Wednesday Reading Meme
Oct. 10th, 2018 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
I finally finished Tempests and Slaughter. I still stand by my original criticisms - this book is at least twice as long as it needs to be and nothing much happens - but at the same time it doesn’t really matter, because I am now super invested in Arram & Ozorne & Varice’s friendship (or… OT3ship. Just saying) and when/if I reread Emperor Mage I’m going to spend the whole book howling “WHY CAN’T YOU JUST BE FRIENDS AGAIN THIS IS SO SAD.”
Like. It’s as if, instead of following up Woman Who Rides Like a Man with Lioness Rampant, Tamora Pierce had time-jumped ten years for a fourth book in which Jon (Ozorne) held an enormous judge against Alanna (Arram) for dumping him, while George (Varice) still serves Jon but is also still kind of in love with Alanna and just really wants to repair Jon & Alanna’s friendship so they can all be friends again, but it’s totally impossible because Jon is filled with bitterness and also Alanna has fallen in love with her hot super-powerful squire (the Daine character, to be played by Neal probably?).
That is what reading Emperor Mage is going to be like now that I've read Tempests and Slaughter. THE SADDEST. SO SAD. FILLED WITH SADNESS.
It’s also going to hurt so much when we see Ozorne turn against Numair and exile him and stuff. UGH WHY ARE PREQUELS A THING, THEY MAKE EVERYTHING HURT.
What I’m Reading Now
Nancy Garden’s Annie on My Mind, which I’m hoping to finish in time for F/F Friday, although if I don’t… there's another Friday next week.
Also Cokie Roberts’ Ladies of Liberty, which I am finding slightly less enthralling than Capital Dames, but I think this is because I’m generally more interested in the Civil War than the War of 1812… Although it is kind of interesting to see that for a while it was a toss-up whether the fledgling US would end up at war with Britain or France.
I’ve also continued on in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s The Chimney-corner, and I’m wondering a bit whether Stowe is making Christopher Crowfield, the male penname of the narrator of these essays, insufferable on purpose. He’s like the personification of mansplaining, good grief.
I did find her chapter about communal house-keeping interesting, though, where she suggests that American villages should emulate the French by installing a bakery, a cook-shop, and a laundry in every hamlet: “Now I put it to the distressed ‘Young Family Man ’ whether these three institutions… would not virtually annihilate his household cares, and restore peace and comfort to his now distracted family.” (140)
It occurs to me that this vision has more or less come to pass: no one has to bake or even cook unless they want to (although I imagine Stowe would have Things To Say about the quality of Wonder Bread, instant noodles, and microwave dinners), and while a laundromat is not exactly a town laundry, the entire laundry process has become so much easier since Stowe’s day that it almost doesn’t matter.
What I Plan to Read Next
This is not exactly a “what I’m reading next” because the book won’t be out for ages, but DID YOU know that the Most Comfortable Man in London will be back - in the second book of what is evidently going to be an entire prequel trilogy - which book is called The Vanishing Man? It involves art theft! ART THEFT. One of my favorite types of fictional theft! (It looks like it ends in murder here, so it’s not a 100% art theft mystery, but still.)
I finally finished Tempests and Slaughter. I still stand by my original criticisms - this book is at least twice as long as it needs to be and nothing much happens - but at the same time it doesn’t really matter, because I am now super invested in Arram & Ozorne & Varice’s friendship (or… OT3ship. Just saying) and when/if I reread Emperor Mage I’m going to spend the whole book howling “WHY CAN’T YOU JUST BE FRIENDS AGAIN THIS IS SO SAD.”
Like. It’s as if, instead of following up Woman Who Rides Like a Man with Lioness Rampant, Tamora Pierce had time-jumped ten years for a fourth book in which Jon (Ozorne) held an enormous judge against Alanna (Arram) for dumping him, while George (Varice) still serves Jon but is also still kind of in love with Alanna and just really wants to repair Jon & Alanna’s friendship so they can all be friends again, but it’s totally impossible because Jon is filled with bitterness and also Alanna has fallen in love with her hot super-powerful squire (the Daine character, to be played by Neal probably?).
That is what reading Emperor Mage is going to be like now that I've read Tempests and Slaughter. THE SADDEST. SO SAD. FILLED WITH SADNESS.
It’s also going to hurt so much when we see Ozorne turn against Numair and exile him and stuff. UGH WHY ARE PREQUELS A THING, THEY MAKE EVERYTHING HURT.
What I’m Reading Now
Nancy Garden’s Annie on My Mind, which I’m hoping to finish in time for F/F Friday, although if I don’t… there's another Friday next week.
Also Cokie Roberts’ Ladies of Liberty, which I am finding slightly less enthralling than Capital Dames, but I think this is because I’m generally more interested in the Civil War than the War of 1812… Although it is kind of interesting to see that for a while it was a toss-up whether the fledgling US would end up at war with Britain or France.
I’ve also continued on in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s The Chimney-corner, and I’m wondering a bit whether Stowe is making Christopher Crowfield, the male penname of the narrator of these essays, insufferable on purpose. He’s like the personification of mansplaining, good grief.
I did find her chapter about communal house-keeping interesting, though, where she suggests that American villages should emulate the French by installing a bakery, a cook-shop, and a laundry in every hamlet: “Now I put it to the distressed ‘Young Family Man ’ whether these three institutions… would not virtually annihilate his household cares, and restore peace and comfort to his now distracted family.” (140)
It occurs to me that this vision has more or less come to pass: no one has to bake or even cook unless they want to (although I imagine Stowe would have Things To Say about the quality of Wonder Bread, instant noodles, and microwave dinners), and while a laundromat is not exactly a town laundry, the entire laundry process has become so much easier since Stowe’s day that it almost doesn’t matter.
What I Plan to Read Next
This is not exactly a “what I’m reading next” because the book won’t be out for ages, but DID YOU know that the Most Comfortable Man in London will be back - in the second book of what is evidently going to be an entire prequel trilogy - which book is called The Vanishing Man? It involves art theft! ART THEFT. One of my favorite types of fictional theft! (It looks like it ends in murder here, so it’s not a 100% art theft mystery, but still.)
no subject
Date: 2018-10-11 03:15 am (UTC)This was my reaction, with the added element of a magical university being a setting I particularly enjoy, so I'm more prepared to put up with plotlessness. I am both looking forward to and dreading the eventual breakdown of the OT3.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-11 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-11 01:51 pm (UTC)DID YOU know that the Most Comfortable Man in London will be back - in the second book of what is evidently going to be an entire prequel trilogy - which book is called The Vanishing Man? It involves art theft! ART THEFT.
The coziest of all the crimes!!
no subject
Date: 2018-10-11 03:57 pm (UTC)I hope that this book will involve copious amounts of hot buttered toast and discussions of the Old Masters. Has Charles Lenox ever been to Italy to see all the great paintings and also indulge in the coziest ocean bathing ever? If not, this might be the time.