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jiayuanc's reviews
242 reviews
Sherlock Holmes: The Novels: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur Conan Doyle
2.5
This Penguin collection puts together the 4 novels of Sherlock Holmes. The novels vary in quality, I think Hounds is the best one.
You have to understand going into the Sherlock Holmes stories that Holmes is the superhero and we are just along for the ride. Don't try to match up with his logic or try and solve the case yourself - Doyle just doesn't give the reader all the details, only Holmes and his wild leaps of logic can solve these.
These stories show very much their age in their colonialist attitudes towards foreigners (who are usually the bad guys) as well. They are oddly written with weird leaps between the Watson POV and suddenly dumping all the background and historic parts at us in the second half of the novels.
Overall, they were enjoyable stories once I got past trying to solve anything and just let myself be taken along for the ride. I listened to the Stephen Fry narration and found it a lot easier to go along with it by listening than when trying to read it myself.
You have to understand going into the Sherlock Holmes stories that Holmes is the superhero and we are just along for the ride. Don't try to match up with his logic or try and solve the case yourself - Doyle just doesn't give the reader all the details, only Holmes and his wild leaps of logic can solve these.
These stories show very much their age in their colonialist attitudes towards foreigners (who are usually the bad guys) as well. They are oddly written with weird leaps between the Watson POV and suddenly dumping all the background and historic parts at us in the second half of the novels.
Overall, they were enjoyable stories once I got past trying to solve anything and just let myself be taken along for the ride. I listened to the Stephen Fry narration and found it a lot easier to go along with it by listening than when trying to read it myself.
Content Warnings
Minor: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Murder, and Classism
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières
Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.
Beautiful, elegant prose but the sentimentality got very very tiring to read. It also frustrated me that the female characters only existed to be assaulted or be objects of male character affection. Every character seemed very much the same as every other and it was difficult to keep them all separate. The last straw was my last two reading sessions where in the second last session, I read about a wife who was to be stoned to death for her sexual crimes (lol???) but later brought to the brothel to be a prostitute as a "mercy". And in my last reading session, I read about a daughter who was raped by an infidel and her brother is forced by their father to kill her.
I was really done after this. And then don't get me started on the weird historic revisionism happening re the Armenian genocide? That Armenians sided with the Russians over "their fellow Ottomans" , implying they somehow deserved it? Really really weird.
It is so so unfortunate because I wanted to love this book and I remember reading the opening chapters and thinking wow what lovely prose! What wonderful memories it brings back of my 5 months living in Turkiye! I am really disappointed it has come to this. Maybe in another time I will try again to read this, but right now it is just not working for me anymore.
I was really done after this. And then don't get me started on the weird historic revisionism happening re the Armenian genocide? That Armenians sided with the Russians over "their fellow Ottomans" , implying they somehow deserved it? Really really weird.
It is so so unfortunate because I wanted to love this book and I remember reading the opening chapters and thinking wow what lovely prose! What wonderful memories it brings back of my 5 months living in Turkiye! I am really disappointed it has come to this. Maybe in another time I will try again to read this, but right now it is just not working for me anymore.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and War
Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World by Leslie Kern
informative
2.0
Fine introduction to feminism in urban planning. Very broad, interspersed with the author's own reflections of being a white cis woman in Toronto and London.