Wednesday Reading Meme
Apr. 27th, 2016 08:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Quite a lot of things! I have allergies or possibly a cold, and therefore have spent as much of the week as possible reclining on the sofa and reading.
First, though, a book I dropped: Victoria Thompson’s Murder on Astor Place, a murder mystery in turn-of-the-century New York. How could that go wrong, I thought? But I thought it was too info-dumpy and simultaneously too modern-sounding. I could buy a turn-of-the-century midwife recognizing postpartum depression, but I very much doubt she’d use that term for it.
But I probably could have worked with all that, except… then our heroine, midwife Sarah Brandt, meets police sergeant Frank Malloy. They hate each other on sight in that “s/he’s soooo annoying, but what an amazing body” way that suggests they will be dancing around their attraction for the next ten books, and ugh, this is my least favorite romantic dynamic of all time.
And now for books I completed: Marie Brennan’s In the Labyrinth of Drakes, which I enjoyed very much! Brennan has gotten much better at skipping directly to the action as the series goes on. In the first book, it takes nearly half the novel for Isabella to even leave Scirland - I for one could have done with a much more cursory sketch of Isabella’s unhappy girlhood trying to quash her interest in dragons and be a proper young lady; I’ve read that story before, I can fill in the blanks - but by this fourth book, we’ve left that far behind, and there’s scarcely a chapter of set-up before Isabella’s heading out on her dragon-studying expedition.
I also read Maud Hart Lovelace’s Carney’s House Party, which is a companion novel to her Betsy-Tacy series, about how one of the characters in that series broke up with her high school boyfriend (who moved to California when they were halfway through high school) and ended up with the man she eventually married. It’s... not bad, but it’s probably my least favorite of Lovelace’s books that I’ve read, probably because in between breaking Carney up with one boy and engaging her to another, there’s not much time for anything but the romance.
And lastly, I read Kent Kiehl’s The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without a Conscience, which is very interesting, although marred by Kiehl’s forays into autobiography. Some authors can make their search for the information just as interesting as the information itself, but alas, Kiehl is not among their number.
Aside from that, though, it’s a fascinating book. Kiehl argues (backed by piles of brain scans) that psychopathy is caused by a malformation of the paralimbic system, which means that psychopaths don’t process emotions the way that the rest of us do and are physically incapable of learning from punishment.
This leads to a chapter about a program in Wisconsin which treats psychopaths entirely through positive reinforcement: patients are rewarded for prosocial behaviors with candy bars and video games. It’s clearly not a perfect treatment (but then, what is?), but it did lead to a 50% reduction in convictions for violent crime as compared to inmates who weren’t part of the program, so clearly it’s an avenue worth more investigation.
Although given that many people think our prison system is too cushy already - you have to wonder what sort of prison these people would approve; would the prisoners lie on piles of rotting straw as the cold rain dripped on their faces through the stainless steel bars on the windows? - it doesn’t seem too likely to me that this approach will take off in the near future. But then, stranger things have happened.
What I’m Reading Now
Still more of Constance Fenimore Cooper’s Anne. Anne has signed up to become a Civil War nurse. I’m hoping that this will lead to a dramatic scene where the unworthy man that she loves dies in her arms, or possibly just before she arrives at the hospital - yes, I think this has more dramatic potential - just before she arrives at the hospital, so she is there just in time to see his waxen face and his dead, staring eyes, and know she is too late.
I’ve also begun reading Christ Jennings’ Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopia, which I all but pranced over to the library to get as soon as I heard of its existence. Unfortunately, I can only really recommend it if you share my fascination with nineteenth-century American utopian communities, because so far the writing has been pedestrian at best.
What I Plan to Read Next
The challenge for next month on the 2016 Reading Challenge is “a book that has been banned,” so I’ve been contemplating various lists of books that have been banned over the years. Should I finally bite the bullet and read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings or The Things They Carried? On the one hand, I’ve meant to read both of those books for years; on the other hand, I have avoided actually reading them for years because I know they’re both super hardcore.
Maybe I should finally take this opportunity to read Lady Chatterley’s Lover. One of my friends is a big D. H. Lawrence fan (although I’m not sure if that extends from his poetry to his novels). Or maybe Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World?
Quite a lot of things! I have allergies or possibly a cold, and therefore have spent as much of the week as possible reclining on the sofa and reading.
First, though, a book I dropped: Victoria Thompson’s Murder on Astor Place, a murder mystery in turn-of-the-century New York. How could that go wrong, I thought? But I thought it was too info-dumpy and simultaneously too modern-sounding. I could buy a turn-of-the-century midwife recognizing postpartum depression, but I very much doubt she’d use that term for it.
But I probably could have worked with all that, except… then our heroine, midwife Sarah Brandt, meets police sergeant Frank Malloy. They hate each other on sight in that “s/he’s soooo annoying, but what an amazing body” way that suggests they will be dancing around their attraction for the next ten books, and ugh, this is my least favorite romantic dynamic of all time.
And now for books I completed: Marie Brennan’s In the Labyrinth of Drakes, which I enjoyed very much! Brennan has gotten much better at skipping directly to the action as the series goes on. In the first book, it takes nearly half the novel for Isabella to even leave Scirland - I for one could have done with a much more cursory sketch of Isabella’s unhappy girlhood trying to quash her interest in dragons and be a proper young lady; I’ve read that story before, I can fill in the blanks - but by this fourth book, we’ve left that far behind, and there’s scarcely a chapter of set-up before Isabella’s heading out on her dragon-studying expedition.
I also read Maud Hart Lovelace’s Carney’s House Party, which is a companion novel to her Betsy-Tacy series, about how one of the characters in that series broke up with her high school boyfriend (who moved to California when they were halfway through high school) and ended up with the man she eventually married. It’s... not bad, but it’s probably my least favorite of Lovelace’s books that I’ve read, probably because in between breaking Carney up with one boy and engaging her to another, there’s not much time for anything but the romance.
And lastly, I read Kent Kiehl’s The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without a Conscience, which is very interesting, although marred by Kiehl’s forays into autobiography. Some authors can make their search for the information just as interesting as the information itself, but alas, Kiehl is not among their number.
Aside from that, though, it’s a fascinating book. Kiehl argues (backed by piles of brain scans) that psychopathy is caused by a malformation of the paralimbic system, which means that psychopaths don’t process emotions the way that the rest of us do and are physically incapable of learning from punishment.
This leads to a chapter about a program in Wisconsin which treats psychopaths entirely through positive reinforcement: patients are rewarded for prosocial behaviors with candy bars and video games. It’s clearly not a perfect treatment (but then, what is?), but it did lead to a 50% reduction in convictions for violent crime as compared to inmates who weren’t part of the program, so clearly it’s an avenue worth more investigation.
Although given that many people think our prison system is too cushy already - you have to wonder what sort of prison these people would approve; would the prisoners lie on piles of rotting straw as the cold rain dripped on their faces through the stainless steel bars on the windows? - it doesn’t seem too likely to me that this approach will take off in the near future. But then, stranger things have happened.
What I’m Reading Now
Still more of Constance Fenimore Cooper’s Anne. Anne has signed up to become a Civil War nurse. I’m hoping that this will lead to a dramatic scene where the unworthy man that she loves dies in her arms, or possibly just before she arrives at the hospital - yes, I think this has more dramatic potential - just before she arrives at the hospital, so she is there just in time to see his waxen face and his dead, staring eyes, and know she is too late.
I’ve also begun reading Christ Jennings’ Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopia, which I all but pranced over to the library to get as soon as I heard of its existence. Unfortunately, I can only really recommend it if you share my fascination with nineteenth-century American utopian communities, because so far the writing has been pedestrian at best.
What I Plan to Read Next
The challenge for next month on the 2016 Reading Challenge is “a book that has been banned,” so I’ve been contemplating various lists of books that have been banned over the years. Should I finally bite the bullet and read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings or The Things They Carried? On the one hand, I’ve meant to read both of those books for years; on the other hand, I have avoided actually reading them for years because I know they’re both super hardcore.
Maybe I should finally take this opportunity to read Lady Chatterley’s Lover. One of my friends is a big D. H. Lawrence fan (although I’m not sure if that extends from his poetry to his novels). Or maybe Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2016-04-27 02:01 pm (UTC)Although given that many people think our prison system is too cushy already - you have to wonder what sort of prison these people would approve; would the prisoners lie on piles of rotting straw as the cold rain dripped on their faces through the stainless steel bars on the windows?
Basically, yes! When I was teaching I got about one student essay per semester about how awful it was that "convicted criminals!" had libraries and TV and weight rooms, and I heard the same rant many times growing up from conservative family members. A lot of people have a vague image of a time (maybe in Charles Dickens Times) when prison was maximally uncomfortable and criminals were therefore more pliable and the streets in general more safe. this is a misreading of Dickens, but so many vague cultural notions are.
In the 90s, the governor of the state where I now live tried to bring back the chain gang, and briefly succeeded. There's a kind of nostalgia for hardship involved (other people's hardship in the service of your comfort).
I could buy a turn-of-the-century midwife recognizing postpartum depression, but I very much doubt she’d use that term for it.
Haha, whoops. :\
Sometimes I like it when people dance around their attraction for ten books and sometimes not; it all depends on execution.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-27 02:51 pm (UTC)But on the other hand, surely everyone would enjoy excerpts from the worst sex scenes in Lady Chatterley's Lover. Reading it and posting them would be practically a service to humanity. And if they turn out to be not so bad after all, well then, that will be a pleasant surprise.
Did you write a story where a turn-of-the-century person had postpartum depression?
I've been turning over in my head the idea of a post-Civil-War story where the hero and the heroine (who served as a battlefield nurse) both have some lingering mental health issues from the war. I've been thinking about how to make it period-appropriate without inadvertently giving readers bad mental health advice; "Take long walks in the sunshine and pray" is not bad advice in 1870, when therapists and antidepressants weren't a thing, but I don't want people to think that's the only available option now.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-27 05:34 pm (UTC)No, that was a sympathetic whoops!
But on the other hand, surely everyone would enjoy excerpts from the worst sex scenes in Lady Chatterley's Lover. Reading it and posting them would be practically a service to humanity. And if they turn out to be not so bad after all, well then, that will be a pleasant surprise.
That's the spirit! Come on, we'll read it together. There's a copy for sale at the coffee shop down the street from me; I'm going to buy it on my way home.
I think you should write this story and trust your readers to realize that 2016 has more options for treating depression than in 1870! It'll be a challenge to keep the perspectives non-anachronistic without creating the impression that you're personally advocating sunshine and prayer over all those scary modern drugs, but you're thoughtful enough to know it's a challenge and more than capable of meeting it. (also I'm selfish and want this story to exist so I can read it)
ETA: No actual pressure intended re: Lady Chatterly, though I think I am going to buy it tonight just in case.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-28 12:50 am (UTC)I'm thinking that they're just going to have to have a level of depression that is bad enough that it's noticeable but not so bad that it's absolutely untreatable without the aid of modern medicine. Maybe the fellow - he's a doctor - will have had patients with melancholia before? So he knows that this is not as bad as it gets.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-27 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-28 12:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-28 04:36 am (UTC)Yeah, “s/he’s soooo annoying, but what an amazing body” leaves me cold.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-29 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-29 02:50 am (UTC)Everything in its time!
no subject
Date: 2016-04-28 08:50 am (UTC)