bound to a guy, and they can exchange thoughts and emotions and it is, we are told, intrusive and unpleasant. So intrusive that the only time he ever intrudes on the narrative is when we're being told that the mind-bond is intrusive. Otherwise he disappears for chapters at a time, to the extent that I was always vaguely surprised when he popped up again.
The other characters are a bit more well-realized - I'm particularly partial to Kami's friend Angela - but a lot of that is holdover from the first book, which seemed much more solid. In fact, I think the first book in The Demon's Lexicon trilogy is the strongest, too.
I think Brennan would write more solid books generally focused instead on slice of life stuff, maybe with some magical realism as garnish. What she's really interested in and best at is the relationships between the characters and fun magical visuals, like the Goblin Market in The Demon's Lexicon. Her epic magical conflicts, in contrast, never feel quite real.
What I'm Reading Now
Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia.
What I Plan to Read Next
Some more Mary Stewart, probably. The library has The Ivy Tree and The Stormy Petrel. Oh! And I got Eva Ibbotson's Madensky Square for my birthday.
I also have a bunch more gulag books that I've been planning to read, so I'll probably dip into those soon.
Mary Stewart's Rose Cottage, which I enjoyed very much. It's a sweet, gentle book, set in a charming English village in 1947; World War II is a shadow in the background, but everyone is moving on. A good comfort read.
I also finished Sarah Rees Brennan's Unmade (FINALLY). This book is kind of a mess, starting with the fact that the heroine is magically bound to a guy, and they can exchange thoughts and emotions and it is, we are told, intrusive and unpleasant. So intrusive that the only time he ever intrudes on the narrative is when we're being told that the mind-bond is intrusive. Otherwise he disappears for chapters at a time, to the extent that I was always vaguely surprised when he popped up again.
The other characters are a bit more well-realized - I'm particularly partial to Kami's friend Angela - but a lot of that is holdover from the first book, which seemed much more solid. In fact, I think the first book in The Demon's Lexicon trilogy is the strongest, too.
I think Brennan would write more solid books generally focused instead on slice of life stuff, maybe with some magical realism as garnish. What she's really interested in and best at is the relationships between the characters and fun magical visuals, like the Goblin Market in The Demon's Lexicon. Her epic magical conflicts, in contrast, never feel quite real.
What I'm Reading Now
Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia.
What I Plan to Read Next
Some more Mary Stewart, probably. The library has The Ivy Tree and The Stormy Petrel. Oh! And I got Eva Ibbotson's Madensky Square for my birthday.
I also have a bunch more gulag books that I've been planning to read, so I'll probably dip into those soon.
