Reading Wednesday
Jul. 24th, 2013 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Liberty or Death: India's Journey to Independence and Division by Patrick French. Hmmm. I don't quite know how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I feel like it didn't go in-depth enough. On the other hand, that's a weird thing to think, because it was quite in-depth. I don't know. It must have been in some weird uncanny valley of details vs overview. Not a bad book, certainly! I just feel like I've read much better books about India's Freedom movement and Partition. I guess it had a very different perspective on Gandhi (French: not a fan), which was interesting!
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz. This was... kind of boring. Unfortunately. Maybe if I was a lot more interested in Captain Cook than I am, I would have liked it more. But I like travel! I like tall ships! I loved the other book by Horwitz I read! I should have liked this, and just... didn't. Alas. I am totally still interested in his new book about John Brown.
Ran Away by Barbara Hambly. UGH GOD THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. Okay, the first time I read this, I didn't like it that much (I mean, I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite), but on the reread it was just unbelievably good. There is so much too love: basically every single thing that happens in the Paris flashback is amazing (Ayasha! Street urchins! Secret revolutionary meetings! Former aristocratic ballet mistresses! Gay Jewish entrepreneur spies! Creepy nuns! Flirtatious painters!) but also so is everything in New Orleans (Rose joking about being Hannibal's mistress, or killing Gabriel to use his bones in chemical experiments! The dramatic saga of "why Hannibal's hair looks weird"! Voodoo to protect the house*! The Underground Railroad! Crazy tent revival meetings complete with opposing preachers! The continuing minor character of sleazy journalist! Rose's smoke bomb! Ben's continual failure to be any good at picking locks!**). But my absolutely favorite part is conversation at the end between Ben and Rose, about dreams; it is sad and bitter and true and absolutely perfect. It just breaks my heart to read it, and yet I love it so much.
*Are Hannibal and Marie Laveau friends? Because they kind of seem like it, in their scene here. AND THAT WOULD BE SO AMAZING. What do they talk about? Where do they hang out? How and when did they meet? I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING.
**I definitely want the fic where Hannibal teaches Rose.
What are you currently reading?
Good Man Friday by Barbara Hambly. AHHH THE LAST BENJAMIN JANUARY BOOK. WHAT WILL I DO NEXT?!
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings. This is pretty amusing! And it has lots of pictures of maps, which is nice.
Liberty or Death: India's Journey to Independence and Division by Patrick French. Hmmm. I don't quite know how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I feel like it didn't go in-depth enough. On the other hand, that's a weird thing to think, because it was quite in-depth. I don't know. It must have been in some weird uncanny valley of details vs overview. Not a bad book, certainly! I just feel like I've read much better books about India's Freedom movement and Partition. I guess it had a very different perspective on Gandhi (French: not a fan), which was interesting!
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz. This was... kind of boring. Unfortunately. Maybe if I was a lot more interested in Captain Cook than I am, I would have liked it more. But I like travel! I like tall ships! I loved the other book by Horwitz I read! I should have liked this, and just... didn't. Alas. I am totally still interested in his new book about John Brown.
Ran Away by Barbara Hambly. UGH GOD THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. Okay, the first time I read this, I didn't like it that much (I mean, I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite), but on the reread it was just unbelievably good. There is so much too love: basically every single thing that happens in the Paris flashback is amazing (Ayasha! Street urchins! Secret revolutionary meetings! Former aristocratic ballet mistresses! Gay Jewish entrepreneur spies! Creepy nuns! Flirtatious painters!) but also so is everything in New Orleans (Rose joking about being Hannibal's mistress, or killing Gabriel to use his bones in chemical experiments! The dramatic saga of "why Hannibal's hair looks weird"! Voodoo to protect the house*! The Underground Railroad! Crazy tent revival meetings complete with opposing preachers! The continuing minor character of sleazy journalist! Rose's smoke bomb! Ben's continual failure to be any good at picking locks!**). But my absolutely favorite part is conversation at the end between Ben and Rose, about dreams; it is sad and bitter and true and absolutely perfect. It just breaks my heart to read it, and yet I love it so much.
*Are Hannibal and Marie Laveau friends? Because they kind of seem like it, in their scene here. AND THAT WOULD BE SO AMAZING. What do they talk about? Where do they hang out? How and when did they meet? I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING.
**I definitely want the fic where Hannibal teaches Rose.
What are you currently reading?
Good Man Friday by Barbara Hambly. AHHH THE LAST BENJAMIN JANUARY BOOK. WHAT WILL I DO NEXT?!
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings. This is pretty amusing! And it has lots of pictures of maps, which is nice.
