mariebrunelm's Reviews (478)

 Je sais que j'ai lu la VO de ce livre et posté mon avis la semaine dernière, mais je viens d'en lire la traduction française qui paraît ce vendredi chez L'Atalante et je suis rassurée de pouvoir vous la recommander chaudement. Marie Surgers traduit à merveille la prose délicate, doucement ironique de Becky Chambers et tous les petits détails qui donnent un charme fou à sa novella. 

L'histoire de Dex, frœur au service d'Allalae, dieu des petits conforts, qui quitte son monastère paisible pour servir du thé à travers le pays, m'a touchée en plein cœur. Dex est foncièrement bienveillant.e envers les autres, mais peut-être pas assez envers iel-même et cherche à travers ses différentes vocations celle qui constituera son but ultime, la raison de sa présence au monde. Son périple l'emmène au-delà des territoires réservés aux humains, où la nature ne connaît aucune limite et où vivent les descendants des robots qui, il y a fort longtemps, se sont Éveillés et ont déclaré leur indépendance.

Cette novella fait en quelques pages ce que des sagas en plusieurs tomes touchent à peine du doigt. Elle trouve un équilibre fragile et ô combien précieux entre légèreté (Dex est porte un regard assez incisif sur iel-même) et profondeur. Avec des mots tout simples, Becky Chambers accompagne nos questionnements profonds, sans apporter de réponse simpliste mais en nous assurant que nous ne sommes pas seul.e.s et que la plupart du temps, il suffit d'exister. 

Rep : deux personnages principaux agenres. 

This book was wild and intense and uncomfortable, and I do think it's uncomfortable on purpose. We're in 1920s Georgia, USA and racism is in full swing. Maryse, our main protagonist and narrator, is busy hunting down Ku Kluxes, monsters hiding in the white robes of human Klaners. I don't want to tell you too much because the author has a lot of cool surprises in store.
One thing I loved about it was how important language and oral tradition are. Maryse has her own, very specific, way of talking, and other characters include varying levels of dialect and other languages into American English. I read this in French and I was once again in awe of Mathilde Montier's work (she's Clark's translator).
Sadly my state of mind did not do justice to how excellent this book is. But whenever I opened the book, it grabbed me. It feels very unique, even though there are parallels to be drown with Lovecraft Country.

 What better way to get mentally ready for a trip to the Bodleian library in Oxford than by reading a book set partly in the Bodleian library in Oxford? I first read A Discovery of Witches in 2018 when I was leaving for my first solo trip to Oxford and it helped quite a lot with my stress because Diana, the main character, is literally shown taking each step to enter the library. This time round, I read it for the setting and because re-reading brings me much comfort. It really is a fun book, but also a rather deep one. On the one hand, I still love it as much as the first time, because there were lots of parallels to draw between supernatural creatures and queer people. On the other hand, this being the third time I'm reading it, I could no longer stand Matthew (the other MC)'s overprotectiveness and paternalistic behaviour (which are challenged, thankfully) and I really roled my eyes at the insta-love story and the direction their relationship took (I don't want to spoil you!).

But this novel is still very, very enjoyable - I found myself giggling and not putting the book down and having lunch at Blackwell's just because Diana did.

Having said that, you still may not know what this book is about. Diana is a historian of science studying alchemical manuscripts at the Bodleian where she meets Matthew, a vampire, while creatures of all three types (there are daemons as well) close in on her for studying a particular document at the Bodleian. There follows a romance between the two of them, the details of which I will not disclose, but it involves very spirited locations, danger and a whole lot of pining.

Rep: sapphic secondary characters. 

This book feels like a collection of candid snapshots taken by our narrator and main protagonist, Esperanza. She's a young girl from a Latina family growing up in Chicago, who doesn't know where she belongs. Her story is that of so many first-generation immigrants and she faces the same hardships, some she sets light on, others she's too young to really notice. This novel told in bite-size pieces is quite touching but tumbles into dark territory toward the end (see most of the content warnings). 
Rep: Mexican-American family.

The dedication to this book is "For anybody who could use a break" and that's exactly what this is. What a precious, precious little book. I wouldn't exactly know how to describe it. It's got tea, a God of Small Comforts, and a sentient robot. Its main character, Dex, is a monk dedicated to help others but a little lost inside. It's Sci-fi insofar as it's set in the future, but really that's not the point. The point is that this book is bursting with humanity and small comforts and even though I'd hate to give you an order, you should absolutely do yourself a favour and read it. 

 I've been hunting for a second-hand copy of this book ever since I saw Alok in Jonathan Van Ness's Getting Curious. If you haven't wtached that, give yourself a favour and go. It's 30 minutes of pure love and joy and also heartbreak.

Beyond the Gender Binary does exactly what it says on the tin, exploring what lies beyond the idea of a gender binary. It does focus a lot on the harm perpetuated in the notion's name, so be prepared for that, but it gives a checklist of arguments against the usual responses to people who feel threatened by the existence of trans and non-binary people. This book is very short and easy to read, so it should absolutely be everywhere. 

Daikichi et son chat Tama sont de retour pour mon plus grand bonheur dans ce tome tout doux et léger. Rien de tel pour s'échapper en quelques traits et quelques touches de couleur vers cette petite île aux chats japonaise. Daikichi rouspète gentiment, il cuisine et se crée un petit potager pendant que le nouveau médecin tente de convaincre les voisins récalcitrants de se laisser soigner. Tout est réuni pour faire passer un moment paisible où on échange nos soucis du quotidien pour la vie au long cours de ce papi japonais et son chat. 

Book alchemy is a strange thing. Sometimes a book ticks all the boxes but the magic doesn’t happen. Sometimes a book sound like something you’d rather pass by, and yet it provides such thoughtful insight it feels like it was written for you. The Absolute Book fits the first scenario. It was recommended by readers whose opinion I hold in great value, and from the blurb to the cover it sounded like the right book for me. I first tried to read it in the summer of 2022 and abandoned around a quarter of the way in (my entry says 40% but I have no memory of reading the pages from 25 to 40%). On a sentence-based level, I had trouble understanding who was doing what and what was happening. I blamed it on my focus which was very wobbly at the time. Here comes 2024. I’m looking at my TBR trolley and deciding what book to read for the #LetsReadThatTBR challenge. I spot this one, which has been daunting me for a year and a half, and takes a lot of space on that trolley. It’s time to find out if we’re really meant to be. And it turns out we aren’t. I still don’t understand in detail what’s happening in this book. I really want to, and I guess the broad strokes, but nothing more. And that’s relevant, I think, for a book in which some things are harder to perceive than others, and characters walk the very blurry line between worlds. This time, I finished the book. That’s most of what I can say about it. And that’s okay. 

 What fun!

This sci-fi book about an arranged marriage has an outrageous premice and very endearing characters. Jainan and Kiem are so well fleshed-out that I was ready to overlook the fact that I couldn't fathom why two men would be forced into a diplomatic arranged marriage, since arranged marriages are usually meant to produce offsprings. But you know what? It took barely a chapter for the banter and alchemy to convince me it was still a good idea. True, the total lack of communication in the first half of the book almost made me pull my own hair, but it's so satisfying to see the relationship evolve, and evolve healthily.

I'm not a fan of romance but this one was pleasant. It did start as insta-love, but took a long time to develop from there so it didn't feel that rushed.

Rep: brown queer MCs, diverse & queer characters. 

 Part celebration of Jane Austen's literary achievements, part writing advice, this essay invites you to take inspiration from Jane Austen to write your own stories. A lot of space is devoted to an analysis of what makes a Jane Austen novel, but the writing prompts are general enough to fit different perspectives. I'd recommend this book if you don't need specific advice on writing but could do with a little push to consider your work from another angle. Although SFFF is clearly not the focus here, I think sometimes it's nice to look at how writers from other genres do it and who knows? A little banter or small-town drama could take your space opera epic into unexpected directions.

Although I found the quotes often too long, the contextualisation was often on point and concise. One thing I also appreciated was when at the end Rebecca Smith pointed out Jane Austen's prejudices. Although this is very much an ode to her writing, the author included a short part about Austen's fatphobia which was quite welcome.