osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2023-05-10 02:10 pm
osprey_archer) wrote2023-05-10 02:10 pm
Wednesday Reading Meme
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
W. E. Johns’ Worrals Down Under, not a strong entry in the series, alas. The plotting is slack and relies on several characters being more than a bit dim, there are no wild animal encounters (surely we all wanted to see Worrals meet a wombat and a kangaroo?), and the portrayal of the Aboriginal Australian characters is arrestingly terrible even in comparison with some of Johns’ other books.
What I’m Reading Now
Capitola’s Peril, the sequel/second half of E.D.E.N. Southworth’s Hidden Hand. Capitola has FOILED the forced marriage of Clara Day by changing places with Clara, allowing Clara to escape while Capitola challenges the villain at the altar! The villain is so taken with Capitola’s piquant spirit that he decides he’ll just have to marry her, instead, but when Capitola refuses his hand he decides to blacken her name all across the countryside… only for Capitola to challenge him to a duel! He responds in deeply insulting terms (Southworth leaves the letter to our imaginations, but clearly he wrote something like “can’t wait for the duel, babe! Time: midnight. Place: your bedroom. Weapon: my penis! Looking forward to giving you satisfaction!”). Then Capitola shoots him in the face with a bunch of dried peas, and under the impression that he is dying, he confesses all his villainy.
I’m also about a third of the way through Felicia Davin’s Thornfruit, but I may not finish it, as the idea of a pairing where one party not only can but indeed can’t help reading the other party’s mind strikes me as a nightmare fuel.
What I Plan to Read Next
Distrait to inform you that whoever is uploading the Worrals books to fadedpage has jumped directly from book 8 to book 11, Worrals Investigates, which strongly suggests to me that we’re not going to get books 9 and 10. Alas, alas! But really we should be grateful that we got as much as we have…
W. E. Johns’ Worrals Down Under, not a strong entry in the series, alas. The plotting is slack and relies on several characters being more than a bit dim, there are no wild animal encounters (surely we all wanted to see Worrals meet a wombat and a kangaroo?), and the portrayal of the Aboriginal Australian characters is arrestingly terrible even in comparison with some of Johns’ other books.
What I’m Reading Now
Capitola’s Peril, the sequel/second half of E.D.E.N. Southworth’s Hidden Hand. Capitola has FOILED the forced marriage of Clara Day by changing places with Clara, allowing Clara to escape while Capitola challenges the villain at the altar! The villain is so taken with Capitola’s piquant spirit that he decides he’ll just have to marry her, instead, but when Capitola refuses his hand he decides to blacken her name all across the countryside… only for Capitola to challenge him to a duel! He responds in deeply insulting terms (Southworth leaves the letter to our imaginations, but clearly he wrote something like “can’t wait for the duel, babe! Time: midnight. Place: your bedroom. Weapon: my penis! Looking forward to giving you satisfaction!”). Then Capitola shoots him in the face with a bunch of dried peas, and under the impression that he is dying, he confesses all his villainy.
I’m also about a third of the way through Felicia Davin’s Thornfruit, but I may not finish it, as the idea of a pairing where one party not only can but indeed can’t help reading the other party’s mind strikes me as a nightmare fuel.
What I Plan to Read Next
Distrait to inform you that whoever is uploading the Worrals books to fadedpage has jumped directly from book 8 to book 11, Worrals Investigates, which strongly suggests to me that we’re not going to get books 9 and 10. Alas, alas! But really we should be grateful that we got as much as we have…