Book Reviews: May 2023

I had to read a bunch of thesis scripts in the last two weeks of May, so I resorted to shorter books this month to meet my quota. They’re still interesting though! Here goes:

Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher:

After enjoying “Swordheart” last month, I decided to check out another T. Kingfisher fantasy romance set in the same world. This one follows a perfumer and a paladin whose god has died as they get unwittingly involved in an assassination attempt. As with “Swordheart”, I enjoyed the world of the story and the characters, and this one has a more complex plot than “Swordheart”, which I appreciated as well. However, I didn’t buy the relationship as much (it’s sort of insta-love, which I never find convincing), and the plot gets resolved very easily. 3.5/5

Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

Continuing my exploration of poetry, I went with something more classical this time. I’ve heard a lot of great things about Elizabeth Browning’s love poems (these sonnets were written for her future husband, Robert Browning), but after reading them, I became convinced more than ever that poetry is like music. You can’t always explain why you like this song more than the others, just like how you can’t explain why a particular poem hits you harder than the others. That is to say, I appreciate the beauty of Elizabeth Browning’s language and sentiments, but I don’t really connect with them as much as I thought I would. 3/5

Poems by John Clare:

More poetry. I’ve never even heard of John Clare before, but I saw one of his poems quoted on a poetry Instagram account, and his brand of nature and rustic life description hits my exact sweet spot (see my two favorite poets: Seamus Heaney and Mary Oliver). However, while I do enjoy all of Clare’s poems about rural life, their sentiments don’t hit me as hard as Heaney’s or Oliver’s, and I don’t think I would enjoy them half as much if I didn’t read the introduction about Clare’s life. Knowing about his sad, extraordinary life makes me appreciate his poems a lot more. 3/5

4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie:

To clear my head after reading all those thesis scripts, I’m back to my usual “easy read”. Since I’ve watched all the Miss Marple adaptations with Joan Hickson, I know what happens in this already (one of Miss Marple’s friends witnesses a strangling on the train, and Miss Marple sets out to discover what truly happened), but it’s interesting in that Miss Marple herself doesn’t feature very prominently in the story. Sure, she is behind the scene pulling the string, but most of the investigation is carried out by the police and her associate Lucy Eyelesbarrow. It makes for a nice change of pace. 4/5