Weekly-ish Reading Post
Jul. 21st, 2019 07:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maplemoodCirce by Madeline Miller: Well-researched and well-written--aside from a couple deviations it follows the myths pretty closely, so the plot isn't all too unexpected and the middle chapters dragged a bit for me. I'm also not a huge fan of the way Miller chose to explain Circe's decision to turn the sailors who arrive on Aeaea into pigs(she was raped after welcoming the first crew who landed--it's not as graphic as it could be but at this point I feel like retellings featuring Strong Female Mythological Characters almost always involve rape, which is actually more a beef with that trope than Circe itself now that I think about it). But the last few chapters, and especially the ending, made up for everything else. There's a bit of an unexpected twist that I really dug, and the very last scene is lovely.
Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat: A memoir focused on the author's relationship with her father, who immigrated to the US when she was a toddler, and her uncle, whom she lived with in Haiti until she was twelve years old. I don't have much else to say about this one except that I really, really enjoyed it. It's very honest and some parts are brutal (in a nutshell: immigration policy in the US is massively screwed up and always has been; the same goes for US foreign policy), but overall the writing is matter-of-fact and warm. Love and deep family connections really shine through.
My Heart is Laughing by Rose Lagercrantz: A really cute chapter book translated from Swedish. It's also the second in a series, so now I want to read the rest.
On to Book Fourteen of War and Peace. If I'm being honest with myself I'll probably skim (or outright skip) the last here's-my-master's-thesis-on-history epilogue...or maybe not. We'll see. Either way, the end is in sight and I'm still not ready (though very much ready for Natasha and Pierre to admit their feelings to each other--again--and get together already).
Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat: A memoir focused on the author's relationship with her father, who immigrated to the US when she was a toddler, and her uncle, whom she lived with in Haiti until she was twelve years old. I don't have much else to say about this one except that I really, really enjoyed it. It's very honest and some parts are brutal (in a nutshell: immigration policy in the US is massively screwed up and always has been; the same goes for US foreign policy), but overall the writing is matter-of-fact and warm. Love and deep family connections really shine through.
My Heart is Laughing by Rose Lagercrantz: A really cute chapter book translated from Swedish. It's also the second in a series, so now I want to read the rest.
On to Book Fourteen of War and Peace. If I'm being honest with myself I'll probably skim (or outright skip) the last here's-my-master's-thesis-on-history epilogue...or maybe not. We'll see. Either way, the end is in sight and I'm still not ready (though very much ready for Natasha and Pierre to admit their feelings to each other--again--and get together already).