Recent Readings
Jun. 17th, 2009 02:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wendyzskiBetween LitFest, PaperbackSwap and Duckon, my bookshelf it overfloweth. No seriously - my 'to be read' shelf is the top of my radiator and i'm on the second row.
Some recent reads:
Give the Lady What She Wants: The Story of Marshall Field & Company. A bit of Chicago history and some good photo and illustration references. I was in for teh end of the "Marshall Fields" era - when I came to town there was still a store in Evanston. It was an interesting read, and the ads are hilarious! I ended up posting one from the American Elastic Bosom Company over on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
steamfashion - it's for an inflatable bust "improver" that "will last a life-time, besides being a perfect life preserver. In case of shipwreck or other disaster by water, it would be impossible for the wearer to drown". Going to hand on to this one for a while.
Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists - Apparently the Pax Romana was also the beginning of the first real tourist industry. Well-heeled citizens took off to see the sights in a Grand Tour that was very similar to that of the Victorian era. It also saw the writing of the first guidebooks, parts of which we still have. The author and his wife decided to take the same routes and compare what the Romans and modern people had to deal with. Some things never change - ancient traveliers complained of bad food, hard beds, overbooked inns and crooked inkeepers - all of which they wrote home about. It's interesting and hilarious and in general gives you the distinct impression that some things never change.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Yea - it's pretty much a one-joke book, but I figured the guy deserved $12 for coming up with the idea in the first place. It's kind of plodding in places (but so is the original) so if you really hate Austen you'll never get through this. But I'm a history geek and I found it pleasantly charming in a deeply twisted fashion. That probably says more about me than it does about the book, though...
The True History of Tea - I can't say I ever thought much about this subject, but this is a surprisingly readable ramble with lots of primary source material (in translation) about not just how tea is made and how tea spread around the world, but it also touches on how things like politics and religion were incluenced by tea. It even talks about how and why various areas came to favor particular kinds of tea - I had no idea there could be so much money in tea-smuggling.
Thames: The Biography - Sadly, not all my literary wanderings are successful. This was an overblown bore of a book. You KNOW a book has to be dull when even *I* can't finish it! I got through maybe 1/3 of a book of rhapsodic prose about the Great River and it's Place in History and how Water is Significant to All Peoples but Especially the Noble British blah blah....I sent it on to paperbackswap with good riddance.
Mirror Mirror - The man who wrote Wicked turns his hand to Snow White. It's evocative and lush, but I'm afraid I just didn't buy his characterization of the Dwarfs (they are some kind of earth elemental I think) and while the characters of Lucrezia Borgia and Snow White are compelling and I enjoyed the read I'm not sure I'd read it again.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - I had a chance to revisit this beloved book from my teens, and like all books we loved back then it seems a bit thin upon reexamination. The tale of the White Lady and her beasts and how they are dragged into a war that is none of their making is thoughtful and dreamy and I loved the images. I'll keep this one around to revisit on cold winter evenings.
The Stepsister Scheme - I think it was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
seananmcguire who first mentioned this. In no way is it Great Art but it is a hilarious YA bit of fluff that actually ends up saying some pretty profound things. Now, I adore new takes on fairy tales, and this doesn't disappoint. The three Princesses in this one may sound familiar but as they outright say - those stories changed a bit by the time you heard them. Thalia may have slept for 100 years but the weapon that felled her was an assassin's weapon - a whip with a head that looks sort of like a spindle. Snow may be the Fairest of them All with a real talent for mirror magic, but she also dabbled in dark sorcery when she summoned up those seven avatars to torture and kill her stepmother. And Danielle may have slept in the cinders before the glass slipper fit, but her father was a glassmaker and her mother's spirit still lives in the hazel tree, and her stepsisters never forgave her after the doves pecked out her stepmother's eyes at the wedding.
Hanging on to this one too - mostly so I can loan it out. It's a fun read.
Some recent reads:
Give the Lady What She Wants: The Story of Marshall Field & Company. A bit of Chicago history and some good photo and illustration references. I was in for teh end of the "Marshall Fields" era - when I came to town there was still a store in Evanston. It was an interesting read, and the ads are hilarious! I ended up posting one from the American Elastic Bosom Company over on
steamfashion - it's for an inflatable bust "improver" that "will last a life-time, besides being a perfect life preserver. In case of shipwreck or other disaster by water, it would be impossible for the wearer to drown". Going to hand on to this one for a while.Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists - Apparently the Pax Romana was also the beginning of the first real tourist industry. Well-heeled citizens took off to see the sights in a Grand Tour that was very similar to that of the Victorian era. It also saw the writing of the first guidebooks, parts of which we still have. The author and his wife decided to take the same routes and compare what the Romans and modern people had to deal with. Some things never change - ancient traveliers complained of bad food, hard beds, overbooked inns and crooked inkeepers - all of which they wrote home about. It's interesting and hilarious and in general gives you the distinct impression that some things never change.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Yea - it's pretty much a one-joke book, but I figured the guy deserved $12 for coming up with the idea in the first place. It's kind of plodding in places (but so is the original) so if you really hate Austen you'll never get through this. But I'm a history geek and I found it pleasantly charming in a deeply twisted fashion. That probably says more about me than it does about the book, though...
The True History of Tea - I can't say I ever thought much about this subject, but this is a surprisingly readable ramble with lots of primary source material (in translation) about not just how tea is made and how tea spread around the world, but it also touches on how things like politics and religion were incluenced by tea. It even talks about how and why various areas came to favor particular kinds of tea - I had no idea there could be so much money in tea-smuggling.
Thames: The Biography - Sadly, not all my literary wanderings are successful. This was an overblown bore of a book. You KNOW a book has to be dull when even *I* can't finish it! I got through maybe 1/3 of a book of rhapsodic prose about the Great River and it's Place in History and how Water is Significant to All Peoples but Especially the Noble British blah blah....I sent it on to paperbackswap with good riddance.
Mirror Mirror - The man who wrote Wicked turns his hand to Snow White. It's evocative and lush, but I'm afraid I just didn't buy his characterization of the Dwarfs (they are some kind of earth elemental I think) and while the characters of Lucrezia Borgia and Snow White are compelling and I enjoyed the read I'm not sure I'd read it again.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - I had a chance to revisit this beloved book from my teens, and like all books we loved back then it seems a bit thin upon reexamination. The tale of the White Lady and her beasts and how they are dragged into a war that is none of their making is thoughtful and dreamy and I loved the images. I'll keep this one around to revisit on cold winter evenings.
The Stepsister Scheme - I think it was
seananmcguire who first mentioned this. In no way is it Great Art but it is a hilarious YA bit of fluff that actually ends up saying some pretty profound things. Now, I adore new takes on fairy tales, and this doesn't disappoint. The three Princesses in this one may sound familiar but as they outright say - those stories changed a bit by the time you heard them. Thalia may have slept for 100 years but the weapon that felled her was an assassin's weapon - a whip with a head that looks sort of like a spindle. Snow may be the Fairest of them All with a real talent for mirror magic, but she also dabbled in dark sorcery when she summoned up those seven avatars to torture and kill her stepmother. And Danielle may have slept in the cinders before the glass slipper fit, but her father was a glassmaker and her mother's spirit still lives in the hazel tree, and her stepsisters never forgave her after the doves pecked out her stepmother's eyes at the wedding. Hanging on to this one too - mostly so I can loan it out. It's a fun read.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-17 09:37 pm (UTC)His history of London is about the same, interesting but also prodding.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-17 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-17 11:14 pm (UTC)On your say so, I've just this instant ordered "Pagan Holiday" I'm going to be traveling for the second time through the ancient sites of the Mediterranean this Fall, and I expect it will add to the entertainment value greatly. last time, I re read the Oddessey, and enjoyed very much LeGuin's "Lavinia"
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 12:50 am (UTC)I mean, really... wouldn't soft fur make a nicer slipper than cold, hard, (and potentially sharp and blood-letting) glass?
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 01:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 02:08 am (UTC)Did you honestly think there was a fairy-tale/costume thing like that that I didn't already KNOW???
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 12:41 pm (UTC)Cited from The World of the Gray Squirrel, by Frederick S Barkalow, Jr and Monica Shorten, and I could get more cite-y, if you really really want me too.... ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 05:42 pm (UTC)Nope - just didn't realise there was a separate term for the fur.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 01:43 pm (UTC)Recently I haven't had much energy to explore new stuff, but I did indulge in a replacement for my lost copy of Machiavelli's The Prince, and The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir, plus 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro. I'm also still trying to finish Who Murdered Chaucer: A Medieval Mystery by Terry Jones, Terry Dolan, and Juliette Dor. And read all those costume books I bought earlier in the year!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 02:19 pm (UTC)