February reading
Mar. 13th, 2021 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnI was in the middle of a couple of books (for instance, was kind of stuck halfway through the fourth Gap book for quite a while, though that's moving again) but books I did manage to finish last month:
Piranesi (Clarke) - I really liked this!rachelmanija's review (points to tag list so that spoilers don't show) was what got me to read it -- in particular she said that it was narratively much more compelling than Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (which I liked quite a lot, but which took me forever to read even at the time and which I probably wouldn't be able to read at this point, what with everything) and it is. I finished it in a day because it was just that compelling. She also says, and I agree, that it's much better to read without any spoilers at all, so. I won't say I liked it as much as rachelmanija, but I liked it quite a lot, and I did adore that it was so much infused with kindness, the kindness of the narrator and the kindness (real or imagined, but I think we're supposed to take it as real) of the House. Also, while in cut, I would like to say that hilariously for the first part of the book I thought we were in some sort of dystopian post-apocalypse; I thought the actual plot was a lot more interesting than my guess :)
Desdemona, if you had only spoken! (Brückner, trans. Bron) - part ofselenak's awesome if quixotic effort to get some cultural literacy into my brain :) These are a set of monologues from historical and literary women across the ages -- ranging from Lysistrata from her eponymous play to Goethe's wife to Sappho to Desdemona; they evoke a bit for me what I think of as the best part of fanfic, where it makes you think about the source material.
I of course have read Othello (though I have never seen it, and hilariously my fingers typed "Otello" for, uh, Reasons -- and which I have seen and loved), but a lot of these I know from osmosis rather than by direct experience, like Lysistrata, or Petrarch's Laura (I mostly have heard of Petrarch and Laura from my love affair with Dante). Effi Briest (from the book of the same name) I knew only from previous conversation withselenak, and there were a couple I'd never heard of at all: Malvida von Meysenbug (an idealist and thinker and friend to famous guys) and Gudrun Ensslin (a terrorist -- and there's a grim humor in how her monologue talks about how she will be forgotten). And then there was Christiane von Goethe, who was the one I was originally given to read and whom I knew pretty much zero about; her voice is quite entertaining. Desdemona's monologue is a bit of an AU, which is rather nice :P There's one of the Virgin Mary which is quite interesting, as I'd never thought that much about her after Jesus's death/resurrection, whoops -- really thought that one was neat.
I enjoyed most of them -- interestingly, the monologue I liked least was Katharina Bora, the wife of Martin Luther -- for some reason I didn't like the voice assigned to her -- and it's interesting because maybe because I didn't like that one as much, that was the one where I got most invested in finding out about her in real life, and where I have this bio of the Luthers by Michelle DeRusha in my shopping cart. (I looked around a bit -- depressingly though not surprisingly, biographies of Martin and/or Katharina seem like they're generally either religious hagiographies or feminist manifestos, and I just want someone to tell me the history! WHY SO HARD.Frederick the Great salon has totally spoiled me This looked like the best of what amazon had to offer, but if anyone has a good rec...)
Piranesi (Clarke) - I really liked this!
rachelmanija's review (points to tag list so that spoilers don't show) was what got me to read it -- in particular she said that it was narratively much more compelling than Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (which I liked quite a lot, but which took me forever to read even at the time and which I probably wouldn't be able to read at this point, what with everything) and it is. I finished it in a day because it was just that compelling. She also says, and I agree, that it's much better to read without any spoilers at all, so. I won't say I liked it as much as rachelmanija, but I liked it quite a lot, and I did adore that it was so much infused with kindness, the kindness of the narrator and the kindness (real or imagined, but I think we're supposed to take it as real) of the House. Also, while in cut, I would like to say that hilariously for the first part of the book I thought we were in some sort of dystopian post-apocalypse; I thought the actual plot was a lot more interesting than my guess :) Desdemona, if you had only spoken! (Brückner, trans. Bron) - part of
selenak's awesome if quixotic effort to get some cultural literacy into my brain :) These are a set of monologues from historical and literary women across the ages -- ranging from Lysistrata from her eponymous play to Goethe's wife to Sappho to Desdemona; they evoke a bit for me what I think of as the best part of fanfic, where it makes you think about the source material.I of course have read Othello (though I have never seen it, and hilariously my fingers typed "Otello" for, uh, Reasons -- and which I have seen and loved), but a lot of these I know from osmosis rather than by direct experience, like Lysistrata, or Petrarch's Laura (I mostly have heard of Petrarch and Laura from my love affair with Dante). Effi Briest (from the book of the same name) I knew only from previous conversation with
selenak, and there were a couple I'd never heard of at all: Malvida von Meysenbug (an idealist and thinker and friend to famous guys) and Gudrun Ensslin (a terrorist -- and there's a grim humor in how her monologue talks about how she will be forgotten). And then there was Christiane von Goethe, who was the one I was originally given to read and whom I knew pretty much zero about; her voice is quite entertaining. Desdemona's monologue is a bit of an AU, which is rather nice :P There's one of the Virgin Mary which is quite interesting, as I'd never thought that much about her after Jesus's death/resurrection, whoops -- really thought that one was neat.I enjoyed most of them -- interestingly, the monologue I liked least was Katharina Bora, the wife of Martin Luther -- for some reason I didn't like the voice assigned to her -- and it's interesting because maybe because I didn't like that one as much, that was the one where I got most invested in finding out about her in real life, and where I have this bio of the Luthers by Michelle DeRusha in my shopping cart. (I looked around a bit -- depressingly though not surprisingly, biographies of Martin and/or Katharina seem like they're generally either religious hagiographies or feminist manifestos, and I just want someone to tell me the history! WHY SO HARD.
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Date: 2021-03-14 07:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-15 04:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-14 12:39 pm (UTC)Gudrun Ensslin: Margarethe von Trotta shot a film in 1981 that's loosely based on Ensslin and her sister (who was a journalist), "Die bleierne Zeit" (English title: Marianne and Juliane), the trailer for which is here, with Barbara Suckowa in the Gudrun Ensslin role.
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Date: 2021-03-15 04:50 am (UTC)The Gudrun Ensslin one was one of my favorites -- I thought it was just devastating. That trailer looks pretty interesting!
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Date: 2021-03-14 01:47 pm (UTC)Have you read "Brand Luther," about how the printing press put tiny Wittenberg on the map? Not much Katharina, sadly, but imo a fairly well-rounded look at Martin (ie how his physical ailments contextualize but definitely do not justify him being a major jerk all of the time).
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Date: 2021-03-15 04:51 am (UTC)I have not read Brand Luther. I will put it on my list, thank you!
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Date: 2021-03-15 12:51 pm (UTC)I thought it was post-apocalyptic too! I was also glad that it turned out to be more interesting than that.
Frederick the Great salon has totally spoiled me
Haha, me too! One day I'm going to be in a different fandom, and I'm going to be like, "I have to read my OWN books??" :P I mean, I like reading! I want to get my concentration back (and my language skills up). But it's still *so* amazing having Selena read and tell me about things! Particularly since she reads the things I'm less interested in and wouldn't have read on my own, but then gives me the information I need to build on (alchemy!), or gets me more interested!