May reading

Prinz Heinrich von Preußen (Ziebura) - NR. Biography of the brother of Frederick the Great. Read in (machine) translation. I ended up skimming huge swathes of the last half of the book, not having nearly enough historical knowledge to put it in context properly, though I understand that it's great for those who have that historical knowledge :) That being said, Prince Heinrich is one of my problematic faves in this fandom and I love him to bits and pieces, so I enjoyed this a lot, especially the ensuing conversations with selenak and mildred_of_midgard. But certainly it is rather niche :)

The Ten Thousand Doors of January (Harrow) - DNF. Hugo homework.

Should I finish this? I had a hard time with the twee style that is probably in large part I, The Reader, Have Tastes Do Not Align with Other Hugo Nominators but which I think of as Let Me, The Narrator, Teeter on the Edge of Pretentiousness And Sometimes Fall Over. (I also got thrown out when the narrator, a young lady who is narrating about being a well-to-do American child in the early twentieth century, says "I should have scurried back...where none of these damn people could reach me," and there isn't any context given for that being weird. Let me tell you, a child, or even a pretentious young lady, using the word "damn" would be weird much later than that :P Unless this is supposed to be a clue about something?) I also feel like there is SO much telling-not-showing. Like this bit: "He paused on the threshold... but I didn't move... It seems cruel to you, doesn't it? A sullen child punishing her father for his absence." Oh, how nice of you to tell us that's what was going on! In case we couldn't figure it out.

Okay, sorry, I suppose a lot of it is just me not gelling with the style. I don't think the style will change at all, but I think I'd be willing to go through more of it if there's a really great plot and good character arc. (But I think I need both.) Is there?

(In related news, I'm actually reading Light Brigade all the way through -- it grew a plot and characters as well -- but I didn't manage to finish in May, so it'll slot into June reading.)

Catfishing on Catnet (Kritzer) - discussed here.

Bridge to Terabithia (Paterson) - Reread. Partially because of a discussion of Paterson with mildred_of_midgard and thistleingrey, and also partially because E has started demanding stories with bike rides or walks/hikes, where everything is a quest of Our Heroes (three priests, one wizard and her fox familiar, one warrior, a bard, a ranger, and a paladin -- she chose the group composition, although I chose genders). At first I thought maybe I should encourage more of liking walks or whatever for their own sake, and then I was like, wait, your child is basically re-enacting Terabithia (hopefully without tragedy, of course!) and you're complaining? So she gets the stories now :)

Anyway, long digression aside, this is one of those books where I just get sucked in and come up for air sometime after the story has ended. I really love it so much I can't think about it straight. As a kid I identified with Jesse a lot for someone who doesn't have a whole lot in common with him superficially -- but I really got how he was trying to get by, how his family wasn't good at anything even resembling emotional sensitivity, how Leslie and her family were to him this window into another world that weren't like anything he understood from his family or his school.

Interestingly, the part I didn't get as a child was his relationship with his dad -- I reacted to the raw emotion in it, but I didn't really get it, and now, as an adult, it's one of the most moving part of the book for me.

This book has a lot of grace in it. Handle with care -- everything -- even the predators. <3