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Wednesday Reading Meme
Jan. 15th, 2015 03:21 pmCurrently Reading: Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, and I just started Jonas Jonasson The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. Carpentaria is very, very good but sort of heavy going - it's perhaps not good holiday reading.
Recently Finished:
Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law by Nancy D. Polikoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was very, very good. American-centric (and boy did it show - her section on Australian law showed a marked lack of understanding as to how much less significant state law is here), but still good.
Polikoff's key arguments were ( as follows )
The Wife Drought by Annabel Crabb
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is not the second coming of feminism.
It's FUN - full of anecdotes and Crabb's trademark snark, but it is not the second coming of feminism. It said nothing we did not already know (... quite frankly, aside from the stats, its key premises were well known in the EIGHTIES. Women add work to household responsibilities. Men do not typically pick up the latter. Men who do are regarded as weirdos. It would be good if we could do something about the latter two points). Crabb offers no constructive solutions or even pointers on how her examples of stay-at-home Dads do make it work. Her conclusion rather wishy-washily suggests the digital age might help, without apparently having noted that telecommuting has been on the *decline* since the financial crisis.
( I have other thoughts )
Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was pretty well written - the prose is lyrical and the story juuust skirts the edge of realism. The romance arc was pretty damn cute. The protag's devotion to her little brother was also nicely done, I love a good family-oriented YA. The structure of the Odyssey was well deployed, and by avoiding strict realism the story got away with it.
But it just didn't grab me. I can't see myself bothering to seek out the sequels.
Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was *beautifully* written. The protagonist, gender unspecified, is a serial philanderer with a penchant for married women, who falls head over heels and into a total mess with a woman named Louise. The writing is gorgeous, the plot thin but emotionally resonant. The actual events are banal, the story focuses entirely on the protag's emotional landscape. There's a lot of sex in it, but almost no physical descriptors - the focus is all on the protag's reactions and motivations and feelings and so on.
Gorgeous book. I wasn't happy with the ending, though - I thought it felt like a cop-out. You can't tell if the appearance of Louise is real or imagined, and that's... just cheating.
Also finished: Carrie Tiffany, Mateship with Birds; Kerry Greenwood, Earthly Pleasures, Heavenly Delights and Cocaine Blues; Penne Hackforth-Jones, bio of Barbara Baynton; and Dawn French, Oh Dear Sylvia. Some of these I loved, two I was very disappointed with. Will review in further detail another week. I'm reading a at a rate of knots, but that will come to an abrupt halt at the end of the holiday.
To Read Next: I've got a Jan Clausen novel still to read, from my Gould's Books extravaganza.
Recently Finished:
Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law by Nancy D. PolikoffMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was very, very good. American-centric (and boy did it show - her section on Australian law showed a marked lack of understanding as to how much less significant state law is here), but still good.
Polikoff's key arguments were ( as follows )
The Wife Drought by Annabel CrabbMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is not the second coming of feminism.
It's FUN - full of anecdotes and Crabb's trademark snark, but it is not the second coming of feminism. It said nothing we did not already know (... quite frankly, aside from the stats, its key premises were well known in the EIGHTIES. Women add work to household responsibilities. Men do not typically pick up the latter. Men who do are regarded as weirdos. It would be good if we could do something about the latter two points). Crabb offers no constructive solutions or even pointers on how her examples of stay-at-home Dads do make it work. Her conclusion rather wishy-washily suggests the digital age might help, without apparently having noted that telecommuting has been on the *decline* since the financial crisis.
( I have other thoughts )
Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia BlockMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was pretty well written - the prose is lyrical and the story juuust skirts the edge of realism. The romance arc was pretty damn cute. The protag's devotion to her little brother was also nicely done, I love a good family-oriented YA. The structure of the Odyssey was well deployed, and by avoiding strict realism the story got away with it.
But it just didn't grab me. I can't see myself bothering to seek out the sequels.
Written on the Body by Jeanette WintersonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was *beautifully* written. The protagonist, gender unspecified, is a serial philanderer with a penchant for married women, who falls head over heels and into a total mess with a woman named Louise. The writing is gorgeous, the plot thin but emotionally resonant. The actual events are banal, the story focuses entirely on the protag's emotional landscape. There's a lot of sex in it, but almost no physical descriptors - the focus is all on the protag's reactions and motivations and feelings and so on.
Gorgeous book. I wasn't happy with the ending, though - I thought it felt like a cop-out. You can't tell if the appearance of Louise is real or imagined, and that's... just cheating.
Also finished: Carrie Tiffany, Mateship with Birds; Kerry Greenwood, Earthly Pleasures, Heavenly Delights and Cocaine Blues; Penne Hackforth-Jones, bio of Barbara Baynton; and Dawn French, Oh Dear Sylvia. Some of these I loved, two I was very disappointed with. Will review in further detail another week. I'm reading a at a rate of knots, but that will come to an abrupt halt at the end of the holiday.
To Read Next: I've got a Jan Clausen novel still to read, from my Gould's Books extravaganza.