![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So, the downside of so many book clubs working out is that I've got a lot of reading to do.
* This Is How You Lose The Time War
The audiobook is 4 hours long. I can read a book faster than I can listen to it, especially if I am trying to power through. So, why did this feel like it took 20 years to read? I would have DNF'ed it and read a summary, but since I want to be part of this book club, actually reading just seemed like a better idea.
The good news is that upcoming books in this club include Orlando, Idlewild, Before We Were Trans and Queer as Folklore. Not every month will be like this.
Imagine it's 10-15 years ago and two thirteeen year old aesthetic bloggers on tumblr are having a ongoing RP with each other. That's the energy here. And maybe that's why it works for some people, they are now 20-30 year olds who were hyper tumblr kids. It doesn't work for me. It's very overwrought and style over substance. The world building makes no sense, it's all aesthetics.
One thing in the book that did show interesting depth is that neither side is somehow better. I was curious if Garden was going to be just a little better because it's nature and rewilding, Blue made the first move and also broke with her masters first, but there is also a loss of self and they will empower nazis for their goals. Both sides are thoroughly bad. The time war is bad and neither side deserves it's agents.
At the end of the book are English-class style discussion questions and then there is a separate section with topics to enhance your book club discussion of the book, and these questions really lionize the book. IDK who wrote the two separate themes and questions sections at the end, but wow they are something. They act like the book was way more masterfully plotted then it was, like it acts like there is a level to this plot-side that literally does not exist, and it's okay that it doesn't.
There is nothing wrong with the book, it's just very not for me.
* Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Since this is maybe the most banned book in the US, I look forward to dropping it in a Little Free Library after this book club meets. I think the format really shines as a way to show some very tricky parts of queer life and not fitting in.
This books was a weird mix of highly relatable to the opposite of relatable to me. One of the comics shows a dream I used to have obsessively. Like, the Terry Moore mention and also eir reaction to The Last Herald Mage, I've never seen stuff that relatable... but also I rarely find any media relatable. Then other stuff was just not, and I'll stop myself there before this become a long semi-related ramble. Anyway, it's good an I am looking forward to passing it along.
* My next book club reads are The Ballad of Black Tom and Babel-17, but I am going to something else first. I am finished with everything I need to read for Feb. Candidates are: Ninth House, Deviant Desire and The Bottoms. I'd put Dungeon Crawler Carl on the list, but it looks like I got the audiobook not the kindle version. Maybe I'll get to that after Children of the Night, my current audiobook
* This Is How You Lose The Time War
The audiobook is 4 hours long. I can read a book faster than I can listen to it, especially if I am trying to power through. So, why did this feel like it took 20 years to read? I would have DNF'ed it and read a summary, but since I want to be part of this book club, actually reading just seemed like a better idea.
The good news is that upcoming books in this club include Orlando, Idlewild, Before We Were Trans and Queer as Folklore. Not every month will be like this.
Imagine it's 10-15 years ago and two thirteeen year old aesthetic bloggers on tumblr are having a ongoing RP with each other. That's the energy here. And maybe that's why it works for some people, they are now 20-30 year olds who were hyper tumblr kids. It doesn't work for me. It's very overwrought and style over substance. The world building makes no sense, it's all aesthetics.
One thing in the book that did show interesting depth is that neither side is somehow better. I was curious if Garden was going to be just a little better because it's nature and rewilding, Blue made the first move and also broke with her masters first, but there is also a loss of self and they will empower nazis for their goals. Both sides are thoroughly bad. The time war is bad and neither side deserves it's agents.
At the end of the book are English-class style discussion questions and then there is a separate section with topics to enhance your book club discussion of the book, and these questions really lionize the book. IDK who wrote the two separate themes and questions sections at the end, but wow they are something. They act like the book was way more masterfully plotted then it was, like it acts like there is a level to this plot-side that literally does not exist, and it's okay that it doesn't.
There is nothing wrong with the book, it's just very not for me.
* Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Since this is maybe the most banned book in the US, I look forward to dropping it in a Little Free Library after this book club meets. I think the format really shines as a way to show some very tricky parts of queer life and not fitting in.
This books was a weird mix of highly relatable to the opposite of relatable to me. One of the comics shows a dream I used to have obsessively. Like, the Terry Moore mention and also eir reaction to The Last Herald Mage, I've never seen stuff that relatable... but also I rarely find any media relatable. Then other stuff was just not, and I'll stop myself there before this become a long semi-related ramble. Anyway, it's good an I am looking forward to passing it along.
* My next book club reads are The Ballad of Black Tom and Babel-17, but I am going to something else first. I am finished with everything I need to read for Feb. Candidates are: Ninth House, Deviant Desire and The Bottoms. I'd put Dungeon Crawler Carl on the list, but it looks like I got the audiobook not the kindle version. Maybe I'll get to that after Children of the Night, my current audiobook
no subject
Date: 2025-02-10 03:21 am (UTC)From:The Ballad of Black Tom was really good (it's been awhile since I read it, but I remember being impressed), and Babel-17 was one of the Samuel R. Delany novels I read as a late teen or early 20-year-old, and again a decade or two later and then again another decade later. It's always been a reread favorite of mine.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-10 04:00 am (UTC)From:I can see why it works for people, but I am not the target audience.
I've owned some Delany books, but never read any. Both Babel-17 and Black Tom are for books clubs being run by one of our indie bookstores. I joined for the Horror book club, but since the main is doing Delany for black history month I decided to join that, too.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-10 04:20 am (UTC)From:I've been there. There are a few books like that for me; friends love them, but they either bore the pants off me, or actively repulse me.
I'd be interested in hearing what you think about Babel-17 after you read it.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-10 05:12 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2025-02-20 04:57 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2025-02-10 12:45 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2025-02-13 07:53 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2025-02-12 04:32 am (UTC)From:The only one that's on my TBR that you mentioned is Ninth House, though I don't think I'll get to it for a long while, ha.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-13 07:26 am (UTC)From: