Recent reading
Aug. 1st, 2019 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaAutonomy Is In Our Hearts by Dylan Eldredge Fitzwater (2019)
I knew very little about the Zapatistas, so this was interesting. I like that it goes into concrete specifics about how they do democracy, and also that it talks about how political/social concepts are expressed in the languages they speak.
The Science of Herself by Karen Joy Fowler (2013)
Short collection of essays and short stories. I've only read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Fowler before, and I should probably read more, because I find the writing in her short stories compelling. Usually it can take me a while to warm up to a story, which makes me less inclined to read short stories, because it means that I spend a larger proportion of the reading time warming up to the story than if I read a novel. Fanfic doesn't work this way for me because I'm already warmed up to the characters. But anyway, there was very little warm-up required for Fowler's short stories--they grabbed me quickly.
An Ever-Fixed Mark by![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
AMarguerite (2017)
OMG, this is probably my favorite of all the books I've read all year. ♥ It's a soulmark AU, and I didn't have any particular feelings for or against that trope beforehand. I don't think I've read many. But this was so well constructed and so well written--it's one of those stories that just transcends your feelings about the trope. Also, it made me really ship Elizabeth Bennet/Colonel Fitzwilliam. It's such an ensemble story, too, with characters from other Austen stories coming in. I like how she develops the Fitzwilliam family. And now I see that there are outtakes and AU:s of the story, which are in total longer than this story itself! So looking forward to those. Wow, she really commits--someone prompts her with Elizabeth Bennet/the Duke of Wellington, and she writes 173 000 words of it. : D
The Overstory by Richard Powers (2019)
For my fannish book club. All of us expected this to be SF/F, but no, I would not say it is. Funny, it's the second book this spring that we expected would be SF/F, but in fact was literary fiction with sloooow writing and lots of nature themes. This book should have been right up my alley since it's about the importance of trees and is about people who are forest activists, but it wasn't quite. The writing seems a bit pretentious and convoluted to me, which got in the way. It's very slow to start, with a large part of the book feeling more like a short story collection, describing the lives of the seven protagonists before they get entangled with each other. And finally, the way that activism/environmental work is depicted feels a bit off to me. Most of these people live lives where they don't do that sort of thing, and then they're suddenly pitched into it by a near-death experience, or meeting someone who drags them into it. And then they go right into the deep end, doing dangerous protests and lock-downs and blowing up sawmills. Then they're just as suddenly pitched out of it. There's little of the movement-building and raising public awareness and the like, which is a very important part of environmental work, and usually what most people start with.
I knew very little about the Zapatistas, so this was interesting. I like that it goes into concrete specifics about how they do democracy, and also that it talks about how political/social concepts are expressed in the languages they speak.
The Science of Herself by Karen Joy Fowler (2013)
Short collection of essays and short stories. I've only read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Fowler before, and I should probably read more, because I find the writing in her short stories compelling. Usually it can take me a while to warm up to a story, which makes me less inclined to read short stories, because it means that I spend a larger proportion of the reading time warming up to the story than if I read a novel. Fanfic doesn't work this way for me because I'm already warmed up to the characters. But anyway, there was very little warm-up required for Fowler's short stories--they grabbed me quickly.
An Ever-Fixed Mark by
OMG, this is probably my favorite of all the books I've read all year. ♥ It's a soulmark AU, and I didn't have any particular feelings for or against that trope beforehand. I don't think I've read many. But this was so well constructed and so well written--it's one of those stories that just transcends your feelings about the trope. Also, it made me really ship Elizabeth Bennet/Colonel Fitzwilliam. It's such an ensemble story, too, with characters from other Austen stories coming in. I like how she develops the Fitzwilliam family. And now I see that there are outtakes and AU:s of the story, which are in total longer than this story itself! So looking forward to those. Wow, she really commits--someone prompts her with Elizabeth Bennet/the Duke of Wellington, and she writes 173 000 words of it. : D
The Overstory by Richard Powers (2019)
For my fannish book club. All of us expected this to be SF/F, but no, I would not say it is. Funny, it's the second book this spring that we expected would be SF/F, but in fact was literary fiction with sloooow writing and lots of nature themes. This book should have been right up my alley since it's about the importance of trees and is about people who are forest activists, but it wasn't quite. The writing seems a bit pretentious and convoluted to me, which got in the way. It's very slow to start, with a large part of the book feeling more like a short story collection, describing the lives of the seven protagonists before they get entangled with each other. And finally, the way that activism/environmental work is depicted feels a bit off to me. Most of these people live lives where they don't do that sort of thing, and then they're suddenly pitched into it by a near-death experience, or meeting someone who drags them into it. And then they go right into the deep end, doing dangerous protests and lock-downs and blowing up sawmills. Then they're just as suddenly pitched out of it. There's little of the movement-building and raising public awareness and the like, which is a very important part of environmental work, and usually what most people start with.
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Date: 2019-08-01 03:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2019-09-03 05:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-03 07:05 am (UTC)I haven't read the alternate ending yet, but I'm looking forward to it!
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Date: 2019-09-06 03:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-06 06:48 am (UTC)