![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Instead of my monthly round-up post, I thought I'd try doing a weekly meme - if nothing else, it should get me updating my DW a bit more often.
What did you recently finish reading?
Jan Guillou's Äkta amerikanska jeans, which - I was actually disappointed in this one. I've been enjoying the series well enough - grand scale family saga, following a Norwegian/German/Swedish family through the 20th century. It just - didn't feel like it was really a part of that. I mean, the book itself is - fine, I suppose. We're at the third generation, main character is a boy named Eric, born in '44, and we're now in the 50s. The early part of the book mostly reminded me of Far til fire, truth be told, and then they move to Stockholm and it's all 50s culture and the occasional girl, and I just - listen. I read Rifbjerg, I read Panduro. I am certain Sweden already has equivalent writers. I do not feel that Scandinavian literature was truly missing yet another narrative about being a teenage boy in the 50s and his discovering pop culture and girls, okay? Even if clearly this is partly Guillou channeling his own childhood (and it might be an interesting companion book to his Ondskan, which it actually has a crossover with), but - it's published as part of a family chronicle series. And apart from a bit in the early chapters, we follow the family embarrassment in this book, the poor, disgraced relatives that nobody has contact with. Which isn't much family saga, okay?
Britt Karin Larsen's Der vokser et tre i Mostamägg, which is also a family saga book. First book, about the Forest Finns in Northern Sweden in the 19th century. It's got lots of a nature and nature worship and strong women characters, so I think I'll give the second book a shot, even if I'm not quite convinced yet.
Robert Kirkman The Walking Dead: Call to Arms, which has me wondering whether Negan ships Rick/Negan.
Kurtis J. Wiebe: Rat Queens: Demons
Kurt Busiek: Astro City: Private Lives, which remains one of my favourite superhero comics. Nevermind Agents of SHIELD or Powerless or Powers, give me an Astro City tv show. But a good one. Don't ruin it.
Brandon Sanderson's The Final Empire, which - listen, I read Leigh Bardugo's Crooked Kingdom, which is lovely, and I found myself wanting to read more fantasy heist novels. So I googled and this kept coming up, and - well. It doesn't feel very heist-y, even though it's a crew of thieves that the story is about. And while the setting has potential - basically, Sauron won in this fantasy world - it's just. Kinda dull? Very standard high fantasy, which - frankly? Wasn't what I was looking for.
What are you currently reading?
Right now, I'm about halfway through the second volume of the new Danish translation of Oldtidssagaerne, specifically about halfway through the saga of Hrólfr Kraki, which has so far been mostly about his ancestors - and incest. Is there some sort of thing in Norse sagas where incest produces superpowered boy children? Also, I just started reading Marie Brennan's The Voyage of the Basilisk, mostly because it was a more convenient format than the sagas for taking with me in the train,
What do you think you'll read next?
Honestly? Not entirely sure. There's a couple of comics I need to read, because the library wants them back soon, so probably them - being the fourth volume of the Vinland manga and the first volume of a Lobo series that seems to have made him young and handsome, which - why? Anyway, as for not-graphic literature - not sure. We'll see.
What did you recently finish reading?
Jan Guillou's Äkta amerikanska jeans, which - I was actually disappointed in this one. I've been enjoying the series well enough - grand scale family saga, following a Norwegian/German/Swedish family through the 20th century. It just - didn't feel like it was really a part of that. I mean, the book itself is - fine, I suppose. We're at the third generation, main character is a boy named Eric, born in '44, and we're now in the 50s. The early part of the book mostly reminded me of Far til fire, truth be told, and then they move to Stockholm and it's all 50s culture and the occasional girl, and I just - listen. I read Rifbjerg, I read Panduro. I am certain Sweden already has equivalent writers. I do not feel that Scandinavian literature was truly missing yet another narrative about being a teenage boy in the 50s and his discovering pop culture and girls, okay? Even if clearly this is partly Guillou channeling his own childhood (and it might be an interesting companion book to his Ondskan, which it actually has a crossover with), but - it's published as part of a family chronicle series. And apart from a bit in the early chapters, we follow the family embarrassment in this book, the poor, disgraced relatives that nobody has contact with. Which isn't much family saga, okay?
Britt Karin Larsen's Der vokser et tre i Mostamägg, which is also a family saga book. First book, about the Forest Finns in Northern Sweden in the 19th century. It's got lots of a nature and nature worship and strong women characters, so I think I'll give the second book a shot, even if I'm not quite convinced yet.
Robert Kirkman The Walking Dead: Call to Arms, which has me wondering whether Negan ships Rick/Negan.
Kurtis J. Wiebe: Rat Queens: Demons
Kurt Busiek: Astro City: Private Lives, which remains one of my favourite superhero comics. Nevermind Agents of SHIELD or Powerless or Powers, give me an Astro City tv show. But a good one. Don't ruin it.
Brandon Sanderson's The Final Empire, which - listen, I read Leigh Bardugo's Crooked Kingdom, which is lovely, and I found myself wanting to read more fantasy heist novels. So I googled and this kept coming up, and - well. It doesn't feel very heist-y, even though it's a crew of thieves that the story is about. And while the setting has potential - basically, Sauron won in this fantasy world - it's just. Kinda dull? Very standard high fantasy, which - frankly? Wasn't what I was looking for.
What are you currently reading?
Right now, I'm about halfway through the second volume of the new Danish translation of Oldtidssagaerne, specifically about halfway through the saga of Hrólfr Kraki, which has so far been mostly about his ancestors - and incest. Is there some sort of thing in Norse sagas where incest produces superpowered boy children? Also, I just started reading Marie Brennan's The Voyage of the Basilisk, mostly because it was a more convenient format than the sagas for taking with me in the train,
What do you think you'll read next?
Honestly? Not entirely sure. There's a couple of comics I need to read, because the library wants them back soon, so probably them - being the fourth volume of the Vinland manga and the first volume of a Lobo series that seems to have made him young and handsome, which - why? Anyway, as for not-graphic literature - not sure. We'll see.