Books, cookies, yum.

[brigdh]

coffeeandink mentioned the St. Agnes Library book sale yesterday, so of course I had to drop in on it today.



Kim Stanley Robinson, The Martians
Kim Stanley Robinson, Antarctica
Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems
Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet
Alexander McCall Smith, Tears of the Giraffe
D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterly's Lover
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot
Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle
Choderlos de Laclos (translation by Richard Aldington), Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Laurence Durrell, Balthazar

For that, I spent a grand total of eleven dollars.

Now I'm hanging out at my coffeeshop, doing research while I wonder if it would be a wonderful idea or a terrible idea to go back tomorrow. On the one hand, I don't need to buy more books. On the other hand, everyone always needs more books. Such choices.

There are, unfortunately, no exciting Bible study groups here (yet!), but when I sat down, the table was cluttered with left-over dishes and mugs. I gathered up a few to clear a space and carried them over to the dirty dishes tray. When I was turning back, one of the cashiers ran up to me and asked, "Did you just put away someone else's dishes?"

"Uh, yeah," I said, uncertain why it mattered.

"Thank you. Want a cookie?"

"Yes!" So now I have a giant chocolate-chip cookie, and books, and all is good.

Comments

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty good book haul for that price. I always solve my book dilemma by going to the library.

Tipping the Velvet was a lot of fun, and reminds me of a historical Victorian version of shoujo manga what with the crossdressing, and the relationships, and the stardom.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yep. I thought I was going to make 9.50, but it turned out that one of the books I thought was .50 was actually 2.00. Still, excellent prices!

I've read Tipping the Velvet before, but I liked it so much I wanted my own copy, since I'd gotten it from a library the first time. I think I've read all of Sarah Waters's book, except for her newest one.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

They're excellent prices considering that a new paperback is edging towards $10.

Are any of Waters' books like Tipping? I've read the summaries for her other books, but they didn't sound as appealing. What I liked was the genderbending (that was the main draw for me), meeting different parts of the society, and the way it felt almost restless with the protag moving from home to home and lifestyle to lifestyle before settling down.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Fingersmith is my favorite, but I've heard several people say they didn't like it as much, so I'm not sure whether to recommend it or not. Secret identities, different parts of society, manipulative plots, f/f relationship, and insane asylums, but not much genderbending or that same restlessness. It comes off as very Dickens-like, but in a good way (you are who I was complaining about Dickens to recently, right?).

Affinity has different parts of society and an f/f relationship, combined with prisons and Spiritualism, but the central relationship is much more fucked up than in her other books, so I felt less sympathetic to the characters.

The Night Watch is her new one, and I've heard it's a very different style. All I know about it is it's set in England during WWII, and follows four characters.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was me that was complaining about Dickens. Fingersmith sounds interesting. I wasn't aware that it had secret identities until now.

As for Affinity, I don't mind fucked up relationships, but prison settings are usually too claustrophobic for me.

Thanks for the recs.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I think part of the reason I liked Fingersmith so much is because I read it when I happened to pick it off a shelf based on its cover, and had no idea what to expect, so I was really surprised by it. It was the first book by Waters that I read, so even finding that it had girls kissing in it was enough to shock and please me. It does make me cautious about describing it to other people though, because I don't want to say anything that will ruin the surprise I felt.

No worries.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

I knew that Waters portrayed f/f relationships in her books beforehand, so the surprise for me would be if she portrayed f/m or m/m. It wouldn't surprise me if she just portrayed single women though.

I also have books, and stories, that I find hard to untangle from my personal experiences enough to describe it to other people.

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

I have to confess that I HATED FIngersmith - for attempting to be Wilkie Collins and failing, for its crappy EVERYBODY IS HORRID characterisations, and for retelling the SAME FREAKING STORY twice in two different viewpoints.

.. er, sorry. I threw it across the room and screamed a lot.

Spoilers!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Well, I've never read Wilkie Collins, so I can't say I noticed the similarities. As for the other two, they didn't bother me- the second version of the story had enough new information that I was still entertained, and the fact that the first narrator, who seemed like such the street-smart thief originally- turned out to be the most innocent and naive person in the book really amused me.

Although, to be fair, I would forgive pretty much everything for that scene where they're kissing and she compares the rich girl to a pearl. That broke my heart.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I liked her others even more, but from what you say above, I recommend Fingersmith.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Thanks for seconding the rec!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

They put out new books every day. I'm just saying.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

You are not helping my self-control.

[aonekosama.livejournal.com]

Wow. Here it's more a rule than an exception that you end up putting away other people's dishes at cafes. Really, I don't remember a single instance of a cashier even saying thank you when you do it. Everyone is supposed to clear away their own dishes at most places, and if you don't, well, it's the next person's problem.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I'm used to, too. I always put away my own things, and I don't have any great objection to putting away other people's.

Still, not like I'm going to say no to a free cookie. *laughs*

Speaking of Sarah Waters' books:

[threewalls]

I've just read Night Watch, and well, didn't enjoy it as much as I might. It's not terrible and her prose is good. It's just that it reads in reverse order, 1947, 1944 and then 1941. I found the 'gay' and 'het' characters far more interesting than the lesbians, for a start, whose lives just saddened me for the amount of paranoia and unhappiness being secretive by necessity brings them. Perhaps that just hits too close to home, I'm not sure. But the backwards in time device bothered me the most-- I wanted to know what happened in 1948, for example, far more than I wanted to know what had come before. I suppose that's what fan fiction is for.

Even though I otherwise like Fingersmith the best of her books (I've read Tipping as well, but not Affinity), I liked it for the characters and the odd sexual goings-on that were discussed. I particularly liked the ending. I found some of the repetition annoying, but I like seeing subjective realities interpreted by more than one character. Also, I like mind-fucking, and Fingersmith has that in spades.

Tipping largely read like a series of sexual adventures of our heroine, who I kept wondering why nothing very bad happened to her-- she doesn't always get what she wants, but I remember her being far more unscathed than I thought reasonable. And then, there was one sex scene which I found ridiculous for the fact that it was both their first sexual encounter and our heroine hadn't had any for a while-- and yet, what do they do? Fisting. Even now, it bothers me.

Re: Speaking of Sarah Waters' books:

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'll keep that in mind before buying a copy of Night Watch- though now I have so many books I probably wouldn't have gotten around to it until next year, anyway.

I had that same problem with Tipping, but to be honest, I'm not sure I wanted to read about her contracting syphilis or being beaten or any of the more realistic consequences, so I didn't mind if it came off as too light. It's been a few years since I read it, though, so I may be forgetting some things.