Reading Wednesday
Jul. 16th, 2015 02:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Eric Walrond: A Life in the Harlem Renaissance and the Transatlantic Caribbean by James Davis. A biography of Eric Walrond, a Harlem Renaissance writer (though he was mostly known for his journalism and being a behind-the-scenes type mover; he only ever published one book of short stories). Walrond was born in South America, moved to Panama as a young child when his parents participated in the building of the Panama Canal, migrated to New York as an adult to take part in the Harlem Renaissance, spent time in France in the late 1920s and early 30s, and then spent the rest of his life in England, which included both fighting in WWII and spending several years in a hospital for depression. So! His was a vast and exciting life, which covered a huge number of the important movements and events of the early 20th century. Overall it's a well-written and fascinating book, and I found the differences in racial politics between the US, the Caribbean, and England particularly interesting. This is clearly an academic book, and includes far more details than I really wanted, going vastly in-depth into every single part of Walrond's life, but that's more my fault than the book's. My one complaint about the book is that Davis tends to assume the reader already knows a lot about all of the topics covered, and often references other Harlem Renaissance notables, or politics of the 1910s, or Parisian neighborhoods, without explaining who or what they are.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
Lily Among Thorns by Rose Lerner. This book was so good! Serena was once London's most expensive and most notorious courtesan; currently she owns an inn and maintains ties to the criminal underworld, which has nicknamed her the Black Thorn. Solomon is a tailor who once did Serena a favor; he's currently grieving for his missing and presumed dead twin brother, while trying to find his family's stolen earrings. Together they fight crime! Actually, they kind of do, in that they end up finding out someone close to them has been spying for Napoleon, and they have to decide whether to turn them in or not. The fantastic part of this book isn't so much the plot though, but all of the wonderful tropes: Serena as the cold scary woman who's had to be tough to survive, both very important found family and very important ties to biological family, the hero who loves science and is looked down on for being a tradesman, a cameo appearance by The Scarlet Pimpernel, excellent gay secondary characters, cross-dressing, lots of gender reversals in the use of tropes, wonderful food porn and clothing porn, lots of humor and just... affection and kindness and warmth between the characters. A lovely, wonderful book that I can't recommend highly enough.
What are you currently reading?
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue. A murder mystery in 1870s San Fransisco.
Eric Walrond: A Life in the Harlem Renaissance and the Transatlantic Caribbean by James Davis. A biography of Eric Walrond, a Harlem Renaissance writer (though he was mostly known for his journalism and being a behind-the-scenes type mover; he only ever published one book of short stories). Walrond was born in South America, moved to Panama as a young child when his parents participated in the building of the Panama Canal, migrated to New York as an adult to take part in the Harlem Renaissance, spent time in France in the late 1920s and early 30s, and then spent the rest of his life in England, which included both fighting in WWII and spending several years in a hospital for depression. So! His was a vast and exciting life, which covered a huge number of the important movements and events of the early 20th century. Overall it's a well-written and fascinating book, and I found the differences in racial politics between the US, the Caribbean, and England particularly interesting. This is clearly an academic book, and includes far more details than I really wanted, going vastly in-depth into every single part of Walrond's life, but that's more my fault than the book's. My one complaint about the book is that Davis tends to assume the reader already knows a lot about all of the topics covered, and often references other Harlem Renaissance notables, or politics of the 1910s, or Parisian neighborhoods, without explaining who or what they are.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
Lily Among Thorns by Rose Lerner. This book was so good! Serena was once London's most expensive and most notorious courtesan; currently she owns an inn and maintains ties to the criminal underworld, which has nicknamed her the Black Thorn. Solomon is a tailor who once did Serena a favor; he's currently grieving for his missing and presumed dead twin brother, while trying to find his family's stolen earrings. Together they fight crime! Actually, they kind of do, in that they end up finding out someone close to them has been spying for Napoleon, and they have to decide whether to turn them in or not. The fantastic part of this book isn't so much the plot though, but all of the wonderful tropes: Serena as the cold scary woman who's had to be tough to survive, both very important found family and very important ties to biological family, the hero who loves science and is looked down on for being a tradesman, a cameo appearance by The Scarlet Pimpernel, excellent gay secondary characters, cross-dressing, lots of gender reversals in the use of tropes, wonderful food porn and clothing porn, lots of humor and just... affection and kindness and warmth between the characters. A lovely, wonderful book that I can't recommend highly enough.
What are you currently reading?
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue. A murder mystery in 1870s San Fransisco.
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Date: 2015-07-16 03:40 pm (UTC)But if you like detailed biographies, I definitely recommend this one!
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