Spring Reading Final Report!

Apparently I got distracted and did a bunch of reading without writing about it.  How silly!  That means I have fifteen books to talk about now.

Nonfiction takes longer to read, but I summarize it more quickly.  Go figure.  When the family went to New York last year, one of the things T. and I really wanted to see was the Tolkien exhibit at the Morgan Library.  We geeked out and I bought the catalog, edited by Catherine McIlwaine, Tolkien:  Maker of Middle Earth.  It only took a year, but I finally read it and it was fascinating.  I particularly liked all the nitty gritty details of world building via language and art and general mucking about.  The pictures are also fabulous.

I am glad I read War of 1000 Deserts by Brian Delay, but I don’t need to repeat the experience.  The book is about indigenous peoples’ conflict with Mexico, with a focus on northern Mexico, some of which has subsequently become part of the United States.  It’s full of oppression and violence and treachery with a few massacres thrown in just for fun.  The more I learn about American history, the less I like the way we have rolled (and continue to roll).

I’ve been reading more fiction in a conscious effort to make my days off feel more like relaxing and less like what I do every other day.  Several of the books on my shelf came from T.’s various classes, so the must have Educational Value, too, right?

The Plain in Flames is a collection of short stories by Juan Rulfo.  I read Pedro Paramo ages ago and found it weird but okay.  This collection was weirder and depressing.  It is not my cup of tea, but I can certainly see why Rulfo is respected as a writer.

Battles in the Desert and Other Stories by José Emilio Pacheco was more to my taste.  The stories are pretty uniformly grim, but somehow I like the prose better.  It might be that the young people in the stories are more likeable, even though they are not always good.

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s book Weep Not, Child is a beautifully written book about terrible things, again.  It is set in Kenya during the Mau Mau period and we follow the (mis)fortunes of a family who begin in a bad place and end up in a worse one.

The good news:  I read more fun stuff, too.

I love Rick Riordan.  He is funny and smart and talented.  He uses his power for good and when he gets something wrong, he admits it and fixes it.  And he tells great stories, too.  9 from the Nine Worlds is a quick collection of short stories to tide us over until the next novel comes out.  I laughed.  I felt inspired.  I feel impatient for the next book.

I first read The Adventures of a Brownie by Dinah Maria Mulock when I was little.  I was thinking about conceptions of fair folk and elves and the like and I wanted to reread the story.  It is engaging enough, if not as magical as when I first read it, and some parts are funny.

I was looking over my shelves as I was putting books away (yes, that happens from time to time) and I realized that I was missing a few Lloyd Alexander books.  I used birthday money to fix this problem and had a chance to reread The Book of Three as a result.  It is still a fabulous book.  What struck me this time through was how economically Alexander tells the story.  He conveys character with so few details and yet his people live and breathe.

Full disclosure:  I know Gail Carriger in person!  However, the general book pile-up at my house meant that I had not read any of her books until now.  How to Marry a Werewolf was incredibly fun despite the fact that I generally avoid anything to do with werewolves (or vampires or zombies or whatever) and romance and its adjacent genres make me break out in hives.  What I am trying to say here is that despite this being Not My Kind of Book, it was truly wonderful and I will be seeking out more!

I continue to work my way through the works of T. Kingfisher.  I devoured The Seventh Bride, Summer in Orcus, The Raven and the Reindeer, and Swordheart.  All were wonderful treats.  I love strong women overcoming obstacles and these books are full of them.

I’ve loved watching Vera on BritBox and it occurred to me that I might like the books the series came from.  So I got The Crow Trap by Ann Cleves and it was great!  I will buy more when I get to buy books again.

And, finally, I got another Terry Pratchett for my birthday, this one Thief of Time.  I have said all possible good things about his books.  They are true of this one as well.  I relish the time I get to spend in his world.

This concludes the spring reading.  Total for the year so far:  42 books