May’s Reads
End of May and we’re already almost halfway through the year, good grief, and at the May reading round up. The weather is ramping up and sitting with a book is a real joy, as anything else causes menopausal overheating at my age!
Summertime reading includes beach reads, and I have to say I like the very recent style for short, sharp stories sitting at 100 to 300 pages. I find these very readable and much better suited to hot days than great long 1,000 page beasties. They also fool my brain into thinking I have really achieved something each time I finish one, which is a great dopamine high. Honestly right now I cannot recommend short novels, novellas, and novelettes highly enough. Amazon has definitely clocked on to the trend, and seem to be rapidly releasing series of novellas at an incredible pace. I’ve pretty much seen a release per genre over the last few months. There are lots of reasons probably for us not to want Amazon to fully take over the world, so I’m hoping they’re not the only ones spotting the requirement readers have obviously shown. On the plus side, if you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber then you’re probably reading (or listening to, as they are generally released to Audible as well, also covered under your Kindle Unlimited subscription) all these releases as soon as they appear, and they are well worth a look even if this is just for an introduction to the showcased authors.
Firstly I have to talk about “The Six Deaths of the Saint” by Alix E. Harrow. I loved both the storyline of this beautiful novella, and the whimsical, lyrical prose. I loved it so much I felt compelled to research and purchase a range by the author, and am already entranced. Alix E. Harrow has made it onto my watch list, not the easiest feat. This is one of the short stories released by Amazon by collection, so I would simply advise reading it for yourself, it is easy to access.
From this, I moved straight on to Alix E. Harrow’s “The Knight and the Butcherbird”, which I loved exactly as much as I had already enjoyed “The Six Deaths of the Saint”. If you cannot get your hands on one, then honestly just try the other. I listened to both on Audible, and the narration was beautifully toned to the pace of the novella in each case.
Secondly I want to highlight a non-fiction (what, me? Reading non-fiction? No!! Yes obviously, as you may already know I cannot stay away from this ridiculously addictive genre). It is Studs Terkel’s “Working in America”, but more specifically, it is the absolutely wonderful (and very short!) Audible version of this series of interviews carried out many years ago in America that I am touting today. For one thing, we get to hear what a 1950s telephone operator thought of their job; for anyone ever fascinated by vintage movies, this is a must have. It certainly became one for me anyway, I thought it was absolutely wonderful.
I had something completely unheard of in May, which was three DNF books. As you may know, I will usually try and force myself to finish anything that I start, but I took a page from my own April blog, decided life is too short, especially with the limited “good” time you get with a disability, and put down anything that annoyed me too much to read. I’m going to mention both these books, and my reason for not finishing them, here, as with a little space and time I have decided my antipathy was not necessarily the fault of the books. Please note, my one star rating simply refers to a DNF, so I cannot tell you whether these books are good, bad or indifferent. They were just not for me; I didn’t finish reading them. Trust me, I am very opinionated, so if there was something I hated about it, I would put that on the entry in my reading list anyway.
The first was “The Garden” by Tomi Champion-Adeyemi, which I just could not get into. I actually already do not remember a thing about the storyline, so I cannot give any pointers as to why I couldn’t read this one. This novella annoyed me because I remember researching it and believing I was going to love it. Also… horror - I love all horror and true crime don’t I? Apparently not. At the time, I thought maybe I just could not get on with the writing style?
The second was “Chicken Scratch” by Becki Willis. Don’t laugh, but this one was just too goddamn cheerful. I hated the protagonist from the word go. Definitely a personality clash here. I like cozy mysteries to break up the horror and non-fiction usually but for the love of Pete, this (apparently mature) woman was positively gleeful (and surprisingly horny?) mere seconds after finding a decomposing body partially consumed by the chickens still swarming over it. Just glad I’m not a character in this world, I’d devolve very quickly to axe-wielding psychopathy as well.
Third came “Loch Down Abbey” by Beth Cowan-Erskine, and this is the one that made me rethink. I’d worked for months to get a translated (English rather than Italian) version of this cozy mystery novel, then have picked at it for at least three months, dropping it on each occasion for literally anything else that was available. I could not read it. But there’s nothing wrong with it. The writing is solid, I drifted farther in on the occasions I did pick it up, but I’d simply drop it for any infraction I could find.
It hit me then that the problem was likely in me. For whatever reason, I could not abide touchy feely happy fiction in May. It was time for a break, so I sank into other things. I limped through “Spy Classroom” (again, far too happy, and also misogynistic), enjoyed it but decided at that point to avoid manga and light novels for a while too; clearly my irritation knew no bounds. I want to add that I thought Spy Classroom was a truly fun read, and do recommend it. The two star review reflects the problems with reading the first in a translated light novel series representing girls I believe to be too young for the adult world they are presented with. (Please note, I read nothing strictly inappropriate in this manga.) Mature the characters a little and improve the translations, and this would be fantastic. It has plenty of fans for this reason. The writing is full of humour and the storylines are interesting. I do intend to read the rest of the series if I get chance and can get back in the happy-fiction mood.
So, now to the other end of the scale, and the best read of the month. It was easily the new in thing and ‘beach read’ novelette; “The Gentleman From Peru” by André Aciman. This was so lovely it made me cry. It was warm, human, evocative and heart-wrenching all at once. I have a love-hate relationship with romance novels of any kind, but this was just very beautiful and thoughtful. It is a short book, and I listened to it on Audible, which added so many dimensions and meant I could just relax to the prose. The second it ended, I wanted the experience back again, always the sign of a good book. I raced to buy another by the author; “Room on the Sea”, and gulped that one down too - I was sorely disappointed. All the author’s hallmarks are there, but the interaction between the characters was far more stilted, and the storyline never reached “The Gentleman From Peru”’s soaring heights. It is still a good book, again a novelette that I listened to (hats off to the narrator, who managed to evoke Europe beautifully), and I did finish it, but it was not the five-star read I was looking for. I will still be adding André Aciman to my watched list though.
