Reading Wednesday
Jan. 27th, 2016 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Once Upon a Marquess by Courtney Milan. The first book in Milan's new historical romance series, The Worth Saga, this one set in 1860s England (though based on some of the stuff that happens in this book, I fully expect at least one of the sequels to take place outside of Europe). Once upon a time, Judith Worth was the eldest daughter of an earl: respectable, given everything she needed, and with a perfectly easy life ahead of her. Then her father was accused of treason and committed suicide, and her brother Anthony was transported to Australia, only to be lost, probably swept overboard in a storm. Judith's childhood sweetheart, Christian, was instrumental in finding the evidence against her family.
Eight years have passed since then, and Judith has taken on work to provide a home for her younger siblings, and learned how to live in a lower-class neighborhood. Then she needs a favor from Christian, whose long-buried guilt drives him to agree, and things get complicated.
I liked this book a lot. The one criticism I might have is that it didn't feel particularly like a romance; it would be more appropriate to call it simply historical fiction. The attraction between Christian and Judith is not the primary motivation of their plots or characterizations, and the sex scenes feel a bit tacked on. But that's not necessarily a problem. I really enjoyed Judith's struggle to confront the changes her family has dealt with, her drive to protect and provide for her siblings, her need for independence, her interest in clockwork, and her struggles with her family lawyer. Christian's regrets and worries about his actions eight years ago, his odd habits (he seemed to have a mild form of OCD, though I'm not sure that's exactly what Milan was going for), and his former addiction to opium in the form of a medicine his mother gave him as a child, give him plenty to do as well. But the biggest drive in the book, hanging over everything despite not actually being present, is Anthony. Judith refuses to believe that he might have been a traitor; Christian is equally convinced that he was. The slow reveal of what actually happened, what Anthony did, and why he did it is incredibly suspenseful, and kept me turning the pages.
Overall, it wasn't my favorite book of Milan's, but it was very good, and I'm excited to see where this series is going to go.
Redeeming the Kama Sutra by Wendy Doniger. Doniger is a specialist on India, particularly the history of Hinduism. I've read and enjoyed books by her before. This one is, of course, about the Kama Sutra, covering topics like its depiction of gender roles and women's rights, its use of mythology and previous texts such as Kautilya's Arthashatra and the Laws of Manu, and its reception in modern day India. It's not a 101-level book; if you don't know who Manu is, for example, you'll probably have trouble following a lot of the writing. It's also not a particularly cohesive book; it started as a collection of articles written at different times and for different purposes, and that really shows. There's no particular common thread or overarching argument, other than the general similarity in topic. All that said, I enjoyed it a great deal, and found it to be surprisingly compelling, for a dry academic text. I couldn't put it down. I wish she could have had more to say, but I did really like what was here.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
What are you currently reading?
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari. A book I didn't think I was particularly interested in, until I had to spend a few hours in a bookstore waiting for someone. I read the first few chapters and ended up totally charmed.
Once Upon a Marquess by Courtney Milan. The first book in Milan's new historical romance series, The Worth Saga, this one set in 1860s England (though based on some of the stuff that happens in this book, I fully expect at least one of the sequels to take place outside of Europe). Once upon a time, Judith Worth was the eldest daughter of an earl: respectable, given everything she needed, and with a perfectly easy life ahead of her. Then her father was accused of treason and committed suicide, and her brother Anthony was transported to Australia, only to be lost, probably swept overboard in a storm. Judith's childhood sweetheart, Christian, was instrumental in finding the evidence against her family.
Eight years have passed since then, and Judith has taken on work to provide a home for her younger siblings, and learned how to live in a lower-class neighborhood. Then she needs a favor from Christian, whose long-buried guilt drives him to agree, and things get complicated.
I liked this book a lot. The one criticism I might have is that it didn't feel particularly like a romance; it would be more appropriate to call it simply historical fiction. The attraction between Christian and Judith is not the primary motivation of their plots or characterizations, and the sex scenes feel a bit tacked on. But that's not necessarily a problem. I really enjoyed Judith's struggle to confront the changes her family has dealt with, her drive to protect and provide for her siblings, her need for independence, her interest in clockwork, and her struggles with her family lawyer. Christian's regrets and worries about his actions eight years ago, his odd habits (he seemed to have a mild form of OCD, though I'm not sure that's exactly what Milan was going for), and his former addiction to opium in the form of a medicine his mother gave him as a child, give him plenty to do as well. But the biggest drive in the book, hanging over everything despite not actually being present, is Anthony. Judith refuses to believe that he might have been a traitor; Christian is equally convinced that he was. The slow reveal of what actually happened, what Anthony did, and why he did it is incredibly suspenseful, and kept me turning the pages.
Overall, it wasn't my favorite book of Milan's, but it was very good, and I'm excited to see where this series is going to go.
Redeeming the Kama Sutra by Wendy Doniger. Doniger is a specialist on India, particularly the history of Hinduism. I've read and enjoyed books by her before. This one is, of course, about the Kama Sutra, covering topics like its depiction of gender roles and women's rights, its use of mythology and previous texts such as Kautilya's Arthashatra and the Laws of Manu, and its reception in modern day India. It's not a 101-level book; if you don't know who Manu is, for example, you'll probably have trouble following a lot of the writing. It's also not a particularly cohesive book; it started as a collection of articles written at different times and for different purposes, and that really shows. There's no particular common thread or overarching argument, other than the general similarity in topic. All that said, I enjoyed it a great deal, and found it to be surprisingly compelling, for a dry academic text. I couldn't put it down. I wish she could have had more to say, but I did really like what was here.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
What are you currently reading?
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari. A book I didn't think I was particularly interested in, until I had to spend a few hours in a bookstore waiting for someone. I read the first few chapters and ended up totally charmed.
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Date: 2016-01-28 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-29 06:05 pm (UTC)