Reading Wednesday

[brigdh]

What did you just finish?
Only one book this week: The Shirt on His Back by Barbara Hambly. Ben, Shaw, and Hannibal travel to a fur-trading camp in the Rocky Mountains to investigate the death of Shaw's younger brother. Ah, I love this book so. The setting is gorgeous and fascinating, and I like so many of the secondary characters, and I really really love the way the mystery plays out. (Though I found the theory of "Aaron Burr did it!" absolutely hilarious.)

There's also so many big adventure moments in this book: Torture! Plague! Quarantine! Poison! Falling in a flooded river! Kidnapped by Indians! Kidnapped by different Indians! It's all very exciting and fun. I like the new nicknames everyone gets, though it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that "Winter Moon" is, of course, just another name for the month of January. And then at the end there is a baby! I am secretly super curious about who Baby John's godparents are.

What are you currently reading?
Ran Away by Barbara Hambly. AYASHA AND FRANCE AND BEN AND ROSE AND HANNIBAL AND AHHH IT'S SO GREAT. Also: Benjamin January/Les Mis crossover. It should exist. Think about it: Grantaire and Hannibal (who, yes, isn't in Paris at the right time, but shhhh) could get drunk and quote Latin at each other; Ayasha would help out Eponine so her life choices don't result in dying at 15; Ben would probably appreciate Enjolras's efforts to improve things, but not so much his inflexibility and arrogance. (Note: I haven't read the book in about a decade. I have, however, been reading a lot of the fic lately! Which totally qualifies me to comment upon it.)

Liberty or Death: India's Journey to Independence and Division by Patrick French. I totally should have finished this book this week, but it's really long and also I spent two entire days in a car. Which perhaps should have increased the time I had to read? But

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz. Hmmm, I kind of got stalled on this book and haven't read a page all week. But I will come back to it! Probably!

Comments

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Your talk of Barbara Hambly intrigues me. I know I read some books by her when I was in high school? college? one of those -- and I can't remember what they were. Something about a guy with an eyepatch? LOL, could that be possible? I feel as if I liked them. If you were going to recommend one of her books/series for me to try, your favorite, what would it be?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, one of her series, 'Sun Wolf and Starhawk' has a main character with an eyepatch. So you're remembering correctly, hee!

My favorite is the Benjamin January series (which is the series I keep posting about, so that is probably unsurprising). Set in 1830s New Orleans, the historical research/world-building is amaaazing and vivid and feels so realistic. There is an enormous cast of secondary characters, so you are almost guaranteed to find your favorite trope in one of them.

Benjamin January, the main character, is a "A Free Man of Color" (also the name of the first book in the series!) recently back in New Orleans after spending most of his life in Paris; he comes back to NO following the death of his wife in a cholera epidemic. A lot of the series is about Ben trying to reconnect with his family as well as make a new family-of-choice.

Rose is his calm, logical, sarcastic friend; she is sort of as much of a mad scientist as one could be, as a black woman in the 1830s. Hannibal is his penniless, consumptive, drunken wastrel friend; he is totally an Iron Woobie. Abishag Shaw is his dirty, half-illiterate, backwoods policeman friend who is actually way more clever than he looks.

The entire series has a tendency to read like historical id-fic; every possible cool thing about the time period is sure to show up. Bandits! Mardi Gras parties! Bull fighting! Steamboats! Pirates! Voodoo! Secret codes! Insane asylums! Duels! Opera! Epidemics! French revolutionaries! Fake suicides! Irish counts! Turkish ambassadors! Mexican singers! Plenty of actual historical figures also show up: Marie Laveau, Jean Lafitte, Jefferson Davis, Santa Anna, Edgar Allan Poe, etc. There is so much h/c and angst, but the main characters are nearly all deadpan snarkers. They may be poisoned/half-drowned/beaten/ill/in chains but they are going to make a joke about it, by God!

There are twelve books in the series, with the most recent- "Good Man Friday"- having just come out about two months ago. They're easier to find as ebooks than hard copies.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

!! Ayasha helping Eponine, I want it so much. Eponine was my favourite when I read the books ages ago, and she was my favourite in the movie as well. I have not read any Les Mis fic, though - have you any recs for an Eponine fix-it? Though, AYASHA. Oh my god I am being flooded by new headcanon.

Also, still pining for a Monte Cristo crossover. (And still 90% sure Hambly will give us proper Dumas RPF one day, and I await the occasion with bated breath, but I also want, like, Eugenie and Louisa the mystery-solving sidekicks.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I KNOW, RIGHT? I feel like Ayasha and Eponine would get along so well. They could be snarky and stubborn together, but Ayasha would help her have a better sense of self-worth.

I haven't read many stories focused on Eponine (because I've mostly been reading Enjolras/Grantaire porn, which is terrible because I honestly wouldn't have even remembered who they were based on the movie alone, much less my mostly-forgotten memories of the book), but these two are very good:

in the dark (all cats are gray) (http://archiveofourown.org/works/717019) by voksen. Eponine/Grantaire, in which each pretends to be the person the other one is in love with.

An Act, A Scene (http://archiveofourown.org/works/640969) by Ark. The pairing is Enjolras/Grantaire, but the POV is Eponine.

OMG DUMAS RPF YES. I keep seeing this new nonfiction book about Dumas (http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Count-Revolution-Betrayal/dp/0307382478) around, and I desperately want to read it, but am waiting till it comes out of hardcover to get a copy. I've never actually read Monte Cristo! I need to; I've seen enough different movie/anime/TV show adaptations of it.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the fic recs! And, I, um, already am a chapter into the Black Count book, and LOVING it so far - so, thank you for that rec even more. <3

You absolutely DO need to read Monte Cristo! It's seriously one of my favourite books in the world, particularly the second half. It is more emotionally enticing than any movie of it that I've seen, more exciting than Revenge (though I love Revenge), and, according to trustworthy sources (well, egelantier), it's even grander than Gankutsuou (which I started watching but chickened out for the time being). It has truly unexpected turns, queer characters, romance, death and the power of money; the Count is a stone cold bastard and possibly the only antihero character I've ever loved.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ha, awesome! Well, I am glad to know Black Count is good. I will definitely be reading it soon myself.

I do mean to read it! I've read Three Musketeers and just adored Dumas's writing style in that, so I should totally read more of his. I liked Gankutsuou a lot, though it is a very, uh, different take on the basic plot.