Reading Wednesday
Mar. 11th, 2015 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dhampyresaWhat did you finish reading
Maroc médieval: Un empire de l'Afrique à l'Espagne: L'album de l'exposition, by Louvres Editions (the catalogue of the exposition is directed by Yannick Lintz, Claire Déléry and Bulle Tuil Leonetti, so I assume they were also the driving force behind this one): This was super interesting! Kind of like a Cliff Notes of the expo. It really helps to have the maps be a couple pages back, instead of two corridors back, lmao. It didn't have pictures of some of my favourite exhibits, but I'm okay with that, because there just wasn't space.
(I got a chuckle out of every time the texte went "Berbère (Amazighe)", which is exactly what the expo did too. Surely after the first couple of times you no longer need to refer to the culture as "Berbère"?)
Counting this as "book with pictures" for the Random Card.
"Never the Same", by Polenth Blake: Available online for free at StrangeHorizons. This was okay. I didn't really bond with it, but it was competently told and gripping nonetheless. I appreciated that both the narrator and their new friend are outside the he/she gender binary:
I also really appreciated the relationship between the narrator and their sister as well as the one with their new friend. I was kind of shipping Nrrator/New friend by the end, tbh.
I think I like this more in retrospect than I did when I first read it, having had time to think about the ending.
I'm not sure who my favourite author is, but pretty much everyone who comes to mind is currently alive, so I feel confident in counting this as "book by contemporary of favourite author".
This makes 0/25 on the Mix'n'Match Card (unchanged from last week), 15/25 on the Random Card (+2 from last week) and 2/25 on the Serious Card (unchanged from last week) forhamsterwoman's reading bingo. Also! I GOT A BINGO! TWO EVEN , AW YEAH, I'M KILLING IT.
What are you reading
Still stalled on The Art of War, Darshan, The Kick-Ass Writer, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, Gustav Adolf Mossa: L'oeuvre symboliste: 1903-1918, Les Fleurs du Mal and Métronome.
Le Visage de l'Ombre, by Erik L'Homme: (Book 3 of Le Livre des Etoiles.) Truth be told I've made very little progress in this book, but everyone continues to be rather one-dimensional and make stupid decisions. Also, given the way Urien COMPLETELY LOSES HIS SHIT after Valentin gets injured, I'm pretty sure there actually is something going on between them, even if only subtextually.
What are you reading next? (aka the to-read list)
Rome's Revolution, I think, because we're virualy at the Ides of March and I'm never going to get a more perfect opening for theme reading. I expect this to be slow going, though, because my feelings on Julius Caesar (outside of Astérix) and the fall of the Roman Republic can be summed up as "Nice job ruining it for the rest of us >:(" and my feelings on the Roman Empire as "DON'T DO IT KIDS, IMPERIALISM IS WRONG", but hey, I'll probably get to read about Mark Anthony and that's always fun. Also Cleopatra! And Caesar getting stabbed!
Maroc médieval: Un empire de l'Afrique à l'Espagne: L'album de l'exposition, by Louvres Editions (the catalogue of the exposition is directed by Yannick Lintz, Claire Déléry and Bulle Tuil Leonetti, so I assume they were also the driving force behind this one): This was super interesting! Kind of like a Cliff Notes of the expo. It really helps to have the maps be a couple pages back, instead of two corridors back, lmao. It didn't have pictures of some of my favourite exhibits, but I'm okay with that, because there just wasn't space.
(I got a chuckle out of every time the texte went "Berbère (Amazighe)", which is exactly what the expo did too. Surely after the first couple of times you no longer need to refer to the culture as "Berbère"?)
Counting this as "book with pictures" for the Random Card.
"Never the Same", by Polenth Blake: Available online for free at StrangeHorizons. This was okay. I didn't really bond with it, but it was competently told and gripping nonetheless. I appreciated that both the narrator and their new friend are outside the he/she gender binary:
"I'm not an it. I'm a they."Note: Narrator is The World's Only Psychopath TM, which is why they're called an 'it'. Non-binary folks are completely unworthy of remark. I really appreciated that AND the fact that the narrator wasn't the only 'they' in the story, which would have had Unfortunate Implications.
I also really appreciated the relationship between the narrator and their sister as well as the one with their new friend. I was kind of shipping Nrrator/New friend by the end, tbh.
I think I like this more in retrospect than I did when I first read it, having had time to think about the ending.
I'm not sure who my favourite author is, but pretty much everyone who comes to mind is currently alive, so I feel confident in counting this as "book by contemporary of favourite author".
This makes 0/25 on the Mix'n'Match Card (unchanged from last week), 15/25 on the Random Card (+2 from last week) and 2/25 on the Serious Card (unchanged from last week) for
hamsterwoman's reading bingo. Also! I GOT A BINGO! TWO EVEN , AW YEAH, I'M KILLING IT.What are you reading
Still stalled on The Art of War, Darshan, The Kick-Ass Writer, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, Gustav Adolf Mossa: L'oeuvre symboliste: 1903-1918, Les Fleurs du Mal and Métronome.
Le Visage de l'Ombre, by Erik L'Homme: (Book 3 of Le Livre des Etoiles.) Truth be told I've made very little progress in this book, but everyone continues to be rather one-dimensional and make stupid decisions. Also, given the way Urien COMPLETELY LOSES HIS SHIT after Valentin gets injured, I'm pretty sure there actually is something going on between them, even if only subtextually.
What are you reading next? (aka the to-read list)
Rome's Revolution, I think, because we're virualy at the Ides of March and I'm never going to get a more perfect opening for theme reading. I expect this to be slow going, though, because my feelings on Julius Caesar (outside of Astérix) and the fall of the Roman Republic can be summed up as "Nice job ruining it for the rest of us >:(" and my feelings on the Roman Empire as "DON'T DO IT KIDS, IMPERIALISM IS WRONG", but hey, I'll probably get to read about Mark Anthony and that's always fun. Also Cleopatra! And Caesar getting stabbed!
Old list:
Books that I have already: Pyramids of London, by Andrea K Höst, Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Darkness Over Cannae by Jenny Dolfen, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett (yuleswap book 1), February by Lisa Moore (yuleswap book 2), The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan
Books that are out and that I haven't got: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed and whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (Autumn 2015), The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), Empire Ascendant by Kameron Hurley (Summer 2015? Still unsure if I'm even going to be reading this one), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), , The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard, The Skull Throne, by Peter V. Brett and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is (THAT ART!).
Books what I'm not sure if I want to read them: City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett: Still IDK.
New additions to the list: The rest of the NetGalley stuff, lmao. I really need to sort it out. AND Dogs of Peace by Ada Palmer. I've been a fan of hers since I first found this performance of My Brother, My Enemy, a duet by her a capella group, Sassafrass, that perfectly the dynamic of Odin and Loki in the myths. Seriously. It is spot-on! (Lyrics can be found here, btw.) I was also recently linked to her blog, Ex Urbe, which has some very interesting posts. And now she's got a book about to be published, so I'm very excited to read it and see what it's like!
Books that I have already: Pyramids of London, by Andrea K Höst, Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Darkness Over Cannae by Jenny Dolfen, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett (yuleswap book 1), February by Lisa Moore (yuleswap book 2), The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan
Books that are out and that I haven't got: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed and whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (Autumn 2015), The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), Empire Ascendant by Kameron Hurley (Summer 2015? Still unsure if I'm even going to be reading this one), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), , The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard, The Skull Throne, by Peter V. Brett and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is (THAT ART!).
Books what I'm not sure if I want to read them: City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett: Still IDK.
New additions to the list: The rest of the NetGalley stuff, lmao. I really need to sort it out. AND Dogs of Peace by Ada Palmer. I've been a fan of hers since I first found this performance of My Brother, My Enemy, a duet by her a capella group, Sassafrass, that perfectly the dynamic of Odin and Loki in the myths. Seriously. It is spot-on! (Lyrics can be found here, btw.) I was also recently linked to her blog, Ex Urbe, which has some very interesting posts. And now she's got a book about to be published, so I'm very excited to read it and see what it's like!
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Date: 2015-03-11 10:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-03-13 11:08 pm (UTC)