Reading Wednesday
Oct. 9th, 2013 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar. A novel set in modern-day Mumbai, with alternating points-of-view between two elderly women: one a middle-class widow whose husband was abusive, the other her servant, a poor illiterate woman whose family is all dead except for her teenage pregnant granddaughter. This is definitely one of those books where everyone's life is incredibly terrible and their pasts only make them more likely to hurt one another rather than to have sympathy, but it was not as depressing as most of that genre. I think because both of the women's narrative voices are interesting and enjoyable, and because they're both relatively strong-willed, people who are more focused on survival than regrets. Also, there's a hopeful ending, which always helps. I like Umrigar's writing a lot; I'll have to look for more by her.
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. WHY I HAVE I NEVER READ THE VORKOSIGAN SERIES BEFORE? (Also, how does one pronounce Vorkosigan? I guess the "Vor" is supposed to be a separate syllable? Because my first guess was vork-oh-si-gan, but that seems to be narratively wrong.) Everyone except![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
somebraveapollo has failed at reccing me things.
Part sci-fi war adventure, part Heyer-esque romance (in the sense of clever dialogue and characters who are too self-aware to be melodramatic, no matter how ridiculous their situation), and part culture-clash drama, but all of it is AMAZING. Cordelia Naismith (female soldier from sex-positive technologically-advanced democratic corporatized Beta Colony; she is funny and sensible and generous and very capable) meets and falls in love with Aral Vorkosigan (soldier and noble from conservative technologically-backward but resource-rich feudal Barrayar; he is also funny, as well as clever and honorable and thoughtful), and then they get involved in mutinies and secret politics and evil torturers. Also, there are flying vampire jellyfish. How can you not love a book with flying vampire jellyfish!
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold. THIS ONE IS EVEN BETTER. Cordelia is pregnant, Aral is given a high government position (trying not to spoil the end of the first book here), and there are assassination attempts and civil war and super-cute side romances and terrible in-laws and even more secret court politics (I LOVE COURT POLITICS) and culture-clash (AHHH I love culture clash, I love characters learning about new cultures, I love the challenge of deciding how much to take on of the new culture vs how much of your original culture to retain, particularly when questions of politeness and expedience and politics and closely-held values play a part). Also, Cordelia gets to be a hero in so many ways here! I LOVE CORDELIA MORE THAN ANYTHING. The ending is the best thing ever- ah, but again, I don't want to spoil it. Just trust me: it's awesome.
What are you currently reading?
I Am an Executioner: Love Stories by Rajesh Parameswaran. A book of short stories, very well-written.
The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold. Can you sense a theme in my reading this week?
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar. A novel set in modern-day Mumbai, with alternating points-of-view between two elderly women: one a middle-class widow whose husband was abusive, the other her servant, a poor illiterate woman whose family is all dead except for her teenage pregnant granddaughter. This is definitely one of those books where everyone's life is incredibly terrible and their pasts only make them more likely to hurt one another rather than to have sympathy, but it was not as depressing as most of that genre. I think because both of the women's narrative voices are interesting and enjoyable, and because they're both relatively strong-willed, people who are more focused on survival than regrets. Also, there's a hopeful ending, which always helps. I like Umrigar's writing a lot; I'll have to look for more by her.
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. WHY I HAVE I NEVER READ THE VORKOSIGAN SERIES BEFORE? (Also, how does one pronounce Vorkosigan? I guess the "Vor" is supposed to be a separate syllable? Because my first guess was vork-oh-si-gan, but that seems to be narratively wrong.) Everyone except
somebraveapollo has failed at reccing me things. Part sci-fi war adventure, part Heyer-esque romance (in the sense of clever dialogue and characters who are too self-aware to be melodramatic, no matter how ridiculous their situation), and part culture-clash drama, but all of it is AMAZING. Cordelia Naismith (female soldier from sex-positive technologically-advanced democratic corporatized Beta Colony; she is funny and sensible and generous and very capable) meets and falls in love with Aral Vorkosigan (soldier and noble from conservative technologically-backward but resource-rich feudal Barrayar; he is also funny, as well as clever and honorable and thoughtful), and then they get involved in mutinies and secret politics and evil torturers. Also, there are flying vampire jellyfish. How can you not love a book with flying vampire jellyfish!
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold. THIS ONE IS EVEN BETTER. Cordelia is pregnant, Aral is given a high government position (trying not to spoil the end of the first book here), and there are assassination attempts and civil war and super-cute side romances and terrible in-laws and even more secret court politics (I LOVE COURT POLITICS) and culture-clash (AHHH I love culture clash, I love characters learning about new cultures, I love the challenge of deciding how much to take on of the new culture vs how much of your original culture to retain, particularly when questions of politeness and expedience and politics and closely-held values play a part). Also, Cordelia gets to be a hero in so many ways here! I LOVE CORDELIA MORE THAN ANYTHING. The ending is the best thing ever- ah, but again, I don't want to spoil it. Just trust me: it's awesome.
What are you currently reading?
I Am an Executioner: Love Stories by Rajesh Parameswaran. A book of short stories, very well-written.
The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold. Can you sense a theme in my reading this week?
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no subject
Date: 2013-10-10 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-11 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-10 12:44 am (UTC)We have a mutual friend (or acquaintance, on my part) for whom they very much did not work well, so maybe there were residual shouldn't-read-this impressions involved in keeping them from you for so long? BUT BUJOLD. I fannishly imprinted on the Vorkosigan Saga, and I reread the whole set every few years, and also there are a number of lovely and active fic writers who will feed you more Cordelia and Aral and everyone else when you run out of books.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-11 08:04 pm (UTC)I am looking forward to this fic! But I do have a lot more books to make it through before I run out.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-10 01:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-11 06:02 pm (UTC)And hee, no worries- I had already gotten to that part, so I wasn't spoiled.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-10 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-11 05:58 pm (UTC)I have the same backlog problem, except that every time I go to start a new book I get distracted and just read whatever I've been reminded of most recently. So my backlog is actually growing rather than getting shorter. Whoops?
no subject
Date: 2013-10-10 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-11 05:57 pm (UTC)