Book blather
Dec. 23rd, 2008 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erastesIf you want some inspiration about what to read, what to buy after Christmas - when those sales kick in! - then you can do worse than to check out Lisabea's amazing Post That Ate Christmas - a huge post of M/M writers and bloggers discussing their favourite books. Josh Lanyon, Patrick Fillon, Teddypig, Ally Blue and many many more.
Talking of books. I just want to have a quick book wibble as I have read tons recently and haven't discussed 'em.
Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling. Far too many L's.
I was really annoyed that my library didn't have a copy of the Nightrunner series and I had to get a copy from another library which cost me £2.50. *grumps* I might as well have bought a cheap copy. However it was well worth the money and I will now go and buy the remaining books rather than get them from the library.
I really liked the characters, even Theron! Fell in love (of course) with Seregil and smiled at his appreciation of the male form - seems pretty obvious what Alec is, and I hope he is, because Seregil won't have to see another lover die of mortality. I liked the way that it didn't drown the reader in backstory and left so much for us to find out. I admit, however, that I skipped the chunks of elf-lore etc so I hope it's not going to prove vital. :) I hope the series continues well.
The Taos Truth Game by Earl Ganz.
I've given a longer review over at Speak Its Name, but I wanted to mention it here for anyone who doesn't follow that blog. This book as simply amazing. The prose, at times, blew me away - the romance within it (although it's more of a biography than a romance) was sweet and destructive all at the same time and the insight into a world that's gone - as they say - with the wind is fascinating. For me, an Englishman from a rainy world, the Taos artistic scene of the 1930s seems as alien to me as any I've read about. But I would have loved to have been there, in the same I would have loved to have been in the world of Love in a Cold Climate. Definitely worth a read.
Notre Dame de Paris.
a "retelling" of the Hunchback story, or a re-translation, I'm not sure. But sheesh, it's dull. I'll get the original and see if it's any better.
The Loom of Youth by Alec Waugh.
I'm insanely jealous that he wrote this at such a tender age (I think he was 19) in about 7 weeks. It's not a great book, but it's a great product of its time and anyone considering to write a story in the early 20th century - especially about public schools - should read this. He'd been "sent down" (expelled) for a relationship with a younger boy, and he wrote this as an expose, a diatribe of his feelings of the sausage factory that was the public school system. There's rather too much sport and description of rugger matches (which my friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
charlie_cochrane would revel in, I know, but endless descriptions of 14 year olds up to their armpits in mud did little for me. It's when he starts to talk about other things - the war between the character's attractions to poetry and to games - the way that boys are made to all think the same things - the endless and frankly horrifying ways that the children ran their schoolmasters ragged - that interested me. It was banned from schools for many years because of it's homosexual content. Not that there is any--it's all very veiled--but Waugh says quite matter of factly that it was rife and that the school in general took a "broadminded approach" to it.
...he realised how easily he could slip into that life and be engulfed. No one would mind; his position would be the same; no one would think worse of him. Unless, of course, he was caught. Then probably everyone would turn round upon him; that was the one unforgivable sin—to be found out. But it was rarely that anyone was caught; and the descent was so easy.
Being caught was the "sin" - rather than whatever acts were performed. Gordon is about 13 or 14 when this exchange happens. He's summonsed to Meredith's study. A older boy, who, apparently, is known to be homosexual.
I think I'll make a list of what I read in 2009, gets so I forget sometimes. I had to ask
gehayi what the name was of The Historian because although I vaguely remembered the plot, that's all I could remember.
And not books, but TV. John Adams starts this week! Hurrah! I've heard so many good things about this series, so I'm really looking forward to it.
Talking of books. I just want to have a quick book wibble as I have read tons recently and haven't discussed 'em.
Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling. Far too many L's.
I was really annoyed that my library didn't have a copy of the Nightrunner series and I had to get a copy from another library which cost me £2.50. *grumps* I might as well have bought a cheap copy. However it was well worth the money and I will now go and buy the remaining books rather than get them from the library.
I really liked the characters, even Theron! Fell in love (of course) with Seregil and smiled at his appreciation of the male form - seems pretty obvious what Alec is, and I hope he is, because Seregil won't have to see another lover die of mortality. I liked the way that it didn't drown the reader in backstory and left so much for us to find out. I admit, however, that I skipped the chunks of elf-lore etc so I hope it's not going to prove vital. :) I hope the series continues well.
The Taos Truth Game by Earl Ganz.
I've given a longer review over at Speak Its Name, but I wanted to mention it here for anyone who doesn't follow that blog. This book as simply amazing. The prose, at times, blew me away - the romance within it (although it's more of a biography than a romance) was sweet and destructive all at the same time and the insight into a world that's gone - as they say - with the wind is fascinating. For me, an Englishman from a rainy world, the Taos artistic scene of the 1930s seems as alien to me as any I've read about. But I would have loved to have been there, in the same I would have loved to have been in the world of Love in a Cold Climate. Definitely worth a read.
Notre Dame de Paris.
a "retelling" of the Hunchback story, or a re-translation, I'm not sure. But sheesh, it's dull. I'll get the original and see if it's any better.
The Loom of Youth by Alec Waugh.
I'm insanely jealous that he wrote this at such a tender age (I think he was 19) in about 7 weeks. It's not a great book, but it's a great product of its time and anyone considering to write a story in the early 20th century - especially about public schools - should read this. He'd been "sent down" (expelled) for a relationship with a younger boy, and he wrote this as an expose, a diatribe of his feelings of the sausage factory that was the public school system. There's rather too much sport and description of rugger matches (which my friend
charlie_cochrane would revel in, I know, but endless descriptions of 14 year olds up to their armpits in mud did little for me. It's when he starts to talk about other things - the war between the character's attractions to poetry and to games - the way that boys are made to all think the same things - the endless and frankly horrifying ways that the children ran their schoolmasters ragged - that interested me. It was banned from schools for many years because of it's homosexual content. Not that there is any--it's all very veiled--but Waugh says quite matter of factly that it was rife and that the school in general took a "broadminded approach" to it. ...he realised how easily he could slip into that life and be engulfed. No one would mind; his position would be the same; no one would think worse of him. Unless, of course, he was caught. Then probably everyone would turn round upon him; that was the one unforgivable sin—to be found out. But it was rarely that anyone was caught; and the descent was so easy.
Being caught was the "sin" - rather than whatever acts were performed. Gordon is about 13 or 14 when this exchange happens. He's summonsed to Meredith's study. A older boy, who, apparently, is known to be homosexual.
"Look here, Caruthers, what did Meredith really want you for? I swear I won't tell anyone."
"Oh, well, I don't mind you knowing.... You know what Meredith is, well—I mean—oh, you know, the usual stuff. He wanted me to meet him out for a walk to-morrow. I told him in polite language to go to the 'devil.'"
"Good Lord, did you really? But why? If Meredith gets fed up with you he could give you the hell of a time."
"Oh, I know he could, but he wouldn't over a thing like that. Damn it all, the man is a gentleman."
"Of course he is, but all the same he is a blood, and it pays to keep on good terms with them."
"Oh, I don't know; it's risky—and well, I think the whole idea is damned silly nonsense."
Jeffries looked at him rather curiously.
"Yes," he said, "I suppose that is how the small boy always looks at it."
Jeffries is expelled shortly afterwards and it's shrugged off as almost nothing. Jeffries is more annoyed at losing the chance to play rugby."Chief's found out all about me and Fitzroy, and I've got to go!"
"But I never thought there was really anything in that," said Gordon. "I thought——"
"Oh, well, there was."
Don't rush to read it thinking it's a great gay romance, because it's not, but it's a great insight into that era, that class-essential reading for historical writers imo. Hayden Thorne did a great review of it here, btw - and the book is available free online at Gutenberg.I think I'll make a list of what I read in 2009, gets so I forget sometimes. I had to ask
gehayi what the name was of The Historian because although I vaguely remembered the plot, that's all I could remember.And not books, but TV. John Adams starts this week! Hurrah! I've heard so many good things about this series, so I'm really looking forward to it.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-23 01:20 pm (UTC)I believe that is just a new translation of Notre-Dame de Paris. I read the original and loved it, but I have a weakness for architecture-as-character that explains a lot about my weird tastes. You could try something like Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett as a starter -- it flirts with similar themes, but moves a bit faster.
Must get the second Nightrunner book as well.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-23 01:50 pm (UTC)