Wednesday Reading Meme
Jan. 15th, 2020 06:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
I zoomed through Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, in part because there were a hundred odd people on the hold list for it at the library, but also because it all just flowed so wonderfully that I just kept reading it. I’m not quite sure why, because it’s not exactly what you’d call plotty; in the first half of the book there’s sort of a mystery about what exactly put Maeve and Danny at such odds with their stepmother, but the book doesn’t lean on it for suspense.
It’s also less about the house than you might expect from the title (I must admit that I had some hopes for gothic elements, but that’s not really present); what it is about is about family and family history, and the way that the past shapes the present - and the things that we believe about the past just as much as the past itself.
I also read Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette’s The Cobbler’s Boy, a novella about young Kit Marlowe, which I enjoyed, but not as much as I expected to. Perhaps I let it languish on my TBR list for a little too long: I should have struck while the iron was hot.
What I’m Reading Now
I have begun Vivien Alcock’s Singer to the Sea God, which kicks off with Perseus walking into the king’s court with Medusa’s head and turning everyone there into stone… including our hero’s sister Cleo. Now our hero has escaped the island, statue of Cleo in tow, and I can only presume he’s going to get kidnapped by Poseidon??? Or so the title suggests.
This is utterly unlike the other two Vivien Alcock books that I’ve read (which were utterly unlike each other) and I’m kind of digging her determination to follow her bliss and write whatever the hell she wants.
I’ve also continued on with William Dean Howells’ A Modern Instance. Bartley and Marcia have eloped and moved to Boston! (asakiyume, every time they mention a landmark that we saw - and this happens more often than you might think from a novel published in the 1870s - I get so excited. “I’ve been there!”) Marcia is wracked by jealousy every time that Bartley talks to another woman for too long, right now without reason, but he gave her reason before their marriage and I strongly suspect that Bartley’s going to give her a reason again sooner or later.
What I Plan to Read Next
I got Jennifer A. Jordan’s Edible Memory: The Lure of Heirloom Tomatoes & Other Forgotten Foods from the library, so I’ll probably read that soon, although it must be admitted that I currently have MANY books out from the library because the library is switching over computer systems this month and what if I ran out of books while the system was unavailable???
...I have an entire shelf of unread books that I actually own, so I would have been fine, but nonetheless I checked out a lot. So we’ll see what I read first.
I zoomed through Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, in part because there were a hundred odd people on the hold list for it at the library, but also because it all just flowed so wonderfully that I just kept reading it. I’m not quite sure why, because it’s not exactly what you’d call plotty; in the first half of the book there’s sort of a mystery about what exactly put Maeve and Danny at such odds with their stepmother, but the book doesn’t lean on it for suspense.
It’s also less about the house than you might expect from the title (I must admit that I had some hopes for gothic elements, but that’s not really present); what it is about is about family and family history, and the way that the past shapes the present - and the things that we believe about the past just as much as the past itself.
I also read Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette’s The Cobbler’s Boy, a novella about young Kit Marlowe, which I enjoyed, but not as much as I expected to. Perhaps I let it languish on my TBR list for a little too long: I should have struck while the iron was hot.
What I’m Reading Now
I have begun Vivien Alcock’s Singer to the Sea God, which kicks off with Perseus walking into the king’s court with Medusa’s head and turning everyone there into stone… including our hero’s sister Cleo. Now our hero has escaped the island, statue of Cleo in tow, and I can only presume he’s going to get kidnapped by Poseidon??? Or so the title suggests.
This is utterly unlike the other two Vivien Alcock books that I’ve read (which were utterly unlike each other) and I’m kind of digging her determination to follow her bliss and write whatever the hell she wants.
I’ve also continued on with William Dean Howells’ A Modern Instance. Bartley and Marcia have eloped and moved to Boston! (
asakiyume, every time they mention a landmark that we saw - and this happens more often than you might think from a novel published in the 1870s - I get so excited. “I’ve been there!”) Marcia is wracked by jealousy every time that Bartley talks to another woman for too long, right now without reason, but he gave her reason before their marriage and I strongly suspect that Bartley’s going to give her a reason again sooner or later.What I Plan to Read Next
I got Jennifer A. Jordan’s Edible Memory: The Lure of Heirloom Tomatoes & Other Forgotten Foods from the library, so I’ll probably read that soon, although it must be admitted that I currently have MANY books out from the library because the library is switching over computer systems this month and what if I ran out of books while the system was unavailable???
...I have an entire shelf of unread books that I actually own, so I would have been fine, but nonetheless I checked out a lot. So we’ll see what I read first.
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Date: 2020-01-16 10:12 pm (UTC)