Wednesday reading - underlings and underthings
What I've been reading
I read The Secret World of Polly Flint, another one of Helen Cresswell's non-Bagthorpe books. It follows a similar pattern to Moondial or Up the Pier, but may just be my favorite of those because of how adorable the relationship among Polly, her dad, the poetry-writing coal miner, and her mom is.
I read The History of Underclothes, because when you're undressing a historical character you want to do it properly. (I appreciated that they also opted to include nightclothes on the grounds that they are also usually left out of regular histories of clothing, since your historical characters are liable to be wearing them when you want to undress them.) It was published in 1951, so it ends with the prediction that we're probably going to be wearing a lot of things made with this new stuff, nylon (accurate!), or we're all going to be wearing washable suits of cellulose (not so much!).
I also read Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible: The Fascinating History of Everything in Your Closet, the other book I found in my library's catalog on the subject, because I am weirdly addicted to Project Runway even as it has declined from regular pleasure to strictly guilty pleasure. It is an entertaining combination of semi-serious history, amusing remarks, and attempts to cajole the reader into putting on something other than yoga pants, with fun illustrations.
I reread Assassin's Apprentice, because I had heard that Robin Hobb was going to take back the no homo ending of Fool's Fate and write another trilogy about Fitz and the Fool. Actually, I miscalculated when I should be doing this, because I see that the first book, Fool's Assassin has already come out and I am avoiding spoilers for it. The first time I read the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies, I was definitely in it for the massive homoeroticism, which Robin Hobb hates it if you notice or, god forbid, write fic about, but on reread I am also more aware of all the other tropiness which I also enjoy.
Speaking of tropiness, I read The Winter Long, the new October Daye book. The blurb for this one is basically "it's time to learn the truth," and if you read these books you may be thinking, haven't we discovered the truth that changes everything several times already in this series? But this time, it is, like, all the truths! But I enjoy a lot of the worldbuilding and banter enough to tolerate the shambolic plotting.
What I'm reading now
The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell's new book.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, where there are
comment(s)
I read The Secret World of Polly Flint, another one of Helen Cresswell's non-Bagthorpe books. It follows a similar pattern to Moondial or Up the Pier, but may just be my favorite of those because of how adorable the relationship among Polly, her dad, the poetry-writing coal miner, and her mom is.
I read The History of Underclothes, because when you're undressing a historical character you want to do it properly. (I appreciated that they also opted to include nightclothes on the grounds that they are also usually left out of regular histories of clothing, since your historical characters are liable to be wearing them when you want to undress them.) It was published in 1951, so it ends with the prediction that we're probably going to be wearing a lot of things made with this new stuff, nylon (accurate!), or we're all going to be wearing washable suits of cellulose (not so much!).
I also read Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible: The Fascinating History of Everything in Your Closet, the other book I found in my library's catalog on the subject, because I am weirdly addicted to Project Runway even as it has declined from regular pleasure to strictly guilty pleasure. It is an entertaining combination of semi-serious history, amusing remarks, and attempts to cajole the reader into putting on something other than yoga pants, with fun illustrations.
I reread Assassin's Apprentice, because I had heard that Robin Hobb was going to take back the no homo ending of Fool's Fate and write another trilogy about Fitz and the Fool. Actually, I miscalculated when I should be doing this, because I see that the first book, Fool's Assassin has already come out and I am avoiding spoilers for it. The first time I read the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies, I was definitely in it for the massive homoeroticism, which Robin Hobb hates it if you notice or, god forbid, write fic about, but on reread I am also more aware of all the other tropiness which I also enjoy.
Speaking of tropiness, I read The Winter Long, the new October Daye book. The blurb for this one is basically "it's time to learn the truth," and if you read these books you may be thinking, haven't we discovered the truth that changes everything several times already in this series? But this time, it is, like, all the truths! But I enjoy a lot of the worldbuilding and banter enough to tolerate the shambolic plotting.
What I'm reading now
The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell's new book.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, where there are
comment(s)