Oh look, it's a reading list

[oloriel]

I...
actually read some books in the past month! Months. Whatever.

So I guess I should try to do that book list thing again. Because I last did it in January and I'm sure you've all missed it. Oh well, at least it'll be a bit longer this time? :P

Authors in Bold: Titles in Bold and Italics.
Tongue-in-Cheek commentary subtitle by yours truly - if I can think of something.

Potentially spoilery summary/review/commentary/rambling under the LJ-cut for your protection.


Oh dear, let's hope I'm not forgetting something.

Gyles Brandreth: Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death
RPS and Crime in Victorian England, Pt. II

Ok, I'll admit it: I adore this series. I know they're really just shameless Sherlock Holmes pastiches using real dead people (and snarky Oscar Wilde quotes) in imaginary situations, and perhaps that is damnable, but I don't care. They're just plain enjoyable and fun.
In this one, Oscar Wilde, his dauntless biographer Robert Sherard and his down-to-earth friend Arthur Conan Doyle have to find the culprit in a chain of murders connected by an unfortunate game... before Oscar becomes the last victim. *dundundun* Ok, that's kind of a no-brainer attempt at suspense (used in the actual blurb of the actual book!) because we all kind of know that Oscar Wilde kind of didn't die in 1890. Never mind. It's still an exciting whodunnit. And, as I said, it's just plain fun to have Oscar Wilde & friends (& enemies) gallivanting all over Victorian London.


David Procter and Francis Grose: Lobcocks and Fartleberries: 18th-Century Insults to Confound your Foes

Shortly after arwensommer and I had once more bemoaned the lack of creative cursing in modern conversations and arguments, I came across a recc/review of this book on joyful_molly's journal. Which is a selection from the slang dictionary The Vulgar Tongue and contains a heap of colourful, amusing and nasty insults and slang terms from, well, the 18th century. Sometimes, you can deduce the meaning. Often, you can't. Either way, it's great fun if you have a slightly black sense of humour? And afterwards, you'll bemoan the lack of creativity in modern-day cursing even more.


Terry Pratchett: Snuff

How... do I put this delicately?
Let me circumlocute.
Obsessed Tolkien fans with an academic leaning, like yours truly, know that there's a point when The Professor (TM) realised that whoops, his statistic lifespan was sort of drawing to a close, and he had kind of written some stuff that might not sit well with what he as a Staunch Catholic (TM) believed would come after death. Like, pagan religions and all that. At that point, he began to re-write stuff, and lo, the pagan deities turned into Angels of the Lord under another name, and all the kick-ass women who were blessed with a happy ending turned into meek little Virgin Mary-lookalikes. Ok, I'm simplifying a bit, but basically that's what happened.
This book kind of feels to me as if Terry Pratchett has reached this point. No, I actually felt like that after Unseen Academicals, and this book just drives the point home.
Now, of course Terry Pratchett isn't Catholic, Staunch or Otherwise, but a Secular Humanist (TM). So instead of worrying about his afterlife, I guess he's rather worrying about his legacy? And apparently, that has set him on a secular humanist crusade to redeem every misrepresented/vilified fantasy race ever. First Dwarfs vs. Trolls, then Orcs, now Goblins, who knows what's next in the fight for Fantasy Social Justice?
Of course, to some extent he's always been reshaping and re-interpreting both his own setting and fantasy races in general. But in the olden days, like Feet of Clay or Carpe Jugulum and their follow-ups, it was more light-hearted. Terry Pratchett has begun to look at very real issues in the Discworld books a long time ago, and that's what made them so awesome, but at the moment, the tide has sort of turned. The levity's gone, and instead there seems to be a constant bitterness. Which I guess goes to show that you don't have to be religious to become a zealot. I wonder how he's gonna deal with cases of his own Real World Racism, like Twoflower or Diego Macaroni?
Whatever. Of course, Pterry can do with his work whatever he chooses. And maybe I'm overinterpreting things anyway, and this isn't actually any sort of spiritual crusade, but rather a direct result of his condition. I don't know. It's none of my business, either. I just know how I responded to that book (which still has its great moments, just -- the levity has gone), and that's what I'm talking about here.
So there.


Cornelia Lohmann: Babys in Bewegung - Mit allen Sinnen

This book ("Babies in Motion - With all their Senses") was a gift from the Mother-in-Law, who is a gymnastics teacher. It is actually directed at gymnastics teachers who want to offer gym classes for Very Little Humans and have all the equipment you'd find in a gym, so while some of the theoretical background on development etc. were interesting for me, beyond that I didn't have much use for it. However, there's a nice guide to baby massage and some nifty exercises you can do with a baby 3 months old and older to benefit your own fitness (which is something you desperately need but never find the time for), so that's good. There's one really stupid feature, though: A list of songs you can use for baby exercises. With all the words, but no notes. Sure, many of those songs are Collective Memory, and I'm sure you can google all of them, but in that case you could just as well have listed the titles instead of filling page after page, because you'll have to look up the tunes anyway? I don't know what's up with that. There isn't even a CD to go with it.


Daniel Pool: What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew
Truth Is Stranger Than Discworld

Saw this title on allamistako's reading list earlier this year and couldn't resist. And it's damn entertaining for real history, too, summing up the facts of life in late 18th/early 19th century England with all the absurdities inherent therein. (I love the word therein.) While I've never had the feeling that I was missing background knowledge when reading Austen, Thackeray, Dickens or who-else-have-you - the books tend to be so well-written that they do enough world-building of their own - there actually were such things, and it was cool to be enlightened on them. Also, THE ABSURDITIES, DID I MENTION THEM. Finally, if you look at the classism and sexism other -isms people considered perfectly natural back then, I guess it's no wonder that we're struggling with the issues we're still struggling with today. Looking at history can be a relief, then, because at least we got better than that... sometimes. :P


Jonas Jonasson: Der Hundertjährige, der aus dem Fenster stieg und verschwand
Like Forrest Gump. In Sweden. Except with Cursing (and an Elephant).

Everybody and their dog's brother's husband are reading and recommending this book in Germany ATM, and it's easy to see why: It's a hilarious and compelling read that you just can't put away until you've finished. You pretty much don't believe for a second that the story is even just plausible, but you don't give a damn. ("Don't trust the storyteller, trust the story.") Allan Karlsson's adventures, both after and before he climbed out of the window of his nursing home room on his 100th birthday, are so much fun, while his stoic attitude towards the weirdnesses and grave events he is confronted with are kind of really admirable. Then there's all the other quaint, absurd and real characters from 20th century history. Look, I'll be honest and say that 20th century history normally bores me to tears, even the dramatic bits, but in this book, I actually had fun with it? So yeah, no need to feel guilty if you succumb to this bit of hype and peer pressure. It really is fun.
I'm just amazed that even the Serious Press (TM) seems to find this book acceptable Serious Literature. I'll never understand them, I guess.


Kathryn Stockett: The Help
I's In UR Histories, Appropriating UR Fight

First things first: Yes, I enjoyed this book. It's got likeable (and hateable) characters who feel real, it's an interesting and exciting story, and it's - once you've grown used to the awful Mississippi slang - really well-written. But I've witnessed too many discussions on privilege and appropriation on the internet to feel entirely comfortable with it. See, this is a 21st century white woman writing about two 1960s black women and a white woman trying to write a book about the circumstances of black women working as housekeepers in a small Mississippi town. Is it her place to do that? I don't know.
Due to the 1960s white woman involved in this, the characters of this book ask the same question, and they come to conclusions like "Whatever, as long as the story gets told" and "Well, she's got the connections, and we don't, so without her, we can't do it". But that's internal history. Externally, is Kathryn Stockett the right person to have written this book? Well, apparently, because she did. But I can imagine that there's quite the debate about whether it shouldn't have been written by (say) the daughter or grand-daughter of one of these 1960s black housekeepers - rather than by someone who used to have a black nurse back in the 1960s.
And I really wonder why one reviewer, quoted on the back cover, says that it's "daring [...] and very courageous". Newsflash: This is the real book, not the one co-written by the characters. While I expect that you may still get into trouble for writing a book like this in Mississippi, I expect that it can't quite be compared with the repercussions feared by the characters?
But then, is it even my place to ask these questions? AAAAH.
Side note: Mississippi is a cruel word, you never quite know when to stop. You can go on forever. Missississississippippippissi.
Side note II: About a week after I'd finished reading The Help, the Stern magazine printed an article about housekeepers in Germany in this day. And... things aren't really that different? Except that the housekeepers in The Help wouldn't want people not to hire housekeepers, because they need the work after all. While the Stern people looked down on people who out-sourced their chores pretty severely. (Also, journalistic pearls like "Only in the 20th century did people start to..." Yeah, because they never had household servants or even slaves in the Good Old Days. Only difference is that people now hire independent freelancers. That is worse than household slaves? Look, I no longer pretend to understand what they're trying to say. I just wonder how many journalists who write for the Stern actually have hired help at home?)


Bruno Keiser: Adelheid - Königin, Kaiserin, Heilige. Ein Leben in bewegter Zeit.
Neither Fish Nor Fowl Nor A Good Honest Biography

I came across the name and person of Theophanu in some documentary on TV, and was amazed and shocked that I didn't remember her from my history lessons in grade 7 or 8, when we did the Middle Ages. Now, our history lessons at the time were particularly awful, as our teacher was really only interested in the architecture of our home town, so that's about the extent of Middle Ages knowledge I took away from school. Timberwork, slate, monk-and-nun tiles. In other words, it really is possible that I never heard of Theophanu. So I asked other family members, who said "Theopha-who?" until I talked to my mother, who said "Oh yes, my history teacher cared about her a lot. Actually, I have a biography of her somewhere, would you like to read it?"
The book she gave me - this one - is actually about Adelheid, Theophanu's mother-in-law. It's not properly a biography, either. Actually, it doesn't quite seem to know what it's meant to be. It kind of came across to me as if someone researched Empress Adelheid for a Ph.D. thesis, and then instead of writing a thesis, wrote this. There's some invented dialogue and some attempts at creating atmosphere, but not enough to make anything actually vivid. Whenever you think you're getting the picture, it's moving on to some completely different event someplace else.
So it's not a historical novel. But it's too superficial for academic writing. So it isn't that, either. I guess it's a nice overview?
Ironically, poor Theophanu doesn't actually appear overly sympathetic in this one. Presumably because, as a daughter-in-law, she didn't get along too well with her mother-in-law? Whatever. I'd still like to read a good historical novel featuring Theophanu (or Adelheid, for that matter). They deserve it. So if you know one or want to write one... shoot?


Next reading list... up in December. Or next year? WHO KNOWS.

Comments

[chili-das-schaf.livejournal.com]

Too bad I didn't read this before standing in the bookshop without knowing what to buy xD

I skipped the Snuff review because I bought it last week. Will return after I finished :)

[jokergirl.livejournal.com]

Completely agreeing with your take on Snuff here. It very much feels like he just wants to cram all the preachings he hasn't written about yet into the last few books before he dies.
Which is very sad, of course, and also very true, but it still doesn't help the case.

The thing that makes it worse is that we're being preached to about an issue we all know, we all have agreed is bad, in a parable of fantastic racism that kind of invalidates the cause to begin with. "Let not one man enslave another...," etc.. But what about "let not one man enslave a species that whoops, we didn't really know was sentient, and only really started to care about after it turned out that whoops, luckily one single member of the race was really great at something"?
It was the same in Unseen Academicals already, and it already irked me there, although the book made a rather better case and had other interesting side stories going on. This one is just... eh.

<.<;

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Glad I'm not the only one! I feel kind of guilty, as of course I know how sick the poor man is... but as you say, still doesn't help the case.

"let not one man enslave a species..."
Maybe he'll write a vegan manifest next? :P

[barbardin.livejournal.com]

Hast absolut Recht mit Snuff. Es hatte tolle Momente, aber das halbe Buch über dachte ich nur: Oje, dem Mann geht's nicht gut.
Ziemlich gut fand ich dagegen The Long Earth in Zusammenarbeit mit Stephen Baxter. Es gibt also noch aktuelle, gut lesbare, lohnende Bücher mit dem Namen Pratchett auf dem Cover. Doch, wirklich!

[allamistako.livejournal.com]

Da frage ich mich schon die ganze Zeit ob ich dem Buch eine chance geben soll.

[satismagic.livejournal.com]

May have to try the Oscar Wilde book and the Rambunctious Centenarian one. Thank you! The dictionary and the history book sound nice, too.

Re: The Help – Totally understand how you feel. It would have been better and more meaningful if – as you suggested – a housekeeper's granddaughter had written it. I wasn't really that keen on that book to start with, because the summary/blurb just doesn't appeal to me. But the whole debate definitely put me off the book.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

No, don't get me wrong: I don't think the book would be better or more meaningful if this had been written by some black descendant. It's a good book (if you're interested in the subject matter, of course). I just know that these identity/privilege/appropriation debates exist and that some people quite fiercely defend their exclusive right to tell certain stories or complain about certain issues. And knowing that there are such debates and such people, I'm pretty sure there are heated debates concerning this book. After all, even the characters acknowledge the problem.

However, Kathryn Stockett did a good job! And heck, nobody demands that people who write about Elves, wizards or people in history actually share their identity and/or life experience. ;)

[allamistako.livejournal.com]

Mr. P.: I have to admit, Mr. P. and the Disc lost me about a decade ago, with Thief of Time and The Truth, but even before that I felt uncomfotable with the rising level of moralising. I don't mind fiction have a moral message, but it was getting a bit... much, even then.

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: Yay, someone actually reads the list ;) No, glad you enjoyed it, a wonderful book.

The Help: Tried to liek the book, tried to like the film, but it just didn't click for me.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Back then, it hadn't reached a level that bothered me, apparently. (I really liked The Truth!) Now... yeah, too much.

WJAAaCDK really is pretty brilliant, and I'm shamelessly going to steal a lot of the information for my own worldbuilding purposes. Thank you for recommending it!

Haven't seen the film, but I did like the book. I'm just afraid of discussing it with anyone because of the issues mentioned up in the post!

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

The only one of these I've read (so far) is The Help. I thought the awful Mississippi slang was extremely well-done - as a rule, I loathe 'dialect'; Mark Twain is the only writer who can make it both accurate and bearable through a long book; but Kathryn Stockett is not bad. They really do talk that way down there, even to this day, but it's not so awful once one gets used to it.

I have zero patience with Identity Politics. Yes, everybody has 'privilege' - everybody has a higher place in the pecking-order than somebody else, except the people at the very bottom, who have none but aren't in a position to complain about it because they're mute and crippled wards of the State. It's true; humans like to form dominance-hierarchies and then spend a lot of energy trying to claw their way up to being Alpha. As I see it, all this going-on about 'Privilege' is just another method of trying to claw one's way up - it's not in the service of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Sorority or Non-Gendered Cousinhood; it's more in the spirit of Sour Grapes.

Whose PLACE is it to write a book? Woahhhh! Whose 'place' is it to say what someone else's 'place' ought to be? That whole concept stinks of Political Correctness: are people seriously saying that a writer 'should' SILENCE herself instead of writing the book she wants to write, so as not to tread on the toes of someone else's delicate sensibilities?

Identity Politics generates dislike, distrust and resentment. Under the sanctimonious guise of 'protecting precious heritage', it draws an Us/Them line in the sand between the Precious Heritage and the entire rest of the world. Why should the rest of the world cross that line? Why should the men stand up for the women, or the white stand up for the black, or the straight stand up for the queer, or the able-bodied stand up for the disabled, if all they're going to get for it is invalidation?

Oh yeah, "whatever; just as long as the story gets told" - the Identity Politics pushers would rather it did NOT get told, than that it be told by an Unauthorized person. And is it my place to say this? I AM in fact saying it. Kathryn Stockett did in fact write the book. You are in fact asking the questions you're asking - and What Is Wrong With This Picture when one of those questions is whether it's even your 'place' to ask them?

I didn't think the book was all so daring and courageous. Black Like Me (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me) was daring and courageous; The Help was merely entertaining. Mississippi is still a backward state, though, so I hope Kathryn Stockett did like Skeeter in the book and moved to New York City after writing it. If the grandchild or great-grandchild of one of those housekeepers wants to write a better book about how it REALLY was back then, ain't nothin' stoppin' 'em... except maybe that those Northern cities are so damn cold in the winter.

,

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they do talk this way! It's just that reading dialect always takes some getting used to. Particularly when even the standard language isn't my native tongue...

I tend to steer away from those privilege discussions these days - you just don't stand a chance in them. However, I wasn't always so wise, so as a white straight able-bodied Christian woman with a university degree, born, bred and living in a First World country, with no personal history of abuse or neglect whatsoever, I got to hear quite often that I didn't have a say in whatever the discussion was about. The only way I could've been even less "qualified" would have been to be rich and male on top of the rest, I guess! :P While (like you) I don't have any patience for that sort of debate (or other forms of Political Correctness Gone Over The Top), I can't help being aware that it exists! And it sort of kept rubbing me all the way through The Help. Whether I like it or not, these sensibilities are there...

It's still a good book! Agreed on the "daring and courageous" bit, though. (And IIRC, Kathryn Stockett was actually already living in NYC when she wrote this. ^^)