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What Are You Reading Weekend
May. 19th, 2018 05:50 pmCurrently Reading: Charlotte Bronte, 'Vilette', which I am loving; Laurie Halse Anderson, 'Chains', for matu grading purposes; still working on Simone de Beauvoir. I started an Alyssa Cole, but didn't get more than a page or two into it - not for lack of quality, I just didn't feel the romance novel vibe at the time.
Recently Finished: So many things.
Maps by Nuruddin Farah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow. This is... a complex, fascinating book. It's difficult to follow in places, difficult to process in many, but very very good. I'm uncomfortable with the undercurrent of nebulously-described maybe-sexual-abuse the young protagonist experienced from his foster-mother, but uncomfortable in what is I think a literarily productive sense? If that makes sense. I don't think the book /intends/ to clarify the situation, and by the end you realise the protagonist may be a wildly unreliable narrator.
Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this! I read it alongside the first part of Villette, which makes for an interesting counterpoint in 'studies in social structures working to limit women's potential but also limiting observer's likelihood to engage with women's full personhood'.
This book has many things I like, including a strong sense of place (Melbourne - I've never been to Footscray before but Pung's description of it sounds a lot like my Sydney stomping grounds, minus the hipsters. Perhaps the hipsters are now in footscray, too), interlaced narrative and retrospective, and a sense of humour and sheer love of the people it depicts. The prose is easy to read but not plain - the occasional over-stretched analogy, but mostly delightfully perceptive description and comparison.
Pericles by William Shakespeare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is completely mad and I love it.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ray Bradbury can't imagine anyone engaging intelligently or fulfillingly with pop culture, hasn't figured out that if a woman can't describe to him what's going on in a soap opera she watches regularly it's not that she doesn't know, it's that she can't be bothered telling him because he won't care. Also he somehow thinks that the great saviours of books will be white male professors.
I am choosing to believe that Bradbury's universe is full of fangirls madly churning out 'zines, for canon they've long lost the source content for, passing them from hand to hand or memorising fanworks as filks. In fact, I am choosing to believe his wife's poetry-phobic friends are doing just that.
Educating Rita by Willy Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rita deserved so much better than this dude. And what IS it with UK authors (David Lodge, the Pythons, now Willy Russell) depicting Australian universities as a backwater where no standards apply? Ugh.
Comfort Food by Ellen Van Neerven
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Hmm. I bought this last year after the author got a massive swathe of harrassment on social media following the appearance of one of her poems in the HSC english exam. I didn't actually like the poem very much, but thought I /would/ have as a teenager, and certainly it was by no means a poor choice for the exam. I've liked some of her work in Meanjin or Overland, so I ordered the collection.
By and large, I found it kind of... flat. Over-relying on line breaks, and often not particularly striking in wording or effect. I did notice that I liked more poems from the last third of the book than the first two - if it's organised chronologically (which I think it might be?), then I'm liking her work more and more as time goes on. 'Iris Brides' is particularly excellent - I don't understand it but I do like it a lot.
Up Next: I've got more matu reading - notably, 'Are You Experienced' and the Catcher in the Rye. I'm planning on starting the last Overland soon, too - ideally before the NEXT one arrives!
Music notes: I haven't acquired anything new since last I posted, but I did discover a pretty good jazz singer. Stacey Kent - she played in geneva for one night only, and I went with my officemate. I listened through her whole back catalogue on Spotify in preparation, and some of it I like a lot.
I also killed a computer (again), and consequently, lost my accumulated iTunes states for the past few months -I reloaded my backup from February. The purchases since then I've downloaded, but lost their play counts. Alas.
Recently Finished: So many things.
Maps by Nuruddin FarahMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow. This is... a complex, fascinating book. It's difficult to follow in places, difficult to process in many, but very very good. I'm uncomfortable with the undercurrent of nebulously-described maybe-sexual-abuse the young protagonist experienced from his foster-mother, but uncomfortable in what is I think a literarily productive sense? If that makes sense. I don't think the book /intends/ to clarify the situation, and by the end you realise the protagonist may be a wildly unreliable narrator.
Unpolished Gem by Alice PungMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this! I read it alongside the first part of Villette, which makes for an interesting counterpoint in 'studies in social structures working to limit women's potential but also limiting observer's likelihood to engage with women's full personhood'.
This book has many things I like, including a strong sense of place (Melbourne - I've never been to Footscray before but Pung's description of it sounds a lot like my Sydney stomping grounds, minus the hipsters. Perhaps the hipsters are now in footscray, too), interlaced narrative and retrospective, and a sense of humour and sheer love of the people it depicts. The prose is easy to read but not plain - the occasional over-stretched analogy, but mostly delightfully perceptive description and comparison.
Pericles by William ShakespeareMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is completely mad and I love it.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ray Bradbury can't imagine anyone engaging intelligently or fulfillingly with pop culture, hasn't figured out that if a woman can't describe to him what's going on in a soap opera she watches regularly it's not that she doesn't know, it's that she can't be bothered telling him because he won't care. Also he somehow thinks that the great saviours of books will be white male professors.
I am choosing to believe that Bradbury's universe is full of fangirls madly churning out 'zines, for canon they've long lost the source content for, passing them from hand to hand or memorising fanworks as filks. In fact, I am choosing to believe his wife's poetry-phobic friends are doing just that.
Educating Rita by Willy RussellMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rita deserved so much better than this dude. And what IS it with UK authors (David Lodge, the Pythons, now Willy Russell) depicting Australian universities as a backwater where no standards apply? Ugh.
Comfort Food by Ellen Van NeervenMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Hmm. I bought this last year after the author got a massive swathe of harrassment on social media following the appearance of one of her poems in the HSC english exam. I didn't actually like the poem very much, but thought I /would/ have as a teenager, and certainly it was by no means a poor choice for the exam. I've liked some of her work in Meanjin or Overland, so I ordered the collection.
By and large, I found it kind of... flat. Over-relying on line breaks, and often not particularly striking in wording or effect. I did notice that I liked more poems from the last third of the book than the first two - if it's organised chronologically (which I think it might be?), then I'm liking her work more and more as time goes on. 'Iris Brides' is particularly excellent - I don't understand it but I do like it a lot.
Up Next: I've got more matu reading - notably, 'Are You Experienced' and the Catcher in the Rye. I'm planning on starting the last Overland soon, too - ideally before the NEXT one arrives!
Music notes: I haven't acquired anything new since last I posted, but I did discover a pretty good jazz singer. Stacey Kent - she played in geneva for one night only, and I went with my officemate. I listened through her whole back catalogue on Spotify in preparation, and some of it I like a lot.
I also killed a computer (again), and consequently, lost my accumulated iTunes states for the past few months -I reloaded my backup from February. The purchases since then I've downloaded, but lost their play counts. Alas.