Book 14: Lives of the Saints by Nancy Lemann

A book a friend mentioned in a group chat and I decided to see if the library had it, and indeed it did! A short novel about a woman in New Orleans and the absolute disaster of a man who she loves, that takes place in a hazy idea of then-contemporary day (the book was published in 1985). It depicts an idea of the white South that floats between eras; the first scene is at a wedding, and I thought it was in the 1920s, but then a passing reference made it clear it was post-WWII, so I thought maybe the early 1960s, and then there are enough other identifying objects that mean it can only be in the mid-1980s. But the lost in time, the gentile South, the Lost Cause of it all is such a key element of the novel that it might as well have been in 1927 in the days right before things came crashing down, just like 1985 was part of the yuppie days right before the post-Reagan recession. 

This is also the kind of book that introduces a small boy in a way where you can feel his incoming death and how that will unmoor everyone, but what will stick with me is how out of time the whole story feels. It longs for a time past and considers the South to be a completely different world from the rest of the country (and certainly the East), and maybe that's right. 

Grade: B

Book 13: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R. R. Martin

I started reading this book at the beginning of the year, before the first season of the show based on these novellas came out, but waited to read the second and third novellas until after. And that may have been a mistake, only because I enjoyed the versions of the characters on the show much more than I did the ones in the novellas. I was excited to read these because after reading GRRM's "history" of Fire and Blood I thought that I would probably enjoy his actual stories better than half-told wikipedia entries of a made-up history. And I was right, I did, but unfortunately I think I may have lost a bit of my taste for his style of writing at this point - I remember loving the ASOIAF books that I read, but I'm not sure if I still would if I went back to reread them now. I look forward to more stories of Dunk and Egg on my screen, but I hope that the creators of that show continue to adapt rather than transcribe his work for the series. 

Grade: B 

Book 12: Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce

A book club book that I didn't manage to read in time to participate, but wanted to read anyway. This is a novella that felt like it didn't get to the meat of the story until about 2/3rds of the way through it, and then I wanted more at that point. It's a story set in Reconstruction, in a magical realism world, about a young Black woman who accepts the responsibility of planning her aunt's funeral service. She longs to have freedom from her mother and from who her mother would have her marry, and there's a secret at the heart of why her mother and her aunt were estranged, and there's so much of interest here, but the pace of the story just didn't quite work for me - too slow to begin with, and then much too fast, when I would have loved more time. The world was really compelling, though, and the concept of easing a person's passing within the magical systems of this place was beautiful. 

Grade: B

Book 11: The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang

A bookclub book! Specifically a novella, and it's the sort of space scifi mystery type story that I'm so glad is the length that it is. This is both because it involves lots of different species and translation and beings moving through space in ways that my brain simply will not picture while I'm reading, and so there was a lot of me just letting certain descriptive elements wash over me rather than stressing about it all. And I'm glad I did, because boy does it eventually pack a real emotional punch. 

The very short narrative logline for this story is that there's this alien Ro who's a linguist, and his species has the ability to jump into a different species and observe their language and report back. He's kind of an anthropologist, and they're trying to figure out how to help this other species, and so he jumps and learns much more than he was expecting to, in a variety of ways. I don't actually want to say much more because, well, that's the story, but in many way it's more of a morality play than a full story, which made it an ideal bookclub book to discuss and the read itself went by fast enough and gave me a lot to think about. Not my favorite kind of book but very compelling! 

Grade: B

Book 10: The Odyssey by Homer (Translated by Emily Wilson)

I had never read a translation of The Odyssey, and I decided I wanted to before seeing the Nolan adaptation this summer. I'm really glad I did, both because I think that knowing what Nolan chose to do with his adaptation adds to the experience of the movie, and because this translation is incredibly readable and powerful on its own. There is a confidence in using language based on meter more than lyricism, and the simplicity of the language is almost deceptive - this translation doesn't force you to struggle, which makes the impact of the events the language is describing greater at times. Wilson's work made me want to read a whole bunch more, especially her introduction, and that's a sure sign of me being affected by a book. 

Grade: A 

Book 9: The Starseekers by Nicole Glover

Well, sometimes you read a book for book club and every single person shows up and says that didn't work for me!!! and it's a good time. This book is kind of like Hidden Figures but it's also a murder mystery and magic and also Indiana Jones and also allegedly a romance? And if you think that sounds like too many genres it sure is; there are seven different plots and not a lick of narrative urgency in any of them, unfortunately. The best I can say for it is that it was nice to read a contemporary piece of speculative fiction that wasn't a dystopia but also boy I wanted this to be better. 

Grade: C

Reread: The Summer War by Naomi Novik

Note: I know the author socially. 

A reread for my book club! Honestly I loved it even more on reread. I thought the agony of the neverending nature of the conflict came through even more this time around, and boy I just really want the resolution to work for everyone!! Just a beautifully constructed story. 

Grade: A