pickBabel by R.F Kuang. 9,6/10 rating.
1 like
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution | 
pickBabel by R.F Kuang. 9,6/10 rating.
pickI‘ll just join the chorus of millions singing the praises of this brilliant, brilliant book. What an absolute genius and true gift. R.F. Kuang is a marvel.
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I think the first half could have been considerably shorter. You can tell Kuang is a huge etymology nerd, and I think people who have similar interest in language and its history will probably feel that it scratches that itch. For me, it was just too much. The story itself, though, was really good, and the final 1/4 of the book was much faster paced and more interesting to me personally.
I'm glad I stuck with it.
I'm really struggling with this one. It's not that it's not good. But it just feels so long. And normally I love long books, but for some reason I keep wanting to put this one down. Ever feel that say? What do you do? Push through? Set it aside for a bit? Ugh. I just kinda want to be done with it.
pickNGL, I'm still gathering my thoughts on this book. I really love that it's focused on linguistics and I need a physical copy! but it's also a story that takes a while to develop. That said, it's interesting from start to finish but I think that's my "problem" with it. It's just so...perfect? LOL. does that make sense? It's obv a 5/5 read but it doesn't *feel* like a 5/5 read. It feels more like a 3.5 read?? But it does have some powerful messages
I enjoyed this at times, got frustrated with it at times, but persevered to the end. Imaginative, but heavy handed at certain points.
#weeklyfavorites
@Read4Life
Definitely this one. 😃
#Two4Tuesday
@TheSpineView (thanks for the tag!) 😘
1. Sherlock Holmes, of course. I'd try to be his gal Watson. 😃
2. BABEL: talk about roommates! #sheesh
Play? @AmyG @IndoorDame @Cupcake12 @Catiewithac @Sleepswithbooks
pickSTUNNING. Kuang's ode to Oxford is also a love-hate relationship––just like the two sides of the silver bars used magically in this novel to support England's Industrial Revolution in the 1830s as well as their arrogant pursuit of colonialism. Dark academia, meticulous etymology, bildungsroman, speculative fiction that reads like fiction and NF at the same time ... I am completely gobsmacked. I'll be reeling from this one for a long time.
I‘m really enjoying the book so far but want to know about the stylistic choices of the physical book! Someone who read the book, if you could please help me I‘d greatly appreciate it. In the audiobook, there will be pauses and then a different narrator will speak with more information on a point. Connected but not directly. Are there footnotes? Annotation? Brackets? Why does a woman narrator come in randomly? Haha I like it, just curious!
Audiobooks have been my savior this month. I‘ve been working long days with long commutes so listening on my drive and then when I get home to cook dinner has been the most reliable way to get any reading in. Though I have been keeping to lighter audiobooks, I think I‘m ready to attempt attacking this novel next with the new headphone my momma got me. Have seen tons of great reviews so I‘m excited!
pickWow this was so good. I loved that the book was completely immersed in Etymology. The world building - taking such a familiar places and building it out with just a bit of magic was so well done. I listened and read this so that I could get a feeling for the sounds of the non-English words and names, highly recommend the story was a bit too complex for full audio but the narrator does an amazing job.
I will continue thinking about this one.
#WondrousWednesday
Thanks for the tag, @Eggs! 😘
1. Scarlett O'Hara from GONE WITH THE WIND. #tomorrowisanotherday
2. Joe Gargery from GREAT EXPECTATIONS. #everthebestoffriendspip
3. Tagged: BABEL.
Play? @Aimeesue @Read4life @BeeCurious @TieDyeDude @WildAlaskaBibliophile @JenReadAlot @The_Penniless_Author @Librarybelle ... if you've read this far, consider yourself also tagged! 🤩
pickA slow first half with strong world building and then an action packed final half/third.
pick⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ (5/5)
I cannot stop thinking about this book. It was so ambitious, and RF Kuang executed every element to perfection. I was struck, of course, by the powerful statement it makes about colonialism, but it was the bits about the power and limits of translation that really tickled my brain. I'm simply in awe of this book.
#BookNotes
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
#LitsyLoveReads
To go along with BABEL (the tagged book), how about “Land of Confusion“ by Genesis? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq7FKO5DlV0
For those interested, here's a link to a Spotify playlist for all #booknotes tunes:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0BweE8nr34nXd8ooqLtjey
Care to play? @AnnR @Amieesue @AmyG @itchyfeetreader @Crazeedi @IndoorDame + any and all! 🤩
#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl
“By the time Professor Richard Lowell found his way through Canton's narrow alleys in the faded address in his diary, the boy was the only on in the house left alive.“
1. I‘m easy to please so no big deal for me, just feeling thought of is nice… even just a nice card will do. But I also love giving gifts to my hubby and our kids.
2. Tagged. The point of the book isn‘t about love, but the MC and his friends love each other dearly and connect on a deep level throughout all the chaos.
#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView
pickThis was almost a so-so for me because there were slow parts and some redundant/repetitive parts. I also wished we had seen more of the Hermes Society and more of the magic. But I loved the characters (except for one but I won‘t spoil it for anyone) and loved the historical/academic references. The narrator was great too. The overall theme calling out colonialism and all its trauma was a powerful and necessary one.
Today‘s haul from the New Orleans book crawl that my hubby organized for me 🥹🥹 we still have a few more to visit, probably tomorrow
pickI enjoyed this ambitious, sweeping novel — Oxford in the 1830‘s, a good cast of diverse characters and informed writing regarding language, history and culture. I only regret having had big expectations for magic, fantasy and world building. Instead, enchanted silver bars were mostly a stand in for the Industrial Revolution, leaving our reality relatively unchanged. However, as a fan of dark academia and historical fiction I found it quite good.
pickThis is probably the most brilliant piece of historical fiction I have ever read and could very well be the best book I read this year. It‘s the first one.
There‘s too much to praise about this book for me to make a coherent statement. The characters, the plot, the setting, the depiction of friendships, the betrayals, the list goes on. It‘s so well written.
Let‘s just say it‘s been a while since a book has impacted me this much emotionally.
5⭐️
She learned revolution is, in fact, always unimaginable. It shatters the world you know. The future is unwritten, brimming with potential.
“That‘s just what translation is, I think. That‘s all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they‘re trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”
Language was just difference. A thousand different ways of seeing, of moving through the world. No; a thousand worlds within one.
His thoughts flew about, casting desperately for anything to think about that was not this. He landed not on coherent memories but on hyperspecific details — the salty weight of the air at sea, the length of Victoire‘s eyelashes, the hitch in Ramy‘s voice just before he burst out into full-bellied laughter. He clung to them, lingered there as long as he could, refused to let his mind go anywhere else.
“Be selfish,” he whispered. “Be brave.”
“We have to die to get their pity,” said Victoire. “We have to die for them to find us noble. Our deaths are thus great acts of rebellion, a wretched lament that highlights their inhumanity. Our deaths become their battle cry. But I don‘t want to die, Robin. […] I want to live.”
“I don‘t know how to go on.”
“Day by day, Birdie.” Her eyes filled with tears. “You go on, day by day. Just as we‘ve been doing.”
“You have to believe there‘s an after,” she murmured. “They did.”
“They were better than us.”
“They were.” She curled around his arm. “But it all still wound up in our hands, didn‘t it?”
“I just don‘t like thinking of us as history when we haven‘t even yet made a mark on the present.”
“This country can‘t last a month without us. We strike until they bend.”
“Dead pigs don‘t fear scalding water.”
She gave him a wan smile. “In for a penny, in for a pound.”
“We‘re dead men walking.”
“But that‘s what makes us frightening.” She set the lamp down between them. “We‘ve nothing left to lose.”
He had a sudden, very clear vision of the tower in ruins. He wanted it to shatter. He wanted it to, for once, feel the pain that had made possible its rarefied existence. “I want it to crumble.”
Victoire‘s throat pulsed, and he knew she was thinking of Anthony, of gunshots, of the wreckage of the Old Library. “I want it to burn.”
Power did not lie in the tip of a pen. Power did not work against its own interests. Power could only be brought to heel by acts of defiance it could not ignore.
It seemed to deny the laws of physics that Ramiz Rafi Mirza could be silenced by something so tiny as a bullet.
Grief suffocated. Grief paralysed. Grief was a cruel, heavy boot pressed so hard against his chest that he could not breathe. Grief took him out of his body, made his injuries theoretical. He was bleeding, but he didn‘t know where from.
Defying empire, it turned out, was fun.
“It‘s hard to accept what you don‘t want to see.”
“Have you ever considered you might better make your point by being nice?”
“Nice comes from the Latin word for “stupid”,” said Griffin. “We do not want to be nice.”
Anger was a chokehold. Anger did not empower you. It sat on your chest; it squeezed your rubs until you felt trapped, suffocated, out of options. Anger simmered, then exploded. Anger was constriction, and the consequent rage a desperate attempt to breathe.
And rage, of course, came from madness.
pickThe pacing in this novel is odd and sometimes plodding. The concept and plot are engaging enough that I still read it avidly.
“You fly no one‘s flag. You‘re free to seek your own harbour. And you can do so much more than tread water.”
