cyphomandra

December was either gaming or Yuletiding. I did not read the Wells in December but I hadn't included them earlier, so here they are.

Libby Lawrence is good at pretending, Jodi McAlister
Looking for Alibrandi, Melina Marchetta
Behind Frenemy Lines, Zen Cho
Compulsory, Martha Wells (short story)
All Systems Red, Martha Wells
Artificial Condition, Martha Wells
Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy, Martha Wells (short story)
Rogue protocol, Martha Wells
Exit strategy, Martha Wells
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, Martha Wells (short story)
Network effect, Martha Wells
Fugitive telemetry, Martha Wells
System collapse, Martha Wells

Libby Lawrence is Good at Pretending, Jodi McAlister. Uni theatre YA/new adult romance; Libby sleeps with the overly charming director just before he disappears (but just after he embezzles the group’s money); she doesn’t want to tell her best friend, who has her own issues, or any of the other theatre kids, as although she’s always previously been on the outside with bit parts, the replacement director’s cast her as the lead in Much Ado About Nothing. Messy but fun; the best friend part feels underdeveloped but the theatre stuff is good.

Looking for Alibrandi, Melina Marchetta. I kept feeling that I should have read this before, because it’s such an Australian classic. Josephine Alibrandi, Italian-Australian, is in her final year as a scholarship student at an exclusive Catholic high school; she fights with her mother (who has raised her on her own, despite her family’s disapproval of her single motherhood), goes out with boys, explores her family history and finally meets her father; it’s vivid, believable, and excellently characterised (Josie is prickly and stubborn and appealing, and her growth throughout the novel is great). Also has lots of Sydney in it.

Behind Frenemy Lines, Zen Cho. Kriya Rajasekar associates Charles Goh with the worst moments in her legal career - flubbing an interview, losing cases etc - and is appalled to discover she’s going to have to share an office with him when her boss/mentor takes her with him to a new legal firm. Charles, meanwhile, is appalled to discover he’s been anyone’s nemesis, and is increasingly concerned at how Kriya’s mentor is treating her. I enjoy Cho’s het romcoms (this is in the same continuity as The Friend Zone Experiment) but I don’t love them. This does have some great moments and I particularly like Charles, who determinedly dresses up in cosplay for his best friend’s lesbian sports-anime themed wedding (she and her wife bonded over their love for the fictitious Duke of Badminton series, which made me snort in amusement as someone who very briefly read fanfic for Prince of Tennis) and then takes the Tube to the venue.

I read all of the extant Murderbot books and shorts in a wild binge. I like them but do not feel fannish at all about them, although I can see why other people do. I like Murderbot and the voice is fantastic, but I find the humans rather interchangeable and I don’t like ART, who becomes increasingly prominent as the books go on. I will probably re-read these again at some stage and see if that changes.

Finished:

City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert. I read this in February but missed it from my last post. This is a book with an amazingly strong middle section that I liked a lot and a weird framing sequence that irked me. Vivian is kicked out of Vassar and sent by her long-suffering parents to live with her aunt Peg, who runs a struggling low-rent theatre in Manhattan, just as WWII gets underway. All the Manhattan theatre bits are fabulous, as is the fashion – Vivian is a talented seamstress/tailor who rapidly gets involved in making costumes for the actors, as well as her own clothes, and her eye for those around her and their outfits is keen. I could have read even more of this. But it’s framed by Vivian, in her 90s, looking back on her life and her relationship with one particular man – and, if I’d been that man’s daughter, to whom Vivian is apparently telling the story, I’d be pissed off at all these masses of irrelevant details. That part of Vivian’s story felt bolted on, rather than the fulcrum; it’s an uncomfortable mix.

The 52 Week Project: How I Fixed My Life By Trying One New Thing Every Week for a Year, Lauren Keenan. Obviously the subtitle gives this one away. Lauren is separated, struggling, and keeps getting rejected; she decides on this project and learns about herself (and others). Competent, breezy, self-deprecating; also very careful in what it doesn’t say. Enjoyable enough but lacking the personal connection of other memoirs I’ve found more meaningful.

The Second Term at Rocklands, Elsie J Oxenham. Despite title this is not remotely a school book and is yet more Abbey stuff with a long lost relative subplot flung in at random and some deeply significant Morris pipes. I continue to be unable to reliably distinguish between Joy, Jen, and Joan, despite having read probably 30-odd Abbey books over the years. Basically it was free on Project Gutenberg and I do still have a fondness for Oxenham’s Damaris Dances that means I will occasionally try to see what other fans find in the rest of the series.

The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo, Zen Cho. Jade is trying to break into London literary society in the 1920s, and writes a scathing review of the latest novel by literary darling Sebastian Hardie, who is intrigued by her audacity and talent. Hardie is very much HG Wells with regard to relationships and careless disregard for responsibility; Jade is practical, determined, and not convinced. The voice really carries this story (the denouement would be too slight and not all that satisfying without it) and it’s great.

Loving a Warrior, Melanie Hansen. Re-read. I really just like all the SEAL training stuff and, while the romance is fine, the bit where Matt thinks Shane has dropped out is all too obviously the BIG MISUNDERSTANDING and arrgh, really, these are supposed to be competent adults and not teenagers. But it's great for SEAL training (I told a friend I was reading a SEAL romance and despite my attempts to explain I still think they haven't really appreciated the capital letters).

To Sir Phillip, With Love, Julia Quinn. Eloise Bridgerton suddenly realises being single is less appealing now everyone else is in a relationship; she bolts off to the countryside, and longtime correspondent Sir Phillip, himself a widower (and father of two children) struggling to relate to anything other than his plants. It’s better than the last one and I like the kids; the depression backstory (for Phillip’s wife) teeters on the edge of being too contemporary in sensibility and also clashes with what I've seen of the series (I think I'm most of the way through episode four).

Concrete Rose, Angie Thomas. About Starr’s (from The Hate U Give) father, Maverick Carter, as a seventeen year old who’s just found out he has a son to a former girlfriend. He’s also failing in school, dealing drugs, and running with the King Lord gang, and seems destined to end up as just another statistic, but Thomas continues to write excellent books about real people in real communities navigating the difficult process of forming their identity, and Maverick is no exception. I’d also forgotten just enough of THUG to make the ending of this one extremely tense.

Currently Reading:

Life After Life, Kate Atkinson. Ursula Todd is born in 1910 and dies - at birth, multiple times, as a baby overlain by a cat, a child pulled out of her depth in sea water, falling off an icy roof at midnight, in the clutches of influenza during the pandemic - everytime the fall into darkness, and the rebirth. Things change with each cycle, as does Ursula's understanding of the process; we circle between wars and domesticity, the constraints and secrets of family life, and the horrible weight of foreknowledge. I liked Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books but bounced off some of the others and, in fact, tried to read this twice previously. This time it's definitely stuck and I'm enjoying it a lot. It reminds me of Jo Walton's My Real Children, but I'm liking it a lot more and hoping for a better ending.

Also a novel for critique, assorted MM Kayes, and I am giving myself a stern talking to about not stalling on Death Sets Sail, because it's not like I can change what happens by waiting and I do want to know.


Up Next:

I'm sure that, somewhere, I have the second and third of KJ Charles' Magpies trilogy in ebook, but it's not on the Kindle and Stanza isn't working. I read the on-line sample and really want to re-read the rest. Also rather a lot of romances on the library ebook app.

Gaming:

Have fallen back into Stardew Valley and am playing it on the Switch for the first time, as the 1.5 update isn't out yet for mobile. Just had a conversation with Willy that I think is setting things up for new content. I have put aside Genshin Impact for a bit as I like it but the gacha aspects are a constant irritation when I'm playing. Also doing a replay of Breath of the Wild as it's oddly soothing to start over with a blank map but (marginally) better gaming skills.