I'm reading through the Clarke Award nominees, and I'm getting very tired of all the wallowing in dystopian futures that have been constructed solely to indict the trajectory of the present.
Like, I get it, SF is and has always been political. And that's fine! But can we please have a STORY as well? And fewer footnotes referencing Supreme Court case outrages?
@ergative@bookstodon@books ah yes, this one of my bugbears too! I don’t want to be preached at, I want a good story. And any good story will have things to say - but no story and I’ll stop reading.
42 Skelton's Guide to Domestic Poisons, David Stafford. This is both a good and odd book. Set in 1929 in the lead up to the so called "Flapper election". It starts with Arthur Skelton being lauded after getting his client found not guilty. This raises his reputation and his visibility in the public eye. He is offered a case defending Mary Dutton, who is accused of poisoning her husband Ted. He came home from WW1 a changed man and was abusive to Mary. #books@bookstodon tbc
@bookstodon#books
And here comes the odd element. Arthur is not necessarily interested in finding the truth, his aim is to defend his client against the charge. So the question of who did murder Ted is never fully resolved. The police corruption and embezzlement is never got to the bottom of. There are any number of loose threads left dangling because they are not useful to Arthur in the defence of his client.
@bookstodon#books
So while it is categorised as a mystery, it is a mystery without resolution. You are left with speculation about the murderer and their motives.
There are plenty of interesting characters in here. Arthur is an outsider, being from a working class background. As is his clerk. And his wife is unusual, being a school teacher with socialist leanings.
It's an enjoyable read but not one if you like your mysteries all neatly solved and tidied up at the end.
I'll read book 2 soon.
"What mazes there are in this world. The branches of trees, the filigree of roots, the matrix of crystals, the streets her father recreated in his models. Mazes in the nodules on the murex shells and in the textures of sycamore bark and inside the hollow bones of eagles. None more complicated than the human brain, Etienne would say, what may be the most complex object in existence; one wet kilogram within which spin universes."
Something a little different this week: after finishing Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, I'm pivoting hard to The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. I didn't love Tales of the City, and I think a large part of that had to do with Maupin's narration: for me, his North Carolina accent didn't translate well to a character driven story set in 1970s San Francisco. Hoping the next book will taste better (pun intended). 😂
I just finished my 1st book "Warbreaker" by Brandon Sanderson. I really liked it. Does anyone know if this book can be compared to his other work? And what books would you recommend? (I'd rather not start on long (unfinished) series though.
@ramonvandam@bookstodon I have commitment issues 😉
(although mist born is on my to-read list) Better to try a new standalone book out first before I start a series. Thanks for the recommendation.
They currently have a $5.99 sale on fiction, and the sale titles are surprisingly popular.
On a related note, if you need a specific book, and want to do a price comparison across various sellers and conditions, I have found https://www.bookfinder.com to be very helpful.
To describe the plot is to spoil the book. This is an Outer Wilds situation where every person of impeccable taste will beg you to experience it and never look it up online beforehand. 5.0 stars out of 5.0.
This is a book that wants you to read it. It delights in being read. So do that. A perfect little book that feels neither wasteful nor lean.
It is Just Right.
The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.
This series keeps catching my eye because they’ve done well with the evocative matching titles…but for the life of me I could not work why they’d messed up one.
A Court This Cruel and Lovely
A Crown This Cold and Heavy
A Queen This Fierce and Deadly
But, what, stuck in the middle there, A Kingdom This Empty and Cursed. Sounds so wrong! All they had to do was A Kingdom This Cursed and Empty and it would have matched!
Hi there, @bookstodon , what are you reading these days? I'm half-way through Normal Rules don't Apply, Kate Atkinson, and it's really good! (a collection of interconnected short stories) Deliciously ominous, with unexplained deaths and weird job interview / date questions. "If you were a (sandwich / vegetable / disease), which would you be?" #amreading#bookstodon#shortfiction#stories
@ferngirl@bookstodon "Murder Road" by Simone St. James (a favorite author), which I am thoroughly enjoying! She writes paranormal thrillers, so very creepy but not straight up horror.
After that will be, "The Dead Detective" by William Heffernan, about a detective with the ability to hear "the postmortem whispers of murder victims." Okay, then.
Plus, a collection of short stories, "Memphis Noir," which caught my attention because I live in Memphis.
@ferngirl@bookstodon Some "golden age" mysteries- the current one is "Touch and Go", a Patricia Wentworth thriller/mystery from 1934. I find them soothing, and some of them are even good!