In October I read almost all of Jeff Vandermeer's novels.
I read the Ambergris trilogy:
- The City Of Saints and Madmen (re-read) - still an incredibly good evocation of place and environment. The city Vandermeer creates in these loosely connected stories is such a full on experience. You can feel the menacing dampness and the uneasy sense that the mushrooms have more control than anyone realizes.
- Shriek (first read) - probably my least favorite of his novels, this felt like an extended character introduction that wasn't really needed for the series. Non of the characters really had a goal other than revealing more information about the city.
- Finch (first read) - now we get a detective story in the fungus-city. Duncan Shriek (from the second book) gets a role that makes sense here, so I guess that made the second book worth it, but this was still a much better book. Finch (the detective) actually has a goal that's not "look at this weird city!" A good finish to the series.
I read the Southern Reach trilogy (and the newly published fourth book) and enjoyed this more than I remembered, these are better books than I had previously given them credit for.
- Annihilation (re-read)
- Authority (re-read)
- Acceptance (re-read)
- Absolution (first read) - still in the middle of this.
I didn't re-read the Borne series, but I think those books are still my favorite Vandermeer.
Lastly, I read his stand alone book from 2021 that I bought but never actually read before
- Hummingbird Salamander (first read) - more detective, less fungus. I feel like this book was missing Vandermeer's strength, which is overwhelming the reader with environment (the city in Ambergris, Area X in the Southern Reach novels, the Lab in the Borne series...) and that just wasn't here. He still writes a good thriller with environmental themes, but this didn't get me as much as the others.
It's always fun to just plow through a bunch of novels on a theme, and I've found a particular joy in re-reading a bunch of novels and series this year.
What did you read this month?
Last month Dread Pirate recommended Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park. It was quite a trip. Really dense, thickly layered, history and narrative and identity all in one.
The cover blurb calls it "Gravity's Rainbow for the Korean War" and it has that digressive quality, but it's definitely not Pynchon (it doesn't have that psychosexual aspect in the same way).
I'll add my rec to Pirate's. I enjoyed it a lot, the digressions were wonderful and surprising, I wonder how this would be as a re-read when you know they're coming.
I thought it was more David Lynch than Thomas Pynchon.
I ran with Michael Mammay's military sci-fi series, reading Planetside, then Spaceside, and finally Colonyside, but while looking forward to reading Darkside on our week away found out that isn't available as an ebook from the library. Dang.
Just finished The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. I really enjoyed the section when the narrator stumbled aimlessly around Southern California (very Dude-esque) as well as when he seemed to be advising Coppola, but the passages in Southeast Asia didn't do much for me. Still, some very gifted and creative used of language throughout.
Steven Goldman's Baseball's Brief Lives: Player Stories Inspired by the Infinite Inning was wonderful. I've never listened to the podcast, but this was like Jeff's random rewind, except he used the random player generator to on Baseball Reference to decide which players to discuss. It's nothing too deep, but very fun.
I'm not sure why I picked up Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood, but I certainly didn't need to read this Downton Abbeyesque story.
Held by Anne Michaels didn't quite nail its ambitions. There were some great passages, but they overall book didn't coalesce for me.
Rachel Kushner's Creation Lake is getting a lot of buzz, but it left me underwhelmed. (I similarly didn't understand the love for The Mars Room.) I can appreciate that she is a very gifted writer, but none of the characters (including the mysterious narrator) were interesting, and she seemed to be almost mocking some of the characters she created.
Orbital, by Samantha Harvey, was a light, enjoyable attempt at capturing one imaginary day on the ISS. Some of the same themes were discussed from In Ascension, but this was less "sciency" and more human.
I'm currently reading Elephant Company. I'm not sure where I came across it but I'm really enjoying it. It's about an elephant trainer in Burma that used elephants to harvest wood. Just getting to the start of WWII and I know the elephants will be used in the war.
NBBW first heard about that book on NPR, got it for me, then we both read it/loved it, and have since given it as a gift to numerous people. Love the ending.
I might have gotten the recommendation from you!
Whenever I hear about a book I might like, I put it on an Amazon wish list and that is what my family uses for Christmas gifts. I never remember where I got the original recommendation by the time I get the book.
October books
Nightwatch on the Hinterlands (K. Eason)
Apostles of Mercy (Lindsay Ellis)
Nightwatch Over Windscar (K. Eason)
The two Easons are set several generations later in the Rory Thorne universe. Good reads. Not as utterly delightful as the first two. But fun. I enjoyed her use of shifting narrative viewpoints.
The Ellis book was the third of what seems to be planned for five or six volumes. Interesting themes.
I am currently reading Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. Definitely not "fun."
Finished Oryx and Crake. The ending was odd. The whole book was odd. A good read, but a disheartening one. Atwood is not sunny beach reading.
Started Jo Walton's The Philosopher Kings, the sequel to The Just City. Only a couple chapters in, but seems up to par with its predecessor, which was engaging and thought provoking and learned.
Finished 50 Chemistry Ideas you really need to know - Hayley Birch. After graduation from Leadership Greater H'istan, I decided to pursue a doctorate in biodiversity, kind of a NBB2.0. Kind of leaving the virtual world (math, computer science, finance, mgmt) and entering the physical world. So I've been snarfing up life sciences left and right - got this off the shelf at a VRBO in Iceland. I've also attended conferences on Revitalizing Brownfields in New England, and CT Invasive Species Work Group symposium. Currently meeting with UConn and U of MN profs to see what PhD options might look like.
Also started The Light Eaters - Zoë Schlanger - our understanding of the botanical world has been largely framed by human biology - this is looking at it from a new lens, revealing an intelligence alien to our own (imagine that, ignoring that which is in front of us).
And started A. Furst Dark Star - WW2 Eastern Europe pre-war spy theatrics, unsurprisingly prescient to current events.