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Some books I've read lately
Aug. 29th, 2012 09:29 pmI haven't done a book report post in a while.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein - This is an absolutely brilliant, cannot-put-it-down book even though parts of it turned me into a sobbing mess. Every mention of this book that I saw on my flist prior to reading it said, basically, "This book is awesome! Do not let yourself be spoiled for anything that happens!" and they are SO RIGHT. (Well, okay, you should know that it's set in a French prison camp during WWII, and it's a very harrowing book, because some of the things that happen to the characters are unspeakably awful. But it's very very good.) ETA: I figured this went without saying, but based on comments, apparently not: the above only applies if being surprised, as a reader, is part of your reading pleasure. Which you probably know about yourself by now, so if not, hey, knock yourself out and spoil yourself all over the place.
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman - Lovely YA fantasy with beautiful worldbuilding, great characters, and AWESOME dragons. Dragons and humans exist in an uneasy state of truce, but when a murder threatens the tentative peace, the main cast of humans and dragons have to solve it or their two species will be plunged back into war. Which is an overly simplistic description of a book that really has quite a lot more going on, including nicely understated magic and a fantastically original take on dragons that I don't want to spoil, since it is revealed slowly through the first half of the book. If you do want it spoiled: ( click the cut tag and then highlight the text. ) (I feel like sticking in a small caveat, because I know the author and I always feel a bit weird when I'm talking up my friends' books as the BEST THING EVAR! But I would have loved this book even if I didn't know the author. It really is fantastic.)
Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch - Third book in an urban fantasy series that is getting right up there with Dresden Files and the Ben January books as my favorite series that I'm collecting right now. I adore the characters, and these books hit my "crew of misfits" and platonic-living-together narrative kinks really hard. They just keep accruing more misfits, but there's enough of a dark underbelly to the series that I'm always a little nervous that some of them won't make it out alive. In this book, there are weird doings afoot in the London Underground, Peter (our hero) is adorable, Leslie (his best friend/sidekick/kinda-girlfriend) is snarkily awesome, and I want a Nightingale of my very own. (ETA: one of the things I absolutely love about this series is that it portrays a realistically diverse London in a very convincing, authentic and above all respectful sort of way. As one small example, this book includes in its supporting cast an observant, hijab-wearing Muslim cop and an evangelical Christian cop, neither one of whom is presented as an intolerant fanatic or any of the other negative stereotypes that you might get with characters like that.)
Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler - A really interesting twist on the buddy-cop genre: in the first chapter, one-half of the partnership is killed, and the book alternates between his surviving partner and friends trying to solve his murder in the present day, and flashbacks to the first case they ever worked together, 50 years earlier during the Blitz. Which probably sounds like the most depressing book EVER, but actually it's twisty and funny - a little overly quirky-for-quirkiness's-sake in places, but I liked it. Another thing I liked is that, while the characters all belong to a special unit of the London police that solves "peculiar" crimes (i.e. paranormal and other weirdness), the book never comes down specifically on the side of whether or not magic and the supernatural are "real" or not; everything has a rational explanation, but every once in a while there are little hints that magic might be real (but in a way that can still be explained rationally if you're so inclined). It's sort of like anti-urban fantasy, and I liked it. If you're still on the fence about reading the book, under the cut is a major spoiler, which you really shouldn't read if you like being surprised, but if you're unsure about the book, this might make a difference: ( click on through and then highlight. )
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - This is a really neat book that takes the form of a series of separate, but connected stories. Each of them breaks off in mid-story and then you jump forward in time to a new character who is discovering the previous story: for example, the first story is in the form of a journal written by a traveler in the mid-1800s; the next one is a series of letters written 50 years later by someone who has found the journal among some old books; and so on. It's a very meta book, and beautifully written. It's also a movie - here is the trailer (which gives you a good feeling for what the book is like, but also spoils a number of things).
... and there were a few other books in various series that I'm working through (I read a couple more Didius Falco books, for example), but the above are the standouts and the main ones I recommend from the last couple months' reading.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein - This is an absolutely brilliant, cannot-put-it-down book even though parts of it turned me into a sobbing mess. Every mention of this book that I saw on my flist prior to reading it said, basically, "This book is awesome! Do not let yourself be spoiled for anything that happens!" and they are SO RIGHT. (Well, okay, you should know that it's set in a French prison camp during WWII, and it's a very harrowing book, because some of the things that happen to the characters are unspeakably awful. But it's very very good.) ETA: I figured this went without saying, but based on comments, apparently not: the above only applies if being surprised, as a reader, is part of your reading pleasure. Which you probably know about yourself by now, so if not, hey, knock yourself out and spoil yourself all over the place.
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman - Lovely YA fantasy with beautiful worldbuilding, great characters, and AWESOME dragons. Dragons and humans exist in an uneasy state of truce, but when a murder threatens the tentative peace, the main cast of humans and dragons have to solve it or their two species will be plunged back into war. Which is an overly simplistic description of a book that really has quite a lot more going on, including nicely understated magic and a fantastically original take on dragons that I don't want to spoil, since it is revealed slowly through the first half of the book. If you do want it spoiled: ( click the cut tag and then highlight the text. ) (I feel like sticking in a small caveat, because I know the author and I always feel a bit weird when I'm talking up my friends' books as the BEST THING EVAR! But I would have loved this book even if I didn't know the author. It really is fantastic.)
Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch - Third book in an urban fantasy series that is getting right up there with Dresden Files and the Ben January books as my favorite series that I'm collecting right now. I adore the characters, and these books hit my "crew of misfits" and platonic-living-together narrative kinks really hard. They just keep accruing more misfits, but there's enough of a dark underbelly to the series that I'm always a little nervous that some of them won't make it out alive. In this book, there are weird doings afoot in the London Underground, Peter (our hero) is adorable, Leslie (his best friend/sidekick/kinda-girlfriend) is snarkily awesome, and I want a Nightingale of my very own. (ETA: one of the things I absolutely love about this series is that it portrays a realistically diverse London in a very convincing, authentic and above all respectful sort of way. As one small example, this book includes in its supporting cast an observant, hijab-wearing Muslim cop and an evangelical Christian cop, neither one of whom is presented as an intolerant fanatic or any of the other negative stereotypes that you might get with characters like that.)
Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler - A really interesting twist on the buddy-cop genre: in the first chapter, one-half of the partnership is killed, and the book alternates between his surviving partner and friends trying to solve his murder in the present day, and flashbacks to the first case they ever worked together, 50 years earlier during the Blitz. Which probably sounds like the most depressing book EVER, but actually it's twisty and funny - a little overly quirky-for-quirkiness's-sake in places, but I liked it. Another thing I liked is that, while the characters all belong to a special unit of the London police that solves "peculiar" crimes (i.e. paranormal and other weirdness), the book never comes down specifically on the side of whether or not magic and the supernatural are "real" or not; everything has a rational explanation, but every once in a while there are little hints that magic might be real (but in a way that can still be explained rationally if you're so inclined). It's sort of like anti-urban fantasy, and I liked it. If you're still on the fence about reading the book, under the cut is a major spoiler, which you really shouldn't read if you like being surprised, but if you're unsure about the book, this might make a difference: ( click on through and then highlight. )
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - This is a really neat book that takes the form of a series of separate, but connected stories. Each of them breaks off in mid-story and then you jump forward in time to a new character who is discovering the previous story: for example, the first story is in the form of a journal written by a traveler in the mid-1800s; the next one is a series of letters written 50 years later by someone who has found the journal among some old books; and so on. It's a very meta book, and beautifully written. It's also a movie - here is the trailer (which gives you a good feeling for what the book is like, but also spoils a number of things).
... and there were a few other books in various series that I'm working through (I read a couple more Didius Falco books, for example), but the above are the standouts and the main ones I recommend from the last couple months' reading.