I Haven’t Read Many Books in 2024
May. 4th, 2024 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroPageboy by Elliot Page - Technically my last book of 2023, as I finished it right before New Year’s. I don’t think I was quite aware of how much work Page had done, starting as a preteen and without a “stage parent;” and I think he’s too damn modest about his obvious level of talent both as an actor and as someone good at playing Hollywood’s games to be a successful actor. Honestly, a lot of that gets lost in the personal nature of the story. But he has gushing praise for many of his coworkers, plays down the role of others in failed relationships, and disguises the identities of Hollywood’s abusive assholes. The only people who get both identified and come off really badly are his father and stepmother, who are apparently the kind of people who “like” Jordan Peterson’s tweets denigrating Page, so, y’know, they deserve to look shitty because they are. This memoir is in anachronic order and occasionally gets poetic to the point of being up its own ass (Page is nothing if not dramatic), but it also weaves together the arc of the narrative to an inevitable conclusion about his queerness and transness.
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett - A re-read from the big Humble Bundle of Discworld novels I got; it really holds up, though in the years since I read it I’d forgotten pretty much the entire wizards plotline and only remembered the Death segments. Pterry in his prime.
Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater - A story of angels and demons, clearly heavily influenced by Good Omens. Basically, if you like that style with a bit less world-ending importance (only the lives of a handful of people are at stake, here), you’ll like this. I was also amused that everyone is hilariously casual with the angels’ gender-fluidity. “Weren’t you a woman?” “Yeah, I’m a man today.” “Oh, okay.”
Final Fantasy V by Chris Kohler - Another of the Boss Fight Books line of video game histories, this follows the usual formula of mixing the history of the game with the personal experiences of the author; and another case where the author was around my age and had a similar experience with disappointment (I was an avid Nintendo Power reader), imported carts (my friend Dan got one and I played it with a script print-out next to me), emulators (freshman year of college), the bad Playstation translation (the same year), and finally the good GBA release. Apparently Kohler was one of the authors of the first English online FAQ for the game, which I probably referenced. And I hadn’t realized how much FF5 was the breakout game for the series in Japan, though in retrospect that does explain its influence on some of the later properties.
Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis - The story of a dread wizard who loses his memory and needs to fake his way through his own evil plan; also featuring toxic masculinity, questions of identity, lots of garlic, and Chekov’s moat squid. Fantasy satire with solid real-world allegory; but it doesn’t hammer you with the politics of it and keeps everything very personal. It’s obvious to everyone who reads my DW that I have an intimate relationship with the author (I read an ARC of this; it comes out at the end of the month), but I can honestly say regardless of that that it’s a delightful book and you should read it too.
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett - A re-read from the big Humble Bundle of Discworld novels I got; it really holds up, though in the years since I read it I’d forgotten pretty much the entire wizards plotline and only remembered the Death segments. Pterry in his prime.
Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater - A story of angels and demons, clearly heavily influenced by Good Omens. Basically, if you like that style with a bit less world-ending importance (only the lives of a handful of people are at stake, here), you’ll like this. I was also amused that everyone is hilariously casual with the angels’ gender-fluidity. “Weren’t you a woman?” “Yeah, I’m a man today.” “Oh, okay.”
Final Fantasy V by Chris Kohler - Another of the Boss Fight Books line of video game histories, this follows the usual formula of mixing the history of the game with the personal experiences of the author; and another case where the author was around my age and had a similar experience with disappointment (I was an avid Nintendo Power reader), imported carts (my friend Dan got one and I played it with a script print-out next to me), emulators (freshman year of college), the bad Playstation translation (the same year), and finally the good GBA release. Apparently Kohler was one of the authors of the first English online FAQ for the game, which I probably referenced. And I hadn’t realized how much FF5 was the breakout game for the series in Japan, though in retrospect that does explain its influence on some of the later properties.
Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis - The story of a dread wizard who loses his memory and needs to fake his way through his own evil plan; also featuring toxic masculinity, questions of identity, lots of garlic, and Chekov’s moat squid. Fantasy satire with solid real-world allegory; but it doesn’t hammer you with the politics of it and keeps everything very personal. It’s obvious to everyone who reads my DW that I have an intimate relationship with the author (I read an ARC of this; it comes out at the end of the month), but I can honestly say regardless of that that it’s a delightful book and you should read it too.
