Things I'm reading, watching, listening to
Jun. 4th, 2020 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brainwaneReading: I reread Zen Cho's The Terracotta Bride by Zen Cho (a review by Keguro Macharia). I'd been trying to remember, during WisCon, whether this piece has queer themes. Yes! In fact, this was originally published in Steam-Powered II: More Lesbian Steampunk Stories although I bought it as a standalone. It's 11,000 words and reminds me of how much I love short fiction that -- in terms of Hugo Awards categories -- falls into the Novelette category ("Awarded for a science fiction or fantasy story of between seven thousand five hundred (7,500) and seventeen thousand five hundred (17,500) words"). Great length for exploring a premise and watching a character grow. Now I'm in the midst of rereading her short story collection Spirits Abroad for like the fourth time. I think it's interesting to compare Cho and Iona Datt Sharma, in that they're both lawyers in the UK who write sf/f, and their stories differ dramatically in depicting legal and political institutions, and in whether and how people are likely to be able to cause justice to be done. (I think that in Sharma's work we're more likely to see people able to use the legal system to right a wrong, or do good work within government. I could be wrong and I am willing to be corrected on this point, especially as I am reasonably sure I have not read all of Sharma's and Cho's published work.)
I'm reading Spirits Abroad as an ebook; I am also halfway through my current paper book, Casey McQuiston's romance Red, White & Royal Blue. It's engaging and funny, and there are some great lines. I can see why so many people enjoyed it! If you like this, you may also like "A Great and Gruesome Height" by jaegecko, which is the kind of fanfic (of The West Wing and Dar Williams's song "Iowa") where you don't need to know the source material at all.
Now that I've read Docile, Trade Me, A Duke by Default, Emily Foster's How Not to Fall and How Not to Let Go, and part of Red, White, and Royal Blue, I have read more responses/deconstructions to the billionaire romance than I have read straightforward implementations of it, and I've read perhaps a 1:5 ratio of deconstructions to implementations regarding duke/aristocracy romances.
The emails make me SO antsy and I practically yell at the page: Oh my goodness STOP texting and emailing without regard for operational security! Also, where were Shaan and Amy at Wimbledon?
The heavy drinking doesn't feel glamorous to me, it feels like a problem with Alex. I hope this book or the sequel gets at that.
Watching: Some more Repair Shop, that Dropkick Murphys live show on Friday night (the live videocall with Bruce Springstreen had apparently zero latency and they could sing and play together, how did they do that?!), and the excellent National Theatre play This House focusing on the House of Commons in the 1970s. Really excellent -- interesting staging, funny and moving, threaded the needle on doing necessary exposition without feeling unrealistic (experts don't tell each other things they already know), very cool use of music and dance and costumes and set.
Listening: Part of an episode of the Lexicon Valley linguistics podcast, some blues via The Roadhouse podcast (hosted by someone Leonard used to work with!), and a Rush playlist a friend made for me a couple years back. And, while taking a bath the other day (soaking in lots of nice-smelling hot water! wonderful!), I started my belated catching-up on "I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats" with "Younger" -- looking forward to listening more.
Playing: Animal Crossing. Leonard has really enjoyed catching some very big June sea life; I enjoy his enjoyment. And we also have been enjoying the wedding stuff on Harv's Island. Decorating and furnishing the room is fun the way making art in Kid Pix was fun.
I'm reading Spirits Abroad as an ebook; I am also halfway through my current paper book, Casey McQuiston's romance Red, White & Royal Blue. It's engaging and funny, and there are some great lines. I can see why so many people enjoyed it! If you like this, you may also like "A Great and Gruesome Height" by jaegecko, which is the kind of fanfic (of The West Wing and Dar Williams's song "Iowa") where you don't need to know the source material at all.
Now that I've read Docile, Trade Me, A Duke by Default, Emily Foster's How Not to Fall and How Not to Let Go, and part of Red, White, and Royal Blue, I have read more responses/deconstructions to the billionaire romance than I have read straightforward implementations of it, and I've read perhaps a 1:5 ratio of deconstructions to implementations regarding duke/aristocracy romances.
The emails make me SO antsy and I practically yell at the page: Oh my goodness STOP texting and emailing without regard for operational security! Also, where were Shaan and Amy at Wimbledon?
The heavy drinking doesn't feel glamorous to me, it feels like a problem with Alex. I hope this book or the sequel gets at that.
Watching: Some more Repair Shop, that Dropkick Murphys live show on Friday night (the live videocall with Bruce Springstreen had apparently zero latency and they could sing and play together, how did they do that?!), and the excellent National Theatre play This House focusing on the House of Commons in the 1970s. Really excellent -- interesting staging, funny and moving, threaded the needle on doing necessary exposition without feeling unrealistic (experts don't tell each other things they already know), very cool use of music and dance and costumes and set.
Listening: Part of an episode of the Lexicon Valley linguistics podcast, some blues via The Roadhouse podcast (hosted by someone Leonard used to work with!), and a Rush playlist a friend made for me a couple years back. And, while taking a bath the other day (soaking in lots of nice-smelling hot water! wonderful!), I started my belated catching-up on "I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats" with "Younger" -- looking forward to listening more.
Playing: Animal Crossing. Leonard has really enjoyed catching some very big June sea life; I enjoy his enjoyment. And we also have been enjoying the wedding stuff on Harv's Island. Decorating and furnishing the room is fun the way making art in Kid Pix was fun.
