Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. In this post, I will be doing a wrap up of all the books I read in July. This month I read 8 books and DNF’d 1. This month I started to read books that I usually don’t read very much in the first place giving my reading tastes a little bit more diversity. One of these types of books is reading a book in Spanish. The books I choose for this prompt are originally published in this language (no translations here, but there’s an idea for a new prompt), but the review here will be written in English. Hopefully, my reviews will make you interested enough to pick these books (or their translations) up. Here goes:
1. NONFICTION: The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture by Ruth Benedict
This book is an anthropological study of the Japanese and their culture. And though it was a very interesting read, for I am an avid student of the Japanese language, it was ultimately not what I was expecting. The book opens with the author saying that she was asked to study Japanese culture in the years before WWII ended, when America joined the war, in an effort to understand how the Japanese thought and why they did what they did; why they seemed to do things and think in ways that were utterly and poignantly in sharp contrast to Western values and ideals. And I was expecting the author to tell us how her work (if it ever did) helped defeat Japan and to end the war. She did not deliver. I gave this book an Okay rating.
2. EBOOK: Lost Heirs of the Medieval Crown: The Kings and Queens Who Never Were by J.F. Andrews
Now, I admit it was a little bit hard to keep track of all the Williams, Edwards, Henrys, and other ill-fated (and not so ill-fated) children of the Kings and Queens of England after the Norman Conquest to the Wars of the Roses, but surprisingly I liked this book more than I had anticipated. The author too helps us keep track of them somewhat by providing a genealogical tree for each would-be king or queen of England and their place in history at the beginning of each chapter and that made my reading experience of such a dense book (in information, not length) a lot easier and smoother. I really liked that. But I have always been an avid reader of English history and I fully expected to like this book. Which I did. However, it is also a kind of book that you have to be in the mood for. A lot of names go by, and there comes a time when it’s hard to keep track of who is who. At one point, for example, two different Edwards were the main rivals for the throne in one chapter and it took me a second to understand that this Edward and that Edward were two different Edwards…after that, it all clicked. So unless you know your medieval English history very well, it can get a bit confusing. Nonetheless, I liked that this book focuses primarily on those whose story hasn’t been told all that much. The losers, or those that could’ve been kings or queens of England but weren’t for some reason or other. And though I do read about Henry VIII and his six wives, I liked that this book focuses on the kings before him. I gave this book an I Really Liked It rating. Nonetheless, I will say that I recommend this book specifically to those who like to read about the English history and the occupants of the throne.
The picture shown here for this ebook is not mine. It was borrowed from Goodreads.
3. SPANISH: Los Recuerdos del Porvenir by Elena Garro
The title of this book translates as Recollections of Things to Come, and this may seem like an oxymoron, but it summarizes very well what this book is about. In Recollections of Things to Come, time has stopped, and nothing can continue. The only way forward is towards death, but, alas, everyone and everything is already dead. So the only thing that Ixtepec can do, the town that one day decides to remember itself as it once was when time had not yet stopped, is to remember its future (or the future it once had) as it sits on a rock (or something that looks like a rock) and contemplates itself.
The structure of this book is a circle, as it ends where the book began, and we now know why time has stopped in this town and why the only thing left to it is death. This book is magical realism in its finest (published before Gabriel García Márquez’s most famous novel and paragon of magical realism A Hundred Years of Solicitude), and I Really Liked It. I first read this novel during college in one of my literature classes, specifically my Mexican Literature class, and I really enjoyed it back then too. The period of Mexican history that this book touches upon is the period after the Mexican Revolution when all of its heroes, amongst them Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Francisco I. Madero, y Felipe Ángeles are all dead after having been betrayed by Victoriano Huerta and now Plutarco Elías Calles is President of Mexico. However, Mexico is still at war. This time against Calles and his famous Calles Law, which intended to limit the participation of the Church in public life and to implement secular and anticlerical articles in the Constitution of 1917.
Mexico is a very religious country; a very Catholic country, and today this is still true. But during The Cristero War, named after those fighting for the right to worship Christ, churches were closed, and priests were both persecuted and executed. This war in Mexico history however is not very well known, and this is saying something because I completed my basic education in Mexico, and I do not remember reading much about it in my history classes. Then again, I could have not been paying attention that day. Which is very likely because my history classes were a drag. And this from a history aficionado. It wasn’t until I read this book the first time that I learned about The Cristero War. Also, my closest friend at the time was serendipitously a Cristero War connoisseur.
4. LIBRARY BOOK: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
This is the first book I read by this author, and I still don’t know what to say about it. When I first read the synopsis of this book, I thought Breton, King Arthur, okay, and because I am a fan of both, I said yes, I want to read this. But it was definitely unlike any other book about Arthur that I’ve ever read. It is literary fiction with a touch of fantasy (in my dictionary that is magical realism) about lost memories. The buried giant is all those memories that come to life after the beast is slain and the consequences of remembering everything that was forgotten. Ultimately, this is not a book about Arthur but a book about a world that remembers everything, has confronted the consequences of remembering but ironically does not remember Arthur, and to this day does not know if Arthur ever existed.
5. BOTM: People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry
Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me. Poppy and Alex are both stale and lifeless. Boring. I couldn’t connect with either one of them. Or root for them to get together. I just didn’t care. Sorry but true. This book is just the latest of 20 books that I have DNF’d thus far this year. I will be posting a list of those books soon.
6. START A SERIES: Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
Assassin nuns who serve the God of Death. What’s not to like about this premise? The execution. Don’t get me wrong, I did like this book. I was just a little disappointed by it. For starters, the main character’s supposed to be an assassin nun but there’s barely any assassinations on her part, if any. I mean, this is YA, so I wasn’t expecting there to be explicit gore and violence but something. When Ismae is first taken to the convent, I was expecting the author to show us how Ismae trains to become an assassin, but she doesn’t. Which is fine, I can live with that. But Ismae’s training is over like in a second, and three years later she has to kill three targets to graduate from her novitiate. She makes two kills, and for the third she is forced to go to the Breton court and pose as her nemesis’s paramour. So if you are looking for a book focused on the main character learning her trade at the abbey (i.e., with a school setting), then this is not that book.
After Ismae leaves the convent (which is pretty early in the book), everything pertaining to the God of Death and the assassin nuns is pushed to the background and we focus primarily on the political intrigue taking place in the Breton court. This is very well done (I loved the medieval background albeit inaccurate for storytelling purposes, which is forgivable), but that eventually falls to the background too after Ismae’s love interest is introduced. This is a romance novel. Plain and simple. Pink novel. But sad to say the romantic relationship between Ismae and Duval is rather dull. You know they’ll end up together, but there was just no palpable attraction between these two at all! Where’s the smoldering heat? The passion? Wait, you’ll say. This is YA. And I’ll say, I know. But nothing shows through the page. God. I needed something. The little bit of “enemies to lovers” tension trope I was expecting is nonexistent and sadly so. And it was a bit disappointing to tell the truth. I knew that the romance was going to override everything else eventually, but in my opinion it wasn’t very well done, and I did not think the protagonists had an ounce of spark between them. I can see Ismae trying to fight her growing attraction to Duval… but now they’re both declaring their love to one another? Wait. Did I miss something? When did that happen? Their initial banter is nonexistent after Ismae arrives at court and all she does is fight her growing attraction to him when she’s alone or pine over him when he’s not around and all of a sudden they’re in love? Sigh. And then, I just had to (because I absolutely HAD TO) roll my eyes at the way she saves Duval from death from poisoning (insert small silly laugh here). I gave this book an I Liked It But Will Probably Never Read It Again.
7. REQUESTED REVIEW: She Shits Bricks and Other Short Stories by Samson Tonauac
This book is definitely one that took me out of my comfort zone. The author’s sense of humor in this one is sophomoric and cynically absurdist, and that is what makes this book stand out in my opinion. It is a sarcastic portrayal of modern American society. And Tonauac isn’t shy about letting us know what he thinks about it or the problems currently plaguing it, such as the politicization of COVID-19 and the pandemic, capitalism, and the enrichment of the selected few versus the impoverishment of the very many, consumerism, our growing dependency on social media and all things digital to the detriment of everything else around us, among other things. The author is blunt and crass about what he says. He isn’t sugar-coating anything, and he lets you know he doesn’t care about sugar-coating anything either. His sense of humor is dark and twisted. And yes, this makes the book stand out, but I also think that this is the reason why this book isn’t for everyone.
And unfortunately it was not a book for me either. I don’t regret reading it, but the humor was not my cup of tea. I don’t say this to discourage anyone from reading it though. It is just that some of the jabs the author uses to criticize American society completely passed me by and I had to ask my husband to explain them to me. This is mostly because I didn’t grow up here and I am still learning a lot of things about this country. Also, I am bad at sarcasm. The book, however, did do what I wanted it to do: to get me out of my comfort zone and diversify my reading scope. Science fiction is probably one of my least read genres, cyber-punk even more so, and this allowed me to start reading more books of this kind.
I gave this book an Okay rating. I don’t discourage anyone from reading it though if, unlike me, dark and twisted sarcasm is indeed their cup of tea.
I do apologize for the condition of the book in this picture. I lent the book to a couple of friends and this is how it came back. Sorry about that.
8. YA: Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
Dark Triumph is the second installment of the His Fair Assassin trilogy written by this author, and I have to say that this book surpasses its predecessor by a large margin. I’m really glad that I decided to push through this series despite not having liked the first installment of this series, Grave Mercy, as much as I had hoped. I was rewarded however by reading a solid second book in a series with a strong protagonist who falls in love with a man who only makes her stronger when he wholeheartedly accepts who she is. And this, to be honest, is ultimately why we read romance novels. We all want someone to love us like Beast loves Sybella.
But now that I have read this second book, I understand better why Grave Mercy was so disappointing. We don’t get nearly enough passages of Ismae and Duval together for such a thick book; after all, it’s almost 600 pages. Not like we do with Beast and Sybella, and that, I think, affected my believing their love story. Unfortunately, Ismae and Duval felt a bit like insta-love, and I am not a fan of instant love. I liked them better in the second book though. In their own quiet way, they were cute. Also, I think that the whole trilogy as a whole (even though I have not read book 3 yet) would have benefited a lot if we’d gotten more glimpses of all three girls—Ismae, Sybella, and Annith—together in the convent and seen them as they forged their bond as sisters. I know, though, that this is not the story of the trilogy, but I do think that we would have benefited a lot as readers if we’d had been able to see this.
Despite all of this, however, I loved this book and will definitely be reading it again.
9. FINISH A SERIES: Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers
This book is the third and final installment of the His Fair Assassin trilogy by this author, and I admit there were things I liked about Annith’s story and things I didn’t like. Let’s start with the positive. I liked the hellequin, obviously. Who doesn’t like dead horsemen hunting eternally for souls? I also liked how the Nine are more involved in this one; however, I don’t know how I feel about the pairing yet. I think I would’ve liked the romance a lot more if Annith hadn’t fallen in love with Death. I was rooting for him to be and stay a hellequin honestly, but I knew he wasn’t. It was too obvious. At first (when I was reading Grave Mercy), I even thought that Annith was eventually going to pair up with Duval and Beast’s friend de Lornay, but that theory died when de Lornay died at the end of Grave Mercy. Guess not then. However, if Annith hadn’t fallen in love with Death a lot of things in the plot wouldn’t have fit properly. Still…I don’t know. I wasn’t completely enamored by this couple for some reason, like I was with Sybella and Beast. I liked the plot (despite its predictability) though and how the author concluded the story, but it was definitely not my favorite of the three. Nonetheless, it had the potential to be (and it almost was).
