(no subject)

[skygiants]

As always, I made an earnest effort to write up everything I read this year, and as always, I fell short. (Though there are a couple things I've been deliberately holding off on so I can write about a whole series instead of spamming you all with my individual horrified thoughts on each individual book of the Mallorean or the Mennyms.)

Anyway, if you would like me to talk about anything in particular that I missed earlier in the year, drop a comment here and I will either prioritize it for a near-future post or expound upon it in a reply!



1. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, C.L.R. James
2. Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor*
3. Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado
4. Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse
5. Once Ghosted, Twice Shy, Alyssa Cole
6. Overture to Death, Ngaio Marsh
7. The Reluctant Queen, Sarah Beth Durst
8. An Unseen Attraction, K.J. Charles
9. The Last Days of New Paris, China Miéville
10. Flying Finish, Dick Francis
11. Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente
12. Akata Warrior, Nnedi Okorafor
13. Petticoats and Promises, Penelope Friday
14. An Unnatural Vice, K.J. Charles
15. Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, Steven Puleo
16. An Unsuitable Heir, K.J. Charles
17. To the Chapel Perilous, Naomi Mitchison
18. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, Balli Kaur Jaswal
19. The Door at the End of the World, Caroline Carlson
20. The Singer Not The Song, Audrey Erskine Lindop
21. Queen's Shadow, E.K. Johnston
22. The True Queen, Zen Cho
23. Sight Unseen, Audrey Erskine Lindop
24. In the Land of Happy Tears: Yiddish Tales for Modern Times, David Stromberg
25. The Whale: A Love Story, Mark Beauregard
26. The Red Threads of Fortune, JY Yang
27. The Queen of Sorrow, Sarah Beth Durst
28. Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure, Courtney Milan
29. Not For Use in Navigation, Iona Datt Sharma
30. Beyond the Pale, Elana Dykewoman
31. Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, Ruth Franklin
32. There There, Tommy Orange
33. The Blue Place, Nicola Griffith
34. A Woman of Worth, Margaret Kay
35. The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie
36. When the King Comes Home, Caroline Stevermer
37. The Shattered City, Tansy Rayner Roberts
38. Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Emmuska Orczy
39. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, Andrea Lawlor
40. The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
41. The Belgariad: Volume 1, David Eddings*
42. The Belgariad: Volume 2, David Eddings*
43. I Start Counting, Audrey Erskine Lindop
44. Death at the Bar, Ngaio Marsh
45. Band Sinister, K.J. Charles
46. Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly*
47. A Surfeit of Lampreys, Ngaio Marsh
48. Strange Practice, Vivian Shaw
49. Ashlin & Olivia, Aster Glenn Gray
50. The Spy and the Traitor, Ben Macintyre
51. The Sisters of the Winter Wood, Rena Rossner
52. Ahsoka, E.K. Johnston
53. The City of Brass, S.A. Chakraborty
54. The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
55. The Weeping Ash, Joan Aiken
56. Armistice, Lara Elena Donnelly*
57. Amnesty, Lara Elena Donnelly
58. Firebird, Elizabeth Wein
59. A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine
60. Red, White, and Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston
61. The Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon
62. A Winter's Promise, Christelle Dabos
63. The Missing of Clairdelune, Christelle Dabos
64. An Unconditional Freedom, Alyssa Cole
65. Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
66. The Stormy Petrel, Mary Stewart
67. Hunger, Roxane Gay
68. Can't Escape Love, Alyssa Cole
69. The Mysterious Mr. Ross, Vivien Alcock
70. Prince of Darkness, Barbara Michaels
71. Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of 80s and 90s Teen Fiction, Gabrielle Moss
72. The Artificial Silk Girl, Irmgard Keun
73. Under the Pendulum Sun, Jeannette Ng
74. The Witches: Salem, 1692, Stacy Schiff
75. Any Old Diamonds, K.J. Charles
76. Death and the Dancing Footman, Ngaio Marsh
77. Proper English, K.J. Charles
78. The Silence of Herondale, Joan Aiken
79. How Long 'Til Black Future Month?, N.K. Jemisin
80. Orwell and the Dispossessed, George Orwell
81. The Dancing Floor, Barbara Michaels
82. The Wilder Plot, Stephen Krensky
83. The Girl From God's Country: Nell Shipman and the Silent Cinema, Kay Armitage
84. Unraveling, Karen Lord
85. Guardians of the West, David Eddings*
86. The Kingdom of Copper, S.A. Chakraborty
87. Orwell in Spain, George Orwell
88. A Prince On Paper, Alyssa Cole
89. Redemption in Indigo, Karen Lord*
90. Old Baggage, Lissa Evans
91. Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners, Therese Oneill
92. The Mennyms, Sylvia Waugh*
93. The Empress of Forever, Max Gladstone
94. The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling
95. Act Like It, Lucy Parker
96. Colour Blind, Ngaio Marsh
97. A Taste of Honey, Rose Lerner
98. Sir Percy Hits Back, Baroness Orczy
99. Aurora Floyd, Mary Elizabeth Braddon
100. A Shilling for Candles, Josephine Tey
101. The Mennyms in the Wilderness, Sylvia Waugh*
102. King of the Murgos, David Eddings*
103. The Haunting of Maddy Clare, Simone St. James
104. Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir
105. In the Woods, Tana French
106. Heaven's Official Blessings, Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
107. The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women, Mo Moulton
108. The Other Side of Midnight, Simone St. James
109. Guards, Guards, Terry Pratchett*
110. Smoke and Mirrors, Barbara Michaels
111. This Is How You Lose The Time War, Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
112. Deeplight, Frances Hardinge
113. Die Upon a Kiss, Barbara Hambly*
114. The Mennyms Under Siege, Sylvia Waugh
115. Demon Lord of Karanda, David Eddings*
116. Wet Grave, Barbara Hambly*
117. Good Man Friday, Barbara Hambly*
118. Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand
119. Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand (translated Christopher Fry)*
120. Spectred Isle, K.J. Charles
121. Untold Story, Monica Ali
122. Mennyms Alone, Sylvia Waugh

Comics and graphic novels read, 2019:

1. Vampire Loves, Joann Sfar
2-36. 7 Seeds, Volumes 1-35, Yumi Tamura
37-41. Delicious in Dungeon, Volumes 1-5, Ryoko Kui

At 122 books plus 41 volumes of manga, my total is slightly up from last year, which is nice! (16 rereads, plus most of 7 Seeds.) But still only 11 nonfiction books, a number I would like to get higher; I'd also like to read more manga in the new year! Recommendations in either of those categories welcome. :D

Comments

[sperrywink]

You rocked the book reading! I did not. My goal was only 20, and I probably started a good 15 books, but finished only a couple.

It is definitely my intention to do better this year.

[skygiants]

My reading pace these days is mostly based on two factors: I have hourlong lunch breaks at work (that I can use for reading) and I travel a lot for work and family (and rarely do anything on planes/trains/buses except reading.) If it weren't for that my list would be much shorter!

[osprey_archer]

I for one would like to hear about any and all Ngaio Marsh books! But I also understand if you are saving up your thoughts about them to write a final giant post about the Alleynverse.

(Would be particularly interested in hearing your thoughts on A Surfeit of Lampreys or Colour Blind, though. IIRC, Colour Blind is one of the ones set in New Zealand?)

[skygiants]

I keep meaning to parcel them out into shorter posts and then not getting around to it! Of the ones I read this year, Overture to Death and A Surfeit of Lampreys were my favorites -- A Surfeit of Lampreys especially was interesting to me because so much of it felt like a genre one step to the left of Marsh's usual, in the vein of 'look at the adventures of this lovably quirky but mildly dysfunctional family', such that the murder and mystery were almost an afterthought. (Overture to Death on the other hand was just really enjoyable nonsense. Exploding church organ!)

Colour Blind, on the other hand ... hmmm, I had mixed feelings about this one. It was one of the New Zealand ones and those are always a little dicey inasmuch as I don't really trust Marsh to write about Māori characters. She gets about three-quarters of the way to treating them like human beings, and considering the time it could be much worse, but ... Anyway, I did find the Shakespearean actor and his ambivalent secretary interesting in a very messy way.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, I felt exactly the same way about A Surfeit of Lampreys! It was almost like she had this totally different book idea that she just shoehorned a murder into, and I enjoyed the book anyway, but I did wonder about the alternate universe where A Surfeit of Lampreys launched Ngaio Marsh on a new career as a litfic author about lovably quirky families... maybe with occasional murder, because I don't think she could bear to leave that behind entirely.

[skygiants]

I honestly would have read several more books about the family in A Surfeit of Lampreys, even. I'm sure there were many more crimes they could have stumbled into, if crime had to be an element!

[aella_irene]

Mrs Martin, Ngaio Marsh and Lucy Parker?

[skygiants]

I wrote a bit about Ngaio Marsh in the comment above! I'm also going to try to do a longer post sometime soon.

Alas, I did not like Mrs. Martin as much as I wanted to; it was a bit short and a bit sledgehammery for me, and also I found it difficult to get over (spoilers? do people care? I'll ROT13 t0 be safe) gur snpg gung fur erfbyirq gur fvghngvba ol FRGGVAT SVER GB N JUBYR OHVYQVAT? va IVPGBEVNA YBAQBA??? nyfxqws;yxfwqsyx;nwqs gur pbyyngreny qnzntr pbhyq unir orra FB UHTR vs nalguvat jrag jebat, vg jnf abg n punezvat zbir vzb!!! Anyway aside from that I more or less agree with sophia_sol's review.

The Lucy Parker I read on a plane, and remember little about except that it was reasonably cute, did not annoy me in any great particulars, and required no intellectual attention whatsoever, and so I may read more Lucy Parker on planes in future!

[aquamirage]

What did you read this year you most think I should read in 2020

[aquamirage]

and you can't say 7 Seeds

[skygiants]

WHY NOT >:(

okay can I say Delicious in Dungeon

also am I limited to only one, because I want to say Firebird for reasons of Anya Club, but also I can't remember if you've read Spinning Silver, and we just discussed Cyrano ...

[aquamirage]

because knowing you want me to read 7 Seeds is a feeling that's with me at all times

you're not limited to just one! I have not read Spinning Silver yet but I'm excited to

please tell me about Delicious in Dungeon

[skygiants]

Delicious in Dungeon is the adventure cooking manga about a plucky group of adventurers learning how to make themselves delicious meals out of weird dungeon creatures ... every recipe comes with nutritional information! Also they're all just extremely cute. I think you'd be charmed by Marcille, a plucky baby necromancer who is determined to rescue her BFF from a dragon despite being dubious about dungeon cuisine.

[sovay]

64. An Unconditional Freedom, Alyssa Cole

This is the only Alyssa Cole historical stocked by Porter Square Books, which means I keep looking it but not actually buying it or even sitting down and reading it because I remember your very low opinion of Cole's heroes. How bad is this one? Should I give it a shot?

[skygiants]

I did not love this one, not actually because I hated the hero (he was a mess, but had much better reasons for being a mess than many) but because it did the thing where there was an end-of-book reveal that one of the two POV characters had access to crucial information that impacted his perception of the other and was hiding it from the reader the entire time. This is a thing that can work for me really well when perfectly executed (I have had many, many conversations with genarti on this topic in re: Megan Whalen Turner) but in this case just made me feel irritated.

[sovay]

there was an end-of-book reveal that one of the two POV characters had access to crucial information that impacted his perception of the other and was hiding it from the reader the entire time.

That might also annoy me. Thanks for the heads-up.

(So do any of her historicals work for you? They all look interesting to me, but I don't want to set myself up for repeated annoyance.)

[skygiants]

To be honest, I haven't completely loved any of them (with the exception of Let It Shine, the 1960s novella, which I have talked to you about before but is also a different kind of historical). I did think A Hope Divided was ambitious in some neat ways and I enjoyed it the most of the trilogy, but as we've discussed I'm very uncertain about its handling of some of the stuff it's trying to do.

[sovay]

To be honest, I haven't completely loved any of them (with the exception of Let It Shine, the 1960s novella, which I have talked to you about before but is also a different kind of historical).

Yes, and I still want to read that one. Oh, well. There's just such a dearth of Civil War romances that don't . . . suck . . .

[skygiants]

RIGHT? I didn't love these but I keep reading them because they're still the best I've found ... and Alyssa Cole has written a couple things I do genuinely love, so I keep hoping!

[nachodiablo]

That's a lot, congrats! Sorry if I missed it but what does the asterisk imply?

[skygiants]

You did not miss it, I forgot to say it! 😅 Asterisk denotes a reread.

[nachodiablo]

Ah great, thank you!

[pebblerocker]

The Belgariad: Same Again Remix! If you hated this, here's something else you'll hate just as much!

Is The Mennyms horrifying in ways it wasn't meant to be horrifying? I think a big part of my love for it is due to the creepiness.

[skygiants]

I only read the first two when I was a kid, so I knew they were creepy but I didn't realize how ... far down the existential crisis rabbithole we were going to go? The first 100 pages of Mennyms Alone is just a chronicle of sad rag dolls facing down the reality of their inevitable demise for a entire year, I didn't expect this!

[ambyr]

I await your Mallorean remarks with great anticipation!

[skygiants]

In the middle of the third book they BROKE OUT OF A CITY UNDER QUARANTINE and I'm still SO MAD about it!

[luzula]

Ha ha, I also look forward to your posts about that series.

[torachan]

Have you read Tamura Yumi's other post-apocalyptic epic, Basara? Of the two, I loved 7 Seeds way more, but I also loved Basara.

[skygiants]

yessss that was the first Yumi Tamura I read and what first got me to fall in love with her! I'm planning on a reread this year to fill the 7 Seeds-shaped hole in my heart. :D

[littlerhymes]

my individual horrified thoughts on each individual book of the Mallorean

I need this tho

[skygiants]

I mean I'm exaggerating a little, I don't have any individual horrified thoughts on the first book of the Mallorean really because it turns out literally only one single thing happens in it

[obopolsk]

I used to love the Mennyms books but had completely forgotten they existed! Thank you for the reminder.

[skygiants]

You're welcome! You may not thank me as much when I make my horrified post about existential rag doll despair 😬

[lacewood]

What did you think of the Tana French? I read a different book in the series a while ago and it was very compelling but I haven't felt driven to try the rest of the books yet.

[skygiants]

I thought it was really well written and compelling and also that the narrator/POV character was a nightmare of a human, which is one of the reasons I've been holding off on writing it up -- the protagonist of the second book is one of the people who the protagonist of the first book does worst by, so I'm waiting to see what Tana French is like writing in her POV before I form any opinions.

[issenllo]

my individual horrified thoughts on each individual book of the Mallorean

PLEASE.

[skygiants]

I will say this, I am really enjoying Sadi's purring pet snake.

[issenllo]

Speaking of that, did nobody else get annoyed when Velvet took on the I-have-poisonous-pet-snake schtick too? Because saying that sounds like I'm against Velvet's girl power run, but really, my first instinct was, girl, find your own specialization and stop stealing Sadi's.