Bookish Thoughts

For all that I've said I'm happy to wait as long as it takes for the third Kingkiller book, reading the second one got me really excited for it. I have so many unanswered questions, and there are so many tantalizing hints about what's to come, that a part of me just wants to get my hands on it now. But then I tell myself to be patient. I love the first two books because they are basically perfect. The amount of work and care that Rothfuss put into them is clearly evident. He worked hard on them and he's working hard on the next one. And if I have to wait another decade, at least I know that I'll be getting a perfect book at the end of it. This book is perhaps even more episodic than the first one. Or maybe it's just more evident because Kvothe is moving around a lot more. Either way, people tend to complain about the pacing of this one more. But I maintain that it's better than the first. It has Felurian (true story: there's one page in the Felurian ...

When the world gets hard, when it seems like politicians don't care or that progress is being eroded away, when I feel myself giving in to anger and despair, I turn to Rebecca Solnit. She never fails to make me feel better. Her essays give me perspective about how far we've come in a remarkably short time. They give me a sense of solidarity that helps me raise my voice and continue to fight. She reminds me that despair is for lazy people, and we have to work for hope, but it's worth it. This collection opens with an extended rumination on silence and all the ways it harms us. Then there are several shorter essays, including "Men Explain Lolita to Me". This essay was actually my introduction to Rebecca Solnit several years ago, and I've re-read it several time. It was a treat to come across it again. Solnit's essay collections are all slim, but they pack an incredible punch. She just released a new one, and I'm excited to get my hands on it (though ...

What Should Be Wild  is a dark fairy tale about a young girl coming of age and dealing with a family curse. It's moody and atmospheric, and it was a great way to get in the mood for Fall. The book centers on Maisie, a young girl who can't touch anyone. Contact with her skin instantly kills anything that's alive. It also brings back to life anything that's dead, which is handy when her father is first starting to understand her strange powers. He isolates her, for everyone's protection, and conducts experiments in the hopes of finding a cure. But as Maisie gets older, she starts to chafe at the restrictions placed on her. And when her father goes missing, she decides to head into the wider world and find him. Meanwhile, the book follows several of Maisie's ancestors who have, for one reason or another, become trapped in the wood behind the family estate. They don't age and nothing in the wood dies. But the birth of Maisie (and her dark shadow who's gr...