Reading Wednesday
Jul. 10th, 2013 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana, edited by Anil Menon and Vandana Singh. This was really, really good! A collection of short stories by various authors of stories inspired by the Ramayana, with settings ranging from space opera to cyberpunk to modern-day suburbia to fairly standard mythology. Obviously the stories vary in quality, but there were none that I disliked. I think my favorites were the retellings using modern pop-culture; one that imagined the Ramayana as a reality TV show, complete with message board postings from fans, and another in which Mandodari gets a TV interview due to the Ayodhya trial.
An interesting thing about this collection was how many of the stories focused on the "bad guys" (though it's sort of simplistic to describe anyone in the Ramayana as a bad guy), particularly Surpanakha, who I think got more attention than anyone else. I can only think of one story in the book that had Ram as a straightforward hero.
Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France by Lucy Moore. This was also really, really good, and I am definitely recommending it to anyone interested in the period. It's non-fiction using the diaries, letters, and published works of six women of various classes and political stances to portray the French Revolution. It's also interesting because it didn't end at the end of the Terror, which many histories do, but goes all the way up through Napoleon's reign; it's interesting to see how the two times are connected. There's also a lot of focus on women's rights, which is something that doesn't often get addressed. I liked seeing how the various issues of the time (suffrage, fighting in the army, writing political pamphlets, etc) were supported or not by different political parties.
What are you currently reading?
The Shirt on His Back by Barbara Hambly. I don't know why it's taking me so long to finish this book! It's actually one of my favorites in the series. I just keep getting distracted by other things.
Liberty or Death: India's Journey to Independence and Division by Patrick French. I figured I should actually read a little South Asian nonfiction, instead of all the relatively forgettable novels I've been reading recently.
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz. I like travel books, and I loved Horwitz's book on Civil War re-enactors, so this should be good.
Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana, edited by Anil Menon and Vandana Singh. This was really, really good! A collection of short stories by various authors of stories inspired by the Ramayana, with settings ranging from space opera to cyberpunk to modern-day suburbia to fairly standard mythology. Obviously the stories vary in quality, but there were none that I disliked. I think my favorites were the retellings using modern pop-culture; one that imagined the Ramayana as a reality TV show, complete with message board postings from fans, and another in which Mandodari gets a TV interview due to the Ayodhya trial.
An interesting thing about this collection was how many of the stories focused on the "bad guys" (though it's sort of simplistic to describe anyone in the Ramayana as a bad guy), particularly Surpanakha, who I think got more attention than anyone else. I can only think of one story in the book that had Ram as a straightforward hero.
Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France by Lucy Moore. This was also really, really good, and I am definitely recommending it to anyone interested in the period. It's non-fiction using the diaries, letters, and published works of six women of various classes and political stances to portray the French Revolution. It's also interesting because it didn't end at the end of the Terror, which many histories do, but goes all the way up through Napoleon's reign; it's interesting to see how the two times are connected. There's also a lot of focus on women's rights, which is something that doesn't often get addressed. I liked seeing how the various issues of the time (suffrage, fighting in the army, writing political pamphlets, etc) were supported or not by different political parties.
What are you currently reading?
The Shirt on His Back by Barbara Hambly. I don't know why it's taking me so long to finish this book! It's actually one of my favorites in the series. I just keep getting distracted by other things.
Liberty or Death: India's Journey to Independence and Division by Patrick French. I figured I should actually read a little South Asian nonfiction, instead of all the relatively forgettable novels I've been reading recently.
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz. I like travel books, and I loved Horwitz's book on Civil War re-enactors, so this should be good.
