reading Wednesday

[redbird]

It looks like most of what I've read in the last few weeks is romance novels, because they seem to be more relaxing than other fiction, even when there are discussions of pandemics and the First World War.

Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold, is the sequel to The Curse of Chalion. Fantasy, with a romance sub-plot along with the political and magical maneuverings.

I've read several of Celia Lake's books set in a slightly alternative 1920s Britain with magic; my note on Wards of the Roses was "these are a step up from brain candy, and I seem to be in the mood for romance novels right now."

I also read Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop, a lesbian time-travel romance set in Brooklyn, and in particular on the Q subway line. At least two people recommended this to me; I like subways. (I have asked the library for another of her books, but there are people ahead of me in line.)



Non-fiction: The Language of Butterflies, by Wendy Williams. This is about monarchs and other butterflies, migration patterns, and some of the people who figured a lot of this out, going back to the 17th century. The subtitle is "How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists, and Other Obsessives Unlocked the Secrets of the World's Favorite Insect," which describes it moderately well (better than the title does). There's a lot in here about butterflies, and also about the people who studied them, back to Maria Sibylla Merian, who figured out the life cycle from egg to caterpillar-to-butterfly in the 17th century.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

a public transit romance! Sounds delightful. :)

[adrian_turtle]

I really liked "One Last Stop," and it made me smile to see the library was having a book club discussion about it. (I smiled behind my mask, and decided not to sit inside with a bunch of unmasked strangers.) But it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling about how the world has changed since I was a kid. Yeah, everything is awful, but not EVERYTHING is awful.

[gingicat]

I really like Celia Lake. I discovered her journal through a DW friending fest because and then looked at her books because of how she talks about her writing process.

[redbird]

I've known her casually, mostly online, for a long time, and then read one of her books.

[kiya]

And here I thought you were there because the local fannish scene is not large and the Brownian motion means just about everyone encounters everyone sometime. ;)

[gingicat]

What's particularly funny is that we both work in organizations that support the education of disabled people that are completely different from one another in their scope. Our organizations share a student, actually.