Reading Wednesday
Jun. 25th, 2014 02:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Ramayana by R. K. Narayan. This ended up being a fairly straightforward telling of the story, without anything particularly new or different. If anyone is unfamiliar with the basic plot: there is an evil demon, Ravana, who has extracted a promise from the gods that he cannot be harmed by gods, demons, spirits, animals, etc. Therefore Vishnu gets himself incarnated as a young human prince (Ravana not having bothered to get a promise about humans, considering them too weak) named Ram (or Rama, depending on the language). As an adult, Rama, his wife Sita, and his brother Lakshmana are banished to the forest for 14 years. While there, Ravana hears about Sita's beauty and kidnaps her, taking her back to his kingdom of Lanka. Rama and Lakshmana team up with Hanuman and his army of monkeys to defeat Ravana and rescue Sita, there's a huge battle, blah blah good vs evil, blah symbolism, blah.
I suppose this is a fine introduction to the story, if you don't happen to know it, but if you're already familiar with the basic outline, there are more interesting retellings.
Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson. The sixth Walt Longmire mystery. I think this might be my favorite one in the series so far! It seemed shorter than the others, though perhaps it was just more tightly plotted – every single event at the beginning tied together by the end. This one featured a missing thumb, a million-dollar marijuana crop, grandfathers falling off of roofs, people being beaten with golf clubs, secret pregnancies, secret affairs, the Aryan brotherhood, and yes, some half-wolf junkyard dogs.
What are you currently reading?
Blood Maidens by Barbara Hambly. Vampires in Russia! Also, James is remarkably nonchalant about his wife being in love with someone else. Which, I'm down with the poly and the threesomes and all that! I'm just surprised that no one brings up even the possibility of it being a problem.
The Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan. A novel about a woman who is widowed very young, in early 1900s South India.
Ramayana by R. K. Narayan. This ended up being a fairly straightforward telling of the story, without anything particularly new or different. If anyone is unfamiliar with the basic plot: there is an evil demon, Ravana, who has extracted a promise from the gods that he cannot be harmed by gods, demons, spirits, animals, etc. Therefore Vishnu gets himself incarnated as a young human prince (Ravana not having bothered to get a promise about humans, considering them too weak) named Ram (or Rama, depending on the language). As an adult, Rama, his wife Sita, and his brother Lakshmana are banished to the forest for 14 years. While there, Ravana hears about Sita's beauty and kidnaps her, taking her back to his kingdom of Lanka. Rama and Lakshmana team up with Hanuman and his army of monkeys to defeat Ravana and rescue Sita, there's a huge battle, blah blah good vs evil, blah symbolism, blah.
I suppose this is a fine introduction to the story, if you don't happen to know it, but if you're already familiar with the basic outline, there are more interesting retellings.
Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson. The sixth Walt Longmire mystery. I think this might be my favorite one in the series so far! It seemed shorter than the others, though perhaps it was just more tightly plotted – every single event at the beginning tied together by the end. This one featured a missing thumb, a million-dollar marijuana crop, grandfathers falling off of roofs, people being beaten with golf clubs, secret pregnancies, secret affairs, the Aryan brotherhood, and yes, some half-wolf junkyard dogs.
What are you currently reading?
Blood Maidens by Barbara Hambly. Vampires in Russia! Also, James is remarkably nonchalant about his wife being in love with someone else. Which, I'm down with the poly and the threesomes and all that! I'm just surprised that no one brings up even the possibility of it being a problem.
The Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan. A novel about a woman who is widowed very young, in early 1900s South India.
