![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Wednesday Reading Meme - June 14 2023
Jun. 14th, 2023 10:44 amWhat I’ve Read
A Bride for the Prizefighter by Alice Coldbreath – This Victorian working class romance was rather charming – I got the rec from Reformed Rake, a podcast by a Tiktoker who blogs about Romance novels of many eras. I found the main character really convincing, smart, and kind – when Mina’s father dies, she meets her estranged half-brother who arranges a marriage for her to HIS estranged half-brother, William Nye, the son of his father’s mistress who became a prize fighter and runs an pub. It felt like the descriptions of Mina’s life in the pub and her connections to the staff working there were very natural – Mina is a ‘lady’ in the sense of having an innate sense of decency and the value of other human beings, and Nye has a backbone of kindness to him that comes thru his rough demeanor. I felt like this had, as the Reformed Rake podcast noted, some genre connections to the Gothic, which was right up my alley. Very good romance, you can really see WHY these people like each other.
Love for Sale bypoisonivory - (https://archiveofourown.org/works/29789145) – Roy Harper, Arsenal, is between jobs and ends up hooking up with Jason Todd, who just happens to have an apartment to lend him – it’s just a business deal. Right? This story is a bit of a soft sugar daddy vibe, it works for me, despite being rather a departure from how I think about Jason Todd.
What I’m Reading:
The King in Yellow 25% -static – The next story up for me would be In the Court of the Dragon
The Count of Monte Cristo – 9%
Babel – Xing Book Club – 53% - I was just thinking about how much the first part of this novel reminds me of Naomi Novik's Scholomance series, in that it feels like someone taking the challenge of Hogwarts seriously - what does it mean to be brought into a magical community from the outside? What are the real impacts of magic on the world? What are the economies of how magic works? And who does this world consider expendable? We have just gotten to the point where Babel's students are going to be forced to confront those questions outside of England as adults who have been raised to serve the powers of the Empire of Britain. It's brutal and great.
Kristeva Powers of Horror -back in the swing of things! Chapter 2 for the end of the month.
The Witch King - Martha Wells - p80 - Solid introduction, feels akin to Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation in some details but its also very much its own thing
What I’ll Read Next
Book Club is going to need to pick some more books soon but until then I have a breather.
Library books:
The last unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The way home : two novellas from the world of The last unicorn by Peter S. Beagle.
Unnatural magic by C.M. Waggoner.
For the wolf by Hannah Whitten.
Horror: a very short introduction by Darryl Jones.
The spear cuts through water bySimon Jimenez.
Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum.
The artist's reality : philosophies of art by Mark Rothko ; edited and with an introduction by Christopher Rothko.
Into the Riverland by Nghi Vo
Fun home : a family tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.
Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey, Tom Stoppard, Invention of love, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe
A Bride for the Prizefighter by Alice Coldbreath – This Victorian working class romance was rather charming – I got the rec from Reformed Rake, a podcast by a Tiktoker who blogs about Romance novels of many eras. I found the main character really convincing, smart, and kind – when Mina’s father dies, she meets her estranged half-brother who arranges a marriage for her to HIS estranged half-brother, William Nye, the son of his father’s mistress who became a prize fighter and runs an pub. It felt like the descriptions of Mina’s life in the pub and her connections to the staff working there were very natural – Mina is a ‘lady’ in the sense of having an innate sense of decency and the value of other human beings, and Nye has a backbone of kindness to him that comes thru his rough demeanor. I felt like this had, as the Reformed Rake podcast noted, some genre connections to the Gothic, which was right up my alley. Very good romance, you can really see WHY these people like each other.
Love for Sale bypoisonivory - (https://archiveofourown.org/works/29789145) – Roy Harper, Arsenal, is between jobs and ends up hooking up with Jason Todd, who just happens to have an apartment to lend him – it’s just a business deal. Right? This story is a bit of a soft sugar daddy vibe, it works for me, despite being rather a departure from how I think about Jason Todd.
What I’m Reading:
The King in Yellow 25% -static – The next story up for me would be In the Court of the Dragon
The Count of Monte Cristo – 9%
Babel – Xing Book Club – 53% - I was just thinking about how much the first part of this novel reminds me of Naomi Novik's Scholomance series, in that it feels like someone taking the challenge of Hogwarts seriously - what does it mean to be brought into a magical community from the outside? What are the real impacts of magic on the world? What are the economies of how magic works? And who does this world consider expendable? We have just gotten to the point where Babel's students are going to be forced to confront those questions outside of England as adults who have been raised to serve the powers of the Empire of Britain. It's brutal and great.
Kristeva Powers of Horror -back in the swing of things! Chapter 2 for the end of the month.
The Witch King - Martha Wells - p80 - Solid introduction, feels akin to Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation in some details but its also very much its own thing
What I’ll Read Next
Book Club is going to need to pick some more books soon but until then I have a breather.
Library books:
The last unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The way home : two novellas from the world of The last unicorn by Peter S. Beagle.
Unnatural magic by C.M. Waggoner.
For the wolf by Hannah Whitten.
Horror: a very short introduction by Darryl Jones.
The spear cuts through water bySimon Jimenez.
Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum.
The artist's reality : philosophies of art by Mark Rothko ; edited and with an introduction by Christopher Rothko.
Into the Riverland by Nghi Vo
Fun home : a family tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.
Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey, Tom Stoppard, Invention of love, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe
