Recent reading
Oct. 24th, 2022 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaI am always scared of looking at my Yuletide assignment, but now I've finally done so, and whew, I can hopefully write that.
I am currently grading exams at the family cottage with my mom, her new puppy and the old dog. The puppy is nicknamed 'The Piranha' for obvious needle-sharp reasons, he is often a total pest both to us and to the old dog. Also very cute, of course.
Invited Everywhere by L A Hall (#11 in the Comfortable Courtesan series, 2018)
Comfort reading for when I had that cold (though it was a short one). This goes along in the usual enjoyable style with the large cast of characters, until boom, sudden drama at the end! I had not thought she would do that—I had thought she would use her friends' contacts in government to pull strings, given that the person who was the problem was presumably not that high-ranking? Hmm, but maybe it wouldn't have been possible. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how it shakes out in the next book...
The Knife Man by Wendy Moore (2005)
Recced byoursin, thanks! This is a popular biography of John Hunter, an 18th century surgeon and naturalist. I did pick up some useful facts and inspiration for fic, though probably not everything I need. But hey, it was an enjoyable book. Although OMG, the author believes that he intentionally infected himself with gonorrhea and syphilis (he didn't know they were separate diseases) in order to study them. Aaaaugh. I suppose he didn't ask his fiancée first if she was okay with that.
I am currently grading exams at the family cottage with my mom, her new puppy and the old dog. The puppy is nicknamed 'The Piranha' for obvious needle-sharp reasons, he is often a total pest both to us and to the old dog. Also very cute, of course.
Invited Everywhere by L A Hall (#11 in the Comfortable Courtesan series, 2018)
Comfort reading for when I had that cold (though it was a short one). This goes along in the usual enjoyable style with the large cast of characters, until boom, sudden drama at the end! I had not thought she would do that—I had thought she would use her friends' contacts in government to pull strings, given that the person who was the problem was presumably not that high-ranking? Hmm, but maybe it wouldn't have been possible. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how it shakes out in the next book...
The Knife Man by Wendy Moore (2005)
Recced by
oursin, thanks! This is a popular biography of John Hunter, an 18th century surgeon and naturalist. I did pick up some useful facts and inspiration for fic, though probably not everything I need. But hey, it was an enjoyable book. Although OMG, the author believes that he intentionally infected himself with gonorrhea and syphilis (he didn't know they were separate diseases) in order to study them. Aaaaugh. I suppose he didn't ask his fiancée first if she was okay with that.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-24 08:54 pm (UTC)I strongly recommend Moore's book on the suffragette doctors of the Endell St Military Hospital in WW1.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-25 07:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-25 06:42 am (UTC)Very interesting about John Hunter! I read a book recently which covered the history of various diseases like TB, cholera, syphilis etc. (Quand la médecine gagne by Jean-Jacques Lefrère) and that technique of self-infecting oneself seems to have been surprisingly common...
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-25 09:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-25 04:40 pm (UTC)And the research reading sounds fun. They did not mess about with medical research in those days, clearly...!
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-25 07:55 pm (UTC)I really can't imagine anything that would induce me to intentionally infect myself with syphilis... /o\
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-26 02:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-26 08:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-26 09:20 am (UTC)I am always scared of looking at my Yuletide assignment, but now I've finally done so, and whew, I can hopefully write that.
As you say, I feel like my absolute first emotion on seeing my Yuletide assignment, no matter how good it is, is always "Oh no why did I think I was capable of writing THAT?". But it gets fun after that ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-26 08:59 pm (UTC)Actually I was aware of the assignment I got beforehand as a very likely match, given the fandoms I offered. So it was a good option! But it's still a new thing for me to write, in several spoilery ways I can't explain, and I hope I can do it...
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-27 03:04 am (UTC)I may already have seen one and forgotten it due to the landslide of paperwork, of course...
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-27 05:30 pm (UTC)Best of luck keeping your nose above the surface of paperwork!