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Recent reading
Nov. 2nd, 2023 09:48 pmSomething Human by A J Demas (2018)
For book club; my choice. Awww, this was charming and engaging! I would be surprised if the author is not in fandom somehow, because this felt like a long, satisfyingly tropey longfic on AO3. The two main characters are from fake-ancient Greece and some more northern tribe, and are survivors on a battlefield. The story is enemies-to-lovers, but they only spend a hot second being enemies and start trusting each other remarkably quickly--but of course, after that there are still lots of barriers to overcome.
Jag vill riva upp himmel och jord by Marie Lok Björk (2023) [I want to tear up heaven and earth]
Another recently published Swedish historical novel, this one about the life of Elise Ottesen Jensen (1886-1973), Sweden's most famous activist for sex education and free access to contraceptives and abortion. OMG, I never knew that she lost both her thumbs at 19 in a chemistry accident while studying to be a dentist! And then she became a journalist, writer, and speaker instead. Most of the novel seems to follow her actual life, but in an interview with the author, I see that there was an instance where she actually made Elise's husband Albert less supportive, I suppose for drama. Elise wrote for a "women's page" in a left-wing newspaper where Albert also worked, but she grew too feminist for them, and wrote too much about sex ed. So she quit in protest when they asked her to tone it down, and in RL, her husband quit too in solidarity. In the book, he stays. But they did later get divorced, and I suppose this is the author's way of motivating the later divorce? No idea why they actually got divorced.
There's also a cool reveal: Elise befriends a woman named Helga, who lives in poverty with lots of children and a drunkard husband, and encourages her to write for the newspaper. Towards the end of the book, Helga says she's going to write a book, under the name "Moa". Luz: OMG, she's famous author Moa Martinson, I had no idea they knew each other! (I mean, I guess this would not have been a reveal if I had known more about Moa Martinson's life...) Also I see that Emma Goldman stayed with Elise for a while when she was in Sweden.
For book club; my choice. Awww, this was charming and engaging! I would be surprised if the author is not in fandom somehow, because this felt like a long, satisfyingly tropey longfic on AO3. The two main characters are from fake-ancient Greece and some more northern tribe, and are survivors on a battlefield. The story is enemies-to-lovers, but they only spend a hot second being enemies and start trusting each other remarkably quickly--but of course, after that there are still lots of barriers to overcome.
Jag vill riva upp himmel och jord by Marie Lok Björk (2023) [I want to tear up heaven and earth]
Another recently published Swedish historical novel, this one about the life of Elise Ottesen Jensen (1886-1973), Sweden's most famous activist for sex education and free access to contraceptives and abortion. OMG, I never knew that she lost both her thumbs at 19 in a chemistry accident while studying to be a dentist! And then she became a journalist, writer, and speaker instead. Most of the novel seems to follow her actual life, but in an interview with the author, I see that there was an instance where she actually made Elise's husband Albert less supportive, I suppose for drama. Elise wrote for a "women's page" in a left-wing newspaper where Albert also worked, but she grew too feminist for them, and wrote too much about sex ed. So she quit in protest when they asked her to tone it down, and in RL, her husband quit too in solidarity. In the book, he stays. But they did later get divorced, and I suppose this is the author's way of motivating the later divorce? No idea why they actually got divorced.
There's also a cool reveal: Elise befriends a woman named Helga, who lives in poverty with lots of children and a drunkard husband, and encourages her to write for the newspaper. Towards the end of the book, Helga says she's going to write a book, under the name "Moa". Luz: OMG, she's famous author Moa Martinson, I had no idea they knew each other! (I mean, I guess this would not have been a reveal if I had known more about Moa Martinson's life...) Also I see that Emma Goldman stayed with Elise for a while when she was in Sweden.
