Reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

Just finished: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. The Lesbian Space Necromancers Solve a Murder In a Castle book was hella fun, though not as life changing/life ruining as Tumblr made it out to be. I was deeply impressed by the worldbuilding and rich prose, but I felt like it needed a stronger editorial hand. I struggled with character voice and motivation at times, those this is a structural problem in any whodunnit where the killer turns out to be Someone You'd Never Suspect. But I love the universe and will absolutely devour the sequel.

The Decameron Vol. 2 by Giovanni Boccacci. I continue to make rather slow progress through this one, but the 6th and 7th days in particular are highly enjoyable. The sixth is "wit and clever retort" and the seventh is "wives getting one over on their husbands," and once again, these medieval stories end up having better female protagonists than 90% of modern fiction. The highlight is VI, 7, wherein a woman is put on trial for adultery and successfully argues her way out of it by arguing that the law, despite applying to women, was written without any woman's consent or input, and also in her defence she was hella thirsty. She gets off and gets the law changed. This book was written in 1353.

Comments

[moon_custafer]

and also in her defence she was hella thirsty.

Doesn’t the narrative of that one also imply that she’s Not Getting Enough because her husband’s gay and would really rather spend all his time with other guys, so she’s also arguing sauce-for-the-goose, etc?

[sabotabby]

I didn't get that her husband was gay, but now that you mention it, that's a definite explanation.

[kore]

I thought the beginning of Gideon was really slow and not that much like the rest of the book, but once we got to the training bit and then the murders started happening I really enjoyed it. I NEED the sequel, NOW.

I don't think I've ever read Boccaccio which seems odd....

[sabotabby]

It definitely picked up as it went on. I need a sequel.

I don't think I've ever read Boccaccio which seems odd....

Yeah, you're way more well-versed in the classics than I am!

[kore]

And the sequel is apparently from Harrow's POV! AAAAAHHHH why did they delay it (okay I know why, but I NEED it).

....ahaha, I'm a total classicist manqué, I know people who can still actually remember their Greek verb tenses and details of Roman daily life. I did pick up a lot about the Middle Ages from angevin tho.

[mistersmearcase]

(I have the weirdest thing with the name Tamsin/Tamsyn. I had literally never heard it until I moved here and a friend put me in touch with his friend Tamsin and I was like "wait that's not a name." Now I've heard it several times. I dunno, Mandela Effect? In my proper universe it's not a name?)

[sabotabby]

I find it near impossible to type because Tasmin and Tasneem are common enough names that my brain keeps autocorrecting to one of those.

[dagibbs]

I would agree that Gideon was great fun, but not life changing/ruining.

[sabotabby]

There is a dearth of queer literature, and beyond that, a dearth of queer literature with a butch main character, and where the main purpose of the story is not about The Queer Experience^TM. So I totally get it.

[dagibbs]

True. I may not be the audience to have my life changed, rather than to just enjoy the story.