Things I've Read, January 2015: Misspent titles and Newbery winners
Dear reader,
It's been sort of a strange summer for reading. Maybe that's because we haven't been able to make it away on holidays yet, but I have such a strong association between summer holidays and reading lots that I can only feel a little sad at the lack of books on my finished list.
I hope the summer has been better for you in terms of reading. I hope Christmas brought books because books are still consistently the best possible present.
For that very reason, I started a tradition of ebook Secret Santa. while there was only a grand total of six participants, at the same time, there were six people! Merrily conniving and scheming to give books away! I call that a success. If you're interested the books were:
The Martian by Andy Weir (smart, fun, austronaut survival-y)
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (touching, rom-com-y)
Heat and Light by Ellen Van Neerven (award-winning, Australian)
Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje (eloquent, memoir-y)
The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan (essays, what could have been)
Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn (satire, journalistic)
And speaking of books, I read Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins, which (despite how the title sounds) isn't fantasy. It's a lovely collection of short stories set in the American West, mostly in modern times. There's a haunting feel to the collection and there's tonal similarities to McCarthy, or Faulkner, but ultimately she emerges as her own voice. Recommended.
On the YA front I read From the Mixed-Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler, which (despite how the title sounds) is a gem of a book. It's a Newbery winner from back in 1968, and carries with it an innocence and adventure of that time: the story is of two siblings who run away to live in the Met in New York. It's about secrets and the things which are ultimately your own, and I loved every bit of it.
On a similar line of children's classics was The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, which is another, older, Newbery winner ('78 this time). I'm a bit of a sucker for the trope that it centers around: eccentric old millionaire gathers a bunch of strangers and tells them they have to solve a series of clues to gain his inheritance. But it's executed with such fierce verve here, with the characters and hints revolving like an intricate puzzle ... which is exactly what it is.
Finally, I read Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey, which is a fun space opera romp set in an awkward phase of the near future where humans have space travel ... don't rightly know what to do with it. Some of the characters are bit more wooden than I would have liked, but ultimately it's the kind of holiday read I like: fun and fast-paced without insulting the intelligence.
Because of course, holidays are about reading.
If you read any of these things, or want to recommend something to me, I would love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading,
Guan