Wednesday reading
Feb. 22nd, 2023 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitReading now: I'm between books at the moment.
Recently finished: I have finished Moby Dick at last! I'm still mulling it over, and I'll probably re-read it at some point, because I know there was a lot going on structurally and thematically that I didn't fully catch. I knew the basics of how the plot resolved, of course, because it's seeped into pop culture. But the actual ending, the epilogue and especially that last sentence, is still echoing in my head. And I'm pondering why abridged editions of Moby Dick exist, because it's not an abridge-able novel. The things that aren't plot, the asides and diversions and whale facts, are where most of the actual story resides.
After that, I wanted something light, so I tried Cairo Malachi and the Adventure of the Silver Whistle, a m/m romance by Samantha Sorelle. The opening sentence is: "The first time I met the love of my life, he died in my arms," so it's got a bold premise going for it. The main character is a (fraudulent) medium, and his love interest is indeed a ghost. It's a fun book, which does some fun things and is pretty original within its genre limits. But as a reader, I've been chafing at the genre limits of m/m romance for some time. What I really want is books that are fully-fledged books in their genre (sff, mystery, historical) with deep worldbuilding and complex characters and enough plot to hold the rest together, that also include m/m love stories. Also, ideally, prose that's got a little life in it and isn't just functional. There are very few of these books. (Several of Natasha Pulley's books just about hit the sweet spot for me, problematic as they are in certain ways *coughOrientalismcough*. Wish there were more by other writers. Preferably including queer male writers. Seriously, where are the queer men writing genre? I know publishing gets more awful by the minute, and there's a glut of cheap self-pubbed m/m mostly by women that's maybe pushing other types of m/m stories out of the market. But it's frustrating.)
Anyway, despite my complaints above about wanting more substance, I was still in the mood for something light so I also read Legends and Lattés, by Travis Baldree. This is a cute little story, completely unabashed about its roots in TTPRGs, about Viv, an orc fighter who retires from adventuring and opens a coffee shop in a city that's never heard of coffee. Baddies try to baddie, but new and old friends help Viv out, and there's community and love and all that stuff. It's . . . nice? Not really fully satisfying to me, because I am a picky asshole, but it's a sweet, fluffy cinnamon roll of a story. Which is exactly what it intends to be.
Reading next: Maybe Natasha Pulley's The Half Life of Valery K, about Soviet nuclear science and, apparently, gay love. Or maybe I'll finally start The Steerswoman, which I've had for a while now. I've also recently acquired the 4th and final volume of The Department of Truth. Might give that a go today, since I've been wanting to see how it turns out.
Recently finished: I have finished Moby Dick at last! I'm still mulling it over, and I'll probably re-read it at some point, because I know there was a lot going on structurally and thematically that I didn't fully catch. I knew the basics of how the plot resolved, of course, because it's seeped into pop culture. But the actual ending, the epilogue and especially that last sentence, is still echoing in my head. And I'm pondering why abridged editions of Moby Dick exist, because it's not an abridge-able novel. The things that aren't plot, the asides and diversions and whale facts, are where most of the actual story resides.
After that, I wanted something light, so I tried Cairo Malachi and the Adventure of the Silver Whistle, a m/m romance by Samantha Sorelle. The opening sentence is: "The first time I met the love of my life, he died in my arms," so it's got a bold premise going for it. The main character is a (fraudulent) medium, and his love interest is indeed a ghost. It's a fun book, which does some fun things and is pretty original within its genre limits. But as a reader, I've been chafing at the genre limits of m/m romance for some time. What I really want is books that are fully-fledged books in their genre (sff, mystery, historical) with deep worldbuilding and complex characters and enough plot to hold the rest together, that also include m/m love stories. Also, ideally, prose that's got a little life in it and isn't just functional. There are very few of these books. (Several of Natasha Pulley's books just about hit the sweet spot for me, problematic as they are in certain ways *coughOrientalismcough*. Wish there were more by other writers. Preferably including queer male writers. Seriously, where are the queer men writing genre? I know publishing gets more awful by the minute, and there's a glut of cheap self-pubbed m/m mostly by women that's maybe pushing other types of m/m stories out of the market. But it's frustrating.)
Anyway, despite my complaints above about wanting more substance, I was still in the mood for something light so I also read Legends and Lattés, by Travis Baldree. This is a cute little story, completely unabashed about its roots in TTPRGs, about Viv, an orc fighter who retires from adventuring and opens a coffee shop in a city that's never heard of coffee. Baddies try to baddie, but new and old friends help Viv out, and there's community and love and all that stuff. It's . . . nice? Not really fully satisfying to me, because I am a picky asshole, but it's a sweet, fluffy cinnamon roll of a story. Which is exactly what it intends to be.
Reading next: Maybe Natasha Pulley's The Half Life of Valery K, about Soviet nuclear science and, apparently, gay love. Or maybe I'll finally start The Steerswoman, which I've had for a while now. I've also recently acquired the 4th and final volume of The Department of Truth. Might give that a go today, since I've been wanting to see how it turns out.
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Date: 2023-02-22 11:43 pm (UTC)