Page count: 344, I read the UK paperback edition Time taken: probably four hours This book is really hard to summarise. It’s a close third-person narrative about a honeybee, Flora 717. It’s a classic hero(ine)’s journey. It’s an investigation into the idea of free-will and determinism. It’s a novel about upheaval in a rigid caste-based state, drawing from classic dystopian literature. It’s a love story. It’s a survival story. It’s about the consequences of climate change in the insect world. It’s a nuanced and […]
I’ll Stick with Jelly Beans, If It’s All the Same to You
In a world that already has Terry Pratchett, I understand that it’s hard to reach the Terry Pratchett bar since it’s set so high up on the Terry Pratchett scale. So I feel for Robert Rankin on that front. But I also kind of think he picked up a pen and thought, “how hard can this be? Oh, I should put boobs in it too! Hehehehe, boobs. I’m a genius.” This book…happened. The plot had no idea where it was going, but it was going […]
And the plot thickens…
In Curtsies & Conspiracies, the second of Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series, we join Sophronia Temminnick for her next stint at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. Sophronia is fifteen now (we somehow missed her birthday) and she is up for her six-month review. She has learned her lessons perhaps too well, as she is now shunned by her classmates. Although disappointed, this does not stop her from continuing her adventures! And an adventure it now is, for not only are we […]
Merely Respectable
The height of literary comedy? I don’t know. A Confederacy of Dunces follows the day-to-day lives of a cast of characters that all ultimately end up at the same place at the same time due to the ridiculous antics and poor choices of the main character, Ignatius. Ignatius is a 30 year old hyper educated, egotistical and out-of-touch bum living on the good will of his retired mother in New Orleans in the early ‘60s. After his incessant back seat driving gets her into an […]
Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
If I could press any book into the hands of my teenaged self, it would likely be The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. The novel is funny, thoughtful, well-written, and most of all, feminist as fuck. It’s the kind of book you want to buy multiple copies of and disseminate to everyone you know. The Disreputable History details Frankie’s journey from quiet freshman to criminal mastermind sophomore at Alabaster Preparatory Academy, a private boarding school in northern Massachusetts. At the beginning of […]
The Origins of Sassy Detective
B is for Burglar and C is for Corpse, books two and three in the Alphabet mystery series by Sue Grafton. I must say Kinsey Millhone is growing on me. Or at least the writer’s style. These books remind me of the Evanovich series starting Stephanie Plum, which may have been loosely inspired by this series, wink wink. Spoiler alerts for 30 year old books. You are warned. In book two, B is for Burglar, Stephanie, er uhm, Kinsey is hired by a woman who […]
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