Hi everyone. I'm rincey and this is rincey reads. Today I'm here to do my
September wrap-up part 2. Yeah September was a pretty good reading month or at
least the second half of September was a pretty good reading month. I read a
decent amount of things. So I'm just gonna jump right in. So first up I have a
gentleman's murder by Christopher Huang. This is a historical mystery
book that I read for the read or dead podcast because we were doing an episode
on historical mysteries. And I like this one. It's a very strong debut. It's not
perfect. I think I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads but it's probably
closer to like a three and a half ish. So this one takes place in 1920s in London.
You are following this character named Eric who was I believe a lieutenant
during World War I and he gets and admittance into this soldiers only Club in
London called the Britannia. And it's one of those clubs that his father was
actually part of like the founding of it and whatnot. But yeah, you are following
basically this like crew of former soldiers. One day a man from the club is
murdered inside the club. And so you are trying to figure out what exactly is
going on here. So that's like the basic summary here but there is a lot more to
this story. Eric himself is actually of mixed-race.
He is half Chinese and white, I don't remember what European descent he is. And so
there's a lot of discussions happening in here about what it's like to be half
Chinese. There's even discussions in here about like the differences that he
experiences versus his sister in this book. Eric is-- In this book Eric has like
a lot more traditionally Asian features while his sister is much more like white
passing. And so he talks about how like he was treated differently and how
people treat his sister differently and all of these different things. Since this
is set in the 1920s, this is soon after World War I has ended. And so there are
also discussions in here about World War I and the PTSD that a lot of soldiers
had from World War I. And personally I really enjoyed that. I think it's because
I read so much more about World War II and historical fiction either set
during or right after or dealing with World War II that it was kind
nice to see a historical fiction book deal more with World War I. Especially
because I know that World War I was a lot more messy when it comes to a war.
Like one of my things about the way that we talk about World War II specifically
is that we tie it up in this like nice neat bow. Like there's very clearly good
people and there's very clearly bad people and these are the battles and all
these different things. And world war II was a little bit more complicated and a
little bit more messy and there were a lot more ramifications in terms of PTSD
it seemed like because of the changes in fighting style that people weren't ready
for or trained for and things like that. So they touch upon those things in this
book which I really enjoyed. So yeah, like this isn't a perfect
mystery in the sense that it's kind of unevenly paced. There are parts in here
that did feel like it was dragging quite a bit and there are a lot of characters
to keep track of. Just a warning for that. But this was a pretty strong debut and I
think there's going to be more books by Christopher Huang following Eric so I'm
definitely going to be continuing on with these books as they come out.
But yeah, if you are looking for a historical mystery that has like something a little
bit different going on, I definitely recommend a gentleman's murder. And
especially if you enjoy that sort of like Golden Age detective sort of
British mystery series thing, this definitely falls into that category very,
very well. Alright did the next book, I suppose you could say, novella that I
finished was artificial condition by Martha Wells. This is the second book in
the murder bot series. I talked about in my last wrap-up how I was reading all
systems read for the first time and how I was really, really enjoying it. And I
like basically just went ahead and picked up books two and three from the
library. I haven't read book three yet. I am kind of enjoying like spacing them
out a little bit just because I'm saving it for when I like need something really
enjoyable basically. These are really nice palate cleanser novellas because
they are really interesting and really intriguing and really engaging but also
really comforting in a weird way. So yeah, in this story, you continue to
follow murder bot. You find out that she has left the crew that she was with in
the last story. So I was a little bit saddened by that but you do get to meet
a new bot named ART and I really enjoyed
the interactions between ART and murderbot. But I will say I didn't like this one
quite as much as the first one if only because murderbot doesn't have to
interact with people quite as much. And I think part of what made the first book
so fun was watching her relationship with the humans and the way things
changed and develop and things like that. But they are making sort of like a
deeper backstory for murderbot and you get to find out more things about the
situation that occurred in the past that they reference in the first story. I'm
not gonna like go into super deep details in case, I don't know, spoilers or
whatever. Although it's such a minor thing. But yeah, they start to do a little
bit of a deeper dive into murderbot's backstory, which is really interesting.
And yeah, again, these are just delightful novellas and I have book
three from the library, too. So I will hopefully be reading that one next month.
I still highly recommend this series if you haven't checked it out yet. It's
really just fun and delightful and interesting and heartwarming and all of
those adjectives that I've used a lot. Alright next I have what it was probably
my most anticipated book of the month and that is lethal white by Robert
Galbraith. I talked about this one just a tiny bit in I think my last video. So
this is the fourth book in the Corman Strike series. If you aren't aware, Robert
Galbraith is a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling. I have read all of the books in the series.
I love this series. This is a series where the day comes out, I buy it
immediately and started immediately and finish it immediately. I think I rated it
4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I may have created a 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads
actually now that I'm thinking about it. I like this book but I have some
problems with it and I talk about most of this in my Goodreads review. But first
of all this book is 650 pages which is way too long for a mystery book. Like I
don't care what you have to say about it, 650 pages is too long for a mystery.
So there is a lot of just sort of convoluted stuff that happens in this
story. There's also a lot of repetitiveness in this story. But a lot
of the repetitiveness doesn't have to do with the mystery itself but more has to
deal with Robin and Strike and their relationship. So obviously with each book
JK Rowling, or Robert Galbraith or whatever,
keeps amping up sort of the tension and the attraction between Robin and Strike.
So my whole thing is that I don't like them as a romantic couple. I love them as
a partnership. I love the scenes where they are
together and solving crimes and like bouncing ideas off of each other and
brainstorming together and working together and all of those things. Love it
so, so much. But in this book, they start to get real
angsty about their feelings or their denial of feelings or whatever it is.
There are so many scenes in here where Robin and Matthew have a scene together
and then they end up having a fight and something about strike comes up and then
they end up mad at each other. There are so many scenes in here where
Robin and Strike feel uncomfortable around each other and they don't feel
comfortable talking to each other and then they sort of make a little bit of
progress towards having a normal relationship again. But then they somehow
for whatever reason keep like reverting back. There are so many times
in here where they just talk about how they don't really know how they feel
about each other. Just, there's just like a lot of
repetitiveness in this story and I feel like if you had taken out some of those
scenes you wouldn't have really lost a whole lot from the story and you
probably could have cut this down by like a hundred pages. But I still love
these characters a whole, whole lot. JK Rowling is really, really great at
creating really compelling characters that you just fall in love with. Like I
love, again, Robin and Strike's partnership. I love them solving crimes together.
There is a new character that I think is introduced in this book named Barclay
who I adored. He doesn't get a whole lot of page time in this book and I'm hoping
that that changes in future books and he gets a lot more. And I'm hoping that
changes in future books and he gets sort of like a larger part of the mystery. But
yeah, like I'm still gonna keep reading these. I still enjoy them but I don't
love this one a whole lot because I feel like it should have been edited down
quite a bit. I feel like this one got a little bit out of hand. Now I will say I
keep making the joke that this is following like the Harry Potter series
pattern where each book is slowly getting larger. Like the last book was
around like 400 ish pages and book three of the Harry Potter series I think is
close to like 400 pages or so. This one is 650 pages and that's pretty close to
the page count of Goblet of Fire. And so if she continues
on this trend that means the next book is going to be like 800 pages long and
I'm not okay with it. I'm just making the thing right now. Will I still read it? Yes,
of course. Am I okay with it? No I am not. So yes, in the end, like I said, I gave it a 3
out of 5 stars. Your enjoyment of this book is going to rely heavily on how
much you like Robin and Strike as a couple. I know a lot of people who really,
really enjoy them as a couple and so you guys are probably going to love this
book a lot more than I did. But yeah, I still really like the series
a whole lot. So yeah. Alright the next book that I read was the last place you
look by Kristen Lepionka. I almost dropped my book there. So this is one I
read for the read or dead podcast. We were doing an episode or we just released an
episode about LGBTQ detectives or books that feature LGBTQ detectives. And so I
picked this one up. You are following this private investigator named Roxane
who is bisexual and she lives in Ohio. She gets hired by someone that her
brother knows to look into the disappearance of this girl named Sarah Cook.
Sarah Cook disappeared around like five years ago and her parents were brutally
murdered. The girl that hires Roxane, her brother Brad was convicted of the
murders. And so one day she's, like the sister is at a diner or something along
those lines I'm like looks across the way and believes that she sees Sarah
Cook. And so she hires Roxanne to look into it to see if Sarah Cook is around
and alive and that will hopefully help get her brother off of death row. But
then as Roxanne starts looking into this missing persons case,
there is, as you would expect, a lot more happening than originally meets the eye.
So yeah, this was a really strong mystery book as well. This is also a debut. I gave
this a 3 out of 5 stars that it's not perfect and there are certain things in
here that feel very stereotypical. But I really like Roxanne as a character. She
has like that Veronica Mars-y type of vibe but if Veronica Mars had a lot more
issues. And Veronica Mars already has a decent amount of issues but like Roxanne
has a drinking problem and she has very messy relationships and has difficult
relationships with her family members or some of her family members. Her dad
recently passed away and so she's dealing with that
as well. And her dad was a detective and so there's just all of the baggage that
comes with that. But yeah, like I said, this is a strong debut if you are
looking for a new mystery series that features a bisexual detective then this
is a good one to pick up. It features her with both male and female relationships.
So there's that. And then there's also like something cute that happens with
one of the teenage girls in this story. I don't want to give too much away. But
yeah I enjoyed this and I think that this was a good author to pick up if you
enjoy just like your standard private detective sort of stories. I do want to
give like a slight trigger warning for abuse, both physical and sexual.
It doesn't get like super graphic or anything like that but like towards the
end of the book even I started feeling just like a little bit uncomfortable. So
yeah, I just like to provide that when I remember to. So yeah, 3 out of 5 stars.
This will be an author I sort of like keep my eye on. I think that it's a good
strong mystery and it was a really fast read as well. Like I think I finished
this in two and a half days or something along those lines. Because it's like less
than 300 pages and it's one of those stories that like keeps you hooked. Alright
and the final book that I have finished this month is the fire at this time a
new generation speaks about race and this is an essay anthology edited by
Jesmyn Ward. So I read this slowly over the course of the month. I was slowly was
reading an essay here or there sort of like in-between other books and things
like that. And I really enjoyed this a lot. Some of the essays are significantly
stronger than others. Like I think actually the first couple of essays for
me personally were like the weakest and the least engaging, which I think is part
of the reason why I had a hard time reading this one towards the beginning.
But then I got into some other essays and like I came to essays of writers
that I knew and were familiar with and whose writing I had enjoyed and
things like that and I started to get more and more engaged with the book as
the book went on. And like some of the essays in here are so, so well done. The
essay white rage but Carol Anderson is probably my favorite out of the
collection and I didn't know that she had like expanded that and written a
full book called white rage. So I now have that on my list of books to read.
Blacker than thou by Kevin Young was also really, really good and it talks
about Rachel Dolezal and that whole nonsense. And it also sort of
relates to his book called, is it bunked or debunked? Something like that which
talks about like hoaxes and stuff like that. There's an essay in here from
Claudia Rankine, which is fantastic. There's an essay in here from Kiese
Laymon who wrote about Outkast and like how hearing Outkast was like one of the
first times he saw himself seen as an artist. Because he's from like the south
and like their style of rapping and the things that they reference and things
like that made him realize that he had a very
specific like voice and point of view and things like that that he could
express in his art and writing himself. So yes, if you are looking for a
essay anthology, if you are doing the read harder challenge because I use this one
for my read harder challenge, I think that this is a good one to pick up.
I will say again like some of them aren't as strong as others but when they hit,
they hit hard. And I really, really recommend this essay collection. And I
also think that this is a good way to get introduced to new and different
black writers. So yes, recommend it. Oh there's also some poetry in here which
is very nice because I'm someone who doesn't read a lot of poetry but I
really enjoyed the poetry that was in this collection. So yeah, that's
everything that I have for you guys, leave a comment down below letting me
know what you guys read this month. If there is a book that was particularly
your favorite or something along those lines or if you read one of these books
and you want to talk to me about it, I always love doing that down in the
comments section below. Or if you have any questions about any of these books,
always leave those questions down in the comments section as well. And also a
reminder that I have a video coming out on Monday. If you watched my sort of
talky video that I did last week where I talked about all my projects, Monday that
videos coming out. So yes, see you all then. Kind of. I don't really see you guys
but you know what I mean. So yeah, that's all I have for now and thanks for watching.
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