Books read in January 2018

[nou]

I decided to start listing books I've read here, so here's the first batch. (I was previously doing this over at bitesizedreading but decided I wanted an easier way of referring back — I thoroughly recommend the community though).

I'm not writing reviews or even mini-reviews, but just stating whether I'd recommend the book (yes/maybe/no), whether I decided not to finish it (DNF), whether it's a re-read, and whether I have any content warnings (cw). Please don't take the content warnings as definitive — most of them are done from memory and I may have forgotten some.

Recommend:

• Provenance, Ann Leckie
• Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie
• Carry On, Rainbow Rowell
• A Matter Of Oaths, Helen S Wright

Maybe recommend:

• The Martian, Andy Weir
• git commit murder, Michael Warren Lucas (cw: fatphobia)
• Remnant Population, Elizabeth Moon
• Clocktaur Boys, T Kingfisher
• The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, Meg Elison (cw: rape)
• My Dear Aunt Flora, Elizabeth Cadell
• Redemption In Indigo, Karen Lord (cw: eating disorder)
• Bethany, Adam Roberts
• An Unkindness Of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon (DNF)
• The Small House At Allington, Anthony Trollope (re-read) (cw: racism)
• The Unbearable Bassington, Saki (re-read) (cw: child abuse, racism/colonialism)
• All These Earths, F M Busby (re-read)

Wouldn’t recommend:

• Past Mortems, Carla Valentine (DNF) (cw: fatphobia)
• All Our Wrong Todays, Elan Mastai
• The Basilisk Murders, Andrew Hickey
• How To Understand Your Gender, Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker (DNF)
• Tomb Of The Fathers, Eleanor Arnason (re-read)

Comments

[booklectica]

I'd be interested to know your thoughts on How To Understand Your Gender if you wanted to expand at all.

[nou]

The authors kept telling me to stop reading the book and breathe, and I found that annoying and patronising. It really got in the way of what they had to say. I'm probably not the intended audience for the book though — by the time I gave up on it, it still hadn't told me anything I didn't already know.

[booklectica]

That does sound annoying!

[doseybat]

Interesting, I have recently finished "The secrets of enduring love" also by Meg-John Barker and did not think it was written with me in mind. Learned quite a few cool and interesting things, but only after skimming through many obvious and slightly patronising ones first.

[miss_newham]

Gosh, that's a lot! I read 1.5 books in January... but I did have a big knitting project to occupy me. I will check some of the Yes books and see whether they'd be suitable for my office book club.

I love Rainbow Rowell, and 'Carry On' is much better than I expected. When I went to New York for work and nobody talked to me, I chanced upon her books in a shop and they became my new friends for the week.

[nou]

I've been ill for most of January, which gave me more reading time than I'd have had otherwise. We shall see if I manage the same number in February (I'm going on holiday, so it's certainly possible).

I wasn't sure I'd like Carry On, since I don't normally get on with Young Adult, but it was great! Which of her others would you recommend?

[miss_newham]

I'm not sure you'd like the others as they're a lot more Young Adult with all the requisite romantic drama, but I rate 'Fangirl' as its anxious, introverted protagonist is very good. 'Eleanor and Park' is good for teenagers dealing with having a horrible time, but I don't like people having a horrible time so it made me sad!

[nou]

Thank you! I was going to get a Kindle sample of Fangirl, but it was only 99p so I just bought it and have added it to the "to-read" queue.

[miss_newham]

Apparently it was originally written for NaNoWriMo, which is why there's quite a lot of it!

[nou]

Gosh, yes, I hadn't noticed at first how long it is!

[miss_newham]

Oh - but it has an early version of 'Carry On' in it!

[nou]

Finished Fangirl yesterday and enjoyed it very much — thanks again for the rec!

[miss_newham]

Oh, I'm glad!

[fred_mouse]

the title git commit murder had me snortling loud enough to get a Look from the person sitting next to me. (I have recently discovered git, and oh, I wish I'd been using it for years)

[nou]

It's a great title :) And quite a frustrating book, since I'd have loved it if it hadn't been for the main character's (completely unnecessary) internalised fatphobia.

I see git as the least worst version control system. It's certainly an improvement over its predecessors, but it's not exactly the most user-friendly thing I've ever used.

[fred_mouse]

I'd be tempted by it, if it weren't the fatphobia aspect. I'm so over all the -isms in crime fiction, to the point that while I love the genre, I don't read it any more, because nothing recent I've tried has been the kind of escapist reading I'm looking for (I stick with Agatha Christie, where at least I can write off the -isms as 'historical colour' and 'period appropriate').

Git is a great improvement on what I was doing before, and so useful in terms of looking at what my predecessor had done, at least on the documents that they had in git (it turned out that about 50% of the files I need were in git -- it took more than 2 weeks to find that out, if I count the time on the previous contract that was focused on one section of what the current contract is).

E.T.A. -- the thing about git is that once I worked out what the underlying ideas were, most of what I needed to be able to do was already in my head, because I've been working with unix-like syntax for most of the last decade.

[nou]

I'm pondering emailing the author to point this out, since he seems quite open to (sensible) feedback. The fatphobia could have been completely removed without affecting the plot at all. I do like his writing in general, and I'd like to be able to read more of it.

[mrs_leroy_brown]

Holy flaming shitballs that's impressive. Kake, I feel like I need to take out for pizza! :)

[nou]

I was quite ill last month so couldn't do much of my usual pursuits other than read! I only just managed to keep up with work. I don't expect my total to be quite so impressive once I'm better :)

[louis_mallow]

> How To Understand Your Gender, Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker (DNF) (no)

You're not allowed to say that. ;oP

[nou]

Yeah I am :) I mean, I know one of the authors is a friend-of-several-friends, but I don't think that means I'm only allowed to have an opinion on the book if that opinion is a positive one!

I'm interested in hearing different views, though. Have you read it, and if so what did you like about it?

[louis_mallow]

No, I agree. I was just having a joke about that author - though I do respect and like them - being held in waaaayyy waaaayyyy too high regard by our friends.

[nou]

Ah, I see. I didn't know there was that dynamic going on.