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Wednesday Reading Meme
Aug. 17th, 2016 12:10 amWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Who finished War and Peace? THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S ME.
I’ll post about it at greater length tomorrow, but for now I will leave you with this quote: “Pierre’s madness consisted in not waiting, as he had formerly done, to discover personal attributes that he called ‘good qualities’ in people before loving them: his heart overflowed with love, and by loving without cause he never failed to discover undeniable reasons for loving.”
I also read Mary Stewart’s Touch Not the Cat, which is classic Mary Stewart except with added telepathy. Unless she has a lot of books with telepathy and I’ve just missed them until now?
Anyway, I think I should take a break from Mary Stewart books from a bit. I love her formula - the stalwart young heroine who knows gobs about poetry and English wildflowers slowly discovers that she has a murderous nemesis and also falls in love - but it is a formula and I think it will feel fresher if I give it some time to rest.
What I’m Reading Now
Christopher Benfey’s A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade, a book that - you can tell by the title - was clearly written with me personally in mind.
It does just what it says on the tin - with the addition of a few other dramatis personae not listed in the title, probably because Benfey figured Henry Ward Beecher would be too obscure for the modern reader, although if that were the criterion then I’m not sure why Martin Johnson Headley is in the title. (Headley was a painter of salt marshes and hummingbirds, and also surprisingly intertwined with the other leading personages in the book.)
In any case it’s kept my attention fairly well despite the fact that I feel as if I am losing my mind, which I feel is a pretty high recommendation of its quality.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have Diana Wynne Jones' Minor Arcana, and I'm looking forward to reading the novella "The True State of Affairs," about a girl who is imprisoned.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladyherenya posted an excerpt and it struck me there was something rather Code Name Verityish about it.
Who finished War and Peace? THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S ME.
I’ll post about it at greater length tomorrow, but for now I will leave you with this quote: “Pierre’s madness consisted in not waiting, as he had formerly done, to discover personal attributes that he called ‘good qualities’ in people before loving them: his heart overflowed with love, and by loving without cause he never failed to discover undeniable reasons for loving.”
I also read Mary Stewart’s Touch Not the Cat, which is classic Mary Stewart except with added telepathy. Unless she has a lot of books with telepathy and I’ve just missed them until now?
Anyway, I think I should take a break from Mary Stewart books from a bit. I love her formula - the stalwart young heroine who knows gobs about poetry and English wildflowers slowly discovers that she has a murderous nemesis and also falls in love - but it is a formula and I think it will feel fresher if I give it some time to rest.
What I’m Reading Now
Christopher Benfey’s A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade, a book that - you can tell by the title - was clearly written with me personally in mind.
It does just what it says on the tin - with the addition of a few other dramatis personae not listed in the title, probably because Benfey figured Henry Ward Beecher would be too obscure for the modern reader, although if that were the criterion then I’m not sure why Martin Johnson Headley is in the title. (Headley was a painter of salt marshes and hummingbirds, and also surprisingly intertwined with the other leading personages in the book.)
In any case it’s kept my attention fairly well despite the fact that I feel as if I am losing my mind, which I feel is a pretty high recommendation of its quality.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have Diana Wynne Jones' Minor Arcana, and I'm looking forward to reading the novella "The True State of Affairs," about a girl who is imprisoned.
ladyherenya posted an excerpt and it struck me there was something rather Code Name Verityish about it.
