Books read in August 2018

[nou]

As per last month, by default I’m 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 can remember there being any content that needs to be warned for (cw). I’m happy to expand on the reasons for my opinions if anyone is interested though — just comment and ask.

Recommend: Nothing for a “definitely recommend” this month!

Maybe recommend:

• The Armor Of Light, Melissa Scott and Lisa A Barnett (possession, discussion of paedophilia)
• Eat Up, Ruby Tandoh
• All Systems Red, Martha Wells
• So You Want To Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo (DNF)
• Semiosis, Sue Burke (cw: violence, murder, rape)
• Senlin Ascends, Josiah Bancroft (cw: murder, violence, slavery)
• Nineteen Eighty Four, George Orwell (re-read) (cw: classism, racism, torture, slavery)
• A Burglar's Guide to the City, Geoff Manaugh
• Daggerspell, Katharine Kerr (cw: child abuse, violence, incest, slavery, possession, whorephobia, possibly femmephobia)

Wouldn’t recommend:

• Free Food For Millionaires, Min Jin Lee (cw: dieting, domestic abuse including violence, sexual coercion, ablist slurs) (DNF)
• Resistance, BR Sanders (DNF)
• Unidentified Funny Objects 2, edited by Alex Shvartsman
• The Boy Who Loved Too Much, Jennifer Latson (cw: ablism, own-voice-erasure, fatphobia, Simon Baron-Cohen)
• New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson (DNF)

What have you recently read and enjoyed? (Feel free to point towards posts on your own journal.) Do you have any opinions (good or bad) on the books above?

Comments

[lovepeaceohana]

I haven't read any of those, and most of them (save So You Want to Talk About Race and Nineteen Eighty Four) are new to me, but given that they fall under "maybe" and "wouldn't" recommend ... eh. I've got Oluo's book somewhere in my TBR pile, but I haven't picked it up yet because I'm not sure it'll tell me anything that I haven't already heard in a new enough way from having read her fb feed and other stuff from around the internet, plus having participated in various other anti-racism curricula and conversations. Would you be willing to talk more about why you didn't finish it?

[nou]

given that they fall under "maybe" and "wouldn't" recommend ... eh.

Yeah, it’s been a bit of a “meh” month reading-wise! So much so, that I’ve decided to do a complete re-read of the Katharine Kerr series starting with the abovementioned Daggerspell (the books are problematic for several reasons, but the series as a whole is really well executed, and they got me through some hard periods of life so are comfort reading for me now).

I've got Oluo's book somewhere in my TBR pile, but I haven't picked it up yet because I'm not sure it'll tell me anything that I haven't already heard in a new enough way from having read her fb feed and other stuff from around the internet, plus having participated in various other anti-racism curricula and conversations. Would you be willing to talk more about why you didn't finish it?

I didn’t finish it for pretty much the reasons you mention — I wasn’t learning anything from it, so didn’t see much point in continuing.

[lovepeaceohana]

So I looked up Daggerspell on Goodreads, and my TBR pile has grown by one to 219 - I'm hugely into reincarnation as a plot device, especially when it's like, a fantasy-esque quantum entanglement that means the same souls are affecting each other across time (I think it's my favorite part of the Legend of Zelda series, actually). So, that's pretty exciting :D

[nou]

I really hope you like it! Though since there are 15 books in the series, I fear for your to-read pile :D