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Yendi by Stephen Brust, 142pp
I'm not a big fan of mafia stories or any sort of organized crime. So the first half of this book with the territorial war was mostly boring to me. The dialogue seemed choppy and I didn't see what the point was. I didn't care about any of moves by any of the players at all. Thankfully, the book picked up once it became clear that the territorial war was largely a ploy and there was a bigger plan at work, which gave a lot more insight into the worldbuilding and the society of this universe and some of its rules. And it was also a love story although I don't really care about that part. It did give a better understanding of Cawti; she seemed very different in the previous book. And by the end I do want to learn more about this world so I will continue with the next book next year.
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, 319pp
This was on my list for years and I finally ordered a copy from the library and read it in physical form. I don't know if I was in the right mood for it though. The premise is interesting, a regular woman, a musician gets drawn in a Fairie war between seelie and unseelie courts, but it felt like mostly the characters were just hanging around. And of course, Edie, the main character is special and can also weave magic with music. I'm not a musician and have very little understanding of intricacies of music or how musicians rehearse and build a song, and there were many descriptions of that. Unlike Edie, I could recognize a lot sooner which characters she met where from fairie. I did like the slow build up of her romance in the book and several false starts. And the plots twists and characters were interesting on an intellectual level. It was a good book and I can see why so many people love it, but it was mostly just ok for me.
Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr, 202pp
In 2004-2005, Doerr got a free apartment and a stipend to come live in Rome for a year and write what he wanted, quite unexpectedly. So he moved to Rome with his wife and 6 months old twins from the Boise, Idaho. This book is a journal but also impressions of a young father, a writer, dropped into a big ancient city filled with history and wonder and also realizing how everyday things like shopping become extraordinary in a new place where he could barely speak the language. A lot of it is impressions and Doerr is quite good at describing things - I loved the two fiction book I read by him. John Paul II died in the spring 2005, so he was also a witness to this event and described it. A lot of the book is also about parenting, and parenting twins and figuring that out as well. It wasn't a long book but it was pleasant to spend some time in 2004-2005 Rome with him.
A Woman's Story by Annie Erneux, 96pp [translated from French]
I picked this us after Annie Erneux won a Nobel Prize for Literature this year and read it since the online hold came fairly quickly. It is also a short book. I do like her style. I liked a brief interview with her where she said that the main thing about writing to her is to get at the truth. And I think she is trying to get at the core of human beings with all their complexities and all the impositions of society. This book is the story of the mother's life, written just after her mother has died. Her mother lived an ordinary life but also was not a one-faceted person. There was a lot to her from determination to anger. And the love for her was also complicated. And I can relate to that. This book is also a book of grief with the author dealing with her grief after her mother died and some guilt by the end of it so it feels a bit like peaking in her head. She writes very straightforwardly, which is partly translation from French, but I think this helps her narrative. I do want to read more by Erneux.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark, 65pp
A novella in the Dead Djinn universe series. It takes place before Master of Djinn, which I read, and it was nice to see more of this universe. I liked the investigation and getting to know Hamed and Onsi more - I did like them in the novel but the novella certainly shows their personalities more. A cute story but with a fully realized universe. Good fun.
The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith, 1452pp [Strike 6]
Book 6 in the Cormoran Strike series. I still think Book 5 is my favorite because of all the emotional beats there but this book was quite interesting up until the end and it certainly worthy of this series. I don't know if the resolution quite earns it, since the final confrontation scene seemed a bit too much and slightly out of place for who the actual killer is, but I did enjoy it greatly overall. In print, this book is over 1000 pages, and I have seen how hefty it looks in the bookstore. For this library Kindle version, the publishers thankfully added a typed up, bigger font version of all the chats, since a lot of dialogue did take place withing private chats of a game which is in the book was in double and triple columns and in small font, so it came out to 1452 pages, but because a lot of dialogue was chats it read quickly. The book itself flowed really well and you never want to stop reading since you want to see what happened next. There is quite a lot of characters, but I had no issues keeping them straight, including their online handle. We are privy to more info that Robin and Strike are because of those chats so that was interesting. Especially by the second half of the book I just couldn't put it down and kept reading it at every free moment. Rowling does know how to write a good mystery.
I was really annoyed at some of the reviews of the book since they completely misrepresented the plot. This shouldn't have surprised me actually because it happened for the fifth book as well since the reviewers really want to tie the books with Rowling's personal beliefs and exaggerate things to tremendous extent. The main murder victim, Edie, was a co-creator of an online cartoon that then had mainstream success, but the fans didn't suddenly turn on her randomly once she was famous for it because they questioned her approach to a worm and her problematic characterizations, as one reviewer said trying to make parallels (that reviewer obviously didn't read the book properly). In her early interviews, before Edie's cartoon got famous, she sort of offhandedly criticized a game that was made from her cartoon by two fans. And one fan, Anomie, got really offended at that and started the online hate campaign. This was a personal vendetta. There is a lot of criticism of far-right in the book, and incel, and also far-left that take it a bit too far, but also there is really a fairly realistic portrayal of online culture and why people flock to that on top of criticism of people who take it too seriously and take it too far. But these books are about really good and slightly unusual mysteries but also about the personal growth of both Robin and Cormoran and the slow build of their romantic feelings and their friendship. I think people should be able to separate the author from the story.
Dragonbreath: When Fairies Go Bad by Ursula Vernon, 201pp [Dragonbreath 7].
The seventh book of the Dragonbreath series and the hardest one to track down. We own the first 6 books but we are relying on the library to get the next five. And while Brooklyn Public library had books 8 to 11, it didn't have 7. But the New York Public library did and my Dad is a member since that library includes Staten Island. So I ordered it from his account and Tanya was able to read it. It seems more menacing in its threat that the other books. I really liked Danny's determination to get his Mom back. And I loved the fact that coffee was untouched was a clue she really was kidnapped by fairies. Tanya's favorite part was Christiana's rhyming. And it was pretty fun as is her skepticism about the whole experience. The brief hint that the bus could also take them to Oz was kind of funny, even though I had to point out the reference to Tanya. I certainly enjoyed it more than the last book and it continues to be a good series. Four more books to go.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, 272pp [reread]
I finally finished reading it out loud to Tanya after starting this summer since we didn't always had time. Or she would rather play but would let me read a bit but then would want me to keep reading. She said the beginning of the book was a bit boring to her but once Hagrid shows up and especially the magic school were much more interesting. Her favorite part remains Ron's spell to turn Scabbers yellow and also when Norbert ribbed the teddy bear's head off. She also enjoyed making up new names for the characters, mainly to drive me crazy. Dumbledore was Stumbledoor or Bumbledoor, Snape became Snake and Quirell Squirrel. The twist at the end did really surprise her, so that was fun. We are now watching the movie. Olivia listened to some parts but wasn't paying attention nmost of the time, she might be too young to follow the plot. It is the first time I read this book outloud and I was able to see some language pattens in it - the characters stopped dead in the middle of something quite a lot, which Tanya found hilarious since she wanted to take it literally.
I'm not a big fan of mafia stories or any sort of organized crime. So the first half of this book with the territorial war was mostly boring to me. The dialogue seemed choppy and I didn't see what the point was. I didn't care about any of moves by any of the players at all. Thankfully, the book picked up once it became clear that the territorial war was largely a ploy and there was a bigger plan at work, which gave a lot more insight into the worldbuilding and the society of this universe and some of its rules. And it was also a love story although I don't really care about that part. It did give a better understanding of Cawti; she seemed very different in the previous book. And by the end I do want to learn more about this world so I will continue with the next book next year.
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, 319pp
This was on my list for years and I finally ordered a copy from the library and read it in physical form. I don't know if I was in the right mood for it though. The premise is interesting, a regular woman, a musician gets drawn in a Fairie war between seelie and unseelie courts, but it felt like mostly the characters were just hanging around. And of course, Edie, the main character is special and can also weave magic with music. I'm not a musician and have very little understanding of intricacies of music or how musicians rehearse and build a song, and there were many descriptions of that. Unlike Edie, I could recognize a lot sooner which characters she met where from fairie. I did like the slow build up of her romance in the book and several false starts. And the plots twists and characters were interesting on an intellectual level. It was a good book and I can see why so many people love it, but it was mostly just ok for me.
Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr, 202pp
In 2004-2005, Doerr got a free apartment and a stipend to come live in Rome for a year and write what he wanted, quite unexpectedly. So he moved to Rome with his wife and 6 months old twins from the Boise, Idaho. This book is a journal but also impressions of a young father, a writer, dropped into a big ancient city filled with history and wonder and also realizing how everyday things like shopping become extraordinary in a new place where he could barely speak the language. A lot of it is impressions and Doerr is quite good at describing things - I loved the two fiction book I read by him. John Paul II died in the spring 2005, so he was also a witness to this event and described it. A lot of the book is also about parenting, and parenting twins and figuring that out as well. It wasn't a long book but it was pleasant to spend some time in 2004-2005 Rome with him.
A Woman's Story by Annie Erneux, 96pp [translated from French]
I picked this us after Annie Erneux won a Nobel Prize for Literature this year and read it since the online hold came fairly quickly. It is also a short book. I do like her style. I liked a brief interview with her where she said that the main thing about writing to her is to get at the truth. And I think she is trying to get at the core of human beings with all their complexities and all the impositions of society. This book is the story of the mother's life, written just after her mother has died. Her mother lived an ordinary life but also was not a one-faceted person. There was a lot to her from determination to anger. And the love for her was also complicated. And I can relate to that. This book is also a book of grief with the author dealing with her grief after her mother died and some guilt by the end of it so it feels a bit like peaking in her head. She writes very straightforwardly, which is partly translation from French, but I think this helps her narrative. I do want to read more by Erneux.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark, 65pp
A novella in the Dead Djinn universe series. It takes place before Master of Djinn, which I read, and it was nice to see more of this universe. I liked the investigation and getting to know Hamed and Onsi more - I did like them in the novel but the novella certainly shows their personalities more. A cute story but with a fully realized universe. Good fun.
The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith, 1452pp [Strike 6]
Book 6 in the Cormoran Strike series. I still think Book 5 is my favorite because of all the emotional beats there but this book was quite interesting up until the end and it certainly worthy of this series. I don't know if the resolution quite earns it, since the final confrontation scene seemed a bit too much and slightly out of place for who the actual killer is, but I did enjoy it greatly overall. In print, this book is over 1000 pages, and I have seen how hefty it looks in the bookstore. For this library Kindle version, the publishers thankfully added a typed up, bigger font version of all the chats, since a lot of dialogue did take place withing private chats of a game which is in the book was in double and triple columns and in small font, so it came out to 1452 pages, but because a lot of dialogue was chats it read quickly. The book itself flowed really well and you never want to stop reading since you want to see what happened next. There is quite a lot of characters, but I had no issues keeping them straight, including their online handle. We are privy to more info that Robin and Strike are because of those chats so that was interesting. Especially by the second half of the book I just couldn't put it down and kept reading it at every free moment. Rowling does know how to write a good mystery.
I was really annoyed at some of the reviews of the book since they completely misrepresented the plot. This shouldn't have surprised me actually because it happened for the fifth book as well since the reviewers really want to tie the books with Rowling's personal beliefs and exaggerate things to tremendous extent. The main murder victim, Edie, was a co-creator of an online cartoon that then had mainstream success, but the fans didn't suddenly turn on her randomly once she was famous for it because they questioned her approach to a worm and her problematic characterizations, as one reviewer said trying to make parallels (that reviewer obviously didn't read the book properly). In her early interviews, before Edie's cartoon got famous, she sort of offhandedly criticized a game that was made from her cartoon by two fans. And one fan, Anomie, got really offended at that and started the online hate campaign. This was a personal vendetta. There is a lot of criticism of far-right in the book, and incel, and also far-left that take it a bit too far, but also there is really a fairly realistic portrayal of online culture and why people flock to that on top of criticism of people who take it too seriously and take it too far. But these books are about really good and slightly unusual mysteries but also about the personal growth of both Robin and Cormoran and the slow build of their romantic feelings and their friendship. I think people should be able to separate the author from the story.
Dragonbreath: When Fairies Go Bad by Ursula Vernon, 201pp [Dragonbreath 7].
The seventh book of the Dragonbreath series and the hardest one to track down. We own the first 6 books but we are relying on the library to get the next five. And while Brooklyn Public library had books 8 to 11, it didn't have 7. But the New York Public library did and my Dad is a member since that library includes Staten Island. So I ordered it from his account and Tanya was able to read it. It seems more menacing in its threat that the other books. I really liked Danny's determination to get his Mom back. And I loved the fact that coffee was untouched was a clue she really was kidnapped by fairies. Tanya's favorite part was Christiana's rhyming. And it was pretty fun as is her skepticism about the whole experience. The brief hint that the bus could also take them to Oz was kind of funny, even though I had to point out the reference to Tanya. I certainly enjoyed it more than the last book and it continues to be a good series. Four more books to go.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, 272pp [reread]
I finally finished reading it out loud to Tanya after starting this summer since we didn't always had time. Or she would rather play but would let me read a bit but then would want me to keep reading. She said the beginning of the book was a bit boring to her but once Hagrid shows up and especially the magic school were much more interesting. Her favorite part remains Ron's spell to turn Scabbers yellow and also when Norbert ribbed the teddy bear's head off. She also enjoyed making up new names for the characters, mainly to drive me crazy. Dumbledore was Stumbledoor or Bumbledoor, Snape became Snake and Quirell Squirrel. The twist at the end did really surprise her, so that was fun. We are now watching the movie. Olivia listened to some parts but wasn't paying attention nmost of the time, she might be too young to follow the plot. It is the first time I read this book outloud and I was able to see some language pattens in it - the characters stopped dead in the middle of something quite a lot, which Tanya found hilarious since she wanted to take it literally.