D’s Comments (group member since Mar 04, 2019)

D’s comments from the We Read Stuff group.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

I finally got a chance to read this one and I definitely agree that it was highly enjoyable. I had no problem with the number of iterations, especially seeing Helena deteriorate as she did emphasized both the difficulty of the decisions they were forced to make and how much of a toll living multiple lives took on them. One thing I found interesting was how frequently Barry mentioned feeling like himself only when he could remember all of his past lives, he is in the unique position of knowing what to expect on the day when the memories return and of not having to bear that burden Long term but it brings up an interesting question about the right they had to deprive other people of the knowledge of their other lives and potential realities. This question is somewhat further complicated by the fact that the author never offers Helena’s direct viewpoint on this after at least having had the lived experience of years of multiple existence.

I nominate Behind Closed Doors

I’ll nominate The Glass Woman

I finally got around to reading this, work has been absolutely insane the last few months, and I wish I could say that I loved it more than I actually did. I’ve seen a few movie adaptations but I had never read the book and honestly, I prefer the movie versions. I just felt that things happened entirely too quickly and we didn’t get to spend enough time with almost any of the characters. Still, I could see this book being fun to read to or with kids. There’s lots of space for entertaining voices and theatrics.

I Nominate The Blind Assassin

I would be up for doing a split vote next year.
I didn’t do the we read all the pages challenge because, math, but I’m not sure that there’s really a fix for that. I would be up for doing some other type of challenge maybe something quarterly.

I was actually struck in reading this by how much of the detail in the book wasn’t included in the movie. I remember watching the movie as a kid and enjoying it but was not sure if this book would hold my attention reading it as an adult. I was pleasantly surprised by how much depth this book had and how well written it was.

I had very high hopes for this book but it just didn’t quite meet up to my expectations. It’s a classic and so I wanted to read it for a while and while I am glad I read it it just wasn’t as great as I thought it might have been. It was distinctly less queer than I thought it would be and I thought that the second half felt a bit rushed, there were multiple quests but I didn’t really get the experience of any of them if that makes any sense. And I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. If I take this book out of the context of every other book, that ending I think makes sense for those particular characters but considering the distinct lack especially at the time that this book was written of happy endings I found it a bit frustrating to not find one, or at least not a particularly happy one here

It’s listed as horror, mystery and thriller, I checked, so I’ll nominateHorns

I have a few:
Historical fiction
Steam punk
Books written by or about people of color
Books written by or about people with disabilities

I own at least the next book in the series so I’ll probably get to it eventually, I feel like it’s a book I’ll have to be in the right mood for though.

I just finished this and really loved this book. I thought that Johnson did a really good job of being very specific to the book‘s time. But also telling a story that felt universal and relatable. The comments about the lesbian mafia and bisexual women in particular were a bit flinch-inducing but I definitely remember those conversations from the mid to thousands. The one thing I wish were a bit different was that I wish we’d spent less time focusing on Andrea and Ryan‘s relationship and more time on the relationships among her friends and later on her relationship with Beatrice. Part of that admittedly is just how much I really don’t like Ryan.

I’ll second his Majesty‘s dragon. I’ve been meaning to get to that series.

Thanks, I will download those. I want all of my downloading done before the power goes out.

It’s probably somewhere obvious and I just missed it but which books are we reading this month?

I nominate Dark Currents

I read this over yesterday and enjoyed it a bit more than I actually expected to. It is a book that requires paying attention, this isn’t one that I think you can skim and get the best out of it, but the writing is really beautiful and the story is definitely interesting. I will say that there was some uneven character development though, the female characters in this book are mostly there as catalysts not as fully fleshed-out humans.

I am glad I have finally gotten to read this. It’s been on my TV are for a while. And I really liked it. It’s not necessarily the sort of book you can pick up casually, it definitely requires thinking about as you’re going through it despite being relatively short, but it really did make me think about how much gender colors both be active and passive part of our social structure. I do wonder though if the book had been written today whether he would have been used as the default pronoun still, considering the continuing conversations about gender and pronouns and where we are now, over half a century later.

I nominate Huntress