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grayestofghostsSo, because I’ve been putting off so much, and there are some thematic similarities between the two, these are going to go together. For both of them, the bulk of the novel is about women with significant mental/learning disabilities as unreliable narrators carving out their own way.
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir of course is the 9th of the novels I read this year and is probably the easiest read of the series so far, though reading it and getting involved with the fandom on Reddit and all has made me realize that I really, really need to reread these books, that they are much denser than I originally thought. I do think that on my first reading/viewing I am mostly floating along based on vibes and then the next reading I start to get something out of it, and then probably on the third I really get it, which is a lot to ask for with such large books. I think I might start on the audio of these books, because I’ve heard the audio version is really good.
I also finally got around to reading the short stories at the end of all three and really liked them, and “The Uninvited Guest” at the end of Nona is really really good, though it doesn’t make sense until you’re nearly all the way through with Nona. It makes me want a stage play of Gideon the Ninth, it would probably make an incredible one.
Next, Poor Things by Alasdair Gray. I was kind of avoiding it because people were telling me “oh it’s like a feminist Frankenstein about women’s sexuality” as if that is not the most offputting description for me of any book ever. I went into it feeling like it was an obligation for me to read it but what nobody actually got around to telling me was that it’s actually funny. It’s a fun satire if you enjoy Victorian literature and has a lot of layers of unreliable narrators, so yes I’d recommend it. In fact the layered onion-like narrative is one of the most Frankenstein-like part of the book, which is interesting because this is the first part of the story that gets dropped in nearly every adaptation, so that was a pleasant surprise. It really is a totally different story, though. Don’t go into it expecting Frankenstein.
What’s next for me? Well, I’m still reading novels. In fact I put a whole bunch of novels on hold at the library, thinking that there would be several months of wait in between them like their estimation and most of them suddenly became due immediately, so I will have to work on that, I guess (I have no idea how Libby’s hold system works, it is very mysterious). With Arcane S2 out, there’s also probably going to be a bunch of interesting fanfiction that I’ll be diving into and may link my favorites. Who knows, I may write some of my own. I’ll probably post about the other books I’m reading, and I think next year I’ll bump up the number to 12.
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir of course is the 9th of the novels I read this year and is probably the easiest read of the series so far, though reading it and getting involved with the fandom on Reddit and all has made me realize that I really, really need to reread these books, that they are much denser than I originally thought. I do think that on my first reading/viewing I am mostly floating along based on vibes and then the next reading I start to get something out of it, and then probably on the third I really get it, which is a lot to ask for with such large books. I think I might start on the audio of these books, because I’ve heard the audio version is really good.
I also finally got around to reading the short stories at the end of all three and really liked them, and “The Uninvited Guest” at the end of Nona is really really good, though it doesn’t make sense until you’re nearly all the way through with Nona. It makes me want a stage play of Gideon the Ninth, it would probably make an incredible one.
Next, Poor Things by Alasdair Gray. I was kind of avoiding it because people were telling me “oh it’s like a feminist Frankenstein about women’s sexuality” as if that is not the most offputting description for me of any book ever. I went into it feeling like it was an obligation for me to read it but what nobody actually got around to telling me was that it’s actually funny. It’s a fun satire if you enjoy Victorian literature and has a lot of layers of unreliable narrators, so yes I’d recommend it. In fact the layered onion-like narrative is one of the most Frankenstein-like part of the book, which is interesting because this is the first part of the story that gets dropped in nearly every adaptation, so that was a pleasant surprise. It really is a totally different story, though. Don’t go into it expecting Frankenstein.
What’s next for me? Well, I’m still reading novels. In fact I put a whole bunch of novels on hold at the library, thinking that there would be several months of wait in between them like their estimation and most of them suddenly became due immediately, so I will have to work on that, I guess (I have no idea how Libby’s hold system works, it is very mysterious). With Arcane S2 out, there’s also probably going to be a bunch of interesting fanfiction that I’ll be diving into and may link my favorites. Who knows, I may write some of my own. I’ll probably post about the other books I’m reading, and I think next year I’ll bump up the number to 12.
