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What Are You Reading Wednesday
Aug. 22nd, 2018 05:23 amIt's Wednesday in Australia. I normally make this a Weekend, not Wednesday, thing, but I know I won't get time this coming weekend.
Currently Reading: Rohinton Mistry, 'A Fine Blanance' (still); Sulari Gentil 'A Few Right-Thinking Men'; my own thesis. The latest Meanjin, electronic edition, which is slow going because I find that website extremely unappealing as a deep reading platform.
Recently Finished:
Cat Sebastian, 'A Gentleman Never Keeps Score', which I liked and will give a full review post to later.
Enid Blyton, 'First Term At Malory Towers', which I had out to try to get Brooke invested but ended up reading myself. Will do a wrap-up review for the whole series next time - I read all six as e-books on the flight home.
There Was an Old Geezer Called Caesar: A History of the World in 100 Limericks by Mick Twister
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I bought this for Dad a while ago, but this is the first time I've got my hands on it. I found it a quick, lightly amusing read. I seem to recall getting pedantically annoyed about something - but only one something, which is impressive. The selection of historical events is overall pretty western-imperialistic, but the takes on those figures are often pleasingly unflattering.
The Gluten-Free Kitchen by Herron Books
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A bit of an odd cookbook - one of those ones a publisher churns out with no obvious author or editor. It was, however, pretty cheap, and I don't have a dedicated GF cookbook. First endeavour was the banana bread, which was definitely /bread/, not cake. Made good savoury toast, but not so good that I alone could eat it all before it went stale!
Unbroken Ties by Carol S. Becker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Not what i was looking for. Doesn't really theorise much about the findings, even though the findings are precisely about the friend-lover boundary I'm most interested in. Nor, peculiarly, does it offer sociological or theoretical commentary on whether the trends reported are particular to LESBIAN relationships. The book defines itself as exclusively lesbian, and all the interviewees are, although some had girlfriends who left them for a man. Becker says she didn't address gay men or bisexual men or women or straight people, but would expect similar findings. Speaking as a bisexual woman I would /not/ expect similar findings across all those groups- and I think that failing to speak to bisexual women in particular leaves a gap in Becker's work. Bisexual women, although our experience is obviously not exactly those of either lesbians or straight women, are uniquely placed to comment on the differences between opposite-sex and same-sex relationship parameters.
View all my reviews
The important thing to note about the last one is I was loaned it by my ex-girlfriend ;).
Up Next: Well, I oughtn't to expect to get much reading done in the next few weeks, aside from my own PhD. After that... holiday reading! I have a stack of stuff in my kobo, plus a few nice hard copies I bought in the UK because I have no restraint.
Music notes: nothing in particular of note, save that Crowded House remain good plane-sleeping music. I got to listening to Dana Al Faran, a Qatari composer, on the return flight, and quite liked her latest album 'Sandstorm' - not enough to immediately buy, but enough to look her up on spotify.
I also somehow convinced my Dad to let (?? my parents are very odd) my Mum get spotify. Note to self, send mum more music.
Currently Reading: Rohinton Mistry, 'A Fine Blanance' (still); Sulari Gentil 'A Few Right-Thinking Men'; my own thesis. The latest Meanjin, electronic edition, which is slow going because I find that website extremely unappealing as a deep reading platform.
Recently Finished:
Cat Sebastian, 'A Gentleman Never Keeps Score', which I liked and will give a full review post to later.
Enid Blyton, 'First Term At Malory Towers', which I had out to try to get Brooke invested but ended up reading myself. Will do a wrap-up review for the whole series next time - I read all six as e-books on the flight home.
There Was an Old Geezer Called Caesar: A History of the World in 100 Limericks by Mick TwisterMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I bought this for Dad a while ago, but this is the first time I've got my hands on it. I found it a quick, lightly amusing read. I seem to recall getting pedantically annoyed about something - but only one something, which is impressive. The selection of historical events is overall pretty western-imperialistic, but the takes on those figures are often pleasingly unflattering.
The Gluten-Free Kitchen by Herron BooksMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
A bit of an odd cookbook - one of those ones a publisher churns out with no obvious author or editor. It was, however, pretty cheap, and I don't have a dedicated GF cookbook. First endeavour was the banana bread, which was definitely /bread/, not cake. Made good savoury toast, but not so good that I alone could eat it all before it went stale!
Unbroken Ties by Carol S. BeckerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Not what i was looking for. Doesn't really theorise much about the findings, even though the findings are precisely about the friend-lover boundary I'm most interested in. Nor, peculiarly, does it offer sociological or theoretical commentary on whether the trends reported are particular to LESBIAN relationships. The book defines itself as exclusively lesbian, and all the interviewees are, although some had girlfriends who left them for a man. Becker says she didn't address gay men or bisexual men or women or straight people, but would expect similar findings. Speaking as a bisexual woman I would /not/ expect similar findings across all those groups- and I think that failing to speak to bisexual women in particular leaves a gap in Becker's work. Bisexual women, although our experience is obviously not exactly those of either lesbians or straight women, are uniquely placed to comment on the differences between opposite-sex and same-sex relationship parameters.
View all my reviews
The important thing to note about the last one is I was loaned it by my ex-girlfriend ;).
Up Next: Well, I oughtn't to expect to get much reading done in the next few weeks, aside from my own PhD. After that... holiday reading! I have a stack of stuff in my kobo, plus a few nice hard copies I bought in the UK because I have no restraint.
Music notes: nothing in particular of note, save that Crowded House remain good plane-sleeping music. I got to listening to Dana Al Faran, a Qatari composer, on the return flight, and quite liked her latest album 'Sandstorm' - not enough to immediately buy, but enough to look her up on spotify.
I also somehow convinced my Dad to let (?? my parents are very odd) my Mum get spotify. Note to self, send mum more music.