Recent reading
Aug. 26th, 2024 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaI've been away from the internet for a while, and done some forest surveys in the north. Lots of camping and good companionship--I like that almost all the participants were middle-aged women like me. There was a fair amount of rain, though, and getting to/from Jokkmokk takes a looong time. I didn't write while camping, and for various reasons I've written almost nothing today and yesterday, despite nominally having time while traveling! But I ought not to feel bad about that--I've written over 100K so far this year.
The British Recluse by Eliza Haywood (1722)
My periodic dose of 18th century writing. This is basically f/f; here are the two main characters meeting: The Meeting of these two Ladies was something particular for Persons of the same Sex; each found, at first Sight, so much to admire in the other, that it kept both from speaking for some Moments. The Recluse consider'd Belinda, as indeed she is, one of the most lovely Persons on Earth; and Belinda found the Recluse so far beyond the Landlady's Description, something so majestick, and withal so sweet and attractive in her Air,----such a Mixture of the most forceful Fire, and most enchanting Softness in her Eyes, that she became wholly lost in speechless Wonder. And at the end, they get to live happily ever after together! But despite this, I don't know if I can really recommend it: most of the book is the separate narratives of the two main characters, who have both had love stories with Terrible Men. I was not that interested in reading at length about how they both passionately loved men who turned out to be pieces of shit and treated them badly! Why not give us instead more than one paragraph about how the main characters decide to shack up together? But I guess it's nice that one of them was a mistress and had a child out of wedlock and yet gets a happily ever after at the end.
Band Sinister by K J Charles (2018)
This was much more to my taste than The Magpie Lord! It plays around with Heyer tropes (the in-universe Gothic novel written by one protagonist about another, also the "stuck together in one household" trope). What I enjoyed most about it is the thoughtfulness and all the explicit conversations about consent, written engagingly and in a way that contributed to the characterization and relationship development.
Since all my books are packed, it has been the Summer of Ebooks, and I have somewhat glutted myself on historical romances. Taking a break from those now, and I have some quite different books reserved at the library.
The British Recluse by Eliza Haywood (1722)
My periodic dose of 18th century writing. This is basically f/f; here are the two main characters meeting: The Meeting of these two Ladies was something particular for Persons of the same Sex; each found, at first Sight, so much to admire in the other, that it kept both from speaking for some Moments. The Recluse consider'd Belinda, as indeed she is, one of the most lovely Persons on Earth; and Belinda found the Recluse so far beyond the Landlady's Description, something so majestick, and withal so sweet and attractive in her Air,----such a Mixture of the most forceful Fire, and most enchanting Softness in her Eyes, that she became wholly lost in speechless Wonder. And at the end, they get to live happily ever after together! But despite this, I don't know if I can really recommend it: most of the book is the separate narratives of the two main characters, who have both had love stories with Terrible Men. I was not that interested in reading at length about how they both passionately loved men who turned out to be pieces of shit and treated them badly! Why not give us instead more than one paragraph about how the main characters decide to shack up together? But I guess it's nice that one of them was a mistress and had a child out of wedlock and yet gets a happily ever after at the end.
Band Sinister by K J Charles (2018)
This was much more to my taste than The Magpie Lord! It plays around with Heyer tropes (the in-universe Gothic novel written by one protagonist about another, also the "stuck together in one household" trope). What I enjoyed most about it is the thoughtfulness and all the explicit conversations about consent, written engagingly and in a way that contributed to the characterization and relationship development.
Since all my books are packed, it has been the Summer of Ebooks, and I have somewhat glutted myself on historical romances. Taking a break from those now, and I have some quite different books reserved at the library.
