Recent reading
Jul. 13th, 2021 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaSudden Death by L A Hall (#8 in the Comfortable Courtesan series)
I started this when I needed comfort reading because of the housemate situation, and it delivered. When you're at #8 in a series, you know what you get, and I am always happy to spend some more time with these characters, and with the main character's charming narrative voice.
The origins of sex: a history of the first sexual revolution by Faramerz Dabhoiwala (2012)
About changes in how society viewed sex, focusing on Britain in the 18th century (but it also contrasts with the 17th and 19th). This is fandom research reading, I suppose? I found it very interesting, though obviously I don't know enough to know whether this is the mainstream view or just this researcher's. If I'm to try to sum it up, for my own reference: trials and punishments for heterosexual sex outside of marriage dramatically declined compared to the 17th century, and the Church lost some of its hold due to the Enlightenment. Sexual policing by the community declined, and policing was done more by professionals (this was true of policing in general). Arguments for sexual freedom were made from the same basis as that of religious freedom for dissenters. Upper-class men got a lot of sexual freedom (read: many of them raped and harassed a lot of women, mostly of lower class). There was also reaction against upper-class men doing that. A culture of politeness developed in the upper classes where men were supposed to be improved by the refined company of women (as opposed to earlier, when men's rationality supposedly made them superior to women to begin with). But because of men's sexual freedom, the burden increasingly fell on women to be chaste. Women in general went from being seen as having sinful sexual appetites of their own, to innocent and almost asexual unless corrupted by men. Similarly, prostitutes went from being seen as sinful people who sold sex because of their own lasciviousness, to being seen as the victims of men. The public sphere expanded and there was a lot of discussion of sex in written form, from sex and relationship advice columns to celebrity scandals. Women got a place in the public sphere. There were gay male subcultures in larger cities, but gay sex was still policed and it was taboo to publicly make the argument that homosexual sex should be okay.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (2020)
For book club. We were all agreed that this was a charming light read; it is a YA fantasy refreshingly devoid of romance. I do think that Robin McKinley's Sunshine did a lot more with the actual baking—this book did not make my mouth water. But it's a quite different book from that one, the protagonist is only fourteen in the Kingfisher book.
I started this when I needed comfort reading because of the housemate situation, and it delivered. When you're at #8 in a series, you know what you get, and I am always happy to spend some more time with these characters, and with the main character's charming narrative voice.
The origins of sex: a history of the first sexual revolution by Faramerz Dabhoiwala (2012)
About changes in how society viewed sex, focusing on Britain in the 18th century (but it also contrasts with the 17th and 19th). This is fandom research reading, I suppose? I found it very interesting, though obviously I don't know enough to know whether this is the mainstream view or just this researcher's. If I'm to try to sum it up, for my own reference: trials and punishments for heterosexual sex outside of marriage dramatically declined compared to the 17th century, and the Church lost some of its hold due to the Enlightenment. Sexual policing by the community declined, and policing was done more by professionals (this was true of policing in general). Arguments for sexual freedom were made from the same basis as that of religious freedom for dissenters. Upper-class men got a lot of sexual freedom (read: many of them raped and harassed a lot of women, mostly of lower class). There was also reaction against upper-class men doing that. A culture of politeness developed in the upper classes where men were supposed to be improved by the refined company of women (as opposed to earlier, when men's rationality supposedly made them superior to women to begin with). But because of men's sexual freedom, the burden increasingly fell on women to be chaste. Women in general went from being seen as having sinful sexual appetites of their own, to innocent and almost asexual unless corrupted by men. Similarly, prostitutes went from being seen as sinful people who sold sex because of their own lasciviousness, to being seen as the victims of men. The public sphere expanded and there was a lot of discussion of sex in written form, from sex and relationship advice columns to celebrity scandals. Women got a place in the public sphere. There were gay male subcultures in larger cities, but gay sex was still policed and it was taboo to publicly make the argument that homosexual sex should be okay.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (2020)
For book club. We were all agreed that this was a charming light read; it is a YA fantasy refreshingly devoid of romance. I do think that Robin McKinley's Sunshine did a lot more with the actual baking—this book did not make my mouth water. But it's a quite different book from that one, the protagonist is only fourteen in the Kingfisher book.
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Date: 2021-07-14 06:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-14 08:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-14 08:55 am (UTC)But this may be me and issues with hyped Hott Younger Historianz.
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Date: 2021-07-14 07:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-15 09:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-14 04:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-14 07:31 pm (UTC)