Recent reading

[luzula]

The Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (originally in French, read in Swedish)
For my book club at work. This was okay, but it felt distant and not very engaging. It's well-written, I guess, but it's in first-person POV with basically no dialogue at all, and Hadrian does lots of philosophizing and comes across as a bit pompous and self-centered. "I am the Enlightened Despot!" But the guy was an emperor after all, so I guess that is not surprising.

The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin
Ack. I lost interest in this, which is weird since I enjoyed the first two books in the series, even if it was a while ago. Trying to articulate why this didn't work for me, I think it might be because the first two books were from a human POV, and this is from the POV of a god with the mindset of a child. That would be really hard to write, and I'm not sure the POV felt convincing to me. Anyway, I didn't finish it. I seem to be getting more quick to drop books that don't hold my interest, although I did read 250 pages of this before stopping.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (audiobook read by Karen Savage)
Reread, though it's been a long time. It turns out this is not my favorite Austen--I guess P&P is my favorite, followed by Mansfield Park (which has its issues, but I was gripped by it). But I very much recommend the reader, who has recorded all of Austen and also all of Anne of Green Gables over at Librivox.

Comments

[espresso_addict]

S&S might be my least favourite Austen, but it's like my least favourite chocolate... And the adaptations sexing up Brandon help quite a lot when rereading the original.

[seascribble]

I gave up on Memoirs of Hadrien about a quarter of the way through, reading in French, and made it to about halfway in English before petering out. I wanted to engage with it so badly, but it was just not for me.

[luzula]

Ha, well, I did have a bit of a hard time with Marianne/Brandon, mostly because of the age difference (I'm 35, and I would not fall for a 17-year-old), but also because of the ending, where there are just a few lines to convince us of Marianne's feelings for him.

[luzula]

Yeah, it's unfortunately pretty dry. Probably it would be improved by some Hadrian/Antinous porn? *g*

[calvinahobbes]

I dore S&S, but yeah, P&P is probably also my favorite Austen. I've never read MP, and I keep meaning to!

[espresso_addict]

How did you find the ending of Mansfield Park?

[luzula]

I know that many people find Fanny (the protagonist of MP) to be passive and also a bit judgmental, but I dunno, I liked her. Not everybody can be outgoing, and a lot of her behavior is explained by her upbringing, too.

[luzula]

Late reply, sorry!

I don't feel the ending is a great romance, or anything--Fanny and Edmund don't really have much chemistry. But I didn't feel disappointed by Fanny not marrying Henry, either, because I'm not sure I believe that Henry and Fanny would've been good for each other. I can be convinced otherwise by good fic, though! I read another Henry/Fanny fic that didn't work for me, though, because I felt it was basically Henry breaking down Fanny's reserve by nagging at her and offering his love over and over.

I guess a best-case-scenario for the Fanny/Edmund marriage would be Fanny growing into her role as mistress of a house and Fanny and Edmund relying on each other for good judgement and as partners? Something like this (Ione again, yes! She is so great.) I don't see them being very passionate.

What are your thoughts?

Also while we're talking about MP, I have to rec this Mary Rushworth/Maria Crawford fic, in case you haven't read it. Ooh, and while I was browsing the MP fics I found this, which looks very promising!