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Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

kids' fantasy
nostalgia reread. still holds up
this is one of my favorites in the series. Love the horror as a kid at realizing that the Nome King wasn't, strictly speaking, in the wrong by the agreed-upon societal codes.

Rogue Protocol, by Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries #3)

adult cyberpunk/space opera (?)
solid continuation of the series.
again, I read this one in a single sitting, but this time it felt like a mistake, like I didn't give myself enough time to really process the plot.
fascinated by how Murderbot related to Miki, the pet robot. Murderbot says it's jealous of Miki, and explains why it feels like it shouldn't be jealous (it doesn't want to be kept like a pet! Miki is infantilized and denied agency; Murderbot values its independence highly) but never quite says outright why it is jealous of Miki anyway (Miki is loved and protected; Murderbot has never been any of those). That whole emotional component is well-executed and makes my heart hurt.

Swimming in the Dark, by Tomasz Jedrowski

adult novel, historical fiction (gay coming-of-age story in communist Poland)
previous cranky post notwithstanding, I enjoyed this book a lot and do think it's good. Would recommend.
I don't think it's any kind of instant classic, but it's highly enjoyable on the levels of character, story, atmosphere, theme, and symbol.
the main symbols establish themselves fairly quickly and are easy and fun to track for most of the book, then towards the end twist, invert, and acquire new layers. Highly recommend this book if you're trying to recapture the high of being clever in tenth grade English class.
the book takes the format of the narrator, Ludwik, reminiscing about his life (think Giovanni's Room) from the United States, where he immigrates after the close of the main narrative.
Poland is very clearly drawn, concrete, and varied. I found myself semi-consciously drawing on the images when planning a setting for an upcoming TTRPG session.
The West, on the other hand, remains a cipher for "freedom" and luxury/the antithesis of deprivation, even to the end; I would have liked to see that complicated a little more. We have nepotism and inequality too. We have trespassing laws -- which could have lead to a poignant contrast with the book's central camping-trip scene (also the one social difference my ex-Soviet father refuses to acknowledge under any circumstances. If someone yells at him for eating their fruit or being somewhere "off-limits," they're the one with the problem). Obviously, one book can only explore so many themes, but given that Ludwik prepares to write a dissertation on racism in the United States as depicted in James Baldwin's writing, I feel like it would make sense to poke some holes in his rosy view of the West.
One small cultural/psychological aspect that stuck out to me: "pederasty" and "homosexuality" are the same accusation for the government, which isn't too surprising, given how gay men are stereotyped, and the general tendency to lump all types of sexual deviance together. Interestingly, though, Ludwik also hears the accusations as synonymous. I find it peculiarly satisfying when historical queer characters don't have the Great Insight to "transcend" the cultural lens they're embedded in, when they unquestioningly think things about themselves that a Modern Enlightened reader would never think about them. It feels like a truer portrait of experience. I know I couldn't have figured out the line between being gay and being a sexual predator if everyone around me insisted they were the same basic concept -- which isn't a commentary on my own desires, just that I wouldn't have had the theoretical insight necessary to form categories out of what was one big mass of "sexual deviance" (file this under "posts I would never have made if I'd stayed on Tumblr," lmao).

Iron Daughter, by Julie Kagawa (Iron Fey #2)

teen paranormal romance
yeah this series still sucks a lot but in a fun engaging way
brainwashed!Ash is very fun and adheres to the opinion I held at age 13 that trashy teen fantasy novels should, nay, must include PG-rated oblique fetish bait.
the dynamics of which fey get described as unearthly pale and which are described with dreadlocks is Questionable at minimum but this book is already so bad I don't feel compelled to unpack it.
yeah I've already started on the third book. sue me.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Power of the Laser Dragon Fire, Gloryhammer

I just picked this one up a couple days ago and spent the first 22 pages going, "is this a riff on Giovanni's Room? No--don't be silly...or is it?"
This book is a novel about a gay man's life growing up in post-WWII Poland and later moving to the United States; I decided to read it after reading a review of The Recent East by Thomas Grattan that compared that book to Swimming in the Dark in a way that made the latter sound more interesting to me personally.

The opening scene has the narrator tormented by the memory of a past lover, who is now in a danger the narrator has been spared and experiences at a remove, which is the same way Giovanni's Room begins. It then moves into a flashback to a boy the narrator loved as a child; the second scene of Giovanni's Room is a flashback to a young man David loved when they were young. The narrator of Swimming in the Dark has an inclination to try to pretend things never happened by never speaking of them, much like David. The major theme so far seems to be how an individual's personal life comes in tension with national politics and broad social dynamics, which is compelling, and not particularly like Giovanni's Room. The social dynamics in Jedrowski's Poland are strikingly different from those in Baldwin's Paris. I'm on the verge of discarding the similarities itching at my mind as just commonalities of the genre (angsty midcentury gay men who split time between Europe and America).

Of course, then the narrator goes and has an earth-shattering moment over the one novel by James Baldwin that did not at the time have an official translation into Polish. Yes, it's Giovanni's Room. Of course it's Giovanni's Room.

Which I have mixed feelings about. Everyone loves a literary reference they can get, and I do feel a little proud of myself for picking up on it. And the impact of literature on people's lives is an interesting subject for art! The meaning of a work of art to an individual and a society is an excellent subject for art. And echoing, reworking, and borrowing elements from the work of art being reflected on is a great way to accomplish this (if I didn't believe this wholeheartedly, I would not read nearly as much fanfic as I do). Giovanni's Room itself references the story of David and Jonathan in the Book of Samuel (off the top of my head: the main characters' names, but I feel like there was more to it -- it's been a while), so there's a nice little matryoshka doll of literary references.

The problem is that, on the sentence and scene level at least, Baldwin is better. This is not to say Jedrowski is a bad writer -- far from it -- but compared to James freaking Baldwin it feels inexperienced, clunky, and heavy-handed (while being, by any more sensible standard, none of those things!). By borrowing structure and tone so heavily from Giovanni's Room, it's hard not to make these comparisons, and I don't want to! I'm interested in the setting and the characters! I'm even enjoying the writing style, although it's a little ostentatiously "literary" rather than contenting itself to be good. In general, I think this book could have benefited from a lighter touch in terms of references and in terms of reappearing images and other flourishes.

I'm also concerned that this book isn't going to do a good job of balancing reference to Giovanni's Room with all the other super interesting things its doing, and that one thematic strand is going to wind up distracting from and jumbling the impact of another. But it's far too early in the book to tell; I'm only a tenth of the way through. I'm excited to see where it goes.

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Giovanni's Room, by Eben Eldridge

My computer is behaving itself again (knock on wood); here's some more books!

All Systems Red, by Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries #1)

Sci-fi (cyberpunk, interplanetary, survival) novella. Adult.
Incredible, perfect, flawless. Read in a single day. While baking a very complicated cake.
One of those space robot books that's really about depression, trauma, autonomy, and personhood. Bait For My Friend Group Specifically.
I made a playlist! It has one song on it: Paint It Black, by the Rolling Stones
It's actually a very fun, exciting, adventure-filled, life-affirming book. But that is the tone.
Strong narrative voice, simple writing.
Also, alternate-world stories where characters are casually queer in ways that add to characterization and story, while the main plot is primarily about solving mysteries, resisting corporate power, daring escapes, and generally being Extremely Badass? Are something that can actually be so personal, and I feel incredibly lucky that I'm in a place (physically, temporally, and in terms of personal book-researching skill) where I can find as many of them as I want.
Overall: I liked it, I thought it was very good, would reread (once I'm done with the series), would recommend widely.

The Iron King, by Julie Kagawa (Iron Fey #1)

High fantasy/portal fantasy with dashes of urban fantasy and steampunk influences. Teen.
One of my closest friends was obsessed with this series in middle school. Every time I asked her if I should read it for the past seven years, her response has been "Don't; it's bad." She finally relented and lent me her copy, and I'm having a blast.
If I were reading this as a preteen, I think the character I would have most imprinted on was Grimalkin (the cranky-yet-helpful magic talking cat). No, I wasn't into Warriors as a kid, but I came close. Yes, I wore cat ears to class and school picture day.
Good fight series, a solid dose of not-entirely-derivative ideas. I'd almost call them original; I wouldn't call them fresh.
Painfully heterosexual while at the same time being exactly what you would expect a group of closeted queer twelve-year olds to go wild for. Not queerbaiting; I don't think that at the time of writing the author understood that gay people were real. Just vibes.
Overall: I liked it, I thought it was bad, would not reread, would not recommend

Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells (Murderbot #2)

All I have written in my journal for this one is "10/10 Martha Wells is just giving me everything I want."
Builds well on the first book, and similarly gripping. I put this on hold at the library as soon as I finished the first, and I put the third on hold as soon as I finished this one.
I'm very fond of the title for this one: it directly references a moment when a character remembers a parent calming them down by describing fear as an artificial condition, while also feeling like a play on the phrase "human condition," and additionally nodding to ART, a nickname Murderbot gives to another character.
Speaking of ART...I really like ART. I'm such a sucker for characters who decide you're their friend after one conversation, which didn't even start off friendly, especially paired with characters (like Murderbot) who have approximately zero friends and wouldn't know what to do with one if they had one. I'm a little like that offline, sometimes.
Also, squishy un-street-smart polyamorous scientist family...I love them...I love how well they treat Murderbot...I really love all the characters here.
Overall: I liked it, I thought it was good, would reread (when I'm done with the series), would recommend.

Ancillary Mercy, by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch #3)

Space opera. Adult.
Finished this the day after Artificial Condition and the note in my journal is "Ann Leckie is just giving me everything I want."
Enjoyable political maneuvering, cool battles, emotional moments that are delivered with a light touch but leave a huge impact.
A friend just finished the series, shortly after I did, and we've been messaging back and forth unpicking the romantic subplot apart for nearly a week; the levels of nuance are delicious (and they're really cute together).
This series plays with concepts of identity really well. A highlight in this book is the hints we get of the Presger's alien conception of identity, which we get hints at in conversation with Translator Zeiat, but none of the characters take the time to properly piece together (they have much bigger problems) and thus is left as a fascinating exercise to the reader.
Overall: I liked it, it was good, would reread, would recommend.

Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows #1, Grishaverse)

Heist, alternate-world pseudo-historical gritty low fantasy. Teen/Young Adult.
This is a reread. To be more precise, this is at least my fifth reread, and probably closer to a tenth. I used to be really into these books.
Inspired by someone describing Nina and Matthias' dynamic in Shadow and Bone (the TV series loosely based on this series and its companion series), me wondering how closely it matched the book, oh look where did all that time go.
Surprisingly, the book still holds up, after several years and intensely critical readings (including one where I tracked every time any character's eyes were described to make a point about white-centric beauty standards and value judgements around lightness and darkness). Somehow impossible to put down, even knowing literally everything that's going to happen, almost by heart.
It's a very tightly-written book. A lot of what looks like pure description, a joke, a colorful aside, is doing double-duty as foreshadowing, a callback, a reference to an as-yet unrevealed backstory. Every plot point echoes at least one other. Every single plot twist is led up to and justified in a million invisible ways. When we move between character POVs, the metaphors change to fit the new narrator's interests and upbringing -- and across the two books, we have nine POVs, each with a distinctive, believable, complex perspective and voice (it should have been ten: Kuwei deserves to show us the world through his eyes. It's still impressive).
I can't imagine any of the above translates well to the screen. Moving to the screen also eliminates three out of the five senses, and this is a book where I could smell every scene. I don't visualize very much when I read, but this is an intensely physical book and it slips me inside the POV character's bodies like I'm putting on a glove.
I'll be among the first to admit this book has issues with its portrayal of race and systemic oppression, but rereading reminds me that it does far and away clear the bar of "multiple three-dimensional characters of color whose emotional lives are treated seriously and sympathetically, and whose relationship with their cultures is individual, nuanced, and not all that defines them." Which is not the highest bar that could be set, but is also far from the lowest.
Overall: I still like it, it's good, would reread (again), would recommend (especially if you're considering watching the show).

That's all the books I've finished so far this year (that I wrote down, anyway). Currently have two more in-progress and three waiting.

Current Mood: content

Phoenix Extravagant, by Yoon Ha Lee

Historical fantasy-steampunk novel. "Young adult" but not as a euphemism for "teen"; the main character is actually someone who has recently become an adult and is trying to figure out the responsibilities involved. Which is very different from most of what I get seen called YA.
Summary: In a fantasy world based on Korea under Japanese occupation, a young calligrapher looking for work finds themself caught between the invading military and revolutionary forces. Features a really cool robot dragon, Women With Swords (yes, in a sexy way), and approximately zero cisgender heterosexual characters -- in other words, it falls into the category of books I like to call Bait For My Social Circle Specifically.
Strong and memorable, full of compelling concepts that I don't want to spoil (in terms of magic/adventure/shenanigans, political dynamics, and character relationships). Very strong sense of place, and very tangible societal power dynamics.
Writing is a little uneven: the phrasing can be very beautiful, and makes compelling use of sensory details, but seems to struggle with balancing exposition vs letting the world unfold, erring a little too far on the side of exposition (as opposed to YHL's first novel series, which never explained what was going on ever, which is my personal preference but I recognize is not a popular strategy).
Ending felt a bit disjoint in tone that didn't feel properly led up to, although it's an objectively cool concept.
Overall: I liked it, I think it was good, I wouldn't go out of my way to reread it. Not YHL's strongest work but I would recommend it (and have already suggested it to multiple friends looking for something to read).

Ancillary Sword, by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch #2)

Sci-fi space opera novel. Adult.
Summary: Workers of the world(s) unite.
Well-structured, engaging.
This was a few months ago and I tore through it in like a day so a lot of the details are jumbled up and lowkey blended with the third book. I did love it, though.
Overall: I liked it, I think it was good, I would go out of my way to reread it, I would recommend it (and have!)

Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe

Stage play script; Renaissance-era strongly influenced by medieval morality plays.
Summary: Man sells his soul to the Devil out of desire for power and intellectual boredom, mucks around with his power for a couple decades, then (spoilers) gets sucked down to Hell.
You can really tell Marlowe was in his early 20s when he wrote this. I say this as someone in my early 20s. He doesn't do a great job of protraying Faust as world-weary and wise-but-fallible, which I think is what he was shooting for. However, the shenanigans and angst are top-notch.
Less morally-complex and heavier on slapstick than I expected.
Extremely influenced by recent European colonization of the Americas. I bet someone's written a really good essay about this.
Recommended to me by ozma_of_oz and it was fun to discuss
Overall: I liked it, I think it was good, I would not go out of my way to reread it, and I might recommend it under specific circumstances

The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux, translated by Ribiere

Gothic adventure novel
This was so much fun. Read in one sitting. A classic where I really understand why it stuck around.
I haven't seen the musical but whoever decided to adapt it clearly was trying to make the set designers suffer. This book is full of nooks and crannies and trick doors and ornate nonsense. Asking for someone to build all that feels like one of those fairy tales where the father won't let the suitors marry his daughter unless they bring him the skin of a beast that doesn't exist.
Problematic(tm) as hell but in a compelling way that leads to absolutely spectacular arguments and reinventions.
Almost got me into opera for like a week.
The translation was very well-written, compelling, readable, and not too localized, although I read one review that thinks it took too many unnecessary liberties with punctuation that reduced the impact of certain scenes.
Overall: I liked it, I thought it was good, I might reread it, I would recommend it, I might look for adaptations.

Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson

Nonfiction memoir/U.S. history/social commentary. Adult.
Summary: the author's experience working as a civil rights/death row/wrongful conviction lawyer in the United States, mostly in the South, combining his personal story and case studies of his clients with thoroughly researched historical context.
A very well-written and compelling presentation of an important topic.
Enough to make me consider switching to pre-law despite the facts that 1. I have nowhere near the emotional fortitude to do this kind of work, and 2. I'm already over a year and a half into a biology degree.
I don't want to overhype this book and disappoint anyone but it's genuinely one of the best things I've read in a long time
Overall: I liked it, I thought it was good, I don't know if I'd reread it but I'd use it as a reference if I needed to write something on the topic, I would highly recommend it to literally everyone (living in or interested in the United States) regardless of your political views or prior exposure to the topic.

My computer is glitching like crazy and I need to restart it so I'll hit post while I still can and finish this list later.