Things I have been reading
I have been reading things!
Two of them I read on my phone before getting out of bed this morning, because I like to start my day off right:
Lullaby (1186 words) by
Philomytha
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Ludmilla "Drou" Droushnakovi, Kareen Vorbarra, Gregor Vorbarra, Steggie the stegosaurus, Serg Vorbarra
Summary:
Steggie is having trouble sleeping.
This is my brand new instant head-canon for Drou, and a painfully gorgeous look at her and Gregor and Kareen in the last days of Serg's presence in their lives. And I got about halfway through it before I was thinking, "Awww, I want to write Vorkosigans."
A New Dance (859 words) by
Philomytha
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aral Vorkosigan/Alys Vorpatril
Characters: Aral Vorkosigan, Alys Vorpatril
Summary:
The first time Aral and Alys kiss. A Reconstruction 'verse fic.
This one will not make sense if you haven't read Reconstruction first and, note pairing, it's a 'verse where Cordelia died in the rescue mission to get Miles during the Pretendership. It left me thinking "Aww, I want to write Vorksoigans in hideously dire circumstances." But that is probably a rabbit hole I should not venture down, with the wolves breathing down my neck.
Today I also finished reading a book to fulfill my self-assigned quota of Books That Are Not SF or Fantasy and Are Popular Among My Library's Readers And/Or Books Clubs at My Local Bookstore, which I more pithily describe as "Oughta" books in my booklist. (Previous books read for this category include Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Art of Racing in the Rain, and Room, all of which I have quite liked.)
This past week I read Paula MacLain's The Paris Wife, which I found fascinating but don't quite know how to talk about, which is a peril of reading and being fascinated by books about how the other half lives.
The book is about Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson, and as the title suggests it follows the arc of their marriage, much of which was spent in Paris. But what it's really about is a non-writer in love with a writer, following him into a circle of friends who are all writers or artists or critics or otherwise creative people (and ultimately losing him to one of them). It's a beautiful book, and it's impossible not to feel for Hadley, but I kept having this disconnect whenever I tried to put myself in her shoes as she felt increasingly isolated and marginalized--because in the same circumstances I know I would have my own work to turn to. It's a weird kind of, idk, certainty privilege, and I don't know that I've ever read anything else that pointed it up so sharply.
On a much shallower note, more or less my entire knowledge of the creative expat scene in Paris in the Twenties comes from watching Midnight in Paris, so I spent this whole book picturing Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein and Tom Hiddleston as Scott Fitzgerald and Corey Stoll as Hemingway, which did not at all detract from my enjoyment. *g*
This entry was originally posted at http://dira.dreamwidth.org/623819.html. There are currently
comments there.
Two of them I read on my phone before getting out of bed this morning, because I like to start my day off right:
Lullaby (1186 words) by
Philomytha
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Ludmilla "Drou" Droushnakovi, Kareen Vorbarra, Gregor Vorbarra, Steggie the stegosaurus, Serg Vorbarra
Summary:
Steggie is having trouble sleeping.
This is my brand new instant head-canon for Drou, and a painfully gorgeous look at her and Gregor and Kareen in the last days of Serg's presence in their lives. And I got about halfway through it before I was thinking, "Awww, I want to write Vorkosigans."
A New Dance (859 words) by
Philomytha
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aral Vorkosigan/Alys Vorpatril
Characters: Aral Vorkosigan, Alys Vorpatril
Summary:
The first time Aral and Alys kiss. A Reconstruction 'verse fic.
This one will not make sense if you haven't read Reconstruction first and, note pairing, it's a 'verse where Cordelia died in the rescue mission to get Miles during the Pretendership. It left me thinking "Aww, I want to write Vorksoigans in hideously dire circumstances." But that is probably a rabbit hole I should not venture down, with the wolves breathing down my neck.
Today I also finished reading a book to fulfill my self-assigned quota of Books That Are Not SF or Fantasy and Are Popular Among My Library's Readers And/Or Books Clubs at My Local Bookstore, which I more pithily describe as "Oughta" books in my booklist. (Previous books read for this category include Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Art of Racing in the Rain, and Room, all of which I have quite liked.)
This past week I read Paula MacLain's The Paris Wife, which I found fascinating but don't quite know how to talk about, which is a peril of reading and being fascinated by books about how the other half lives.
The book is about Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson, and as the title suggests it follows the arc of their marriage, much of which was spent in Paris. But what it's really about is a non-writer in love with a writer, following him into a circle of friends who are all writers or artists or critics or otherwise creative people (and ultimately losing him to one of them). It's a beautiful book, and it's impossible not to feel for Hadley, but I kept having this disconnect whenever I tried to put myself in her shoes as she felt increasingly isolated and marginalized--because in the same circumstances I know I would have my own work to turn to. It's a weird kind of, idk, certainty privilege, and I don't know that I've ever read anything else that pointed it up so sharply.
On a much shallower note, more or less my entire knowledge of the creative expat scene in Paris in the Twenties comes from watching Midnight in Paris, so I spent this whole book picturing Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein and Tom Hiddleston as Scott Fitzgerald and Corey Stoll as Hemingway, which did not at all detract from my enjoyment. *g*
This entry was originally posted at http://dira.dreamwidth.org/623819.html. There are currently
comments there.