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Reading for July
I 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.
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Faust in particular I honestly wouldn't have noticed as thematic had the edition I'd been reading not pointed out it out, so there you go :P Though my edition talked about Newland as Faust seducing Marguerite, which I don't disagree with but which I found mystifyingly incomplete, for surely Newland is also Faust tempted by Mephistopheles (either unsuccessfully to run away from his responsibilities or successfully to turn away from his heart, depending on your perspective). And of course Newland is as much Marguerite as Faust as well.