Recent reading + some other stuff
Feb. 15th, 2023 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaUgh, I am far too busy. I wish I had more time to read, but I am still managing to prioritize writing, which I do on the tram. Am tempted to nominate for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
unsent_letters_exchange? But there's time left for that, nominations end 25th of February.
sylvanwitch is doing weekly fitness check-ins (in a broad sense, can include sleep and food as well as working out), which are so helpful to me! Every week you set goals for the week to come, and report on your goals from last week. This accountability has vastly improved both my bedtimes and my running and working out. I've been thinking forever that I should branch out from my standard 10 minute workout, and now I have! Suddenly I am enthusiastic about working out, in ways that I can fit into my life.
And now, book logging.
A Lady of Lost Years by John Buchan (1899)
I do NOT recommend this Jacobite novel. I had read that it was going to be about Margaret Murray of Broughton, but it is not really. The main character is one Francis Birkenshaw, and I dragged myself through the first 50 pages about him; he is unpleasant to his mother, sisters, and companions, and loses his apprenticeship because he punches a guy who married a woman he was into, and then stabs a random bystander for good measure. I don't mind characters who are not especially virtuous, but I do need something sympathetic to care about. Anyway, he has no particular political principles, and at one point he tries to rob Broughton house and then intends to sell Jacobite correspondence to the government. But Margaret Murray is beautiful! And so he confesses everything to her and pledges himself to the Jacobite cause. She sends him on an important mission to persuade Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, to come out. Er, because that's a reasonable person for the Jacobites to choose for such a mission, surely? Later on, Simon Fraser entrusts incriminating correspondence to this unknown person, who could just as well be a government spy, for all he knows?? Arrgh. Skipping some plot, at the end of the rising Murray of Broughton famously turns King’s Evidence, something which is so heavily foreshadowed in the book that it seems as though the characters know it's going to happen before it does. And after that, Margaret Murray is a vulnerable damsel in distress who has nobody to turn to but this random guy who once tried to rob her house and that she then sent on a mission. Surely she had family and trusted friends?? They go to London to visit Murray of Broughton in prison and then fall in love, but Francis nobly refuses her.
The one thing I liked about this book is the writing style--there are some nice nature descriptions. Also, it does portray Margaret Murray as politically engaged and active in the rising, which is nice--but at no point does it mention any other such women, of whom there were many! It's like she is the only Jacobite woman. *rolls eyes* Also, Duffy quotes eyewitness reports of Margaret Murray and her friend Rachel Erskine robbing Whig gentry at pistol point (backed up by Highlanders) to get money for the cause. Which, uh, does not really match up with her personality in the book.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Fashion in Detail by Avril Hart and Susan North (1998)
Oooh, this is great! Much better than the similar book in my last book post. It has close up details of clothing, most of it from the upper classes. Very good for writing fic, if you want to be able to say something more specific than somebody having a blue silk gown, or whatever. And I am extremely impressed by all the craftsmanship! *boggles*
unsent_letters_exchange? But there's time left for that, nominations end 25th of February. sylvanwitch is doing weekly fitness check-ins (in a broad sense, can include sleep and food as well as working out), which are so helpful to me! Every week you set goals for the week to come, and report on your goals from last week. This accountability has vastly improved both my bedtimes and my running and working out. I've been thinking forever that I should branch out from my standard 10 minute workout, and now I have! Suddenly I am enthusiastic about working out, in ways that I can fit into my life. And now, book logging.
A Lady of Lost Years by John Buchan (1899)
I do NOT recommend this Jacobite novel. I had read that it was going to be about Margaret Murray of Broughton, but it is not really. The main character is one Francis Birkenshaw, and I dragged myself through the first 50 pages about him; he is unpleasant to his mother, sisters, and companions, and loses his apprenticeship because he punches a guy who married a woman he was into, and then stabs a random bystander for good measure. I don't mind characters who are not especially virtuous, but I do need something sympathetic to care about. Anyway, he has no particular political principles, and at one point he tries to rob Broughton house and then intends to sell Jacobite correspondence to the government. But Margaret Murray is beautiful! And so he confesses everything to her and pledges himself to the Jacobite cause. She sends him on an important mission to persuade Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, to come out. Er, because that's a reasonable person for the Jacobites to choose for such a mission, surely? Later on, Simon Fraser entrusts incriminating correspondence to this unknown person, who could just as well be a government spy, for all he knows?? Arrgh. Skipping some plot, at the end of the rising Murray of Broughton famously turns King’s Evidence, something which is so heavily foreshadowed in the book that it seems as though the characters know it's going to happen before it does. And after that, Margaret Murray is a vulnerable damsel in distress who has nobody to turn to but this random guy who once tried to rob her house and that she then sent on a mission. Surely she had family and trusted friends?? They go to London to visit Murray of Broughton in prison and then fall in love, but Francis nobly refuses her.
The one thing I liked about this book is the writing style--there are some nice nature descriptions. Also, it does portray Margaret Murray as politically engaged and active in the rising, which is nice--but at no point does it mention any other such women, of whom there were many! It's like she is the only Jacobite woman. *rolls eyes* Also, Duffy quotes eyewitness reports of Margaret Murray and her friend Rachel Erskine robbing Whig gentry at pistol point (backed up by Highlanders) to get money for the cause. Which, uh, does not really match up with her personality in the book.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Fashion in Detail by Avril Hart and Susan North (1998)
Oooh, this is great! Much better than the similar book in my last book post. It has close up details of clothing, most of it from the upper classes. Very good for writing fic, if you want to be able to say something more specific than somebody having a blue silk gown, or whatever. And I am extremely impressed by all the craftsmanship! *boggles*
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-15 08:49 pm (UTC)Fashion in Detail: Is it mostly women's fashion, or does it cover men's fashion, too? I like that it looks like it focuses on construction and decorative detail.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-16 08:25 pm (UTC)I went on a long and strenuous hike today so I am quite tired, so just throwing out these for now: Flight of the Heron, The Wounded Name, Flemington, Kidnapped. Perhaps Jill? What are you planning to nominate?
The fashion book does also include men's clothing, but I think there's a bit more about women's clothing. and yes, all the detail is fascinating!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-16 08:52 pm (UTC)I haven't pencilled it out yet, but I'd like to see Heron, Wounded Name, Kidnapped, and Hornblower in the tagset, plus possibly some Holmesian things, if they're not already there.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-15 08:59 pm (UTC)I haven't even read the book and I feel cheated.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-16 08:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-16 08:25 am (UTC)And ooh, I'm also quite tempted to nominate some things for Unsent Letters. I had resolved to take a break from exchanges until Heart Attack in April, but I had a great time with Unsent Letters last year and it always has a high proportion of my beloved old book fandoms...
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-16 08:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-18 02:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-16 04:46 pm (UTC)However, the fashion book looks great! Ooh, all that embroidery...
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-16 08:36 pm (UTC)Right!? What a missed opportunity. At least it's a short book, if you're feeling completist about it. Alternatively, you could take one for the team and see whether A Daughter of Raasay: A Tale of the '45 from 1901 is any good? Written by one William MacLeod Raine, it's on Gutenberg.
ETA: Oh, and also! I carved out time to go on a long hike today, which incidentally means I listened to two thirds of Northanger Abbey and also read a third of a Margaret Oliphant book! Yay reading time. The reading happened on the trams/trains/buses and during breaks in hiking.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-17 05:20 pm (UTC)Alternatively, you could take one for the team and see whether A Daughter of Raasay: A Tale of the '45 from 1901 is any good? Written by one William MacLeod Raine, it's on Gutenberg.
Ooh, thank you—I hadn't got that one on my list. I'll check it out too... (Also on my list at the moment are The Adventures of Rob Roy by James Grant (1873) and the Georgette Heyer book that
By the way—while you're talking about exchanges, I might just mention that
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-21 08:27 pm (UTC)Hmm, I think one exchange is enough for me at the moment, I can't take on another running at the same time, I think...
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-22 04:44 pm (UTC)That's fair! I can't really handle overlapping exchanges either (or any at the moment—I'll come back and think about what to nominate next year...).
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-17 02:26 am (UTC)But the costuming book sounds completely delightful. *looks at prices* ouch. Lots of pictures, I'm guessing. The State Library's got it, so next time I schlep up to Melbourne...
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-21 08:28 pm (UTC)But did you see the link to the costuming book? You can read it for free on archive.org. : )
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-22 04:18 am (UTC)