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Wednesday Reading Meme
Aug. 21st, 2013 07:59 pmWhat are you currently reading
Volume 4 of 7 Seeds by Yumi Tamura. I keep thinking "I'll reach a good stopping point then post on it." Which I shall. Tis grand, though.
What did you recently finish reading?
Autobiography of a Geisha by Masuda Sayo, which I posted on separately.
Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time by Hope Larson. Adaptation of L'Engle's book. I'm not sure how long it's been since I read a Wrinkle in Time (not since some point in my teens, I believe, though I did read it a number of times growing up) but based on my memories, it's pretty faithful, even when we might wish it wasn't (such as the use of "moron,") and it made me remember being a kid and trying to figure out how "tesseract" is supposed to be pronounced. It left me curious about Larson's other work.
The Presence: A Ghost Story by Eve Bunting. Short YA novel about a depressed teenager, Catherine, who blames herself for her friends death in a car accident and is sent to her grandmothers for the holidays, only to find herself on the receiving end of a serial-killer ghost's attentions. (I'm not entirely certain how to phrase that, as, while he might have been a stalker pre-death, the serial-killer aspect is only as ghost.) Being familiar with fandom and how many readers react to fiction, it was a bit disturbing to read it and realize a lot of people would be rooting for Catherine to fall for and redeem the ghost, though this is thankfully not something the writer supports at all. I thought it could have been stronger and more original than it was, but it was pretty enjoyable and solid overall.
Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt. (I seem to remember several people posting on this a few years ago, but couldn't find it in the tags of the usual suspects.) A fairy tale-like novel in which the village storyteller, Keturah, who is also the granddaughter of the village midwife, follows a hart into the forest and meets Death, with whom she she makes a wager for her life. The prose is somewhat lyrical and it and much of the dialogue is more akin to what you'd expect to find in Grimm or Andersen than a modern novel, but it captures the mood and spirit of the novel perfectly. Though not perfect, I liked it a lot.
Courtship and Curses by Marissa Doyle. Regency-set YA fantasy. it starts like 80% of the Regency romances out there with Our Heroine (a witch who is lame due to polio) going to London with her two aunt's and a family friend and falling for a gentleman Who Would Totally Never Like Her Back. Then it dives off into conspiracies and assassination attempts and spyjinks and Our Hero is often forgotten in favor of Our Heroine hanging out with his female cousin and her guardians. IIRC, I enjoyed Doyle's first book a lot, despite its flaws, and the second considerably less so, though I did still enjoy it. This one, while very enjoyable, never quite felt like it lived up to it's full potential, but I'm glad I read it.
What do you think you'll read next?
I have volume 4 of A Bride's Story from the library. Beyond that, the library informs me that I have some ILLs in, but didn't tell me which, so I need to see what they are, and when they're due back.
Volume 4 of 7 Seeds by Yumi Tamura. I keep thinking "I'll reach a good stopping point then post on it." Which I shall. Tis grand, though.
What did you recently finish reading?
Autobiography of a Geisha by Masuda Sayo, which I posted on separately.
Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time by Hope Larson. Adaptation of L'Engle's book. I'm not sure how long it's been since I read a Wrinkle in Time (not since some point in my teens, I believe, though I did read it a number of times growing up) but based on my memories, it's pretty faithful, even when we might wish it wasn't (such as the use of "moron,") and it made me remember being a kid and trying to figure out how "tesseract" is supposed to be pronounced. It left me curious about Larson's other work.
The Presence: A Ghost Story by Eve Bunting. Short YA novel about a depressed teenager, Catherine, who blames herself for her friends death in a car accident and is sent to her grandmothers for the holidays, only to find herself on the receiving end of a serial-killer ghost's attentions. (I'm not entirely certain how to phrase that, as, while he might have been a stalker pre-death, the serial-killer aspect is only as ghost.) Being familiar with fandom and how many readers react to fiction, it was a bit disturbing to read it and realize a lot of people would be rooting for Catherine to fall for and redeem the ghost, though this is thankfully not something the writer supports at all. I thought it could have been stronger and more original than it was, but it was pretty enjoyable and solid overall.
Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt. (I seem to remember several people posting on this a few years ago, but couldn't find it in the tags of the usual suspects.) A fairy tale-like novel in which the village storyteller, Keturah, who is also the granddaughter of the village midwife, follows a hart into the forest and meets Death, with whom she she makes a wager for her life. The prose is somewhat lyrical and it and much of the dialogue is more akin to what you'd expect to find in Grimm or Andersen than a modern novel, but it captures the mood and spirit of the novel perfectly. Though not perfect, I liked it a lot.
Courtship and Curses by Marissa Doyle. Regency-set YA fantasy. it starts like 80% of the Regency romances out there with Our Heroine (a witch who is lame due to polio) going to London with her two aunt's and a family friend and falling for a gentleman Who Would Totally Never Like Her Back. Then it dives off into conspiracies and assassination attempts and spyjinks and Our Hero is often forgotten in favor of Our Heroine hanging out with his female cousin and her guardians. IIRC, I enjoyed Doyle's first book a lot, despite its flaws, and the second considerably less so, though I did still enjoy it. This one, while very enjoyable, never quite felt like it lived up to it's full potential, but I'm glad I read it.
What do you think you'll read next?
I have volume 4 of A Bride's Story from the library. Beyond that, the library informs me that I have some ILLs in, but didn't tell me which, so I need to see what they are, and when they're due back.
