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highlyeccentricAnd out of fortnightly sequence, too! Because I've read so damn many things lately I need to increase the frequency of these reports.
Currently Reading: Williamson, 'Land of the Seal People', an anthology of scottish Traveller & folk tales, frequently featuring selkies; Kingsolver, 'Flight Behaviour'.
Finished Recently: Busse & Hellekson, 'Fan Fiction & Fan Communities'; Ochs & Rowley 'Getting Bi'; Roxanne Gay, 'Bad Feminist'
Finished more than a week ago:
1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England by W.C. Sellar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked this up at the brocanterie the other day and I SHRIEKED WITH LAUGHTER for the rest of the day. I haven't seen a copy of this since I was about 14 - I loved it then, but Horrible Histories were more my jam. Now I have the knowledge base to not only tell pretty reliably if the fact reported is true, bogus, or twisted, but also to get most of the UK culture/geography jokes. This, for instance, is much funnier if you know some UK place names. The test paper is... well, I could probably swap it for our general knowledge section of the exam and not get back answers any more bizarre than the standard. I wonder if someone HAS been swapping them?
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The long slow re-read of Wolf Hall by audiobook was in order to move on to this one, which I got through much more rapidly. I liked it a lot. A+. I'm particularly liking the way Jane Seymour's story is handled by the author - Mantel has worked hard to make available to the reader interpretations which the POV character, Cromwell, isn't thinking about. Eg: Jane Seymour is pretty clearly not interested in sex with Henry, but Cromwell is carefully avoiding letting that come to the top of his conciousness. Mantel has fantastic control over the close third person, it's brilliant.
Everyday Easy: One-pot by Andrew Roff
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Saw this somewhere in the UK, ordered it second-hand online. It's not *bad* but not as good as I'd hoped either. I made a pretty good stew out of it, but also a terrible frittata.
Up Next: Probably Henry Jenkins.
Currently Reading: Williamson, 'Land of the Seal People', an anthology of scottish Traveller & folk tales, frequently featuring selkies; Kingsolver, 'Flight Behaviour'.
Finished Recently: Busse & Hellekson, 'Fan Fiction & Fan Communities'; Ochs & Rowley 'Getting Bi'; Roxanne Gay, 'Bad Feminist'
Finished more than a week ago:
1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England by W.C. SellarMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked this up at the brocanterie the other day and I SHRIEKED WITH LAUGHTER for the rest of the day. I haven't seen a copy of this since I was about 14 - I loved it then, but Horrible Histories were more my jam. Now I have the knowledge base to not only tell pretty reliably if the fact reported is true, bogus, or twisted, but also to get most of the UK culture/geography jokes. This, for instance, is much funnier if you know some UK place names. The test paper is... well, I could probably swap it for our general knowledge section of the exam and not get back answers any more bizarre than the standard. I wonder if someone HAS been swapping them?
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary MantelMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The long slow re-read of Wolf Hall by audiobook was in order to move on to this one, which I got through much more rapidly. I liked it a lot. A+. I'm particularly liking the way Jane Seymour's story is handled by the author - Mantel has worked hard to make available to the reader interpretations which the POV character, Cromwell, isn't thinking about. Eg: Jane Seymour is pretty clearly not interested in sex with Henry, but Cromwell is carefully avoiding letting that come to the top of his conciousness. Mantel has fantastic control over the close third person, it's brilliant.
Everyday Easy: One-pot by Andrew RoffMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Saw this somewhere in the UK, ordered it second-hand online. It's not *bad* but not as good as I'd hoped either. I made a pretty good stew out of it, but also a terrible frittata.
Up Next: Probably Henry Jenkins.