Reading Wednesday
Sep. 30th, 2015 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
First Bite: How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson. A nonfiction book about the psychology of eating: how and why people become picky eaters, and how to change; how the body signals and interprets hunger; eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia (a really interesting detail I'd never heard before is that there's apparently increasing evidence that anorexia is genetic and not highly linked to pressure on teenage girls to diet - though of course such pressure is still negative and can cause other problems); cultural pressure to link certain tastes to gender (for instance, sweets for women and meat for men); different cultural traditions of how to introduce new foods to children; basically, every topic you could imagine related to taste preferences.
All of that was quite interesting and fun to read about. My main problem with the book is that, unlike Wilson's previous books, the information is not presented simply for the sake of being interesting, but with the attitude that it's necessary to learn these things in order to deal with the modern world's obesity problem. It's not a diet book (thankfully!) but over and over again Wilson emphasizes that it's important to do such research and apply such findings because no one knows how to eat anymore and we need to fix that. Which, if you're perfectly happy with how you eat, is a bit annoying to read, and certainly not what I expected from the book. So, be warned. If that's not too much of a problem for you, there is a lot of cool new information here, and I'd give it a qualified recommendation.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett. The first Granny Weatherwax book! It's interesting to see her in this early version, because she's similar-but-not-quite to how she will be in later books. She's a little less certain of herself, a little more easily swayed, a little more superstitious. A little younger all around which, of course, she is!
The structure of the book is interesting too: a young woman is born with the power to become a wizard, a title that has always been restricted to men. The local witch attempts to train her as a witch instead, but when that doesn't work, they both head to the main wizarding school, Unseen University, to try and enroll the girl. Given that summary, wouldn't you assume that the young girl is the protagonist, not her witchy mentor? And yet it's Granny who has the real personality and drives the plot, Granny who starts and ends the book, and of course Granny who has many, many sequels, while Esk is almost never mentioned again.
Pratchett is becoming more and more Pratchett here, which is lovely to watch and always surprising to me at how early it happens. There's still only, like, two footnotes in the whole book, while I think of footnotes as so fundamental to his style, but the characterizations, the world, the random asides, are all here. I'd forgotten how big of a role the Dungeon Dimensions have in these early books. They've been central to all three so far, while I can't remember them showing up in any of the more recent Discworld books. I'd practically forgotten them entirely. I suppose it's a sign of how the fantasy genre as a whole has changed; there's not many best-sellers these days focusing on Cthulu-esque insanity-inducing monsters.
Also someone needs to stop me going to the Mark Reads reviews of these books. I keep being tempted because it's such a convenient place to find chapter-by-chapter discussion, and yet I disagree with nearly every single thing he says and always end up enraged. I know better than to hate-read annoying blogs, I do!
Sorceror to the Crown by Zen Cho. OH MY GOD YOU GUYS THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. Imagine if Georgette Heyer decided to write a fantasy, still set in the Regency, but rather than Heyer's own particular attitude to anyone who was not an upperclass English man, was actively anti-racist, feminist, and anti-colonialist. And then add a Wodehouse-esque terrifying aunt. Even the names of the characters are brilliant: Prunella Gentleman, Paget Damerell (nicknamed Poggs), Robert Henry Algernon Threlfall (aka Rollo)! It's a very funny book, though shaded by subtle references to sorrow, prejudice, and loss.
So, okay, what is the actual plot? Zacharias Wythe is the brand-new Sorcerer Royal, the highest magical position in Britain. He is also a black man, bought out of slavery as a infant, by the previous Sorcerer Royal, who was determined to prove that black people could learn magic. Unsurprisingly, this was not a popular move, and Zacharias's elevation to Sorcerer Royal (a position granted by the wizard's staff) is even less so. His position is further complicated by the fact that England's magic seems to be disappearing, requiring him to travel to the Fairy Court to figure out the cause, and an international disturbance in which the Sultan of a strategically important Southeast Asian island REALLY WANTS Zacharias to help him get rid of his annoying witches, while Mak Genggang, leader of said witches, REALLY WANTS Zacharias to tell the Sultan to shut up.
Zacharias just wants everyone to leave him alone so he can focus on his research, and I LOVE HIM. He is explicitly described as reserved, and yes please, I want ALL the reserved main characters and their problems with emotions and relationships. Everyone should cuddle Zacharias, he needs/deserves it.
MEANWHILE, Prunella is a young woman, the orphan of a British magician and an unknown woman (but who was probably Indian) being raised in a school for young ladies with magic, due solely to the affection the headmistress had for Prunella's father. In this Regency Britain, young ladies are not supposed to practice magic (it, like math, is obviously too much for their delicate constitutions), and so this school mostly teaches how not to do it. But Prunella is just too magical, too talented, and too ambitious for that, so she eventually ends up in London, determined to make a wealthy marriage and make use of every advantage she can scrounge up. She is basically Zacharias's opposite in every way: stubborn, self-confident, charming, more concerned with what works than what's right. And yet I love them both! It's fantastic.
This whole book is fantastic, from the little details like talking caterpillars and the Fairy King's pink waistcoat, to the glorious pile-up of the climactic action scene, to a sweetly adorable romance. I need everyone to read it because I am so requesting it for Yuletide and someone better write the fic. It's apparently the first in a trilogy, though you wouldn't necessarily know that from the book itself; all the plot-threads are wrapped up very tidily. I still can't wait for more, whenever the next book comes out.
What are you currently reading?
The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin. I enjoyed her first book, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, when I read it, back years ago when it was first published. Despite liking it, I somehow never got around to reading the sequel. Well, now I am! And not just to get the book off my shelf.
First Bite: How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson. A nonfiction book about the psychology of eating: how and why people become picky eaters, and how to change; how the body signals and interprets hunger; eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia (a really interesting detail I'd never heard before is that there's apparently increasing evidence that anorexia is genetic and not highly linked to pressure on teenage girls to diet - though of course such pressure is still negative and can cause other problems); cultural pressure to link certain tastes to gender (for instance, sweets for women and meat for men); different cultural traditions of how to introduce new foods to children; basically, every topic you could imagine related to taste preferences.
All of that was quite interesting and fun to read about. My main problem with the book is that, unlike Wilson's previous books, the information is not presented simply for the sake of being interesting, but with the attitude that it's necessary to learn these things in order to deal with the modern world's obesity problem. It's not a diet book (thankfully!) but over and over again Wilson emphasizes that it's important to do such research and apply such findings because no one knows how to eat anymore and we need to fix that. Which, if you're perfectly happy with how you eat, is a bit annoying to read, and certainly not what I expected from the book. So, be warned. If that's not too much of a problem for you, there is a lot of cool new information here, and I'd give it a qualified recommendation.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett. The first Granny Weatherwax book! It's interesting to see her in this early version, because she's similar-but-not-quite to how she will be in later books. She's a little less certain of herself, a little more easily swayed, a little more superstitious. A little younger all around which, of course, she is!
The structure of the book is interesting too: a young woman is born with the power to become a wizard, a title that has always been restricted to men. The local witch attempts to train her as a witch instead, but when that doesn't work, they both head to the main wizarding school, Unseen University, to try and enroll the girl. Given that summary, wouldn't you assume that the young girl is the protagonist, not her witchy mentor? And yet it's Granny who has the real personality and drives the plot, Granny who starts and ends the book, and of course Granny who has many, many sequels, while Esk is almost never mentioned again.
Pratchett is becoming more and more Pratchett here, which is lovely to watch and always surprising to me at how early it happens. There's still only, like, two footnotes in the whole book, while I think of footnotes as so fundamental to his style, but the characterizations, the world, the random asides, are all here. I'd forgotten how big of a role the Dungeon Dimensions have in these early books. They've been central to all three so far, while I can't remember them showing up in any of the more recent Discworld books. I'd practically forgotten them entirely. I suppose it's a sign of how the fantasy genre as a whole has changed; there's not many best-sellers these days focusing on Cthulu-esque insanity-inducing monsters.
Also someone needs to stop me going to the Mark Reads reviews of these books. I keep being tempted because it's such a convenient place to find chapter-by-chapter discussion, and yet I disagree with nearly every single thing he says and always end up enraged. I know better than to hate-read annoying blogs, I do!
Sorceror to the Crown by Zen Cho. OH MY GOD YOU GUYS THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. Imagine if Georgette Heyer decided to write a fantasy, still set in the Regency, but rather than Heyer's own particular attitude to anyone who was not an upperclass English man, was actively anti-racist, feminist, and anti-colonialist. And then add a Wodehouse-esque terrifying aunt. Even the names of the characters are brilliant: Prunella Gentleman, Paget Damerell (nicknamed Poggs), Robert Henry Algernon Threlfall (aka Rollo)! It's a very funny book, though shaded by subtle references to sorrow, prejudice, and loss.
So, okay, what is the actual plot? Zacharias Wythe is the brand-new Sorcerer Royal, the highest magical position in Britain. He is also a black man, bought out of slavery as a infant, by the previous Sorcerer Royal, who was determined to prove that black people could learn magic. Unsurprisingly, this was not a popular move, and Zacharias's elevation to Sorcerer Royal (a position granted by the wizard's staff) is even less so. His position is further complicated by the fact that England's magic seems to be disappearing, requiring him to travel to the Fairy Court to figure out the cause, and an international disturbance in which the Sultan of a strategically important Southeast Asian island REALLY WANTS Zacharias to help him get rid of his annoying witches, while Mak Genggang, leader of said witches, REALLY WANTS Zacharias to tell the Sultan to shut up.
Zacharias just wants everyone to leave him alone so he can focus on his research, and I LOVE HIM. He is explicitly described as reserved, and yes please, I want ALL the reserved main characters and their problems with emotions and relationships. Everyone should cuddle Zacharias, he needs/deserves it.
MEANWHILE, Prunella is a young woman, the orphan of a British magician and an unknown woman (but who was probably Indian) being raised in a school for young ladies with magic, due solely to the affection the headmistress had for Prunella's father. In this Regency Britain, young ladies are not supposed to practice magic (it, like math, is obviously too much for their delicate constitutions), and so this school mostly teaches how not to do it. But Prunella is just too magical, too talented, and too ambitious for that, so she eventually ends up in London, determined to make a wealthy marriage and make use of every advantage she can scrounge up. She is basically Zacharias's opposite in every way: stubborn, self-confident, charming, more concerned with what works than what's right. And yet I love them both! It's fantastic.
This whole book is fantastic, from the little details like talking caterpillars and the Fairy King's pink waistcoat, to the glorious pile-up of the climactic action scene, to a sweetly adorable romance. I need everyone to read it because I am so requesting it for Yuletide and someone better write the fic. It's apparently the first in a trilogy, though you wouldn't necessarily know that from the book itself; all the plot-threads are wrapped up very tidily. I still can't wait for more, whenever the next book comes out.
What are you currently reading?
The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin. I enjoyed her first book, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, when I read it, back years ago when it was first published. Despite liking it, I somehow never got around to reading the sequel. Well, now I am! And not just to get the book off my shelf.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-09-30 06:51 pm (UTC)Ahhh, Granny Weatherwax and Vimes are my two top favourite characters, I <3 them.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-30 11:25 pm (UTC)Death is my personal favorite, but who could dislike Granny and/or Vimes?
no subject
Date: 2015-09-30 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-01 12:01 am (UTC)He also tends to not know a lot of Pratchett's historical, cultural, or genre allusions, which I find frustrating, even though that's probably petty of me. For instance, in Mar's review of Part 1 of Equal Rites, he says:
And what does this say of how witches and enchantresses have traditionally been portrayed as antagonists, both in fiction and in history? (There never was a Salem Wizard Trial, you know.)
When there was! There very famously was a dude accused and killed during the Salem Trials! And many, many other men in Europe! And while I'm sure Pratchett makes a lot of references that I don't get myself (particularly ones relating to British culture of the 20th century) I just find it a bit irritating when Mark misses ones that I'd consider common knowledge. I want a reviewer who helps me get more out of book, not less, you know?
no subject
Date: 2015-09-30 09:15 pm (UTC)OH DEAR. Hate-reading can be so tempting, but also draining. Is it at least the kind of disagreement where you can hash it out in the comments and have a good discussion? Or is it wrongness too deep to discuss?
I really wanted to like The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and from time to time, I did -- but it never came together for me. Like most books that don't come together for me, it made me doubt my own sensitivity/reading comprehension more than the writer's skill. I hope you enjoy the sequel!
no subject
Date: 2015-09-30 11:30 pm (UTC)I'm enjoying the sequel so far!
no subject
Date: 2015-09-30 09:16 pm (UTC)Equal Rites is one of my favourite Pratchetts!
no subject
Date: 2015-09-30 11:37 pm (UTC)It's so delightful! I love all the Witches books, but I think my favorite of them might be Lords & Ladies.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-30 09:58 pm (UTC)Jemisin's first Kingdoms book was interesting but I didn't really click with it; I liked Broken Kingdoms more (I really like the protagonist's voice). I haven't read any of the others, because the clicking still isn't really happening, but I've enjoyed what I've read so far.
I read Equal Rites for the first time after having read all of the other Witches books, and the younger/different Granny definitely took some getting used to.
(Also, huh, I didn't realize Mark Reads had done Discworld. I dip into Mark Reads/Watches stuff occasionally when linked, but never came across those. Do you disagree with him in general, or specifically on Discworld?)
no subject
Date: 2015-09-30 11:44 pm (UTC)I'm enjoying Broken Kingdoms so far, but I just started it last night and haven't made much progress. I will be sure to report back next week!
Me too! All of these very early Discworld books were one I came to later, and reading them in order now is a really interesting experience in how the Discworld changed and grew.
Do you disagree with him in general, or specifically on Discworld?
I can't say! Discworld is my first introduction to him, and I haven't gone to look up if he's done anything else that I've enjoyed.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-01 03:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-01 03:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-01 03:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-02 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-02 12:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-02 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-05 02:20 pm (UTC)