January reading
Feb. 1st, 2025 12:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiNew books
A Coronet For Cathie by Gwendoline Courtney. One of my childhood’s favourite books is a book by Courney called Stepmother (or Those Verney Girls orElizabeth and he Garret Theatre), a children’s books from the late 40. It’s still one of my go to comfort reads. What I didn’t know until I was an adult was that Courney wrote several books, most of which have been out of print for decades. A Coronet For Cathie is fairly recently republished by Girls Gone By Publishers. In this book teenaged orphan Cathie finds out that her grandfather is a duke about five minutes before he dies and she inherits the title. The first part is about Cathie finding her feet as a duchess as well as recovering from a serious illness. The rest, and longest, part of the book is about her going to school incognito, as she doesn’t want people to be friends with her because of her title.
This is one of the books I know I would have loved to bits if I had read it in my early teens. As an adult I found it enjoyable, but no more than that. I don’t think it’s as good as Stepmother, but I know I’m biased there. Cathie is likeable, as is her supporting cast, though I wouldn’t be the least surprised if Sarah Crewe was the main inspiration for her. I will still try to hunt out Courney’s other books.
The Green Man’s War by Juliet E. McKenna. Part 7 of an ongoing series. My husband described this series as “Rivers of London, but in the countryside”, and that is quite apt.
Infamous Lady by Kimberley L. Craft. A biography over Elizabeth Bathory. I found it well-written and extensively researched, and had some interesting thoughts on how a human being devolves into a torturer and murderer of young girls. However, as the author included a lot of translated witness statements, it also describes in detail how these children were tortured and murdered. I really don’t like to read that, so I skipped large parts of the book, but read some before I realized what was going on. I know, perhaps I should have expected it considering the subject, but I’ve never come across anything this graphic before
Rereads
The Goblin Emperor, The Witness For the Dead and The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison. As the third book in The Cemeteries of Amalo is coming soon, I thought a re-read was due. I really enjoy these books, and it was a joy to re-read. I would love another book about Maia though. If you haven’t read these, but enjoy fantasy (with a strong steampunk flair) and crime novels, then I think you would like those.
A Skinful of Shadows by France Hardinge. I love Hardinge’s YA novels which are always inventive and interesting. This one is my favourite, set in Civil War England, where a young girl, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, finds out that what she has inherited from her father is the ability to take up dead people’s spirits in her mind.
Deeplight by France Hardinge. Fantasy set in a cluster of islands which was once ruled by a number of terrifying and unpredictable sea gods. But the gods are dead now, and people have slowly started to learn to live without them. Teenage friends Hark and Jelt find a strange object in the sea, an object that can heal- and more. Is it possible for the gods to return? Despite finding Hark’s troubled friendship with Jelt painful to read, I will enjoy this book a lot. Also, one of the main characters, the girl Selphin, is deaf, which I don’t think I have encountered in a SFF novel before.
A Civil Campaign, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. Bujold is one of my favourite authors, and I’ve been doing a selective re-read. I’m not a huge SF fan, but Bujold has the knack of writing interesting plots and compelling characters, even down to minor supportive ones. I can’t recommend her books enough!
A Coronet For Cathie by Gwendoline Courtney. One of my childhood’s favourite books is a book by Courney called Stepmother (or Those Verney Girls orElizabeth and he Garret Theatre), a children’s books from the late 40. It’s still one of my go to comfort reads. What I didn’t know until I was an adult was that Courney wrote several books, most of which have been out of print for decades. A Coronet For Cathie is fairly recently republished by Girls Gone By Publishers. In this book teenaged orphan Cathie finds out that her grandfather is a duke about five minutes before he dies and she inherits the title. The first part is about Cathie finding her feet as a duchess as well as recovering from a serious illness. The rest, and longest, part of the book is about her going to school incognito, as she doesn’t want people to be friends with her because of her title.
This is one of the books I know I would have loved to bits if I had read it in my early teens. As an adult I found it enjoyable, but no more than that. I don’t think it’s as good as Stepmother, but I know I’m biased there. Cathie is likeable, as is her supporting cast, though I wouldn’t be the least surprised if Sarah Crewe was the main inspiration for her. I will still try to hunt out Courney’s other books.
The Green Man’s War by Juliet E. McKenna. Part 7 of an ongoing series. My husband described this series as “Rivers of London, but in the countryside”, and that is quite apt.
Infamous Lady by Kimberley L. Craft. A biography over Elizabeth Bathory. I found it well-written and extensively researched, and had some interesting thoughts on how a human being devolves into a torturer and murderer of young girls. However, as the author included a lot of translated witness statements, it also describes in detail how these children were tortured and murdered. I really don’t like to read that, so I skipped large parts of the book, but read some before I realized what was going on. I know, perhaps I should have expected it considering the subject, but I’ve never come across anything this graphic before
Rereads
The Goblin Emperor, The Witness For the Dead and The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison. As the third book in The Cemeteries of Amalo is coming soon, I thought a re-read was due. I really enjoy these books, and it was a joy to re-read. I would love another book about Maia though. If you haven’t read these, but enjoy fantasy (with a strong steampunk flair) and crime novels, then I think you would like those.
A Skinful of Shadows by France Hardinge. I love Hardinge’s YA novels which are always inventive and interesting. This one is my favourite, set in Civil War England, where a young girl, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, finds out that what she has inherited from her father is the ability to take up dead people’s spirits in her mind.
Deeplight by France Hardinge. Fantasy set in a cluster of islands which was once ruled by a number of terrifying and unpredictable sea gods. But the gods are dead now, and people have slowly started to learn to live without them. Teenage friends Hark and Jelt find a strange object in the sea, an object that can heal- and more. Is it possible for the gods to return? Despite finding Hark’s troubled friendship with Jelt painful to read, I will enjoy this book a lot. Also, one of the main characters, the girl Selphin, is deaf, which I don’t think I have encountered in a SFF novel before.
A Civil Campaign, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. Bujold is one of my favourite authors, and I’ve been doing a selective re-read. I’m not a huge SF fan, but Bujold has the knack of writing interesting plots and compelling characters, even down to minor supportive ones. I can’t recommend her books enough!
no subject
Date: 2025-02-01 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-02 10:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-01 10:15 pm (UTC)Both of those Hardinge books are great! All her books feel so different and original, which I really admire.
Vorkosigan series is always worth a reread!
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 05:57 am (UTC)That was what I felt!
Hardinge is really original in the best possible way. She reminds me a bit of Diana Wynne Jones, but much as I love Wynne Jones she had some standard troupes she returned to again and again. Always doing a good job with them, but till. hardine seems to reinvent herself with every new book.
They are! A Civil Campaign is one of my comfort reads.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-02 03:59 am (UTC)I don't usually read L. E. Modesitt, Jr., but I picked up a book of his called Isolate, and it interested me enough that I read the two sequels. There's fourth coming along called Legalist, and it is preordered.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-02 10:16 am (UTC)It depresses me a little that so many female writers choose to write about men. When I write, my main viewpoint character is almost always female.
I wholeheartedly agree! I really like Addison's writing, for example, but all her main characters are men. I too write almost always from a female POV, that is what interest me the most bot as a writer and a reader.
L. E. Modesitt Jr is new to me. i need to check tme out. :)
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 08:15 am (UTC)I'm not sure why so many female writers write male heroes. I've never quite been able to figure it out, myself. One of the reasons I didn't read much science fiction as a child was that I wanted to read about girls, not boys. It wasn't until I found Andre Norton that I started going through science fiction authors. Although Robert Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars nearly stopped me in my tracks.
Yeah, I do enjoy Addison's spin-off books, but I really want more of the royal court. And it's one of the reasons I read only a few of Lois McMaster Bujold's books. She is a good storyteller, but... Ah, well, sigh.
I am now reading some books by a new author, Nicole Glover. I'm started with her debut: The Conductors. The viewpoint character in this is female, and POC, and lives in post-Civil War Philadelphia. So far, I'm finding it interesting. I really have to finish it before I know how I feel about it.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 08:40 am (UTC)I think it's largely because it's drummed into us from childhood that men aer the default, the norm. Men are Interesting and have Interesting lives, while women's interests are small and narrow. I don't agree, but I think a lot of writers, who might not really have reflected to why their ideas always are around males, kind of fall back to the male POV as default. Or possibly to get more readers. I know this is true for chilren, that boys largely read books about boys, but girls read books about booth sexes. I think that may hold true for adults as well.
I think this is a bit better now, but as a child I was very annoyed that the few girls I could find, always had to be tomboys to be legtimate. I was a very girly girl, and it was disheartening that every time I found someone who liked the same things as me, she was always Not As Good as the tomboy heroine. It gave a very clear message that girls could only be as good as boys if they acted like boys.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 08:45 am (UTC)Your reasoning agrees with mine. I think so many women have grown up thinking women are boring, only men can do interesting things, and so on...
I've even wondered if that's some of the reasoning behind slash, but I try not to say that too loud. Some women write lesbian relationships, but I think that's more common among younger writers.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 09:02 am (UTC)Me too! I was firmly convinced that Merry in The Lord of the Rings was a girl, and so disappointed when I realized he wasn’t. I loved the books though, so I spent a lot of time making up female members of the fellowship.
I've even wondered if that's some of the reasoning behind slash,
I think that is part of it. When something you love only gives the male character depth, well, then it isn’t so strange those are the ones interesting to write about. But I think it’s also a matter if you enjoy imagining yourself as part of a ship, or to watch it. I like to identify with characters I like, and find that difficult with male characters. And though I know a lot of women thinks it’s hot to imagine two attractive men together- I only find that boring. I can, and do, ship m/m on occasion, but I never leave the g-rated stuff because I’m interested in the dynamic, not the sex.
When I first got into fanfiction I found it hard to find female characters that were interesting, in fics, and not Mary Sue's, but I think that has changed a lot.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 06:03 pm (UTC)I rarely see m/m in things. And when I do -- well, no, I'm not interested in tab A fits in slot C. Frankly, I don't really like excessive amounts of tab A fits into slot B. When I write a sex scene, it needs to be there for the characters and the story to progress.
I admit I write non-canon females into stories. Usually because I need a viewpoint character, or because there simply aren't enough women in the show. That's why I wrote a couple of very long stories in Highlander with a non-canon Immortal -- Jehanne d'Arc. I'm very proud of those. I have three or four shorter stories I need to finish, and a couple of longer ones in that same universe.
And I agree. There are more female characters, and more original female characters, in fanfic today. Maybe the seesaw is tilting. I don't ask for a majority. I'd just like it a little closer to parity.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-14 02:03 pm (UTC)I agree!
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 08:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-04 10:23 pm (UTC)Bujold is one of my favourite authors, and I’ve been doing a selective re-read.
I am in the middle of reading the Vorkosigan series for the first time, which is such an enjoyable place to be! (It's already very clear to me that I'll be rereading them at least once and probably several times in the future.) Enjoying them so much. I am just in between A Civil Campaign and Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-06 08:44 am (UTC)