Mini-Reviews–prose, undercover operatives, and the Black Death

Hello, friends!

So….time is a thing. A lot of it has diminished and passed into the undying lands since I last graced you all with my presence. I’ve been quite busy–and I’m not exactly about to get LESS busy…but what else is new?

A short update of the past few months:

• My youngest sister got married. *distant screaming*
• Yes, I’ve definitely fully processed this mentally and emotionally and I’m totally used to the fact that she’s a married woman now, why do you ask???
• (Also marriage means I HAVE A BROTHER NOW. I’ve never had one of those before.)
• I taught a musical theatre workshop. In other words, I taught choreography to children. There were mosquitoes, eight-year-old boys with very short attention spans, the blazing heat of the SUN, and the general stress and panic of teaching choreography to a large group of children for the first time. But it was great fun. Golly, I love dancing.
• I re-read The Lord of the Rings for the first time since I was….fourteen. I have thoughts. Some unpopular opinions and a great deal of angst, but also HOBBITS ARE SO WHOLESOME.
• WordPress…declared war on me? A few weeks ago I psyched myself up to get back into blogging only to be beset by technical difficulties. (For example, it wouldn’t let me comment on a post without re-logging in–and then re-logging in AGAIN. And again. And basically it just wouldn’t let me post a comment. [booooooo]).
• [Also, I keep thinking I’m going to get back into blogging, but then I think I need to read and comment on ALL THE POSTS that have happened since I disappeared, and…I am overwhelmed. And unnecessarily guilty? Why am I like this????]

Anyhoo, I think it’s high time we talked about books, because that is always a desirable topic of conversation.

It has been ages since I wrote a mini-reviews post, and some of these books I read as far back as…April? Will I remember the finer details of the plots? Will I remember the main characters’ names? Who can say??

Peace Like A River by Leif Enger

My Very Informative Summary: Jeremiah Land can work miracles. Reuben knows this because he has seen them happen. This family is very dear, but Things Happen (things I will not give away even though the stinkin’ back cover does [don’t read the back cover, kids]), and they decide to take a roadtrip across the midwest.

(I can see this is not going to be a good day for informative summaries, but okay)

I Am Here For:

• the PROSE
• Leif Enger knows how to write. The prose is so solid I could cry
• SWEDE. I love her dearly. I love her smart remarks and her vocabulary and her poetry and her typewriter and pretty much everything about her
• Reuben. Being a child and being oblivious and making mistakes and being a DEAR
• Gosh, I love Reuben
• Jeremiah Land just lovin’ the lord and taking care of his kids
• Davy, noooooooo
• Miracles
• MORAL COMPLEXITY
• Writing about God, Christianity, and spirituality without being preachy or cheesy. So thoughtfully and elegantly handled. I have so much respect.
• What’s her name with the goats. She was excellent
• The western influence/elements. I used to have no interest in westerns and now I begin to predict that I will be slowly converted by Swede and my new brother in law (not to mention that one subplot in CSO 2 and Sarah Seele…)
• Parts that made me laugh out loud, but also parts that made me want to WEEP

Not So Here For:

• Not 100% sold on the description of the place toward the end, but what can you do? I certainly don’t think I could have done any better. It’s just a really hard thing to pull off.

Conclusion: Such a solid book. Possibly the best I’ve read so far this year. I adore the characters and the prose and the just the way it makes you THINK about things.

Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes

My Very Informative Summary: Hearne is a very wholesome undercover operative, posing as the Frenchman Charles Darnay Bertrand Corlay. We really hope he doesn’t get caught by the Nazis.

(No, there is no remote relation to Charles Darnay, but I have Tale of Two Cities on the brain at the moment, so that sentence ran away from me. You’ve gotta listen to the first ten seconds of this song to get the full effect)

I Am Here For:

• HEARNE
• How could you not love Hearne. He’s so wholesome
• WWII spy novel WRITTEN IN 1941
• I’m still geeking out about this
• Hearne not knowing everything about the person he is pretending to be (may cause difficulties…)
• Kerenor, Albertine, Anne, Mrs. Corlay, and…other characters whose names I cannot recall?
• Random people one meets while traveling across the countryside
• Hearne repeatedly blowing his cover just by being such a swell guy
• Matthews…who isn’t even in it really? But I somehow became greatly attached to him through only the handful of times he was referenced

Not So Here For:

• This isn’t actually a flaw, but I WANTED TO MEET MATTHEWS
• The ending was a tad rushed, methinks?
• There was one death (of an antagonist) that I had…issues with. Not that I don’t think that person should have died, but the way it happened…I was not a fan.

Conclusion: Did I mention it’s a WWII spy novel written DURING WWII? And did I further mention HEARNE??

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

My Very Informative Summary: It’s the 2050s and SOMEONE thinks it’s a good idea to send an undergrad back in time to the Middle Ages. That someone is not Mr. Dunworthy. No indeed. Mr. Dunworthy knows this is a VERY bad idea.

I Am Here For:

• Mr. Dunoworthy. I literally came here for Mr. Dunworthy
• COLIN. This kid.
• Mr. Dunworthy being so overprotective and knowing that sending someone back to the middle ages is a BAD IDEA
• Aunt Mary who thinks that children want mufflers for Christmas
• Finch just Doing Everything
• Mr. Dunworthy instantly adopting Colin, being determined to keep him safe and make sure he has Christmas presents, etc.
• Did I mention Colin?? Colin being such an actual child who wants to run around Oxford without an umbrella in the middle of a pandemic
• I love Colin so much
• “You should have told me.” “I did tell you!” <<-MY HEART *screaming*
• Colin, you dear child

Not So Here For:

• ….So I didn’t want to read a book about the Black Death. But I thought, “Hey, I’ll try it.”
• I respect all Connie Willis’s research and everything–kudos to you for the historical accuracy and details–but I really Really REALLY don’t want to read about giant swelling buboes and black slime in people’s mouths and blehhhhhhhhh
• Also just the middle ages in general. Most of it was kind of horrible (twelve year old girls being married off to old men, etc.) I don’t really want to read about that.
• And then everyone dying of the Black Death, so there’s that
• In some ways, I wish I had read this pre-2020, because at this point reading about people wearing masks and stepping off the sidewalk when they see someone coming the other way…ugh. I read fiction to ESCAPE this stuff
• Mr. Dunworthy sometimes being not as great as usual? Sad.
• The weird Dunworthy/Kivrin to God/Jesus parallel? And the whole “God wouldn’t have sent Jesus to earth if he had known what people would do to him” because wHat???
• Through reading this, I also realized I have issues with Connie Willis’s writing style in general. To Say Nothing of the Dog is (to the best of my memory) excellent, but Blackout, All Clear, and Doomsday Book all suffer from a habit of things often happening excruciatingly slowly. And it’s not just that it’s slow. It’s that she has to write out the entire thought process of the character–all the possible answers to a question, solutions to a problem, courses of action, etc.–have them land on what they think is true/the best way to move forward, and then be like “But they were WRONG”. And repeat that SIX MILLION TIMES. Or the characters keep jumping to the conclusion that something is resolved (when you know it obviously isn’t), spend a few pages explaining why the resolution is probably true, and then say “But it WASN’T.”
• I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s very tiresome
• (Side note: I think To Say Nothing of the Dog actually does this too, to an extent, but I think it works better there because it’s a comedy)

Conclusion: COLIN. Colin is the best. Mr. Dunworthy is sometimes great, but the rest is ehhhhhhhhh

The Bear House by Meaghan McIsaac

My Very Informative Summary: Ursula and Aster are the daughters of the Major (the ruler of…whatever this land is called). They’re probably a little spoiled and probably should be more respectful of bears, but Death and Destruction are coming their way, so they’ll probably learn some things.

I Am Here For:

• Noble houses based on constellations
• ….various world-building things? Some of it was cool?
• (But do I remember it now??)
• The religion. I mean, they were worshiping stars which I don’t particularly encourage, but I generally liked the way it was handled
• Quotes from in-world writings at the start of every chapter
• Cousins! Not the greatest cousin content I’ve ever seen, but it gets points just for the existence of cousins
• Children of royal houses running for their lives from hostile takeover
• That one kid whose name started with a Q. Don’t remember his name, but he was nice. He had a dragon.
• Lorc. What a kid. (The potential for angst here)

Not So Here For:

• I liked a lot of the ideas in this book, but the execution was somewhat lacking? It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. It was solidly Okay.
• “Oooh, Nightlocks! Scaaaaary Nightlocks! Foreshadowing terrible things that will happen with Nightlocks!” …..and then nothing much happening with the Nightlocks
• But I wanted them to meet Dev’s ma though

Conclusion: Like I said, it was solidly Okay. I liked a lot of the worldbuilding, and while I didn’t get as attached to any of the characters as I would have liked, I still had a fondness for several. I wouldn’t call them my children, but they can be my nieces and nephews or something.

So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger

My Very Informative Summary: Monte wrote a book. It was swell and everyone loved it, but then they wanted another one? And he can’t seem to make it work, even after five years? Sounds like it’s high time to take an impromptu cross-country roadtrip with an ex-convict whom you just met in your backyard.

I Am Here For:

• The prose, naturally. After Peace Like a River, I came back for more prose
• Cross-country road trip (though they’re not actually using roads half the time…)
• Glendon’s determination to Set Things Right
• Monte being unassuming but wholesome
• Western vibes
• Actually all the vibes–the time period (19teens, methinks?), the various settings
• They way it develops from slow-moving every day life to adventure
• Hood Rivers being so respectful
• (Hood Rivers, guys)
• Charles Siringo. This man is…kind of terrifying
• The baptism scene
• Things being Complicated. You can’t just Fix Things
• That one bit where he walks into the post office or whatever it is in that one town and–er–I don’t want to spoil it. But he makes a loud proclamation and the guy is like, “….okay?” And I found it quite funny.

Not So Here For:

• It did start out pretty slow. It was a while before I really got into it

Conclusion: While not as good as Peace Like a River, this book was still full of lovely writing, thought-provoking pictures of humanity, and lowkey western-flavored adventure

The Evil Wizard Smallbone by Delia Sherman

My Very Informative Summary: A 13ish-year-old boy (who DOES have a name, but do I remember it? [No. The answer is no.]) runs away from a bad family situation and runs into a bad weather situation. The good news: he comes across a house in the middle of the woods. The bad news: said house is the home of an evil wizard.

I Am Here For:

• Urban fantasy with magical bookstores and motorcycle gang were-cyotes
• Small coastal town vibes

Not So Here For:

• You know the trope where there’s the grumpy old man who’s like “I don’t care about anyone! I’m a horribly evil person!” but it’s all a front and they’re really a sweetheart? They’re a dear who would never hurt anyone and will do anything to protect the people around them? I feel like this book was trying to put Smallbone in that category, but no. I have issues with this
• He’s not all bark and no bite, because he actually is kind of awful
• You can’t kidnap random children who find your house in the woods
• You can’t transform them into animals and objects for days at a time when they annoy you
• You can’t, in front of this child, tell everyone that the child is deceitful and fundamentally bad and should be shunned and distrusted by everyone
• It’s not okay
• Also, some of the magic bothered me. Sometimes I’m fine with magic, and sometimes I’m not? (It was like The Satanic Mill except…it’s all good?)

Conclusion: Professor McGonagall says it all: “We NEVER USE TRANSFIGURATION AS A PUNISHMENT.”

Network Effect by Martha Wells

My Very Informative Summary: Murderbot needs to protect the stupid humans. Again.

I Am Here For:

• Murderbot. Obviously
• I really like Murderbot, okay
• Murderbot definitely NOT caring what the humans think, because who cares about stupid humans?
• (But stupid humans don’t trust it, and wow, why does that hurt so much)
• While all the other Murderbot books are novellas, this is a novel-which means more pages, more plot, more Murderbot
• (More Murderbot is always a plus)
• When it’s just going along and–ah yes, the trauma still exists by the way
• Murderbot having extremely mature comebacks: “You’re emotionally compromised.” “No, I’m not. You’re emotionally compromised.”
• (Murderbot being emotionally compromised)
• When friends are jerks and you kinda want to murder someone
• When you NEED TO KEEP YOUR HUMANS SAFE
• Three, because poor dear. *starts knitting sweater*
• The few short snippets we get of the interview transcripts (particularly the part about the logos)

Not So Here For:

• Marriage only existing as something that involves at least three people, because no
• Preservation supposedly being Perfect in Every Way. Because a) I don’t believe it, and b) a kitchen sink to Martha Wells is not a kitchen sink to me. It’s one thing if you’re reading a book and the author’s general ideas of a perfect society don’t match up with yours, but if they show you the society and keep aggressively telling you how perfect it is, it doesn’t leave room for another opinion.
• A few comments toward the end about the relationship between two characters…I wasn’t quite sure what the intention was, but hm

Conclusion: It has its issues, to be sure. But it also has Murderbot, so…

****

WELL, this post has been sitting here 2/3 of the way finished for a while. (By which I mean, I’ve read an 800+ page novel since starting it?) Reading back over what I’d written, I got to the part about how I wasn’t about to be less busy and HA. Ha. Why am I so busy, wow.

What have you been reading lately? Who are some of the most wholesome characters you know? Do you like westerns? What’s a book you’ve read that has excellent prose? Do you think it’s okay to turn children into rocks when they displease you? Do tell!

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