Could You Repeat That? CCVIII

I have read many books in the past six months. Many. Many. Books.


How to Solve Your Own Murder, Kristen Perrin
I glance at the bedside cabinet, and there is in fact a heavy brass candlestick there. Why didn't I grab that when I needed a weapon? Did I learn nothing from all those rounds of Clue with Jenny?

Birding with Benefits, Sarah T Dubb
"There's something about realizing that the birds have been here all along, and all I have to do is learn how to pay attention. It's sort of like reading, I think, looking for those little gems in the text, the words and phrases that call out to you, weaving together the story."

Silent Parade, Keigo Higashino
"The important thing is this: What you believe to be the truth and the actual truth are not necessarily the same thing. Until you know the difference, you can't make the choice that will decide your fate."

Killer Kung Pao, Vivien Chien
"I hate to ask this, but do you think that June is guilty?"
Her eyes slowly met mine, and there was a sadness in them that hurt my heart. "The stories do not sound good," she repeated.

Camp Jupiter Classified: A Probatio's Journal, Rick Riordan
Today was super fun, except for the near-death experience.

Donut Fall in Love, Jackie Lau
@RyanKwoksFather followed only one "person" other than Ryan. Cookie Monster.

Liars, Sarah Manguso
Without meaning to, I began to restrict the material in my diary. I had become unable to articulate certain feelings. And so my body became their cultivation dish.

A Lady by Midnight, Tessa Dare
Given a choice between watching Miss Kate Taylor weep and offering his own liver to carrion birds, he would have had his knife out and sharpened before the first tear rolled down her face.

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Even at the time, I realised this couldn't be right, that this interpretation didn't fit with the rest of the lyrics. But that wasn't an issue with me. The song was about what I said, and I used to listen to it again and again, on my own, whenever I got the chance.

The Maid and the Crocodile, Jordan Ifueko
"The point of these lessons is that you learn to use your voice--"
"I am using my voice now, oga: Shut your mouth and listen," I snapped, which stunned him into blank-faced silence.

How to End a Love Story, Yulin Kuang
He stares at the woman on his porch, whose hidden layers he's just starting to unravel, and he gets a sharp, strange sensation in the back of his lizard brain that he might be in some danger here, which is ridiculous.

Could You Repeat That? CCIV

Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins, x2
We manage the darkness as we did in the arena, wrapped in each other's arms guarding against dangers that can descend at any moment. Nothing else happens, but our arrangement quickly becomes a subject of gossip on the train.

Cackle, Rachel Harrison
I wonder how much of a woman's life is spent this way. Enduring. Waiting for enjoyment or, fuck it, death.

Bronze Drum, Phong Nguyen
It was unlike even the most powerful memento mori, when the certainty of death comes upon us like a cloud obscuring the sun. Life became weighted with numinous meaning, and that meaning, to last the rest of her days, was revenge.

Advika and the Hollywood Wives, Kirthana Ramisetti
"When nothing else in the world is predictable, you can anticipate when each story beat will happen. If you know what kind of movie you're watching, like a rom-com, you can almost time it to the minute. I like that. Nothing else in the world feels more comfortable to me than knowing the rhythms of a movie."

Heroine Worship, Sarah Kuhn
I should have grabbed something with less potential baggage attached, but I didn't actually own any other rings. Rings got in the way of punching things.

The 2024 Tournament of Books is Nigh

It's time for the 2024 Tournament of Books! In perhaps a surprising turn of events, I did not read ANY of the books on the shortlist before the shortlist was announced. Usually, by chance, I read a couple of the longlist books that make it to the next round, but not this time, I guess?



In any case, out of the eighteen books on the shortlist, I read all but one of them. (I skipped one due to content ooginess.) Listed below you'll find them in the order I read them; I haven't ranked them at all. I'm not sure how I would this time around? Rather than commentary, I've given you two pull quotes from each of the books I read.

They're all worth a read, though YMMV depending on your mood.

Could You Repeat That? CCIII

So it turns out I haven't posted one of these since September. Whoops? This includes most of my Hugos reading, in fact, plus a bunch for the Tournament of Books.

Tess of the Road, Rachel Hartman
Tess clasped a hand to her heart (she felt it beating even through Florian's jacket) and wished with all her might. Not for the classical piratical standbys--vengeance, fame, or fortune--but that she might shed the past like a skin and walk on with nothing, empty and new.

Snacking Cakes, Yossy Arefi
Okay, okay, raisin haters--you win.

Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, Charlie Jane Anders
Rachel never told Yiwei she loves him before. Maybe she should have picked a more romantic setting, like a moonlit beach, instead of a mutilation cave.

Akata Woman, Nnedi Okorafor
"Seeing is not the same as caring," the magician replied. "You're American; you should understand that more than anyone."

Saga, Volume One, Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples, x2

Could You Repeat That? CCI

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Shehan Karunatilaka
All stories are recycled and all stories are unfair. Many get luck, and many get misery. Many are born to homes with books, many grow up in the swamps of war. In the end, all becomes dust. All stories conclude with a fade to black.

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, Alison Espach
"Tell me, exactly what you are thinking right now," Billy said. "Don't hesitate."
I was thinking that there was nothing better in this world than to discover someone who was weird in exactly the same way I was weird. To be weird and then loved for it.
"I'm thinking how strange it is that flies have to have sex in the air," I said.

Dinosaurs, Lydia Millet
In the dark, when nothing else was sure, the soaring tree sheltered you. Almost the only thing you had to see before you slept.
How you came not from a couple or a few but from infinity.
So you had no beginning. And you would never end.

The Violin Conspiracy, Brendan Nicholaus Slocumb
And finally--finally!--Tchaikovsky, of course. Let's be clear here: Ray may have looked like a Black American, but secretly--secretly!--he was Russian. Secretly he'd spent his life ladling borscht and nibbling pelmeni. Vodka, not blood, surged through his veins. He was melancholy because it was always winter in St. Petersburg, and jovial because Muscovites are a good-hearted people who love to laugh. He killed the Tchaikovsky. He left the Serenade melancoloique bawling its eyes out onstage. He bowed.

Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, RF Kuang
He had a sudden, very clear vision of the tower in ruins. He wanted it to shatter. He wanted it to, for once, feel the pain that had made possible its rarefied existence. 'I want it to crumble.'
Victoire's throat pulsed, and he knew she was thinking of Anthony, of gunshots, of the wreckage of the Old Library. 'I want it to burn.'

The 2023 Tournament of Books

So there's this thing called the Tournament of Books that I was first introduced to via friend Amelia. (So...probably around ten years ago, in 2013?) Basically, the Morning News first releases a long list of a bunch of books that seem notable, then they narrow it down to a shortlist for March Madness. (I assume we're all familiar with WHAT a bracket looks like, even if we do not actually care about these things.) When the time comes, they tap a number of literati-type folks to judge between two of the entrants, winners go on to the next round, etc, etc.

The key thing they emphasize: There's no actual standard for what makes a "good" book! None at all! These decisions are all subjective and according to taste! We all win because we get to read a bunch of interesting books, basically. (But there is an eventual winner.) If you go to this page, you can see links to alllll the past decisions and brackets in the sidebar.

You deny our brotherhood. Insisting as you do in your sly way that our genealogies and our socioeconomic standings have set us apart at birth in a manner not to be contravened. But I will tell you Squire that having read even a few dozen books in common is a force more binding than blood.
"The Passenger," Cormac McCarthy

Anyway, I've been keeping track of things for the past decade or so. Some years I manage to read everything! Some years I manage to start all the books, and then some of the novels languish on my shelves, partially completed, for years. Some years I just don't have the energy. Who can say what each year can bring? Last year, I managed all of them and was very proud of myself. This year, I thought, why not try that again?

Also, I've color-coded the various texts. Purple means I own/ed the book, green means I read it before the ToB shortlist was released, and blue means I read it after the shortlist came out. I'm not even going to indicate favorites here--the Tournament proper will churn out semi-finalists, etc, but as they state themselves, it's all quite arbitrary! (Except I DID indicate favorites. But not winners! That's...somewhat different, right?)

She did bring a book, but she wasn't reading it, just bullying the ink into sense. "It's pretty good," she says. "It would be brilliant if it weren't the literary equivalent of a shirtless mirror selfie, you know, like, if the author only flexed when he had to lift something."
"The Rabbit Hutch," Tess Gunty

Could You Repeat That? CC

I feel like I should make note that this is my 200th edition of this! I have been doing "Could You Repeat That" since 2002, in the fairly early days of Regular People using the internet. How early was it? I actually received emails from two first-time authors who thanked me for including snippets from their books alongside more venerable names. (That does not happen anymore, obvs, though I do dig when I get a "like" from an author when I gush on Twitter.) And I know it might seem relentlessly fiddly to some, keeping track of favorite lines from every single book, but I don't know, man. I think it's kind of neat to see twenty years of books over time.

In case you're wondering: Not counting this post, I've read 2977 books since July 2002. (YMMV: I include cookbooks, books of poetry, graphic novels, plays, novellas, and novelettes. I also count re-reads, which I know some people do not.)

Anyway. On to the stuff!

Could You Repeat That? CXCVI

The past month's reading has been part "get them read before the move," part Tournament-of-Books-ish, and part Hugo nominees. Not a bad mix, honestly.

All the Devils Are Here, Louise Penny
This was what modern devils looked like. Not the writhing creatures captured by Rodin, but good, decent, silent people.

Young Mungo, Douglas Stuart
After that, it didn't take long to drown St Christopher.

Devil House, John Darnielle
But few things, at any rate, are more powerful than expectations. Blunt force, maybe. Firepower, certainly. Sword and steel. But even those have their limits. The imagination has none.

The Madness of Crowds, Louise Penny
"If it comes out, you'll be fired," Beauvoir said.
"I've been fired before," said Gamache. "I suspect by now they're tired of changing the name on the door."

The Unspoken Name, AK Larkwood
"You think of magic as a sort of toolbox, don't you?" said Oranna. "Do you have any idea how much study, how much negotiation, how much prayer and sacrifice...I have dominion over the hungering dead, over the whole kingdom of death. I am an extremely accomplished necromancer. I cannot make you invisible."

Star Wars: Dark Disciple, Christie Golden
By this point Obi-Wan was not just alarmed by Ventress's single-minded and inexplicable distrust of Vos, but growing profoundly exasperated.

Could You Repeat That? CXCII

Girls of Fate and Fury, Natasha Ngan
I called her heartless in my rage and despair once, but it wasn't fair. Not once has that been true. Wren has always had a heart.
She's just been taught to ignore it.

The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood
Are you having qualms, Charmaine? asks the little voice in her head.
No, silly, she answers. I'm having dessert. Plum crumble.
The women at her table are making mmm sounds. Red crumbs cling to their lips.

Libertie, Kaitlyn Greenidge
You thought he was braver than he was. You thought he had a bigger imagination. His imagination was a cooking pot with the lid on, boiling.

First Comes Scandal, Julia Quinn
And so she continued in her apparent quest to have the most awkward conversation of her life.