Reading Post-Wednesday
Jun. 20th, 2019 01:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evelyn_bI meant to post this on Monday before I got on the plane, but then I didn't. Then I was on a plane. Now I'm waiting around to move into my correct lodgings (and still not sure which of three possibilities it's going to be). Anyway, reading!
What I've Finished Reading But Have to Read Over Again Because I Couldn't Make Heads or Tails
Heartland by Wilson Harris. It's short! But so damn cereberal! But not in a fun way! It's also possible that I'm just too busy at the moment for a Tale of Fractured Forest Consciousness by someone whom the introduction thinks is influenced by quantum physics. I'll double back when the busy season is over.
What I've Finished Reading
I enjoyed Something Real by Heather Demetrios, a thick YA novel about a young girl who was born and grew up on a "reality" show until she was thirteen. The show ended with her on-screen suicide attempt, but now, in her senior year of high school, the cameras are back and the nightmare is about to resume - just when she was getting used to being normal! Things get very bad for a while, but not maximally bad, and finally Chloe and her brother figure out a way to take a stand.
The depiction of teenage social behavior struck a nice balance between realism and kindness, and so did the tensions between Chloe and her family. Chole's boyfriend is a little too perfect and a little too instantly devoted to be believed, but I didn't mind because Chole has had a rough time of it and deserves nice things. I wasn't necessarily that keen on the high-school happily-ever afters (either for Chole or her brother, who has his own romantic subplot to resolve) but that's just because I'm a crusty old person who has forgotten the meaning of true love.
I enjoyed Ashlin and Olivia by Aster Glenn Gray, too, but will post about it separately when I have a home.
Noise: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth was not as compelling - I thought most of the stories were too interested in their own scaffolding, and tried to hew too close to the weird lyrics they were inspired by - lots of similar stories, lots of drafts that needed another going-over with the wool comb.
What I'm Reading Now
The Canterbury Tales (a selection, with interlinear translation). I realize it's one of the biggest cliches in Western literature to say that the Wife of Bath is a great character, but the Wife of Bath is the best character. If you never expected to meet your mom's raunchy best friend in the depths of a medieval poem cycle, then you are in for a delightful surprise. Some cliches are cliches because they're true. Also, her story is completely in character. She and Nanny Ogg should hang out.
I also laughed WAY too much when the Pardoner, having barely finished padding out his tale with the same tedious moral he padded it with at the beginning, IMMEDIATELY launched into a sales pitch about his fake relics, like Our Mary Kay Lady of perpetual affinity fraud. Chaucer is a treasure.
I'm really appreciating this interlinear translation, which gives me the best of both worlds (enjoying the weird Middle English and its surprises while always being able to check what things mean).
What I Plan to Read Next
Technically I've started reading The Lockwood Concern, one of the 99 Novels (in beautifully trashy mass-market format) but it was while I was half-asleep and I couldn't follow anything that was happening, so it's effectively still in the future. First (probably mistaken) impression: not as trashy as the cover makes it look, to its detriment.
What I've Finished Reading But Have to Read Over Again Because I Couldn't Make Heads or Tails
Heartland by Wilson Harris. It's short! But so damn cereberal! But not in a fun way! It's also possible that I'm just too busy at the moment for a Tale of Fractured Forest Consciousness by someone whom the introduction thinks is influenced by quantum physics. I'll double back when the busy season is over.
What I've Finished Reading
I enjoyed Something Real by Heather Demetrios, a thick YA novel about a young girl who was born and grew up on a "reality" show until she was thirteen. The show ended with her on-screen suicide attempt, but now, in her senior year of high school, the cameras are back and the nightmare is about to resume - just when she was getting used to being normal! Things get very bad for a while, but not maximally bad, and finally Chloe and her brother figure out a way to take a stand.
The depiction of teenage social behavior struck a nice balance between realism and kindness, and so did the tensions between Chloe and her family. Chole's boyfriend is a little too perfect and a little too instantly devoted to be believed, but I didn't mind because Chole has had a rough time of it and deserves nice things. I wasn't necessarily that keen on the high-school happily-ever afters (either for Chole or her brother, who has his own romantic subplot to resolve) but that's just because I'm a crusty old person who has forgotten the meaning of true love.
I enjoyed Ashlin and Olivia by Aster Glenn Gray, too, but will post about it separately when I have a home.
Noise: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth was not as compelling - I thought most of the stories were too interested in their own scaffolding, and tried to hew too close to the weird lyrics they were inspired by - lots of similar stories, lots of drafts that needed another going-over with the wool comb.
What I'm Reading Now
The Canterbury Tales (a selection, with interlinear translation). I realize it's one of the biggest cliches in Western literature to say that the Wife of Bath is a great character, but the Wife of Bath is the best character. If you never expected to meet your mom's raunchy best friend in the depths of a medieval poem cycle, then you are in for a delightful surprise. Some cliches are cliches because they're true. Also, her story is completely in character. She and Nanny Ogg should hang out.
I also laughed WAY too much when the Pardoner, having barely finished padding out his tale with the same tedious moral he padded it with at the beginning, IMMEDIATELY launched into a sales pitch about his fake relics, like Our Mary Kay Lady of perpetual affinity fraud. Chaucer is a treasure.
I'm really appreciating this interlinear translation, which gives me the best of both worlds (enjoying the weird Middle English and its surprises while always being able to check what things mean).
What I Plan to Read Next
Technically I've started reading The Lockwood Concern, one of the 99 Novels (in beautifully trashy mass-market format) but it was while I was half-asleep and I couldn't follow anything that was happening, so it's effectively still in the future. First (probably mistaken) impression: not as trashy as the cover makes it look, to its detriment.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-20 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-18 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-21 07:36 pm (UTC)This is probably the heart of almost all my complaints about the YA that I read. Maybe I should just try to let go of my ingrained crustiness and relish the joy of first love? And turn off the part of my brain that is pointing to different YA couples and yelling, "You're breaking up when you go to college! And you're breaking up when you go to college! And you aren't even making it to the beginning of college! And you... aw, hell, you crazy kids just might make it long term."
no subject
Date: 2019-07-18 12:07 am (UTC)And I know he's just a subplot, but the way Chloe's brother's boyfriend went from terrifed of his homophobic parents to not caring at all about his homophobic parents gave me whiplash. I'm happy for you, but buy a block of therapy sessions just in case?
But I'm really just being crusty and concerned-auntish about these fictional teenagers - it's a happily-ever-after type book, and that's fine.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-23 08:56 am (UTC)Chaucer is a joy, when people aren't making you study him in the worst possible way. More importantly, have you read this, which is basically The Wife of Bath Solves A Murder? Because if not, obv. you should sometime, since while it was technically written for someone else, they must secretly also have been thinking of you.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-17 11:57 pm (UTC)ETA: “Hot enough to fry eggs,” Jankyn used to say of Alisoun’s quick temper. “But I do love eggs.”
<3