Wednesday Reading Meme
Jun. 19th, 2019 09:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
skygiant’s review led me to read Margaret Kay’s A Woman of Worth, a western-themed romance novel. If you’re looking for a cutting deconstruction of the flaws of the Old West, this is not the book for you; but if you want a light romance with some mild to moderate peril and far from moderate pining (plus two fake engagements AND a surprise!marriage of convenience), this may be the book that you’re looking for.
I strongly suspect that there’s going to be a sequel, too. Kay just can’t leave the Belle/Sam storyline hanging like that, can she? (Calling it now: Belle thinks that Sam is indifferent to her crush, but actually he just thinks that he’s an Unworthy Profligate because sometimes he flirts with girls and he’s not quite as serious as his brother Will.)
I also finished Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, which I didn’t like quite as much as the movie - it ends on a note of uncertainty, which is perhaps necessary for the first book in a three-book series, but I preferred the movie’s more conclusive ending. (But I’m still going to read the next book.)
And I read Judith Mayne’s Directed by Dorothy Arzner. There are moments when you can really feel that this book was published in 1994 - I feel that a book of film criticism published today could probably just get on with considering Arzner’s work in light of her butch lesbian style, but Mayne has to spend a lot of time defending that decision. However, there’s also a lot of good stuff here: I particularly enjoyed the discussions of Arzner’s films, especially Working Girl, which wasn’t released at the time and doesn’t appear to be available on DVD even today. A little internet searching suggests that it shows up at film festivals occasionally, though. So maybe someday!
What I’m Reading Now
I’m reading the second Mrs. Pollifax book, The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax, in which Mrs. Pollifax heads to Turkey to retrieve Magda Ferenci-Sabo, a Communist agent is actually an American agent who has been in deep cover since before World War II. Naturally they’ve hit it off like a house on fire. I really think Mrs. Pollifax’s superpower is the friendly interest she takes in everyone she meets.
Her new sidekick in this book, young Colin, clearly shares this power: he just stole a bike from a young Turkish college student home for the summer from Istanbul, and now they’ve teemed up to defeat the bad guys with a love-in. I kind of love how much Gilman loves young people - I feel like this is unusual in a book from the sixties and seventies, where The Youth often seem to be at best misguided and at worst totally alien and sinister.
What I Plan to Read Next
Reading the latest Charles Lenox novel has reawakened my lust for mystery novels: I’m casting about for a new series to start. Has anyone read Louise Penny?
I should take this opportunity to catch up on my other mystery series: Sam Eastland’s Inspector Pekkala novels in Stalinist Russia, and also the latest Benjamin January, Cold Bayou, although I’m a little concerned that I’ve lost the plot on that series. Last time I was catching up, we kept running into characters who I was clearly supposed to remember… and super did not.
skygiant’s review led me to read Margaret Kay’s A Woman of Worth, a western-themed romance novel. If you’re looking for a cutting deconstruction of the flaws of the Old West, this is not the book for you; but if you want a light romance with some mild to moderate peril and far from moderate pining (plus two fake engagements AND a surprise!marriage of convenience), this may be the book that you’re looking for.I strongly suspect that there’s going to be a sequel, too. Kay just can’t leave the Belle/Sam storyline hanging like that, can she? (Calling it now: Belle thinks that Sam is indifferent to her crush, but actually he just thinks that he’s an Unworthy Profligate because sometimes he flirts with girls and he’s not quite as serious as his brother Will.)
I also finished Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, which I didn’t like quite as much as the movie - it ends on a note of uncertainty, which is perhaps necessary for the first book in a three-book series, but I preferred the movie’s more conclusive ending. (But I’m still going to read the next book.)
And I read Judith Mayne’s Directed by Dorothy Arzner. There are moments when you can really feel that this book was published in 1994 - I feel that a book of film criticism published today could probably just get on with considering Arzner’s work in light of her butch lesbian style, but Mayne has to spend a lot of time defending that decision. However, there’s also a lot of good stuff here: I particularly enjoyed the discussions of Arzner’s films, especially Working Girl, which wasn’t released at the time and doesn’t appear to be available on DVD even today. A little internet searching suggests that it shows up at film festivals occasionally, though. So maybe someday!
What I’m Reading Now
I’m reading the second Mrs. Pollifax book, The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax, in which Mrs. Pollifax heads to Turkey to retrieve Magda Ferenci-Sabo, a Communist agent is actually an American agent who has been in deep cover since before World War II. Naturally they’ve hit it off like a house on fire. I really think Mrs. Pollifax’s superpower is the friendly interest she takes in everyone she meets.
Her new sidekick in this book, young Colin, clearly shares this power: he just stole a bike from a young Turkish college student home for the summer from Istanbul, and now they’ve teemed up to defeat the bad guys with a love-in. I kind of love how much Gilman loves young people - I feel like this is unusual in a book from the sixties and seventies, where The Youth often seem to be at best misguided and at worst totally alien and sinister.
What I Plan to Read Next
Reading the latest Charles Lenox novel has reawakened my lust for mystery novels: I’m casting about for a new series to start. Has anyone read Louise Penny?
I should take this opportunity to catch up on my other mystery series: Sam Eastland’s Inspector Pekkala novels in Stalinist Russia, and also the latest Benjamin January, Cold Bayou, although I’m a little concerned that I’ve lost the plot on that series. Last time I was catching up, we kept running into characters who I was clearly supposed to remember… and super did not.
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Date: 2019-06-19 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-06-20 02:20 am (UTC)I am reliably assured that a sequel to A Woman of Worth is indeed in progress. :D
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Date: 2019-06-21 07:50 pm (UTC)And yesssss, looking forward to it!