Recent reading

[luzula]

Now out sailing with my parents for a few days, which is lovely. Also, it's exactly one week until I move, and my life is consumed by administration (which, yes, can be done from the boat).

Lockrenar och motstånd bland folken i norr - Kerstin Eidlitz Kuoljok (2015) [Decoy reindeer and resistance among the peoples in the north]
This was an odd little collection of essays, spotted in a Jokkmokk bookstore with a cover featuring a photo of a well-known local protest against mines. The author is a lapsed academic from the south who married a reindeer herder in Jokkmokk. She did her Ph D in ethnography in the '60:s and now comes off like an idiosyncratic and slightly cranky old professor who thinks the university has gone downhill and she is well quit of it. I found the cover somewhat misleading. Here are the topics of the essays: the use of tame reindeer as decoys when hunting wild reindeer, historical bow construction among a certain Siberian people, politics and law relating to northern indigenous people in post-Soviet Russia, conflicts between the state/companies and northern indigenous people over natural resources in post-Soviet Russia. As I knew nothing whatsoever about these topics, I guess I learned something!

The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective by Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1894)
I got this via sanguinity, I think? It's good to see that genderswapped Sherlock Holmes is not a modern thing! Not that Loveday Brooke is exactly SH, except for her deductive abilities. I do wish we had gotten more of her backstory and that she'd had a little more personality! Also she lacks a Watson, or other significant relationships--her boss/colleague is the closest thing, I guess, but they don't interact enough. Still, it was nice to see a super-competent woman showing up all the men in the 1890's!

I also read and enjoyed So All The Things Can Grow (18429 words) by witchoil, in the fandom Sunshine - Robin McKinley. I've long wanted a Con/Sunshine/Mel fic, and this laid thorough groundwork for that, even though it didn't go all the way.

Comments

[snickfic]

Oooh yes, I loved taht Sunshine fic!! It's the first one I've read that really tackled the messiness that would go into a triad, even though, as you say, it doesn't quite get them there. But a lot of progress is made!

[luzula]

Yes, I'm surprised there aren't more fics with that pairing! Perhaps because of the work you'd have to do. I do have one Sunshine fic in my head, which is basically Sunshine/Con PWP with background Sunshine/Con + Sunshine/Mel. Perhaps someday it will be written--so far I've felt weird about just diving into a PWP without first doing the work of establishing the poly.

[chestnut_pod]

It seems convenient but also somehow cruel that one can access email etc. from a boat. Jack Aubrey didn't have to read emails, which I'm sure would have been the last straw considering everything else he had to deal with.

[luzula]

Hee, I can imagine Jack's annoyance at the backseat-sailing of the Admiralty, if they had internet!

I suppose I could leave all relevant electronics at home and be on an email-free boat, but I have actually also been distance working from the boat, so not possible in this case.

[sanguinity]

I have no recollection of Loveday Brooke, so fear I cannot claim credit! But it seems to me that there were a number of lady detectives in the period? I suspect language_escapes would know/remember.

[luzula]

Huh, not you, then! It must have been someone else in my DW circle...I wonder who.

[sanguinity]

Not me!

Although I did remember correctly, that there was a whole run of Victorian female detectives! Here's an article about some of them, including Loveday Brooke. And I could swear we passed around a list of these characters/novels in the early days of the Elementary fandom, but alas, I'm having trouble finding it.

[genarti]

I think it may have been me? I did read and enjoy Loveday Brooke and wrote it up a while back, at least!

[luzula]

Yes, it must have been you! Thanks for the rec. : )

[aurumcalendula]

Ooh! Thank you for mentioning that Sunshine fic - I really enjoyed it!

[luzula]

I'm glad you did! I always think when I rec fics that surely everyone will have already seen them, but it's good to be reminded that this is not the case. I should rec more fics!

[aurumcalendula]

I love hearing about folks' recs!

I was especially thrilled to find out about this one since there's not a ton of fic for Sunshine in general (I think partially because iirc McKinley disapproved of fanfic).

[regshoe]

Also, it's exactly one week until I move

Oh, exciting! Best of luck with everything <3

Loveday Brooke sounds like good fun, though a shame about the lack of character/backstory substance and especially the lack of a femslashy Watson.

[luzula]

Thanks! The day after tomorrow is the day when the house officially changes owners, and then I move the day after that.

I suppose, if I were to frame Loveday's lack of backstory and relationships etc as a positive thing, then you could say that she is allowed to be focused on her job in a way which is more common for men!

May your move

[jesse_the_k]

be well administered and smooth as a tame reindeer's antler.

Re: May your move

[luzula]

Thank you! <3

[nnozomi]

A few days of sailing! What a lovely way to end the summer.

I also read and enjoyed So All The Things Can Grow (18429 words) by witchoil, in the fandom Sunshine - Robin McKinley. I've long wanted a Con/Sunshine/Mel fic, and this laid thorough groundwork for that, even though it didn't go all the way.
Same on all counts! I wish there were more longfic for that book, it needs it.

(also I love the name Loveday, which I only know from old boarding school stories; you don't hear it much these days)

[luzula]

I've thought of writing something in that fandom myself, but haven't actually managed anything so far. Perhaps some day.

I've never heard the name Loveday, but I do like it!