schneefink (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
schneefink) wrote2025-05-31 03:45 pm
schneefink) wrote2025-05-31 03:45 pm
Entry tags:
Weekend + books (read before the weekend)
One of my favorite things about not having plans and not having to study is that I can do things spontaneously, like meet up with friends to go shopping and have food and then go for a walk to see some sheep and goats that I had no idea were there so my biologist friend could delightedly poke at the dung to find beetles.
One of my favorite things about staying at my friends' house for a few days is that I don't have "I should do chores/clean/tidy" run in the back of my head at all times. I still found things to procrastinate on - an exchange letter, leaving fic comments etc - but overall it was very relaxed. I'm getting better at Beat Saber.
Books I read recently:
The Burning Kingdoms trilogy by Tasha Suri: The Jasmine Throne, the Oleander Sword, the Lotus Empire. This series has been on my to-read list for a while and I finally got around to reading it. I enjoyed it a lot! I enjoyed the Indian-inspired setting and the complicated politics of it with many different groups, and I liked the development of the main characters both separately and together. Of the antagonists I especially enjoyed the human ones, very plausible and very scary. I really liked Priya and Malina's different perspectives on power, with Priya mostly focused on using it to protect her people and Malina's more selfish perspective, where first of all she has even fewer alternatives and it's also much more about thinking she deserves it, and their different approaches/challenges/dealings with it. I also liked that despite how much they want/love each other, they also have other, at least as important priorities.
I really liked Bhumika, too, especially in the first two books. She did her best in really bad situations.
At some point I started expecting a tragedy, but I liked the balance the ending struck.
I enjoyed the books a lot but don't really have a lot to say about them, idk.
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett: I enjoyed this much less than the first book in the series, sadly. At one point I complained to LB, who's actually worked at a university, that I thought the portrayal of academia was unrealistic, and he said that it's not that unrealistic provided the character in question is a bit of an asshole. And (I assume) Emily was written as "socially awkward" but it did cross the line to "asshole" imo. I felt sorry for her colleague Rose especially who had some very reasonable concerns about scientific standards. And unlike last time the diary format with so much dialogue etc. didn't work as well for me here. I still enjoyed the adventures with the fae, but I'm not sure I'll bother to read the third book.
The Firm by John Grisham: The first non-SFF book I read since April 2022, according to Goodreads, wow okay. And the first non-SFF novel since February 2022. I decided to read it because the lecturer of one of my business law classes mentioned it, and I didn't give up early even though the writing is clunky. In the first half I really liked the slowly growing sense of creeping dread from the dangers the reader sees but the main character doesn't. Unfortunately the characters stayed flat throughout, and in the second half I really disliked how the main characters suddenly turn into super spies able to outwit the mafia and the FBI and get away scot-free. Mitch even gets away with cheating on his wife without her finding out about it. Not a very satisfying ending. I don't regret that I read it but only because now I know.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins: I started with this one instead of "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" because I got this one first from the library, but in hindsight I wonder if that was a mistake. It worked on its own but I strongly suspect I missed many connections. Conversely, it's been many years since I read the original trilogy but there were almost too many connections and similarities for my taste, it seemed a bit repetitive. To be fair there's only so many ways the Hunger Games can differ. My least favorite part was Haymitch's protagonist halo: it didn't make sense to me that Plutarch and Beetee so quickly trusted him enough to tell him about their plans for rebellion, the reasons seemed way too flimsy for the risk, even considering that Haymitch has no reason to betray them. If they were this trusting it seems like a miracle they weren't caught earlier. Also, the original trilogy came out 2008 - 2010 and since then I find it much harder to believe that the Capital would not have constant surveillance everywhere.
I did like that this showed there were many attempts to disrupt the Games before one finally succeeded, and it did a good job showing the horror of the games.
One of my favorite things about staying at my friends' house for a few days is that I don't have "I should do chores/clean/tidy" run in the back of my head at all times. I still found things to procrastinate on - an exchange letter, leaving fic comments etc - but overall it was very relaxed. I'm getting better at Beat Saber.
Books I read recently:
The Burning Kingdoms trilogy by Tasha Suri: The Jasmine Throne, the Oleander Sword, the Lotus Empire. This series has been on my to-read list for a while and I finally got around to reading it. I enjoyed it a lot! I enjoyed the Indian-inspired setting and the complicated politics of it with many different groups, and I liked the development of the main characters both separately and together. Of the antagonists I especially enjoyed the human ones, very plausible and very scary. I really liked Priya and Malina's different perspectives on power, with Priya mostly focused on using it to protect her people and Malina's more selfish perspective, where first of all she has even fewer alternatives and it's also much more about thinking she deserves it, and their different approaches/challenges/dealings with it. I also liked that despite how much they want/love each other, they also have other, at least as important priorities.
I really liked Bhumika, too, especially in the first two books. She did her best in really bad situations.
At some point I started expecting a tragedy, but I liked the balance the ending struck.
I enjoyed the books a lot but don't really have a lot to say about them, idk.
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett: I enjoyed this much less than the first book in the series, sadly. At one point I complained to LB, who's actually worked at a university, that I thought the portrayal of academia was unrealistic, and he said that it's not that unrealistic provided the character in question is a bit of an asshole. And (I assume) Emily was written as "socially awkward" but it did cross the line to "asshole" imo. I felt sorry for her colleague Rose especially who had some very reasonable concerns about scientific standards. And unlike last time the diary format with so much dialogue etc. didn't work as well for me here. I still enjoyed the adventures with the fae, but I'm not sure I'll bother to read the third book.
The Firm by John Grisham: The first non-SFF book I read since April 2022, according to Goodreads, wow okay. And the first non-SFF novel since February 2022. I decided to read it because the lecturer of one of my business law classes mentioned it, and I didn't give up early even though the writing is clunky. In the first half I really liked the slowly growing sense of creeping dread from the dangers the reader sees but the main character doesn't. Unfortunately the characters stayed flat throughout, and in the second half I really disliked how the main characters suddenly turn into super spies able to outwit the mafia and the FBI and get away scot-free. Mitch even gets away with cheating on his wife without her finding out about it. Not a very satisfying ending. I don't regret that I read it but only because now I know.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins: I started with this one instead of "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" because I got this one first from the library, but in hindsight I wonder if that was a mistake. It worked on its own but I strongly suspect I missed many connections. Conversely, it's been many years since I read the original trilogy but there were almost too many connections and similarities for my taste, it seemed a bit repetitive. To be fair there's only so many ways the Hunger Games can differ. My least favorite part was Haymitch's protagonist halo: it didn't make sense to me that Plutarch and Beetee so quickly trusted him enough to tell him about their plans for rebellion, the reasons seemed way too flimsy for the risk, even considering that Haymitch has no reason to betray them. If they were this trusting it seems like a miracle they weren't caught earlier. Also, the original trilogy came out 2008 - 2010 and since then I find it much harder to believe that the Capital would not have constant surveillance everywhere.
I did like that this showed there were many attempts to disrupt the Games before one finally succeeded, and it did a good job showing the horror of the games.