Reading Wednesday
Jan. 15th, 2014 03:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
A lot, since I didn't do this meme last week.
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss. EXCELLENT book. A really fascinating biography of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas- the father of the Alexander Dumas known for writing The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas was born on what is today Haiti, the child of a white French aristocrat (then in hiding from his family and debts) and a slave, and was himself briefly sold into slavery as a child. However, when his father eventually inherited the family title and fortune, he took Dumas back with him to France, where he recognized the child as his official son, thus making him a Count. Dumas's life then includes the adventures of a rich, spoiled scion of the aristocracy in Paris, joining the army, participating in the French Revolution, romance, becoming a general, winning several important battles, traveling to Egypt, pissing off Napoleon, being captured and held by the very odd Kingdom of Naples (thus the "real count of Monte Cristo" part of the title), and being kicked out of the army. All before dying young! He packed a lot into his days.
As though his individual life history isn't interesting enough, it's a really incredible time and place in regards to changing racial politics. Within Dumas's lifetime, slavery goes from being an accepted evil; to being entirely banned within France itself and partially banned in its colonies, with even a school set up to provide a leading education with scholarships for children of color (during the French Revolution); to slavery being reinstated, most people of color being forbidden from participating in the army or politics, and children from that same school either being used as hostages against their parents (in the case of Toussaint Louverture's sons), or being sent to orphanages (despite not being orphans) where they died within a few years (under Napoleon).
The author is a great writer, engaging and interesting, and there were even a few moments that made me laugh out loud. Very highly recommended.
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. So, probably everyone already knows the Hyperbole and a Half blog (if you somehow don't, go there immediately!), and the book is pretty much the same. Not that that's a bad thing! Despite not including some of my favorite stories from the blog (A Better Pain Scale, Wolves, The Alot), I still laughed so hard I had to keep putting the book down so I could catch my breath. The stories about her dogs are forever funny to me. This book also gets my mom's Seal of Approval, and she suggests the stories about depression be required reading for medical students.
Captured by Beverly Jenkins. A romance novel set in the late 1700s, mostly in the Caribbean, about Clare, a beautiful and well-educated slave from Savannah, who is "captured" by Dominic, a dashing and handsome pirate who has strong feelings about slavery, since his mother was a slave until her white master fell in love with her, married her, and set her and all of his slaves free. Shockingly, they fall in love! Unlike a lot of romance novels, though, this one actually has a plot other than the romance; even once Clare and Dominic have gotten together, there are still Clare's children to rescue from slavery in Savannah, Dominic's evil half-brother who faked their father's will to steal Dominic's inheritance, Dominic's arch-nemesis the Dutch slaver and his mute bodyguard, kidnappings, people being run over by horses, dramatic rescues, poisonings, and heads on stakes.
The writing is, uh, not the greatest (I was particularly appalled by the fact that Clare has THREE DIFFERENT orgasms just from having her breasts touched. Which I suppose is not outside the realm of human possibility, but if someone was that sensitive, I assume she would not be having her Very First Orgasm in her thirties), but I'm willing to forgive it a lot for having such an interesting plot, characters, and setting. There's also a lot of fun minor characters, including a lesbian couple and one of Louis XIV's mistresses who ran away to be with her fiddler lover and is now living on the tiny island Dominic has set up to be a safe place for runaway slaves. Apparently there are sequels in which Clare and Dominic's descendants live in New Orleans in the 1850s, but I can't seem to find copies of them, alas.
Nagaland: A Journey to India’s Forgotten Frontier by Jonathan Glancey. A really interesting book which unfortunately had the potential to be much more interesting than it actually was. A nonfiction book about Nagaland (a tiny state in the very northeast of India; look at this map for an idea of how disconnected it is from mainstream India), which has been fighting an off-and-on war for independence from India since before India itself was an independent country. On the one hand, Nagaland is a topic I know basically nothing about, so I was very glad to read this book. On the other hand, I felt I could have learned so much more, since a significant portion of text was about the author's personal fascination since childhood with the Naga Hills. Like, it's fine that your grandfather worked there in the 1800s, but it's not really that important. Anyway. A good book if you want to know more about Nagaland, since there's not many other sources of information published in the West, but otherwise not particularly recommended.
The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. A mystery novel, the first in a series, set in rural, rural Wyoming. A few years previously four white teen boys were found guilty of raping a Indian (as in Native American, not South Asian) girl who suffers from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, but received very minor sentences. Now one of the boys has been found shot dead. Was it an innocent hunting accident, or is someone out for revenge? (Spoiler alert: no one writes mystery novels about innocent hunting accidents).
I liked the setting, the characters (particularly Henry Standing Bear, the protagonist's kind, possibly-a-suspect, funny best friend, and Vic, his foul-mouthed, violent, East Coast-transplant deputy), and the writing a lot. The mystery itself, not so much. The resolution seemed to come out of nowhere, as did some of the minor character's motivations (I have no idea what was up with George Esper, for instance). But overall I liked it enough to check out the next book in the series. You've got to love a book that features three characters trapped in a dangerous blizzard, two of them with gun wounds, with no way to call for help, and unwounded character is forced to choose who to carry to safety.
What are you currently reading?
Planet India: The Turbulent Rise of the Largest Democracy and the Future of Our World by Mira Kamdar. Nonfiction on modern India, with a particular focus on business.
Ice Cream: A Global History by Laura B. Weiss. Nonfiction about, well, look at the title.
A lot, since I didn't do this meme last week.
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss. EXCELLENT book. A really fascinating biography of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas- the father of the Alexander Dumas known for writing The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas was born on what is today Haiti, the child of a white French aristocrat (then in hiding from his family and debts) and a slave, and was himself briefly sold into slavery as a child. However, when his father eventually inherited the family title and fortune, he took Dumas back with him to France, where he recognized the child as his official son, thus making him a Count. Dumas's life then includes the adventures of a rich, spoiled scion of the aristocracy in Paris, joining the army, participating in the French Revolution, romance, becoming a general, winning several important battles, traveling to Egypt, pissing off Napoleon, being captured and held by the very odd Kingdom of Naples (thus the "real count of Monte Cristo" part of the title), and being kicked out of the army. All before dying young! He packed a lot into his days.
As though his individual life history isn't interesting enough, it's a really incredible time and place in regards to changing racial politics. Within Dumas's lifetime, slavery goes from being an accepted evil; to being entirely banned within France itself and partially banned in its colonies, with even a school set up to provide a leading education with scholarships for children of color (during the French Revolution); to slavery being reinstated, most people of color being forbidden from participating in the army or politics, and children from that same school either being used as hostages against their parents (in the case of Toussaint Louverture's sons), or being sent to orphanages (despite not being orphans) where they died within a few years (under Napoleon).
The author is a great writer, engaging and interesting, and there were even a few moments that made me laugh out loud. Very highly recommended.
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. So, probably everyone already knows the Hyperbole and a Half blog (if you somehow don't, go there immediately!), and the book is pretty much the same. Not that that's a bad thing! Despite not including some of my favorite stories from the blog (A Better Pain Scale, Wolves, The Alot), I still laughed so hard I had to keep putting the book down so I could catch my breath. The stories about her dogs are forever funny to me. This book also gets my mom's Seal of Approval, and she suggests the stories about depression be required reading for medical students.
Captured by Beverly Jenkins. A romance novel set in the late 1700s, mostly in the Caribbean, about Clare, a beautiful and well-educated slave from Savannah, who is "captured" by Dominic, a dashing and handsome pirate who has strong feelings about slavery, since his mother was a slave until her white master fell in love with her, married her, and set her and all of his slaves free. Shockingly, they fall in love! Unlike a lot of romance novels, though, this one actually has a plot other than the romance; even once Clare and Dominic have gotten together, there are still Clare's children to rescue from slavery in Savannah, Dominic's evil half-brother who faked their father's will to steal Dominic's inheritance, Dominic's arch-nemesis the Dutch slaver and his mute bodyguard, kidnappings, people being run over by horses, dramatic rescues, poisonings, and heads on stakes.
The writing is, uh, not the greatest (I was particularly appalled by the fact that Clare has THREE DIFFERENT orgasms just from having her breasts touched. Which I suppose is not outside the realm of human possibility, but if someone was that sensitive, I assume she would not be having her Very First Orgasm in her thirties), but I'm willing to forgive it a lot for having such an interesting plot, characters, and setting. There's also a lot of fun minor characters, including a lesbian couple and one of Louis XIV's mistresses who ran away to be with her fiddler lover and is now living on the tiny island Dominic has set up to be a safe place for runaway slaves. Apparently there are sequels in which Clare and Dominic's descendants live in New Orleans in the 1850s, but I can't seem to find copies of them, alas.
Nagaland: A Journey to India’s Forgotten Frontier by Jonathan Glancey. A really interesting book which unfortunately had the potential to be much more interesting than it actually was. A nonfiction book about Nagaland (a tiny state in the very northeast of India; look at this map for an idea of how disconnected it is from mainstream India), which has been fighting an off-and-on war for independence from India since before India itself was an independent country. On the one hand, Nagaland is a topic I know basically nothing about, so I was very glad to read this book. On the other hand, I felt I could have learned so much more, since a significant portion of text was about the author's personal fascination since childhood with the Naga Hills. Like, it's fine that your grandfather worked there in the 1800s, but it's not really that important. Anyway. A good book if you want to know more about Nagaland, since there's not many other sources of information published in the West, but otherwise not particularly recommended.
The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. A mystery novel, the first in a series, set in rural, rural Wyoming. A few years previously four white teen boys were found guilty of raping a Indian (as in Native American, not South Asian) girl who suffers from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, but received very minor sentences. Now one of the boys has been found shot dead. Was it an innocent hunting accident, or is someone out for revenge? (Spoiler alert: no one writes mystery novels about innocent hunting accidents).
I liked the setting, the characters (particularly Henry Standing Bear, the protagonist's kind, possibly-a-suspect, funny best friend, and Vic, his foul-mouthed, violent, East Coast-transplant deputy), and the writing a lot. The mystery itself, not so much. The resolution seemed to come out of nowhere, as did some of the minor character's motivations (I have no idea what was up with George Esper, for instance). But overall I liked it enough to check out the next book in the series. You've got to love a book that features three characters trapped in a dangerous blizzard, two of them with gun wounds, with no way to call for help, and unwounded character is forced to choose who to carry to safety.
What are you currently reading?
Planet India: The Turbulent Rise of the Largest Democracy and the Future of Our World by Mira Kamdar. Nonfiction on modern India, with a particular focus on business.
Ice Cream: A Global History by Laura B. Weiss. Nonfiction about, well, look at the title.
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-15 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-16 01:34 am (UTC)Captured sounds pretty awesome, breast-Os aside.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-16 02:03 am (UTC)The ice cream book, unfortunately, is turning out to be less "delicious food porn" and more "how much money a specific company made". But it still has some interesting details!
no subject
Date: 2014-01-16 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-16 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-16 05:17 am (UTC)Beverly Jenkins (the author of Captured) writes mostly black romances in historical America. I've only read one other by her, but it was similarly exciting plot-wise, about a Wild West outlaw-type woman who hooked up with a very proper banker.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-19 01:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-19 06:11 pm (UTC)I've actually only Dumas's musketeer novels, too. I've been meaning to read 'Count of Monte Cristo' lately, but haven't got around to it yet.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-19 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-20 01:00 am (UTC)