Reading Wedn- Thursday
Sep. 26th, 2013 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin. A romance set in Tang dynasty China between the maid of a courtesan and a playboy scholar. I wanted to like this so much more than I did. So many of the ideas were exactly the sort of thing I like: people pretending to be less than they are! Troubled relationships between sisters! Sex that does not make anyone's emotions clearer or less complicated! People trying to be self-sacrificial! But I think the writing just didn't work for me. I never felt emotionally engaged with any of the characters or their problems.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. A poor but very smart little girl grows up in 1900s and 1910s Williamsburg. I read this in order to participate in a new book-club in my neighborhood, which only sort of worked out in that three whole people showed up to discuss it, of whom one other had read the book. But I did like the book! I'd never read it before, and was under the misconception that it was a children's book. It is about childhood, partly, but there is also sex and abortions and alcoholism (and people dying of consumption, oddly) and various other things that were not what I expected. I liked it a great deal; the writing is very evocative, and had lots of little details about Brooklyn that are true but rarely seen in literature.
What are you currently reading?
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age by Kevin Boyle. I know, still. But I have finally gotten around to actively reading this again.
Gora by Rabindranath Tagore. Extremely orthodox and caste-conscious Hindu dude in late 1800s Calcutta is unaware he is actually a white man adopted as an infant.
The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin. A romance set in Tang dynasty China between the maid of a courtesan and a playboy scholar. I wanted to like this so much more than I did. So many of the ideas were exactly the sort of thing I like: people pretending to be less than they are! Troubled relationships between sisters! Sex that does not make anyone's emotions clearer or less complicated! People trying to be self-sacrificial! But I think the writing just didn't work for me. I never felt emotionally engaged with any of the characters or their problems.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. A poor but very smart little girl grows up in 1900s and 1910s Williamsburg. I read this in order to participate in a new book-club in my neighborhood, which only sort of worked out in that three whole people showed up to discuss it, of whom one other had read the book. But I did like the book! I'd never read it before, and was under the misconception that it was a children's book. It is about childhood, partly, but there is also sex and abortions and alcoholism (and people dying of consumption, oddly) and various other things that were not what I expected. I liked it a great deal; the writing is very evocative, and had lots of little details about Brooklyn that are true but rarely seen in literature.
What are you currently reading?
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age by Kevin Boyle. I know, still. But I have finally gotten around to actively reading this again.
Gora by Rabindranath Tagore. Extremely orthodox and caste-conscious Hindu dude in late 1800s Calcutta is unaware he is actually a white man adopted as an infant.
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no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 05:35 pm (UTC)Argh your review about Lotus Palace is reminding me of Agent of Change (Liaden series) which is space opera recced on meme, and I'm pretty solidly meh. Should have been good but...somehow missed. IDK.
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Date: 2013-09-26 06:43 pm (UTC)I also got Lotus Palace from a rec on meme! Yeah, unfortunately stuff sometimes just doesn't work. Which is too bad, but I suppose everything can't be a joy and wonder to behold.
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Date: 2013-09-26 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 06:50 pm (UTC)I take it that you are not? Re: your recent post?
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Date: 2013-09-26 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 09:10 pm (UTC)