Media Round Up: Return of the Reread!
Oct. 29th, 2020 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofgloryThe Queen’s Thief Series by Megan Whalen Turner — The first of these books came out in 1996 and I read it soon after, the last book Return of the Thief came out earlier this month. So I set out to reread the whole series. These books are very detailed and complex and I wanted them fresh in my mind before reading the last one.
It always feels a bit like a trip back in time to read childhood favorites. I still adore these books. The character! The twisty plots! I did read them more critically this time, and I’m a bit uncomfortable with the way the bad guys are exocitised, and with the author's philosophy of when violence is acceptable, but this is hardly enough to ruin them for me. I thought the final book really stuck the landing, and that the ending was very satisfying.
Driftwood by Marie Brennan — I picked this up because I’m a fan of Brennan’s work, and decided to read it on this whim since it was one my ereader. This is a mosaic novel. It’s several stories set in the same world but written at different times, put together with a framing story. I liked the setting of these a lot! It's a bunch of worlds that have all ended that somehow get glomped up together. I liked all the little bits of culture and how most of the stories focused on urban places. I did end up skipping one of the stories because it had child abuse sucicide attempts and that was just to heavy for me right now. But overall it was good!
Love to Everyone by Hilary McKay — I’m mad at this book! I’m generally fond of this author, and find her books charming, and I mostly found this one charming despite the fact that it is set against the background of WWI and several characters are in the army. These characters were first introduced when the characters in another of McKay’s books set in the present day, ended up finding their letters. So I knew a little bit about them going in. But the thing that really bothered me with this book was the fate of the one queer character. I also wanted the author to make his queerness clearer on the page.
The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture by John Kieschnick — more academic history of material culture in China. It’s nice to be enjoying these kinds of books again. As the tile says this one focuses on the impact of Buddhism. I overall enjoyed this but I wanted it to get a bit more into the craft aspects. I liked the latter chapters which focused more on the society wide impacts like bridges, more than the earlier chapters which focused on objects used specifically in Buddhist practice, like monks’ robes.
Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, episodes 26-35 I think — R and are still watching this, and enjoying it, though we don’t have that much time together. We just watched an episode long flashback, and next time hopefully we will resolve our cliffhanger, that happened the episode before.
It always feels a bit like a trip back in time to read childhood favorites. I still adore these books. The character! The twisty plots! I did read them more critically this time, and I’m a bit uncomfortable with the way the bad guys are exocitised, and with the author's philosophy of when violence is acceptable, but this is hardly enough to ruin them for me. I thought the final book really stuck the landing, and that the ending was very satisfying.
Driftwood by Marie Brennan — I picked this up because I’m a fan of Brennan’s work, and decided to read it on this whim since it was one my ereader. This is a mosaic novel. It’s several stories set in the same world but written at different times, put together with a framing story. I liked the setting of these a lot! It's a bunch of worlds that have all ended that somehow get glomped up together. I liked all the little bits of culture and how most of the stories focused on urban places. I did end up skipping one of the stories because it had child abuse sucicide attempts and that was just to heavy for me right now. But overall it was good!
Love to Everyone by Hilary McKay — I’m mad at this book! I’m generally fond of this author, and find her books charming, and I mostly found this one charming despite the fact that it is set against the background of WWI and several characters are in the army. These characters were first introduced when the characters in another of McKay’s books set in the present day, ended up finding their letters. So I knew a little bit about them going in. But the thing that really bothered me with this book was the fate of the one queer character. I also wanted the author to make his queerness clearer on the page.
The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture by John Kieschnick — more academic history of material culture in China. It’s nice to be enjoying these kinds of books again. As the tile says this one focuses on the impact of Buddhism. I overall enjoyed this but I wanted it to get a bit more into the craft aspects. I liked the latter chapters which focused more on the society wide impacts like bridges, more than the earlier chapters which focused on objects used specifically in Buddhist practice, like monks’ robes.
Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, episodes 26-35 I think — R and are still watching this, and enjoying it, though we don’t have that much time together. We just watched an episode long flashback, and next time hopefully we will resolve our cliffhanger, that happened the episode before.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-29 10:49 pm (UTC)