Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Took a little break from the Great War to read Nghi Vo’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune. I really enjoyed the way that the story spun itself out from objects - a set of fortune-telling sticks sets off one set of reminiscences, tokens from temple visits another, etc. It reminded me in a way of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s The Age of Homespun, although of course it’s the fictional history of an empire instead of a nonfiction book exploring women’s lives in preindustrial America; but the books share both an interest in women’s lives and this structure of spinning off the story from material objects.

I also read Darcie Little Badger’s Elatsoe. Our heroine, Ellie, is a Lipan Apache girl with a knack for summoning dead animals (dead people invariably Come Back Wrong and are better left alone), which she needs to put to good use when her cousin dies in mysterious circumstances. This is marketed as YA but really reads more middle grade, which is a puzzling marketing decision but an asset for me personally, as I love middle grade books. But although I enjoyed this book, I also felt it needed a bit more oomph.

What I’m Reading Now

You will be thrilled to know that I’ve started Mary Renault’s Fire from Heaven and it kicks off with four-year-old Alexander the Great telling his mother that he wants to marry her. I realize this is a thing that small children sometimes do, but there is a way to do it so it’s a cute kid thing and then there’s a way to do it as an Oedipal Moment (Alexander even thinks about killing his dad!), Full of Sensuality and Portent, and Renault went all out for the latter. I guess it’s nice that she so fully embraced her Oedipus complex kink.

Still working (slowly) on Nick Lloyd’s The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918. I’m in 1916 and it’s a little bit like watching an avalanche: even kings and presidents and generals have very little control over what is happening, and keep attempting to strike what they devoutly hope will be knockout blows… only the other side just won’t say die.

What I Plan to Read Next

GUESS WHOSE FUCKING INTERLIBRARY LOAN ON D. K. BROSTER’S FLIGHT OF THE HERON JUST ARRIVED.

Comments

[regshoe]

Haha, I am indeed glad to know that Mary Renault is still very much Mary Renault. I suppose it'll be interesting to see her character-interpretation of such a famous historical figure as Alexander, although I don't know much about the real person.

GUESS WHOSE FUCKING INTERLIBRARY LOAN ON D. K. BROSTER’S FLIGHT OF THE HERON JUST ARRIVED.

:D :D :D

[osprey_archer]

Mary Renault knew what Mary Renault liked and I love that for her, even though sometimes it is NOT what I would have liked.

[lokifan]

*cackles* There's something delightful about reading a book where people really go for their id all-out.

[genarti]

Yesss, I loved the structure of The Empress of Salt and Fortune SO much. The way the reminiscences and the personal view of history and the objects themselves are intertwined just felt very real to me, and very cool also.

Clearly I need to read The Age of Homespun, especially as I'm very interested in women's lives, preindustrial society, and social/domestic history in general!

I loved Elatsoe, though I agree that it reads more middle grade. I'm also really excited to see whatever Darcie Little Badger does next, especially since I think there's a decent chance future novels will be more polished, just given the way most authors hone their post-debut craft.

[osprey_archer]

I think you might really enjoy The Age of Homespun! It's such a different way of doing history that it really blew my tiny mind when I read it. I haven't like any of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's books nearly as much, possibly because they don't have the same "We are going to start with a basket and work outward till our discussion encompasses New England's entire economy" structure; if she ever does anything else focusing on material culture I'll be on it like white on rice.

Yes, I'll be curious what Darcie Little Badger does next! I may just read a review or two before I dive in to read it myself.

[skygiants]

Nghi Vo is so good!! Empress makes such good and economical use of its frame stories -- you get so much character and world from such little pieces.

[osprey_archer]

I've already added the sequel to my wishlist!

[philomytha]

DK Broster AND Fire From Heaven! Two formative books for me, though I haven't actually reread Renault since I was a teenager, and I find I don't have much memory of Fire from Heaven beyond a general impression of Alexander/Hephaiston OTP 4EVA - The Persian Boy with its epic h/c is a lot more vivid in my memory. And I've been so delighted to see people all over DW picking up Heron lately, because that's a book I have adored for decades.

[osprey_archer]

I have gotten to Alexander's first meeting with Hephaiston, but now Hephaiston has disappeared for at least a hundred pages! (Also Alexander has had a Moment with a young Persian envoy, who may turn out to be the titular Persian Boy of the next book? Who knows.)

In Flight of the Heron, Keith Windham has just escaped, leaving Ewan three guineas to pay for stealing his clothes, thus mortally offending poor Ewan.

[littlerhymes]

I guess it’s nice that she so fully embraced her Oedipus complex kink.

Mary never change.

[osprey_archer]

Mary gave no fucks and that is refreshing and also just a little bit terrifying.