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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Apr 11 2017, 2:30pm
Post #1 of 7
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It's the full moon of April reading thread
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I'm hoping the clouds will clear by tonight so we can actually SEE the full moon!
I'm still listening to Emma, and still falling asleep to it  Something about those beautifully rounded phrases, I suspect. I've been musing about how Austen's two-hundred-year-old language sounds so contemporary and at the same time so antique. Perhaps the latter is because the social situations are almost laughably antique in our harder-edged and faster-paced modern world.
I read the first book in a series of cozy mysteries set in Victorian times but won't be going on with the series, even though there are something like thirty  more installments. The premise, that a Scotland Yard detective is a great guy but so dim his household staff solves his mysteries for him, ran pretty thin even by the end of the first volume, and the mystery itself was so paint-by-numbers it made me roll my eyes.
Yes, I'm way too picky about these things!
I've now just started a book titled Princesses Behaving Badly, by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, which is a collection of short essays on real, historical princesses---who very seldom had fairy-tale endings.
I'm enjoying McRobbie's wry point of view, especially in the introductory essay, where she writes about Disney's "Princess Industrial Complex" and refers the reader to another book, Cinderella Ate my Daughter, which I may have to check out.
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....
(This post was edited by Lily Fairbairn on Apr 11 2017, 2:31pm)
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Apr 11 2017, 5:17pm
Post #2 of 7
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Just read Ruth Reichl's "Delicious!"
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What a fun story! Fantastic food, quirky characters, an old mansion with a locked library harboring intriguing secrets, mysteries to be solved, and more than just the main character needing this journey in order to resolve the ghosts of their pasts.
It's not often I finish a book and then do a quick re-read to re-familiarize myself with the story so I can remember it better.
"Princess Industrial Complex"? I'm going to have to check that book out. Working in a library for kindergarten through eighth grade has made me absolutely detest Disney princesses.
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"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
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Apr 11 2017, 7:38pm
Post #3 of 7
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Making my way through The Name of the Wind.
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I don't want to go too quickly because this is delicious storytelling - a banquet of details of an ordinary life in a fantasy realm where the monsters are real (both human and inhuman). No wonder the book's named in various 'best' lists.
Highly recommended.
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Ataahua's stories
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Ettelewen
Rohan
Apr 12 2017, 2:47pm
Post #4 of 7
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Just finished Kim Stanley Robinson's "Aurora"
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I'd heard good things about it, and having read several of his novels previously I thought I'd give it a try.
This is a story of a multi-generational trip to Tau Ceti with the intention of colonizing one of the system's moons. It's fascinating in its exploration of group psychology, artificial intelligence, and the possibility of interstellar space travel. And it has the added novelty of being told from the ship's AI's perspective.
I loved Robinson's writing style as well, although at first I found the tense unusual (third-person present tense, I believe?). Rather than being told a story that had happened, we are being shown a story as it happens. Very refreshing.
Highly recommended.
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Aunt Dora Baggins
Immortal
Apr 14 2017, 7:37pm
Post #5 of 7
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Reading (mostly listening to) "Fifth Elephant"
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I'm still on a Terry Pratchett kick and am re-reading the Night Watch series (in reverse order, for some reason). I also recently re-read a few of the tech series like Raising Steam and Going Postal and The Truth (also in reverse order).
"The Truth" feels particularly timely; it's talking about the invention of the newspaper and the rise of fake news and how to tell the difference.
"Fifth Elephant" features our favorite copper Sam Vimes being sent on a diplomatic mission to stop a war, and also feels pretty timely. Terry Pratchett used fantasy to talk about some very serious issues in today's world.
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GNU Terry Pratchett
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"For DORA BAGGINS in memory of a LONG correspondence, with love from Bilbo; on a large wastebasket. Dora was Drogo's sister, and the eldest surviving female relative of Bilbo and Frodo; she was ninety-nine, and had written reams of good advice for more than half a century."
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"A Chance Meeting at Rivendell" and other stories
leleni at hotmail dot com
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Kimi
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Apr 14 2017, 10:31pm
Post #6 of 7
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(Finished it this week)
The book creates fully-fledged characters for the Longbourn servants, and shows the events of Pride and Prejudice from the pov of those servants.
I did enjoy this, and it certainly held my attention, but it was quite a bit darker than I'd expected. Of course the servants' lives *were* darker, and certainly much harder, than those of the privileged young ladies above stairs. There's also a wartime section that's grimly realistic.
A thought-provoking insight into those barely visible characters, and it felt well-researched, while wearing that research lightly. I found it a good read, but needed to set aside any expectation of Austeneque sparkle.
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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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Apr 18 2017, 2:27pm
Post #7 of 7
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It's the post-Easter reading thread!
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Having spent the holiday weekend out of town, with family, I did very little reading.
What I did do was finish listening to Emma. Of course it has a happy ending, with all the potential couples properly paired up. I still love Austen's language even as I think, wow, you people do go on  I find Emma's constant awareness of her friend Harriet's "lower" birth to be annoying and yes, snobbish, even though I suppose that sort of awareness was perfectly normal for the time period. She even calls Harriet "Harriet", while Harriet calls her "Miss Woodhouse". Sheesh.
My goodness, y'all have been reading some interesting things. Please tell me more!
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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