2022 Books
A log of all the books I've read in 2022 and my opinions on them.
Titles and names are listed as they were in the edition I read. So some titles and names are translated.
Key: Title – Author – Date finished; format – language read in – genre – source
Ateliér špičatých klobouků 4 – Kamome Širahama (tr. Michala Kropáčková) – 31.12.2022
manga – CZ – fantasy – owned
Introducing Eunie, giving him the beginning of a character arc, and then turning him into some kind of monster?? That's so cruel!
I loved the insight into Riche's character in this volume as well.
Ateliér špičatých klobouků 3 – Kamome Širahama (tr. Michala Kropáčková) – 30.12.2022
manga – CZ – fantasy – owned
So I am gaining manga again! It's good Christmas filler when I don't know what I want.
This is as good as I remember the previous volumes being. The beginning of a romance between Coco and Tarta was cute and wholesome.
Also I need the witches' outfits!!! Cosplay? (I keep saying that and yet not cosplaying.)
Továrna na Absolutno – Karel Čapek – 28.12.2022
physical – CZ – antiutopie – my mum
I found this in my mom's library she was sorting through recently. It is a very old copy without a dust jacket. It's actually an edition from 1925. Nearly 100 years old. So I probably should have treated it more carefully, haha.
This story reminds me of Čapek's other book War with the Newts, also being a story of something that at first seems like a way to improve industry but then leads to the (near) destruction of humanity, and also being told in vignettes of various people. But War with the Newts is better.
In a way Čapek was ahead of his time with how international his stories were, showing events in different parts of Europe and USA, and snippets in foreign languages.
The chapter praising Czech farmers was very weird and out of place. The chapters focusing on villagers later on are kind of cliché in their portrayal of rural people and their practicality.
I also feel that Čapek was not very interested in actually exploring the religious implications of the Absolute. Which I get is not the point he was trying to make, but I still was unsatisfied with the "everyone has their own truth" approach that did not even try to get to deeper.
This edition also has illustrations by Josef Čapek.
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe – Charles Yu – 21.12.2022
audio – EN – sci-fi – Scribd
I picked this audiobook randomly in my app, since it was fairly short and I was bored with the one I was listening to at the moment.
It definitely has a heartfelt core of difficult relationships with your parents as an adult, and the time machine works really well as a metaphor for dwelling on the past. And also I love time loops.
But it also has a number of problems. It starts off with cringe millenial nerd reference moments, but those are luckily only in the beginning. A pervasive problem is that the meta science fiction narrative universe stuff is underutilized and basically would not change the plot if it was removed. The attempts to offer commentary on / play with the concepts of canon and main characters are worse than any given shitty postcanon Homestuck fanfic. And at the ending when we are getting to the good stuff, the book starts just saying what its themes are. They were already clear! You don't need to say that.
Ex.Mag #03: Crumbling Kingdom – 8.12.2022
Comic anthology – EN – dark fantasy – owned
Also bought at the comics festival. I enjoyed the anthology format, with wildly varying stories and artstyles.
I imagined dark fantasy would be more Game of Thrones-like but instead all the comics in this are more inspired by Dark Souls and Berserk*, which is similar in vibes but very different in what kind of stories it tells. So a lot of fighting twisted monsters.
Some stories in this that stood out to me were:
An Arrow for the King by Linea Sterre – A story about a woman going to slay a monstrous king and a knight trapped in cycle of killing him over and over. It is athmospheric and has beautiful art.
Magus by Al Gofa – The longest story in the book. About distrust between knights and a very sus wizard who comes to heal one of them. Funny and has character depth for such a short story.
The Darktamer by Delfina Pérez Adán – About a monster tamer turning bad and his apprentice. The artstyle is cute.
I looked at the publishers shop to maybe buy other issues too, but apparently they are shutting down and not selling physical stuff anymore? It still let me through to checkout (although I haven't actually bought anything at this point, so it could still block you later).
*I have actually not experienced either of those. So I might be misrepresenting them. But I did watch video essays about them while very zoned out.
Artificial Flowers – Rachael Smith – 27.11.2022
comic – EN – contemporary – owned
I bought this at a comic festival. Insert meme that's like: comic I don't really want for 150kč – I don't care; comic I don't care about on SALE for JUST 150kč – I need to buy it.
It was good. Short and cute.
The artstyle is very expressive, but also gives me like... 2014 webcomic vibes.
Ztracená, temná a znuděná – Rob Reger (& Jessica Grunerová, Brian Brooks, Kitty Remingtonová) (art Buzz Parker) (tr. Petr Onufer) – 26.11.2022
comic – CZ – idk – owned
This comic was the subject of a prolonged childhood conflict with my sister. A few years back, I finally gained it back in exchange for doing some English homework for her. But I didn't even read it when that happened.
This was not very good as a comic, but it was a series of cool images. And I am still very nostalgic for Emily.
There are three comic interviews (with The Damned, Marilyn Manson (ew), and Elvira). Those might be fun if you're a fan of any of them.
Problém tří těles – Liou Cch'-sin (tr. Aleš Drobek (using the English tranlation by Ken Liu)) – 25.11.2022
physical – CZ – sci-fi – owned
This was so good. I don’t know why I didn’t read it sooner.
It has so much of the good hard sci-fi elements I love and it was very fast paced and readable with the mystery.
The parts of the story in the era of the Cultural Revolution are also very interesting, although I am not knowledgeable about if this has a political agenda.
The virtual reality video game was very well incorporated into the plot and full of interesting puzzles. Usually video games being a big part of a book's plot is not very enjoyable.
Rodinný ústav: rodinný tragikomiks – Alison Bechdel (tr. Petra Martínková Kůsová) – 17.11.2022
comic – CZ – autobiography – library
As a young LGBT person, you really don't have an inborn LGBT community around you (unlike some other minorities). It's tempting to imagine people near you as secretly being like you (projecting…). And in Alison Bechdel's case, her father actually was.
The issues about lesbian identity seemed a million years away from me and yet simultaneously very familiar.
Some of the connections made and random literature quotes seemed kind of random and pretentious.
The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss – 16.11.2022
audio – EN – fantasy – Scribd
This was mediocre. Not sure if expected anything more. I heard about this book mainly on Reddit and even there it had backlash.
I enjoyed the college setting, which I maybe projected myself into. The focus on the protagonist being broke and inventory management was quite interesting.
The worldbuilding had its moments with the cities and mythology.
Some of the foreshadowed things seem interesting, but since I have the out of universe knowledge that this series is never going to be finished, I don’t care.
I disliked the protagonist, who was a Gary Stu. The narrative literally seemed to bend around his 9000 IQ bullshit. All women are attracted to him. I get that he is an unreliable narrator but that doesn’t mean I want to listen to him.
The writing of women was slightly (not completely) bad. Why are they all described as beautiful (even a 12 year old). But like it’s not that bad. The loan shark girl was cool.
Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel – 7.11.2022
physical – EN – sci-fi, literary – library
I am continuing in my fandom of the Emily St. John Mandel extended universe by finally reading one of her books before it gets translated to Czech.
The Olive Llewellyn plotline was clearly based on the author's experience of the start of covid, which is somewhat interesting, but also falls into some of the pitfalls of self-inserts and kind of seems as just complaining.
The pandemic stuff is very third-month-of-covid (derogatory) in taking it very seriously, but in a very disconnected way. Which is strange considering this came out early 2022.
This book was short – around 200 pages of large text. I feel like it could have been longer, but I am not sure what I would've added. Maybe more about the time travel/simulation theory stuff. I love time travel and time loops.
Koperníkovy hvězdy / Estrellas de Copérnico – Elena Buixaderas – 30.10.2022
physical – ES / CZ – poetry – library
This book is a bilingual edition – it has poems written in Spanish on one side and translated to Czech on the other side.
I read it mainly to practice reading in Spanish (which I had not done in a while). It was good for that, as it featured a lot of simple words and sentences, but also some very complex ones and some weird grammars.
I enjoyed this overall, but it was quite repetitive in places. It also dealt a lot with the theme of motherhood which obviously does not connect with me that much.
Děti Duny – Frank Herbert – 30.10.2022
physical – CZ – sci-fi/fantasy – library
I read Children of Dune over like 2 months while beginning of my college career. So I might have missed some stuff and over all not enjoyed it to its fullest.
It is an interesting and good book, but weaker in comparison to Dune Messiah, which I read last year.
Both books are about the politics of power and empire, and about fate and self.
There is the belief that living in a difficult environment makes people better. That is not a thing I believe. It is actually quite fascistic: Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.
I am not sure if this is an underlying belief of the author. Certainly the admiration of the fremen comes from most characters. But maybe the extreme is just Leto and Ghanima. I mean the Golden Path is nonsense.
The Dune universe is super dystopian and it is strange it does not come up in that conversation more often.
I am definitely going to read the next book relatively soon. I hope there is something interesting going to happen with Farad’n.
The Winter Long – Seanan McGuire – 23.9.2022
audio – EN – urban fantasy – torrented ;)
I am back in my Seanan McGuire phase! This was relatively good.
I definitely didn’t expect the twist in this one, mainly because I forgot all about Evening Winterrose. It was like 2 years ago when I listened to that, ok!
McGuire has one word combination that she uses way too much in each book. In this one it’s “a riot of roses”.
Considering how many people have been elfshot, I am wondering if there will be a thing of them waking up a 100 years in the future and Toby having to confront them again. If this is not in any of the following books, I guess I'll have to write that fanfiction myself.
Veniss Underground – Jeff VanderMeer (tr. Milan Žáček) – 3.9.2022
physical – CZ – sci-fi – owned
The main story was very intriguing.
I like some of the imagery of the underground world – it was very hellish and visceral with a dash of Wonderland.
This book also a bunch of short stories from the same continuity which varied in quality. A lot of characters in the short stories were motivated by their heterosexual relationship. I guess a lot of people are.
Umbrella Academy: Hotel zapomnění – Gerard Way (art Gabriel Bá) (tr. Ľudovít Plata) – 26.8.2022
comic – CZ – superhero – library
Ok I haven’t read this one before. Brutal cliffhanger. Probably answered in the show, but I stopped watching that during season one, because I can’t focus on TV.
Umbrella Academy: Dallas – Gerard Way (art Gabriel Bá) (tr. Ľudovít Plata) – 24.8.2022
comic – CZ – superhero – library
His head just did that.
I was not sure if I read this one before but I’m pretty sure I did.
Why no Umbrella Man? Literally they are at the JFK assassination and they are the Umbrella Academy and there was a guy there with an umbrella known as the Umbrella Man who was very mysterious (at least according to all those top ten mysterious people at the JFK assassination videos I watched back when I was into that stuff) (in actuality he was a guy symbolically protesting Kennedy Senior supporting appeasement which considering I’m Czech I approve).
I’m also thinking about the time travel logic in this. Not sure there’s any? Oh well, who cares.
Connection to Assassins the musical? Probably not except for the fact I like them both.
Jatka č. 5 aneb křížová výprava dětí: povinný tanec se smrtí – Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (překl. Jaroslav Kořán) – 3.8.2022
physical – CZ – antiwar; sci-fi – library
I read 2 book with a main character with the last name Pilgrim in a row. Huh.
The narrative being jumbled is very fitting, but it also makes me not not very invested in what happens.
Sadly whenever the horrors of the bombing of Dresden are mentioned, I start thinking about Holocaust deniers, who often use it as an argument. Internet has truly poisoned my brain.
I am a sci-fi girl, so it never even crossed my mind that the Trafalmadorians might not be real, which is apparently a common interpretation.
This sounds like I hated this, but it was actually really good.
In popular narratives WW1 is seen as pointless and about the futility of violence and WW2 is seen as just and heroic and badass. It is good to remember that this is just a narrative and not an accurate representation.
Scott Pilgrim 1: Vypečený život flákače – Bryan Lee O’Malley (tr. Jitka Jeníková) – 1.8.2022
comic – CZ – comic – library
I read these out of order from the library when I was younger. So now I get to find out what the plot actually is. Relatively good so far. It is interesting in the historical context that Ramona works for Amazon and that is a new and cool thing.
Brána z obelisků – N.K.Jemisinová (tr. Roman Tilcer) – 22.7.2022
physical – CZ – fantasy – library
Why do I keep switching languages in the middle of the series.
Still very good. Slightly middle book syndromey with Essun's plotline in Castrima. Nassun's plotline is very good though.
It is crushing to see how all of the main characters are responsible for so much death and suffering evrywhere around them and how vicious that cycle is.
The 4.50 from Paddington – Agatha Christie – 18.7.2022
audio – EN – mystery – youtube
More Christie noise. I know for a fact that I have not read this one before at least. It didn't really stand out though. The twist was ok.
The woman assisting Miss Marple in this one is interesting in what her career says about society or Christie's feminist politics. She is extremely smart, was successful at Oxford, and decided to go into luxury maid services.
The Sittaford Mystery – Agatha Christie – 15.7.2022
audio – EN – mystery – youtube
I read a shit load of Christie books when I was in my early teens learning English. This means I haven't retained much of any of their plots. I think I probably read this one too. (I remember the part with the escaped prisoner. Unless that's a recurring Christie trope.) Anyway I needed something in the background while sewing and I was caught up to all podcasts I follow. And then this popped up on my Youtube page.
This one has a very girlboss / malewife relationship in it. Honestly Emily Trefusis (the more or less main character) is such a girlboss and a character I think would be appealing to a lot of current people. She likes pathetic men and manipulates men to solve the mystery.
The seánce part was such a strong beginning, but it didn't maintain that vibe for long.
The murder victim is kind of gay coded. By extension so is his killer – at the beginning I thought maybe they were lovers.
I guessed the killer pretty early on. Not sure if it's because it is predictable or because I already read it and remembered it subconciously. The reveal was underwhelming because of that.
Umbrella Academy: Apokalyptická suita – Gerard Way (writer); Gabriel Bá (artist); (tr. Ľudovít Plata) – 3.7.2022
comic – CZ – superhero – library
I read this because after I saw MCR, I was thinking about how I got into them partially because of this comic, and wanted to reread it. And yes it was still good.
The thing I noticed reading this time was that this comic is written very confidently. It just drops random things without the need to justify itself (see the opening pages). And that's a good thing. I think I often get lost in worldbuilding and explaining stuff and I don't realize I don't actually have to do that.
Můj odpočinkový rok – Ottessa Moshfeghová (tr. Jana Jašová) – 3.7.2022
physical – CZ – literary – library
Hmm. I enjoyed the dark humor and commentary on consumerist/capitalist/superficial society in some parts of the books. The main character's awfulness was intriguing and entertaining.
Under a certain interpretation, this whole book is one big 9/11 joke, which I perversely appreciate.
But the entire time I was reading this book, I was reminded of annoying online women who love this, which made me enjoy it less, as I was imagining the kind of tumblr woman who projects onto this. Internet brain damage is real.
Also maybe some of the parts with Ping Xi were kind of racist? I guess I'm not the person who should be judging that.
Norské dřevo – Haruki Murakami (tr. Tomáš Jurkovič) – 29.6.2022
physical – CZ – literary – library
I sent a friend a quite long review in an email. That is partially copied and translated here:
I get why this book is so internationally acclaimed. It definitely captures a certain emotion and time, and certain types of person.
It is really a lot about sex. Maybe too much in places, although I get that sex is important in the story and in life.
And the whole thing with Reiko and the young girl is very suspicious and gross… I don't like it.
Even for me, who relatively often consumes Japanese media it is sometimes hard to tell if something is a difference in cultural values or a difference in values with the creep who wrote this. Maybe it is more that it was more acceptable to write something like that at the time?
The ending is quite strange. For one him sleeping with Reiko (even though I get that he sees her as a replacement of Naoko, but that kind of makes it worse).
And then it basically does not return to the framing story at the beginning. Well you could interpret it like he is calling Midori after he was flying on the plane, but that doesn’t make much sense. Also it kind of sounds like he was planning suicide when you take it with what Naoko said before her death. But that makes even less sense. So the question might be why the plane scene even was there.
Město a město – China Miéville (tr. Milan Žáček) – 25.6.2022
physical – CZ – mystery / speculative fiction – library
This book had a very interesting concept. Quality description of the city/ies build a feeling of place and culture. Even the snippets of conlangs that appear are good.
But the plot itself did not interest me that much, the mystery was not worth that many pages, and the characters were not that amazingly deep.
I appreciated the commentary on borders as a social construct (the issue of refugees is definitely interesting in this context).
I found it funny that there was dialogue translated to Czech with the tag “I said in English”. The translator could have left a few English words.
Skleněný hotel – Emily St.John Mandelová (tr. Markéta Musilová) – 19.6.2022
physical – CZ – literary – bought at Svět Knihy (199kč)
Emily St.John Mandel delivers again!!!
This book explores themes of loss and responsibility for tragedy. And yes there are ghosts. But also a lot of international shipping and a finance Ponzi scheme. Some people online find that boring but I definitely didn't.
Also this is a stealth prequel to Station 11. Miranda is here (briefly)! And of course Leon Prevant is a more major character.
The Fifth Season – N.K. Jemisin – 18.6.2022
physical – EN – fantasy – library
Yes of course I liked this.
I loved how complexly we saw the main character throughout her lifetime and also her ambiguous relationship with Alabaster.
Another strength of this book was its quality worldbuilding. The different social groups and strategies of survival on a hellish planet like this are very intersting to explore.
The ending was a lot of unaswered questions, but I get that it is setting up the sequel. I should probably read that.
Are Prisons Obsolete? – Angela Y. Davis – 13.6.2022
ebook – EN – nonfiction – online
I am really on a roll of finishing books I have been in the process of reading for ages. Are Prisons Obsolete? was one of the books that was constantly recommended during the big Black Lives Matter protests. And I finally got around to reading it... now...
Obviously it is very US centric, but sadly the US influences basically every other country, so it is still relevant to me.
It is really good at pointing out just how fucked up the prison system is and how it oppresses people across many intersections (especially race obviously). And how the way we as a society concieve punishment for crime is not natural, but a harmful construct.
I really like the thought that everyone has at some point commited illegal actions and that criminals as a social class are seen that way because of factors like race and poverty. I think that is important to remember.
But I am definitely not yet on the level of the people forgiving their daughter's murder. I guess that is a positive and the logical outcome of the principles presented by this book, but it is still kind of fucked up to me. I wonder if the system truly changed, would they still be outliers?
Zapadající slunce – Osamu Dazai (tr. Vlasta Winkelhöferová) – 12.6.2022
physical – CZ – literary – owned
I read The Setting Sun mainly because I recently (by which I mean like half a year ago) watched Bungou Stray Dogs, where one of the main characters is based on Dazai. At the time there wasn’t yet a Czech translation of No Longer Human acessible (I have to read that soon as well) on which his power is based. But when I was walking past a used book shop I randomly saw a copy of The Setting Sun in a box for 10kč. So obviously I had to buy and read it.
I read the main novel (novella) about a month ago, but the book also contains some short stories and I just got to those this week after my finals.
The main topic of is social class in Japan right after the Second World War. Which is not really a topic I relate to. But despite that it was interesting and very well written. I definitely get why Dazai is considered a classic author in Japan.
Considering that Dazai was a socialist and this work was translated in Czechoslovakia in 1972 (peak normalisation), the relationship of this work and its characters to socialism is a bit strange. Definitely not the overt propaganda I was worried about.
Of the short stories the one that interested me the most was Bušení (The Sound of Hammering). Having convictions is hard, even more at that time.
I recommend that you read Dazai’s Wikipedia page. His repeated suicide attempts seem interesting to me.
Finally, I’d like to mention the quality cover, whose author was Stanislav Vajce. Scan of the cover
Obecné dějiny ničení knih – Fernando Báez (tr. Daniel Nemrava, Pavlína Švandová, Radim Zámec) – 31.5.2022
physical – CZ – nonfiction – library
(acceptance exams to a school I don't even really want to be accepted part 2 gigantic tome edition)
Destruction of books as objects basically does not matter to me. But it is always about what the books represent. When a library is destroyed, the cultural memory that is stored there is destroyed.
The whole book is pretty repetitive, but that is because history repeats. Even the author says in the foreword it is better to skip around. But when I am reading for entrance exams I don't really want to do that.
The chapter about the authors visit of wartorn Iraq is especially devastating.
Faktomluva – Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling & Anna Rosling Rönlund (tr. Eva Nevrlá) – 26.5.2022
physical – CZ – nonfiction – library
(I read this because it was one of the options for reading for acceptance exams to a school where I maybe don't actually want to be accepted to.)
This book points out how our perception distorts data and what to notice to understand the world. It is very easy to read and to understand.
I personally believe that the border of extreme poverty as we count it now is too low, so therefore the statistics about people rising out of extreme poverty are not actually that encouraging. But it is true that we need to distinguish between things that are bad and that are worse.
I also need to look at more updated statistics, as I feel the pandemic shook up a number of things.
Axiom's End – Lindsay Ellis – 16.4.2022
physical – English – scifi – library
I was sort of excited for this book because I like Lindsay Ellis's youtube channel. Well used to – I haven't really revisited any of her videos since she was "cancelled" (harassed off the internet for basically no reason).
I wasn't that excited though because I saw a few reviews when it came out. That's why it took me so long to get to it – it wasn't on my priority list when I was ordering books online for the last two years. But they had it at the library so I read it.
Another thing that drew me to this book was the premise. I like linguistics and communication stuff. Not that it actually did anything much with that. It is barely relevant. And the alien language was the logical polysynthetic language that dozens of conlangers have tried to make. Hardly beyond human comprehension.
It didn't do much with the social impact of first contact and the leaks about it either.
I surmise from reviews that this is based on Transformers. I have zero context for that. I probably watched Ellis's videos on Transformers but I forgot it instantly. Didn't Transformers movie already come out in 2007 when this book was set? (Googled and it did.)
The aliens who were supposedly incomprehensible weren't really.
Also when making up a number of causalties maybe don't make it 6 milion (typically cited holocaust number).
The prose was awkward/redundant in places, but not really bad overall.
The relationship between Cora and Ampersand was interesting but I didn't like where it went in the end. Ampersand is an asshole.
It was still pretty engaging to read. Or maybe that was because I am hardcore procrastinating my finals prep.
Emisar – Jóko Tawadová (tr. Klára Macúchová) – 12.4.2022
physical – CZ – magical realism – library
Uhh a lot of stuff has been going on and I almost forgot that I read this. Anyway...
I thought the take on dystopia was unique with the old people being strong and young people being weak. And how it relates to problems with Japan.
It was sort of nothing-paced but the prose flowed well.
Národní třída – Jaroslav Rudiš – 9.4.2022
physical – CZ – contemporary – library
My mum spoiled the twist to me. Otherwise a great caricature of a staple type of awful guy in Czech culture.
Night Sky with Exit Wounds – Ocean Vuong – 1.4.2022
ebook – EN – poetry – pirated
This was extremely good. I cried because it was so good.
I read this because I read one of the poems, Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong reposted on tumblr. And I remebered it while I was on [book piracy site]. I regret not paying for this book. I will actually buy it when I get paid.
Radio Silence – Alice Oseman – 29.3.2022
physical – EN – YA contemporary
When re-reading a book that I at some point counted as my most favourite it is always scary that a it could turn out that it actually sucks. Especially with this book since it is young adult and also liked by a part of the online book community whose taste doesn't really align with mine anymore.
But Radio Silence was still great!
The story still resonated with me a lot emotionally. I also really appreciate that the center of the story is a female-male friendship.
That being said Frances' struggle with uni is literally nearly the logical opposite of mine. Which is kind of funny.
Spalovač mrtvol – Ladislav Fuks – 25.3.2022
ebook – CZ – classic – library website
I am finals reading pilled.
It surprised me how disconnected the events in this book are. It shows Kopfrkingel's deteriorating mental state.
Although he was already pretty fucked up at the beginning. His character voice reminds me a little of the few pages I read of American Psycho.
Má nejmilejší kniha – Markéta Pilátová – 11.3.2022
physical – CZ – magical realism – owned
I mostly enjoyed this Czech homage to South American magical realism.
But it was a little confusing in places and you could interpret some parts of it as needlessly exotifying.
The snake symbolism was cool.
Deník Avatára – Lukáš Marvan – 11.3.2022
ebook – CZ – poetry – library
I don't read much poetry and I clicked on this e-book maily because my brain said "Like Avatar the Last Airbender haha".
The Word for World is Forest – Ursula K. Le Guin – 1.3.2022
physical – EN – sci-fi – owned
Ok so this is like a Vietnam war book I guess?
Davidson is like the most hateable guy ever.
I like the thing about introducing violence, even for justified reasons.
I have seen some people say that the portrayal of the native inspired alien civilisation as utopic is very noble savage-y.
Armagedon ve slevě – Seanan McGuire (tr. Petra Kubašková) – 21.2.2022
physical – CZ – urban fantasy – owned
I think I am officially over Seanan McGuire? (Which, if you could see my reading over the past two years, is quite the character arc.) Also I felt embarassed to read something with this cover in public.
Podivná knihovna – Haruki Murakami (tr. Tomáš Jurkovič) – 21.2.2022
physical – CZ – fantasy/fairytale – library
This is so short I feel like I'm cheating when I count it here. Illustrations nice.
Tři rakve – John Dickinson Carr (tr. František Jungwirth) – 17.2.2022
physical – CZ – mystery – library
A classic of locked room mystery. Read literally during one day.
Probudím se na Šibuji – Anna Cima – 16.2.2022
physical – CZ – magical realism – library
A love letter to Japanese culture. Which obviously appealed to me, even though I don't care about Murakami. I liked this book a lot, but the ending was kind of dissapointing.
I am genuinely surprised that Kiyomaru Kawashita never existed.
Also I felt really good when I got the references (I read a lot of Japanese lit related Wikipedia pages).
Stanice 11 – Emily St. John Mandelová (tr. Markéta Musilová) – 9.2.2022
physical – CZ – post-apocalyptic/literary – owned
This was one of my top 5 most favourite books, but the last time I read it was in January of 2020. So just before the pandemic. And considering this is about a pandemic, some parts hit different now. Mainly the first section about the pandemic beginning and the intial panic.
Otherwise their pandemic is basically the opposite of ours in its consequences on society.
I like to think we are all connected – not supernaturally but just by coexisting
Roses and Rot – Kat Howard – 9.2.2022
audio – EN – fantasy – Scribd
The relationship and tension between the sisters was good. The abusive mother storyline was very emotionally engaging.
I disliked the parts that are like "This is what it is like in fairytales. You have to suffer." Yes I get that this is like fairytales! Imogen talks enough about them already!
I thought that the book wouldn't be that focused on the magical elements, I am not that into fae stuff. But the Tam-Lin stuff in the climax was well executed.
Za sklem – Sajaka Murata (tr. Jan Sýkora) – 3.2.2022
physical – CZ – world literature – library
I first borrowed this book from the library just before the pandemic and I did not even open it, because I was absorbed in pandemic depression. i saw it at the library now, so I borrowed it again and finall read it. Which is not very impressive, considering it has 110 pages.
The main thing that led me to reading this book was hype from Ariel Bisset. I don't know why I trust youtubers.
Convinience Store Woman interestingly explores social conformity. How people, who can not or do not want to join society of "normal people" deal with that is something I see myself in.
The Czech edition has a nice cover and endpapers by Michaela Treuerová.
The Czech afterword is actual garbage and I do not agree with its interpretation of the book.
Sajaka Murata is a valid troll name
Rajské fontány – Arthur C. Clarke (tr. Vladimír Svoboda) – 25.1.2022
physical – CZ – sci-fi – borrowed from family
I have to confess that I read this book in chunks and probably did not get 100% value from it.
I like the connection between the historical and future plotlines. I would maybe actually enjoy even more following Kalidasa.
The main plotline about the space elevator construction felt badly paced to me, but the ending was nice.
The alien supercomputer logically proving that God does not exist obviously made me happy as atheist wish fullfillment, but I am more intersted in the social effects that were not explored enough. Although that might outside Clarke's wheelhouse.
Outside the story itself I was also interested in the afterword from the socialist era. I don't get why the translator has such an issue with the Hugo awards.
Conversations with Friends – Sally Rooney – 23.1.2022
audio – EN – litfic – Scribd
This was nice to listen to while sewing and I like how it went into messy relationships. I particularly liked the growth of the relationship between Frances and Bobbi.
The characters are constantly virtue signalling (I hate that term but idk how to say it better) about being communists/ feminists/ aware of world problems and generally seem detached from reality and insufferable. But I choose to believe that's part of the point.
Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro – 16.1.2022
audio – EN – sci-fi – Scribd
This book didn't do it for me.
The narration style of the audiobook, while interesting and quirky at first got old really fast.
I feel that the themes of artificial humanity are pretty shallow and better explored in other books. Maybe this book is for litfic people who normally don't pick up sci-fi.
Ve službách spravedlnosti – Ann Leckieová (tr. Petr Kotrle) – 13.1.2022
physical – CZ – Sci-fi
I think I should have loved this book, and I am not sure why I didn't. Also the female-as-default thing sadly doesn't work that well in Czech.
(adding later) Thinking back I actually really like Esk One's and Seivarden's (or however their names are spelled in the original) relationship. Also go watch this animatic.
Dogs of War – Adrian Tchaikovsky – 9.1.2022
audio – EN – sci-fi – Scribd
Maybe corporations are the real monsters. This book felt like it should end and then it just went on. But like in a good way because this way it explored its' concept more in-depth than I expected.