Wednesday reading in a hurry
Just finished: Sense & Sensibility (also just watched the movie), for book club. More busy, but with less narrative, than I remembered. I rather prefer the movie version of Margaret, though: in the book she has fuckall to do. And the movie version of the mother, who is sensible enough to see how awful Fanny is right off the bat, and rather less prone to DRAMA than the book version. Still, the book is more about the grinding reality of putting up with unpleasant social situations in order to have any society at all (and ergo any hope of a marriage that will continue to feed your family); and in all likelihood people are probably more like the ones Austen gives us than the versions given us by Thompson & Lee.
I also just finished Kate Elliott's Court of Fives, which is billed by the author as "Little Women meets American Ninja Warrior", and that's just spot-on, though I would add the clause "in Ancient Egypt". The lead character is believably self-absorbed and naive about politics; her sisters are well-drawn and distinctive, the cultural setting is fascinating, the magic pretty creepy, the big set pieces exciting and vivid. My only dissatisfaction is that I find the male romantic lead dull as a stump and far prefer the angry revolutionary. But then (aside from Jaran) I don't read Elliott for her romances, and she's just so good at everything else I don't care if the romance isn't entirely believable.
Currently Reading: erm. Nothing, since I finished the Elliott last night.
Next up: Probably Atul Gawande's Being Mortal. Or something else on my Kindle, on the plane on Friday. And next week Updraft comes out, and I'll grab that.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.
I also just finished Kate Elliott's Court of Fives, which is billed by the author as "Little Women meets American Ninja Warrior", and that's just spot-on, though I would add the clause "in Ancient Egypt". The lead character is believably self-absorbed and naive about politics; her sisters are well-drawn and distinctive, the cultural setting is fascinating, the magic pretty creepy, the big set pieces exciting and vivid. My only dissatisfaction is that I find the male romantic lead dull as a stump and far prefer the angry revolutionary. But then (aside from Jaran) I don't read Elliott for her romances, and she's just so good at everything else I don't care if the romance isn't entirely believable.
Currently Reading: erm. Nothing, since I finished the Elliott last night.
Next up: Probably Atul Gawande's Being Mortal. Or something else on my Kindle, on the plane on Friday. And next week Updraft comes out, and I'll grab that.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.