Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

I finished Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley! Which was good for about a third of the book in the middle there - or perhaps I should say relevant to my interests, as that is the part of the book which is about Caroline and Shirley’s friendship - and then abruptly changes focus to documenting Shirley’s budding romance with her former tutor.

This is necessary for Bronte’s design, which is to end the book with a double wedding (where Caroline and Shirley marry two brothers, no less, and thereby become sisters themselves), but the abrupt shift is not artful. And to add insult to injury - or perhaps injury to insult - I didn’t particularly like Shirley’s relationship with her suitor. It reminded me of Bronte’s other unsuccessful novel, The Professor, which also has a romance narrated in the first person by the man, and in both cases the first person narration made that man seem terribly unpleasant to me.

I also think that Bronte finds “hot for teacher” an irresistibly romantic dynamic in a way that I don’t share, which probably makes me a hard sell when she writes romances of this type. Although I suppose there are elements of this in Vilette, and I really liked the final couple there...

I also read Frances Hodgson Burnett’s In the Closed Room, because it was free on Kindle and written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, a combination which made it utterly irresistible to me. It turns out to be an absolutely forgetable ghost story, though - nothing like the power of Margaret Oliphant’s The Open Door (also beguilingly free on Kindle! Much worth reading!).

I find that ghost stories are either fantastic or totally forgettable and there’s not much in between.

What I’m Reading Now

At the Art Institute I found a totally charming book called Chicago By Day and Night: The Pleasure Seeker’s Guide to the Paris of America, which is a reprint of a travel guide to Chicago published just before the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. Did I buy it? Of course I had to buy it. It’s just as charming as I hoped, too.

You know what I should write? A Chicago World’s Fair romance. I’ve read so much about it, and so much about the time period, I wouldn’t have to do much extra research, and there’s a built in audience for all things Chicago World’s Fair, thank you Erik Larson.

What I Plan to Read Next

Ngaio Marsh’s Death of a Peer. I much prefer the UK title, A Surfeit of Lampreys, but what can you do?

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Why on earth would publishers change a great title like A Surfeit of Lampreys to something as dry-sounding as Death of a Peer?

... Maybe they don't think much of American readers' vocabulary -_-

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Ngaio Marsh's American publishers seem to be convinced that their readers will be hopelessly confused by murder mysteries without "death" in the title. "Come on, is there a death in this book or not??" they will wonder. "Is this going to be one of those books where the author goes to Oxford and no one dies? Because I have been burned before, let me tell you." From a marketing perspective, it's better to be safe than sorry.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

"Is this going to be one of those books where the author goes to Oxford and no one dies? Because I have been burned before, let me tell you."

LOL! "Does not contain a single murder. Would not recommend."

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming it's something like the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone thing with the Harry Potter books. "We need to make the genre REALLY CLEAR," the American publishers said. "A mystery without anything deathy in the title won't sell!"

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

That Chicago book sounds so good! I hope it spurs you forward until you've written an entire book, because that sounds like something I would want to read.

It's been too long since I read Charlotte Bronte's non-Jane Eyre books; I should really remedy that sometime.

Lampreys! There is always a surfeit, even when there's just one in the room, bless their parasitic hearts. <3

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I just need a plot! And characters. And stuff. *cries*

I'm thinking that he could be one of the Ferris wheel operators. Nothing says romance like taking her to the top of the Ferris wheel to see the whole glittering fair laid out beneath them at night, right?

"The car was packed, of course, like everything at the Fair; yet Lilian felt as though they were alone, the two of them standing by the window in the night, gazing out at the white glow of the Fair's electric lights."

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

You should totally write a Chicago World's Fair romance! I would read it.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

All I need is a plot! And characters! And conflict. And stuff. But hey, a setting is a start, right?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

But hey, if you know it's a romance, you've already got a lot of the plot!

Here's a heroine who is lacking something in her life. Here is a hero who is lacking something different in his life. They met and realize they fulfill each other's lack! Attraction happens, but oh no, a conflict keeps them apart! Finally it is resolved and they are happily together.

Ta-da!

[inspirethoughts.livejournal.com]

I read Ngaio Marsh's Chief Detective-Inspector Alleyn Mysteries which had three books in one book. I was semi-liking her style. I had written about it here: http://inspirethoughts.livejournal.com/557610.html

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those are some of her earlier books. Her style gets more assured later on.