January Discussion Post

[monkiainen]

It's time for our monthly discussion post! This post will remain open for you to contribute at any time, so no pressure. Even if you didn't get around to reading any of your selected books or opted out of participating for the month, you're still more than welcome to take part in the discussion.

Please copy and paste this in the comments!
<b>Who was your buddy this month?</b><br /><b>What books were chosen for you?</b><br /><b>Did you manage to read your books? Which ones?</b><br /><b>If you read more than one, did you enjoy them? What was your favorite?</b><br /><b>Would you recommend your chosen book(s)?</b><br /><b>Did you read anything else this month, outside of your chosen books?</b>

Comments

[monkiainen]

Who was your buddy this month? royalblue31
What books were chosen for you? A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
Did you manage to read your books? Which ones? I read A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
If you read more than one, did you enjoy them? What was your favorite? I enjoyed both the books I read, for different reasons. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder was an excellent thriller, and I will not say anything else to avoid spoilers. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood was sometimes a bit overwhelming, yet hopeful book despite its setting during the apartheid.
Would you recommend your chosen book(s)? Yes to both
Did you read anything else this month, outside of your chosen books? I read Sunneva by Kaari Utrio

[royalblue31]

I'm glad you liked Born a Crime. I remember reading that a couple years back and it made an impression.

[monkiainen]

It was an excellent book to read, despite the difficult subject it talks about.

[fred_mouse]

Who was your buddy this month? yourivy
What books were chosen for you? Neuromancer (William Gibson), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Agatha Christie), Children of Blood and Bone (Tomi Adeyemi)
Did you manage to read your books? Which ones? yes, the Christie, mostly because it was the easiest to access.
Would you recommend your chosen book(s)? I am conflicted on this. On the one hand, Agatha Christie was absolutely a shining light of detective fiction, and this is one of the classics. But also, it is one of the classics that gets referenced enough that by halfway through I was reasonably sure I knew the who and the what because it gets talked about. Also, there are--as is ever the case with Christie--a range of casually dropped racist/classist/etc lines scattered throughout.
Did you read anything else this month, outside of your chosen books? yes! I finished three books I'd been slowly working through for a while, and one brand new to me. The new one was Bound by the Blood (Cecilia Tan), which is BDSM speculative erotica, and incredibly well done --if you like emotionally competent people in complex situations and are okay with fictional bloodplay then this is high recommended. Of the other three, I do recommend The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography (AJA Symons) which I suspect was influential in how biographical searches are written. I did not really love either The Siege of Burning Grass (Premee Mohamed) or The House that Horror Built (Christina Henry), both of which are by authors whose work I have a great deal of respect for, and yet these were not really for me.

[yourivy]

Also, there are--as is ever the case with Christie--a range of casually dropped racist/classist/etc lines scattered throughout.
That's one of the things I dislike about reading classical literature - more often than not, you're bound to stumble over lines like that just due to how much more accepted such attitudes were back then :(
(I don't mean to say that makes it any better, because clearly it doesn't.)

Anyway, I am glad that despite the above, you ended up liking the book!

"Bound by the Blood" sounds interesting, I'll put it on my to-read-list.

[fred_mouse]

Agreed on classics / Christie. I think if I hadn't learned to love Agatha Christie's work when I was old enough to appreciate the writing but not worldly enough to pick up on the details (high school, so 13 or 14?) I probably wouldn't be reading them now. But I have this desire to actually have read all of Christie's work, and a lot of nostalgia.

Bound by the Blood was amazing. Do check the content notes though if you have particular topics you avoid, because as well as the description I've given it is dark fantasy and goes some challenging places.

[yourivy]

if I hadn't learned to love Agatha Christie's work when I was old enough to appreciate the writing but not worldly enough to pick up on the details (high school, so 13 or 14?) I probably wouldn't be reading them now.
I feel that way about a lot of classic books, especially when I read reviews of them these days and am like "wow, back when I read that, I totally didn't notice it was problematic".

Thank you, I am definitely going to check the content notes in advance!

[fred_mouse]

Oh, yes on the not noticing the problematic. I read The Secret Garden to my kids and there were a number of sections where I had to take a moment to discuss what was being implied.

[royalblue31]

Who was your buddy this month? monkiainen
What books were chosen for you? Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Green Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock, Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley
Did you manage to read your books? Which ones? I read Gone Girl and Grief is for People
If you read more than one, did you enjoy them? What was your favorite? I feel bad because I saw Gone Girl the movie yeaaars before reading Gone Girl the book. That said, Grief is for People blew me away. I haven't been this emotional over a memoir since The Year of Magical Thinking.
Would you recommend your chosen book(s)? I would recommend them both, and Gone Girl particularly if you haven't seen the movie yet. Would warn people that Grief is for People has very heavy themes, so look it up first to see if you want to dive in.
Did you read anything else this month, outside of your chosen books? I read A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost. Funny and light.

[monkiainen]

I'm the opposite about Gone Girl - I've read the book but haven't seen the movie. Part of me isn't so sure if it wants to see the movies, because in my experience the book version is usually better...