Reading Wednesday
Apr. 9th, 2014 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz. This book is so good! SO GOOD! It's very different from Horwitz's other books– more of a straightforward history than a sort of journalistic 'here's how my life interweaves with history' personal account. BUT SO GOOD. If you have any interest at all in the topic, I very much recommend it.
I've also just reread Good Man Friday by Barbara Hambly. Part of my experience having a real office job this month is the commute: between 45 and 60 minutes each way. I commute with someone who works the same job, so we've been having her drive while I read, since conveniently she was already reading the Ben January series (possibly because I talked her into it months ago, but I admit nothing). I really like reading aloud in general, but these books are particularly fun. Each character has such a distinct voice; you can always tell who's speaking just by the dialogue, even without an attribution tag. There's Dominique's quicksilver bubbliness versus Chloe's crisp precision, Rose's coolness, Livia's (who alas isn't even in this book, but I love doing her voice) languid pride, Shaw's accent versus Hannibal's. And Ben by himself does so much code-switching that he's like five other characters. I actually find Shaw's dialogue to be perfectly written for the rural Appalachian accent that matches his backstory; it's the same accent my grandfather had, though his was much milder. Also, he was from West Virgina, not Kentucky. On the other hand, West Virginia didn't exist yet in the 1830s, so I suppose they could still be distant relatives! It's not the same as a Southern accent (like, say, Ephriam Norcum's) and I think Hambly does a great job of portraying it. Also I just like to read it. One of the things about these books is that there's so many accents for the characters– French and British, Southern and New England– and that's part of why they're such fun to read. We did the end of Ran Away as well, but I'm not very good at imitating Turkish accents, so unfortunately I think most of those characters ended up sounding Russian.
Anyway, back to Hannibal's accent: I have no idea what an "aristocratic Anglo-Irish" accent is supposed to sound like. I've been giving him a sort of Upper East Side Private School drawl (it's the accent Alec has in the Swordspoint audiobooks), which does seem to fit the rhythm of his speech. But it's an accent that has such associations of cruelty and condescension that it just doesn't seem right for Hannibal. Alas.
Anyway. Things I noticed about Good Man Friday this time:
*Man, Ben spends a lot of time describing how pretty Mede is.
*I really wish there had been more time for Mede and Luke; I'm interested in what choices both of them might have made, if they'd had more time. I also wonder if Luke is conscious of being Mede's brother, or if it's never occurred to him to put the facts together.
*This book has nowhere near enough Rose and Hannibal. I do like this passage in particular, though:
Waking, he found letters from Rose and from Hannibal Sefton [...] It was wonderful beyond measure to read that Rose had gotten a few small commissions to translate Thucydides for a bookseller in Mobile; that the first of the strawberry-sellers had begun to promenade along Rue Esplanade singing long, wailing songs about their wares; that Hannibal had yet another new girlfriend, a tavern-keeper on Girod Street named Russian Nancy.
Though I like to imagine that it's Rose who writes about his girlfriend and Hannibal who writes about her translations. (They can both write about the strawberries.)
*Ben the baseball player will never not be awesome.
*I like the expansion of Henri's characterization; for all that he's been around since the very beginning of the series, this is the first time we learn much about him. I love that he has a roach collection. I like that he's a scholar too; it makes him a better husband for Chloe, even if his scholarship isn't in math.
*I totally want Ben to be a dashing spy. I wonder if he could be a spy in New Orleans? I'm not sure there's enough there to report on. But maybe that's why he goes to the Caribbean in the next book!
*I want the AU where Hannibal is trapped in an asylum; this line made me think of it: "A friend of mine – a lad I went to school with – had the... misfortune... to be incarcerated there, for drinking and addiction to laudanum." (Or perhaps for throwing himself off bridges.) And then obviously Ben and Rose have to rescue him. Maybe Ben can be a doctor there with qualms about the treatment.
What are you currently reading?
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. (It took me an embarrassingly long time to translate "NOS4A2" into license-plate speak for "Nosferatu".) A horror novel which I'm mostly reading because I have a physical copy of it and we're not allowed to bring e-readers into work. It's good! Though I haven't yet read much.
The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan. OMG THIS IS SO GOOD. It's a Victorian Romance in which actual, historical politics are an important part of the plot! There's a disabled character! An Indian character! An asexual character! People are kind to one another and strive to do the right thing! People make friends through hardships and strive to be loyal! People are clever and funny and don't have dumb misunderstandings! IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL.
The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye. A.K.A the book I've put on hold ever since Chilla sent me The Heiress Effect. But I have a distressing passage for you all nonetheless! The context here is that Ash and Anjuli are in love, but Anjuli refuses to run away with him because she promised to take care of her younger sister, Shushila:
Ash caught her wrist and wrenched her hand away: "But I love you too. And I need you. Does that mean nothing to you? Do you care so much more for her than you do for me? Do you?" [...] "And my happiness?" demanded Ash, his voice harsh with pain. "Does mine not matter?"
But it had been no good. Nothing that he could say had made any difference. He had used every argument and every plea he could think of, and at last he had taken her again, ravaging her with an animal violence that had bruised and hurt, yet was still sexually skilful enough to force a response from her that was half pain and half piercing rapture. But when it was over and they lay spent and breathless, she could still say: "I cannot betray her." And he knew that Shushila had won, and that he was beaten. His arms fell away and he drew aside and lay on his back staring up into the darkness, and for a long time neither of them spoke.
GOOD JOB ASH! This is totally the way to convince someone to spend their life with you: act like a whiny brat and then abuse them. That's what I like in a romantic hero. I didn't even include the part where Anjuli tells him not to worry, she knows how to make her future husband think she's a virgin, and Ash is disgusted and angry that she knows "harlot's tricks".
Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz. This book is so good! SO GOOD! It's very different from Horwitz's other books– more of a straightforward history than a sort of journalistic 'here's how my life interweaves with history' personal account. BUT SO GOOD. If you have any interest at all in the topic, I very much recommend it.
I've also just reread Good Man Friday by Barbara Hambly. Part of my experience having a real office job this month is the commute: between 45 and 60 minutes each way. I commute with someone who works the same job, so we've been having her drive while I read, since conveniently she was already reading the Ben January series (possibly because I talked her into it months ago, but I admit nothing). I really like reading aloud in general, but these books are particularly fun. Each character has such a distinct voice; you can always tell who's speaking just by the dialogue, even without an attribution tag. There's Dominique's quicksilver bubbliness versus Chloe's crisp precision, Rose's coolness, Livia's (who alas isn't even in this book, but I love doing her voice) languid pride, Shaw's accent versus Hannibal's. And Ben by himself does so much code-switching that he's like five other characters. I actually find Shaw's dialogue to be perfectly written for the rural Appalachian accent that matches his backstory; it's the same accent my grandfather had, though his was much milder. Also, he was from West Virgina, not Kentucky. On the other hand, West Virginia didn't exist yet in the 1830s, so I suppose they could still be distant relatives! It's not the same as a Southern accent (like, say, Ephriam Norcum's) and I think Hambly does a great job of portraying it. Also I just like to read it. One of the things about these books is that there's so many accents for the characters– French and British, Southern and New England– and that's part of why they're such fun to read. We did the end of Ran Away as well, but I'm not very good at imitating Turkish accents, so unfortunately I think most of those characters ended up sounding Russian.
Anyway, back to Hannibal's accent: I have no idea what an "aristocratic Anglo-Irish" accent is supposed to sound like. I've been giving him a sort of Upper East Side Private School drawl (it's the accent Alec has in the Swordspoint audiobooks), which does seem to fit the rhythm of his speech. But it's an accent that has such associations of cruelty and condescension that it just doesn't seem right for Hannibal. Alas.
Anyway. Things I noticed about Good Man Friday this time:
*Man, Ben spends a lot of time describing how pretty Mede is.
*I really wish there had been more time for Mede and Luke; I'm interested in what choices both of them might have made, if they'd had more time. I also wonder if Luke is conscious of being Mede's brother, or if it's never occurred to him to put the facts together.
*This book has nowhere near enough Rose and Hannibal. I do like this passage in particular, though:
Waking, he found letters from Rose and from Hannibal Sefton [...] It was wonderful beyond measure to read that Rose had gotten a few small commissions to translate Thucydides for a bookseller in Mobile; that the first of the strawberry-sellers had begun to promenade along Rue Esplanade singing long, wailing songs about their wares; that Hannibal had yet another new girlfriend, a tavern-keeper on Girod Street named Russian Nancy.
Though I like to imagine that it's Rose who writes about his girlfriend and Hannibal who writes about her translations. (They can both write about the strawberries.)
*Ben the baseball player will never not be awesome.
*I like the expansion of Henri's characterization; for all that he's been around since the very beginning of the series, this is the first time we learn much about him. I love that he has a roach collection. I like that he's a scholar too; it makes him a better husband for Chloe, even if his scholarship isn't in math.
*I totally want Ben to be a dashing spy. I wonder if he could be a spy in New Orleans? I'm not sure there's enough there to report on. But maybe that's why he goes to the Caribbean in the next book!
*I want the AU where Hannibal is trapped in an asylum; this line made me think of it: "A friend of mine – a lad I went to school with – had the... misfortune... to be incarcerated there, for drinking and addiction to laudanum." (Or perhaps for throwing himself off bridges.) And then obviously Ben and Rose have to rescue him. Maybe Ben can be a doctor there with qualms about the treatment.
What are you currently reading?
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. (It took me an embarrassingly long time to translate "NOS4A2" into license-plate speak for "Nosferatu".) A horror novel which I'm mostly reading because I have a physical copy of it and we're not allowed to bring e-readers into work. It's good! Though I haven't yet read much.
The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan. OMG THIS IS SO GOOD. It's a Victorian Romance in which actual, historical politics are an important part of the plot! There's a disabled character! An Indian character! An asexual character! People are kind to one another and strive to do the right thing! People make friends through hardships and strive to be loyal! People are clever and funny and don't have dumb misunderstandings! IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL.
The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye. A.K.A the book I've put on hold ever since Chilla sent me The Heiress Effect. But I have a distressing passage for you all nonetheless! The context here is that Ash and Anjuli are in love, but Anjuli refuses to run away with him because she promised to take care of her younger sister, Shushila:
Ash caught her wrist and wrenched her hand away: "But I love you too. And I need you. Does that mean nothing to you? Do you care so much more for her than you do for me? Do you?" [...] "And my happiness?" demanded Ash, his voice harsh with pain. "Does mine not matter?"
But it had been no good. Nothing that he could say had made any difference. He had used every argument and every plea he could think of, and at last he had taken her again, ravaging her with an animal violence that had bruised and hurt, yet was still sexually skilful enough to force a response from her that was half pain and half piercing rapture. But when it was over and they lay spent and breathless, she could still say: "I cannot betray her." And he knew that Shushila had won, and that he was beaten. His arms fell away and he drew aside and lay on his back staring up into the darkness, and for a long time neither of them spoke.
GOOD JOB ASH! This is totally the way to convince someone to spend their life with you: act like a whiny brat and then abuse them. That's what I like in a romantic hero. I didn't even include the part where Anjuli tells him not to worry, she knows how to make her future husband think she's a virgin, and Ash is disgusted and angry that she knows "harlot's tricks".
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no subject
Date: 2014-04-09 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-09 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-09 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-09 09:46 pm (UTC)Now I'm curious how the license-plate speak is plot-relevant...
I pretty much never read horror, but I read Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box way back because Neil Gaiman had good things to say about it, and enjoyed it.
And, wow, Ash continues to sound like a winner XP
no subject
Date: 2014-04-09 10:46 pm (UTC)I quite like Joe Hill. Heart-Shaped Box, though I liked it, is actually his least favorite of mine. Horns is a similar irreverent take on horror that's also scary, but which I preferred, and 20th Century Ghosts (a collection of short stories) was surprisingly elegantly written.
no subject
Date: 2014-04-10 12:21 am (UTC)Good Man Friday has a severe lack of Rose and Hannibal and Ben's usual support system, yes. (Shaw's accent though: it is super hard to write,
I have no idea what I'm doing, help.) These books must be amazing read aloud. Are there audiobooks, I wonder?Ben spends a lot of time commenting on how pretty other men are, in general. And YES to everything else you've said!
Everything you post about the Far Pavilions makes me go NOPE NOPE NOPE.
The Heiress Effect sounds delightful, on the other hand.
no subject
Date: 2014-04-10 01:09 am (UTC)Ha, I can't even think of any TV or movie characters with Shaw's accent to recommend to you. A podcast I listen to has speakers with the Appalachian accent, but they have such an extremely mild version of it I don't think it would help. I suppose I could upload some of me reading? If you think hearing it would be useful, that is.
There is an audiobook of 'Good Man Friday', though none of the others (yet). I'm not particularly fond of the reader, though she's not terrible; I just think it could have been better. Also 'Good Man Friday' isn't really the best choice for an audiobook. Any plot that revolves around long strings of random numbers isn't at it's best in aural form.
I recommend it! ('The Heiress Effect', that is, not 'The Far Pavilions'.)
no subject
Date: 2014-04-10 11:53 pm (UTC)Actually, I think could be very helpful. Just so I can get out of trying to pitch his words grey/brown/purple and not managing (I have synesthesia. Sometimes it is a good thing, sometimes it is a bad thing.)
Aw. I really wanted to listen to Days of the Dead. I think it'd be amazing with a good reader, especially the climax.
no subject
Date: 2014-04-11 12:52 am (UTC)Do you have a favorite scene? Or bit of dialogue, or something?
Yeah, I think 'Good Man Friday' would have been the last one I'd have chosen for an audiobook. But it came out at the same time as the publication of the written-book last year, which is presumably why they chose it. I think they might also have been testing the waters for the other books; a few of Hambly's other series have come out as audiobooks recently. I'd offer to share it with you but I don't know how to take the DRM off audiobooks. (Also I think the reader does a terrible job with Shaw's accent! Though he's only in one scene.)
no subject
Date: 2014-04-12 12:16 am (UTC)I really like the scene at the bening of Sold Down the River where Shaw comes up with the whole coloured bandannas system ("Well, I got to jawing [...] But at least it'll let me know yore still there." especially has a fair amount of Shaw talking.) And thank you again so much for the offer.
It's cool, I'll just wait until others from the series come out.
no subject
Date: 2014-04-12 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-10 11:23 pm (UTC)He notices things about people! There really aren't too many male characters of his type.
(Shaw's accent though: it is super hard to write,
I have no idea what I'm doing, help.)There's a documentary ("Mountain Talk") that I think can be found on Youtube, but most of the people in it are from North Carolina, so I don't know if it helps (I'm not a native English speaker, so I just try to write Shaw the same way Hambly does *g*). But it really sounds fascinating.
One character in Hambly's James Asher novels, Grippen, became a vampire at some point in the 17th century and still talks the way he did while he lived. He uses the phrase "if an" in some constructions, and when Asher (a philologist) noted that his speech sounds vaguely Appalachian, I finally connected it to Shaw's tendency to say "if'n". (Still not clear on whether this is different from "if" and if so, how...)
no subject
Date: 2014-04-11 12:42 am (UTC)I'm more familiar with Northern Appalachian (West Virgina, Kentucky, southern Ohio), but they sound right to me!
The Appalachian accent is interestingly really close to British accents of the 17th century! They've done reconstructions of Shakespeare's accent– based on words that are intended to rhyme, that sort of thing– and it's very similar. Basically isolated people in Appalachia maintained the old accent where people in London changed over time. There's also a lot of ancient songs and folktale traditions there.
If'n and if are just pronunciations, with no difference in meaning. (Uh, at least in my experience.)
no subject
Date: 2014-04-13 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-11 12:50 am (UTC)I do try to write Shaw the same way Hambly does, but somehow I never manage to hit the purple in his voice /synesthesia problems.
Oh, so that's what that means, I'd been wondering for ages. Thanks for telling me.
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Date: 2014-04-13 01:29 am (UTC)Again, I'm a very unreliable source!
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Date: 2014-04-13 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-10 01:31 am (UTC)Joe Hill is such a great writer but I can't read him any more. He has this ability to write such disturbing descriptions that I can't get them out of my head. (Kind of like Bret Easton Ellis.)
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Date: 2014-04-10 06:08 pm (UTC)Yeah, I agree with you. The title story in 20th Century Ghosts, in particular, I found almost too distressing to read.
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Date: 2014-04-11 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-11 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-10 07:31 am (UTC)(i've been shaky on countess conspiracy b/c there ARE some dumb misunderstanding, but i think it's climbing through perfectly and there're some very good heights).
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Date: 2014-04-10 06:10 pm (UTC)I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series! I do like Sebastian, so I can't wait for Countess Conspiracy.
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Date: 2014-04-10 11:08 pm (UTC)Dominique's quicksilver bubbliness
Wasn't it established at some point that Dominique actually has a pretty deep voice, like Olympe and Livia? And she still talks the way she does. I wonder how much of her natural personality the people around her get to see (Livia spent decades being languid until her husband died, so she probably considers pretending to be someone else a part of the job.) I loved her insect-collecting family.
And another thing I always wonder: What would the New Orleans French that these characters speak sound like?
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Date: 2014-04-11 12:30 am (UTC)Is her voice deep? I don't remember! Though, yeah, Livia and Olympe have deep voices, so it would make sense.
There's a line in one of the books– I can't remember which one right now, of course– where January thinks something like "Minou had always been given everything she asked for, but what about the things she'd been afraid to ask for?" which does always make me wonder if she has some totally unmentioned interest. On the other hand, I can't imagine what she want to do that Henri wouldn't indulge her in.
I know Cajun/Creole French is somewhat different from France French, but I don't speak French anywhere near well enough to understand what the differences are. I think it's on the level of American vs British English, though– more an issue of accent and a few words than anything deeper.
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Date: 2014-04-13 01:22 am (UTC)Hm. She seems to love him very much, which she probably wouldn't if she had to pretend to be someone completely different the whole time. And she does spend a large part of this book being super-sweet to people even if she doesn't have to (the scene with Captain Fancher and the younger man). Maybe she would want more independence if it didn't mean being poor.
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Date: 2014-04-14 07:54 pm (UTC)