Sep. 12th, 2024

vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Lots more books finished since last time. Rather a mixed bag.

The graphic novel Robyn from Blue Fox Comics was a gender-swap reworking of Robin Hood. Nice artwork, but often confusing storytelling.

Manga Insomniacs After School continues to delight. An innocent coming of age story, involving two likeable kids, and some astronomy.

The second Bridgerton book started off really well. Sparkling verbal repartee between the two lead characters. But the writing went significantly downhill later.

I adore The Lord of the Rings. So I was very very happy rereading Fellowship. Will continue with the rest in the coming months.

Queen Macbeth was a historically grounded retelling of the true historical character that Shakespeare misrepresents. Until it went off into sheer flights of fancy. It also felt like what should have been a much longer book that turned into so many "then this happened" in the breathless closing pages. However I'm glad I read it, not least after seeing (online) Val McDermid talk recently about it at the Edinburgh Book Festival. It's also a quick read, more of a novella. One of a series of "Darkland Tales" retelling Scottish history in that format.

The Adapting Tolkien book of seminar papers was a varied set, some less successful than others. I was exasperated by how poorly the illustrations for one paper - so essential to what it was discussing - were reproduced in the Kindle ebook. Luckily I found a YouTube video of the original seminar paper presentation! But an interesting mix, ranging across within Tolkien's Legendarium, Elvish in the films, the Folio Society's illustrated Silmarillion, and the process of naming astronomical objects after Tolkien names. And more.
    earlier books )
  1. Robyn Volume One - No One Above Another (graphic novel) by Simon Birks et al
  2. Insomniacs After School (manga) volume 2 by Makoto Ojiro
  3. Bridgerton: The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
  4. The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
  5. Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid
  6. Adapting Tolkien: Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Seminar. Peter Roe Series XX edited by Will Sherwood

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vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
vivdunstan

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