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issenlloSo on Sunday I read
The Plague of Doves
Much as I love Erdrich, I'm not always quick to start a book of hers. Her writing is intense, and it takes a bit of psyching the self up for it. Plus her books are usually compelling enough for me that I have to be sure I have a sufficient block not only to read it, but to re-read.
One of the reasons I hesitated to start this despite buying it about two years ago was because the blurb said the plot was based on a lynching and I didn't feel... I dunno, morally courageous enough to read it. You know, when you get to know characters in a book, love them, sympathise with them, root for them, and then you find out that this person that you sympathise with is a callous bastard and you want to deny it and say the other side deserved getting hurt? Yeah. Sort of like, you like Severus Snape even when he does nasty things but you don't want to make excuses for his behaviour?
So anyway. In the novel, there was once a murder of a white family and the townspeople (wrongly) of Pluto blamed three Objibwe men and killed two of them and the third one day tells the story to his granddaughter Eveline, who is one of narrators of the novel. Other narrators add their voices and eventually, it's not as much the truth behind the murders (all of them) that unfolds as it is the intertwining relationships between all the families that were involved, their descendents and the ties and debts between all of them.
If I also sound like a blurb, sorry. There's just too much detail to tell it all, and reading the novel is much, much better. I love the way ironies of life play out, not to mention Erdrich's comic moments, such as the time when the town priest (nicknamed Hop Along) gave an eulogy for the wrong man. And all the mentions of Louis Riel!
What I didn't like: that Eveline takes acid and ends up in a mental hospital, because it felt cliched and unnecessary to the plot. But that was my only quibble.
On Sunday I read
I Shall Wear Midnight
Yet another book I hesitated to read because it seemed dull. Much later, after I'd finished it, I realised part of the problem was that there was so much more telling than showing that it made me antsy. Is this because it's for younger readers? A lot of repetition about how Tiffany was a witch, so she did witchy things. Because she was a witch. So yeah. I got it the first two times. And after that I started to wonder if Prachett was trying to be ironic about something. But the ending didn't have that feel.
And on Monday I read
Small Gods is one of those Discworld books that I inexplicably missed reading the first time round. I've tended to read Disworld books as "all about the Watch", "all about Rincewind" or "all about the witches" this one doesn't quite fall into those categories.
And it is excellent. One thing that's striking about the earlier Discworld books is that they aren't so much tongue-in-cheek and a lot more in-fantasy, so as to speak. The jabs at the real world aren't as bald. Not that that detracts from my enjoyment of the novel. ^_^
And then today (Tuesday) I watched .
The Avengers movie is awesome. It's a bit weird to be watching a movie for which you've been reading fanfic since last year. I was surprised, still, at the funny moments. I love how there was attention on every character and sorry that I didn't think that shooting arrows was cool until I saw this version. Want to watch again.
The Plague of Doves
Much as I love Erdrich, I'm not always quick to start a book of hers. Her writing is intense, and it takes a bit of psyching the self up for it. Plus her books are usually compelling enough for me that I have to be sure I have a sufficient block not only to read it, but to re-read.
One of the reasons I hesitated to start this despite buying it about two years ago was because the blurb said the plot was based on a lynching and I didn't feel... I dunno, morally courageous enough to read it. You know, when you get to know characters in a book, love them, sympathise with them, root for them, and then you find out that this person that you sympathise with is a callous bastard and you want to deny it and say the other side deserved getting hurt? Yeah. Sort of like, you like Severus Snape even when he does nasty things but you don't want to make excuses for his behaviour?
So anyway. In the novel, there was once a murder of a white family and the townspeople (wrongly) of Pluto blamed three Objibwe men and killed two of them and the third one day tells the story to his granddaughter Eveline, who is one of narrators of the novel. Other narrators add their voices and eventually, it's not as much the truth behind the murders (all of them) that unfolds as it is the intertwining relationships between all the families that were involved, their descendents and the ties and debts between all of them.
If I also sound like a blurb, sorry. There's just too much detail to tell it all, and reading the novel is much, much better. I love the way ironies of life play out, not to mention Erdrich's comic moments, such as the time when the town priest (nicknamed Hop Along) gave an eulogy for the wrong man. And all the mentions of Louis Riel!
What I didn't like: that Eveline takes acid and ends up in a mental hospital, because it felt cliched and unnecessary to the plot. But that was my only quibble.
On Sunday I read
I Shall Wear Midnight
Yet another book I hesitated to read because it seemed dull. Much later, after I'd finished it, I realised part of the problem was that there was so much more telling than showing that it made me antsy. Is this because it's for younger readers? A lot of repetition about how Tiffany was a witch, so she did witchy things. Because she was a witch. So yeah. I got it the first two times. And after that I started to wonder if Prachett was trying to be ironic about something. But the ending didn't have that feel.
And on Monday I read
Small Gods is one of those Discworld books that I inexplicably missed reading the first time round. I've tended to read Disworld books as "all about the Watch", "all about Rincewind" or "all about the witches" this one doesn't quite fall into those categories.
And it is excellent. One thing that's striking about the earlier Discworld books is that they aren't so much tongue-in-cheek and a lot more in-fantasy, so as to speak. The jabs at the real world aren't as bald. Not that that detracts from my enjoyment of the novel. ^_^
And then today (Tuesday) I watched .
The Avengers movie is awesome. It's a bit weird to be watching a movie for which you've been reading fanfic since last year. I was surprised, still, at the funny moments. I love how there was attention on every character and sorry that I didn't think that shooting arrows was cool until I saw this version. Want to watch again.