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What Are You Reading (Not On A) Wednesday
Aug. 17th, 2019 07:25 pmStrangely, I did not read much in my ten day's tourism? Or I did, but Outlander is a Long Book.
Currently Reading:
Fiction: Roxanne Gay's 'Difficult Women', and Robin Hobb's 'Royal Assassin'. Technically also The Three Musketeers, but I admit i haven't picked it up recently.
Non-Fiction: I picked up Gluten-Free Girl Everyday from the library and am pottering through that.
Poetry: Slowly through Paradise Lost in Anthony Oliviera's recording
Lit Mag: stalled on TLB 41.
Recently Finished
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Okay. This is a very difficult book to review. It is, above all, engaging. It's prose style is good, its historical research is pretty decent (it took me until about a week after finishing it to catch the biggest historical flaw, which is the use of 'clan-specific tartan' prior to the 19th century). Gabaldon does an amazing job of making the original husband Infuriating without being actually a *bad person*, so by the time Claire gets separated from him I'm like 'AND GOOD RIDDANCE'. Pretty much every character *except* him is very well-drawn, complex, and difficult to utterly loathe or unquestionably like (yes, even the villain Black Jack Randall - he's easy to loathe, but by the end you sort of pity him, too).
( spoiler and sexual violence cut )
On Friendship by Michel de Montaigne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I read it, I confirmed my suspicion that Montaigne is the source of the pronouncement that women are excluded from friendship by consensus of the Ancients (he might not be wrong, but it's definitely HIM, not The Ancients, that put it explicitly).
Also, Montaigne's kinks are showing.
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Apparently I've never reviewed this before! It's... As It Always Is. I cannot understand why 15 y old me thought FitzChivalry Farseer was attractive, he's a fuckboy. But unlike the first re-read where I realised that, I now appreciate that that's on purpose. He's *supposed* to be like that. That's the point.
Having said that, this time around the descriptions of the Forged - community members 'taken away' and made 'soulless', who display no empathy, grab things, and lash out at their family... Um. It's not a straight up changeling child story, there is a clear in-story explanation, and the majority of examples are grown adults. And yet. I've just read too many horrible descriptions of autistic children and adults to not get my hackles up when we've got pages describing the horrors of unempathetic adults who wreak havoc on the community. It's not an ANALOGY but it is drawing on the same kinds of fears that people use to construct dehumanising narratives about autistic people. So. That's a thing.
Up Next:
I have the next Ali Smith from the library, RF Kuang's The Poppy War, and a bunch of books I posted ahead of me to Aus.
Currently Reading:
Fiction: Roxanne Gay's 'Difficult Women', and Robin Hobb's 'Royal Assassin'. Technically also The Three Musketeers, but I admit i haven't picked it up recently.
Non-Fiction: I picked up Gluten-Free Girl Everyday from the library and am pottering through that.
Poetry: Slowly through Paradise Lost in Anthony Oliviera's recording
Lit Mag: stalled on TLB 41.
Recently Finished
Outlander by Diana GabaldonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Okay. This is a very difficult book to review. It is, above all, engaging. It's prose style is good, its historical research is pretty decent (it took me until about a week after finishing it to catch the biggest historical flaw, which is the use of 'clan-specific tartan' prior to the 19th century). Gabaldon does an amazing job of making the original husband Infuriating without being actually a *bad person*, so by the time Claire gets separated from him I'm like 'AND GOOD RIDDANCE'. Pretty much every character *except* him is very well-drawn, complex, and difficult to utterly loathe or unquestionably like (yes, even the villain Black Jack Randall - he's easy to loathe, but by the end you sort of pity him, too).
( spoiler and sexual violence cut )
On Friendship by Michel de MontaigneMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I read it, I confirmed my suspicion that Montaigne is the source of the pronouncement that women are excluded from friendship by consensus of the Ancients (he might not be wrong, but it's definitely HIM, not The Ancients, that put it explicitly).
Also, Montaigne's kinks are showing.
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin HobbMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Apparently I've never reviewed this before! It's... As It Always Is. I cannot understand why 15 y old me thought FitzChivalry Farseer was attractive, he's a fuckboy. But unlike the first re-read where I realised that, I now appreciate that that's on purpose. He's *supposed* to be like that. That's the point.
Having said that, this time around the descriptions of the Forged - community members 'taken away' and made 'soulless', who display no empathy, grab things, and lash out at their family... Um. It's not a straight up changeling child story, there is a clear in-story explanation, and the majority of examples are grown adults. And yet. I've just read too many horrible descriptions of autistic children and adults to not get my hackles up when we've got pages describing the horrors of unempathetic adults who wreak havoc on the community. It's not an ANALOGY but it is drawing on the same kinds of fears that people use to construct dehumanising narratives about autistic people. So. That's a thing.
Up Next:
I have the next Ali Smith from the library, RF Kuang's The Poppy War, and a bunch of books I posted ahead of me to Aus.