Amy Sisson's 2023 list of books read (the "reclaiming my life" edition)

List of books read in 2023

1. The Family Name by Jan Washburn. YA (vintage), read 01-04-2023.
2. To a Different Tune by Bianca Bradbury. YA (vintage), read 01-19-2023.
3. The Confession by Jessie Burton. Literary fiction, read 02-17-2023.
4. Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer. Science Fiction, read 02-23-2023.
5. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Science fiction (repeat), read 03-14-2023.
6. Humbug by E.M. Delafield. Vintage fiction, read 03-30-2023.
7. Redshirts by John Scalzi. Science fiction (repeat), read 04-19-2023.
8. Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton. Vintage fiction, read 09-10-2023.
9. Cassiel's Servant by Jacqueline Carey. Fantasy, read 10-02-2023.

Categories:
Fantasy/Alternate History - 1
General fiction (vintage) - 2
Literary fiction - 1
Science fiction - 3
YA (vintage) - 2

New - 7
Repeat - 2

Starting out with something easy and light: a vintage "Whitman Novel for Girls" titled The Family Name, by Jan Washburn. High school student Ryndy Drews has an inferiority complex due to her three glamorous and high-achieving older sisters, which she finally feels she's addressing by making the cheerleading team. But a water-skiing accident puts cheerleading out of reach. Ryn is despondent until she discovers something else she can work towards.

This was pretty solid for a vintage YA novel.

Always nice to have a book read by Jan 4. Happy New Year Amy.

Happy New Year! I have Babel in my To-Be-Read-Next stack (got it for Christmas :-)) and am curious to know what you think.

>1 amysisson: >4 Dilara86: Everyone seems to be reading Babel. I'm getting very curious.

>4 Dilara86:
>5 labfs39:

I am loving Babel so far! Sci-fi and fantasy related to linguistics? One of my favorite combinations!

I am another who is curious about Babel.

Babel is on my wishlist.

I almost used an Audible credit for Babel. Still might....

Finished To a Different Tune by Bianca Bradbury, a vintage YA girl coming-of-age story. I liked it better by the end -- it's about confidence, finding oneself, helping others, etc. -- but the emphasis on weight and appearance was appalling. I mean, the girl was 145 pounds and one would have thought she was morbidly obese. In this example, Lianna has just crashed a bicycle and has a bloody forehead, and here are her thoughts:

Why wasn't she the type that could always whip out a compact and lipstick? She needed them now. This leopard had jolly well better change its spots, she resolved. I've got to began making like a female.

To be fair, by the end of the book she's no longer self-conscious when her misplaced-crush takes her sailing and she looks like a mess. But still. This was published in 1968, not 1952!

Finished The Confession by Jessie Burton. Literary fiction, although some might say it's just general fiction. It's about a British woman seeking to find out why her father would never tell her anything about the mother that abandoned them both. I liked it.

I finished Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer. I was in the mood for some straight SF, so first contact and medical rejuvenation treatments fit the bill.

There were two things I really liked, which were the second message that the aliens ultimately sent, and the fact that the robot wiped itself in order to keep Sarah's decryption key secret (although there was no mention of robots being able to make moral judgments like that).

However, I had a big problem with the main character's infidelity. Not only did he cheat on his wife of 60 years because his newfound hormone levels were that of a 25-year-old, but he also lied to the young woman he cheated with by not telling her he was married. Yet he literally experiences no consequences. His wife knows he's having an affair but doesn't confront him because she's so grateful he technically stayed with her when her rollback rejuvenation didn't work, and his lover, after her initial anger about the deception, forgives him two days later and they continue on until he feels too guilty and ends it temporarily. In the end, he gets to have the world think he stuck by his wife in all ways, still gets to marry the young lover when his wife dies but have nobody think the less of him, and be a celebrity because he and his lover get to raise to alien kids, all subsidized by a billionaire (or possibliy trillionaire).

I freely admit this is a hot button topic for me (and I'm sure anyone can guess why). But the book almost makes his behavior out to be noble, when it made me want to gag.

>12 amysisson: Ugh, a book I will happily never open.

Just finished reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. This was my third time, having first read it in 2000 and again in 2012. It holds up perfectly.

>14 amysisson: I adore that book. It's my favorite in the micro-genre of "clergy to the aliens" books.

>15 KeithChaffee:

LOL! Didn't know there even was such a micro-genre!

>14 amysisson: I love that book. Children of God made my head spin in a 180, and was thought-provoking, but not as good as the original, IMO.

>17 labfs39:

I agree with you 100% on Children of God!

I realized I missed posting when I read Humbug by E.M. Delafield back in March! And then I re-read Redshirts by John Scalzi because I was hanging out with someone into Trek and wanted to read it at the same time they did.

And then .... nothing for months! But in my defense, since then I had Covid, moved me and my seven cats 1700 miles from Houston to the Winston-Salem NC area, bought a house, sold a house, started my new job, and took 3 out-of-state trips and 1 out-of-country trip. I've started so many books, and liked them, but kept getting interrupted.....

I finally finished one today: Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton. She's wonderful at creating complex characters, and I understand that certain things couldn't be stated directly in published fiction at that time, but wow, we certainly danced around a number of things! To be fair, though, she did a good job of allowing the reader to understand what was happening without explicitly stating it. That said, it's really not clear to me why Lita returned to Jim, unless it was because she was just so shaken up by what happened. But given her personality, I truly can't see how that effect would last more than a few months.

>19 amysisson: Sounds like you've had quite a year! I hope the new job and new house are everything you want them to be. Happy new home!

>19 amysisson: So many changes, Amy. I hope you are settling in to your new home and new job. Have you unpacked your books yet? :-)

Nice to see you posting. Twilight Sleep is one of the six last Wharton novels my Wharton group hasn’t gotten to yet. Enjoyed your comments (but I skipped the spoiler)

>20 WelshBookworm: Thanks!

>21 labfs39: Not even close (re: unpacking my books) -- still too many boxes (of books and other things) preventing me from placing my bookcases in the right spots

>22 dchaikin: Ooh, is your Wharton group on LibraryThing, or elsewhere?

>23 amysisson: it’s on litsy. (If you’re interested i can help you get going there. Pm me. Like here, it’s a positive energy place.)

Finished Cassiel's Servant by Jacqueline Carey today. It's Kushiel's Dart told from Joscelin's viewpoint instead of Phèdre's. I enjoyed it, but there were some inherent limitations in it due to the POV.