Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Rebecca Fraimow’s Lady Eve’s Last Con, a Roaring Twenties themed space opera heist romp. Esteban Mendez-Yuki just broke Ruthi Johnson’s sister’s heart, and Ruthi Johnson is out for revenge. Her plan: con Esteban into marrying her, then ditch him right after the contract signing and take him for everything she can get.

Unfortunately, Esteban is the most boring man on the satellite of New Monte, so Ruthi has her work cut out for her pretending to be interested. Esteban's sister Sol, meanwhile, might just be the hottest girl in the solar system…

Really enjoyed the worldbuilding, particularly the contrast between the decadently constructed luxury of the upper satellite (they’ve built a beach! In space! They imported enough water for a beach!) and the life of the lower classes, who live in cramped corridors beneath the satellite without even an artificial sky. And I also enjoyed Ruthi’s ability to put on different personalities like hats. Her ingenue personality in particular had me in stitches, because I always envisioned her looking like a particularly wide-eyed anime heroine. She never actually breathes “Oh, Esteban-san!”, but if she had I probably would have rolled off the couch cackling.

My one issue with the book was that Sol makes no attempt to protect her brother from Ruthi’s con, as it made me think less of her both as a person and a love interest. If she’s the kind of person who will let her shiny new crush hurt her baby brother, is she going to stick by Ruthi when a newer, shinier crush comes along?

What I’m Reading Now

Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, the first book I bought for Project Fill My Office Bookshelves. It’s super interesting, lots of food for thought.

They professed without reservation that they loved the earth. And then I asked them, “Do you think the earth loves you back?” No one was willing to answer that. It was as if I had brought a two-headed porcupine into the classroom. Unexpected. Prickly. They backed slowly away. Here was a room full of writers, passionately wallowing in unrequited love of nature.

So I made it hypothetical and asked, “What do you suppose would happen if people believed this crazy notion that the earth loved them back?” The floodgates opened. They all wanted to talk at once. We were suddenly off the deep end, heading for world peace and perfect harmony.

What I Plan to Read Next

Carol Ryrie Brink’s Louly! I found this at a used bookstore this weekend and I never in a million YEARS expected to find it in the wild, so of course I had to buy it and now equally of course I have to reread it.

Comments

[asakiyume]

The boringness of Estaban was so hilariously written!

I feel WRT Sol's (in)actions that it was that she had confidence in her own ability to capture Ruthi's heart and diffuse/fix things that way?

[osprey_archer]

Esteban and his soil samples! Just going on and on about his soil samples! Do you think that this is how he wooed Jules, or did their break-up also break his ability to make interesting conversation?

[asakiyume]

Jules, sultry double-entendre voice: "tell me again about this sample... is it friable or ... clayey?"

[konstantya]

Totally off topic, but in case you weren't already aware, the podcast Reformed Rakes just dropped a whole episode on Honeytrap a couple days ago! I'll confess that, despite really liking their topics and insights, I struggle with actually listening to them (something about their delivery just rubs me the wrong way), but thankfully they've started to do episode transcripts. (Less thankfully, they seem to use some sort of speech-to-text software, which is not always accurate, pfft. Pleased to meet you, Esther Glenn-Gray!)

Anyway, just wanted to let you know. Congrats! :)

[osprey_archer]

Oh, thank you! I never would have found it if you hadn't linked, and it's a great discussion. Although someone should perhaps have edited the speech-to-text... poor Gennady's name is spelled sooooo many different ways. My favorite is "Kennedy."

[konstantya]

My pleasure! And YES, "Kennedy" made me laugh so much. (And I was reading it late at night, so when I first came across it, I had a weird moment of, "Wait, I thought one of these guys was supposed to be Russian???")