1. I enjoyed both of the graphic nonfiction memoirs I checked out from the library. The colors and composition of some pages in
This Beautiful, Ridiculous City were stunning, but the human figure drawing was less impressive. I picked it up because of the cover, but was disappointed that the narrative spent more time on flashbacks than on New York (the beautiful, ridiculous city). The memoir is about an Indian who moves to New York for grad school and to escape an abusive partner. It had some interesting facts about India, but I felt underwhelmed by the story overall, possibly because it lacked focus. I guess real life is like that.
Breadcrumbs: Coming of Age in Post-Soviet Poland had better story and art, and I recommend it.
2. I must have mixed up which book titles that mention paladins I wanted to read, because I was surprised to discover I was reading a romance: Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher. I also tried Paladin's Hope, but I didn't like the romantic relationship of either novel. However, the B plots of both involved corpses and horror, which were great, so I at least finished the books. Then I read
A Sorceress Comes to Call by the same author; this one is dark fantasy with only a minor romance subplot, and it works much better.
3. Despite finding Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty somewhat disappointing, I read the sequel,
Chaos Terminal. Having listened to the audiobooks, I've decided that the narrator is only so-so, but the problem is the book itself. I'm not sure what I wanted from solitary humans living with aliens on a sentient space station, but I didn't get it. I didn't like the characters, or the mystery, or the prose style.
4. Something I did enjoy: relistening to podfics of
Holmes/Watson stories by Katie Forsythe. Listening to
That Which Gives Extra (read by luzula) immediately after "The Naval Treaty" as read by a serious British man in an audiobook of
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes was especially entertaining. The
Forsythian conceit is that Watson as the writer of Holmes' biography is leaving out key details or misrepresenting events to hide his relationship with Holmes. Comparing the first scenes of
That Which Gives Extra and
The Naval Treaty, you can see the radically different context for Watson's ejaculation "A man's, surely!" and the complete removal of Watson's wife, who in the official story is introduced and seamlessly dispensed with by agreeing with Watson suspiciously quickly that he should go hang out with Holmes instead. Watson's wife is usually treated this way, to the extent that nothing in the stories would change if Watson, in fact, was not married to a woman and still lived with Holmes. (The Jeremy Brett series does this as well, if I remember correctly.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mabiana
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
