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Recently read: Inspired by Melissa Scott, I've been re-reading Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels, which were dear to me in my youth. I was given the second trilogy, the Camber books, for Christmas when I was fifteen or sixteen; they were probably the first fantasy I'd ever read, and I fell in love with Kurtz's medieval-inspired world. It fostered not only my love for fantasy, but my later academic interest in medieval and early modern England.
( More under the cut )
What I'm reading now: I'm about halfway through Mary Beard's SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. I'm impressed by this book, which does what I always want popular history to do: while definitely written for the nonspecialist, it retains some of the rigor of academic history. In particular I like Beard's attention to historiography. She pays a lot of attention to problems of scant evidence, biased evidence (e.g. most of what we know about Catiline comes from his arch-enemy Cicero), and what evidence is actually evidence of (e.g., ancient Romans writing about Rome's early history often imported the concerns of their own times). And she makes an effort to explore traditionally silenced perspectives like those of women, the poor, and slaves. Beard also writes brisk, clear, fluid prose that's a pleasure to read.
What I'm reading next: I have two library books next on the agenda. A Kill in the Morning, by Graeme Shimmin, is a post-WWII alternate history, a genre I'm shamefully fond of. Could be good, could be dreadful. Matt's Ruff's Lovecraft Country, which explores the Lovecraft mythos and its underlying racism through the story of African Americans in the 1950s confronted with bigoted white cultists, is a book I've heard very good things about. I'm looking forward to it, though with some trepidation because I expect it will be wrenching. (Though it would have to work hard to be as devastating as Kai Ashante Wilson's extraordinary and brutal The Devil in America, which tackles similar themes of the murderous history of racism in America, though without the Lovecraft element.)
After I've read those, it will probably be back to the Deryni for me.
( More under the cut )
What I'm reading now: I'm about halfway through Mary Beard's SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. I'm impressed by this book, which does what I always want popular history to do: while definitely written for the nonspecialist, it retains some of the rigor of academic history. In particular I like Beard's attention to historiography. She pays a lot of attention to problems of scant evidence, biased evidence (e.g. most of what we know about Catiline comes from his arch-enemy Cicero), and what evidence is actually evidence of (e.g., ancient Romans writing about Rome's early history often imported the concerns of their own times). And she makes an effort to explore traditionally silenced perspectives like those of women, the poor, and slaves. Beard also writes brisk, clear, fluid prose that's a pleasure to read.
What I'm reading next: I have two library books next on the agenda. A Kill in the Morning, by Graeme Shimmin, is a post-WWII alternate history, a genre I'm shamefully fond of. Could be good, could be dreadful. Matt's Ruff's Lovecraft Country, which explores the Lovecraft mythos and its underlying racism through the story of African Americans in the 1950s confronted with bigoted white cultists, is a book I've heard very good things about. I'm looking forward to it, though with some trepidation because I expect it will be wrenching. (Though it would have to work hard to be as devastating as Kai Ashante Wilson's extraordinary and brutal The Devil in America, which tackles similar themes of the murderous history of racism in America, though without the Lovecraft element.)
After I've read those, it will probably be back to the Deryni for me.
