Sunlight and stories
Jul. 21st, 2019 05:34 pmThis weekend has been a calm one, full of books, and sunlight, and growing things. I spent most of Saturday in Ely with Matthias, where ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
notasapleasure and her husband fed us a dinner comprised almost entirely of vegetables grown in their allotment. We were able to sit outside in their garden for about five minutes, at which point it began to rain, so we went indoors to eat in their conservatory, listening to the rain patter on the roof.
It's been a good week for catching up with female-centric TV: I finished watching the second seasons of both Killing Eve, and Harlots. The latter, in particular, is fantastic, although I'm finding it mildly amusing how many minor characters appear to have been named after current Conservative Party politicians — you would have to think that six characters named as such is deliberate, surely?
Last time I did a reading log post, I'd been a bit disappointed with the quality of the books most recently read, but I'm glad to say things have improved significantly since then. Like most of my corner of the internet, I was overwhelmed and awestruck by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's joint novella, This Is How You Lose the Time War, an epistolary love story between time-travelling spies on opposing sides in a vast, cosmic war. It's a gorgeous, intricate story in which both authors' voices interweave beautifully, and I reviewed it here.
I had been particularly disappointed by Jordanna Max Brodsky's novels about Greek gods solving supernatural crimes in modern-day New York, so I was doubtful going in to her novel The Wolf in the Whale, a historical fantasy about the medieval Norse journey to, and presence in, North America, told from the perspective of Inuit characters. But in actual fact I loved it a lot, although (and I might be wildly wrong here, given that I am cis) I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone who is trans, particularly if they were AFAB, as there were several characterisation elements in this regard that gave me pause.
Other than these books, I've been continuing to make my way through the Hugo finalists — I've now read all the Best Novel nominees (other than one book which is the final in a trilogy whose first book I didn't enjoy and doubt I will enjoy in its series' final installment), and just have a couple of Campbell finalists' works and YA novels to go. But I will leave my discussion of those to my final Hugos discussion post, which should go up at some point next week, depending on how fast I can read.
I hope everyone else has had equally restful weekends.
notasapleasure and her husband fed us a dinner comprised almost entirely of vegetables grown in their allotment. We were able to sit outside in their garden for about five minutes, at which point it began to rain, so we went indoors to eat in their conservatory, listening to the rain patter on the roof. It's been a good week for catching up with female-centric TV: I finished watching the second seasons of both Killing Eve, and Harlots. The latter, in particular, is fantastic, although I'm finding it mildly amusing how many minor characters appear to have been named after current Conservative Party politicians — you would have to think that six characters named as such is deliberate, surely?
Last time I did a reading log post, I'd been a bit disappointed with the quality of the books most recently read, but I'm glad to say things have improved significantly since then. Like most of my corner of the internet, I was overwhelmed and awestruck by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's joint novella, This Is How You Lose the Time War, an epistolary love story between time-travelling spies on opposing sides in a vast, cosmic war. It's a gorgeous, intricate story in which both authors' voices interweave beautifully, and I reviewed it here.
I had been particularly disappointed by Jordanna Max Brodsky's novels about Greek gods solving supernatural crimes in modern-day New York, so I was doubtful going in to her novel The Wolf in the Whale, a historical fantasy about the medieval Norse journey to, and presence in, North America, told from the perspective of Inuit characters. But in actual fact I loved it a lot, although (and I might be wildly wrong here, given that I am cis) I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone who is trans, particularly if they were AFAB, as there were several characterisation elements in this regard that gave me pause.
Other than these books, I've been continuing to make my way through the Hugo finalists — I've now read all the Best Novel nominees (other than one book which is the final in a trilogy whose first book I didn't enjoy and doubt I will enjoy in its series' final installment), and just have a couple of Campbell finalists' works and YA novels to go. But I will leave my discussion of those to my final Hugos discussion post, which should go up at some point next week, depending on how fast I can read.
I hope everyone else has had equally restful weekends.