My father’s older sister Auntie Choo Neo placed chicken satay sticks on the backyard barbecue.
Dandelion, Jamie Chai Yun Liew, Arsenal Pulp Press 2022
If you’re still looking for children-of-immigrant stories. This time, the mother disappears and stays gone. It makes for an incredibly frustrating story; can’t the suffering be put on pause for a bit? – but it never takes over Lily’s story.
Dandelion shows all the small ways of feeling alien and does it well.
Reginald Gatling’s doom found him beneath an oak tree, on the last Sunday of a fast-fading summer.
A Marvelous Light, Freya Marske, MacMillan 2021
September hasn’t been for reading. The only reason why I finished this was because I had already rejected another novel (Ninefox Gambit – scifi, read like the transcript of a game walk-through video).
A Marvelous Light has potential with unknown magicians in society, some nice ideas about magic (connected to blood, to land, how it’s done) and decided to balance that out with a lot of visual to very visual sex scenes and a vocabulary that reads as a bad translating bot attacked it. It was such a slog. Even 90% in I couldn’t keep the two main characters apart, and only at one third some relationships with secondary characters are being clarified? Editor, where?
Anyway, good thing the month’s over now.
Een hevige cultuurstrijd splijt Nederland in tweeën.
De verdeelde Nederlanden, Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, Balans 2021
(pfaaaaah)
Ik had al redelijk snel het vermoeden dat dit boek ‘t niet zou worden voor mij. Ook omdat de informatie mij al bekend was (globalisering, individualisering etc.), maar vooral omdat Beugelsdijk geen centimeter buigt. Het kan zijn dat ik iets lees waar niets is, maar op mij kwam het allemaal erg over als “niet zeiken, lief spelen en bij de grootste groep aansluiten, hup!”. In een boek dat De Verdeelde Nederlanden heet..?
Mensen zijn makkelijk manipuleerbaar en politici en media zijn schuldig. Hier komt het echter over als de natuurlijke staat van dingen in plaats van gebrek aan kennis en inlevingsvermogen.
Kalak rounded a rocky stone ridge and stumbled to a stop before the body of a dying thunderclast.
The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson, Tor 2010
YESSS, finally some good fucking epic fantasy!
This one has been on my Holds list forever, which might see something about how popular it is or how few copies the library has. That’s always a risk because what if the story/positive review lost their appeal or have been completely forgotten?
With 1200 digital pages The Way of Kings was a risky investment, but it paid off beautifully. World-building, politics, magic and nary a sex scene. It never gets dense and the details keep the regular plots (apocalypse looming, political corruption) fresh.
This is a book you keep the TV off for, and stay up past your bed time.
Before the lost word, there was another.
The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams, Affirm Press 2020
Why, why would you write this in first person?
After having finished this book, I know why. To make sure that we not only get a limited view of an interesting time, but also to make sure all the added drama really strikes home. I’d say.
I thought this story about how women were allowed to add less to the creation of the Oxford Dictionary than men would have been interesting on the subject of language, gender, and history. Instead I got a soap opera lead by a Mary Sue.
Frustrating.
The music in the car was so loud that my teeth vibrated.
We Are Totally Normal, Naomi Kanakia, Harper Collins 2020
God, I hope not. I picked this YA novel because it was on a queer reading list; I did not expect this showcase of casual alcoholism in teens with absent parents and severe cases of word-vomit (and also regular ones).
Main dude Nandan (I assume he’s a teen?) is lost in life and in the societal hierarchy of things, while pondering if he’s confused about his sexual identity or just wants to use it to become popular (yes).
Maybe it’s a clear sign that I’m too old but I really hope that teenagers going from hangover to hangover, performing oral sex at a first meetup and walking home alone at night is a normal thing. Nandan may be confused about what he wants (until he very suddenly isn’t anymore), he manages to showcase that in an entirely unappealing way.
This is what I get for trusting library recommendations?
Op een dag schreef ik op mijn blog dat ik de apathie en het algemene gebrek aan interesse van mannen voor de vrouwenzaak moe was.
Mannen, ik haat ze, Pauline Harmange, atlas contract 2021
Kort maar krachtig. Pauline Harmange stipt aan dat mannen vrouwen geen enkele reden geven om ze niet te wantrouwen en te haten en dat is een fijn inzicht. Excuses om mannen te haten zijn dan ook niet nodig want de complete samenleving is er een verzameling van. Bondig essay, lekker duidelijk, ik ga zo door.
I leaned back in the seat of my old Ford Pinto, listening to the sounds coming from the Depot, the reservation’s only tavern.
Winter Counts, David L. Weiden, Ecco 2020
Do you want a Lone Vigilante story, but with a Native American protagonist and surroundings? Here you go!
Once swallowed, the piece of paper lodges in her esophagus, near her heart.
The Books of Jacob, or: A Fantastic Journey Across Seven Borders, Five Languages, and Three Major Religions, Not Counting the Minor Sects. Told by the Dead, Supplemented by the Author, Drawing from a Range of Books, and Aided by Imagination, the Which Being the Greatest Natural Gift of Any Person. That the Wise Might Have It for a Record, That My Compatriots Reflect, Laypersons Gain Some Understanding, and Melancholy Souls Obtain Some Slight Enjoyment, Olga Tokarczuk, Riverhead Books 2022
Loved The Silmarillion? House of Leaves? And 17th century mid-European history? This 900 page novel might just be the thing for you!
You don’t? Avoid this.
Als je studeert en hard genoeg werkt, dan kun je alles worden wat je wilt.
De onmisbaren – een ode aan mijn sociale klasse, Ron Meyer, Prometheus 2021
Sommige mensen zijn bang voor alles dat (mentaal) schuurt. Niet dat ik doelbewust op zoek ga naar oncomfortabele situaties, maar als je wilt leren, moet je confronteren. En nu we al jaren ervaren hoe “Ad en Ria” worden misbruikt door populisten, is het misschien eens tijd om bij hén achter de deur gaan kijken.
Dat wordt soms nogal melodramatisch gedaan, maar Ron Meyer verbindt wel het recente nieuws en (politieke) ontwikkelingen soepeltjes aan de (nieuwe) realiteit. Ik wist al een boel, maar nog niet alles. Voor hen die nog minder weten, zou dit verplichte kost moeten zijn.
There's no such thing as a final opinion. 
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