smart girls talking

A books update!

Recently finished:
Sonnets to Orpheus, Rainer Maria Rilke. Continuing my foray into Rilke's entire bibliography! I think this is my favorite of his works so far, with a clearer narrative arc than his other works that I've read.

The Siege of Burning Grass, Premee Mohamed. This started off strong, but the second half got messy and felt a bit rushed. I can see what Mohamed was going for - the complete devastation of war, how even peace movements fall to violence when a situation is desperate enough, how looking at your enemy can be looking at a mirror - but it didn't stick the landing for me.

The Fox Wife, Yangsze Choo. The first of two murder mysteries I read recently (I'll get to the second in a moment)! Loved the take on fox spirits in this and how they sit uneasily between the world of humans and the world of gods. I also really liked the elderly gentleman detective and his long-lost first love. There are a couple plot points I wanted more development of (I thought the people without shadows were underutilized), but on the whole I really liked this.

Catching the Big Fish, David Lynch. A series of essays on film-making, life, and meditation (a passion of Lynch's). I really liked the film-making essays - they put me in mind of Ray Bradbury's more autobiographical writing - but the meditation proselytizing got to be a bit too much woo for me.

A Song to Drown Rivers, Ann Liang. A retelling of the story of Xi Shi, one of the four great beauties of China. I wanted to like this more than I did, but I felt like it did a lot more telling than showing. I think it would make a great movie, but it was emotionally distant as a book, and I had a hard time connecting with the POV character.

Most Ardently, Gabe Cole Novoa. A YA trans retelling of Pride and Prejudice. This was recommended to me by my sister (a huge Jane Austen fan) and my nephew (he read it twice in a week lol), and it was very cute. I like some of the tweaks Novoa made, and Oliver's family's acceptance of his gender felt earned and cathartic when it very easily could have been treacly. I recommend it if you like P&P but want it queer!

Hyo the Hellmaker, Mina Ikemoto Ghosh. My favorite read of May! A kind of steampunk fantasy murder mystery set in a place that is not exactly Japan, but not not Japan, too. I mentioned on bluesky that it hits some really interesting notes on colonialism/colonization with its worldbuilding, though that isn't the focus of the story. It also has really cool takes on gods and patronage thereof, and you can definitely see the influence of both Japanese mythology and British mythology/fairy stories in the writing (the author is British-Japanese). And it's illustrated by the author!

Current Reads:
Unromance, Erin Connor
Think Little, Wendell Berry