Reading Wednesday
Aug. 14th, 2013 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
The Eighth Guest & Other Muzaffar Jang Mysteries by Madhulika Liddle. This is the sequel to The Englishman's Cameo (there's a third book in the series as well, but I didn't pick it up when I was in India and I don't think these have been published in the US), both of them focusing on Muzaffar Jang, a young man who solves mysteries in 1600s Delhi. This book was a collection of short stories, and I liked it better than the original novel, though I'm not sure if that's because the writing has improved or if short stories are just a better format. There's a lot that's cliched here: our hero is bookish and deep, not like all those other young noblemen who only care about clothes and jewels and dancing girls, and also he is quirky which you can tell because of his interest in this new-fangled drink, ~coffee~; here is his brother-in-law, the gruff but loving police chief; here is his friend the shallow dandy who he conveniently has to explain his reasoning to; here is his other friend the street-smart but vaguely-criminal old ruffian, etc. And yet the setting is just such a fantastic choice that I don't quite care. And in some of these stories, we get rumblings of Aurangzeb's bid for the throne, which would be an amazing backdrop for a mystery. In the last story, we also get another cliche: Muzaffar meets a young woman who is beautiful but intelligent but adventurous, and clearly set up to be his True Love. But that is a cliche I am all for, so I really wish I had the third book now.
Untamed by Anna Cowan. Oh my god, I have so much to say about this book. It is like every trope I love rolled into one thing: we have the character who secretly hates himself and is deliberately making self-destructive choices while pretending it's no big deal, why should anyone worry? The opening scene is him inciting another man to attack him! (yeah, I haven't written that fanfiction or anything.) And then he spends most of the rest of the book dressed as woman, and there are multiple scenes of the Kit- the heroine- shaving him and helping him on and off with his corset. And also he specifically acts out his angst by having lots of sex with people he doesn't care about. And then there is the scene where Kit dresses as a man and shows up at a ball to challenge another lady to a duel. And then there are dramatic poker games! There is a really sweet minor gay couple! People are secret authors! They act out Shakespeare using pet pigs! And yet despite all that amazingness, it is... not actually a good book. I think it might have needed another draft or two (the plot, such as it is, is kind of terrible and makes no sense). I don't know, maybe I'm just pickier about my id-fic than I'd realized. I can't even decide if I want to recommend this or not. On the one hand, I read it pretty unstoppable. On the other hand, if these weren't my tropes, it probably would not have been appealing at all.
What are you currently reading?
Spitting Blood: The history of tuberculosis by Helen Bynum. Haha oh god. This is going really slowly because I could only read a few pages at a time before I became certain I have TB.* Thankfully I have gotten out of the part that was "graphic descriptions of people dying" and into "history of medicine", so it's now less traumatizing.
Tales From Firozsha Baag by Rohinton Mistry. Short stories all set in the same apartment complex in Bombay. Very good!
*No, but seriously, I think I might need to go get tested. But I have to wait for the fall semester to start for my health insurance to kick back in.
The Eighth Guest & Other Muzaffar Jang Mysteries by Madhulika Liddle. This is the sequel to The Englishman's Cameo (there's a third book in the series as well, but I didn't pick it up when I was in India and I don't think these have been published in the US), both of them focusing on Muzaffar Jang, a young man who solves mysteries in 1600s Delhi. This book was a collection of short stories, and I liked it better than the original novel, though I'm not sure if that's because the writing has improved or if short stories are just a better format. There's a lot that's cliched here: our hero is bookish and deep, not like all those other young noblemen who only care about clothes and jewels and dancing girls, and also he is quirky which you can tell because of his interest in this new-fangled drink, ~coffee~; here is his brother-in-law, the gruff but loving police chief; here is his friend the shallow dandy who he conveniently has to explain his reasoning to; here is his other friend the street-smart but vaguely-criminal old ruffian, etc. And yet the setting is just such a fantastic choice that I don't quite care. And in some of these stories, we get rumblings of Aurangzeb's bid for the throne, which would be an amazing backdrop for a mystery. In the last story, we also get another cliche: Muzaffar meets a young woman who is beautiful but intelligent but adventurous, and clearly set up to be his True Love. But that is a cliche I am all for, so I really wish I had the third book now.
Untamed by Anna Cowan. Oh my god, I have so much to say about this book. It is like every trope I love rolled into one thing: we have the character who secretly hates himself and is deliberately making self-destructive choices while pretending it's no big deal, why should anyone worry? The opening scene is him inciting another man to attack him! (yeah, I haven't written that fanfiction or anything.) And then he spends most of the rest of the book dressed as woman, and there are multiple scenes of the Kit- the heroine- shaving him and helping him on and off with his corset. And also he specifically acts out his angst by having lots of sex with people he doesn't care about. And then there is the scene where Kit dresses as a man and shows up at a ball to challenge another lady to a duel. And then there are dramatic poker games! There is a really sweet minor gay couple! People are secret authors! They act out Shakespeare using pet pigs! And yet despite all that amazingness, it is... not actually a good book. I think it might have needed another draft or two (the plot, such as it is, is kind of terrible and makes no sense). I don't know, maybe I'm just pickier about my id-fic than I'd realized. I can't even decide if I want to recommend this or not. On the one hand, I read it pretty unstoppable. On the other hand, if these weren't my tropes, it probably would not have been appealing at all.
What are you currently reading?
Spitting Blood: The history of tuberculosis by Helen Bynum. Haha oh god. This is going really slowly because I could only read a few pages at a time before I became certain I have TB.* Thankfully I have gotten out of the part that was "graphic descriptions of people dying" and into "history of medicine", so it's now less traumatizing.
Tales From Firozsha Baag by Rohinton Mistry. Short stories all set in the same apartment complex in Bombay. Very good!
*No, but seriously, I think I might need to go get tested. But I have to wait for the fall semester to start for my health insurance to kick back in.
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Date: 2013-08-14 08:37 pm (UTC)I'm not even sure how to feel about this, it is so amaze.
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Date: 2013-08-14 09:35 pm (UTC)