Katy is a modern retelling of What Katy Did, by Jacqueline Wilson. I quite enjoyed it. I like the original, but there are a lot of problems with the portrayal of disability from a modern viewpoint, and I like how it dealt with those. I've always liked Elsie best, and though she's slightly less sweet here, I still liked her.
Eyes of the Dragon I've read before. It's part of my Stephen King Chronological Reading Project, and I need to write a longer post about it soon.
Ilium I read for a bookclub. I then slept right through the bookclub. I liked the book though; I really liked Song of Kali and don't enjoy Simmons' hard sci-fi quite as much, but this was okay.
Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues is a book I've had on my to-read list for a while. I like that the main character isn't an idiot and that ridiculously obvious plot points aren't dragged out. For instance, it's blatantly obvious to the reader what's going on with the heroine's fiance, and she follows in this realization only a chapter later; some novels would have dragged this mystery on for the entire story.
Three from the Gaiman Humble Bundle; two are comics and one is a collection of short stories and blog posts. Some of the short stories also show up in Trigger Warning.
Love Lessons is a book I've read before, which I decided to pick up on Audible. I'm glad I did; it's one of the sadder Jacqueline Wilson books for slightly older readers. On this occasion it reminded me a lot of Denise Robertson's The Bad Sister, which I read ten weeks ago.
Two of these books were technically on my unread pile but they're not actually on the image. One because I started it before my last birthday and the second because I thought I'd deleted it from my Kindle.
The one I thought I'd deleted was Malicious by James Raven. I have a habit of doing that, getting cheap or free Kindle books and then getting rid of them when I feel overwhelmed by my unread pile. This one was actually rather good, so I'm glad I did get to read it!
Malicious is about a policewoman who is addicted to online porn. And a hacker who specialises into watching people on their webcams and then blackmailing them. It's a nice little mystery and the internet aspects were well done; it wasn't a "down with the kids" sort of thing. I quite enjoyed it.
The one I started before my last birthday was It. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I read it as part of my Stephen King project, and there will be a longer post on it posted shortly
(I'm actually writing them both at the same time, and I finished that one first).
My unread pile has jumped up like crazy this week. This is because of a Gaiman Humble Bundle - 18 manuscripts on a pay-what-you-like basis! You got the basic bundle for whatever you wanted, unlocked a few more by paying more than average, and unlocked a couple more by paying over $15. The average was up to $18 when I got around to it, so I just paid a round $20. Actually, I paid that twice because it stalled on the paypal option and I didn't think it had gone through. Hopefully they'll reply to my emails with a refund soon.
I've read of those books so far; Manuscript found in a Milk Bottle, which is a cute short story, and Love Fishie, which is Neil Gaiman's kid's vanity project, and about as a good as that implies.
Trigger Warning wasn't actually part of the Humble Bundle. It's an audiobook, written and read by Neil Gaiman, of short stories. I liked them, and I'm getting a lot better at concentrating on new audiobooks.
The Illustrated Mum and Stargirl are both old favourites. I listened to Stargirl as an audiobook for the first time, and I only wish the reader had sounded a bit less like Gilbert Gottfried. He had a kind of annoying nasal voice totally unlike how I imagined Leo sounding.
Although Stargirl has a sequel I prefer to pretend that it doesn't exist. I feel that the reason the book works is because Stargirl is other, to us as well as to Leo. When we get inside her head the magic disappears.
The Illustrated Mum I read on Kindle. I did look at the audiobook, but the reader was doing annoying little kid voice, and, as you might expect, the illustrations are quite plot relevant.
It's from the point of view of Dolphin, daughter of Marigold and younger sister of Star. Marigold has a lot of tattoos and manic-depression/bipolar disorder. She was also a foster child, -
- and while googling I have discovered that there is a TV adaptation! Excitement! I am watching that this afternoon! It's on youtube!
- anyway, yes, Marigold was a foster child following her own mother's abuse. She's also developed a fear of hospitals, following some horrible experiences.
All of this means that Star and Dolphin cover for Marigold when she has one of her "spells"; they don't want to be taken into care, and nor do they want to send her to hospital. So they just cope.
As the older sister, this mostly falls on Star and we enter the story at the point at which she is becoming sick of it.
Reading it as an adult (instead of a teenager) there are a few things I didn't pick up on before. Mostly, how utterly unlikely it is that Dolphin should - spoiler alert - find her father so easily.
And it turns out that the same company who televised The Illustrated Mum also did Double Act. Squee!
I also never realised previously that Marigold's frog tattoo is actually for Dolphin's father, though I think I probably did twig that Dolphin was named that because her father taught Marigold how to swim. Though perhaps not, I can be a bit oblivious.
I've just finished reading Stephen King's It, and watched the first episode of the mini-series. I didn't find it scary, but I did find it quite interesting.
It was released in 1986 and written over the four years prior to that. Creepily, Stephen King dedicates it to his three children. It was made into a successful TV mini-series, with Tim Curry as Pennywise the Clown and I hear it's now being remade with Will Poulter in the role.
Two main characters show up in later works; Bev and Richie in 11/22/63. A character from The Shining shows up in one of the flashbacks, and Christine also appears at one point. Apparently, there's a plaque dedicated to the Losers in Dreamcatcher. And Pennywise appears in The Tommyknockers which I've not actually read yet, but which is up soon right between Eyes of the Dragon and Misery.
One of the most intriguing parts - spoiler alert - is around the way they get out of the sewers as children. They make love. One girl, to six boys.
I think most writers wouldn't touch that subject with a barge pole. But it does lead me to an interesting thought.
See, as adults, all seven are wildly successful. They're also sterile.
We know that It's power is focused on children. Adult's don't believe in it, so they don't see anything to do with it; they don't see globs of blood, they don't notice trends in murders and so on. Perhaps the sterility is caused by It to prevent these seven ever having that power of childish belief attached to them again. And perhaps the glittering careers are a bribe to stay away, just in case.
If so, It scuppered itself by taking their memories away. Because those memories and experiences - including the first time they made love - is exactly the time at which they became adults. Perhaps by taking that away, a certain, important part of each of them remained childlike.
It doesn't make sense to me that It would have the power to make them successful and sterile, so perhaps both are gifts from the Turtle; one as a reward, the other to keep them childlike. In Peter Pan, the mark of adulthood is being a parent, as when Peter comes back and finds Jane in the bed and Wendy as her mother. Perhaps having children themselves would have meant letting go of their own childhood, something they couldn't afford to do.
As always, James Smythe has an excellent article on his experience rereading the book. He mentions that it is the culmination of King's work in the horror genre. Honestly, I didn't find it scary. My partner did, especially when he woke up to find me smiling at him with wide-eyes and bared teeth, before hugging him and whispering "we all float down here". I made him watch the first episode of the tv mini-series, you see.
James Smythe also mentions the size of the book. Not something I noticed, as I read it on Kindle!
As above, the next novel is Eyes of the Dragon, which I've read before. My edition was bundled, oddly, with Firestarter. I now have it as an audiobook, which is rather good.
Only two books this week - 3-9 September. One audio and one which has been on my unread pile for at least a decade.
I bought my first Asimov novel when I was fifteen or sixteen, after watching The Bicentennial Man and buying my first few Sci-Fi Masterworks novels. And since then it has been sat on my shelf. I'm relieved I finally read it.
It was pretty good! A sci-fi detective story/space opera. It's the third in a series but I don't think I missed much by not having read the others.
Shelter is another sci-fi novel. Throughout most of it, I was thinking "Oh, do fuck off Meredith". Having finished the book, I still don't think much of Meredith. It was great though. Normally with audiobooks, even ones I enjoy, I am impatient to get on with them and so I listen at 3x speed. I barely did that at all with this one. I embroidered and listened and barely noticed the hours going by.
I start college on Monday. I give myself permission now to update monthly, or even further apart, whenever I have time. Things are going to slip; while I enjoy these posts, they are low enough down my list of priorities that nothing disastrous will happen if they slip.
Five books this week! One library book, three audiobooks and a Kindle book I've had for a while.
I got Scissors, Paper, Stone because it's narrated by Justine Eyre. She has the most amazing voice. The book was okay, maybe not something I've have chosen to listen to by itself. I'm getting better at paying attention to audiobooks, though!
The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe was the library book. It's about a society in which dying from anything other than old age is so rare that documentary film crews want to film anyone who does. It didn't go the way I thought it would; I expect a more behind-the-scenes style thing like Chart Throb. It was interesting. And short!
The Exit is the Kindle book I've had for a few months. It was fascinating. Sickening and horrific at some points, but interesting. A major strain of the story is a silly teenage girl maturing into adulthood. Another strain is living with Alzheimers.
Choose Your Own Autobiography was another audiobook. Neil Patrick Harris narrates it. The production had to abandon a lot of the concept of the 'choose your own adventure' style - NPH just tells you to 'wait a while' or to 'keep listening'. There are three card tricks which NPH talks you through and some really sweet moments. I didn't know a lot about the actor's life, but it was definitely worth listening to.
Finally, A Game for All the Family was the final Audiobook. It's another Sophie Hannah with all that that entails. If you like Sophie Hannah's work you'll like this book. If not, then you won't. Check the reviews; they're mostly 5 stars or 1 star.
Blue crosses are books I've read since my last birthday (mid August). The gold circles (which I'm going to change to squares in future) are books I've bought since my last birthday.
...I think I've found the problem.
In fairness, several of these are audiobooks. I bought myself 24 Audible credits for my birthday.
In summary; I've bought 11 new books since my birthday. I've read 5 of those as well as 2 I owned previously, which brings my total down to 83 unread, up from 79. I'm partway through two or three at the moment though, so I expect it to start coming back down. Although I just bought a new Kindle book. Fuck.
