LHC #76: "Midnight in Peking" by Paul French. Interesting to read this right after "The Poppy War", but that's how the library gave me them. It's the kind of history I love, full of details I have to look up. It's about the investigation into the murder of a white British (well, British enough) teenager in Peking in 1937, and what really (most likely) happened.
LHC #77: "Witchmark" by CL Polk. This is the book I've waited longest for on Overdrive, so my expectations were high. This book was an absolute delight. It moved fast, it was funny and charming, and I loved it so much.
"Upheaval" by Jared Diamond. The boy really wanted me to read this, so I did. The author has this odd tendency to say things like "100,000 Finns died, which is the equivalent of 9 Million present-day Americans" or "Meiji Japanese farmers had to pay 3% tax. My marginal tax rate in California is 44%" which I found repulsive. Having not read any of his other books, I don't know if he did this in those as well. However, there was an odd defensiveness in the introductory sections, and I sort of wonder if he was criticized for this, and didn't understand the criticism. The ideas were interesting, though.
LHC #78: "The Black Tides of Heaven" by JY Yang. Another one that came highly recommended. Loved it. Requested the sequel. Nine-week wait.
LHC #79: "The Darkest Time of Night" by Jeremy Finley. I was not fond of the writing style, and it could have used more copyediting. It started off great, but then I began to notice that a lot of stuff happened only because the author needed another character for Lynn, the main character, to talk to, so he wouldn't have to write any exposition. I'm not sure it's showing, not telling, when one character says to another, "Let's pull into that hotel over there." The story was fantastic, though.
LHC #80: "Reading Lolita in Tehran" By Afar Nafisi. Somehow I expected this to be a more difficult read, don't know why. It was full of the theme of cult of personality and what we owe each other as people, and sometimes I found it a bit uncharitable. Also, oddly organized and edited. I kept wondering if the print version was like this too.
LHC #77: "Witchmark" by CL Polk. This is the book I've waited longest for on Overdrive, so my expectations were high. This book was an absolute delight. It moved fast, it was funny and charming, and I loved it so much.
"Upheaval" by Jared Diamond. The boy really wanted me to read this, so I did. The author has this odd tendency to say things like "100,000 Finns died, which is the equivalent of 9 Million present-day Americans" or "Meiji Japanese farmers had to pay 3% tax. My marginal tax rate in California is 44%" which I found repulsive. Having not read any of his other books, I don't know if he did this in those as well. However, there was an odd defensiveness in the introductory sections, and I sort of wonder if he was criticized for this, and didn't understand the criticism. The ideas were interesting, though.
LHC #78: "The Black Tides of Heaven" by JY Yang. Another one that came highly recommended. Loved it. Requested the sequel. Nine-week wait.
LHC #79: "The Darkest Time of Night" by Jeremy Finley. I was not fond of the writing style, and it could have used more copyediting. It started off great, but then I began to notice that a lot of stuff happened only because the author needed another character for Lynn, the main character, to talk to, so he wouldn't have to write any exposition. I'm not sure it's showing, not telling, when one character says to another, "Let's pull into that hotel over there." The story was fantastic, though.
LHC #80: "Reading Lolita in Tehran" By Afar Nafisi. Somehow I expected this to be a more difficult read, don't know why. It was full of the theme of cult of personality and what we owe each other as people, and sometimes I found it a bit uncharitable. Also, oddly organized and edited. I kept wondering if the print version was like this too.