Books read in May
Jun. 2nd, 2012 09:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizbeeA Certain Justice - P D James
The Killing - series 1 and 2: the best of the blog - The Guardian
Death in Holy Orders - P D James
The Murder Room - P D James
A Brief History of Montmaray - Michelle Cooper
The FitzOsbornes in Exile - Michelle Cooper
The FitzOsbornes at War - Michelle Cooper
Among Others - Jo Walton
Fields of Gold - Rachel Swirsky
Messy - Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
Feed - M T Anderson
Avatar: the Last Airbender - The Promise (part 2) - Gene Luen Yang
Pretty much a mixed bag, but you've already heard my feelings about Among Others!
Definitely the highlight of the month was the Montmaray trilogy by Michelle Cooper. Like Among Others, it's historical fiction written as the diary of a teenage girl. Unlike Among Others, it's actually convincing, which is odd when you consider that the Montmaray trilogy is basically an Enid Blyton adventure with more social realism and gay people. Montmaray is a tiny fictional island kingdom roughly between England and Spain, and as the story opens it has less than ten inhabitants: the royal family and their four servants. Then there are Nazis! And everyone evacuates, and the self-sufficient, rather rough and tumble royals have to assimilate into upper-class English society! Even though the eldest princess is a socialist bluestocking who gets into fights with Oswald Mosley, and the crown prince is gay, and the middle princess is a sweet, clever girl who learned all the right lessons from Machiavelli, and the youngest is a semi-literate tomboy!
I kept reading along, going, "THIS SHOULD BE TERRIBLE! WHY IS IT SO GOOD?" (and it's true that the superficial terribleness of it all kept me from reading it for a couple of years), but I think it works because the main characters are so down to earth and funny, and also, in a world where the Mitford family exists, a ragtag group of minor royals stumbling through the Season and getting into fights with the Windsors seems fairly plausible. I didn't think the mood could be sustained through WW2, and it's true that I kept having to put The FitzOsbornes At War down while I had a little cry, but the story and the ending were very satisfying.
(I should also mention that Cooper is an Australian author, and now I totally have to read her other YA novel, The Rage of Sheep, but also the Montmaray books are available from the Kindle store now, and are being released in hardcopy in the American market with very pretty Cecil Beaton-style covers.)
Other than that, I really enjoyed Messy, which is the follow-up to last year's Spoiled, and has slightly less nutritional value than the chocolate-with-pop-rocks-and-jelly-beans on my desk, but it's terribly fun to read and makes me think of a contemporary Daria.
And, just to go for the minority opinion, I really enjoyed part 2 of "The Promise". I mean, I kept wishing that characters like Toph's students had more than one dimension, but at the same time they kept making me laugh. The whole Aang's fan club thing was a bit embarrassing, but less awful than I'd imagined (it helps to lower your expectations).
Mostly I'm there for the Zuko stuff, which is just straight up great. I know lots of people in the fandom are complaining that it's OOC and regressive, but to be honest, he's 18 years old and in a role for which he's had only the most minimal of training, and since Iroh is narratively AWOL (which is the main thing I side-eye here) his only role model is Ozai.
And frankly, I think it's nice that lots of Avatar fandom lives in a happy fairyland where abused kids cut off all ties with their abusers and never look back or have questions or, indeed, find that said abuser is their only resource when it comes to navigating adulthood. I mean, I say I think it's nice; actually I think it betrays ignorance and a lack of imagination, but please rest assured I'm only slightly exagarrating when I say my dad and Ozai have a lot in common. Which reminds me, I do need to call him today and thank him for the gift he sent. OH NOES, I AM A BADLY WRITTEN CHARACTER!
Also, the stuff with Mai calling Zuko out on his bullshit and then walking away is pretty great, and the only downside is that now I have to put up with whinging shippers for months. (I had a few weeks of concern, when that panel leaked, that Yang would actually break them up, but then I remembered the "Avatar Aang" commentary where Bryke basically talked for a while about how much they love Maiko and love having them together.)
Frankly, it's not like Mai and Zuko haven't broken up before, and frankly, I'd rather have the OTP where people don't put up with being treated badly or taken for granted. If part 3 doesn't involve Zuko crawling (or at least kowtowing), I'll eat my hat. Or a hat, anyway. In the meantime, there is lots of potential for angstfic that I would totally roll around in and snuggle if it existed.
(For some reason it leaves me with this strange urge to write melancholy middle-aged divorce fic, but I did spend a lot of time this week transcribing Family Court proceedings.)
The Killing - series 1 and 2: the best of the blog - The Guardian
Death in Holy Orders - P D James
The Murder Room - P D James
A Brief History of Montmaray - Michelle Cooper
The FitzOsbornes in Exile - Michelle Cooper
The FitzOsbornes at War - Michelle Cooper
Among Others - Jo Walton
Fields of Gold - Rachel Swirsky
Messy - Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
Feed - M T Anderson
Avatar: the Last Airbender - The Promise (part 2) - Gene Luen Yang
Pretty much a mixed bag, but you've already heard my feelings about Among Others!
Definitely the highlight of the month was the Montmaray trilogy by Michelle Cooper. Like Among Others, it's historical fiction written as the diary of a teenage girl. Unlike Among Others, it's actually convincing, which is odd when you consider that the Montmaray trilogy is basically an Enid Blyton adventure with more social realism and gay people. Montmaray is a tiny fictional island kingdom roughly between England and Spain, and as the story opens it has less than ten inhabitants: the royal family and their four servants. Then there are Nazis! And everyone evacuates, and the self-sufficient, rather rough and tumble royals have to assimilate into upper-class English society! Even though the eldest princess is a socialist bluestocking who gets into fights with Oswald Mosley, and the crown prince is gay, and the middle princess is a sweet, clever girl who learned all the right lessons from Machiavelli, and the youngest is a semi-literate tomboy!
I kept reading along, going, "THIS SHOULD BE TERRIBLE! WHY IS IT SO GOOD?" (and it's true that the superficial terribleness of it all kept me from reading it for a couple of years), but I think it works because the main characters are so down to earth and funny, and also, in a world where the Mitford family exists, a ragtag group of minor royals stumbling through the Season and getting into fights with the Windsors seems fairly plausible. I didn't think the mood could be sustained through WW2, and it's true that I kept having to put The FitzOsbornes At War down while I had a little cry, but the story and the ending were very satisfying.
(I should also mention that Cooper is an Australian author, and now I totally have to read her other YA novel, The Rage of Sheep, but also the Montmaray books are available from the Kindle store now, and are being released in hardcopy in the American market with very pretty Cecil Beaton-style covers.)
Other than that, I really enjoyed Messy, which is the follow-up to last year's Spoiled, and has slightly less nutritional value than the chocolate-with-pop-rocks-and-jelly-beans on my desk, but it's terribly fun to read and makes me think of a contemporary Daria.
And, just to go for the minority opinion, I really enjoyed part 2 of "The Promise". I mean, I kept wishing that characters like Toph's students had more than one dimension, but at the same time they kept making me laugh. The whole Aang's fan club thing was a bit embarrassing, but less awful than I'd imagined (it helps to lower your expectations).
Mostly I'm there for the Zuko stuff, which is just straight up great. I know lots of people in the fandom are complaining that it's OOC and regressive, but to be honest, he's 18 years old and in a role for which he's had only the most minimal of training, and since Iroh is narratively AWOL (which is the main thing I side-eye here) his only role model is Ozai.
And frankly, I think it's nice that lots of Avatar fandom lives in a happy fairyland where abused kids cut off all ties with their abusers and never look back or have questions or, indeed, find that said abuser is their only resource when it comes to navigating adulthood. I mean, I say I think it's nice; actually I think it betrays ignorance and a lack of imagination, but please rest assured I'm only slightly exagarrating when I say my dad and Ozai have a lot in common. Which reminds me, I do need to call him today and thank him for the gift he sent. OH NOES, I AM A BADLY WRITTEN CHARACTER!
Also, the stuff with Mai calling Zuko out on his bullshit and then walking away is pretty great, and the only downside is that now I have to put up with whinging shippers for months. (I had a few weeks of concern, when that panel leaked, that Yang would actually break them up, but then I remembered the "Avatar Aang" commentary where Bryke basically talked for a while about how much they love Maiko and love having them together.)
Frankly, it's not like Mai and Zuko haven't broken up before, and frankly, I'd rather have the OTP where people don't put up with being treated badly or taken for granted. If part 3 doesn't involve Zuko crawling (or at least kowtowing), I'll eat my hat. Or a hat, anyway. In the meantime, there is lots of potential for angstfic that I would totally roll around in and snuggle if it existed.
(For some reason it leaves me with this strange urge to write melancholy middle-aged divorce fic, but I did spend a lot of time this week transcribing Family Court proceedings.)
no subject
Date: 2012-06-01 11:59 pm (UTC)- The Air Acolytes are the direct spiritual descendants of the Aang Fan club.
- Sokka totally invented pro-bending.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 12:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 01:12 am (UTC)I really enjoyed A Brief History and did not know there were sequels out! That's very exciting! :)
:)
Jaydeyn
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Date: 2012-06-02 01:18 am (UTC)Like, I'd sign up to Yuletide if this was offered.
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Date: 2012-06-02 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 03:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 09:44 am (UTC)(it annoys me, but in a way where i will forgive it at least for trying.)
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 10:17 am (UTC)OTOH, glorious Suki/Zuko. And Ozai! He was amazing with Zuko here. Feeling a gushing post coming on.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 10:21 am (UTC)I have to admit that if I were writing it, it would pretty much be "Some stuff is happening in the outside world, now, back to Mai."
And Ozai! He was amazing with Zuko here. Feeling a gushing post coming on.
I feel like Ozai has received more characterisation here than in the entire series. I'm pretty happy about that.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 01:06 pm (UTC)Indeed! I'm so glad I can finally find him interesting.
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Date: 2012-06-04 01:13 pm (UTC)Is the Guardian book all about the Danish TV series The Killing? If so, was it worth reading?
no subject
Date: 2012-06-12 02:32 am (UTC)