Book Review Poll

[rachelmanija]

Poll #32766

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 129

View Respondents

Which of these books that I've recently read would you most like me to review?

View Answers

Dinotopia, by James Gurney. The famous art book/story about a world of dinosaurs and humans living together.
45 (34.9%)

Rest Stop, by Nat Cassidy. A horror novella about a guy trapped in a gas station bathroom.
14 (10.9%)

Black River Orchard, by Chuck Wendig. Horror about evil apples.
18 (14.0%)

Jackal, by Erin Adams. Hard to classify novel about a town where black girls keep going missing.
20 (15.5%)

Arboreality, by Rebecca Campbell. Fix-up short novel about people saving what they can on Vancouver Island post-climate collapse.
34 (26.4%)

The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood. Sequel to The Handmaid's Tale.
33 (25.6%)

A Field Guide to the Apocalypse, by Athena Aktipis. A how-to guide from a "build community" perspective.
39 (30.2%)

Inflamed, by Belden & Gullixson. How a retirement home was abandoned in the Sonora fires.
9 (7.0%)

The Clackity, by Lora Senf. Children's dark fantasy, a bit Coraline-esque.
16 (12.4%)

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands. The second Emily Wilde book, light fantasy with romance.
27 (20.9%)

We'll Prescribe You a Cat, by Syou Ishida. A slightly magical psychiatrist prescribes patients cats.
55 (42.6%)

Tales From the Morisaki Bookshop, by Satoshi Yagisawa. A depressed young woman takes refuge in her uncle's used bookshop.
27 (20.9%)

Archangel/Angel-Seeker/Jovah's Angel, by Sharon Shinn. Romantic SF about genetically engineered "angels" on a terraformed world.
28 (21.7%)

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

Comments

[osprey_archer]

Oh I LOVED Dinotopia as a kid - not so much the story but just gazing at the pictures for ages and pretending I lived in the treetop town. Just gorgeous.

I've been eyeing We'll Prescribe You a Cat, so I'm curious to hear about that one too.

[sabotabby]

I read The Testaments and had very complicated feelings about it so I'd love your take.

[thomasyan]

I'm kind of scared to either read The Testaments or watch the TV series of Handmaid's Tale, so I also voted for this book.

[rachelmanija]

https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/2777807.html

[thomasyan]

Thank you! sounds like one to avoid

[rachelmanija]

I had feelings. I'm not sure they were complicated. I guess Atwood really liked Ann Dowd, for which I can't fault her.

[rachelmanija]

https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/2777807.html

[sabotabby]

*excitement intensifies*

[skygiants]

I ate up the Shinn Angel books when I was a teenager and have often wondered how they'd hold up -- very curious what your take on them is!

[rachelmanija]

Same. Adult feelings sum up to problematic but extremely enjoyable.

[hannah]

I have a theory about Shinn's sources of inspiration that I don't think I'll ever be able to prove, but probably won't ever get disproved, either.

[rachelmanija]

What is it?

[hannah]

That at some point, maybe very early on in the writing process or possibly just before going to publication, she saw The Prophecy and based the main characters in her novel off those actors.

[rachelmanija]

Interesting. I've never seen the movie. Are they physically sumilar?

[hannah]

I'd say it's enough to make me think it's beyond coincidence. But, I've got no way to prove the theory.

[gwynnega]

I liked Black River Orchard a lot.

[rachelmanija]

Me too.

[radiantfracture]

Vancouver Island representation! I haven't read it, though.

[black_bentley]

DINOTOPIA! I've still got my childhood copies of that and The World Beneath, they're such beautiful books and I adored them. Probably unsurprisingly, the Skybax riders were probably my favourite bit, and I love Bix (who shows up very early) <333

[profiterole_reads]

I've read The Testaments and I'm also curious about your thoughts.

[rachelmanija]

https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/2777807.html

[profiterole_reads]

Thanks, I was actually on it. :-)

[silverflight8]

Oh, I love Shinn's angel series! Other than generally liking Shinn I really love the subgenre of fantasy world but secretly underpinned with sf.

[movingfinger]

I've read a handful of the Japanese kinda magical-realism-light novels published in translation and, although all of them are pleasing light fiction, none of them has the depth and bite that would make them long-lived IMO. They're all riffing off each other and all of them I think are looking nervously over their shoulders at Shion Miura. And rightly so.

It's not clear whether this is a problem with translation flattening nuance out of the text or whether the excessive simplicity is an authorial choice that has been represented faithfully. They are getting traction in the US, though, with media deals and stuff, so the made-for-miniseries-pitch stereotypes may be accurate.

[genarti]

Only Dinotopia! And like osprey_archer, I was less interested in the story than in gazing delightedly at the pictures.

I read the first Emily Wilde book; I haven't read the second yet. And I've read a couple of other Japanese novels about magical realism bookstores and/or cats, but not those two. It does seem to me to be a bit of a theme in Japanese literature at the moment, but maybe just in the ones that get translated into English and mentioned in my circles...? I don't know enough to say, but now I'm curious!

[meara]

I voted for Inflamed because it sounds interesting but I don’t think I can read it myself given the current state of the world. I’ve mostly retreated to mindless fluff when I can.