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highlyeccentricWhat Are You Reading Wednesday:
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?
What are you currently reading?
I've just started William M. Reddy's The Navigation of Feeling, which appears to be one of the two foundation books for the history of emotions. It's interesting enough, so far.
For funsies, I'm wading through Closer to home: bisexuality and feminism, which is in part answering my need for feminist-oriented bisexual analysis. HOWEVER. It's from 1992. Most of the essays are super caught up in negotiating the tail end of 70s lesbian-feminist politics. None of them so far seem to want to question a rigid two-sex model. I want a new anthology addressing similar starting questions but taking in the full breadth of 21st-c gender & queer culture/politics.
I'm also re-reading Anne of Avonlea, in e-book format because I gave my hard copies to little sister when I left Aus. Disappointed that e-books of the less popular / retcon books aren't available on girlebooks - I have a yen to read Anne of Windy Poplars. I shall have to look further afield.
What did you recently finish reading?
I finally finished reading 'Friendship between women', have yet to annotate.
Also, I devoured two consecutive Ben Aaronovitch audiobooks, delighting my soul but... enabling my avoidant tendancies lately. I've crocheted a lot of blanket thanks to these books!
Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I liked this one very much - the plot seemed tighter than that of preceding novels, although the actual whisperers under the ground weren't given enough space, I thought. I *love* that Aaronovitch has let his urban history/design geek run riot, giving Peter the plausible if thin excuse of an early aspiration to architecture. The high incidence of geek fiction/film jokes was also a bonus.
Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Definitely his best yet, although clearly part one of a two-part plot, with obvious hook-through to the next book. I enjoyed seeing Peter discover that he is not, in fact, the first scientifically-minded magician in the history of ever, that was a much-needed reality check for him.
This book also answered some of my niggling dissatisfaction with Leslie's role so far. She, too, is dissatisfied! Also, ten points to her for taking up with Zack. Peter's treating Leslie with more respect than in the first book, but at the cost of seeing her as a sexual human, and it was pleasing to see that this is not also the *authorial* perspective. I also approve of Peter's stance on the Beverly Brooke situation. You stay right out of that, lad.
New villain Vavora is also awesome, I greatly hope she becomes some sort of ally in the future, because she seems like fun. Also Nightinggale could do with being around more lady magicians.
I was also paying attention throughout this book, and I *think* it's more marked in books 3 & 4 than in 1 & 2, but almost every time Peter meets a new non-police individual, if they're white, his internal POV specifies 'white guy', 'white woman', etc. If they're not white, they're usually identified by more specific markers: 'the tallest Somali woman I've ever seen' being one example from this book. I'm not sure what the visual markers are that tell you she's a tall Somali woman rather than a tall Nigerian woman, and Peter doesn't explain. This is mildly aggravating for my curiosity, but I'm willing to bet it's accurate/plausible. Also on the list of completely plausible incorporations of character's background into their detective work, I love how Peter's mum's skills as a professional cleaner keep getting airtime and are now as well-incorporated into his outlook as his father's jazz knowledge was in the early books.
I continue to adore Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's narration. Could listen to him for hours, and indeed, so I have quite recently done.
What do you think you'll read next?
Honestly not sure. Perhaps 'Friends: Why Men and Women Are From the Same Planet'.
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?
What are you currently reading?
I've just started William M. Reddy's The Navigation of Feeling, which appears to be one of the two foundation books for the history of emotions. It's interesting enough, so far.
For funsies, I'm wading through Closer to home: bisexuality and feminism, which is in part answering my need for feminist-oriented bisexual analysis. HOWEVER. It's from 1992. Most of the essays are super caught up in negotiating the tail end of 70s lesbian-feminist politics. None of them so far seem to want to question a rigid two-sex model. I want a new anthology addressing similar starting questions but taking in the full breadth of 21st-c gender & queer culture/politics.
I'm also re-reading Anne of Avonlea, in e-book format because I gave my hard copies to little sister when I left Aus. Disappointed that e-books of the less popular / retcon books aren't available on girlebooks - I have a yen to read Anne of Windy Poplars. I shall have to look further afield.
What did you recently finish reading?
I finally finished reading 'Friendship between women', have yet to annotate.
Also, I devoured two consecutive Ben Aaronovitch audiobooks, delighting my soul but... enabling my avoidant tendancies lately. I've crocheted a lot of blanket thanks to these books!
Whispers Under Ground by Ben AaronovitchMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I liked this one very much - the plot seemed tighter than that of preceding novels, although the actual whisperers under the ground weren't given enough space, I thought. I *love* that Aaronovitch has let his urban history/design geek run riot, giving Peter the plausible if thin excuse of an early aspiration to architecture. The high incidence of geek fiction/film jokes was also a bonus.
Broken Homes by Ben AaronovitchMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Definitely his best yet, although clearly part one of a two-part plot, with obvious hook-through to the next book. I enjoyed seeing Peter discover that he is not, in fact, the first scientifically-minded magician in the history of ever, that was a much-needed reality check for him.
This book also answered some of my niggling dissatisfaction with Leslie's role so far. She, too, is dissatisfied! Also, ten points to her for taking up with Zack. Peter's treating Leslie with more respect than in the first book, but at the cost of seeing her as a sexual human, and it was pleasing to see that this is not also the *authorial* perspective. I also approve of Peter's stance on the Beverly Brooke situation. You stay right out of that, lad.
New villain Vavora is also awesome, I greatly hope she becomes some sort of ally in the future, because she seems like fun. Also Nightinggale could do with being around more lady magicians.
I was also paying attention throughout this book, and I *think* it's more marked in books 3 & 4 than in 1 & 2, but almost every time Peter meets a new non-police individual, if they're white, his internal POV specifies 'white guy', 'white woman', etc. If they're not white, they're usually identified by more specific markers: 'the tallest Somali woman I've ever seen' being one example from this book. I'm not sure what the visual markers are that tell you she's a tall Somali woman rather than a tall Nigerian woman, and Peter doesn't explain. This is mildly aggravating for my curiosity, but I'm willing to bet it's accurate/plausible. Also on the list of completely plausible incorporations of character's background into their detective work, I love how Peter's mum's skills as a professional cleaner keep getting airtime and are now as well-incorporated into his outlook as his father's jazz knowledge was in the early books.
I continue to adore Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's narration. Could listen to him for hours, and indeed, so I have quite recently done.
What do you think you'll read next?
Honestly not sure. Perhaps 'Friends: Why Men and Women Are From the Same Planet'.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 12:50 pm (UTC)In some editions it was published as Anne of Windy Willows, too.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 01:07 pm (UTC)I found nicely formatted versions of the gutenberg text here: http://fr.feedbooks.com/book/5106/anne-of-windy-poplars .
What was REALLY fruitless was my quest to locate a french-language audiobook of any Anne book. I circled endlessly around e-books and pirates of the movies. SIGH.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 09:34 pm (UTC)... and yet I do really like it.