rushthatspeaks: (Default)
[personal profile] rushthatspeaks
Recent reading: there hasn't been much. Firstly, all my books are in boxes in the limonaio; secondly, there has been so much to do with the bank-administrative and the various unpacking and the general trying to get my nerves resettled that I have had very little brain, and I've gone through the comfort books that aren't in boxes. (I should and will check more comfort books out of the library.)

So the principal thing that has happened is that I have failed to read Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, not through any lack of inclination but because the beginning epigram mentions the possibility that one may sprain one's wrists on it and the man is telling the literal truth. I am physically incapable of supporting it for any length of time, and we don't currently have a chair-and-table setup at which I could read without destroying my back. If I put it on my lap and look down I will wind up propping it with my hands without thinking about it; I've already done that twice and it was painful. It will have to wait until I get a desk set up in my study, or the eventual day I get some kind of e-reading device. (I have to say, the existence of a book I can't actually wrangle without hurting myself brings that eventual day a heck of a lot closer.)

I did manage to read volume one of Q Hayashida's Dorohedoro, which if you have a high gore tolerance is a very interesting dark urban fantasy with ugly-pretty art, an unusual gothic-industrial aesthetic, and worldbuilding that is both completely insane and remarkably coherent. It also has the unusual feature that its (extremely competent) principal female character is attractive not because she is drawn the usual ways that mangaka draw attractive women, but because she is the only human character who does not wear a very ugly mask at all times. The mangaka is female, which is rare for a seinen ultra-violent running in an artsy magazine, and the whole thing is just far more likable than I had expected. I read it because it was recced to me-- I'd never have picked it up otherwise, as it has an ugly picture of a guy wearing industrial goth on the cover and comes shrink-wrapped-- and I am glad of it. You can read at least some chunks of it online at Viz's Sig-Ikki site. But I do mean it about the gore (though, again oddly for this genre, so far no sexual or sexualized violence at all).

The third reason I haven't been reading much is that I expect to be doing a lot of reading very shortly. I read very fast, and the idea occurred to me some time ago that it would be interesting to do a year in which I read and reviewed a new book every day, no rereads. (I mean no reviewing the rereads. I read fast enough that I don't expect this to curb my rereading.) Then it occurred to me that if I begin on my upcoming birthday, the year would start on my twenty-ninth birthday and end on my thirtieth, which is exactly the kind of pointless symbolism with which I am the most delighted.

So that starts August 29th. One book a day, every day. Reviews will be posted publicly here. This post is where people can recommend me books; three hundred and sixty-five is at least a mini-syllabus in whatever subject area you'd like to give me a primer in, and there are several genres I haven't read in very widely (the Russian novel, the mystery novel post Christie, contemporary literary). The genres I have read in very widely are SF/F, YA, historical biography, intellectual history, memoir, history of theology, music/film/comic criticism, food, lit theory, feminist theory and urban studies. I've read a bit of romance but not as much. Unsurprisingly, the areas I read most widely are also the genres I like best. Recs of things you'd like me to review cheerfully accepted, assuming I haven't read them already.

I have access to a pretty good library system from which I can check books out, and an also pretty good university library, ditto. The university library has a very good sf collection which one has to read in-house, so I can't do that often. Apart from that, there is one bookstore in this town (i.e. within a couple of hours drive) and it is a Barnes & Noble which is not terrible but not terrific. So I can probably but not certainly get hold of most things in this town that I want to read, although there is a distressing local lack of Naomi Mitchison.

I am in hopes that getting up every morning, reading something, and writing about it will help me establish a routine and recollect after the move. That said, I realize this is a lot of books, but I think it will have interesting enough effects on the inside of my head to be worth a shot, and hopefully we will all get some entertaining reviews out of it. (This would also be where you tell me if you think this is a terrible idea.)

Date: 2010-08-20 11:57 am (UTC)
adrian_turtle: (Default)
From: [personal profile] adrian_turtle
If you're looking for mystery novel recommendations, I think you might like Sara Paretsky. I started reading her books because of how well they line up with my values--not just feminism, but also a general sympathy for the poor or oppressed that seems rare in mysteries. The writing was a little rough for the first few, but either she's gotten much better, or I've developed a taste for her style.

Date: 2010-08-20 02:20 pm (UTC)
kate_nepveu: sleeping cat carved in brown wood (Default)
From: [personal profile] kate_nepveu
Sarah Caudwell Sarah Caudwell Sarah Caudwell!

http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/2005/03/caudwell_sarah.php

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Date: 2010-08-20 06:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com
I really hope you'll be posting as you go, even if you do it locked; I'd enjoy that very much.



Date: 2010-08-20 06:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com
Yes, I will be. Unlocked. I think I'll go edit the entry to that effect.

Date: 2010-08-20 06:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jinian.livejournal.com
Sounds like a huge treat for those of us reading the reviews! Hope it does help you feel better, too.

Date: 2010-08-20 05:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com
Thank you! I hope so.

Date: 2010-08-20 06:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] coraa.livejournal.com
I think this is an absolutely delightful idea, and I can't wait to read your reviews. I'll see if I can think of any good recs for you.

Date: 2010-08-20 05:44 pm (UTC)
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Re: Some Russian novels to consider

Date: 2010-08-20 05:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com
Oh, wow, thank you, this is awesome. I have never read any of these, and have only heard of the Lukyanenko, the Sedia, and the Akunin; the other stuff is entirely new to me. I am copying them all to my library list right now.

Date: 2010-08-20 07:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com
Robertson Davies is a Canadian writer whom you will either adore or hate very much; very idiosyncratic, mythic, funny. He has some annoying sexist tropes but a number of fantastic female characters too. I will recommend two trilogies with the caveat that I like the middle book the best in both.

The Cornish trilogy begins with The Rebel Angels, but I'm not all that crazy about that one. The sequel, which can be read on its own, is What's Bred in the Bone and is the life of an artist with forgery and spying, narrated by the daemon appointed to make his life interesting. The Lyre of Orpheus is about an Arthurian opera put on my a foundation whose mission is to support strange, over-ambitious, impractical art, narrated from Limbo by the ghost of E. T. A. Hoffman. It too can be read separately though you'll miss some stuff, and it's hilarious - Davies clearly did tons of theatre.

The Deptford trilogy begins with Fifth Business, in which a boy throws a snowball and hits the wrong person; this tiny act spins out into a web of odd connections, sainthood and destiny, stage magic, and lots of interesting stuff with people consciously or unconsciously acting out archetypal roles. The Manticore consists almost entirely of a man's life told to a Jungian analyst, with lots of Jungian analysis. The man in question is the son of the boy who, years ago, ducked the thrown snowball, and recently died in a very odd manner. World of Wonders is about the son of the woman who was hit by the snowball, who becomes a stage magician.

Where She Was Standing by Maggie Helwig is a beautifully constructed modern novel about all sorts of serious issues, but not top-heavy. Very moving and intense.

More recs later.

Date: 2010-08-20 03:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gaudior.livejournal.com
It was partway through reading The Manticore, at age about 16 or so, that I realized I definitively did want to be a therapist someday. We may have The Deptford Trilogy in the house.

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Date: 2010-08-20 12:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nineweaving.livejournal.com
Oh gosh. I've already given (or lent) you Whit and The Last Samurai and Period Piece. Guy Davenport? More Sylvia Townsend Warner?


Date: 2010-08-20 05:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com
I intend to read more Sylvia, and hopefully the library here will have more Guy Davenport than was previously available. (The Minuteman library claimed to have a copy of The Geography of the Imagination, but when tracked down the bar code that scanned as that proved to be attached to a copy of Witch-Cult in Western Europe, which the librarian and I both found amusing, but which did not help us locate the Davenport book as such.)

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Date: 2010-08-20 01:44 pm (UTC)
genarti: Stack of books with text, "We are the dreamers of dreams." ([misc] dreamers)
From: [personal profile] genarti
It sounds like an excellent idea to me! I'll be very interested to see the reviews -- friendslist reviews are the primary way I get recs for new books, even aside from the fact that I find them interesting in their own right.

Date: 2010-08-20 05:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com
Thank you. I am in hopes of people finding it useful.

Date: 2010-08-20 01:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foleyartist1.livejournal.com
This morning for some reason when I think of you I think of George MacDonald, but I am so sure that you have read him before. Have you read the Thursday Next books? I feel like we've talked about them, but I could be losing my mind. They are very silly, but a soothing brand of silly.

Date: 2010-08-20 05:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com
I have read George MacDonald, yes, one of my favorites. I should check to see whether I've been completist.

I read the first of the Thursday Next books lo these aeons ago, but none of the others-- I've vaguely taken against the author because he is prone to essays against fanfic, which I am totally fine with in ninety percent of authors as a personal preference thing, only, what on earth else does he think he has made his career on?

Date: 2010-08-20 01:51 pm (UTC)
ext_14357: (whoo)
From: [identity profile] trifles.livejournal.com
Nonfiction-wise, I can't speak highly enough of:

Vic Gatrell's City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London
Saul David's The Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency
Flora Fraser's Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III
Amanda Foreman's Georgiana: The Duchess of Devonshire


Fiction-wise (you have probably read all of these, but I'll list them anyway):

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Camilla
Delia Sherman's Through a Brazen Mirror
Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun
Christopher Priest's The Prestige
Lynn Flewelling's The Bone Doll's Twin trilogy
Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence
Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White
Val McDermid's Tony Hill mysteries

Date: 2010-08-20 05:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com
The Foreman is awesome and I look forward to the rest of the nonfiction as it is indeed entirely the sort of thing I like.

I have read the Le Fanu and the Sherman, and I'm vaguely allergic to Christopher Priest but I liked the movie of The Prestige enough that I may read it anyway, and thank you for reminding me. I've also been meaning to read The Woman in White for far too long now. *copies others to list*

Thank you!

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Date: 2010-08-20 03:23 pm (UTC)
larryhammer: floral print origami penguin, facing left (Default)
From: [personal profile] larryhammer
There's a good chance you've read all of these, but here goes:

Trollope, in one swoop the Barchester and Palliser novels in internal order, which means interleaving:
  • The Warden
  • Barchester Towers
  • Doctor Thorne
  • Framley Parsonage
  • The Small House at Allington
  • Can You Forgive Her?
  • The Last Chronicle of Barset
  • Phineas Finn
  • The Eustace Diamonds
  • Phineas Redux
  • The Prime Minister
  • The Duke's Children
Fair warning, one of these is one of his worst books, but three or four are among his best.

Confessio Amantis
Pulci's Morgante
Orlando Innamorato
Orlando Furioso
The Dunciad (both versions)
The Prelude
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia
The Countess of Mountgomery's Urania
Clarissa

Date: 2010-08-20 05:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com
Ooh, no, I have not read Trollope, and you are quite right that I could just read a lot of Trollope, and thank you for the ordering. (It doesn't start off with the bad one, does it? Because if it does I would want to skip and go back to that.)

And I have been meaning to read the Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia and it would go so well with the Urania.

Thank you, this is a truly excellent list full of things I actually want to read and reminders of things I like.

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Date: 2010-08-20 03:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com
If you've already read the Mahabharata (if not, I recommend that,) then I recommend reading Shashi Tharoor's nonfiction India: From Midnight to the Millennium and then reading his very funny novel mashing up the Mahabharata with India's fight for independence.

Rumer Godden is an interestingly quirky British writer with an odd style which I and Jo Walton like a lot. If you read Lifelode, Godden does something vaguely similar with time in, IIRC, China Court and Take Three Tenses (which I haven't yet read) and with "nothing much happens but it's fascinating," only with nuns rather than polyamorous townsfolk, in In This House of Brede.

Thursday's Children is sort of Godden doing Noel Streatfeild, about a girl whose pushy stage mother wants her daughter to have the glorious ballet career she wanted for herself, and her neglected little brother who's the real talent in the family. Displays Godden's unusual style, knowledge of dance, and deftness at both sketching and developing character. I just like it.

She wrote some books on India, where she grew up, which have fantastic descriptions of the natural world and stunning callousness toward the human inhabitants. I don't really recommend those unless you're specifically looking for accurate depictions of the mindset of the British Raj.

I recommend Dick Francis for post-Christie mysteries, though they're really more thrillers than puzzles. He was a professional jockey and they all have something to do with racing. Amazingly, this does not get stale. He's extremely good at describing physical sensations (especially pain, but not just that), action, recovery from trauma, and how things and people work.

Though there's a bit of "progressive for a mainstream white dude of his time" factor, his female characters are nearly always interesting. (His wife apparently co-wrote the books but was uncredited by her own request; he revealed this after she died.) I recommend...

Odds Against. Sid Halley is seriously depressed after a disabling injury ends his career as a jockey, but slowly comes to terms with his life and disability while investigating a murder. Really likable main and supporting characters, very good portrayal of disability (I vouch for the depression, anyway), just a great story overall if you like the genre. Warning for irritating BDSM = evil trope, which only appears in this book.

Proof. More recovery from trauma, in this case a liquor store owner whose wife has died suddenly. I just like this one - it's well-written and has all this interesting stuff about alcohol. Seriously.

Banker. Unusually creepy and dark story about a banker and a really disturbing set of crimes. Again, very well-written.

Forfeit. The hero ends up in an open marriage. More disability issues and the heroine is biracial - some people might be offended by either or both, though I wasn't. Especially suspenseful and an absent-minded and fat mother of six saves the day.

If you like any of these, I can rec more.

Date: 2010-08-20 03:46 pm (UTC)
weirdquark: Stack of books (Default)
From: [personal profile] weirdquark
I recommend Dick Francis for post-Christie mysteries, though they're really more thrillers than puzzles.

Yeah, I enjoyed reading Dick Francis when I had a bunch of them in the reading room at work to read during my lunch break. Though if you are the sort of person who likes putting together the pieces of the mystery you will find it annoying whenever the narrator does something along the lines of "and then I had a flash of insight/found a clue that made me sure I knew what was going on" and not tell you what it was.

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Date: 2010-08-20 05:31 pm (UTC)
ext_6428: (Default)
From: [identity profile] coffeeandink.livejournal.com
\o/ book reviews!

Date: 2010-08-20 06:05 pm (UTC)

Date: 2010-08-20 05:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nineweaving.livejournal.com
Oh gosh. I've already given (or lent) you Whit and The Last Samurai and Period Piece. Guy Davenport? More Sylvia Townsend Warner?

Robertson Davies is seconded.

Nine

Date: 2010-08-20 10:37 pm (UTC)
eredien: Dancing Dragon (Default)
From: [personal profile] eredien
Suggestions:

Chris Adrian, "the Children's Hospital"
Millard Kaufman, "Bowl of Cherries"
Lewis Thomas, "The Nautilis & the Snail"
"Citrus County"
"Fever Chart" Bill Cotter
The collected poetry of Anna Akhmatova
"Eugene Onegin"

I recently read the Kaufman & Citrus County and Fever Chart, and really enjoyed both the story and the very different types of literary genius they showed. Kaufman's plotting is like a Chaplin movie--madcap and perfect--and Citrus County is basically like a Shaker box--perfect, nothing out of place, with a deliberately hollow space inside for things to rattle in. Fever chart is hilarious and fantastic and, I think, ulttimately empowering.

Akhmatova is brilliant. Eugene Onegin is required reading in Russian lit.

Date: 2010-08-21 06:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com
Thanks! Oddly enough, I've seen the opera of Eugene Onegin, though I haven't read the book. I may want to read the book. It must have faster pacing than the opera.

I've read the Lewis Thomas. The rest, not, and we do have a copy of The Children's Hospital which I have been meaning to get to.

Date: 2010-08-23 08:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] enleve.livejournal.com
In A Suitable Boy, there's a character who tears apart his Complete Works of William Shakespeare, so he can put a single play in his pocket to read on the train. So if you did something similar to Vikram Seth's book, so that you can read it, it might be strangely appropriate. :-) Just a thought. I have strong aversions to tearing apart books, but if it meant that I couldn't read it, I might think again.

Date: 2010-08-25 12:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com
Unfortunately, I had a library copy. But I see what you mean about the appropriateness.

Date: 2010-08-24 08:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rysmiel.livejournal.com
Have you read Daniel Abraham's Long Price books ? I cannot for the life of me remember, and should be interested in your comments if you have not. (Or indeed if you have. You know, I hope, what I mean.)

Date: 2010-08-25 12:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com
Yes! Those are lovely! I nominated the last two for the Hugo. One of the best fantasy series of recent years in so many directions.

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