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Recent reading
Aug. 1st, 2024 07:23 pmNow at the family summer place, struggling to keep up with the zucchini production! Zucchini soup yesterday, zucchini pancakes with feta cheese today. Further suggestions? We already have plans for tzatziki.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2020, audiobook)
Reread; for book club. I think I enjoyed this slightly less on reread, just because I didn't get the discovery process of reading it for the first time. But like last time, I enjoyed Piranesi the narrator a whole lot! In a way, he reminds me of a character in a James Tiptree Jr story, the one with the woman who is convinced she lives in a world of goodness, but who in fact...does not live in that world. But it's not just about innocence: the thing I enjoy most about Piranesi is his enthusiasm and curiosity and engagement in the world. Also, the audiobook narrator was great.
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold (1991, audiobook)
Also a reread. I think I enjoyed this more than Shards of Honor, actually! It's such a pleasure to see Cordelia navigate Barrayar and being awesome, and see Aral backing her up--and her backing him up. Established relationship stories FTW! Also the childbearing stuff is fascinating: Barrayar is a world where women are expected to bear children, but Cordelia, coming from a world where that isn't the case, is not reacting against that Barrayaran norm, or at least not in the same way that she might if she came from a world where women have recently had to fight against such norms. Instead, she's greedy for children, because they're restricted on Beta. Again, the audiobook narration is great.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2020, audiobook)
Reread; for book club. I think I enjoyed this slightly less on reread, just because I didn't get the discovery process of reading it for the first time. But like last time, I enjoyed Piranesi the narrator a whole lot! In a way, he reminds me of a character in a James Tiptree Jr story, the one with the woman who is convinced she lives in a world of goodness, but who in fact...does not live in that world. But it's not just about innocence: the thing I enjoy most about Piranesi is his enthusiasm and curiosity and engagement in the world. Also, the audiobook narrator was great.
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold (1991, audiobook)
Also a reread. I think I enjoyed this more than Shards of Honor, actually! It's such a pleasure to see Cordelia navigate Barrayar and being awesome, and see Aral backing her up--and her backing him up. Established relationship stories FTW! Also the childbearing stuff is fascinating: Barrayar is a world where women are expected to bear children, but Cordelia, coming from a world where that isn't the case, is not reacting against that Barrayaran norm, or at least not in the same way that she might if she came from a world where women have recently had to fight against such norms. Instead, she's greedy for children, because they're restricted on Beta. Again, the audiobook narration is great.
