Recent reading

[luzula]

I am at a meeting of the Swedish lichen society this weekend and having lots of fun: interesting lichens and great company! : D Wrote this on the train when I was without internet and am posting it now...

She Rises by Kate Worsley (2013)
Well, this is a hard one to talk about without spoilers! But to start with, it is a gorgeously written historical novel set in the mid-18th century, with mostly working-class characters. It jumps between two storylines: a young woman who starts out as a dairy maid and then becomes lady's maid to a sea captain's daughter, whom she falls in love with, and a young man who is pressed into the Navy. It does not flinch from difficult subjects: life on the Navy ship is cruel, not just the discipline, but also the group dynamics among the sailors (and content note for rape, too). I did not expect this book to have a happy ending, and in a way it doesn't, but it's happier than I thought it would get.

My Friend Monica by Jane Duncan (1960)
Third in the "My Friends" series. I read this a little apprehensively, given the summary where My Friend Monica is described as beginning as a wartime friend who then became a threat to Janet's marriage. I am not into jealous triangle dramas! But I needn't have worried. I mean, I wouldn't say the summary is inaccurate, but it's written in a way that totally worked for me, with the same delightful narrative voice as the first two books. And it's got such range! I mean, the same book contains hauntingly written suicidal ideation (because of paralysis after an injury) and comedic dialogue.

Comments

[oracne]

Those both sounds really interesting!

[sovay]

I am at a meeting of the Swedish lichen society this weekend and having lots of fun: interesting lichens and great company!

That sounds wonderful! What lichens are of particular interest?

[sanguinity]

I loved She Rises, and while the ending definitely isn't HEA, I thought there was a lot of... dignity? agency? in it. It wasn't the ideal dream future, sure, but it's still a future of their own choosing. As good as many get, and better than a good many, too.

Enjoy the lichen party!

[chestnut_pod]

I'm glad you're lichen your conference :DD

[sanguinity]

+1

[regshoe]

+2

:D What are the coolest interesting lichens you've seen?

[chestnut_pod]

I know little about lichens, but I like going to a park which is full of lichens in the subfamily Xanthorioideae, which are super bright orange!

[oursin]

Duncan's 'My Friend' books are amazingly layered!

[luzula]

They're quite different, but I recommend both of them! : )

[luzula]

We are on the west coast of Sweden, so we are partly looking at lichens on the rocky seashores, but yesterday we were at a forested ravine, too. Although I know much more about lichens than the average person, I am far from an expert, so often someone points at a blotch on the rock and tells me what it is, and I think to myself, I would never identify that on my own...

[regshoe]

Aww, lovely! Xanthoria parietina is one of the commonest lichens round here and one of only a few that I can recognise, and it is very cool-looking.

[luzula]

I felt so bad for the person who was left by herself at the very end, though (trying to be vague...)! I really was unsure they'd ever be reunited, and then they were, and got to be together, too, and then, well. I guess the sea was in their blood by then.

Thanks, I will! : D

[luzula]

Ha ha. : D

It's not actually a conference--we spend all day outside searching for and looking at cool lichens.

[luzula]

I don't know if the question was for me or chestnut_pod, but I was glad to learn Acarospora fuscata. Perhaps it isn't particularly cool, but it's a common lichen on rock that I didn't know before, and that I can feel confident about recognizing from now on.

[luzula]

I've been so glad to discover them! With such a long series, it's a great feeling to know that there is a guaranteed supply of something you know you'll like. I've been able to order used copies of a lot of them online.

[regshoe]

Whoops, sorry—it was intended for you, but I'm happy to have replies from you both :D And that feeling of learning a new species and becoming confident in recognising it is great, how good to have made the acquaintance of this one!

[falena]

She Rises sounds right up my street. Thanks for the review.

[luzula]

It's very good, but also a fairly gritty book--like, it's gripping, but not something I would read as a feel-good book.

[hurry_sundown]

I had no idea there was a Swedish Lichen Society. It seems very ... Swedish. I can't imagine something like that in the US. Guns, yes. Nature, not so much. I hope you had a great time. 🩵

[luzula]

Aww, surely there are American naturalists aplenty!

But yes, Sweden being the home of Linneaus, we do have plenty of naturalist societies. There are special societies for birds, the big predators, insects, dragonflies, beetles, fungi, lichen, mosses… probably more that I have forgotten.