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Reading Wrap-Up: January 2022
Feb. 5th, 2022 02:17 amDragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee -
I absolutely loved Lee's Machineries of Empire trilogy, but it took me a while to get into this one. It is a middle-grade Space Fantasy novel that uses a lot of East Asian mythology and culture in its worldbuilding (kind of like the MoE trilogy, but actual magic rather than sufficiently advanced technology). Min is a fox spirit and shapeshifter who runs away from home to try and find her brother, Jun, who appears to have deserted his military post. She spends the first 1/3rd of the book stumbling from one mini-adventure to another before eventually ending up on Jun's battle cruiser and unraveling the mystery from there.
I think I struggled most with the book's pacing, it felt like Lee was trying to jam as much bigger idea into too short of a book. The worldbuilding is cool, but there is a lot of it to be jammed in, and I felt like it was really front-loaded in the first couple of chapters, namely when Min is leaving Jinju and trying to reach the Space Forces fleet. It felt like Min met a new group of characters and Learned A Lesson About Life in each chapter, then each chapter ends with her escaping and running into the next group of characters.
Once she gets to the battle cruiser the pacing evens out (and hits a lot of the standard training plot points you get in mil SF), and I do like seeing nonbinary characters in a kids book.
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Col. Chris Hadfield -
So, this has been on my TBR pile since 2015. I think when I picked it up I saw it as a book about space and didn't realize it was technically in the 'self help' section. Hadfield details his life and career leading up to becoming an astronaut, and what characteristics he thinks makes a good astronaut and how to apply those characteristics on earth.
Despite the number of times it took me to get through the first couple of chapters, I wound up really enjoying it, especially the less glamorous parts of astronaut life. Also, I feel I'm at a pretty apropos time in my life to read it, all my university orientations have had links to articles on growth mindset and the like and the themes really tie together.
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton -
My sister gave me this book for Christmas, it is a zany Victorian fantasy novel about lady pirates who captain flying houses instead of ships, complete with cannons and pirate flags, wreaking havoc on each other and the nobility (but not the average citizen because these lady scoundrels have Standards and also it's an escapist romance/adventure story that can't have too much realism getting in the way of the aesthetics - which to be clear I don't mind too much), .
The Wisteria Society is under threat by the dreaded Captain Patrick Morvath of Northeangerland Abbey, who happens to be the main character Cecelia's abusive, estranged father. Cecelia has to team up with Ned, who is either an assassin sent to kill her, or Morvath's henchman sent to capture her, or a secret agent for Queen Victoria, or whatever he feels like being at that particular moment, to rescue them.
I would say I 85% enjoyed this book. If you're willing to suspend your disbelief for the worldbuilding it's pretty fun, but there were also some points that made me side eye, such as the one singular mention of queerness, and the het romance really leaning into the experienced man/inexperienced woman tropes despite Cecelia's alleged experience with crime. Also I probably would have appreciated more of the in-jokes if I had ever managed to finish a Bronte novel.
2022 reading goal progress: Total books: 3 of 50, nonfiction: 1 of 7.
I forgot to take the amount of reading I would be doing for school into account when I made these goals. That... might make them more difficult than I anticipated.
I absolutely loved Lee's Machineries of Empire trilogy, but it took me a while to get into this one. It is a middle-grade Space Fantasy novel that uses a lot of East Asian mythology and culture in its worldbuilding (kind of like the MoE trilogy, but actual magic rather than sufficiently advanced technology). Min is a fox spirit and shapeshifter who runs away from home to try and find her brother, Jun, who appears to have deserted his military post. She spends the first 1/3rd of the book stumbling from one mini-adventure to another before eventually ending up on Jun's battle cruiser and unraveling the mystery from there.
I think I struggled most with the book's pacing, it felt like Lee was trying to jam as much bigger idea into too short of a book. The worldbuilding is cool, but there is a lot of it to be jammed in, and I felt like it was really front-loaded in the first couple of chapters, namely when Min is leaving Jinju and trying to reach the Space Forces fleet. It felt like Min met a new group of characters and Learned A Lesson About Life in each chapter, then each chapter ends with her escaping and running into the next group of characters.
Once she gets to the battle cruiser the pacing evens out (and hits a lot of the standard training plot points you get in mil SF), and I do like seeing nonbinary characters in a kids book.
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Col. Chris Hadfield -
So, this has been on my TBR pile since 2015. I think when I picked it up I saw it as a book about space and didn't realize it was technically in the 'self help' section. Hadfield details his life and career leading up to becoming an astronaut, and what characteristics he thinks makes a good astronaut and how to apply those characteristics on earth.
Despite the number of times it took me to get through the first couple of chapters, I wound up really enjoying it, especially the less glamorous parts of astronaut life. Also, I feel I'm at a pretty apropos time in my life to read it, all my university orientations have had links to articles on growth mindset and the like and the themes really tie together.
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton -
My sister gave me this book for Christmas, it is a zany Victorian fantasy novel about lady pirates who captain flying houses instead of ships, complete with cannons and pirate flags, wreaking havoc on each other and the nobility (but not the average citizen because these lady scoundrels have Standards and also it's an escapist romance/adventure story that can't have too much realism getting in the way of the aesthetics - which to be clear I don't mind too much), .
The Wisteria Society is under threat by the dreaded Captain Patrick Morvath of Northeangerland Abbey, who happens to be the main character Cecelia's abusive, estranged father. Cecelia has to team up with Ned, who is either an assassin sent to kill her, or Morvath's henchman sent to capture her, or a secret agent for Queen Victoria, or whatever he feels like being at that particular moment, to rescue them.
I would say I 85% enjoyed this book. If you're willing to suspend your disbelief for the worldbuilding it's pretty fun, but there were also some points that made me side eye, such as the one singular mention of queerness, and the het romance really leaning into the experienced man/inexperienced woman tropes despite Cecelia's alleged experience with crime. Also I probably would have appreciated more of the in-jokes if I had ever managed to finish a Bronte novel.
2022 reading goal progress: Total books: 3 of 50, nonfiction: 1 of 7.
I forgot to take the amount of reading I would be doing for school into account when I made these goals. That... might make them more difficult than I anticipated.
