Reading. On Wednesday, even
Nov. 3rd, 2021 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiRecently finished:
I finally succumbled to my completist tendencies and read Bujold's latest (last?) Barrayar book, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. I am sorry to say that I did not like it. I am actually 100% behind the idea of Cordelia using Aral's DNA to have a bunch more children, but I would have liked a lot more exploration of the bitterly ironic situation that meant that she could only do so after he was dead and Miles had inherited. This book had basically no struggle and no anger, and I was just... bored. I mean, I knew I probably would not enjoy everything about it, but I was hoping to find something good to cling to. I did not.
Currently reading:
On paper, Piranesi, by Susannah Clarke -- finally! I am really really enjoying this! I love the imagery of the House! I love the way the details of what is going on are slowly being filled in, and the narrative voice is really excellent! I can't wait to find out yet a little bit more about what is going on here! (Don't tell me how it ends.)
On tablet, the GRRM prequel book about the Targaryens. I would actually have to look up the title. Fire and Blood, I think? This may be a sign of the level of my engagement in it, but on the other hand it's soothing to read right before bed, and there's quite a lot of it so it will keep me going for a while. As a book, I don't really care about anything or anyone in it, but that doesn't really interfere with my purpose in reading it, for which see directly above.
Temporarily put aside:
I saw somewhere that someone (wow, isn't this vague?) had requested C. J. Cherryh's Faded Sun trilogy in a fiction exchange, and that reminded me that I owned a copy and have occasionally thought about re-reading it. Also for some reason I don't own a copy of Dune. Why is that? Anyway, I only just started this but I think I'll go back to it when I'm done with Piranesi. I do remember really liking it, back in the day, which to be fair was a long time ago.
I might, though, turn first to the diaries of Tommy Lascelles, because while my mother was here we watched A LOT of The Crown, and it turns out that A has a collected volume of them, mostly from the 1940s or earlier (so before the series begins) and about his time with Edward VIII and George VI. He was such a great character, and so I'm looking forward to these, but either A or Spartacus might nab them first, now that my mother has gone home.
I finally succumbled to my completist tendencies and read Bujold's latest (last?) Barrayar book, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. I am sorry to say that I did not like it. I am actually 100% behind the idea of Cordelia using Aral's DNA to have a bunch more children, but I would have liked a lot more exploration of the bitterly ironic situation that meant that she could only do so after he was dead and Miles had inherited. This book had basically no struggle and no anger, and I was just... bored. I mean, I knew I probably would not enjoy everything about it, but I was hoping to find something good to cling to. I did not.
Currently reading:
On paper, Piranesi, by Susannah Clarke -- finally! I am really really enjoying this! I love the imagery of the House! I love the way the details of what is going on are slowly being filled in, and the narrative voice is really excellent! I can't wait to find out yet a little bit more about what is going on here! (Don't tell me how it ends.)
On tablet, the GRRM prequel book about the Targaryens. I would actually have to look up the title. Fire and Blood, I think? This may be a sign of the level of my engagement in it, but on the other hand it's soothing to read right before bed, and there's quite a lot of it so it will keep me going for a while. As a book, I don't really care about anything or anyone in it, but that doesn't really interfere with my purpose in reading it, for which see directly above.
Temporarily put aside:
I saw somewhere that someone (wow, isn't this vague?) had requested C. J. Cherryh's Faded Sun trilogy in a fiction exchange, and that reminded me that I owned a copy and have occasionally thought about re-reading it. Also for some reason I don't own a copy of Dune. Why is that? Anyway, I only just started this but I think I'll go back to it when I'm done with Piranesi. I do remember really liking it, back in the day, which to be fair was a long time ago.
I might, though, turn first to the diaries of Tommy Lascelles, because while my mother was here we watched A LOT of The Crown, and it turns out that A has a collected volume of them, mostly from the 1940s or earlier (so before the series begins) and about his time with Edward VIII and George VI. He was such a great character, and so I'm looking forward to these, but either A or Spartacus might nab them first, now that my mother has gone home.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-04 07:54 pm (UTC)Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen has to be the most heteronormative queering of a canon I have ever encountered, and it just leaves a sour taste for me.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-04 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-04 11:48 pm (UTC)Yeah, it's like: there was a queer relationship all along, but we never saw it, and now we see ... the m/f pairing that didn't exist before. I'm also deeply unpersuaded by Cordelia thinking that Jole was part of her marriage ... while he went completely unacknowledged by the rest of the world and unknown to her own child.