What I'm Reading Wednesday

[lost_spook]

What I've Finished ReadingMostly Regencies! I was taken to a different library by a friend and it was full of them, what could I do? They're reading candyfloss and I can't help it, even though I know I'm the wrong person to read them because whatever it is I'm after, they're not quite it. Still mostly fun, though. I just wish the latest one

Comments

[persiflage_1]

I remember reading the first couple of Skullduggery Pleasant books and quite enjoying them, but apparently not enough to read any more of them.

[lost_spook]

That's pretty much how I feel about them, too, but I wrangle the fandom on AO3 and while I should probably try to find a wrangler who knows them better, it's rather a fun fandom, so I'm trying to catch up a bit.

[persiflage_1]

That doesn't sound like too bad a reason to be reading them!

[osprey_archer]

I also read Belle! I remember wishing that the author had just gone ahead and novelized it; there's really not enough known about Dido Elizabeth Belle for a nonfiction book, even with all the background info tossed in, but the outlines of her story are so interesting that it could make a kickass novel. And actually I did think the movie based on the book was pretty well done.

[lost_spook]

Well, I'd already seen the film, so in essence, I have the novelisation; getting the background facts was a nice extra. And, as I said, potentially useful in some ways, too!

[evelyn_b]

Is "brilliant!" one of those things that sound too late to use in historical fiction but have actually been in use since 1635? Or is this just Generic Undated Britishness Marker rearing its lazy head again?

The one I'm reading now actually suffers a little from its own best impulses, I think. It doesn't "feel" like the early 19th century because of the dialogue and the writing style, but the author has clearly done a lot of research and wants to bring a hidden side of history to light, so it's full of convincing or jarring details and historically important political arguments, which make the writing style show a little more than if it had been pure ahistorical fluff - like when you clean one tile on the bathroom wall and suddenly the rest of them look 100x worse. But I also appreciate what the author is trying to do, so I don't want to be a jerk about it.

I think it's probably really hard to write a historical setting in this particular very unadorned close-third or first-person contemporary style and make it work - I don't

[lost_spook]

Brilliant as a word has been around for a long while, but it was used previously in its more literal sense as 'like a diamond' so bright, sharp, clear, bright - so you might have a brilliant mind etc., but as a general synonym for 'great', I'm pretty sure it's much more recent. I'll have to check, but I'm fairly sure of that one. I have a feeling it might have come up on that pernickity mistakes in Regency Romances website, too.

some meta abt Regencies

[acciochocolate]

I have little use for Regency historicals as published nowadays, but that's JMHO and YMMV. Since you didn't list titles/authors, I have no idea if that's what you're reading. :) Members of the Regency list at Yahoogroups (many Regency writers post there, so you should join) state that many such take place in a Regencyland theme park, w/ 21st-century people w/ their morals, cosplaying in Regency garb. I tend to agree w/ them. Also too much graphic sex where the whole event is glorious and perfect every time! LOL, a fantasy indeed. I much prefer a slow development of a real relationship, which you often find in the traditional Regency novels

Re: some meta abt Regencies

[lost_spook]

I'd also decided that most of them take place in a Regency theme park. It seems to be the best explanation

Re: some meta abt Regencies

[acciochocolate]

Glad to be of help! Barbara Metzger wrote the wittiest farces ever. :) A lot of the short story collections have amusing tales; I loved the kitten series from Zebra. I now understand yr reluctance to mention names; romance is put down by those who also dislike things like any genre stories or cosplay or fanfiction or filking. Boring people, in other words. LOL!

[ragnarok_08]

Those books sound interesting :)

[lost_spook]

Well, some were, some weren't. ;-)