Wednesday Reading Meme
May. 22nd, 2024 05:13 pmWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
I was bragging to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skygiants that I’ve gotten better at abandoning authors, rather than cussedly continuing to try book after book because I loved one of an author’s books and can’t quite believe that none of the others will ever live up to it. As generally happens when one boasts in this way, I ended up deciding that after all I did want to read another Patrice Kindl book, even though I haven’t liked any of the others half as much as The Woman in the Wall. But I’ve read all but two of her releases, and she hasn’t published another since 2016, and it seems a shame to quit when I’m so close to finishing her complete bibliography…
So I read A School for Brides, and although it’s no Woman in the Wall, it’s great fun in a bright frothy way; an ensemble Regency piece set at a Young Ladies’ Academy that ends with four of the eight young ladies engaged, one engaged to devote her life to Science, one deeply relieved by her escape from both an evil governess and matrimony, and the last two simply happy to be a part of things. So, uh, I guess the lesson is that if you loved one of an author’s books, you should keep on trying even if the next four don’t appeal to you? Not sure this is a salutary lesson.
I also read Anne Lindbergh’s Nobody’s Orphan. Unlike the other Lindberghs I’ve read, this had no magic, which was mildly disappointing, but it’s a zippy realistic story about a girl who wishes she was an orphan (adopted by her current family) because in books all the exciting things happen to orphans. Many mishaps! A nice dog! A cranky old man who perhaps is meant to be charmingly grumpy but actually seems like a bit of a nightmare. Martha, WHY do you want this man to be your secret grandfather?
What I’m Reading Now
Finally making some real progress in William Dean Howells’ London Films, in which Howells recounts impressions of London from three widely-spaced visits: one in 1861, one in the 1880s, and one around 1904, when the book was published. I can’t figure out if he means film in the sense of motion picture (were motion pictures called films yet?) or if it’s more in the sense of snapshots.
I was however quite pleased to discover that Howells considers “weekend” a newfangled bit of English slang, likely to be unfamiliar to his American readers. Slightly sorry I didn’t know this early enough to work it into The Sleeping Soldier, but I probably already spent more than enough time torturing both characters and readers with changes in the English language between 1865 and 1965.
What I Plan to Read Next
Patrice Kindl’s Don’t You Trust Me?. Listen, I know when I’ve been beaten by Fate.
I was bragging to
skygiants that I’ve gotten better at abandoning authors, rather than cussedly continuing to try book after book because I loved one of an author’s books and can’t quite believe that none of the others will ever live up to it. As generally happens when one boasts in this way, I ended up deciding that after all I did want to read another Patrice Kindl book, even though I haven’t liked any of the others half as much as The Woman in the Wall. But I’ve read all but two of her releases, and she hasn’t published another since 2016, and it seems a shame to quit when I’m so close to finishing her complete bibliography… So I read A School for Brides, and although it’s no Woman in the Wall, it’s great fun in a bright frothy way; an ensemble Regency piece set at a Young Ladies’ Academy that ends with four of the eight young ladies engaged, one engaged to devote her life to Science, one deeply relieved by her escape from both an evil governess and matrimony, and the last two simply happy to be a part of things. So, uh, I guess the lesson is that if you loved one of an author’s books, you should keep on trying even if the next four don’t appeal to you? Not sure this is a salutary lesson.
I also read Anne Lindbergh’s Nobody’s Orphan. Unlike the other Lindberghs I’ve read, this had no magic, which was mildly disappointing, but it’s a zippy realistic story about a girl who wishes she was an orphan (adopted by her current family) because in books all the exciting things happen to orphans. Many mishaps! A nice dog! A cranky old man who perhaps is meant to be charmingly grumpy but actually seems like a bit of a nightmare. Martha, WHY do you want this man to be your secret grandfather?
What I’m Reading Now
Finally making some real progress in William Dean Howells’ London Films, in which Howells recounts impressions of London from three widely-spaced visits: one in 1861, one in the 1880s, and one around 1904, when the book was published. I can’t figure out if he means film in the sense of motion picture (were motion pictures called films yet?) or if it’s more in the sense of snapshots.
I was however quite pleased to discover that Howells considers “weekend” a newfangled bit of English slang, likely to be unfamiliar to his American readers. Slightly sorry I didn’t know this early enough to work it into The Sleeping Soldier, but I probably already spent more than enough time torturing both characters and readers with changes in the English language between 1865 and 1965.
What I Plan to Read Next
Patrice Kindl’s Don’t You Trust Me?. Listen, I know when I’ve been beaten by Fate.
