What Are You Reading (Actually On A) Wednesday

[highlyeccentric]

I appear to have read enough books in the past week to warrant a post today, rather than my usual fortnightly update.

What are you currently reading? Love in the Time of Global Warming, which hasn't get *grabbed* me. Plus a few things started and languisihing: House of Leaves, in particular. Still working through HP4 in french audiobook.

What did you recently finish?
Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I rather liked this - I found Agnes a sympathetic and admirable character, and enjoyed watching her grow in strength and certainty.

I wasn't entirely impressed with the conclusion, however. I felt like narrative threads were left unresolved - the discourse on education, for instance, left hanging by the entire disengagement with the actual running of the school. Agnes' lack of friends was resolved by her finding a suitable husband, rather than by she and her mother establishing themselves in the school and their new town.


Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Well *that* was a lot more compelling than I had expected. By the title, and the cover design, I had sort of expected something very... blokey. Jack Kerouac for dykes. Routine dismissals of women/femininity. An emotionally unengaging narrator.

There were elements of that - Bring your butch woes to the femme's laps! - but more complex, and throughout the novel that element was more deeply interrogated than I had expected. At key points it was possible to distinguish between the *narrative/authorital* ethic and the protagonist's - eg, I was pretty sure one was supposed to see that Theresa was right about 'Butches need women's lib' even as we saw why Jess was never likely to darken the doors of a campus meeting.

I wasn't expecting to read this in one sitting and weep over it, but I did.

I would not recommend this book if you're already feeling pissed about toxic masculinity, though.


Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was great fun, but somehow lacking. The 'train is a live goddess' idea didn't seem sufficiently developed, for one thing. The whole train chase lead to a bit of an anti-climax in Uberwald. Some surprise twists were not foreshadowed at all - there was little of that 'OH so that's what that side reference was!'.

I liked it. Were it not that it was Pratchett I would perhaps have adored it. I do like what he's doing with the goblins, and I hope the goblin underground railway turns up later on. But it reads like... good Discworld fanfiction? By someone who can imitate Pratchett pretty well but isn't as funny or as brilliant. I feel mean saying that - he's doing a great job for someone with a degenerative neurological disorder! But there we go. He's past his prime. I hope for more world-building in the absence of super sparky narratives.



What will you read next? Honestly, not sure. Whatever comes to hand?

Ed: and yep, I finished Stone Butch Blues a day and a bit before hearing about Feinberg's death. Nice timing, huh?

Comments

[khalinche]

I wasn't expecting to read this in one sitting and weep over it, but I did

This is also my experience of this book, and lots of people's, I think. I also didn't expect to cry real noisy tears on hearing that Leslie had died, but I did. Damn, but that person lived a life of righteous fighting, for hir own community and for people who needed an ally. I know I already put it on Twitter but this image just sums up what feminism, what queer liberation and solidarity is or should be all about: marginalised people recognising the struggle of other marginalised people and reaching out to support each other.

[realpestilence]

The Pratchett books I like, I like very much; and the Vimes titles are my absolute favorites, won't ever get rid of them-the evolution of his character and relationships are fascinating, and they're good mystery cases. I like the interaction between Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg; and some of the wizard books are funny. But the writing is so irregular from book to book that nothing grabs me. They're not bad, and like you said, if they were by another author I'd call them good enough.

It's a sad, mournful thing, to watch this downhill slide.