Recent reading and listening

[luzula]

I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination, by Francis Spufford

This is non-fiction about the cultural history of British polar exploration up to about Shackleton and Scott. Well worth reading! I especially liked the bit about the roles available to women as explorers' wives, and the bit about how the public image of the Franklin expedition and other earlier expeditions influenced the staging of the Shackleton and Scott expeditions. Also, I can't help quoting this little tidbit: here's a 19th century translation of a line from an Inuit story: "I'm a better man than any of you!" A more literal translation of the line is apparently: "My clitoris is bigger than all your penises put together!" *g*

Barrayar, by Lois McMaster Bujold (audiobook)

Still very enjoyable! I could listen to Cordelia kicking ass all day, thank you. \o/

First Successful Ascent of Mt. Rainier, 1870 (Librivox audiobook)

What it says on the tin. Apparently they thought they could do the last little bit in one day and left coats and blankets behind? And then they had to spend the night at a volcanic steam vent with one side of the body scalding and the other side freezing to ice, gah.

As for fanworks, I finally found the Avengers fic I've been longing for! I am not really much of an Avengers fan, but ever since I watched Captain America I've wanted a fic about Steve Rogers being friends and hanging out with the showgirls in the USO, and now I've found one: Star Spangled, by boombangbing. Yessssss, I love it. ♥ I have no idea why this fic satisfies my id, but it does.

I've also really enjoyed bghost's Shadow of the Bookman. I've only read the first part so far, but it's a gripping gen fic about Vecchio in Vegas (although the first part is all about how he was convinced to do it). There are family secrets and ghosts!

Comments

[isis]

Haha on that Inuit story! I forget, have you read the fictional 'May Be Some Time' yet, about Titus Oates?

[luzula]

Hmm, no. But "Revise the World" is on my books-to-check-out list, and it appears to be the revised novel version of "May Be Some Time", which is a novella?

Anyway, I have a huge pile of books to read, so it'll probably be some time (ha ha) before I get to that one.

[eve_n_furter]

And now I'm seriously considering using "My clitoris is bigger than all your penises put together!" as my Twitter blurb. XDDD

[luzula]

That sounds like an excellent idea! *g*

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

P.B. Van Trump was from Yelm; his nieces and/or nephews went to school with my mother's elder siblings.

There are still people who take off from Paradise in August with running shoes and no food and try to summit; They are not treated with respect if they make it to Camp Muir.

Also, the word is that there were pre-contact summitings, pretty regularly (all by the Paradise/Camp Muir route) but oral history gets no respect.

Oh, and my last set of Mountain photos, at full magnification, show obvious trails through the summit snow, and probably about 6-10 climbers.

Julia, they look like five pixel stick figures, but they're there!

[luzula]

I should have known that you would be a fount of knowledge about this! : )

I basically just saw the title going by on my Librivox feed and grabbed it because I was curious. But all the place names filled me with fondness somehow. I know I only lived there two years as a kid, and have visited a couple of times since, but I guess the Pacific Northwest is an area that is easy to grow fond of.

Somewhat related: have you read Wild Life by Molly Gloss? If not, I think you'd enjoy it.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

I'll have to put Wild Life on my to-read list; at the moment I'm on a poetry binge, with The Essential Rumi next to the bed, Gregory Corso's Gasoline at the computer table, and the anthology The Rattle Bag in the bathroom.

I can't understand why people live in other places, although days like yesterday, when every time I went outside and got started on an indivisible chunk of work it started to hail with at least ten minutes left on the job, Hawaii sounds feasible.

Julia, needing to get a piece of time fenced off to update here, except for the part wher I have to have clean housing for two new roosters by Friday

[tamsin]

Hey! Just wanted to let you know that I followed your rec and read Passing. I enjoyed it a lot, the whole theme, her slowly revealed character building and the chemistry between Clare and Irene.

[luzula]

Oh hey, I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed it! : )