Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Finished Reading

Sarah Vowell’s Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, which did not skyrocket to the same heights in my esteem as her earlier books Assassination Vacation or The Wordy Shipmates, but is nonetheless pretty fun. Her writing reminds me of Bill Bryson’s: they both write hilarious travelogues interspersed with history (Bryson heavier on the travelogue, Vowell heavier on the history) and political commentary, although Bryson political leanings tend to be liberal while Vowell shoots straight past liberal into straight-up leftist.

Vowell is therefore more trenchant, but I would be hesitant to recommend her to someone whose political leanings I didn’t know well.

What I’m Reading Now

I didn’t actually intend to read Vowell’s Revolutionary War book to coincide with my own Fourth of July NaNo novel, but having noticed the pleasant coincidence, I’ve decided this would be a good month to read more Revolutionary War stuff. (It is perhaps troublesome that I managed to acquire an American History MA while having so little knowledge of the Revolutionary War.)

To this end, I’ve just started David McCullough’s 1776, which is charmingly readable so far. He kicks off the book with a defense of King George III: an interesting choice for a book about the American Revolution.

I’ve also started reading A. R. Luria’s The Making of Mind: A Personal Account of Soviet Psychology, which is interesting although I often feel I only halfway understand what’s going on. He’ll be all “We read the work of Tweedledum and Tweedledee and it gave us Thoughts about the relationship between language and action,” and it would probably make a lot of sense if I knew who the Tweedles were, but he’s talking about guys who were au courant in 1910 or so, so aside from Freud I’ve never even heard of them.

However, I’m moving out the part where he talks about his influences and into the bit where he talks about his experiments, so I feel at least a little less at sea.

What I Plan to Read Next

I’m...actually not sure. I’m waiting for a bunch of holds to get in at the library (Andy Weir’s The Martian, Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On, Robert Galbraith’s Career of Evil, L. M. Montgomery’s The Golden Road, so this is largely dependent on what gets in first.

I’d like to continue my American Revolution reading also. I feel like I might hit on some useful and interesting tidbits for my Fourth of July book. And everyone wants their romances sprinkled with fun historical facts, right? Yes? No? Maybe?

Comments

[konstantya.livejournal.com]

GIVE ME ALL THE HISTORICAL FACTS.

Okay, well, maybe not all of them, as that might be detrimental to the narrative, but speaking for myself, I love me some historical facts in my romances.

I never got a chance to reply to the post where you first mentioned it, but I'm terribly intrigued by the idea of a Fourth of July romance, if only because you don't see a lot of those out there, do you? Plenty of summer romances, but not too many revolving around an actual summer holiday, in my experience. Definitely looking forward to it. :)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I've ever seen a Fourth of July romance, but admittedly I haven't made an exhaustive search. I think most people don't decide on their romance settings because it will give them a glorious opportunity to describe flags unfurling beneath the deep blue summer sky, however.

I have toyed with the idea of writing a historical romance at some point, but... well, so far it's still at the vague wisp of an idea stage. We'll see if anything develops.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Yes! Bring on the historical facts! :D They are welcome everywhere, but especially appropriate in a romance!

Yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new
In city and in forest they have smiled like me and you

I've never been able to get very far into a Sarah Vowell book (I tried Assassination Vacation about half a dozen times without success), but you have encouraged me to try again!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I don't know that the historical facts would serve to remind readers of the vast historical continuity of romance so much as to inform the reader of peculiar historical facts: like, "Hey, let's talk about the Confederate raid in Indiana during the Civil War!"

(According to a plaque - I may be misremembering some of the details; it's been a while since I visited the site - one of the raiders attempted to steal a pig from a farm. The young lady of the farm told him to leave the pig alone, and the raider told her that after the way, he would come back and marry her. And then apparently he did.)

I think Vowell's openings are often rather rough: it's like she's trying so hard to establish that she's funny that it rather drowns out the actual history. She usually settles down to dig more deeply into her subject later on in the story, with far fewer asides, although the pop culture references never quite go away.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

But did he leave the pig alone?

Anyway, peculiar historical facts are my favorite. Will your novel take place in a historical park?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

No, it takes place in a small town on the Indiana side of the Ohio River. But the hero runs the town history museum, so of course he's a font of interesting tidbits.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Perfect! <3

[poeticknowledge.livejournal.com]

I've heard a lot of good things about Rainbow Rowell and I actually bought Carry On for one of my pen pals for Christmas. :) I really need to check out one of her books! <3

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The only one of her books that I've read is Fangirl, which I enjoyed although I thought the ending was a bit wonky. I've heard good things about Eleanor and Park, too, and I mean to check that one out eventually.