Wednesday Reading Meme
Jan. 15th, 2014 09:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Ysabeau S. Wilce’s Flora Segunda, which is a bit messy in both its plot and its worldbuilding, but worth it because of Flora’s voice. Flora is on the eve of her Catorcena, which she is dreading because, in between taking care of her giant magical house and her father, who was driven insane by his stint as a POW in the Huitzil empire, she doesn’t have her dress or her speech or her tamales ready, but even more so because after her Catorcena Flora, like all members of the Fyrdraaca clan since time immemorial, will have to join the army.
Flora’s mother, who is the general of the Califan army and also responsible for banishing the magical butler who ought to be taking care of the giant magical house, is very strict about this. But what Flora really wants to do is be a Ranger: a scout and a spy. And when she hears that one of the last Rangers has been captured and is slated to be executed, she decides it's up to her to save him...
What I’m Reading Now
Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is indeed better than her book Agnes Grey (I will never get over Agnes’s complaint that she wasn’t allowed to beat her charges as they clearly deserved). But there’s a reason why her sister Charlotte is better remembered.
Also Lew Wallace’s Ben Hur, which I’m listening to on CD. I tried to read this once before and bombed out, but it turns out that it works way better when you hear it read aloud. I am now envisioning nineteenth century families gathering around the kerosene lamp, Ma knitting, Pa whittling, and the younger children gazing into the lamp flame as the oldest sister reads to the whole family.
Oh, oh! And I’ve picked up Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin again: I’ve gotten to the chapter where Thomas is all “Hamlet is alien and alone and nobody understands him! And when I say Hamlet, I mean me,” and his buddy is like, “But he has Horatio! By whom I mean me.” Janet, who does not yet realize that Thomas is her romantic endgame, is not yet fretting about her possible Ophelian tendencies.
What I Plan to Read Next
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
asakiyume’s Pen Pal!
Ysabeau S. Wilce’s Flora Segunda, which is a bit messy in both its plot and its worldbuilding, but worth it because of Flora’s voice. Flora is on the eve of her Catorcena, which she is dreading because, in between taking care of her giant magical house and her father, who was driven insane by his stint as a POW in the Huitzil empire, she doesn’t have her dress or her speech or her tamales ready, but even more so because after her Catorcena Flora, like all members of the Fyrdraaca clan since time immemorial, will have to join the army.
Flora’s mother, who is the general of the Califan army and also responsible for banishing the magical butler who ought to be taking care of the giant magical house, is very strict about this. But what Flora really wants to do is be a Ranger: a scout and a spy. And when she hears that one of the last Rangers has been captured and is slated to be executed, she decides it's up to her to save him...
What I’m Reading Now
Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is indeed better than her book Agnes Grey (I will never get over Agnes’s complaint that she wasn’t allowed to beat her charges as they clearly deserved). But there’s a reason why her sister Charlotte is better remembered.
Also Lew Wallace’s Ben Hur, which I’m listening to on CD. I tried to read this once before and bombed out, but it turns out that it works way better when you hear it read aloud. I am now envisioning nineteenth century families gathering around the kerosene lamp, Ma knitting, Pa whittling, and the younger children gazing into the lamp flame as the oldest sister reads to the whole family.
Oh, oh! And I’ve picked up Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin again: I’ve gotten to the chapter where Thomas is all “Hamlet is alien and alone and nobody understands him! And when I say Hamlet, I mean me,” and his buddy is like, “But he has Horatio! By whom I mean me.” Janet, who does not yet realize that Thomas is her romantic endgame, is not yet fretting about her possible Ophelian tendencies.
What I Plan to Read Next
asakiyume’s Pen Pal!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-01-15 06:00 pm (UTC)And this is weird, because I was just on the other side of this equation with Ann Leckie and Ancillary Justice…. Her scene was even more intense, because it doesn't occur offstage. I sent her an email saying Nooooo, and she wrote,
saw a blog post a couple days ago where someone said "why did you have to do that to that character????" or similar in all caps. And I thought, "Oh, I'm sorry! But I had to!"
But she said writing it made her cry. I'm sure you've had similar experiences, writing.