Reading Wednesday

[brigdh]

What did you just finish?
Dry Bones by Craig Johnson. The last (so far) book in the Longmire mystery series. This one starts when a T. rex skeleton – worth an estimated $8 million – is found, and a legal battle immediately crops up concerning who actually owns the remains: the museum that excavated the skeleton? The family who owns the ranch it was found on? The Native American reservation that the ranch was leased from? Or the US government (honestly, I never got what their legal claim was, but they're in here trying to get the money like everyone else). Matters are complicated when the head of family who owns the ranch is found dead, possibly murdered, leaving the verbal contracts he had with both the museum and the reservation in question. Meanwhile, Walt deals with plots from previous books: his relationship with Vic, the hit-man with a contract on him, his new-born granddaughter. This was a slighter book than some in the series, but I did like enjoy it, especially the fantastic action sequences in a flooding, pitch-black, abandoned mine.

The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer. One of the few Heyers I hadn't yet read (well, of her romances. I tried a few of her mysteries and didn't like them). This one is set in the mid-1700s rather than the Regency, and features a brother and sister pair in disguise due to having participated in the Jacobite Rebellion: Prudence, the sister, is living as a man, and Robin, the brother, as a woman.

Actually, I did start this book once before, though then I was listening to the audiobook rather than reading it. I bounced off it fairly early on because I couldn't figure out what was going on; I assumed the problem had been that I was only half-listening, but no, on reading it this time, it's just that the book starts out in pretty fiercely in media res and never stops to explain (including, for example, why on earth disguising a brother-and-sister pair as a slightly different brother-and-sister pair is supposed to be helpful in escaping the authorities). Of course, the plot doesn't really matter and shouldn't have that much thought put into it; it's all about the id. If your id is all about cross-dressing, highwaymen, duels, and secret identities, it is the book for you. Alas, I didn't like it quite as much as I'd hoped I would from that description, though I can't put my finger on why. Maybe it's just that I've read a couple of other cross-dressing romances recently that I liked better. Prudence's ultimate romance was pretty cute, I have to admit.

What are you currently reading?
"Hear My Sad Story: The True Tales That Inspired Stagolee, John Henry, and Other Traditional American Folk Songs by Richard Polenberg. A NetGalley book. Sadly not as entertaining as you would think.

Comments

[egelantier.livejournal.com]

masqueraders don't really hang together all that well, but i love it for the unrestrained id nature of it. and also the way it's so UNABASHEDLY GAY to an extent where you're like, ...author, are you aware of what you're writing? are you sure?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It is! It's really amazing.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

it's just that the book starts out in pretty fiercely in media res and never stops to explain (including, for example, why on earth disguising a brother-and-sister pair as a slightly different brother-and-sister pair is supposed to be helpful in escaping the authorities).

Well, because they're in disguise as DIFFERENT PEOPLE, obviously! Who probably bear a suspicious family resemblance to the people the authorities are looking for, so. . . idk. It seems like disguising a brother-and-sister pair as a brother-and-brother pair might help throw things off a fraction more, for example. This book sounds pretty entertaining to me. Would you say it's a good place to start for someone new to Heyer?

Georgette Heyer is one of those authors I keep meaning to get around to reading one of these days and then forget about as soon as I enter the library. What didn't you like about her mysteries, if you don't mind my asking?

Sadly not as entertaining as you would think.

:(

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I, personally, would not rec it as a good place to start because I didn't like it as much as many of her others, but I know it's some people's #1 book by her, so who knows.

These are the ones I would put at the top of my list:
Cotillion – A young woman can only inherit if she marries one of her cousins, so she comes up with a plot to try to get her favorite one to propose to her, but things do not turn out as she expected. Really hilarious, has a great twist, and the characters are all wonderful.
Friday's Child – A wealthy man and a poor girl get married to annoy their relatives, and eventually work out a relationship. This one does have terrible gender politics, I have to warn you, but it's so funny and I love it so much that I don't care. It's more of a farce than a romance, and everyone in it is too stupid to be believable, but I think it's the funniest of her books.
Black Sheep – an aunt tries to protect her rich niece from falling prey to gold-diggers, and in the process falls in love herself.
Arabella – a poor young woman on her way to London lies to a man she meets on the way that she's actually incredibly wealthy, but then the rumor spreads all over town and she doesn't know how to get out of it.
The Grand Sophy – sort of what would happen if "Cold Comfort Farm" was a Regency romance. A very capable young woman comes to London and sorts out all the problems of her relatives. (Infamous for featuring a very anti-Semitic scene, but you can skip those ten pages without doing damage to the rest of the plot.)
Sylvester – a young woman secretly writes a Gothic novel, but then the man she based the villain on becomes a part of her life, and she realizes he's not actually Evil.

What didn't you like about her mysteries, if you don't mind my asking?
Her mysteries are mostly modern-day (or, well, modern-day at the time they were written), and tend to be dark and cynical and not funny, none of which I think are her strengths. Heyer has a lot of prejudices that are fairly typical of someone who came of age in the 1920s and 30s (sexism and antisemitism, of course, but also a general disregard for anyone who is not a wealthy white English person, and sincere belief that "blood will out" and upper class people are just inherently better). You mostly can ignore it in her romances, unless you binge on a whole series in a row and start analyzing patterns, because they're meant to be light and amusing. In the mysteries her beliefs are more evident and given greater weight, so you can't just brush it off with "oh, it's not meant to be taken seriously!". Or at least that was my impression; like I said, I've only read two or three of them, so perhaps I was unlucky in the ones I chose.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.

(sexism and antisemitism, of course, but also a general disregard for anyone who is not a wealthy white English person, and sincere belief that "blood will out" and upper class people are just inherently better)

Unfortunately, my tolerance for that sort of thing can be anywhere from "near-total" to "nonexistent" depending entirely on how entertained I am the rest of the time. I guess I won't know until I try. I do prefer things that are not-as-dark and reasonably non-cynical and funny, though. The plots you listed as the best Heyer sound extremely promising to me.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I think the historical setting helps, because it lets you assume any problematic attitudes are the characters' rather than the author's. It's also rarely something directly espoused, but turns up more in situations like, "Oh, you're secretly the daughter of a viscount! Now our marriage has nothing to stand in the way!".

[sholio]

Ooh, I haven't read that Heyer (she's a little hit or miss with me; I really like her books when they hit my tropes, but since I find Regency upper-class social dynamics unbearably boring, if the idfic part doesn't satisfy, it's totally blah) -- but crossdressing women and secret identities are among my tropes, so I'll have to check out it. :D

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It's definitely worth reading, I'd say! There's a lot of both those tropes.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

How can a book involving Stagger Lee not be entertaining?

Here, have some Nick Cave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ0ohmx4kiM

[lavode.livejournal.com]

Stagger Lee/Stagolee appears in this comic (Bayou - https://www.comixology.com/Bayou/comics-series/2632), which I liked a lot. Although it stopped updating for a while around the time he showed up, and I forgot about it, so I don't know how what happened after that.

(And I'll put Heyer on my reading list - so many people rave about her!)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've been recced that comic before! It looks so gorgeous. I do want to read it, but I've been meaning to get a hard copy rather than the digital one; the art looks like it's worth it.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Well, by taking the scenario in the song, and going, "but here's how the trail went, and here's the life story of the lawyers, and then they appealed, and they reversed the judgement, but then they appealed again, and then a bunch of people wrote the governor asking for a pardon, and then he finally granted one, and then the guy died in a hospital of TB 30 years later". Reality does not live up to wicked murder ballads. To be fair, this is probably inherently a problem with "the true stories behind the songs!" and not really the fault of this author in particular.

And oooh, thank you! This is an excellent version of the song that I hadn't heard before.

[sue-bursztynski.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested to know who was reading that audiobook. I have a copy of Heyer's novel Sylvester, read by the gorgeous Richard Armitage, who could read the phone book or a shopping list and have my full attention. ;-)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It was years ago, and I no longer have my copy to check, but I suspect it must have been the one by Rosemary Leach. I can see how Armitage would be an excellent reader for Sylvester!

[lousy-science.livejournal.com]

As a bookseller, I once served a woman who was astonished to discover her "favourite mystery writer" Georgette Heyer had also written historical romance books, which always tickled me.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ha, that's fantastic! It is funny how we can slot people into these little categories.