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Gymkhanas, Monks and Masks
Aug. 11th, 2021 08:10 pmFor our most recent podcast episode, I made Dave read Jill's Gymkhana by Ruby Ferguson, a book from 1949 about a young girl named Jill who comes by a pony, learns to ride and dreams of entering a gymkhana. I was given the whole set of books by my mum when I was quite small, as I was pony mad, just like her at that age, and I loved them all. It was really fun to revisit them now, and I still really enjoyed reading this first one. It wasn't nearly as problematic as I'd expected (though there were a couple of iffy moments in terms of discriminatory language) and it made me laugh more than I thought it would. It's very much a wish fulfilment book - Jill does work very hard to look after her pony, keep her stable in order and learn good horsemanship, but she gains an awful lot of stuff almost entirely at random. Her first person narrative has a very self-deprecating style, which is endearing and funny, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series again in short order.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built is the new novella by Becky Chambers, whom I adore. And this book is about a tea monk - someone who travels around rural villages to listen to people's problems and offer them comforting tea. I'd like one of those to visit me! As I've come to expect from Becky Chambers, it's a gorgeous story, that's funny, sweet, poignant and thoughtful by turns. It's about imagining other people complexly and confronting your unconscious bias, but it's also about whether or not you need a specific purpose in life. The whole thing is lovely - my only complaint is that it's way too short!
This week, I also finished The Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick, who turns out to be two people writing together, one of whom I know and love - Marie Brennan. It's an intricate tale of fantasy-realm high society politics, long cons, magical intrigue and hidden identities. The world-building and setting are incredibly rich, there's completely normalised pansexuality, the cast of characters are engaging and multi-layered, and there are plenty of mysteries to be unravelled. I do feel it got a bit saggy in the middle (with the bad drug trip going on a bit too long) but it very much picked up again in the latter sections and came to a conclusion that was both satisfactory and intriguing enough to make me want to read the next one.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built is the new novella by Becky Chambers, whom I adore. And this book is about a tea monk - someone who travels around rural villages to listen to people's problems and offer them comforting tea. I'd like one of those to visit me! As I've come to expect from Becky Chambers, it's a gorgeous story, that's funny, sweet, poignant and thoughtful by turns. It's about imagining other people complexly and confronting your unconscious bias, but it's also about whether or not you need a specific purpose in life. The whole thing is lovely - my only complaint is that it's way too short!
This week, I also finished The Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick, who turns out to be two people writing together, one of whom I know and love - Marie Brennan. It's an intricate tale of fantasy-realm high society politics, long cons, magical intrigue and hidden identities. The world-building and setting are incredibly rich, there's completely normalised pansexuality, the cast of characters are engaging and multi-layered, and there are plenty of mysteries to be unravelled. I do feel it got a bit saggy in the middle (with the bad drug trip going on a bit too long) but it very much picked up again in the latter sections and came to a conclusion that was both satisfactory and intriguing enough to make me want to read the next one.
