Books I finished reading this month:
- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke.
Rating:
Lacking in substance for such a physically substantial book, but quite entertaining in its way. Would have been easier to digest as three volumes; pity the three "books" within don't work as stand-alone books. - The Killing Joke, Alan Moore.
Rating:
- Maus II, Art Spiegelman.
Rating:
Mere words are insufficient to express how awesome this book is. The first instalment, which I read a couple of years ago, is just as amazing. - The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones, Alan Moore.
Rating:
Oddly unengaging, but moderately entertaining. - Everyday Zen, Charlotte Joko Beck.
Rating:
Despite her repeated disclaimers about not getting too "woo woo" (nb: this is probably not the actual phrase she used), Joko did lose me a couple of times because of the way she approached the concept of God (or "the Master", as she somewhat gratingly put it). Other than that, this was generally fantastic. - Letters from the Asylum, John Knight.
Rating:
The thing about poetry is that I can recognise it as being probably objectively good without any sort of subjective enjoyment. I think I relate to poetry similarly to the way I relate to music, rather than prose: all that I want from it is an emotional response, which comes from recognising an expression of something that is true for me. Technical considerations have little or nothing to do with it. So I am sure this collection of poetry, which I struggled to relate to, is much better than I found it. (There were a couple of poems that I really liked, but the rest were fairly alien to me.) - Fool's Errand, Robin Hobb.
Rating:
Reading this made me so happy! Robin Hobb was one of the authors that reintroduced me to "fantasy fiction that doesn't suck"™, but her Liveship Traders trilogy was so painful and unrewarding to read that I had feared the Farseer Trilogy was an anomaly. The first book in the Tawny Man series was a joy to read, however - possibly because the tone and setting are more to my liking, or possibly just because it wasn't all about horrible, tedious, self-centred characters. I'm not sure if what I saw as dramatic irony was supposed to be mysteries unknown to the reader for most of the book1, but I am happy to forgive the occasional heavy-handedness for an original tale, well-told. - I have no idea if that makes sense to anyone but me [↩]
