Recent reading
Mar. 11th, 2014 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaLolly Willowes, or, The Loving Huntsman, by Sylvia Townsend Warner
This is the first time we read a book that I nominated for my bookclub at work. Unfortunately some of the people in the group really dislike SF/F, so I thought I'd kind of sneak in a fantastical element. *g* Anyway, I hadn't read this book before, but I loved it! It's about Laura, an unmarried woman in 1920's Britain who lives with her brother's family and helps bring up his children, but then when she's middle-aged she realizes that she wants to be independent of her relatives and moves out to the country and becomes a witch.
Nnnngh, the language in this book! I love it so much. There's a sly sense of humor, and some vivid and unexpected images, and also lots of nature porn. Sample (Laura thinking about cabbages that are to be eaten by her brother and his wife): "They would shed all their midnight devilry in the pot, and be served up to Henry and Caroline very pure and vegetable."
Must read more of this author. How about Summer Will Show, where "a Victorian wife travels to revolutionary France in 1848 to confront her husband's charismatic mistress, only to fall under the woman's spell herself and be drawn into the Communist struggle." Doesn't that sound delightful? Or The Corner That Held Them, which is about the women in a medieval convent? Must obtain these.
Ring of Swords, by Elizabeth Arnason
I liked this a lot! More than I did the author's A Woman of the Iron People. She seems to be interested in writing alien societies which separate the sexes? This one has aliens who are almost entirely homosexual and view heterosexuality as a perversion. I liked the writing, and the characters are interesting and likeable, too. If you like xeno, you'll probably enjoy this--there's an m/m xeno relationship. There seem to be lots of short stories written in this verse that I'd love to read, but I don't know if they're gathered together anywhere. Anyway, recommended.
This is the first time we read a book that I nominated for my bookclub at work. Unfortunately some of the people in the group really dislike SF/F, so I thought I'd kind of sneak in a fantastical element. *g* Anyway, I hadn't read this book before, but I loved it! It's about Laura, an unmarried woman in 1920's Britain who lives with her brother's family and helps bring up his children, but then when she's middle-aged she realizes that she wants to be independent of her relatives and moves out to the country and becomes a witch.
Nnnngh, the language in this book! I love it so much. There's a sly sense of humor, and some vivid and unexpected images, and also lots of nature porn. Sample (Laura thinking about cabbages that are to be eaten by her brother and his wife): "They would shed all their midnight devilry in the pot, and be served up to Henry and Caroline very pure and vegetable."
Must read more of this author. How about Summer Will Show, where "a Victorian wife travels to revolutionary France in 1848 to confront her husband's charismatic mistress, only to fall under the woman's spell herself and be drawn into the Communist struggle." Doesn't that sound delightful? Or The Corner That Held Them, which is about the women in a medieval convent? Must obtain these.
Ring of Swords, by Elizabeth Arnason
I liked this a lot! More than I did the author's A Woman of the Iron People. She seems to be interested in writing alien societies which separate the sexes? This one has aliens who are almost entirely homosexual and view heterosexuality as a perversion. I liked the writing, and the characters are interesting and likeable, too. If you like xeno, you'll probably enjoy this--there's an m/m xeno relationship. There seem to be lots of short stories written in this verse that I'd love to read, but I don't know if they're gathered together anywhere. Anyway, recommended.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-11 11:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-12 08:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-12 02:09 pm (UTC)I'm finally coming to the realization that I don't like fantasy. Which is a drag, since there's a lot of it, some of it by very good writers. I struggled through ch 1 of A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar, admired it, and abandoned it. I love folk ballads, so fantasy should be a natural fit; I enjoyed some along the way growing up. Be that as it may, Warner sounds like fantasy plus snark, which is appealing.
I'm probably repeating myself, but Arnason's The Potter of Bones hits my anthro-sf target with a cross-bow bolt.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-13 08:55 am (UTC)Interesting about the fantasy, and that you're only realizing it now. A Stranger In Olondria is on my books-to-check-out list, but I haven't gotten to it yet.
Warner is only marginally fantasy? Like, for the first two thirds of it, there isn't any supernatural element, and once it appears, you can explain it as something going on in the character's head, if you want. The book completely confused the others in the book group. *g* They were like, "WTF is going on?" when the supernatural bits finally did turn up. One of them was even "so is this the story of someone who's mentally ill?"
I'm probably repeating myself, but Arnason's The Potter of Bones hits my anthro-sf target with a cross-bow bolt.
I have read and enjoyed it! : )
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-13 07:42 pm (UTC)I was meaning to read Lolly Willowes and totally forgot, so thanks for the reminder.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-14 12:10 pm (UTC)