August Wrap Up
Is it now halfway through September? Yes. Is it really hard to remember what happened in the books I read 6 weeks ago? Also yes. And yet, here we are.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - This monster took me 6 weeks to read. Granted, at least 10 days of that were spent waiting for the library copy to come in because my copy was missing 63 pages near the end of the book. Ugh! Our main man in this book is Qvoth. He is telling his life's story to a scribe. There are many tales about him, but he has never shared the truth about his history before. He started life as part of a traveling performing troupe. Then some demons killed his entire troupe while he was out wandering around in the woods. He was 11 years old, but he vowed to find out what they were and how to defeat them. The rest of the story is about his living on the street until he manages to get into the University to learn to use his magic and access the library to learn more about the demons.
The end was a bit disappointing. After nearly 700 pages, plus waiting for another copy to read the missing segment, the end just kind of... ended. There was no grand denouement; no final battle. Nothing. It was just kind of done. I guess you're meant to pick up the next book and carry feverishly on, but after that fizzled ending, I'm not feeling very feverish about this one.
Immortal Game by Allison Saft - This is about a teenage girl whose sister was taken to fairyland by the fairy king when she was 13. Shea has blamed herself ever since. She believes if she could have beaten the king at chess she could have saved her sister. Now, she has been invited to a chess tournament in fairyland. Shea believes that if she beats the king and wins the tournament, she can save her sister. Every single one of these characters is overly emotional. Everything is a big damn deal. Nobody laughs or has any kind of fun. I mean, I get it that they are teenagers, but damn, lighten up. She goes to all this effort and in the end, her sister doesn't want to leave fairyland after all. Doh!
The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee - This one blew my mind. I had no clue what I was getting into. I new Fonda Lee wrote the Green Bone Saga, which is fantasy, so when this one started out on a planet far away from Earth, I was thrown for a bit of a loop.
On this ice planet somewhere in space, the entire society is run by a company. When you can no longer perform work for the Company, you "retire"; AKA you walk out the gates of the protected climate and die in the freezing tundra outside.
At the beginning of this story, Isako's boss (who had been the head of his department) has lost the war with another department. He is not looking forward to being demoted, and working for the head of the department that won the war. Isako's last act for him as head of the department was to deliver the news to the last few employees that they are being retired. If they choose to go quietly, their families will receive large amounts of money. If they choose to go rogue, the family will be left with nothing, and the ex-employee will be hunted. Nice.
Isako goes to attend the "retirement" of a group of people who are all walking into the wasteland together, and is surprised when her boss joins the group in a protest retirement. Isako is horrified. She was supposed to be there with him. It's her job as his Contractor. Turns out, he willed her to the head of the other department. Isako works out a deal with that person: she'll do one last job for her, then she herself will retire. The job is to find out everything she can about a man who is predicted to win a seat on the board of the company. Isako happens to find out that her former mentee was the main contractor for this man, but has now disappeared. She decides to look for him while she digs up dirt on the other guy.
The twists just keep coming. I kept gasping out loud. They didn't stop right up to the last chapter.
Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service by Michael Lewis - Who knew there could be a feel good story about government service workers? Each chapter here is about a different employee of the federal government who has done a spectacular job and made a big difference in their field, but who no one knows about. Each one is written by a different author. These are some pretty eminent authors: Geraldine Brooks? Sarah Vowell? Yes, please. I really enjoyed this little book.
More True Facts That Sound Like Bull$#*t. by Tim Rayborn - Apparently, there is a first volume of this book. Anyway, I listened to this on audio. The number of words that were mispronounced in this audio made me question the validity of any of his "true facts." The author was not the narrator, but it still isn't a good look.
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton - This was cute. Cecilia is the daughter of a Pirate princess, and a regular criminal upstart. When she was little, she watched her father kill her mother. Now, she lives with her aunt in a proper English home and waits to be inducted as a full member of the Wisteria Society, which is entirely peopled with lady pirates. At the beginning of the book, a pirate turns up at their doorstep and lets them know that he has been hired to assassinate Cecilia by Lady Armitage, a fellow Wisterian, to get back at the aunt for stealing something or killing her husband or something. But plans are thwarted when Cecilia's father returns with a plan to take of the country and kill the Queen. The Wisteria Society has to put aside their differences and go defeat the man.
This book is ridiculous from beginning to end. I enjoyed the laugh, but I'm not champing at the bit to get the next one.
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi - This was fantastic. I grinned all the way through this book. One day, the moon turns to cheese. At least, that's what people call it. NASA insists on calling it an organic substance. Each of these chapters is about a different sector of the country that was affected by this change. Politics, of course. Science. Cheese shops. Astronomy professors and philosophers. It was truly fascinating. And really funny.
Strange Houses by Uketsu - I read this in 2 sittings on August 31. It was captivating. It's labeled horror, but I didn't find it terribly scary. It all starts with a couple who goes to look at a house. They like the house, but something is weird about it. The man asks his friend (the author) to go look at it and see what he thinks. He goes and yes, something is weird. The child's bedroom upstairs has no windows. It is entirely interior to the house. He gets the plans and sends them to an architect friend. The friend points out some weird dead space behind a wall in the kitchen, and how that lines up with the bookshelf in the child's bedroom above it. They come up with this bizarre theory about a family using a child to murder people and sneak them out of the house through the dead space. And that's just the beginning.
I loved looking at the floor plans. I have been a floor plan lover since I was a kid. I just love looking at a floor plan and imagining what the interior of the house looks like if I was in it. I'm weird. I know.
And there are all 8 books I finished in August. I am almost caught up on all my posts now. Almost.