chronically fatigued (like long covid, wear your masks) trying to motivate myself to read more. goal for now is a book a week, but recognise it will be less, and sometimes the books will be crap and sometimes they'll be very short. when my brain's managing ok enough i like books from other parts of the world. if i was healthy i'd be an archeologist. or an anthropologist. or a historian. or an ethnomusicologist. but i'm not. wear your masks. please.
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original title: Kvitleik
this is a short story but as i haven't managed past the first chapter of anything in months and it's published as a stand alone, i'll let it be counted towards my goal.
it's moody and evocative, told as a single paragraph interior monologue of an experience the narrator/protagonist doesn't understand himself, but in the end it's perhaps quite simple.
An academic text on a subject I didn't know anything about wasn't necessarily the wisest choice for me these days, but I've been watching a fair bit of Asian drama series, including some in historical Chinese settings and it's about the only non-mainstream book available through the e-book system our library uses so I wanted to give it some love in hopes of encouraging them to add more niche topics. I'm in no position to comment on accuracy. I found the contextual essays readable enough and I've learned bits and pieces of history and culture, like a section on filial piety, which have helped me better understand a few of the modern telly dramas. My impression of the longer versions of the plays is that they're prone to long Wagneresque narrative monologues rather than dialogue and action and it's all of course very male-orientated. The only play I enjoyed reading …
An academic text on a subject I didn't know anything about wasn't necessarily the wisest choice for me these days, but I've been watching a fair bit of Asian drama series, including some in historical Chinese settings and it's about the only non-mainstream book available through the e-book system our library uses so I wanted to give it some love in hopes of encouraging them to add more niche topics. I'm in no position to comment on accuracy. I found the contextual essays readable enough and I've learned bits and pieces of history and culture, like a section on filial piety, which have helped me better understand a few of the modern telly dramas. My impression of the longer versions of the plays is that they're prone to long Wagneresque narrative monologues rather than dialogue and action and it's all of course very male-orientated. The only play I enjoyed reading was a more philosophical one called The Bamboo-Leaf Boat. But it was worth the effort and finishing it certainly feels like an achievement.
There's a very old Jewish teaching which says "whoever saves a life, saves an entire world." This gentle and reflective novella, in which nothing much happens and yet lives change, is a version of this, told through the details of the quiet life of a man in an Irish village.
1913: Suffragette throws herself under the King's horse
1970: Feminists storm Miss World
Now: Caitlin …
The combination of outrageous memoir and opinionated insights on being a woman is more than the sum of its parts. Many nods of recognition, though not the outrageous parts :)
A girl, Nell was convinced, should have a good time at seventeen, have met her …
Big things happen but it's told in a low stakes kind of way. Easy to read, calm, measured, with simple insights.
Isma is free. After years spent raising her twin siblings in the wake of their …
Content warning Content warning
The combination of Antigone, the psychological and physical abuse of jihadi grooming, and the horrors of present day UK media, social media and politics makes for a difficult read.
I heard Kamila Shamsie on Krishnan Guru-Murthy's "Ways to Change the World" podcast, thought she was very intelligent and articulate, and went to see what the library's e-book system had from her. This was the only offering unfortunately. Shamsie is indeed intelligent and articulate and her writing ability makes the rawness of the book's difficult combination bearable.
I feel ill-equipped to comment on the content. It's her lane.
Content warning sort of spoilers
I found this really hard going. The happiest parts are raced through, with much of the book either overshadowed by upcoming sadness or mired in present sadness. Fortunately the bit where the author piles on the tragedy is raced through as well, but by that point my reaction was just "oh come on, enough already." The characters are cliché and stereotypes, and the men tend to be rather controlling. Which makes sense for some of them, as the bulk of the book is about a young woman in the early 1900s. It's a story within a story. It didn't work for me. The first of seven books, it ends with hints towards some unanswered questions. If someone has a blog post with the answers I'd read that but I'm not putting myself through more of this series. There are better, more rewarding books to read.
From Belasco's play came both this novel and Puccini's opera La Fanciulla del West. It's …
From Belasco's play came both this novel and Puccini's opera La Fanciulla del West. It's a story of love and redemption set in a mining community in gold rush California. The Girl, whose name we don't learn until half way through, owns a saloon, teaches the miners to read and everyone looks out for each other. If you know the opera, you know the rest - it's true to the novel/play, including lines of dialogue. It's still worth reading this novel, even if it does lack music, as it's excellent in its own right and it fills in many details. We actually meet Nina Micheltoreña!
And if you don't know the story, you have all this to look forward to <3
If you can be persuaded to give opera a try, Eva-Maria Westbroek understands Minnie well and brings enormous heart to the role. A week's free trial from Met Opera …
From Belasco's play came both this novel and Puccini's opera La Fanciulla del West. It's a story of love and redemption set in a mining community in gold rush California. The Girl, whose name we don't learn until half way through, owns a saloon, teaches the miners to read and everyone looks out for each other. If you know the opera, you know the rest - it's true to the novel/play, including lines of dialogue. It's still worth reading this novel, even if it does lack music, as it's excellent in its own right and it fills in many details. We actually meet Nina Micheltoreña!
And if you don't know the story, you have all this to look forward to <3
If you can be persuaded to give opera a try, Eva-Maria Westbroek understands Minnie well and brings enormous heart to the role. A week's free trial from Met Opera in NY will let you stream an excellent production with Westbroek in the title role.
Highly recommend the book as well. Much respect for Belasco. www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58800
Getting the most out of your garden for the least amount of work. Advice on …
For a book about cutting out unnecessary work in the garden, parts of this are a lot of less than necessary work to read. Especially in the early chapters I found myself just wanting the author to get on with advice for what to do and how to do it more efficiently, but I suspect he rather enjoyed the cathartic snark in writing it. The fruit section was probably the most useful to me, but only because I know so little. Tidbits buried in the rest.
feel good beach romance/friendship novel
Content warning sort of maybe spoiler
It was alright. The characters were likeable, though the women especially live a life I don't really get, where SUVs are important and sex doesn't happen outside marriage. The ending was cheesy in that US public declaration of undying love kind of way and that really detracted for me, thus a lower rating. Also repeated mentions of physical beauty/handsomeness. Just let the characters be likeable/lovable for who they are inside. The author did well enough with that it didn't need the physical idealisation. Overall though, it didn't satisfy. Immediately on finishing it I went looking for another free e-book to read and haven't bothered adding it to my Bookwyrm until now. Whereas after a really excellent satisfying book I'm quite content to let it linger for days, weeks even. More pages read, closer to my reading goal, but not necessarily for the better. Perhaps as good as I'm going to do right now, after a difficult winter and start to 2023.
Five stars is frustrating. I'm inclined to rate is comparison with others in its genre (very broadly speaking), thus four stars, but if I were to compare it to other books I'd have to give it three at most, probably two but that feels so very low. It was good, not great, and succeeded at what it was trying to do.
I read this as a free e-book. It was a pleasant way to spend some evenings.
The mid-twenties protagonist is growing up and also inclined to imagine a bit too much, which is a good way of writing a low-stakes "cozy crime" novel. The genre-driven nature of publishing seems to push books into either crime or romance, but neither are truly central here. Instead it's more about the young woman, her aunt and creating a life worth writing about.
Content warning Maybe sort of spoilers
#ReadingOpera I suppose I can recognise why a different time might fall into raptures over this book, valuing tragedy as a sign of seriousness and all. I spent most of it in various degrees of being pissed off with des Grieux. We see Manon primarily through his eyes, she does very little and what she does is far from the sweetness and perfection he accords her. If the author intended that, to heighten des Grieux's tragedy - and for all that the English title and operas focus on her, it is entirely his story - that level of self-reflection was not clear. Perhaps most interesting to this modern reader was how the classism which drives so much of the plot is taken for granted, a normal and accepted part of life, and not commented on until the end. The de rigeur sexism and objectification of women doesn't even get that much recognition. At least the operas have music.
Dumas' semi-autobiographical novel of the love between a Parisian courtesan and a young man. It …
Cannot recommend this highly enough. Great emotional sensitivity and intelligence, looking into the nuanced whys of the life of a Paris courtesan and the double standards she contends with. Opera lovers will recognise much of it, even if it does lack music ;) Free to download or read here: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1608 #ReadingOpera
Content warning very mild spoiler but it's hardly a surprise
Read this because it was a free ebook and i'd gotten stuck on other things. It went quickly, in part because i was reading to get it done with, which isn't a good sign. The characters are likeable, except for the irredeemable ex. Maybe it's where my head is at, or maybe it reminded me too much of how things really haven't worked out for me at all, but it left me more upset than oxytocin'ed.
A collection of science fiction stories, art, and essays exploring human futures powered by solar …
The output of a workshop involving authors, artists and researchers imagining solar energy-centric societies and likely problems in their implementation. I found out about this through a #solarpunk hashtag and had the mistaken idea it would offer hope. There is some but instead I'm left feeling down and aware of how likely it is that, even as the planet forces our societies to change, we'll do as little as we can get away with. Maybe if I'd read it at another time, or I was healthy enough to be involved in these sorts of projects I'd be motivated towards hope. It's a free e-book, via this link csi.asu.edu/books/weight/