June Content Consumption

What I read (saw), what I thought

Hello everybody, welcome to the latest update from Crone Life, my newsletter about how I cope with getting older. This episode features my monthly round-up and capsule reviews of cultural content consumption, mostly books and movies but sometimes more. I wanted to add some reviews of things I bought, but tomorrow is my first day back at work in two months and I need to conserve my energy. Maybe next week.

From my garden

Read

I read 15 or 16 or maybe 17 books in June, depending on how you count. Let’s jump right in!

The World We Make, N.K. Jemisin. Sequel to The City We Became. I don’t think it needed a sequel, but here it is. We get to know the borough avatars somewhat better (some of them). I forgot Jersey City had joined the party after Staten Island seceded. Lotta intra-living city politicking as New York joins the world stage. I did appreciate Jemisin’s adept sense of NYC geography.

The Listeners, Maggie Stiefvater. Stiefvater is known for her YA novels, though I’ve never read any of them. I like it because there is an event described at the beginning that establishes the story structure, and it’s based on a real historical event from WWII. There’s magic, although it’s never really explained. I didn’t particularly care about the characters or the setting, but I’m not sorry I read it.

Curious Tides, Pascale Lacelle. One of those dark academia scholarly romances. The blurb compares it to Ninth House and A Deadly Education, which, fair. It’s the first in a series. I might read the others if I can find them.

The City in Glass, Nghi Vo. I think Vo does a great job making an apparent villain (a demon) a hero and a hero (an angel) the antagonist. Good for anyone who likes magical cities (bonus if you enjoy archaeology and urban planning). I approve of the ending.

Book of Jhereg (3 in 1 collection), Steven Brust. Features Vlad, a guy with powers, who’s kind of a bottom feeder. Lots of wise-assery, magical familiars, and assassinations. I only read the first two, although some say the third (Taltos) is the best, whatever that means. (It’s a loooong series though.) Reminded me of the Jim Butcher Dresden Files series (another very long one), which I also found boring.

The Owl Service, Elidor, Red Shift (DNF), Alan Garner. The Owl Service was a re-read, told in Garner’s patented allusive style. You really need to pay attention to catch all the details. It benefits from re-reading. It was made into a popular BBC series, which I would love to find on streaming, in the 70s. The money he got allowed Garner to install electricity and running water in his medieval writing hut. Elidor is an Arthurian-esque retelling of a dying magic land encountered by four kids from post-Blitz Manchester. (Lots of bombed-out tracts. Eerie!) They lead evil back into their own world and a tense struggle ensues. Red Shift has 3 or 4 (I can’t remember) different points of view that are initially confusing and allude to people possibly having sex, although very unsexily. Anyway, these stories eventually weave together, probably, but I gave up before then.

Unrivaled, various authors. A collection of 4 novellas (novellae?) by Hugo- and Nebula- winning authors, including Joe Haldeman, Mike Resnick, Lois McMaster Bujold and Nancy Kress. The Kress (Beggars In Spain) was my fave, although the Bujold clarified what people love about the Vorkosigan Saga (also a loooooong series, “saga" is right there in the title).

The Wonder Engine, T. Kingfisher. Sequel to The Clockwork Boys, which I read in May. Not her finest, although plenty of unresolved sexual tension gets resolved, if that’s your thing. Magic makes the main character sneeze (she’s allergic) which can be inconvenient. Her crush is prompt with the hankies, so she finally realizes he’s The One.

Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout. My first Strout! I can see why people like these, they are very reasonable. well-written and the tension is low. Plot, though immaterial, exists. Plus, Maine! I think Olive Kitteridge is my favorite character, maybe I’ll read her book next. If I decide to read any more.

Castle In the Air, House of Many Ways, The Merlin Conspiracy, Diana Wynne Jones. I haven’t read all of Diana Wynne Jones, who wrote a lot of books, but now I’ve read more. The first two are sequels to Howl’s Moving Castle and the third is a particularly British tale of parallel Earths where magic is real. I don’t think I’ve read most of these, but I’m not sure because there are so many. Anyway, I love DWJ, even her lesser works. Castle In the Air isn’t one of those.

The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth, Sarah Monette. Lovecraftian tales of an unlucky, morose, queer archivist/archaeologist on the staff of a local museum of curiosities. Some of these verge on M.R. James-ian levels of creepy. He mostly solves all his problems, both metaphysical and mundane, though it doesn’t make him happy. Perhaps nothing could.

Mira’s Last Dance, Lois McMaster Bujold. A novella in the ever-growing saga of Penric, the white-blond, very attractive young sorcerer-scholar who is possessed by a demon of many personalities. The demon is mostly benign, although she is very hard on vermin. One of her personalities was a courtesan of the first water and he must call upon her remembered skills to escape a dire situation.

Watched

Series

Finished the second and last season of Andor, didn’t change my opinion from last time. Wish I hadn’t watched Rogue One first under the impression that it was the prequel. It would have been much more interesting to go in without that knowledge. Either way, Andor is better.

Waiting for Murderbot to finish up so I can binge-watch it as God intended.

I binged season 3 of The Wheel of Time on Amazon and it made me very happy. Lots of young, pretty European actors, set off by a sprinkling of older, pretty actors, British accents for all, fabulous costumes, weird magical powers, mysterious flashbacks and beautiful scenery. Very little of it makes much sense if you think about it, but I was not there to think. I gave up on the books long, long ago and I have no idea what is supposed to be happening (I suspect the series leaves a lot out), but that just makes it more enjoyable.

A movie I liked

After I finished the last episode of WoT, I spotted the Velvet Underground documentary, directed by Todd Haynes and spent what felt (then) like the best two hours of my life ever watching it. If you love 1960s art rock, or New York City, or movies, you should watch this. I still get a frisson of joy thinking about it.

Friday Night Family Movies

F for Fake (1973). Not terrible, but I am swearing off Orson Welles-directed movies for the rest of my life. I’ve seen too many for one person to bear.

Bad Faith (2024). About Christian Nationalism. The earlier parts were interesting, but we had to nope out about ⅔ of the way through because it was all Trump all the time and we just couldn’t.

Inherit the Wind (1960). My husband thought it was about evolution, but I think it was about Spencer Tracy and Fredric March trying to out-do one another in chewing all the available scenery. After watching Bewitched as a child, I cannot take Dick York seriously in any other role.

Veronica’s Corner

Here is a picture of Veronica being a monorail cat on the deck. She loves to lounge.

Thanks for reading! Wish me luck on Monday, I feel like I’ve been on a different plane of existence or a parallel universe where I napped every day and wore nothing but pj bottoms and oversize t-shirts. It will be something of a rude awakening I expect. I did buy a new bra which might solves the previously mentioned issues. I am not looking forward to any of this at all.

Please cheer me up by commenting, liking (click the little heart, that’s why it’s there), sharing or subbing! I would be so grateful.