Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

I wasn’t particularly invested in the characters or the plot in Phyllis Ann Karr’s At Amberleaf Fair, which would usually be a death knell for a story, but in this case I grew so absorbed by the worldbuilding that it pulled me through the book. What IS this world where the way to propose is to offer a marriage toy, where wizards often give banquets by transforming simple foods like potatoes into costly delicacies, where people use kinship terms as courtesy titles? “Tell me more!” I begged. “PLEASE give me some infodumps!”

Karr did not hear my plea for infodumps, but apparently the ebook has an afterword which gives a bit more detail about the worldbuilding. (Genuinely considering buying the ebook just to read the afterword.) Apparently, the afterword also mentions that the book is stealth Ruddigore fanfic, although in that way where you start with a canon and then put your story in a completely different setting, and change some of the characterization, and add a self-insert for your favorite character to fall in love with, and somehow by the end no one but yourself can see the Ruddigore at all.

I also read Courtney Milan’s The Suffragette Scandal. I read the rest of the Brothers Sinister series seven years ago, and unfortunately the delay before reading the last book was a mistake. I’ve forgotten most of the characters from the earlier books and also am just not in the same headspace where I originally found the series so delightful. It’s fine! It just didn’t grab my heart like the others.

What I’m Reading Now

Whale Weekly has begun! I didn’t realize that we were beginning our Moby-Dick journey so early! …and I have the sinking feeling that I’m going to find Melville just as insufferable now as I did in high school, but I will give it a few weeks before I make any decisions about whether I truly WANT to spent the next three years of my life revisiting Moby-Dick.

In other news, littlerhymes and I have been reading The Wicked Day, and I’ve been having Mordred feelings YET AGAIN, just like when I read The Winter Prince and The Idylls of the Queen… Oh, God, have I become a Mordred stan? I don’t want to be a Mordred stan. And yet HERE I AM, unable to break free, just like poor Mordred who doesn’t want to be the doom of Camelot and yet that is his FATE.

What I Plan to Read Next

As you may have noticed I am really on a roll with these Newbery Honor books, and I intend to keep going as long as the inspiration is upon me.

Comments

[asakiyume]

I got At Amberleaf Fair after reading a review by rachelmanija some years ago, but I must have tried to read it when I was tired or something, because I found it impenetrable--confusing and unmoored. I gave up after a few pages. Now that there's an efflorescence of people I follow reading it, maybe I'll give it another shot.

[troisoiseaux]

I've been having Mordred feelings YET AGAIN, just like when I read The Winter Prince and The Idylls of the Queen... Oh, God, have I become a Mordred stan? I don’t want to be a Mordred stan. And yet HERE I AM, unable to break free, just like poor Mordred who doesn’t want to be the doom of Camelot and yet that is his FATE.

yessssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Absolutely obsessed with Phyllis Ann Karr's obsession with Ruddigore. It's so specific and apparently pervasive in her work and I love this for her.

ETA: whoops, I tripped and acquired Mary Stewart's entire Arthurian Saga as a bundled ebook.

[osprey_archer]

I struggled with the first couple of chapters, to be honest. I did sort things out eventually, but if it hadn't been for other people reading on DW I might not have kept going.

[osprey_archer]

I will be interested to hear your Arthurian Saga thoughts!

Were there Ruddigore references that we missed in Idylls of the Queen? Did you spot any in Karr's Robin Hood book? Nothing is coming to mind, but I wouldn't be surprised.

[troisoiseaux]

I know quite literally zero things about Ruddigore, so I couldn't tell you.

[osprey_archer]

Karr's obsession has made me want to watch it (I'm sure she's cackling with glee somewhere as I type this), which is unfortunate as it doesn't seem to be an oft-revived Gilbert and Sullivan play. Someday, perhaps.

[landofnowhere]

Ruddigore is worth seeing, though it being a G&S play it is mostly very silly!

There must be some good videos of productions available online, but I don't know any.
Alternatively, you could listen to a full audio recording and/or read along with the online web opera.

[lucymonster]

Good luck with Moby-Dick! I’m so tickled that Dracula Daily has kicked off this new wave of classic lit serialisations. The format didn’t work for me - apparently I read in my own good time or not at all, emails be damned - but it did inspire me to reread Dracula the traditional way. And I’m on a Holmes binge now, so I’m hoping to dip my toes into the buzz generated by the ACD one I heard tell of.

[anna_wing]

I remember liking Amberleaf Fair precisely because nothing much happened. It was slice-of-life in a fantasy universe. I do remember an argument about the value of citrons, which I was reminded of when I started growing them. And I think "toys" were actually jewellery, which is not an inaccurate assessment.

[osprey_archer]

This book didn't quite gel for me, but I do like the idea of slice-of-life in a fantasy universe. Just hobbits having feasts in Hobbiton all day long.

[osprey_archer]

I'm signed up for the ACD one, so there's going to be a LOT of ACD posting up in here next year. (Apparently the emails are only doing the short stories + a little bit of A Study in Scarlet, where Holmes and Watson meet, if that effects your Holmes binge at all.)

[littlerhymes]

Her commitment to Ruddigore nation is truly admirable. Astonishing and hilarious but ALSO admirable!

Mordred is just trying to do his best after being dealt the absolute WORST hand in the world! He's a GOOD KID!!!

[duskpeterson]

"And yet HERE I AM, unable to break free, just like poor Mordred who doesn’t want to be the doom of Camelot and yet that is his FATE."

:) I was in my mid-teens in the 1970s when I read my first sympathetic-Mordred novel. Can't remember its name, unfortunately.

Jeez, it's been ages since I read an Arthurian novel. I've read "The Wicked Day," but maybe I'll try the other two you mentioned.

[osprey_archer]

Phyllis Ann Karr follows her bliss and that is simply what I want for all of us.

Mordred is trying SO HARD and fate is simply against him.

[osprey_archer]

Sympathetic Mordred seems to be quite a trend in the last fifty years or so! When I read an unsympathetic Mordred it actually feels like the author is going against the grain.

[superborb]

I do not know why the 'weekly' part of 'whale weekly' didn't register at first, but I was startled that I only received the one email ahaha. ...It did not grab me with as much enthusiasm as Dracula did.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, this one hasn't grabbed me like Dracula. Maybe it will grow on me? I will give it a little bit to see if it does, at least.

[anna_wing]

That was how I got into writing LOTR fic. I was doing flash fiction writing exercises with a friend, and began doing little slice-of-life, post-LOTR ficlets, mostly about Hobbits doing Hobbity things, and Gondorian bureaucrats coping with the sudden realisation that they were living in Translations From The Elvish.