What I have been reading Wednesday
Jan. 24th, 2018 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiI’ve continued with my L. M. Montgomery re-read.
Further Chronicles of Avonlea This book was published against Montgomery’s wishes, and it’s not a very good one. None of the short stories are memorable, and the last one “Tannis of the Flats” is pretty much unreadable with an overabundance of racials stereotypes and slurs. Don’t read it.
Anne of Ingleside. I never read this book as a child as it wasn’t translated until I was all grown-up. I did read it once then, but I had forgotten pretty much everything. It isn’t very memorable. It’s a sweet book about Anne’s happy domestic life. Even the terror of fatal illness can’t take that away, but the result isn’t very interesting. We follow Anne and her children through five years, alternating POVs between all of them, which makes it a bit jumpy. It’s also a terribly gossipy book. Whole chapters are about people gossiping about character’s we only ever hear about in a few paragraphs, and never in person, which makes it feel rather pointless.
Considering how unhappy Montgomery's own life was- and this book was written just a few years before her death, it’s easy to imagine this book was Montgomery's life of dreams. Anne is happy and at 35, after six pregnancies, she is still slim and beautiful. Her marriage is perfect, her children are lively and loving, and everything is alright by the end of every chapter. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I read it as a child, but I don’t think it would ever have been my favourite.
After all this perkiness I felt the need for a change; The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers. I’ve read it once before, but it was a couple of years ago, so the details were a bit hazy. It’s the early 19th century and a doctor; Michael Crawford, is about to get married. At the stag party he slips his fiance's wedding ring on the finger of a statue, but when he tries to retrieve it, the stone hand has closed. The day after the wedding Crawford wakes up to find his bride brutally murdered, and the suspicion falls, quite naturally at him. He flies England pursued by his dead wife’s sister, slowly realising he has unwittingly picked up another spouse when he put the ring on the stature.
This is part an historical novel. Crawford’s life gets mixed up with those of Keats, Byron and Shelley, as well as several other historical characters. Powers has taken great care to get the facts right, so you learn quite a bit about the Romantic poets by reading this book. But it’s also a vampire story. Here the vampires are sentient beings made of stone who needs blood to be able to transform themselves into human form. They latch on to a human, something they see as marriage, and that human will live a long life and be unusually creatively blessed. Yes, this is a book where the Romantic poets are displayed prominently. In return they want blood, but they are also extremely jealous and will slowly but surely kill off everyone their spouse loves. As classic vampires they are sensitive to sunlight, garlic and silver, but once married you are not getting rid of them easily. The books is long and covers several years, so the plot isn’t exactly easy to line out. I like it a lot. I like vampires, but not the romantic hero-type which has been popular in the last decade, or so. Powers’ vampires are very “other”, completely inhuman and with no real understanding of humans needs. And I like slow-moving books, and I love historical novels where the facts are right. A book right up my alley, in other words.
I don’t usually plan what I’m going to read next, but probably something by LeGuin now. I haven’t re-read her in years, but I read everything I could get my hand on by her all through my pre-teens, and teens.
Further Chronicles of Avonlea This book was published against Montgomery’s wishes, and it’s not a very good one. None of the short stories are memorable, and the last one “Tannis of the Flats” is pretty much unreadable with an overabundance of racials stereotypes and slurs. Don’t read it.
Anne of Ingleside. I never read this book as a child as it wasn’t translated until I was all grown-up. I did read it once then, but I had forgotten pretty much everything. It isn’t very memorable. It’s a sweet book about Anne’s happy domestic life. Even the terror of fatal illness can’t take that away, but the result isn’t very interesting. We follow Anne and her children through five years, alternating POVs between all of them, which makes it a bit jumpy. It’s also a terribly gossipy book. Whole chapters are about people gossiping about character’s we only ever hear about in a few paragraphs, and never in person, which makes it feel rather pointless.
Considering how unhappy Montgomery's own life was- and this book was written just a few years before her death, it’s easy to imagine this book was Montgomery's life of dreams. Anne is happy and at 35, after six pregnancies, she is still slim and beautiful. Her marriage is perfect, her children are lively and loving, and everything is alright by the end of every chapter. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I read it as a child, but I don’t think it would ever have been my favourite.
After all this perkiness I felt the need for a change; The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers. I’ve read it once before, but it was a couple of years ago, so the details were a bit hazy. It’s the early 19th century and a doctor; Michael Crawford, is about to get married. At the stag party he slips his fiance's wedding ring on the finger of a statue, but when he tries to retrieve it, the stone hand has closed. The day after the wedding Crawford wakes up to find his bride brutally murdered, and the suspicion falls, quite naturally at him. He flies England pursued by his dead wife’s sister, slowly realising he has unwittingly picked up another spouse when he put the ring on the stature.
This is part an historical novel. Crawford’s life gets mixed up with those of Keats, Byron and Shelley, as well as several other historical characters. Powers has taken great care to get the facts right, so you learn quite a bit about the Romantic poets by reading this book. But it’s also a vampire story. Here the vampires are sentient beings made of stone who needs blood to be able to transform themselves into human form. They latch on to a human, something they see as marriage, and that human will live a long life and be unusually creatively blessed. Yes, this is a book where the Romantic poets are displayed prominently. In return they want blood, but they are also extremely jealous and will slowly but surely kill off everyone their spouse loves. As classic vampires they are sensitive to sunlight, garlic and silver, but once married you are not getting rid of them easily. The books is long and covers several years, so the plot isn’t exactly easy to line out. I like it a lot. I like vampires, but not the romantic hero-type which has been popular in the last decade, or so. Powers’ vampires are very “other”, completely inhuman and with no real understanding of humans needs. And I like slow-moving books, and I love historical novels where the facts are right. A book right up my alley, in other words.
I don’t usually plan what I’m going to read next, but probably something by LeGuin now. I haven’t re-read her in years, but I read everything I could get my hand on by her all through my pre-teens, and teens.
