Recent reading
Nov. 6th, 2015 07:39 pmThe Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (audiobook)
I've been meaning to read this for ages, and now I discovered that someone has recorded it for Librivox! Not only that, it's a really good reader. Bless him. Anyway, this is an account of Scott's Antarctic expedition. Listening to polar exploration books is restful and satisfying to me, perhaps because it's such a clear-cut man-against-world plot. There's no human conflict; everyone is doing their best and pulling their sledge together.
Legacies by Alison Sinclair
SF. I liked the author's other two books, but gave up on this one after 60 pages. I dunno, I just could not connect to the characters enough.
When the Bough Breaks by Naomi Mitchison
Collection of historical short stories from 1924. Since some of the stories are set in Roman Britain, I can't help but compare it to Sutcliff, whose writing is much more lyrical and has more nature-porn. Mitchison is more matter-of-fact, and doesn't seem to write as much about people who are driving history, like Sutcliff does, but about ordinary people who are caught up in the eddies of historical events. Also, Mitchison is much better at female characters! The last story is more like a short novel, and it's about a young Germanic woman who dresses like a man and fights with the Goth invaders in Greece and Rome (the bough that breaks is Rome). It's an unpredictable and interesting story.
Oh, and also, have a fic rec:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thingswithwings' Odd One Out, which is a Leverage OT3 fic. I've only seen vids of Leverage, but that didn't matter--the fic was a lot of fun and had enjoyable relationship dynamics.
I've been meaning to read this for ages, and now I discovered that someone has recorded it for Librivox! Not only that, it's a really good reader. Bless him. Anyway, this is an account of Scott's Antarctic expedition. Listening to polar exploration books is restful and satisfying to me, perhaps because it's such a clear-cut man-against-world plot. There's no human conflict; everyone is doing their best and pulling their sledge together.
Legacies by Alison Sinclair
SF. I liked the author's other two books, but gave up on this one after 60 pages. I dunno, I just could not connect to the characters enough.
When the Bough Breaks by Naomi Mitchison
Collection of historical short stories from 1924. Since some of the stories are set in Roman Britain, I can't help but compare it to Sutcliff, whose writing is much more lyrical and has more nature-porn. Mitchison is more matter-of-fact, and doesn't seem to write as much about people who are driving history, like Sutcliff does, but about ordinary people who are caught up in the eddies of historical events. Also, Mitchison is much better at female characters! The last story is more like a short novel, and it's about a young Germanic woman who dresses like a man and fights with the Goth invaders in Greece and Rome (the bough that breaks is Rome). It's an unpredictable and interesting story.
Oh, and also, have a fic rec:
thingswithwings' Odd One Out, which is a Leverage OT3 fic. I've only seen vids of Leverage, but that didn't matter--the fic was a lot of fun and had enjoyable relationship dynamics.
