Reading Wednesday
Sep. 11th, 2013 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
The Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur. A novel about a small-town Indian boy who does a year of post-grad study in small-town America. Culture clash! This was... I don't know, kind of weird, actually. I felt like a lot of the humor was at the expense of the main character, rather than just from his perspective. Some of the humor worked, but the attempts at more serious issues (race and sex, mostly) really fell flat. Just a really odd little book. Apparently it's been made into a movie? I kind of can't imagine what that looked like.
Venetia by Georgette Heyer. Do I really need to explain Heyer? I'm sure y'all know her. Regency romance with delightful characters and excellent dialogue. This one doesn't have much plot outside of the romance, which makes it a bit hard to differentiate (I keep starting summaries that go "a sensible slightly-older woman" or "a woman and her younger brother in a country estate" and then I realize that describes dozens of Heyer novels), but I really enjoyed it. I like all three of the main characters' cheerfully sarcastic senses of humor, and the rival suitors, and I loved the emphasis on the friendship of the romantic couple:
He laughed out at that, flinging back his head in wholehearted enjoyment, gasping: "Why, oh why did I never know you until now?"
"It does seem a pity," she agreed. "I have been thinking so myself, for I always wished for a friend to laugh with."
"To laugh with!" he repeated slowly.
"Perhaps you have friends already who laugh when you do," she said diffidently. "I haven't, and it's important, I think– more important than sympathy in affliction, which you might easily find in someone you positively disliked."
"But to share a sense of the ridiculous prohibits dislike— yes, that's true. And rare! My God, how rare! Do they stare at you, our worthy neighbours, when you laugh?"
"Yes! or ask me what I mean when I'm joking!"
AHHH THAT IS AMAZING.
What are you currently reading?
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age by Kevin Boyle. Still. Because this book is (shockingly!) pretty depressing, and so I ended up putting it aside when I couldn't handle reading about lynchings any more, and instead read Venetia. Because you can't really get much lighter than Heyer.
Sunlight on a Broken Column by Attia Hosain. A novel about pre-Partition Lucknow, focusing on gender issues. Pretty famous, and I'm enjoying it so far.
The Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur. A novel about a small-town Indian boy who does a year of post-grad study in small-town America. Culture clash! This was... I don't know, kind of weird, actually. I felt like a lot of the humor was at the expense of the main character, rather than just from his perspective. Some of the humor worked, but the attempts at more serious issues (race and sex, mostly) really fell flat. Just a really odd little book. Apparently it's been made into a movie? I kind of can't imagine what that looked like.
Venetia by Georgette Heyer. Do I really need to explain Heyer? I'm sure y'all know her. Regency romance with delightful characters and excellent dialogue. This one doesn't have much plot outside of the romance, which makes it a bit hard to differentiate (I keep starting summaries that go "a sensible slightly-older woman" or "a woman and her younger brother in a country estate" and then I realize that describes dozens of Heyer novels), but I really enjoyed it. I like all three of the main characters' cheerfully sarcastic senses of humor, and the rival suitors, and I loved the emphasis on the friendship of the romantic couple:
He laughed out at that, flinging back his head in wholehearted enjoyment, gasping: "Why, oh why did I never know you until now?"
"It does seem a pity," she agreed. "I have been thinking so myself, for I always wished for a friend to laugh with."
"To laugh with!" he repeated slowly.
"Perhaps you have friends already who laugh when you do," she said diffidently. "I haven't, and it's important, I think– more important than sympathy in affliction, which you might easily find in someone you positively disliked."
"But to share a sense of the ridiculous prohibits dislike— yes, that's true. And rare! My God, how rare! Do they stare at you, our worthy neighbours, when you laugh?"
"Yes! or ask me what I mean when I'm joking!"
AHHH THAT IS AMAZING.
What are you currently reading?
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age by Kevin Boyle. Still. Because this book is (shockingly!) pretty depressing, and so I ended up putting it aside when I couldn't handle reading about lynchings any more, and instead read Venetia. Because you can't really get much lighter than Heyer.
Sunlight on a Broken Column by Attia Hosain. A novel about pre-Partition Lucknow, focusing on gender issues. Pretty famous, and I'm enjoying it so far.
