BOTM: M. Condé, Crossing the Mangrove (1989)
I. Ahmed, The Pakistan Garrison State (2013)
K.J. Anderson, (ed.), War of the worlds: global dispatches (1997)
I. Ahmed, The Pakistan Garrison State (2013)
K.J. Anderson, (ed.), War of the worlds: global dispatches (1997)
C. Arseneault & B. Pierson (eds.), Wings of Renewal: A Solarpunk Dragon Anthology (2017)
K. Cashore, Graceling (2008)
M. Cavendish, The blazing world (1666)
A. Christie, The clocks (1963)
M. Freedman, Capitalism and Freedom (1962)
A. Christie, The clocks (1963)
M. Freedman, Capitalism and Freedom (1962)
C. Fremlin, Uncle Paul (1959)
F. Herbert, Dune Messiah (1969)*
M.W. Montagu, Embassy Letters (1763)
P.G. Wodehouse, The code of the Woosters (1938)*
F. Herbert, Dune Messiah (1969)*
M.W. Montagu, Embassy Letters (1763)
P.G. Wodehouse, The code of the Woosters (1938)*
I read a lot of relatively short books this month. A lot that wasn't brilliant - I should stop picking up random books in the library, and I should remember that random science fiction is often bad. Dune Messiah is not bad, but it is a) mad, and b) not as good as I remember. Very pleased with a late Agatha Christie, which is nicely done, if not as tightly plotted as some. Freedman was surprisingly readable - though I think built on sand. And - the best of the trio of books written about 1960, I very much liked Uncle Paul. Wodehouse too was exemplary - it's one of his masterpieces - but I have read it before.
However, the best of them all was Condé. Again. A couple of years ago I read a terrible book about decolonising the canon. As an intellectual exercise, it wasn't serious, Or good. But the recommendations were sound, and best of all so far has been Maryse Condé. This isn't Segu, but it's still excellent. She has a real talent for the imagining of world's distant from ours, and these are ones where we lack the underpinning of the the core western narrative, and making them immediate. Crossing the Mangrove writes on a small scale what Segu did on the vast stage. She's a marvel. Or rather, was. She died in between me reading her last month and writing about it, though she'd have been BOTM anyway. There's a long list of further reading to follow up on.
However, the best of them all was Condé. Again. A couple of years ago I read a terrible book about decolonising the canon. As an intellectual exercise, it wasn't serious, Or good. But the recommendations were sound, and best of all so far has been Maryse Condé. This isn't Segu, but it's still excellent. She has a real talent for the imagining of world's distant from ours, and these are ones where we lack the underpinning of the the core western narrative, and making them immediate. Crossing the Mangrove writes on a small scale what Segu did on the vast stage. She's a marvel. Or rather, was. She died in between me reading her last month and writing about it, though she'd have been BOTM anyway. There's a long list of further reading to follow up on.
