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book-related
Mar. 12th, 2015 07:03 pmI am, of course, sad about Terry Pratchett's death, but it sounds to me as though despite his Alzheimer's he remained pretty much himself to the end and died as peacefully as anyone could hope for. I'm glad that he was spared ( cut for bleak stuff about dementia )
*deep breath*
Okay, less gloomily, I wanted to mention a couple of books I've enjoyed recently.
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel, begins with the onstage death by heart attack of a famous actor during a performance of King Lear in Toronto, and traces out the impact of his life and death. Oh, and the night he dies is also the night a soon-to-be global pandemic arrives in Toronto. Within weeks, over 99% of the human species has been wiped out. The story moves between the pre-apocalypse and post-apocalypse eras; I found the latter more interesting and wished there had been more of it, and also that the plot was less reliant on coincidence. But overall I found the book engaging and interesting, and I liked that it avoided the usual "the world is completely brutal and hopeless all the time" clichés of the genre.
The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters, is set just after the Second World War and revolves around a landowning family struggling to survive in a changed economic and social world, and the doctor who befriends them. Strange and increasingly disturbing things start happening in the big house: trickery, neurosis, or ghosts? This is a really well-written book that's made me want to read more Sarah Waters. Though I do now also quite want to read the AU of this one in which ( spoilers, mostly by implication )
I'll have to see if I can get Waters' Night Watch from the library.
*deep breath*
Okay, less gloomily, I wanted to mention a couple of books I've enjoyed recently.
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel, begins with the onstage death by heart attack of a famous actor during a performance of King Lear in Toronto, and traces out the impact of his life and death. Oh, and the night he dies is also the night a soon-to-be global pandemic arrives in Toronto. Within weeks, over 99% of the human species has been wiped out. The story moves between the pre-apocalypse and post-apocalypse eras; I found the latter more interesting and wished there had been more of it, and also that the plot was less reliant on coincidence. But overall I found the book engaging and interesting, and I liked that it avoided the usual "the world is completely brutal and hopeless all the time" clichés of the genre.
The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters, is set just after the Second World War and revolves around a landowning family struggling to survive in a changed economic and social world, and the doctor who befriends them. Strange and increasingly disturbing things start happening in the big house: trickery, neurosis, or ghosts? This is a really well-written book that's made me want to read more Sarah Waters. Though I do now also quite want to read the AU of this one in which ( spoilers, mostly by implication )
I'll have to see if I can get Waters' Night Watch from the library.
