Reading for July
Aug. 2nd, 2019 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnI enjoyed talking about all the books I read in June and would have liked to do so in July but July was kind of a disaster in terms of having time to do anything. On the other hand this means I didn't read very many books! I'm probably missing some, but here goes:
The Age of Innocence (Wharton): 4/5. I owned this as a teenager (a remaindered copy, I think) but didn't read it, and I was right not to at that time. In 2019, I was almost the perfect age to read this. It's so good! But probably something like 5-10 years ago would have been better, as I kept being somewhat unsatisfied with how May Welland was handled, in particular. (I would love fic from her POV!) On the other hand, I kept wishing for a take on what Newland's kids would think of all this, and Wharton delivered in the epilogue :)
Crossings: A Bald Asian American Latter-day Saint Woman Scholar's Ventures Through Life, Death, Cancer, and Motherhood (Inouye): 5/5. This is a collection of essays and family newsletters Melissa has written. She has worn a lot of hats in her life so far (not all at the same time, but a lot of overlap): Asian studies scholar, stay-at-home mom of four, missionary in China, cancer survivor, runner. (That makes me exhausted just to type!) And she put this book together after being diagnosed with cancer as a memoir for her children, in case she had to leave them early. This is one of those books that I can't really recommend to anyone because I obviously have intensely personal reasons for loving it; I went to school with Melissa and was in the same LDS group (which is why I bought the book), but I didn't really know her until reading this book. It's all the things I have been trying to learn about our religion, and about life, my whole life, only Melissa learned them much earlier because she is much wiser than I am. She's a really really cool person and I wish I had gotten to know her better in school (or in the years since). (Probably my biggest regret about college is that I didn't get to understand how cool my LDS cohort was -- and they are really, super cool -- until much much later.)
Dancing Shoes and Ballet Shoes (reread) Streatfield: I hadn't read Dancing Shoes before. It's definitely a very similar theme to Ballet Shoes, complete with comeuppance for the dancer who gets too arrogant. It was a lot of fun, though!
The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan) (reread): This read around I saw why people had problems with the, hmm, racial stereotypes perpetuated by this book. But it's not really about that; it's really about mothers and daughters and cultural divides, and I still really like it.
The True Queen (Cho): 3+/5. It was lovely and nice! But somehow I never felt nearly as invested in... anyone... in this book as I was in the first one. I also rather expected Prunella's familiars to be addressed at some point, but it wasn't in this book.
DNF:
Finder (Palmer): I really wanted to like this one, because I have liked Palmer's short work on robots, but I tried several times and kept foundering. Possibly it needed more robots :P
City of Brass (Chakraborty): Hugo reading. The part I read was good! I think I was just tired out by then. Note to self: next year do Campbell reading before Lodestar.
The Age of Innocence (Wharton): 4/5. I owned this as a teenager (a remaindered copy, I think) but didn't read it, and I was right not to at that time. In 2019, I was almost the perfect age to read this. It's so good! But probably something like 5-10 years ago would have been better, as I kept being somewhat unsatisfied with how May Welland was handled, in particular. (I would love fic from her POV!) On the other hand, I kept wishing for a take on what Newland's kids would think of all this, and Wharton delivered in the epilogue :)
Crossings: A Bald Asian American Latter-day Saint Woman Scholar's Ventures Through Life, Death, Cancer, and Motherhood (Inouye): 5/5. This is a collection of essays and family newsletters Melissa has written. She has worn a lot of hats in her life so far (not all at the same time, but a lot of overlap): Asian studies scholar, stay-at-home mom of four, missionary in China, cancer survivor, runner. (That makes me exhausted just to type!) And she put this book together after being diagnosed with cancer as a memoir for her children, in case she had to leave them early. This is one of those books that I can't really recommend to anyone because I obviously have intensely personal reasons for loving it; I went to school with Melissa and was in the same LDS group (which is why I bought the book), but I didn't really know her until reading this book. It's all the things I have been trying to learn about our religion, and about life, my whole life, only Melissa learned them much earlier because she is much wiser than I am. She's a really really cool person and I wish I had gotten to know her better in school (or in the years since). (Probably my biggest regret about college is that I didn't get to understand how cool my LDS cohort was -- and they are really, super cool -- until much much later.)
Dancing Shoes and Ballet Shoes (reread) Streatfield: I hadn't read Dancing Shoes before. It's definitely a very similar theme to Ballet Shoes, complete with comeuppance for the dancer who gets too arrogant. It was a lot of fun, though!
The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan) (reread): This read around I saw why people had problems with the, hmm, racial stereotypes perpetuated by this book. But it's not really about that; it's really about mothers and daughters and cultural divides, and I still really like it.
The True Queen (Cho): 3+/5. It was lovely and nice! But somehow I never felt nearly as invested in... anyone... in this book as I was in the first one. I also rather expected Prunella's familiars to be addressed at some point, but it wasn't in this book.
DNF:
Finder (Palmer): I really wanted to like this one, because I have liked Palmer's short work on robots, but I tried several times and kept foundering. Possibly it needed more robots :P
City of Brass (Chakraborty): Hugo reading. The part I read was good! I think I was just tired out by then. Note to self: next year do Campbell reading before Lodestar.
