Reading Books For Pleasure

[Bramblethorn]

Courtney Milan's "Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure". The premise caught my eye: two elderly Victorian women fall in love while exacting revenge on the Terrible Nephew who wants to squander Mrs. Martin's fortune.

I've read a couple of Milan's other romances and enjoyed them very much. This one was okay but not up to the level of those others - it was written earlier and it feels like maybe her writing has developed since then? There's a courtroom scene in particular that feels quite rushed, which is odd given that she has a strong legal background.

All in all it wasn't bad, and it's nice to see an author who understands that older people have desires too, but I was hoping to enjoy it more than I did.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Friend recommended Helen Hoang's "The Kiss Quotient". An autistic heroine who hires an escort because relationships are hard? Relevant to my interests. Hoang is autistic herself, and the autism part of the story was handled well, but some of the other aspects stuck in my throat.

There are two men in the story who ignore the heroine's boundaries. One is a co-worker who asks her out (she accepts) and kisses her without her consent. The other dates her for a while but then breaks up with her; after the breakup he goes the full Say Anything, sending her flowers and notes at work every day while she repeatedly tells him no, and then kissing her without consent. He gets jealous enough to want to punch the co-worker for kissing her, even before he knows she didn't consent.

The former is quite rightly treated as a creep. The latter is framed as romantic, because the guy doing it is the handsome love interest. His jealousy and persistent refusal to take her "no" for an answer ends up winning her over. Eurgh. It's 2022 (or 2019 when this was published), can we please not do that?

(Apparently the original draft was even worse on this part, with him breaking into her home to make her breakfast and leave love notes, before the editor said no. Well done that editor, but you should've gone further.)

The jealousy aspect goes the other way too: she gets jealous seeing him in physical contact with another woman, never mind that he's a martial artist sparring with his own sister. I guess to some readers that kind of jealousy is romantic but to me it's a major turn-off.

The sex work aspect of this story also rubbed me the wrong way. It reminded me of how 50SoG exploits BDSM to give the story an outré angle without actually respecting the subject material (or researching it). And again like 50S0G, it treats Michael's escorting as a maladaptive trauma response that can be "cured" by the love of a good woman.

*sigh* Thought I was really going to enjoy this one, ended up barely finishing it. Better luck next time, I hope.

 

[twister947]

S
By John Updike

 

[Bramblethorn]

Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

A Mexican socialite receives a disturbing letter from her cousin, who recently married into an insular English family who live in a decaying mansion on top of a mountain. She goes to investigate. This might be a bad idea.

I enjoyed it. Very much Jane Eyre meets Crimson Peak, though with an interesting twist on the "haunted house" scenario.

 

[seela]

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk.

What a good, good book! A little bit of whodunnit, a lot of thoughts about ethics, change, responsibility, and the like. All with the magical Tokarczuk touch, of course. I’ll have to ponder on this book a little before moving on to the next book.

I’ve read it in Polish ages ago and only fairly recently found out that it’s been translated into Finnish a few years ago, so I picked it up as a translation. And what a good translation it was, too. Hardly surprising though, it was by my fav translator.

Next up, something totally different: The Troubles with Us: One Belfast Girl on Boys, Bombs and Finding Her Way by Alix O’Neill. I’m really looking forward to reading it. It’s part of my trip preparations.

 

[Acktion]

Some time ago, my gal and I were talking about how weird it was that we had stopped doing things after our respective spouses died that really had nothing to do with them in the first place. For both of us, reading was on the list. I refuse to speak for her, but in my case, I'd gone from reading something like a book a day to taking months to finish one, if I even bothered to start one. Before May, I might have read a total of five new books since my wife died in the Fall of 17. Maybe. Which, yeah, was really, really, really strange for me. When I was a kid, books were banned from the breakfast table, so I'd read cereal boxes.

Yesterday, for whatever reason, we were talking about reading again. And since I posted here on May 12th(?), as best we can figure I've finished forty books with six in the hopper in slightly less than sixty days. Most that William Armand person I was talking about, their complete collections to date, but then six other authors besides. And, all Isekai (thanks again, IrisAlthea!) No idea how long it'll last. But, it has been nice to lose myself in books again,

 

[twister947]

Pronto by Elmore Leonard

The Snowman by Jo Nesbø

 

[IrisAlthea]

When I was a kid, books were banned from the breakfast table, so I'd read cereal boxes.

When other kids got grounded or didn’t get to use their bike, I didn’t get to read my books. Then I’d read cereal boxes, milk cartons, signs, house rules, adverts posted in shops etc.

The Snowman by Jo Nesbø

I like Nesbø a lot. His children’s books are great too.

I’m reading 21 lessons for the 21st century by Hariri, revisiting Dune and also oldschool viennese literary smut.

 

[seela]

Next up, something totally different: The Troubles with Us: One Belfast Girl on Boys, Bombs and Finding Her Way by Alix O’Neill. I’m really looking forward to reading it. It’s part of my trip preparations.

This was so good! Kind of like Derry Girls but in book form.

 

[Kitschshaman]

R M Byrd has a new one out. Watersong. Period piece romance set in the Caribbean right before WWII. It's pretty good.

 

[Acktion]

Logan and the Lackeys Trilogy by Marcus Sloss and Max Geek

 

[twister947]

The Mother Tongue: English, And How It Got That Way
By Bill Bryson

 

[seela]

The Mother Tongue: English, And How It Got That Way
By Bill Bryson

I've read this one too, and I think I enjoyed it? I don't remember much about it, it was so long ago.

What did you think?

 

[base10]

I went into classic American cannon and just read Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises.

It’s wonderful to see his little the world has changed sometimes. The story is just a bunch of friends running to restaurant to bar to restaurant, getting drunk, gossiping about their friends, speculating who’s sleeping with who, and planning and taking adventures.

Written a century ago, and wholly relatable

 

[twister947]

I've read this one too, and I think I enjoyed it? I don't remember much about it, it was so long ago.

What did you think?

I'm liking it, and every time I turn a page, I think of you, and how much you would enjoy it.

 

[twister947]

The Secret Lives of Bats
By Merlin Tuttle

I read this on Kindle, and then bought a used copy on ebay, just for the color photography.

 

[seela]

I went into classic American cannon and just read Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises.

It’s wonderful to see his little the world has changed sometimes. The story is just a bunch of friends running to restaurant to bar to restaurant, getting drunk, gossiping about their friends, speculating who’s sleeping with who, and planning and taking adventures.

Written a century ago, and wholly relatable

I really like your point of view into the book. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that older people have been younger people too and many have gone through the exact same things we are going through.

I’ve read it when I was maybe 17 or so. You made me want to reread it now! I’ll have to swing by the library next week at the latest so maybe I’ll pick it up if they have a copy sitting on the shelf.

I'm liking it, and every time I turn a page, I think of you, and how much you would enjoy it.

Aww, what a nice thing! Love to be thought of in a context like that.

 

[twister947]

Speaking of Papa, I've been on a couple of fishing boards, and used the screen name, "Santiago". I don't think anyone got it but me.

 

[base10]

I really like your point of view into the book. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that older people have been younger people too and many have gone through the exact same things we are going through.

I’ve read it when I was maybe 17 or so. You made me want to reread it now! I’ll have to swing by the library next week at the latest so maybe I’ll pick it up

Stopping by the library to pick up a book seems so old school and charming. It’s not something I ever think to do these days. Old paperbacks are cheap so I just bought a copy, though I did a good deed and already passed it onto a friend to read.

As for the story, I wish I knew who to attribute this quote to, but it was something along the lines of : Every generation thinks they re-invented sex, and they haven’t

 

[base10]

Speaking of Papa, I've been on a couple of fishing boards, and used the screen name, "Santiago". I don't think anyone got it but me.

Perhaps the fishermen aren’t as well read as the pervs

 

[seela]

Stopping by the library to pick up a book seems so old school and charming. It’s not something I ever think to do these days. Old paperbacks are cheap so I just bought a copy, though I did a good deed and already passed it onto a friend to read.

As for the story, I wish I knew who to attribute this quote to, but it was something along the lines of : Every generation thinks they re-invented sex, and they haven’t

I get my books almost entirely from the library. There was a time when I didn't use library much and rather bought books, but about 7 years ago or so I found my way back there again. I love my library, really do. So far they've also purchased all the books I've suggested if they haven't had in the collection something that I've really wanted to read. As a kid, library was my happy place, so many good memories.

Speaking of Papa, I've been on a couple of fishing boards, and used the screen name, "Santiago". I don't think anyone got it but me.

Perhaps the fishermen aren’t as well read as the pervs

All hail the pervs!

 

[base10]

I get my books almost entirely from the library. There was a time when I didn't use library much and rather bought books, but about 7 years ago or so I found my way back there again. I love my library, really do. So far they've also purchased all the books I've suggested if they haven't had in the collection something that I've really wanted to read. As a kid, library was my happy place, so many good memories.

Looping this back to our discussion from the travel thread; the Public Library Main Branch in NYC is my favorite old building in NY.

Years ago when looking for a job I would try to schedule multiple meetings and interviews into one day. The reading room at the library became my place to go in between stops. A spectacular and quiet room, where you can sit for a few hours and nobody would bother you (and it's free).

 

[seela]

Looping this back to our discussion from the travel thread; the Public Library Main Branch in NYC is my favorite old building in NY.

Years ago when looking for a job I would try to schedule multiple meetings and interviews into one day. The reading room at the library became my place to go in between stops. A spectacular and quiet room, where you can sit for a few hours and nobody would bother you (and it's free).

Oh yeah, this is one place I’m definitely visiting if I ever make it there! I watched Frederick Wiseman’s documentary Ex Libris about the New York Public Library last year and loved it in all its meditativeness and the tiny, everyday things it showed about the society there. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6209282/

 

[base10]

The internet has changed so much about the service libraries provide. It's not really a place where knowledge is stored anymore. I'm a little too young to have experienced the necessary of the library in the pre-internet age

 

[Bramblethorn]

The internet has changed so much about the service libraries provide. It's not really a place where knowledge is stored anymore. I'm a little too young to have experienced the necessary of the library in the pre-internet age

The Internet is great, but there's still a lot that's not online. Especially for things published around the middle half of the 20th century, a lot of stuff is old enough that it never got an official digital release but new enough to be still in copyright.

For recent releases, a library is the best way I know of to combine "free" and "legal" while still ensuring that the author gets paid.