reading Wednesday

[redbird]

Apparently I haven't done one of these in two months. So:

Books I hadn't read before:

Paladin's Strength, by T. Kingfisher -- sequel to Paladin's Grace, another romance novel involving a (different) paladin of a recently-dead god

A Prayer for the Crown-shy, by Becky Chambers -- sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built, further low-key adventures of a monk and their robot friend. This has the same gentle tone as most of Chambers' books, and it's about friendship

Red, White, and Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston -- her first published novel, set in an alternate and much better 2020 than the one we got. Not bad, but if I'd read this first I might not have tried One Last Stop, which is a lot better.

The Missing Page, by Cat Sebastian -- sequel to "Hither, Page". At the end of this book, Leo and James are more settled emotionally, and talking about a future (in terms of "let's go to the seashore in a few months")

The Will and the Deed, by Ellis Peters -- a mystery novel, revolving around the estate and will of an opera singer who dies of natural causes at the beginning of the book. Not bad, very different from her Brother Cadfael books.

Fool's Gold, by Celia Lake -- another romance set in her England-with-magic Albion in the 1920s. I continue to enjoy these

Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach, by Nnm (an AO3 pseudonym) -- Good Omens fanfic, about what happens when a demon walks into the office of a psychologist who specializes in treating people with PTSD. Someone mentioned this online, and I had a vague "maybe I'll reread it"--and apparently there are several different fanfics with this premise. Long, and I enjoyed it; if that description appeals, you might like it.

Beguilement and Legacy, by Lois McMaster Bujold, the first two of her Sharing Knife books -- a romance in which both people are dealing with "you can't do that" first internally and then from their families, for reasons that are mostly "s/he's from a very different culture." It's \set in what feels like a fantasy far future of our world.

Vagina Obscura: an anatomical voyage, by Rachel E. Gross -- nonfiction, about women and different aspects of the (mostly cisgender) female body and reproductive system. "Vagina" here stands in for the vulva, womb, internal clitoris, and connected body parts. Gross talks about women's bodies, and knowledge of and beliefs about those bodies, now and in the past. The author notes that "female" is doing a lot of work here, and that categories are fuzzy. There's a lot here about the clitoris, and a chapter about some of the things ovaries do that aren't connected to reproduction. The book is relatively brief and the tone is mostly light, which includes footnotes like "Wait, what?" (on some of the weirder and/or more harmful things people have said, thought, and done. There are eight chapters, each focused on a different part of the body. Chapter 8 is titled "Beauty (Neovagina)" and gives some history of gender affirmation surgery as well as talking about the present and recent past.

My reading continues to be mostly mystery and/or romance.

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Currently reading: Spirals in Time, by Helen Scales: non-fiction about seashells, some of the many different animals that have shells, and some of the things humans have used shells for.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Ellis Peters also wrote as Edith Pargeter and there's plenty in both names well worth a read.

I was one of the first to get the GC surgery that gave functional clitoral sensitivity down there.

It was a risk but so worth it!

[adrian_turtle]

I like the Sharing Knife series less than I once did. I've gotten used to thinking in terms of "red flags for abuse" in relationships, and this relationship has red flags all over it. When I see a man falling in love with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter, I see it as more creepy rather than romantic, despite the literary conventions. And an awful lot of both families' objections to the relationship boil down to "people like him exploit people like her, especially in sexual relationships. That's not ok."

[adrian_turtle]

I remember liking some of Edith Pargeter's historical fiction that felt a lot more like Sharon Kay Penman's work than the Cadfael books. Something about a big sprawling family drama.

[cmcmck]

There's the Brothers of Gwynedd quartet which is a huge set about the dynastic issues of the princely house of Gwynedd- we live just across the border in Shropshire, so it was a must read.

[thistleingrey]

This is a tidy encapsulation of why I couldn't finish the first book, thank you.

[kaberett]

I have just borrowed Spirals in Time from the library; thank you!