Books of 2014
Jan. 3rd, 2015 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riontelLast year's reading is almost thirty books short of 2013, which can be correlated to the job move. Between the crazy travel schedule (I should have made my boss put in writing his definition of "occasional"), way too many presentations and general catch up, I just didn't have the time. I am extremely thankful to the inventor of e-books (not sure who the honor officially belongs to), the list would have been even shorter if I couldn't carry around a whole library in a tiny device that easily fits into any bag.
1. Christopher And His Kind, 1929-1939, Christopher Isherwood (4/5)
Covers a significant period in Isherwood's life, one that resulted in The Berlin Stories, for instance. He did interesting things, met a great number of well known people (and his mention of them didn't feel like name dropping) and witnessed the rise of Nazi Germany and a collapse of hope and potential and described it all with great care and detachment that results from the distance of years and knowledge of what comes after.
2. The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood (4/5)
Complex tale within a tale and very sad. I like how different pieces are told in different manner. Very nicely written but you need to work at it, since it doesn't flow linearly.
3. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (0/5)
I am sure I've read worse books but there wouldn't be too many of them. Don't know why I actually finished it other than I couldn't believe it really was as bad as all that until I reached the end and could confidently say it was way worse. Why was this written? Why did anybody ever print it? How did it become a classic? Maybe it had something relevant in it for its contemporaries but from where I stand, it's a complete and utter drivel. This was the only book Emily Brontë ever wrote and it was one book too many.
4. Orlando: A Biography, Virginia Woolf (3/5)
After "Wuthering Heights" this was positively brilliant. It had its moments though I still don't know what the author was trying to get at.
5. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff (4/5)
Not quite as great as the 84, Charing Cross Road but that still makes it plenty fun.
6. The Inheritance Trilogy (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms, The Kingdom of Gods), N. K. Jemisin (4/5, 4/5, 3/5)
Political intrigue, plots, gods, and a chosen one. Got to love the author who can take a bunch of standard ingredients a mix them together in a fresh story. I did have issues with the last book, it didn't live up to the first two and just went in some bizarre direction I didn't like, made one of my favorite characters do some weird and inconsistent stuff.
9. The Chronicles of St Mary's #1 – 2 (Just One Damned Thing After Another, A Symphony of Echoes), Jodi Taylor (3/5)
I like the idea of scientist going around messing up with time I just wish it was written better and with a lot less of the convoluted and contrived drama and forced "clever" dialog. Read Connie Willis instead.
11. Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey #1), Dorothy L. Sayers (3/5)
This might be suffering from a first book syndrome but I found it a bit disappointing, which is why I haven't gotten to reading the next one in the series as of yet.
12. Eye of the Needle, Ken Follett (4/5)
I think this popped on my recommended list because of Suarez's Kill Decision. If you are into thrillers this one wasn't bad, just keep in mind it was written in the 70s so might not be as thrilling now.
13. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (4/5)
Creepy, which was the idea, of course.
14. Influx, Daniel Suarez (3/5)
I had a real hard time buying the contrived premise of this and it just didn't live up to the expectations.
15. Why Kings Confess (Sebastian St. Cyr #9), C.S. Harris (4/5)
I still like the series and Sebastian so I'll keep reading (another one is due this year, yay!)
16. The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov, Paul Russell (3/5)
Did you know that Nabokov had a brother who died in a Nazi concentration camp? I had no idea until I read this fictionalized biography of Sergey's life. Apparently it was an interesting though not particularly happy life which really not much is known about for sure so the author had to make up all the missing pieces, with moderate success.
17. His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire #1), Naomi Novik (3/5)
First book syndrome? The writing was a bit stilted and the Laurence and Temeraire come across so painfully proper that I kept wishing they along with the author would get the collective stick out of their asses.
18. Life After Life, Kate Atkinson (3/5)
If you get to live your life over and over again, even if what you remember is hazy and more of a feeling of deja vu than anything concrete, you can change history. A bit formulaic but fairly well written so reads well. I didn't like it that self corrections started before Ursula was able to affect anything, like at the moment of her birth, by some external force.
19. A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox Mysteries #1), Charles Finch (3/5)
Historical murder mystery set in Victorian London. Convoluted and not particularly suspenseful, a bit boring in fact.
20. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North (4/5)
A different take on the story of continuous rebirth. In this one, though Harry and his compatriots get reborn into the same lives they have an ability to affect not only the present and future but the past as well. And therein lies the problem because now the world is about to end. More action packed than Atkinson's Life after Life and I enjoyed the flow better.
21. The Chimera Vector (Fifth Column #1), Nathan M. Farrugia (3/5)
Interesting marketing move by the author: giving out the first book in the series for free in hopes that the person gets hooked and maybe also advertises it to others. I got this one because of high rating I gave Suarez's duology. Unfortunately I didn't much care for the intrigue in this, the plot was not so much complex as simply convoluted, I didn't care for the characters, especially the main one, the explanation for "evil" motivation was not satisfying, and the whole story was just not my cup of tea.
22. Some Danger Involved (Barker & Llewelyn #1), Will Thomas (3/5)
Mediocre historical murder mystery, set, once again, in Victorian London.
23. Valour and Vanity (Glamourist Histories, #4), Mary Robinette Kowal (3/5)
The series started out so well but it's been going downhill unfortunately.
24. Something Strange and Deadly (Something Strange and Deadly, A Darkness Strange and Lovely, Strange and Ever After), Susan Dennard (3/5)
Steampunk and magic, with zombies and drama and a story of young love. Sounds exciting except that it wasn't.
27. Torch Song Trilogy, Harvey Fierstein (5/5)
I wish I had a chance to see the plays, the movie is certainly brilliant and one of my favorite movies ever. And it reads beautifully: hysterically funny and heartbreaking at the same time.
28. Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins: The Autobiography, Rupert Everett (2/5)
Unlike Christopher Isherwood's autobiography this is all about gratuitous name dropping. And he is such a whiny boring person, or at least that's what he comes across as. That pretty head is in dire need of some brains.
29. The Giver (The Giver Quartet #1), Lois Lowry (3/5)
Antiutopia for kids. Great build up and then it just ended. I guess the main idea was "don't struggle against the system, you can't win anyway?" Realistic expectations are all well and good but this is for kids, give them some hope!
30. Divergent (Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant), Veronica Roth (3/5, 3/5, 2/5)
Thanks to The Hunger Games for the new crop of strong female heroins struggling in the antiutopian, possibly post-Apocalyptic future. Except this turned out to be complete trash. While it was dealing with the way the world is, book one, it was somewhat tolerable but then it moved on to why the world is such and all the internal inconsistencies starting popping up and getting harder to ignore until my suspension of disbelieve engine broke altogether. Boring and stupid.
33. The Jean le Flambeur Series (The Quantum Thief, The Fractal Prince, The Causal Angel), Hannu Rajaniemi (4/5)
I know just the person to play Jean if they ever decide to make this into a movie, and he already has experience playing a charming conman. Very unusual setting for a space opera. Recommend to anybody who doesn't mind hard sci-fi, all those quantum, fractal and causal in titles are not there by accident, and enjoys intrigues and plots within plots. Don't expect an easy read, though.
36. My Real Children, Jo Walton (3/5)
Alternative history, genre I like very much but didn't find quite satisfying enough in this case. It's not a novel idea that one decision can alter the course of your whole life, but the course of the history of the world? Two possibilities hinging on one decision by one person. The writing was a bit laborious, didn't seem fluent and easy, and I hate open endings.
37. The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell (3/5)
It's a complete accident that three books I've read earlier in the year already dealt with ideas of rebirth and affecting history through either a foreknowledge or just greater accumulated experience but because of that this new book from Mitchell felt a bit derivative. It just wasn't as original and compelling as his previous ones.
38. Waistcoats & Weaponry (Finishing School #3), Gail Carriger (3/5)
It's steadily getting more ridiculous but still amusing enough to stick with the series. There is just one more book left and I want to know how it ends.
39. The Mortdecai Trilogy (Don't Point that Thing at Me, After You with a Pistol, Something Nasty in the Woodshed), Kyril Bonfiglioli (3/5)
Alcoholic and glutton James Bond wanna-not-be Charlie Mordecai, who is also a very unreliable narrator and born about 50 years too late for his chosen lifestyle. Spying, theft, murder, secret government agencies and a cherry on top. Very bizarre and completely unbelievable. That's the first two books. Third book is another thing entirely and quite unpleasant.
42. The Martian, Andy Weir (4/5)
This was great fun. I just loved this bastard child of Robinson Crusoe and Mystery Island. I really enjoy the whole man pitted against terrible luck and dumb nature scenario and the writing was a total delight, funny and clever. I couldn't put it down and totally recommend to any sci-fi lovers. I also fully expect to see it mistreated and killed in the movie theaters in the very near future.
43. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons (3/5)
Crossbreed between Emma and Wuthering Heights and a parody on both. Moderately cute and amusing.
44. Blindsight, Peter Watts (2/5)
There should be some punishment imposed for gratuitous use of metaphors and similes and for overuse of adjectives. I am thinking a community service, perhaps editing fanfiction pro bono. I would make it a slash fanfiction but that might fall under the 8th Amendment so gen would do. With that out of the way, I wasn't crazy about the "idea" of Blindsight and where it went and the conclusions. It had potential to be great which got thrown out for another "we are so alone in this universe and so tragically misunderstood while the world is on the brink of apocalypse." Blah, blah, blah.
45. China Mountain Zhang, Maureen F. McHugh (4/5)
This on the other hand was great. Really enjoyed the way the story was told, the view of the world in a not too distant future but in a very personal way through individual stories. The future is believable, and depending on your political views can be considered antiutopian or just a little bit pessimistic, what with everybody studying Chinese and everything.
A slightly disappointing year, no new names to follow and look forward to really, the old favorites did not produce their best either. The Martian, China Mountain Zhang and The Jean le Flambeur Series (all sci-fi, strangely enough) were the highlights. We'll see what the new year brings.
1. Christopher And His Kind, 1929-1939, Christopher Isherwood (4/5)
Covers a significant period in Isherwood's life, one that resulted in The Berlin Stories, for instance. He did interesting things, met a great number of well known people (and his mention of them didn't feel like name dropping) and witnessed the rise of Nazi Germany and a collapse of hope and potential and described it all with great care and detachment that results from the distance of years and knowledge of what comes after.
2. The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood (4/5)
Complex tale within a tale and very sad. I like how different pieces are told in different manner. Very nicely written but you need to work at it, since it doesn't flow linearly.
3. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (0/5)
I am sure I've read worse books but there wouldn't be too many of them. Don't know why I actually finished it other than I couldn't believe it really was as bad as all that until I reached the end and could confidently say it was way worse. Why was this written? Why did anybody ever print it? How did it become a classic? Maybe it had something relevant in it for its contemporaries but from where I stand, it's a complete and utter drivel. This was the only book Emily Brontë ever wrote and it was one book too many.
4. Orlando: A Biography, Virginia Woolf (3/5)
After "Wuthering Heights" this was positively brilliant. It had its moments though I still don't know what the author was trying to get at.
5. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff (4/5)
Not quite as great as the 84, Charing Cross Road but that still makes it plenty fun.
6. The Inheritance Trilogy (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms, The Kingdom of Gods), N. K. Jemisin (4/5, 4/5, 3/5)
Political intrigue, plots, gods, and a chosen one. Got to love the author who can take a bunch of standard ingredients a mix them together in a fresh story. I did have issues with the last book, it didn't live up to the first two and just went in some bizarre direction I didn't like, made one of my favorite characters do some weird and inconsistent stuff.
9. The Chronicles of St Mary's #1 – 2 (Just One Damned Thing After Another, A Symphony of Echoes), Jodi Taylor (3/5)
I like the idea of scientist going around messing up with time I just wish it was written better and with a lot less of the convoluted and contrived drama and forced "clever" dialog. Read Connie Willis instead.
11. Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey #1), Dorothy L. Sayers (3/5)
This might be suffering from a first book syndrome but I found it a bit disappointing, which is why I haven't gotten to reading the next one in the series as of yet.
12. Eye of the Needle, Ken Follett (4/5)
I think this popped on my recommended list because of Suarez's Kill Decision. If you are into thrillers this one wasn't bad, just keep in mind it was written in the 70s so might not be as thrilling now.
13. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (4/5)
Creepy, which was the idea, of course.
14. Influx, Daniel Suarez (3/5)
I had a real hard time buying the contrived premise of this and it just didn't live up to the expectations.
15. Why Kings Confess (Sebastian St. Cyr #9), C.S. Harris (4/5)
I still like the series and Sebastian so I'll keep reading (another one is due this year, yay!)
16. The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov, Paul Russell (3/5)
Did you know that Nabokov had a brother who died in a Nazi concentration camp? I had no idea until I read this fictionalized biography of Sergey's life. Apparently it was an interesting though not particularly happy life which really not much is known about for sure so the author had to make up all the missing pieces, with moderate success.
17. His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire #1), Naomi Novik (3/5)
First book syndrome? The writing was a bit stilted and the Laurence and Temeraire come across so painfully proper that I kept wishing they along with the author would get the collective stick out of their asses.
18. Life After Life, Kate Atkinson (3/5)
If you get to live your life over and over again, even if what you remember is hazy and more of a feeling of deja vu than anything concrete, you can change history. A bit formulaic but fairly well written so reads well. I didn't like it that self corrections started before Ursula was able to affect anything, like at the moment of her birth, by some external force.
19. A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox Mysteries #1), Charles Finch (3/5)
Historical murder mystery set in Victorian London. Convoluted and not particularly suspenseful, a bit boring in fact.
20. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North (4/5)
A different take on the story of continuous rebirth. In this one, though Harry and his compatriots get reborn into the same lives they have an ability to affect not only the present and future but the past as well. And therein lies the problem because now the world is about to end. More action packed than Atkinson's Life after Life and I enjoyed the flow better.
21. The Chimera Vector (Fifth Column #1), Nathan M. Farrugia (3/5)
Interesting marketing move by the author: giving out the first book in the series for free in hopes that the person gets hooked and maybe also advertises it to others. I got this one because of high rating I gave Suarez's duology. Unfortunately I didn't much care for the intrigue in this, the plot was not so much complex as simply convoluted, I didn't care for the characters, especially the main one, the explanation for "evil" motivation was not satisfying, and the whole story was just not my cup of tea.
22. Some Danger Involved (Barker & Llewelyn #1), Will Thomas (3/5)
Mediocre historical murder mystery, set, once again, in Victorian London.
23. Valour and Vanity (Glamourist Histories, #4), Mary Robinette Kowal (3/5)
The series started out so well but it's been going downhill unfortunately.
24. Something Strange and Deadly (Something Strange and Deadly, A Darkness Strange and Lovely, Strange and Ever After), Susan Dennard (3/5)
Steampunk and magic, with zombies and drama and a story of young love. Sounds exciting except that it wasn't.
27. Torch Song Trilogy, Harvey Fierstein (5/5)
I wish I had a chance to see the plays, the movie is certainly brilliant and one of my favorite movies ever. And it reads beautifully: hysterically funny and heartbreaking at the same time.
28. Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins: The Autobiography, Rupert Everett (2/5)
Unlike Christopher Isherwood's autobiography this is all about gratuitous name dropping. And he is such a whiny boring person, or at least that's what he comes across as. That pretty head is in dire need of some brains.
29. The Giver (The Giver Quartet #1), Lois Lowry (3/5)
Antiutopia for kids. Great build up and then it just ended. I guess the main idea was "don't struggle against the system, you can't win anyway?" Realistic expectations are all well and good but this is for kids, give them some hope!
30. Divergent (Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant), Veronica Roth (3/5, 3/5, 2/5)
Thanks to The Hunger Games for the new crop of strong female heroins struggling in the antiutopian, possibly post-Apocalyptic future. Except this turned out to be complete trash. While it was dealing with the way the world is, book one, it was somewhat tolerable but then it moved on to why the world is such and all the internal inconsistencies starting popping up and getting harder to ignore until my suspension of disbelieve engine broke altogether. Boring and stupid.
33. The Jean le Flambeur Series (The Quantum Thief, The Fractal Prince, The Causal Angel), Hannu Rajaniemi (4/5)
I know just the person to play Jean if they ever decide to make this into a movie, and he already has experience playing a charming conman. Very unusual setting for a space opera. Recommend to anybody who doesn't mind hard sci-fi, all those quantum, fractal and causal in titles are not there by accident, and enjoys intrigues and plots within plots. Don't expect an easy read, though.
36. My Real Children, Jo Walton (3/5)
Alternative history, genre I like very much but didn't find quite satisfying enough in this case. It's not a novel idea that one decision can alter the course of your whole life, but the course of the history of the world? Two possibilities hinging on one decision by one person. The writing was a bit laborious, didn't seem fluent and easy, and I hate open endings.
37. The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell (3/5)
It's a complete accident that three books I've read earlier in the year already dealt with ideas of rebirth and affecting history through either a foreknowledge or just greater accumulated experience but because of that this new book from Mitchell felt a bit derivative. It just wasn't as original and compelling as his previous ones.
38. Waistcoats & Weaponry (Finishing School #3), Gail Carriger (3/5)
It's steadily getting more ridiculous but still amusing enough to stick with the series. There is just one more book left and I want to know how it ends.
39. The Mortdecai Trilogy (Don't Point that Thing at Me, After You with a Pistol, Something Nasty in the Woodshed), Kyril Bonfiglioli (3/5)
Alcoholic and glutton James Bond wanna-not-be Charlie Mordecai, who is also a very unreliable narrator and born about 50 years too late for his chosen lifestyle. Spying, theft, murder, secret government agencies and a cherry on top. Very bizarre and completely unbelievable. That's the first two books. Third book is another thing entirely and quite unpleasant.
42. The Martian, Andy Weir (4/5)
This was great fun. I just loved this bastard child of Robinson Crusoe and Mystery Island. I really enjoy the whole man pitted against terrible luck and dumb nature scenario and the writing was a total delight, funny and clever. I couldn't put it down and totally recommend to any sci-fi lovers. I also fully expect to see it mistreated and killed in the movie theaters in the very near future.
43. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons (3/5)
Crossbreed between Emma and Wuthering Heights and a parody on both. Moderately cute and amusing.
44. Blindsight, Peter Watts (2/5)
There should be some punishment imposed for gratuitous use of metaphors and similes and for overuse of adjectives. I am thinking a community service, perhaps editing fanfiction pro bono. I would make it a slash fanfiction but that might fall under the 8th Amendment so gen would do. With that out of the way, I wasn't crazy about the "idea" of Blindsight and where it went and the conclusions. It had potential to be great which got thrown out for another "we are so alone in this universe and so tragically misunderstood while the world is on the brink of apocalypse." Blah, blah, blah.
45. China Mountain Zhang, Maureen F. McHugh (4/5)
This on the other hand was great. Really enjoyed the way the story was told, the view of the world in a not too distant future but in a very personal way through individual stories. The future is believable, and depending on your political views can be considered antiutopian or just a little bit pessimistic, what with everybody studying Chinese and everything.
A slightly disappointing year, no new names to follow and look forward to really, the old favorites did not produce their best either. The Martian, China Mountain Zhang and The Jean le Flambeur Series (all sci-fi, strangely enough) were the highlights. We'll see what the new year brings.
