My last 5 books: A bit of everything

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. A few years ago everyone was buzzing about this book and I'll admit that it was a pretty wild ride. It takes place in 19th century Britain and it's also written like a 19th century novel. I love historic settings and old-style language, but even so this book was almost a DNF for me. I usually give a book about 100 pages before I decide to stick with or not. After 100 pages of this book I was still undecided, because the premise was so immensely promising, but hardly anything had happened at all. I read online a bit what other people said and decided to at least stick with it until Jonathan Strange shows up - which he did about 220 pages in. Even with Jonathan in the story it continues being pretty slow going until he goes off to Portugal/Spain to fight Napoleon (with magic), but as soon as that happened I was stuck and my appreciation for this book went through the roof. I could even see myself reading it again. I loved everything about Jonathan Strange, even when he was being extra and summoned thunder storms for the heck of it. I tend to really enjoy fairy magic and this turned out to be no exception at all. I loved seeing how the different storylines came together and finished and how each character met their fates. But I would really like to have a sequel story where they dispel the Darkness and rediscover their country now so full of magicians and fairy magic. Childermass was my second favourite character in the book, and I would also really enjoy more of his story. I wanted a better ending for Strange, but I suppose what I got was fitting in the end. After being so slow to start and get going the end of this story had me like:

2. Good Behavior, by Blake Crouch. Yes, I admit to finding out about this book after I saw the TV show and I only watched the TV show because of Michelle Dockery. But hey, it was worth it. This book is actually a compilation of three novellas chronicling Letty Dobesh. The first novella starts off pretty much exactly like the pilot for the TV show and I could literally hear every line Letty said in Michelle Dockery's voice. Her portrayal was just that good. After every novella there are some comments from the author about choices and changes they made for the TV show and I really appreciate having those tie-ins because it explains their thought-process and makes the changes less glaring. The first novella ended extremely different from the pilot of the TV show and I can certainly see why. The novella is so dark. The second novella had pretty much nothing to do with the TV show (and the author explains why afterwards) but it was a really great glimpse into who Letty is and the story was fast-paced and fun to read. The third novella had glimpses of scenes from the show, but all in all it played out kind of differently from the show. Honestly, the blurb at the back of the book gave me the expectation that Arnold/Javier would play a much larger role in the story (like he does in the show) but he literally only shows up in the first novella and there's no strange relationship between them. All three stories were action-packed and exciting and made me unwilling to put the book down, even when it dealt with Letty's addiction and self-hatred. It was a fun read. I would've liked it even more if the three novellas didn't feel a little bit disjointed. And if they didn't leave me wanting so much more of Letty.

3. Mirage, by Somaiya Daud. I think this is the first time I've read a book set in an Arabia inspired world. Which is a shame really, because there's a lot of romance in the old classic Arabian culture. I liked the world-building, I liked the characters, I liked the story, and yet this book didn't leave me wanting more. I finished the book and was just... content? It is set up for a sequel, probably set up to be a trilogy, but I just don't care enough? It's a weird feeling. Usually when I like something I want to consume everything about it. Anyway, this is a sci-fi world of terraformed moons and droids. The Andalaans were conquered by the Vath around a decade ago and everyone's wounds are still fresh, even though most people are afraid enough of the Vath might to keep to themselves and not bother anyone. There's a rebellion and then there's the farm girl Amani and the princess Maram. Amani looks extremely similar to Maram and she is kidnapped from her family to serve as the princess's body double during occasions where they expect trouble. Maram is half Vath and half Andalaan and both sides hate her. The Vath because she isn't pure and the Andalaans because she's a constant reminder of the occupation. The Vath are working tirelessly to beat the inherited culture and language out of the Andalaans and replace it with their own. The whole thing is pretty sad tbh, and yet there's something with the language or story-telling that isn't compelling enough to make me want to read more. It's such a shame.

4. A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle. I've consumed countless screen adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and several games and yet somehow I have never read a book until now. It was a short and easy read. Its age is clear from the simplicity of the plot (detective novels tend to be a bit more complicated nowadays), but I enjoy that it's so straight-forward and yet doesn't give the reader all the clues. If I hadn't known the plot from before I wouldn't have figured out the murderer before the reveal, and the reader only gets what clues Watson can gander himself or is told by Holmes. It's a neat trick to avoid frustration on the reader's part for having to wait for the characters to catch up to what the reader already knows. I like the legend of Sherlock Holmes (it's old enough to be a legend now, isn't it?) and Holmes as a person is very relatable to me. So I probably enjoyed this book more than I would have if I perceived Holmes as a narcissistic emo with a superiority complex, which is a description I have seen thrown around on the internet. I love how the story ends with a hinted promise from Watson that he's gonna make Holmes famous and let him have his due :3

5. Le Cid, by Pierre Corneille. I feel like I should write this review in French since I read this book in French, but my spelling is bad and my grammar is worse so I'll make do with English. The first time I read this book was for French literature class at university. I didn't keep a lot of the books from that class, but I kept this one because I remember thinking it was pretty interesting and funny at times. So I picked it up and wow, this was a ride. So much melodrama! I didn't remember the story, but Chimène is such a whimsical drama queen and poor Rodrigue (and the King) is just along for the ride. She's so obviously a teenager trying to be an adult and not really knowing how to go about it, so it's like she says and does things that she's seen and heard other adults do, but it's never really what she wants to do, only what she thinks others expect her to do... And it's a mess. The fact that these are actual conversations in the book is hilarious to me (and way more modern than I expected of a 17th century story):
Rodrigue: Listen to me. (Écoute-moi.)
Chimène: I'm dying. (Je me meurs.)
Rodrigue: One moment. (Un moment.)
Chimène: Go, let me die. (Va, laisse-moi mourir.)

~~~~~

Chimène: Go, I don't hate you. (Va, je ne te hais point.)
Rodrigue: You should. (Tu le dois.)
Chimène: I can't. (Je ne puis.)

They're both such emotional drama queens. And I love it! Just kiss, already! But yeah, so this book was a lot more fun than I thought it would be from what I remembered. Definitely keeping this to read again.