2023 reads part 3
My kid read a classic for school, so I buddy-read it and invited her onto the video for her thoughts (spoiler: her thoughts were to glare at me in that way only teenage daughters can)
(This waffle is also available on my website if you ever have need to delve into the dusty archives.)
Richard Osman: The Thursday Murder Club*
Published 2020
The Thursday Murder Club is a cosy little whodunnit, set in a retirement village. I’ll share the blurb, because it sets the scene nicely:
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves
Honestly, this gave off all the Midsomer Murders vibes and I am absolutely here for that. There’s murders and cake and red herrings and retirement village romance. Without even finding out how it ends I bought the sequel, and sent my mum a text to tell her she needs it on her radar.
4 stars, cosy murder vibes
Olesya Salnikova Gilmore: The Witch and the Tsar*
Published 2022
I set this one aside at 18%, but I’m the problem on this one. Set in medieval/early modern Russia, this retelling of the Baba Yaga folklore starts interestingly enough, with Yaga in her chicken house out in the woods doing her witch thing, but quickly requires her to leave the woods (and chicken house) and venture to Moscow in order to stop the Bad Guy by either teaming up with or thwarting her immortal ex (I didn’t care enough to find out which).
I hate ‘in the style of’ comparisons, but this definitely has Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale* and Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver* vibes, so if that’s what you’re in the mood for, go ahead (and tell me if it was any good, in the end).
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird*:
Published 1960
This is a powerful classic, but I would have loved to read more around the book to understand the impact it had on release, and the lasting impacts it has had. Nevertheless, Scout’s tale of those few years of her childhood where she refused to settle down into a dress is a compelling mixture of naivety and innocence lost. Running around the neighbourhood with her brother and the neighbour kid while trying to lure out the reclusive Bo Radley from his home and contend with the town’s reactions to their father defending a Black man on rape charges, 1930s Alabama doesn’t seem far removed from 2023, does it?
Kidling, in spectacular teenage fashion, dismissed the entire thing with the wave of her hand; it’s difficult to appreciate a text when it’s no longer new and revolutionary, and obviously the themes of racism, bigotry and prejudice still resonate strongly today. She’ll come around to it.
4 stars, I’m sorry I didn’t get to reading this earlier.
Andrzej Sapkowski - Baptism of Fire*
(The Witcher #3)
Published 1996 (Translated David French 2014)
Geralt of Rivia is a man torn between what he should do and what he wants to do, in this third Witcher novel. Critically injured during the mage coup, in which he loses track of both Yennifer and Ciri (again), Geralt leaves his convalescence with the Dryads to track down hints of his adopted daughter (that’s Ciri, she’s a princess of Nilfgaardian-occupied Cintra) - rumoured to be the honoured captive, and potential bride, of Nilfgaard’s Emperor Emhyr.
Geralt, of course, runs into the kind of situations that test him as a hero - something he doesn’t see himself as and does not aspire to be - but circumstances and conscience demand that he put on hold, if not aside, the search for Ciri in order to help those more immediately in his path. The choice is never clear, and that’s what makes this epic fantasy series a compelling read.
4 stars, “Since the very beginning, this whole matter has smacked of fairytales and fantasies!”
Tad Williams - Tailchaser's Song*
Published 1985
In the last instalment I talked about a book I’d picked up in the Kindle Daily Deal and then realised it was not the book I thought it was. It stands to reason that after reading Treacle Walker, I read the book I thought I was buying: Tailchaser’s Song.
What I found was a middle-grade fantasy about a young cat, Tailchaser who leaves the safety of home and community to rescue his love interest after she (and the humans she lives with) disappears one night. It’s a typical young hero journey in which Tailchaser makes the low-stakes journey of finding out who he really is and what he really wants. Every potential threat turns out to be a friend. Every dangerous turn on the path works out ok. Until it really doesn’t, when it gets grim, and frightening, and Tailchaser ends up fighting Gods (as you do).
But it all works out ok.
3 stars, would not let my kitten fight squirrels and Gods.
Janina Ramirez - Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It*
Published 2022
We love a title that sets out exactly what’s happening in the book, and this one is a pop history of (some) women of the (European) medieval period. Ramirez is an art historian and that’s clear from the writing - she’s at her most articulate and passionate describing what is happening in a work of art, and it’s lovely to read. Typical of narrative histories, Ramirez sets up each talking point through a case study. These are mostly England-centric, but she does widen her net further across Europe for a few chapters. This is often a case of access to sources when doing general medieval history; sources from England are more readily digitised, and they’re either in readable middle or early-modern English or they’re in Latin (and Ramirez has a degree in old and middle English literature).
Don’t be surprised this history is focused on Europe. It’s important to remember that when we talk about the medieval period, or the ancient period or the Renaissance, historians are talking about Europe. Other parts of the world had different broad stages of civilisation development and decline, and it’s only through trade and technology that these are shared, so we can’t speak to medieval China, for example. Different parts of the world get different labels for their various stages of history, even if we want to use the Euro-centric shorthand.
4 stars, I learned a thing and maybe you will too.
And, here is the 2023 reads part 3 video:
(this episode came out a few weeks ago; today’s video is a dive into my non-fiction collection, starting with the DDC 000 section)
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