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Lily Fairbairn
Gondolin
Jul 31, 3:10pm
Post #1 of 22
(2483 views)
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It's the occasional reading thread!
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Wow, it's the last day of July already. Time is passing, yes, but I've started seeing pumpkins and Halloween decorations in the stores. Nooooo! I'm not a huge fan of late summer---too hot and here, too dry---but it's waaaay too soon for Halloween!
Fortunately there are always good books to read. One of the ones I'm listening to right now is Windswept, by Ann Worsley. This is her account of living on a croft far up in the NW Highlands of Scotland, one of the most beautiful places in the world. It's a very soothing book, about birds and scenery and weather.
I've just finished listening to a less soothing book, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon, written and read by Kevin Fedarko. It's quite lengthy, and is about much more than the competitive boat trip down the Colorado River of the title. There's history, geology, engineering, personalities.... Well, I enjoyed it even though it could have been a much shorter and tighter narrative. The author is no trained voice actor but doesn't embarrass himself. What set my editorial teeth on edge was the number of times the ungrammatical "have rode" (correctly, it's "have ridden") is repeated in the course of an otherwise well-written book.
On paper I read The Mill House Murders, by Yukito Ayatsuji. I'm afraid I was underwhelmed by the author's first novel, The Decagon House Murders, and felt the same way about this one. I never could still my editorial pencil, even while reminding myself over and over again that the prose is awkward because it's a translation from a language very different from English. However, the scrambled time frames and repetitions are intrinsic to the plot. I'd say both books are intriguing curiosities.
My favorite reading experience this time around comes from one of my favorite authors, Ben Aaronovitch. The tenth installment in the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series, Stone and Sky, takes place in Aberdeen, Scotland. I was worried that the reason for a three-year gap between books was because the author was tired of the series. Well, maybe he did need to take a break, but this new one is just as prose-sparkling and story-wowing as ever, with no "fat" whatsoever. And with the usual fannish comments, including apt references to LotR.
I read the library ebook of this, because I can read ebooks fast and wanted to see what happened in the story. I have the paper book waiting for a more leisurely read. I have the audiobook (read, like the others, by the incomparable Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) ready to listen to after I catch up with the audiobooks of False Value and Amongst Our Weapons, numbers eight and nine.
I'm now reading another paper book, We Solve Murders by Richard Osman, author of the Thursday Murder Club series. This is turning out to be less of a clever and fast-paced mystery like the Thursday books and more of a clever and fast-paced thriller, with very broadly painted—-but entertaining—-characters and situations. I have to ask, though, when did the over-the-top famous female author become such a stock character? I've seen multiple variations on this theme recently.
So what have you been reading?
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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Annael
Elvenhome
Jul 31, 11:11pm
Post #2 of 22
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just finished the second in her "Ancillary" series, Ancillary Sword, and looking forward to reading the final in the series plus a couple in-the-same-'verse books not directly related to this series. Excellent writer, provocative ideas. The main character was the AI of a troopship belonging to an expansionist empire. As such the ship was also her ancillaries--human bodies (usually prisoners of war) used as the AI's robot army, their own personalities destroyed and linked to the AI. But each ship also has human officers, and they have favorites--in fact, "love" certain people. When the absolute dictator orders the ship to kill her favorite officer, who has been questioning the join-us-or-die methods of the empire, the ship rebels. The dictator destroys it, but Breq, one of the ancillaries, survives and embarks on a long campaign to take down the dictator. I particularly like how the citizens of the empire are oblivious to gender---everyone is "she" and Breq has a lot of trouble when encountering other cultures figuring out when someone is actually male--and the isssue of machines having emotions. There are parallels to Martha Wells's "Murderbot" series.
(Speaking of which, Netflix okayed a second season of "Murderbot"! Yay!)
I'm also reading "Wives and Daughters" by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I somehow never got around to before. (Hadn't seen the TV show either but started watching it and pleased to see how true it is to the books. I don't think Keeley Hawes was the right choice for Cynthia, but otherwise I love the casting.)
I need to get that new Aaronovitch! Love the "Rivers."
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
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NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Otaku-sempai
Elvenhome
Aug 1, 1:21am
Post #3 of 22
(2069 views)
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The Runes of the Earth by Stephen R. Donaldson
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I"m starting on The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, though I don't yet have the final volume of the set. Wish me luck; Thomas Covenant is not the most sympathetic protagonist in fantasy literature. The two previous series have been rough going in places and it's been years since I've read them.
“Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved.” - Tony Isabella
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Aug 1, 3:34pm
Post #4 of 22
(2035 views)
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Charles Stross' "Halting State"
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Published in 2007, this takes place mostly in Edinburgh in an imagined 2018 when Scotland has become an independent nation. The police receive a 211 about a robbery...by a bunch of orcs and a dragon. It gets more and more fun from there, as the goings-on in an MMRP game intersect with reality, bringing together a police sergeant, an insurance adjuster, and a just-laid-off super-programmer to trace the culprits, avoiding getting killed by them in the process.
Fortunately my son has described things in gaming language enough times that I'm familiar with the terminology, otherwise this would have been way over my head! Very nice to have some Scottish dialect in there, and I recognized many of the locales from having visited there once.
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"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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Kimi
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Aug 1, 11:56pm
Post #5 of 22
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As I'm in full-on editing mode I am a mean reader just now, unable to consume a single sentence without thinking how it could have been improved (IMHO, of course) by removing a word, or changing the order, or cutting out that repetition, etc. That aside, some of my recent reads (several from before I plunged into said mode):
One Illumined Thread by Sally Colin-James.
This is a multi-timeline book, with a textile conservator in present-day Adelaide (Australia); an artist's wife (and artist in her own right) in Renaissance Florence; and Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, in biblical times.
I liked the intertwining plots, the historical details, (although the author does freely state that she's sacrificed accuracy for the sake of story in some cases, which makes my inner pedant shudder), and the affectionate portrayal of her characters. I found it a bit wearing, though, because it's constantly what strikes me as fervent in tone. When emotions are constantly heightened, the effect is eventually blunted.
Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons.
A re-telling of Romeo and Juliet. Described as not a love story, and the lady doth not lie. Rosaline is the lover Romeo casually sets aside as soon as he lays eyes on Juliet, and this is the story as told by Rosaline. She is a fierce heroine, determined to protect her beloved young cousin Juliet from what she predicts (from experience) will be Romeo's betrayal. Gripping and powerful - at times I had to remember to breathe.
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson.
We have the movie version (starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams), and re-watch it quite often, so it was interesting to read the book upon which it's based. Quite a few changes were made in the movie, including making Amy Adams' character and her beau American instead of English, but the core of Miss Pettigrew's story, and of Miss Pettigrew herself, is true to the original. A mostly charming story of a woman of a certain age who's been repressed all her life and stumbles into a world of light and glamour and excitement - for a day (or will it be for longer?)
Very much a product of its time, with some ethnic slurs and casual misogyny that at times made me cringe, but Guinevere Pettigrew and the warm-hearted Delysia each bring charm to the story.
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
I really enjoyed this sci-fi cozy. It's quite short, more novella than novel, so quickly consumed.
Here's a portion of the blurb:
Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty's most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.
Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.
Dorothy is a warm and appealing character, the story is more about relationships than hard science, and there's a fair dollop of knitting and other creative activities.
It's the first in a series, and I look forward to reading the next one when it comes out.
The Passing of Mistress Rose
My historical novels
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
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Annael
Elvenhome
Aug 2, 4:31pm
Post #6 of 22
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about how being in edit mode makes one a "mean" reader. Being an editor by profession, more and more I find the books coming out now impossible to read. I recently bought a first novel by an acquaintance, and threw it away after reading one chapter. Clearly not edited nor even re-read, because he would have caught the incomplete sentences if he had - wouldn't he? I'm just hoping he won't ask me what I thought of it. In fact I've decided to leave the local writers' league I joined last year because their standards are too low for me, and any time I've brought up the issue of hiring an editor (not me, I neither need nor want this work), the reaction has been downright hostile, in the "no one is changing MY words!" style. Which to me is the mark of a bad writer, because good ones always want to be even better.
I'll look for Murder by Memory. Sounds like my cup of tea.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
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NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Lily Fairbairn
Gondolin
Aug 2, 6:47pm
Post #7 of 22
(1995 views)
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Kimi and Annael, that makes three of us! As a former author and editor myself, I find it almost impossible to read anything without mentally "correcting" morsels of it---grammar, plot, word choice, you name it.
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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Ethel Duath
Gondolin
Aug 2, 9:36pm
Post #8 of 22
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Yes. I actually first noticed that with children's books,
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to some extent way back when my son was born, but even more so when my daughter was born eight years later. I tried to avoid the most egregious examples, but many of them were gifts and my kids insisted that I read them aloud, frequently. It was rather painful, but as they got older, I managed to shift them over to the good ones of yore [almost) exclusively.
With that in mind, has anyone ever run across the children's book by Rumer Godden called The Story of Holly and Ivy? The writing style is unusual, but the story is so beautiful. My daughter still has fond memories of us reading it out loud every Christmas.
(This post was edited by Ethel Duath on Aug 2, 9:37pm)
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Kimi
Forum Admin
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Aug 2, 9:56pm
Post #9 of 22
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Which to me is the mark of a bad writer, because good ones always want to be even better.
Yes. Oh yes. I hope to continue honing my craft for as long as I'm capable of writing at all. And not being overly "precious" about one's own work is one of the first and most important lessons to learn, IMO.
Unfinished sentences! You did well to manage a whole chapter :)
The Passing of Mistress Rose
My historical novels
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
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Kimi
Forum Admin
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Aug 2, 10:58pm
Post #10 of 22
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On a very different note: a memoir and a scandal
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Early in July I read a review of a book called [i]The Salt Path[/i], an account of the writer's experience of losing her home and livelihood, closely followed by her husband's being diagnosed with a degenerative disease, and the healing experience of walking the south-west coast of England. The book has been a huge success, with millions of copies sold, and a movie version has been made, starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs.
The description intrigued me, and Devon and Cornwall are among my favourite parts of England, so I borrowed a copy from the library and began reading.
It's quite well-written, although I did have issues with the opening section - the story is that they lose their house owing to a business deal done more or less as a favour to a "friend" going sour, and their house being caught up in his debts. I've done a fair amount of delving into our court system, which we inherited from the English one, and her account of the proceedings just didn't ring true to me.
That aside (and I was prepared to be completely wrong about the above), I was enjoying it well enough, especially since I knew the story had a relatively happy ending. But then a bombshell dropped: an investigative journalist asserted that large chunks of the story are untrue. The two most significant claims: (1) that they didn't lose their house because of the bad business deal, but as a result of Raynor (a pen name) stealing from a former employer, and having to sell the house to pay back the debt; (2) that her husband does not have a serious case of the degenerative disease, and they've given false hope to actual sufferers.
The author is denying all this, although some of the specific, apparently well-evidenced accusations seem difficult to refute. But it's provoked a good deal of discussion about honesty or otherwise in memoirs; where simplification and streamlining and maintaining a measure of privacy (both the author's and other parties) slides into being misleading; how much responsibility publishers have when it comes to fact-checking. The discussions are perhaps more interesting than the book itself.
The Passing of Mistress Rose
My historical novels
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
(This post was edited by Kimi on Aug 2, 10:59pm)
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
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Aug 3, 12:43pm
Post #11 of 22
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It's in the library of the school I worked at. I don't recall the story, sadly!
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"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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Annael
Elvenhome
Aug 3, 8:01pm
Post #12 of 22
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I won't edit memoirs for a variety of reasons; "because the author might be lying" tops the list.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
(This post was edited by Annael on Aug 3, 8:03pm)
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Ethel Duath
Gondolin
Aug 3, 11:05pm
Post #13 of 22
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Well worth reading, even as an adult, of course with
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children in mind. You can get a feel for it here, and although there were three different illustrators for three different additions, I think I like this one the best. It's the one we have.
https://threebooksanight.com/...017-22hollyivy-2.jpg
(This post was edited by Ethel Duath on Aug 3, 11:06pm)
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dernwyn
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Aug 4, 1:39am
Post #14 of 22
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With the Barbara Clooney illustrations. 
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"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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cats16
Gondolin
Aug 4, 6:55pm
Post #15 of 22
(1611 views)
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This book has had a bit of a revival over social media the last few years, and it's been on my list for sometime.
Overall I enjoyed it. Williams is a bit on the dry side in terms of his style, but I think it works well given the personality of his protagonist.
Join us every weekend in the Hobbit movie forum for this week's CHOW (Chapter of the Week) discussion!
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cats16
Gondolin
Aug 4, 6:58pm
Post #16 of 22
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That's really awkward. I wish I had 1% of the confidence that some writers like that have, as I'd probably share my work more!
Join us every weekend in the Hobbit movie forum for this week's CHOW (Chapter of the Week) discussion!
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Kimi
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Aug 7, 12:04am
Post #17 of 22
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I won't edit memoirs for a variety of reasons; "because the author might be lying" tops the list.
I do feel sympathy for the people who end up with their names associated with this sort of thing, while having had no part of the deception.
The Passing of Mistress Rose
My historical novels
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
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Annael
Elvenhome
Aug 7, 5:51pm
Post #18 of 22
(1458 views)
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you're a better writer!
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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CuriousG
Gondolin
Aug 15, 9:03pm
Post #20 of 22
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Goodreads marketing humor: a promise of author brownies
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This spam popped up today, and I thought the sense of humor made it worth sharing here. For the record, I thought Old Man's War was entertaining but not great, and I can't imagine reading any more of the books.
Goodreads tells me that at some point in the recent past, you left a 4 or 5 star review for one of my Old Man's War books. This means you are a person of taste and discernment. Thank you. If we ever meet, I will bake you brownies, and I will give you the coveted corner edge piece. You deserve it!
I also want to let you know I have a new Old Man's War book on the way: The Shattering Peace, the 7th book in the series. Is the fate of the universe at stake? Of course! Will the fate of billions hinge on the actions of our protagonist? Absolutely! Will there be knife fights and wisecracks and alien creatures? You better believe it! It’s my return to this universe after a decade away, and it’s fun for fans of the series and for new readers as well.
Give The Shattering Peace a shot, and thank you again for reading (and reviewing!) my books. You keep reading them, I’ll keep writing them. That’s a promise.
Your pal with brownies,
John Scalzi
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Lily Fairbairn
Gondolin
Aug 16, 12:01am
Post #21 of 22
(1142 views)
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I've met him and done business with him briefly and he's a gem---a true gentleman, for one thing, and smart as a whip. I thought his Starter Villain was fun but haven't read anything else.
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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CuriousG
Gondolin
Aug 19, 12:11am
Post #22 of 22
(1070 views)
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If he makes good on the brownies, I promise to share. //
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