“Babel” by R F Kaung

I started reading this book back in January and never really got into it. I have no idea why, but it just did not grab me. Then I started reading the Game of Thrones books, and ended up leaving Babel untouched for months. I knew I wasn’t permanently abandoning it, but I wasn’t in a huge hurry to get back to it. 

I finally picked Babel up again last weekend and ended up really enjoying it! It's well-written, with an interesting story that makes you think. 

Babel is an alternate history of 1800s England, specifically Oxford University and its Royal Institute of Translation. In this fictional world, England is a global empire due to its wealth of silver bars and its expertise with the magical power derived from the matched pairs of words inscribed on the surface of each bar—one word in English and one in another language. The words vary according to the power desired: fortifying an old building, keeping a carriage safe from accident, causing an explosion. The words are paired by the scholars in Babel, the Institute’s headquarters. 

The newest students at Babel are Robin (who is Chinese), Ramy (Indian), Letty (English) and Victoire (Haitian), and they become fast friends. But it isn’t long before they begin to see the vast disparity between those living with the benefits of the silver bars and those without. 

“Jane Austen: A Brief Life” by Fiona Stafford

Yep I picked this one because it's brief. It’s right there in the title. 

It makes me feel virtuous to read a biography. This one was little bit dry at times (which I find to be typical) but it was still interesting enough to read (once). Much of Austen's life story here seems to be speculation based on analysis of her writing rather than real knowledge of her life, but I assume that's out of necessity. 

And I know more about Austen now than before I read the book, although some of it I already kind of knew without knowing, like the fact that she had six novels published. Have I read all of them? I think so, but I really can't remember for sure. I mean I am SURE I have read some, if not all, of them; and I am SURE I enjoyed reading them, and I am SURE I find it odd that my husband doesn't like Jane Austen. 

I didn't know exactly when her books were published (I just knew they were old) but it turns out they're all more than 200 years old, as she died in 1817 (two of her books were published posthumously, but very soon after her death). I like the fact that people still know and love her work centuries later, and their humor and human element can still be enjoyed. 

“Big Swiss” by Jen Beagin

Easing out of Westeros is going really well so far. I started a new book on Friday and finished it on Sunday! And not because it was a teeny tiny book, either. I mean it wasn't huge, but it was a good, book-sized book. 

I picked this up during our most recent trip to the great Friends of the Library bookstore in Los Alamos (last month). It was the bees on the spine that first caught my eye, and then when I unshelved it to look at the cover, the art there was unexpected. Nothing to do with bees at all. Which is fine; I'm not sure I'd really be interested in a novel that was actually about bees. And I definitely wanted to know what happened to the upside-down lady. Sam wondered what she was doing too. Falling? Dying? 

Anyway, Big Swiss turned out to be very readable. And very quirky. It's about Greta (or sometimes Rebekah) Work, who works as a transcriptionist for a local sex therapist. The story starts in quite a voyeuristic way, and the transcription thing almost seemed too obvious as a plot device for a little bit (the scene in the coffee shop where she recognized the voices of several of the therapist's clients and mentally reviewed her transcriptions of their sessions) but then she meets a woman at the dog park whose voice she recognizes as the patient Greta had given the nickname of Big Swiss, and from there the book turns into something else entirely. But I was all in.

I will mention (in a vague way, which I hope is not spoiler-y) that as I read, I guessed that the story about Keith was completely made up, and that Luke was actually the assailant. Why else would Big Swiss have bruises on her legs, and why else would Luke be a shiv collector? Well, I guessed wrong. Although looking back I'd say if this book had been written by Liane Moriarty I would have been right.

Oh and I probably owe it to you to tell you my impression is that the cover art is there for the atmosphere it evokes rather than actually being directly linked to the narrative. 

“A Dance With Dragons” by George RR Martin

 

It is finished.

I know after reading Book 1 I said I would be fine if this series were never completed. I lied. There is too much left unwritten. I want to read the rest of the story! So, actually, I should not have said it is finished. Because it is unfinished. (Although it does still bother me to think that I may have to buy the rest of the series in non-matching books.)

But as much as I enjoyed reading this series, it is also nice to be released from it. Now I am free to choose books to read all willy-nilly! But there is a downside to this . . . I remember back to when I used to choose books all willy-nilly (it feels like ages ago, but really it's only been a few months), and I remember that not all of  my selections are as readable as A Song of Ice and Fire. Some of my choices suck. Some are just OK. I've kissed a lot of frogs in my reading life. But maybe that's part of the appeal? Maybe having to hunt for a gem makes it all the more exciting when you find one? 

Here's hoping my next choice is a gem. 

“A Feast For Crows” by George R R Martin

A Feast for Crows was definitely more enjoyable than I had feared. Maybe, just maybe, the story was slightly more slow-paced than the first three? And looking back on it now, other than Cersei’s attempt to rid herself of Margaery and ending up caught in her own trap, the book as a whole did seem more as if were merely moving people into place in preparation for the real action to come. But I could be wrong. Knowing me, I’m probably just forgetting the real action already. 

Anyway I enjoyed it and I’m on to the fifth and final book of the series. 

“A Storm of Swords” by George R R Martin

Still really into these books. I couldn’t remember when Joffrey’s wedding feast occurred in the timeline of the TV series, so I’d been eagerly awaiting that scene (while simultaneously dreading Edmure’s) ever since I began reading the series, and book three delivers both. 

On to number four!

“A Clash of Kings” by George R R Martin

I finished reading A Clash of Kings more than a week ago (specifically, on Friday the 17th) and am almost halfway through the next one already. I don't have much to say about the book itself (other than the fact that I enjoyed reading it just as much as the first one), but of course I want a record that I read it, hence the blog post.

Did I mention that Sam has been reading this series at the same time as me? Luckily we had two copies of each of the first two books. Unluckily we only have one copy of the third one. Partly because of this and partly because it's what we prefer, Sam is  interspersing his GoT reads with other books while I'm just racing straight through the series. But it's been fun to be immersed in the same story. 

Speaking of fun, Sam is super good at creating cocktails and he invented a George R R Martini in honor of our reading sessions. (The Rs stand for raspberry and rose.) I'm a lucky girl!

“A Game of Thrones” by George R R Martin

I know I'm a little behind the times, but I'm finally reading A Song of Ice and Fire, and I am LOVING it. Of course I've seen the entire TV series, which means (at least so far) I already know everything that's going to happen, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable to read. While A Game of Thrones is not necessarily a book to encourage deep thought and contemplation, it is one that I've been racing through, engrossed in the story. I've definitely been sucked in, and have been reading nothing else.

And I have the feeling I will be reading nothing else for months. This first book clocked in at 807 pages (which meant just under two weeks for me), and they only get longer from here. And I must admit I feel a sense of dread when I think of books 4 and 5. Years ago, Sam tore through books 1-3, but he stalled on 4 and never even read 5. This does not bode well. Not to mention the fact that I found this first book more and more depressing as it went along. Or maybe it was just the grim weather outside today? Either way, my plan is to power through, and I think I will enjoy it more often than not. All that to say--not that I blog with great frequency these days anyway--if you don't see much action here, know that it is because I am busy in Westeros.

Here's something odd I noticed as I read AGoT. Usually, if you're already familiar with a movie or TV show and then you read the source material, reading adds depth to the experience. You're rewarded with extra tidbits that weren't made plain in the show (or that just couldn't be fit in). Weirdly, I'm not finding that with these books. As Sam pointed out, that's a testament to what a great job Benioff and Weiss did with the HBO adaptation. 

I wanted to mention the actual physical books I've been reading. I was hoping to find a nice matched set that was good-looking, not a tie-in version to the TV show. I initially hesitated over this set which is smaller than most books; I worried that the type would be too small for my old eyes, but I finally took the leap and I'm so glad I did. It's such a good-looking little set, the size is just perfect to hold in my hands (I can even read them one-handed!) and my eyes are doing just fine. So if you have the opportunity to get your hands on the Special Boxed Bantam Edition pictured below, take it! Although I must admit . . . it makes me hope that Martin never finishes books 6 and 7. (Yep, I said it.) Unless Bantam is going to print matching copies to go with my set!

“An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed” by Helen Tursten

The last one of these was more fun than this one. Somehow it didn't bother me so much to watch an old lady plan and execute cold-blooded murder just because it suited her (though I don't know why that should be). But in this second book, which includes reminiscences interleaved with what was happening in the present, suddenly Maud was given a conscience that I hadn't been previously aware of. 

The latter half of this second book is consumed by an obvious attempt at redemption, with Maud's incredibly thoughtful generosity a stark contrast to the insensitive narcissism she'd always shown before. It was hard to decide whether to see it as straightforward reformation, an incongruous impossibility, or interesting character development. But whereas her motives in the first book were of the basest human emotions (jealousy, selfishness and greed, or even just wanting to eliminate an annoyance), suddenly Maud's crimes are a result of protecting her sister or saving a young stranger from a rapist.  

That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy reading this book. It was still quite fun and I enjoyed the mysteries and suspense. But I was surprised that Tursten found the need to take a deliciously unscrupulous character and give her a heart. 

“An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good” by Helene Tursten

I just read another cute little tiny little book. (They go so quickly!) But this one is very different from the book I blogged about yesterday, in everything but size.

I'm pretty sure I heard about this one in the most recent issue of Oh Reader. Or maybe that was actually the sequel (which I have also purchased and plan to read soon, and which is just as cute and just as tiny). 

This mini-book contains 5 brief murder mysteries that rate pretty highly on the Agatha Christie scale. In fact they remind me a lot of Christie's stories (with an f-bomb or two thrown in), and the elderly main character, Maud, reminds me quite a bit of Miss Marple, except for one key difference: instead of solving all of the mysteries, Maud is the one committing all of the murders . . .  

“Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise” by Katherine Rundell

This tiny little hand-sized book showed up in my Christmas stocking, because what better, more magical place for it? It is a collection of essays extolling the virtues and praising the merits of children’s fiction. Its purported intent is to convince adult readers to give the genre a chance. In reality, anyone reading this book was most likely an avid reader as a child, and it serves as a nostalgic reminder of the books we loved way back when. To me, it's more of a summons back to what we knew and loved rather than a suggestion to try something as yet untried. 

Though there is a bit of name-dropping involved (or, I guess what I actually mean is title-dropping?), there wasn't as much as I expected. In other words, if you're coming to this book with the expectation that you will find myriad recommendations regarding which children's books you should read, you will be disappointed. But if you want to be bolstered in your desire to revisit the novels of your youth (or be encouraged to discover new ones), you'll find all the bolstering and encouragement here.

I finished reading this book before I intended to. I was on what I assumed was the penultimate essay, a half dozen or so pages from the end, and I had just told myself that I would finish that essay and read the final one later, when poof, Acknowledgements. Not that this was unsurvivable. Just thought I would warn you ahead of time: the essays end on page 63. But no worries: the subsequent excerpt from Rundell's novel The Explorer is a treat.

“Little Nothing” by Marisa Silver

I spent a looo o o o ong time not reading this book. I can't even remember when I first picked it up, but it's entirely likely that it was in mid-September. The story did not immediately grab me, and I spent less and less time reading it until there was a period of weeks when I didn't touch it at all. And I'm really not sure why. It wasn't difficult, or poorly written, or boring. 

It was weird. In the style of a folk tale or legend, it tells the story of Pavla, born a dwarf (hence her nickname, Little Nothing) who has a beautiful face and golden hair. Pavla's parents are elderly, and they worry about how she will live after they die. Somehow they decide the best course of action is to get Pavla stretched to a normal height so that she can find a husband. The charlatan named Smetanka is actually able to do this stretching, thanks to an ingenious table-cum-torture device created by a resourceful young man named Danilo. The only problem is that Pavla ends up looking like a wolf girl, which kind of foils her parents' plans. Eventually Danilo and Pavla end up in a traveling carnival sideshow . . . and then Pavla kills and eats Smetanka and turns into a wolf. (That's almost 100 pages in, and probably counts as a huge spoiler, especially considering that it's not mentioned in the blurb, so I extend to you my deepest apologies. But I can't imagine how I can write about this book in such a way that I will remember it without mentioning the wolf thing.) 

The rest of the story brings in murders and wolf cubs and prisons for the criminally insane (or just for criminals) and escapes and clockwork and digging tunnels for water pipes and, quietly in the background, war. The ending is quite ambiguous.