Recent reading
Jan. 31st, 2021 12:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaIncredibly, I've only read one whole book in January! I've just had a lot to do, and I was determined to read Yuletide properly, which indeed I did, though I usually put everything longer than 5K on my ereader for later and I haven't read all those yet. Anyway, here is the one (short) book I did read:
White Cockades: an episode of the Forty-Five by Edward Prime-Stevenson (1887)
I ignored the somewhat dubious 18th century history and geography in favor of the gay romance—the author was himself gay, so one can be fairly sure it was meant that way. It's not as good as Flight of the Heron, but it is a sweet story! Unlikeregshoe, I did not see the plot twist coming at all. Awww.
Examples of the dubious history: I'm pretty sure a random Englishman would not have had the opportunity to buy a substantial estate by Loch Arkaig in the early 18th century—the Camerons probably held tightly to that land. Why did the main character have to be English anyway? Also, why does Captain Jermain (an English Whig officer) swear by the sword of Claverhouse (a Scottish Jacobite commander in 1689)?
I also read parts of Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner (2018) for book club, a historical fantasy with shapeshifters, set among Jewish people in Russia. I wanted to like it, but the writing felt kind of flat and just did not grip me (which several others in book club also agreed with). The chapters alternate between the sisters, one of which narrates in prose in present tense, and the other in poetry in past tense. This did not work for me at all. Why the tense switching? And the poetry, if you remove the line breaks, could read like prose—I didn't feel that it contributed anything.
White Cockades: an episode of the Forty-Five by Edward Prime-Stevenson (1887)
I ignored the somewhat dubious 18th century history and geography in favor of the gay romance—the author was himself gay, so one can be fairly sure it was meant that way. It's not as good as Flight of the Heron, but it is a sweet story! Unlike
regshoe, I did not see the plot twist coming at all. Awww. Examples of the dubious history: I'm pretty sure a random Englishman would not have had the opportunity to buy a substantial estate by Loch Arkaig in the early 18th century—the Camerons probably held tightly to that land. Why did the main character have to be English anyway? Also, why does Captain Jermain (an English Whig officer) swear by the sword of Claverhouse (a Scottish Jacobite commander in 1689)?
I also read parts of Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner (2018) for book club, a historical fantasy with shapeshifters, set among Jewish people in Russia. I wanted to like it, but the writing felt kind of flat and just did not grip me (which several others in book club also agreed with). The chapters alternate between the sisters, one of which narrates in prose in present tense, and the other in poetry in past tense. This did not work for me at all. Why the tense switching? And the poetry, if you remove the line breaks, could read like prose—I didn't feel that it contributed anything.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-01-31 10:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-01-31 06:02 pm (UTC)Right? And the author is American anyway, not English.
I wonder if there are more slashy Jacobite novels to discover? Older ones, I mean--I guess books like Outlander also have slashy components.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-01-31 06:25 pm (UTC)I hope so :D Waverley, the quintessential Jacobite novel, is kind of slashy, although not on the level of this or FotH (when the English protagonist first meets the main Highland Jacobite character, he's 'struck with the peculiar grace and dignity of the Chieftain's figure. Above the middle size and finely proportioned, the Highland dress, which he wore in its simplest mode, set off his person to great advantage., which description is pleasingly familiar!) Or femslashy ones, with the opportunity of the interesting variety of roles women played in the Jacobite cause—I'd enjoy that.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-02-01 04:29 pm (UTC)And yes, would definitely enjoy some femslash as well.