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Title: Orientalism
Author: Edward Said [read in Russian translation]
Genre: erm... cultural studies?
Book Number/Goal: 59/175
The most useful books turn out to be those which make you exclaim "But of course!" and "Isn't it evident?" while reading, and this is just such a book. I mean, isn't it evident that no study of culture different from ours can be free of our own cultural prejudices and influences? And it all goes from there. And makes me want to apply Said's ideas to many other subjects. And I am so bad at reviewing.
Title: Death by Cashmere
Author: Sally Goldenbaum
Genre: mystery
Book Number/Goal: 60/175
Your average cozy mystery about a group of women gathering round a knitting shop in a small town. Good enough if you like cozy mysteries; also, I liked that the victim was treated with respect and shown in all aspects of her life even though initially he seemed to be a 'fast woman' or something like that.
Title: Fire and Hemlock
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: fantasy
Book Number/Goal: 61/175
First of all, I like books where characters read books. Maybe it's just me and my existence in the bookworld and connecting to people through books. Second, I like stories about recovering memory. Third, I was vaguely alarmed by a story about a girl's friendship with a grown man: purely innocent friendship, but such stories made me wonder about the man's motives etc. However, I was wrong: the memory of the girl's life shows that he wasn't all-important in her growing up - too much of family troubles, school, friends, sports etc., and also, the book does analyze the hero's motives in staying friends with a little girl. An interesting book, but somehow my impression of it is a bit in pieces, like this entry - maybe I should reread and think a bit more.
Title: The Horse and His Boy
Author: C. S. Lewis
Genre: fantasy
Book Number/Goal: 62/175
I should have read all the Narnia books when I was a child: I liked the ones I read then. This one... is dubious on many points, from the contrast between noble North and unpleasant South (really, the only decent Southern person seems to be the tomboyish heroine, and even her main plot function apparently is to reassess the boy hero, forget her pride and understand his worthiness) to the flat nature of the hero's growth. The talking horses are much better, however: there are also two of them, boy and girl, but the 'boy horse's growth and development is more vivid, the gender dynamics are trickier and the horses, unlike humans, do not end marrying each other.
Title: Эта странная жизнь [This Strange Life], read in Russian
Author: Даниил Гранин [Daniil Granin]
Genre: biography
Book Number/Goal: 63/175
This is a life story of a biologist who through all his life kept notes of how much time he spent at which task, and generally developed a system of accounting and planning for his life. Not much of a biography, actually: the author was mostly interested in the planning aspect and everything else is too sketchy. Pity: I would've liked more of how it worked in RL and less of the book author's ponderings on the nature of time. Interesting subject, pompous writer.
Author: Edward Said [read in Russian translation]
Genre: erm... cultural studies?
Book Number/Goal: 59/175
The most useful books turn out to be those which make you exclaim "But of course!" and "Isn't it evident?" while reading, and this is just such a book. I mean, isn't it evident that no study of culture different from ours can be free of our own cultural prejudices and influences? And it all goes from there. And makes me want to apply Said's ideas to many other subjects. And I am so bad at reviewing.
Title: Death by Cashmere
Author: Sally Goldenbaum
Genre: mystery
Book Number/Goal: 60/175
Your average cozy mystery about a group of women gathering round a knitting shop in a small town. Good enough if you like cozy mysteries; also, I liked that the victim was treated with respect and shown in all aspects of her life even though initially he seemed to be a 'fast woman' or something like that.
Title: Fire and Hemlock
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: fantasy
Book Number/Goal: 61/175
First of all, I like books where characters read books. Maybe it's just me and my existence in the bookworld and connecting to people through books. Second, I like stories about recovering memory. Third, I was vaguely alarmed by a story about a girl's friendship with a grown man: purely innocent friendship, but such stories made me wonder about the man's motives etc. However, I was wrong: the memory of the girl's life shows that he wasn't all-important in her growing up - too much of family troubles, school, friends, sports etc., and also, the book does analyze the hero's motives in staying friends with a little girl. An interesting book, but somehow my impression of it is a bit in pieces, like this entry - maybe I should reread and think a bit more.
Title: The Horse and His Boy
Author: C. S. Lewis
Genre: fantasy
Book Number/Goal: 62/175
I should have read all the Narnia books when I was a child: I liked the ones I read then. This one... is dubious on many points, from the contrast between noble North and unpleasant South (really, the only decent Southern person seems to be the tomboyish heroine, and even her main plot function apparently is to reassess the boy hero, forget her pride and understand his worthiness) to the flat nature of the hero's growth. The talking horses are much better, however: there are also two of them, boy and girl, but the 'boy horse's growth and development is more vivid, the gender dynamics are trickier and the horses, unlike humans, do not end marrying each other.
Title: Эта странная жизнь [This Strange Life], read in Russian
Author: Даниил Гранин [Daniil Granin]
Genre: biography
Book Number/Goal: 63/175
This is a life story of a biologist who through all his life kept notes of how much time he spent at which task, and generally developed a system of accounting and planning for his life. Not much of a biography, actually: the author was mostly interested in the planning aspect and everything else is too sketchy. Pity: I would've liked more of how it worked in RL and less of the book author's ponderings on the nature of time. Interesting subject, pompous writer.
