WWW Wednesday

What are you currently reading?

Still plugging away at Anna Karenina. It's not quite 20 minutes a day anymore thanks to a really rough week that threw everything out of whack. I'm enjoying this book far more than I could have ever imagined.

I'm also working on a de Lint novel called Trader about body switching. It's a bit slower of a read than I typically find de Lint to be. Enjoyable, just slow.

I started a parenting book a couple nights ago as well called Prime Time Parenting. It's a little preachy, but I think we could incorporate some of those ideas to make things run more smoothly in our house.

What did you recently finish reading?

I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray last week. It did not sit well at all. Review is here.

Also finished a graphic novel for work called The Queen of the Sea. Not my favorite. Review is here.

What do you think you’ll read next?

I have a second parenting book from the library sitting on my bedside table that I'm looking forward to. Northanger Abbey is also staring at me. The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society is sitting in the hold room at work. I have a week to pick it up, so I'm going to try and get through two other library books before I do so to prevent my pile from getting to unwieldy. Also! Our library just started automatically renewing things! It's as awesome as it sounds. I love it.

Queen of the Sea by Dylan Meconis

Title: Queen of the Sea

Author: Dylan Meconis

Pages: 394

Finished: January 27, 2020

First Sentence: A queen.... does not abandon her people.

Summary: Margaret has spent all her life in the Convent of Elysia on the Island. They're visited twice a year by a ship to get supplies, but otherwise, life is just a quiet day of routine in a convent. But then the ship brings new arrivals - a boy named William, and then years later, a woman named Eleanor. And with these new arrivals comes politics, intrigue, and the threat of prison.

Thoughts: I am working to read more children's literature to be more effective at my job. As a department, we're working to read more diversely and out of our comfort zones. This book is definitely not a book I would typically pick.

First and foremost, it's a graphic novel (or a illustrated hybrid depending on who you talk to). Graphic novels are not my forte. I forget to look at the pictures and then miss half the story. I'm sure if I practiced at it, I'd be better, but I'd rather save my reading brain for classics.

Secondly, the book is historical fiction. I like history. I don't particularly enjoy historical fiction. Particularly kids historical fiction for whatever reason.

But I read it. The story is inspired by the early years after King Henry VIII's son Edward's death and the turmoil of succession that followed. We follow Margaret, a ward of the nuns of Saint Elysia who live on the Island. Margaret is fairly ignorant of what life is like in Albion, but when she gains and then loses a friend, she finds out the Island is really a prison for those the King declares his enemy.

It was... boring. I'm sure there's a middle school who would be all over this, but it was just rough. Firstly, it feels like the book goes through two complete story arcs one after another. First with William, then with Eleanor. I was ready for the book to be over when William left. The intrigue wasn't strong enough for me to really want to keep going.

We don't get to know the nuns that well, but they seem innocuous enough. Margaret is a kid moving into preteen who feels believable to me. But the two main women who we meet are fairly unlikeable. And the nun/guard is evil to the levels of Kai Wynn. I don't mind unlikeable women in novels. Scarlet O'Hara is an example of an unlikeable woman who I actually didn't mind reading about. But this one was hard to really enjoy any of them.

I wonder how much of it was due to the graphic novel nature of the book.

Anyway. Read for work. Would recommend to middle schoolers interested in Tudor England. Could potentially be a read-alike for Redwall depending on what it is someone likes about Redwall. No talking mice, but plenty about convent life.

This book also counts as a LibraryLove Book as I did, in fact, check it out from work.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Author: Oscar Wilde

Pages: 239

Finished: January 22, 2020

First Sentence: The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.

Summary: Basil Haliward paints a beautiful portrait of his new friend Dorian Gray. He also, reluctantly, introduces Dorian Gray to his friend Lord Henry. Upon conversing with Lord Henry, Dorian finds himself not exactly thrilled with the idea of growing up and wishes his soul into the picture. Oddly enough, it happens. Dorian stays young and looks pure forever while his portrait takes on all his sins and aging.

Thoughts: This was not what I thought it was. Not that I can even define what I thought the book was about, but this wasn't quite it. I think I've perhaps been influenced by how he exists in various pop culture.

Also, I'm realizing that if things in my life aren't going well, it bleeds over into what I'm reading. Two days after I started this book, my dog unexpectedly died and the book became the biggest slogfest. Perhaps I should have put it down, but I wanted to finish it for my spin.

So what is it that I objected to?

I think it was the slowness of the book. I knew it had something to do about a painting and that Dorian Gray didn't age but his painting did. I knew there were supposedly some homosexual overtones in it. I knew there was a painter named Basil who was fairly innocent, and who died (primarily because someone played him in an RPG I was in. I played Martha Jones from Doctor Who. She and Basil were good friends and used to drink tea together.) And that's all I knew. I had some vague inkling that he cheated death and kept his painting hidden.

But the amount of time it took for him to discover that the painting held his soul was tedious. Only to be followed by an even more tedious chapter going into great detail of how he spent eighteen years of his life in debauchery. I felt sorry for him in the beginning dealing with Lord Henry and his snake tongue. But the long decent was just... long.

I also had a really difficult time reading pages and pages of misogyny from Lord Henry. What an odious man!

I think my biggest issue with the book is that I don't tend to enjoy books about people's descent into evil. And I didn't have any idea that that was what this book was about. So I was expecting a vaguely fantasy/scifi book where Dorian Gray's soul is in this painting, and instead I watched a man thoroughly corrupt someone else. It wasn't what I signed up for, and it certainly wasn't what I shoudl have been reading just after losing my dog.

I suspect I'll be returning to this book in ten years or so. I feel like it deserves another chance. It's a book I was so excited to read. I was honestly shocked at how incredibly disappointed I was in it.

Book counts for lots of challenges:

Beat the Backlist
Virtual Mount To Be Read
Library Love
Reading Classic Books LGBT+ category (Oscar Wilde may have been gay? Half the research I find says yes, the other half says no. He did have male lovers.)
Back to the Classics: Person's Name in Title (Dorian Gray)
Classics Club AND Current Spin

What We're Reading Wednesday - January 8 edition

I found a book meme that I think I'll try to participate in as part of my motivation for my own reading. It's called What We're Reading Wednesday hosted here. Don't know that I'll participate every week, but it seems fun. All you have to do is answer the following three easy questions.  

What are you currently reading?

I'm currently working my way through Anna Karenina at 20 minutes a day + one sentence summary per chapter. This book has been on my Classic Club list since I started it, but I've been terrified to start it due to it's doorstop nature and the fact that it's Russian. For some reason, I feel like giant, Russian literature is always on those, "Books you should read but no one does" lists. I have to say, at 20 minutes a day, it's been quite enjoyable. The book itself is fairly easy. I have no issue summarizing what I read, nor do I feel like I'm spacing out as I read it. Of course, little has happened as of yet. In fact, I have yet to meet the title character. But I'm excited to continue!

What did you recently finish reading?
Uprooted by Naomi Novik. This was right in my wheelhouse. Review is here. It was nice to start the year off with a book that enjoyable.


What do you think you’ll read next?
I'm starting Picture of Dorian Gray tonight. I also have a de Lint novel and an Austen novel stacked on my nightstand and The Geurnsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society coming to me via ILL, so I've plenty of material in the upcoming weeks.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Title: Uprooted

Author: Naomi Novik

Pages: 438

Finished: January 5, 2020

First Sentence: Our Dragon doesn't eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley.

Summary: Agnieszka has always known her friend Kasia was going to be taken by the Dragon when they were of age. Everyone knows it. The Dragon protects the Valley from the dangers of the Wood, and in exchange, he takes one girl every 10 years. But when the time of choosing comes, Agnieszka is the one chosen. And upon entering the Dragon's tower, she finds out there's more at stake than just her Valley against the Wood. Her country is in danger, and only she and the Dragon seem able to do anything about it.

Thoughts: I read an ARC of Novik's Spindle's End a few years ago. I quite enjoyed it and made a mental note to come back to her work. This specific title kept popping up on various lists and hung out in the back of my mind for well over a year. I'm so glad I decided to start my year with this novel.

The story has shown up on many Beauty and the Beast retelling lists. And sure, one could call it that. But merely labeling it as a BatB retelling almost weakens the book. Because there's so much more to it. There's the story of the Wood and how it's intertwined into Polnya. There's corruption. And there's a mystery as to where the Wood even came from. How it started. Why it's so malevolent in the first place.

This is the type of fantasy I live for. The world building is balanced with the characterization. Polnya seems to be the fantasy version of Poland. And it's so rich. The fantasy creatures are creepy and real. The magic is stunning. And the characters have strong personalities. They grow. They learn. The story picks the reader up and sweeps them away. At least it did for me.

I enjoyed this one the way I enjoyed Katherine Arden's Winternight trilogy. I definitely mean to come back to it in a few years time to digest some more.

This book counts for Beat the Backlist, Virtual Mount To Be Read, and Library Love challenges.