I need to write a much longer post in the near future about this, but for now I'll just say that I'm going through some pretty major life changes at the moment and they are very distracting. Spring is on its way to Saskatchewan, though, and the main thing I'm working on at the moment is getting some spring into my steps and my life, too. I should have rather more to say in April.
Reading
Lots. I've got a somewhat too large stack of books out from the library right now, in an effort to somewhat reduce the length of my to-read list on Goodreads by reading some of the shorter works and stuff that's been on the list for way too long. I'm currently reading Lyndall Gordon's biography of Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication, a short story collection of Arthur C. Clarke's, and Parade's End, among other things.
Watching
I zoomed through the rest of the Friday Night Lights show this month, and also the new season of Netflix's Daredevil, plus I watched Ant-Man and Kingsman: The Secret Service.
What I'm Reading: Bad Houses by Sara Ryan and Carla Speed McNeil
So yes, I am cheating a bit with the number of graphic novels, etc. that I'm reading for my Year of Reading Women, but I'm hoping that maybe I'll exceed the 12 books that I'm supposed to be reading and make it up that way. I also can't really help what I pick up when, especially considering that this year I'm actively trying to make up time with my List progress.
Anyway, with all of the excuses out of the way...
I read Bad Houses by Sara Ryan, illustrated by Carla Speed McNeil. It's a story about two young people in small town Oregon: Anne, whose mom is a hoarder, and Lewis, whose mom has an estate sale company. A "bad house" is one that Lewis and his mom will have a hard time staging for a sale for various reasons such as longterm chain smoking or hoarding. I liked the book well enough, because there were genuine emotions in it that really came through the pages, but for whatever reason, it felt sort of hollow. There were too many characters juggled in such a short book, so most of them weren't explored very well. Again and again when I read things like this, I find them falling short because the graphic form just isn't enough for me when it comes to the material. I want it to delve into the psychology of hoarding and what it's like to be a child of a hoarder. I want more from Lewis and Anne's relationship than a few scenes where they kiss in abandoned buildings and then Anne feels anxious about his other friends.
On the other hand, I'm now feeling a little extra motivated to sort out my spare room full of junk.
Anyway, with all of the excuses out of the way...
I read Bad Houses by Sara Ryan, illustrated by Carla Speed McNeil. It's a story about two young people in small town Oregon: Anne, whose mom is a hoarder, and Lewis, whose mom has an estate sale company. A "bad house" is one that Lewis and his mom will have a hard time staging for a sale for various reasons such as longterm chain smoking or hoarding. I liked the book well enough, because there were genuine emotions in it that really came through the pages, but for whatever reason, it felt sort of hollow. There were too many characters juggled in such a short book, so most of them weren't explored very well. Again and again when I read things like this, I find them falling short because the graphic form just isn't enough for me when it comes to the material. I want it to delve into the psychology of hoarding and what it's like to be a child of a hoarder. I want more from Lewis and Anne's relationship than a few scenes where they kiss in abandoned buildings and then Anne feels anxious about his other friends.
On the other hand, I'm now feeling a little extra motivated to sort out my spare room full of junk.
What I'm Reading: The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
I'm posting about this book a lot later than I would've liked, considering that I'm supposed to be posting about my Year of Reading Women as I finish the books, and I finished The Sunne in Splendour before I went to Halifax in February. But I finished it just before, and that's why it's taken so long for me to get around to writing about it.
Anyway, The Sunne in Splendour is this immense tome about Richard III. Credit where it's due, he wasn't really on my radar before I read the book. I remember the discovery of his remains a little over three years ago, and I've seen the princes in the Tower show up in multiple "haunted places" trashy tv shows, and that's about it. Frankly, I'm not particularly excited about learning a lot more about him after reading this novel, although I'd like to pick up Shakespeare's version of the story at some point this year to contrast it with this much more sympathetic portrayal. A little amusing: Penman was so sympathetic to Richard III that she went so far as to speculate that his deformities were almost completely invented, but his skeletal remains (discovered after she wrote the book) prove that he did have scoliosis after all.
I've been looking forward to reading this book for quite a long time, and unfortunately it ended up being pretty disappointing.
First of all, while I'm not afraid of long books, once you get beyond the 500 page mark, every additional page needs to be solid gold. If not, then there's room to trim things down. This book is over 900 pages long, and those additional 400+ pages are definitely not extremely good. They aren't even, like, moderately good. In my opinion, the book starts too early and repeats itself too much. There are several places where a character will state pretty much exactly what a different character has stated about a third character's motivations or options, and it's irritating and unnecessary. There are good reasons why a lot of historical narratives chop out or combine the actual people involved in the events. I admire Penman's dedication to historical accuracy and the obvious care she took with her research, and her book isn't exactly bad, it's just way too long and meandering.
Which brings me to what's probably my only other point: so many of the relationships that form the foundation of the story feel very hollow. There's supposed to be a feeling of grand romance between Richard and his cousin Anne Neville, and I never really got a good sense of that. It wasn't even the fact that they were cousins, because of course at this point in English history, that's just how things were. It just felt forced, and I didn't particularly like Richard, or Anne, or possibly even any of the characters at all.
So yeah, I can't say I really recommend this one. It was a slog to finish, to the point that I wish I'd abandoned it and read something else instead. On the other hand, people do like it, and I only heard about it because someone on the internet recommended it to me. So... read the first 50 pages or so and see what you think?
Anyway, The Sunne in Splendour is this immense tome about Richard III. Credit where it's due, he wasn't really on my radar before I read the book. I remember the discovery of his remains a little over three years ago, and I've seen the princes in the Tower show up in multiple "haunted places" trashy tv shows, and that's about it. Frankly, I'm not particularly excited about learning a lot more about him after reading this novel, although I'd like to pick up Shakespeare's version of the story at some point this year to contrast it with this much more sympathetic portrayal. A little amusing: Penman was so sympathetic to Richard III that she went so far as to speculate that his deformities were almost completely invented, but his skeletal remains (discovered after she wrote the book) prove that he did have scoliosis after all.
I've been looking forward to reading this book for quite a long time, and unfortunately it ended up being pretty disappointing.
First of all, while I'm not afraid of long books, once you get beyond the 500 page mark, every additional page needs to be solid gold. If not, then there's room to trim things down. This book is over 900 pages long, and those additional 400+ pages are definitely not extremely good. They aren't even, like, moderately good. In my opinion, the book starts too early and repeats itself too much. There are several places where a character will state pretty much exactly what a different character has stated about a third character's motivations or options, and it's irritating and unnecessary. There are good reasons why a lot of historical narratives chop out or combine the actual people involved in the events. I admire Penman's dedication to historical accuracy and the obvious care she took with her research, and her book isn't exactly bad, it's just way too long and meandering.
Which brings me to what's probably my only other point: so many of the relationships that form the foundation of the story feel very hollow. There's supposed to be a feeling of grand romance between Richard and his cousin Anne Neville, and I never really got a good sense of that. It wasn't even the fact that they were cousins, because of course at this point in English history, that's just how things were. It just felt forced, and I didn't particularly like Richard, or Anne, or possibly even any of the characters at all.
So yeah, I can't say I really recommend this one. It was a slog to finish, to the point that I wish I'd abandoned it and read something else instead. On the other hand, people do like it, and I only heard about it because someone on the internet recommended it to me. So... read the first 50 pages or so and see what you think?
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