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Reading Thursday
Jan. 14th, 2021 09:14 pmJust finished:
The Southern Bookclub’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix. Patricia feels lost after giving up her nursing career to raise her family, but after she fails to read a suitably worthy book for her official bookclub (Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country) she’s invited to join a more rebellious group of women reading true crime (suitably disguised:
Then James Harris, a mysterious stranger, moves into the neighbourhood, and Patty’s initial fascination with him becomes an obsession with who - and what he really is. I really liked this, without any of the caveats I’ve had for his earlier books - you can definitely see his growth as a writer. The bookclub are great, and James Harris is a convincing predator - one who enjoys fattening up his victims beforehand. The time skip is brilliant.
Unmasked by the Marquess, Cat Sebastian. Robert Selby wants his pretty sister Louisa to marry well, so he lies to the current Marquess of Pembroke (Alastair) that his late father was Louisa’s godfather, in the hope that he will help launch Louisa into society. But Alastair is more interested in Robert, who is also concealing the fact that he was born Charity Church, a foundling and housemaid (author’s note describes Charity as nonbinary; she uses she/her in the text). Charity/Robin worked well for me as a character, but the instant bond between her and Alastair (who is apparently uptight and proper in all things) didn’t work for me and, as with Sebastian’s other novels, it’s all a bit forgettable. I’d actually be most interested in reading about Charity’s past, and how she moved from housemaid to attending Oxford.
The Duke and I, Julia Quinn. I am objectively terrible at watching live action TV dramas. In the last six years I’ve managed 11 episodes of Guardian, all of And Then There Were None, 18 minutes of the Untamed, and an episode and a bit of The Queen’s Gambit. I therefore thought I’d have more luck if I read the books and then tried to watch the Netflix Bridgerton series (this worked well for And Then there Were None, where I can just admire the clockwork brilliance of it all, but with Queen's Gambit I know the text so well and it's a relatively faithful adaptation, so I keep getting this weird echo effect when watching. Plus everyone is way too pretty and clean). In this one Daphne Bridgerton, fourth of eight alphabetically named siblings and the oldest daughter, makes an business-only arrangement with Simon Hastings, a rake with daddy issues, in order to increase her perceived marriageability, and they end up in love. Eventually. After they’re married but before Simon’s issues are dealt with, Daphne has unprotected sex with Simon when he’s drunk because she wants to get pregnant and he has refused to. Quinn has an author’s note about how this scene reads differently now to when she wrote it in 2000, which is true, but it did make the happy ending somewhat bitter, and the second prologue with everyone’s hordes of loving offspring made me feel as if I were back reading later volumes of the Chalet School (or, given the naming systems, the Abbey Girls).
Silver Spoon volumes 3-8, Hiromu Arakawa. Hachiken Yuugo burns out at prep school and flees to Ooezo Agricultural High School in Hokkaido. This is just so much fun to read. Hachiken hasn’t grown up with farming the way the other students have, and so he approaches things quite differently - and the other students learn from this, too, as when Hachiken names one of the piglets they raise for meat (“Pork Bowl”) and then grapples with the whole process. Many, many fabulous food scenes, lots of information, fantastic character moments. My personal favourite character is Tamako and the panel in which she submits her business case for the pizza oven had me laughing for about five minutes.
Currently reading:
The next Silver Spoon - I have all bar the last (15th) volume out from the library. The Bridgerton books are a 3 in 1, so I am also about halfway through The Viscount Who Loved Me and am not loving it. I just started Vita Nostra, by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko, about a young woman invited/summoned to join an odd magical university, and it's compelling and atmospheric so far.
Possibly abandoning:
A Queen from the North, Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese. In an AU Unified Kingdom where York and Lancaster are still rivals, the widowed Prince of Wales proposes to the daughter of a northern Earl for political reasons - but both of them develop feelings. I am still not convinced by the backstory (in worldbuilding terms this conflict seems to be replacing Irish nationalism but it's way less intense and I haven't seen it on the page for all that the northern character keeps going on about how much York is oppressed) nor am I that convinced by the romance, and all the characters feel like they’ve just started the book at the same time I did - the prince is apparently a good friend of Amelia’s older brother, yet they have no history - for example. I am keeping reading because I do like the title and I'm hoping it might improve.
I am definitely ditching Tal Bauer’s Enemies of the State, because I am in no way in the mood for newly inaugurated American president hooks up with his special agent bodyguard.
Up next:
More Silver Spoon. Also my father pinched Iain Maloney's The Only Gaijin in the Village (nonfiction, author moves to rural Japan with his Japanese wife) off me and has nearly finished it.
Audio:
Finished Briar’s Book, the last in Tamora Pierce’s The Circle of Magic series, and started on Magic Steps, first in the The Circle Opens. While I’ve loved all four, this was my least favourite, largely because it deals with a plague and partly now is not the time, but partly
( Spoilers )
Gaming:
I think there’s only one chapter left of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, although there are a lot of minor missions. I am avoiding most of the Divine Beast ones because the controls are terrible. I am in winter of year two in a Stardew Valley game, and I want to marry someone by the end of the season but can’t decide who - maybe Leah? Or Elliott? Also, trying to get to level 100 in the Skull Cavern; have made it to 72. I have also just downloaded the trial of Genshin Impact onto my phone.
The Southern Bookclub’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix. Patricia feels lost after giving up her nursing career to raise her family, but after she fails to read a suitably worthy book for her official bookclub (Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country) she’s invited to join a more rebellious group of women reading true crime (suitably disguised:
“We just read a wonderful book about life in a small Guyanese town in the 1970s.”
She didn’t mention that it was Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People.)
Then James Harris, a mysterious stranger, moves into the neighbourhood, and Patty’s initial fascination with him becomes an obsession with who - and what he really is. I really liked this, without any of the caveats I’ve had for his earlier books - you can definitely see his growth as a writer. The bookclub are great, and James Harris is a convincing predator - one who enjoys fattening up his victims beforehand. The time skip is brilliant.
Unmasked by the Marquess, Cat Sebastian. Robert Selby wants his pretty sister Louisa to marry well, so he lies to the current Marquess of Pembroke (Alastair) that his late father was Louisa’s godfather, in the hope that he will help launch Louisa into society. But Alastair is more interested in Robert, who is also concealing the fact that he was born Charity Church, a foundling and housemaid (author’s note describes Charity as nonbinary; she uses she/her in the text). Charity/Robin worked well for me as a character, but the instant bond between her and Alastair (who is apparently uptight and proper in all things) didn’t work for me and, as with Sebastian’s other novels, it’s all a bit forgettable. I’d actually be most interested in reading about Charity’s past, and how she moved from housemaid to attending Oxford.
The Duke and I, Julia Quinn. I am objectively terrible at watching live action TV dramas. In the last six years I’ve managed 11 episodes of Guardian, all of And Then There Were None, 18 minutes of the Untamed, and an episode and a bit of The Queen’s Gambit. I therefore thought I’d have more luck if I read the books and then tried to watch the Netflix Bridgerton series (this worked well for And Then there Were None, where I can just admire the clockwork brilliance of it all, but with Queen's Gambit I know the text so well and it's a relatively faithful adaptation, so I keep getting this weird echo effect when watching. Plus everyone is way too pretty and clean). In this one Daphne Bridgerton, fourth of eight alphabetically named siblings and the oldest daughter, makes an business-only arrangement with Simon Hastings, a rake with daddy issues, in order to increase her perceived marriageability, and they end up in love. Eventually. After they’re married but before Simon’s issues are dealt with, Daphne has unprotected sex with Simon when he’s drunk because she wants to get pregnant and he has refused to. Quinn has an author’s note about how this scene reads differently now to when she wrote it in 2000, which is true, but it did make the happy ending somewhat bitter, and the second prologue with everyone’s hordes of loving offspring made me feel as if I were back reading later volumes of the Chalet School (or, given the naming systems, the Abbey Girls).
Silver Spoon volumes 3-8, Hiromu Arakawa. Hachiken Yuugo burns out at prep school and flees to Ooezo Agricultural High School in Hokkaido. This is just so much fun to read. Hachiken hasn’t grown up with farming the way the other students have, and so he approaches things quite differently - and the other students learn from this, too, as when Hachiken names one of the piglets they raise for meat (“Pork Bowl”) and then grapples with the whole process. Many, many fabulous food scenes, lots of information, fantastic character moments. My personal favourite character is Tamako and the panel in which she submits her business case for the pizza oven had me laughing for about five minutes.
Currently reading:
The next Silver Spoon - I have all bar the last (15th) volume out from the library. The Bridgerton books are a 3 in 1, so I am also about halfway through The Viscount Who Loved Me and am not loving it. I just started Vita Nostra, by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko, about a young woman invited/summoned to join an odd magical university, and it's compelling and atmospheric so far.
Possibly abandoning:
A Queen from the North, Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese. In an AU Unified Kingdom where York and Lancaster are still rivals, the widowed Prince of Wales proposes to the daughter of a northern Earl for political reasons - but both of them develop feelings. I am still not convinced by the backstory (in worldbuilding terms this conflict seems to be replacing Irish nationalism but it's way less intense and I haven't seen it on the page for all that the northern character keeps going on about how much York is oppressed) nor am I that convinced by the romance, and all the characters feel like they’ve just started the book at the same time I did - the prince is apparently a good friend of Amelia’s older brother, yet they have no history - for example. I am keeping reading because I do like the title and I'm hoping it might improve.
I am definitely ditching Tal Bauer’s Enemies of the State, because I am in no way in the mood for newly inaugurated American president hooks up with his special agent bodyguard.
Up next:
More Silver Spoon. Also my father pinched Iain Maloney's The Only Gaijin in the Village (nonfiction, author moves to rural Japan with his Japanese wife) off me and has nearly finished it.
Audio:
Finished Briar’s Book, the last in Tamora Pierce’s The Circle of Magic series, and started on Magic Steps, first in the The Circle Opens. While I’ve loved all four, this was my least favourite, largely because it deals with a plague and partly now is not the time, but partly
( Spoilers )Gaming:
I think there’s only one chapter left of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, although there are a lot of minor missions. I am avoiding most of the Divine Beast ones because the controls are terrible. I am in winter of year two in a Stardew Valley game, and I want to marry someone by the end of the season but can’t decide who - maybe Leah? Or Elliott? Also, trying to get to level 100 in the Skull Cavern; have made it to 72. I have also just downloaded the trial of Genshin Impact onto my phone.
