What Are You Reading Wednesday
It's stillll not Thursdaaaaay....
• What are you currently reading?
SO MANY THINGS.
Just going by my bookmarks... *deep breath* The Passion of the Purple Plumeria by Lauren Willig, The Women's Room by Marilyn French, Selected Poems of Anne Sexton, Dante's Purgatorio, Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, The Borgias by GJ Meyer, The Book That Changed My Life, Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George, Catching Fire, Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits, The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, Possession by A.S. Byatt, Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin, Stephanie Burgis's Kat, Incorrigable for the nth time, and Alanna: The First Adventure, also for the nth time. Because fuck yeah Alanna.
Seventeen books at a time is somewhat unusual for me, I promise. Usually it's more like five.
• What did you recently finish reading?
Sonnets from the Portuguese. I love Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and I really love her relationship with her husband-- they both were really gone over each other, with Robert Browning in particular being a TOTAL RIDICULOUS FANGIRL over everything his wife wrote. Everything. Even before they married. Even before they met. He essentially married his literary idol. Seriously, though, the sonnets are lovely and very sweet. I just read through all forty-five of them in one or two sittings.
Dante's Inferno. THIS SHIT IS HILARIOUS, GUYS. I mean, yeah, like 60% of it is really creative description of horrific torments and terrors, but the rest of it is 30% Dante and Virgil fanboying over each other, 9% Dante smack-talking literally everyone in Italy who is not him (including someone implied to be a member of his immediate family), and 1% sinners flipping God the bird.
Well, Dante called it "the fig." But we all know what he meant.
Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, by Chris Roberts. Eh. It's a fun read mostly, and pretty educational as to the history behind various rhymes (I had no idea Jack Horner was related to Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, for example). However, the author uses (and misdefines!) a hideously unnecessary transphobic slur when discussing "William and Mary, George and Anne," and there's some gross fat-shaming in "Georgie Porgie." So, basically, entertaining book, but I'd get it out of the library, and if you're sensitive to either, skip the two mentioned chapters.
Seriously, the transphobic slur wasn't even necessary, he just threw it in there offhand. Gross.
The Heroine's Bookshelf, by Erin Blakemore. This was... okay? I'd read 11 of 12 of the books Blakemore mentions, and I don't agree with all of her conclusions. Still, it's a fun little literary criticism read, if you're interested in that kind of thing.
• What do you think you’ll read next?
Oh, God only knows. In the Hand of the Goddess for sure, and Renegade Magic. Probably Princess of Silver and Affinity by Sarah Waters as well. Apart from that... who knows? So many books, so little time.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/227919.html. Please comment over there if possible.
• What are you currently reading?
SO MANY THINGS.
Just going by my bookmarks... *deep breath* The Passion of the Purple Plumeria by Lauren Willig, The Women's Room by Marilyn French, Selected Poems of Anne Sexton, Dante's Purgatorio, Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, The Borgias by GJ Meyer, The Book That Changed My Life, Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George, Catching Fire, Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits, The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, Possession by A.S. Byatt, Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin, Stephanie Burgis's Kat, Incorrigable for the nth time, and Alanna: The First Adventure, also for the nth time. Because fuck yeah Alanna.
Seventeen books at a time is somewhat unusual for me, I promise. Usually it's more like five.
• What did you recently finish reading?
Sonnets from the Portuguese. I love Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and I really love her relationship with her husband-- they both were really gone over each other, with Robert Browning in particular being a TOTAL RIDICULOUS FANGIRL over everything his wife wrote. Everything. Even before they married. Even before they met. He essentially married his literary idol. Seriously, though, the sonnets are lovely and very sweet. I just read through all forty-five of them in one or two sittings.
Dante's Inferno. THIS SHIT IS HILARIOUS, GUYS. I mean, yeah, like 60% of it is really creative description of horrific torments and terrors, but the rest of it is 30% Dante and Virgil fanboying over each other, 9% Dante smack-talking literally everyone in Italy who is not him (including someone implied to be a member of his immediate family), and 1% sinners flipping God the bird.
Well, Dante called it "the fig." But we all know what he meant.
Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, by Chris Roberts. Eh. It's a fun read mostly, and pretty educational as to the history behind various rhymes (I had no idea Jack Horner was related to Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, for example). However, the author uses (and misdefines!) a hideously unnecessary transphobic slur when discussing "William and Mary, George and Anne," and there's some gross fat-shaming in "Georgie Porgie." So, basically, entertaining book, but I'd get it out of the library, and if you're sensitive to either, skip the two mentioned chapters.
Seriously, the transphobic slur wasn't even necessary, he just threw it in there offhand. Gross.
The Heroine's Bookshelf, by Erin Blakemore. This was... okay? I'd read 11 of 12 of the books Blakemore mentions, and I don't agree with all of her conclusions. Still, it's a fun little literary criticism read, if you're interested in that kind of thing.
• What do you think you’ll read next?
Oh, God only knows. In the Hand of the Goddess for sure, and Renegade Magic. Probably Princess of Silver and Affinity by Sarah Waters as well. Apart from that... who knows? So many books, so little time.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/227919.html. Please comment over there if possible.