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Bookish Woes

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Clarissa

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Any fans of JK Rowling’s Cormoran Strike series on here? I was waiting eagerly for the new installment in the series but it’s been out for a week, and I have to make myself slog through it. Is it me? Is everybody else enjoying it?

I loved the series until now. Listened to each 1,000-page book three times. Why am I not enjoying this installment?

Tomorrow, a new Inspector Lynley drops. If that fails to do it for me, I’ll consider seeking medical help.

My very last hope is the autobiography of Andrés Trapiello that will be released the day after tomorrow. If that one is a dud, not even medical intervention will help me.

21 responses to “Bookish Woes”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Haven’t got it yet. But I read all the rest.

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  2. xykademiqz Avatar
    xykademiqz

    Here to share love of Inspector Lynley. I do wish they’d stop putting him in pale pink shirts, though. It’s not his color.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Inspector Lynley once got me a job offer. I was on a campus visit, and the receiving department took me out to dinner. The conversation was stilted, as these things tend to be, until I shared my excitement that a new instalment in the Lynley-Havers series has just come out. It turned out that several of the faculty members were great fans, and we had the best conversation ever. They all really warmed up to me after that.

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. xykademiqz Avatar
        xykademiqz

        Who downvotes posts about a detective show? People are so weird

        Liked by 1 person

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        1. Avatar
          Anonymous

          If it’s just one, I assume it was a cat-on-keyboard situation. IIRC it is difficult to undo a thumb once you’ve clicked it. Trying now on this post…

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          1. Avatar
            Anonymous

            yep, once I’ve clicked a thumb, I can’t undo it and can’t click the other one.

            It’s janky. Just assume they meant to like it!

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            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              I always want to hope that it’s accidental but it happens all the time on the most innocent, apolitical posts. I wish people explained their thinking because I’m genuinely curious.

              Liked by 2 people

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              1. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                We call such people “Baba Yaga is against.” Against what? Everything! Because she’s Baba Yaga.

                Liked by 1 person

              2. Avatar
                Anonymous

                “Is outrage!”

                Liked by 1 person

        2. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          I’m particularly puzzled by people who downvote cute posts about Klara. What can possibly be objectionable about stories of a feisty 4th grader? One has to be the grinchiest of scrooges to dislike these posts.

          Liked by 1 person

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  3. Physpostdoc Avatar
    Physpostdoc

    You are not alone. I am a big JKR/Strike fan and find that The HallMarked Man is… not her finest in the series (to put it mildly). The narrative heavily leans into development of relationship arc of the detectives which, while is of interest to loyal readers of the series, significantly dilutes the core investigative part of the story and could be an irksome distraction for many first time readers. I really believe JKR peaked with book 5 – Troubled Blood – with Strike. That one is a tough act to follow!

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Right? The crime is boring. And the relationship has entered into the really repetitive mode. I can just imagine this cycle of “she finds a boyfriend, he has meaningless sex with some woman he despises, she finds another boyfriend, etc” will repeat forever.

      Please no spoilers everybody, but if they don’t have sex in this installment, I’m quitting the series. It was cute at first but it’s been dragged out way too long at this point.

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      1. Physpostdoc Avatar
        Physpostdoc

        Yeah, providing a personality and a personal life to protagonists in the backdrop is nice and makes the characters more than just thinking machines. But it really sounds repetitive as you say — plus somehow it messes with the smart but self-contained characterization of Strike I had made in my mind. And if Robin thinks aloud to the reader one more time “she thought — no, she italics{ knew} — she loved Murphy” she should deserve the fate of the cliched bitter spinster of Victorian English novels, in my opinion. Such a great feisty character ruined by this mental flip flop more apt for a silly schoolgirl!

        Apparently, there is only one more book to go — which is apt if the current one is indicative of a trend.

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    2. methylethyl Avatar
      methylethyl

      Oooh, that’s not very promising. Somebody update this after you’ve finished it, and just let us know if it’s worth it?

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  4. Avi Avatar
    Avi

    You might want to read Against the Machine (On the Unmaking of Humanity) by Paul Kingsnorth. It comes today in the United States, published by Thesis.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. methylethyl Avatar
      methylethyl

      I’ve been wondering about that one. Interesting, but at the same time I have a whole love/hate thing with Kingsnorth and his writing style. If somebody else here says it’s worth it, I’ll slog through it.

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        Ah! You came back! Under the right name, I mean.

        Never heard of Kingsnorth but maybe I should.

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        1. methylethyl Avatar
          methylethyl

          I still haven’t solved the glitch, whatever it is, but I did find a way to access the blog and comments from the back side of the WP console so I can comment under my login.

          I’m sympathetic to Kingsnorth’s ideas and keep tabs on his blog mostly because he is an old peak oil guy/wiccan and it’s been interesting watching his religious and philosophical evolution into Orthodoxy, but I skip his religious musings because he’s still got that new-convert thing going on, and on other topics, his style is a bit much for me– ok for short stories and things, but difficult for a whole book. Made it all the way through Beast, but… it was work, I didn’t enjoy it, and I’m reluctant to have another go at his longform stuff.

          Still, his model for the larger thing that is happening to culture on the global level these days, “the Machine”, is one of the more interesting and coherent frameworks for making sense of the thing.

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          1. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            Now I’m really conflicted because the temptation is strong to read the book.

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            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              Ah! It’s on Audible. I’ve got some free credits, so I’m totally getting it.

              Liked by 1 person

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        2. methylethyl Avatar
          methylethyl

          –and it’s nice to be only a semi-ghost now! Commenting on this end is a pain, but I’ll try to go the long way round for it so I can stop flickering in and out of a solid internet identity 😉

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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