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soph ([personal profile] sophia_sol) wrote2024-05-03 03:37 pm
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book meme

[personal profile] geraineon and I both liked the idea of taking the questions from [community profile] booknook as a kind of book meme of questions, so here are my answers!

Recently finished reading: Coming Back, by Jessi Zabarsky

A book I want to reread: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin. I read it when I was about 14 years old and didn't properly understand it at the time; all I remember of it is that I thought it was boring. I think I'm much better prepared to appreciate what it's doing now so I'd like to revisit it!

Some published titles from my to be read list: the list is hundreds of books long ahahaha. But some of them include: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, The Water Outlaws by SL Huang, and any (all) of the danmei novels by Priest

A book not-yet-published I'm excited about: Lady Eve's Last Con, by Rebecca Fraimow!!! coming out this June! By a great friend who's a great writer. I can't wait.

Related book news I've got my eye on (adaptations etc.): I don't really pay attention to adaptation news, I gave up caring about the hugo awards, and I don't know enough about non-english-language works to be invested in certain works being translated, so I think I'm left without any related news I am invested in!

My all-time favourite book(s): Heaven Official's Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. By which you can tell I love ambitious and enormous books with huge casts of characters that are interested in themes of class dynamics and what it means to be an ethical actor in the world.

My favourite book genre(s): fantasy, historical fiction, scifi, danmei, nonfiction historical travelogues

A book I recommend in my favourite genre(s): To me it's important that I tailor recommendations to the tastes of the person I'm reccing to! No one book is going to land for everyone! Genuinely I don't even know where to start here. I suppose....my most recent five-star review for a book I haven't already mentioned for another question is The Sleeping Soldier, by Aster Glenn Gray, which is m/m time travel historical fiction, and is really excellent. Full review here: https://sophia-sol.dreamwidth.org/446916.html

A book I don't recommend in my favourite genre(s): My most recent negative review is for The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal, a short scifi novel that was trying to be social commentary and unexamined power fantasy at the same time, a combo that doesn't work well here. Plus I didn't care about any of the characters, the worldbuilding was weak, and the murder mystery wasn't compelling. Full review here: https://sophia-sol.dreamwidth.org/446361.html

A genre I'm interested in trying out: I'm still pretty new in reading danmei and I'm interested in branching out and trying more of it!

Link to my latest book review: https://sophia-sol.dreamwidth.org/459567.html

Link to my reading log: https://sophia-sol.dreamwidth.org/tag/post+type:+book+thoughts+2

Books/genres I'm interested in discussing/chatting about: see my faves listed above. those especially! but also theoretically interested in discussing just about any!
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geraineon: (Default)

[personal profile] geraineon 2024-05-03 09:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, I should reread Earthsea too. It's been so long. And I'm excited for your friend~!

You're the second person I know who have anti-recced The Spare Man, so I guess I'm sufficiently anti-recced for that XD

Always enjoy chatting about books/other things with you~ And I enjoyed reading your responses!
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2024-05-08 02:08 pm (UTC)(link)
earthsea reread time for both of us!

Always enjoy chatting about books/other things with you~

ditto!! <3
lotesse: (Default)

[personal profile] lotesse 2024-05-03 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I *do* think you might really like Earthsea, especially as no-longer-a-child
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2024-05-08 02:09 pm (UTC)(link)
yeah that's definitely the impression I've gotten from other people talking about it, and from my experience reading other Le Guin!
chestnut_pod: A close-up photograph of my auburn hair in a French braid (Default)

[personal profile] chestnut_pod 2024-05-04 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
This works well as a fun meme!
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2024-05-08 02:09 pm (UTC)(link)
it really does! you could do it too!
skygiants: Grantaire from the film of Les Mis (you'll see)

[personal profile] skygiants 2024-05-04 01:04 pm (UTC)(link)
now I'm just imagining TGCF As Written By Victor and Les Mis As Written By MXTX ... it's not like JVJ and Xie Lian have no similarities! they're numerous!
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2024-05-08 02:10 pm (UTC)(link)
omgggg I love this thought. and now I desperately want to know what extensive digressions victor hugo would make in his version of tgcf. and who mxtx would ship in her version of les mis!
lokifan: black Converse against a black background (Default)

[personal profile] lokifan 2024-05-11 03:01 pm (UTC)(link)
I want to reread Earthsea for the same reason. I found it really boring and never went onto the others. But I also read most of it the day my beloved uncle died (my mum & other uncle drank whiskey that night and I went to my room with A Wizard of Earthsea, by far the most promising book where we were staying). I was 22, so I'd have thought I'd be able to appreciate it, but obvs the vibes were off to say the least.

I'm voting in the Hugos this year cos I'm going to Worldcon, plus I've heard good things about Saint of Bright Doors, so I'm looking forward to it. Just started a book club and it's going to be our second book!
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2024-05-15 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
oh yeah that sounds like a heck of a brainspace to be in upon reading earthsea the first time! hopefully both you and I will appreciate it more on next go

ooh exciting on going to worldcon, I hope you have a great time! and what an excellent choice of thing to read with your book club - I love book clubbing!
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[personal profile] glitteryv 2024-05-11 03:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Lady Eve's Last Con is the only yet-to-be published book I'm deffo OJO-ing rather hard for this year. I'm even no.1 in the library queue, hehehe.

Also, I'm a little past the halfway point in Heaven's Official Blessing (juuust abt to finish Volume 5) and I'm enjoying it a lot (Please, NO spoilers!). No idea as to what I'm reading next w/r/t danmei, but I'm excited all the same.

And, yeah, lorde The Spare Man was such a disappointing book! Like, it turned me off the idea of ever picking up by that author ever again. DDDD:

I don't think I've read that book by Aster Glenn Gray yet? I generally like that author's books (some have been misses, but not in terrible ways.) Anyways, I've added it to my "check it out" TBR pile, hahah.
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2024-05-15 07:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I have my compy of Lady Eve waiting for me to pick up at the local bookstore and I am SO EXCITED.

I'm so glad you're enjoying Heaven Official's Blessing!!!! I adore that book! you have so much more of a journey to go on in the second half :)

yeah when I first read The Spare Man I was like, oh, I'm sure the author's next book will be better!! but as I get distance from it, I'm more and more just...not that interested in bothering to seek out whatever else she writes. Sigh.

I hope you enjoy the Aster Glenn Gray book as much as I did!!
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