Reading Wednesday
Feb. 4th, 2015 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
The Lost Tribe of Coney Island: Headhunters, Luna Park, and the Man Who Pulled Off the Spectacle of the Century by Claire Prentice. In 1905 the Spanish-American war had recently ended, ultimately leaving the Philippines as an American colony. This was controversial for a variety of reasons and to a variety of audiences, and the Philippines were a constant topic of news and interest. Truman Hunt, a former US government employee and current showman, decided to profit off all of this interest by bringing nearly 50 members of the Igorrote, a Filipino tribe, to the US, to be shown at fairs, amusement parks, and Coney Island, where he billed them as "dog-eating, head-hunting savages".
This is a pretty fascinating event, which the author could have used to open a discussion on all sorts of topics: imperialism, race, the concept of "human zoos", the fair circuit of the early 1900s, Philippine/American relations, even how difficult professional detective work was at the time. Unfortunately she passes on these and all others, choosing to stay close to the main topic even when some context would have been really nice. Sometimes she even deliberately withholds information – I assume to add a 'twist' to the narrative, as when she doesn't mention the fact that Truman has a second, illegal wife until she shows up to sue him – but it comes off as weird and confusing rather than suspenseful. The writing in general in not that impressive, and I was disappointed by the book.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
Kissing Outside the Lines: A True Story of Love and Race and Happily Ever After by Diane Farr. There's a thing that happens in NYC – maybe other places too, I don't know – where now and then you'll come across a cardboard box left on the sidewalk. The box will be full of old books or other items (used toys, VCR tapes, CDs) that the owner no longer wants but also didn't want to put in the trash, and so has left them out in the hope that someone will see them and take them away.
Now, the books that get abandoned like this have an tendency to fall into two categories: ancient Harlequins with fuchsia covers, and textbooks about computer programming languages that were outdated in 2003. Which is to say books no one wants even when they're totally free and right there. But very rarely you do get lucky and find something that looks worth reading, and this is how I ended up with a copy of Kissing Outside the Lines.
Diane Farr (who apparently is a fairly well-known actress? I dunno, I've never heard of her) is a white woman who fell in love with, married, and has children with a Korean dude. This book is mostly about that, though Farr also interviews a few other interracial couples and includes summaries of their stories as well. There's no new insights here – it's very much Racism 101 – but Farr's writing is fluffy and entertaining enough to keep from being boring. The whole thing reads like a long magazine article, actually, right down to the way each chapter heading included a pull-quote from later in the book, as though they expected the readers to be flipping through this in the checkout aisle and needed to be encouraged to keep reading. A cute enough read, if a copy falls in your path.
I don't normally include fanfiction in this post, but as I've just finished a story over 100k, I feel it deserves mention. The Scenic Route by hollycomb. South Park, Kyle/Stan, T rated. I'm not really in South Park fandom, though I watch the show sometimes, but this is a really well-done piece of writing. The main characters have just graduated high school and go on a road-trip to deliver Stan to UCLA; the five days in a car bring up nostalgia, causes relationships to change, and includes lots of H/C, platonic and non-platonic bed-sharing, dramatic rescues, excellent dialogue, and tears. The author does an excellent job of balancing the exaggeration of the canon with a more realistic, mature portrayal of the characters, and it's just very well-written. Highly recommended.
What are you currently reading?
Trade Me by Courtney Milan. I'm still not sure how I feel about a billionaire romance, but hey! New book by Milan!
The Lost Tribe of Coney Island: Headhunters, Luna Park, and the Man Who Pulled Off the Spectacle of the Century by Claire Prentice. In 1905 the Spanish-American war had recently ended, ultimately leaving the Philippines as an American colony. This was controversial for a variety of reasons and to a variety of audiences, and the Philippines were a constant topic of news and interest. Truman Hunt, a former US government employee and current showman, decided to profit off all of this interest by bringing nearly 50 members of the Igorrote, a Filipino tribe, to the US, to be shown at fairs, amusement parks, and Coney Island, where he billed them as "dog-eating, head-hunting savages".
This is a pretty fascinating event, which the author could have used to open a discussion on all sorts of topics: imperialism, race, the concept of "human zoos", the fair circuit of the early 1900s, Philippine/American relations, even how difficult professional detective work was at the time. Unfortunately she passes on these and all others, choosing to stay close to the main topic even when some context would have been really nice. Sometimes she even deliberately withholds information – I assume to add a 'twist' to the narrative, as when she doesn't mention the fact that Truman has a second, illegal wife until she shows up to sue him – but it comes off as weird and confusing rather than suspenseful. The writing in general in not that impressive, and I was disappointed by the book.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
Kissing Outside the Lines: A True Story of Love and Race and Happily Ever After by Diane Farr. There's a thing that happens in NYC – maybe other places too, I don't know – where now and then you'll come across a cardboard box left on the sidewalk. The box will be full of old books or other items (used toys, VCR tapes, CDs) that the owner no longer wants but also didn't want to put in the trash, and so has left them out in the hope that someone will see them and take them away.
Now, the books that get abandoned like this have an tendency to fall into two categories: ancient Harlequins with fuchsia covers, and textbooks about computer programming languages that were outdated in 2003. Which is to say books no one wants even when they're totally free and right there. But very rarely you do get lucky and find something that looks worth reading, and this is how I ended up with a copy of Kissing Outside the Lines.
Diane Farr (who apparently is a fairly well-known actress? I dunno, I've never heard of her) is a white woman who fell in love with, married, and has children with a Korean dude. This book is mostly about that, though Farr also interviews a few other interracial couples and includes summaries of their stories as well. There's no new insights here – it's very much Racism 101 – but Farr's writing is fluffy and entertaining enough to keep from being boring. The whole thing reads like a long magazine article, actually, right down to the way each chapter heading included a pull-quote from later in the book, as though they expected the readers to be flipping through this in the checkout aisle and needed to be encouraged to keep reading. A cute enough read, if a copy falls in your path.
I don't normally include fanfiction in this post, but as I've just finished a story over 100k, I feel it deserves mention. The Scenic Route by hollycomb. South Park, Kyle/Stan, T rated. I'm not really in South Park fandom, though I watch the show sometimes, but this is a really well-done piece of writing. The main characters have just graduated high school and go on a road-trip to deliver Stan to UCLA; the five days in a car bring up nostalgia, causes relationships to change, and includes lots of H/C, platonic and non-platonic bed-sharing, dramatic rescues, excellent dialogue, and tears. The author does an excellent job of balancing the exaggeration of the canon with a more realistic, mature portrayal of the characters, and it's just very well-written. Highly recommended.
What are you currently reading?
Trade Me by Courtney Milan. I'm still not sure how I feel about a billionaire romance, but hey! New book by Milan!
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no subject
Date: 2015-02-04 08:32 pm (UTC)The Lost Tribe of Coney Island sounds disappointing (but with so much potential that I'm tempted to read it anyway). Are there at least good pictures?
no subject
Date: 2015-02-04 09:19 pm (UTC)Are there at least good pictures?
Ha, well, the ARC I read was missing almost all the pictures (I didn't mention it in the review since I assumed it was just an ARC thing), but the captions, which were included, made them sound very interesting!
no subject
Date: 2015-02-04 10:36 pm (UTC)I was interested to read what you thought of the Coney Island book. I live on Mermaid Ave. I had been thinking I ought to read it, but maybe not.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 03:39 am (UTC)Yeah, it was unfortunate. I live further north in Brooklyn, but have visited Coney Island a lot, and would love a good history of it. But this book not only was poorly written, but only a tiny percentage of it was actually set at Coney Island. There must be a good book on it out there somewhere, but I haven't read it yet.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 02:58 am (UTC)How prominent is the bedsharing in The Scenic Route? South Park is not a thing I would ever have anticipated reading novel-length fic about, but I am such a sucker for platonic bedsharing...
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 03:23 am (UTC)The bedsharing is huge. It happens multiple times, in multiple places (sleeping bags, beds at home, beds at hotels, beds in dormrooms, sleeping in cars, sleeping on the floor) and is constantly dwelled on. The characters involved do end up shifting from platonic to sexual by the end of the fic though, in case that's a deal-breaker.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 08:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 10:35 pm (UTC)There's much to be said for the serendipitous book - perhaps because of the magic of low expectations? And the box thing happens in London, too, though often it's also left on the edge of a wall on a terrace house - in the last couple of years I scored a Fludd by Hilary Mantel, The Crow Road, and a whole armful of Mary Wesleys, among the computer textbooks and Maeve Binchys.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-06 06:22 pm (UTC)Indeed. And it's such a great feeling to stumble across a good book, as opposed to deliberately searching it out at a store or library. I do have a few others I got lucky with, that I'll be reviewing at some point as I work on the "try and clear up my bookshelves" project.