What I've Been Reading Wednesday

[thisbluespirit]

What I've Finished Reading

I managed to read the rest of Trudi Canavan's The Black Magician Trilogy. The books kept getting longer but overall I enjoyed them - the characters were all very likeable, and it was fairly easy for me to read, and it's really nice to be able to cope with visiting a fantasy world.

Then I read Katherine by Anya Seton and loved it, which was a surprise because when I was worse, a few years ago, I read Devil Water which turned out to be a randomly easy to read book for me at the time, so that was good, but it also seemed quite weird in some ways. Now I'm wishing I'd kept it in case it was just me. (Although my vague memories suggest maybe not? I don't know.) Anyway, Katherine is about Katherine Swynford and I liked it a lot, as I said.

After that, I read The Knife Man by Wendy Moore, about the 18th C surgeon John Hunter, which was very interesting - certainly not a boring subject - even if it was occasionally a bit (inevitably) gruesome!


What I'm Reading Now

I'm still going through Wartime Britain 1939-1945 for my family history note-taking purposes, but I have done a lot less of that than usual.

Currently I'm reading Bess of Hardwick by Mary S. Lovell, and enjoying it.


What I'm Reading Next

Who knows? There may be birthday goodies, after all. Probably it ought to be something shorter and not a biography next up, though. And I ought to resume my note-taking a bit more regularly, too.

Comments

[liadt]

I'm glad you've found a decent historical rp novel to read!

[thisbluespirit]

Weirdly, I hardly ever read historical novels and then I usually prefer made up people! I can read NF about the real ones! (Well, some of those are borderline fictional, too, but hey.)

But I think I'll keep an eye out for Anya Seton now. The two books had a divided result so far, so I need to see what the final score would be...

[liadt]

Book footy! Or Eurovision;p

[rydra_wong]

After that, I read The Knife Man by Wendy Moore, about the 18th C surgeon John Hunter, which was very interesting - certainly not a boring subject - even if it was occasionally a bit (inevitably) gruesome!

It's closed until 2021 while the building's redeveloped, but the Hunterian Museum in the Royal College of Surgeons in London is extremely worth a visit if you're interested (and can cope with the expected gruesomeness) -- it includes a lot of Hunter's collection.

https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/hunterian-museum/

I wrote a bit about it here:

https://rydra-wong.dreamwidth.org/483629.html

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks! I can imagine from the book it would be fascinating. I doubt I'll ever get well enough to visit, though.

[st_aurafina]

Happy birthday bb!

[thisbluespirit]

And to you! I'm sorry I haven't made a post! <3

[st_aurafina]

Nah, don’t apologise - I am very happy keeping quiet this year.

[thisbluespirit]

Me too! <3

[luthien]

Oh, it is/was your birthday? Happy birthday! You're almost my partner's twin - out by one day, by the looks of it!

[thisbluespirit]

It was, and thanks! <3 Happy birthday in return to your partner! It's a good month generally. :-D

[auroracloud]

Yay books! Especially books about history. History of medicine is... frighteningly and hilariously terrible? So the same probably goes for 18th century surgeons specifically. I love reading about the history of medicine, and whenever I do, I'm terrified and suddenly find that the 21st century is quite okay, after all.

[thisbluespirit]

I did Medicine Through Time as a GCSE topic, so I find reading about it quite funny as I keep running into names I once chanted in my head for exams. If you were going to see an 18th C surgeon, then John Hunter would be one of the very best you could go to, although I think 21st C medicine is definitely an improvement!

[luthien]

I read Katherine when I was a teenager, and it's one of those books that I've always remembered. There was a Yuletide fic for it a couple of years ago that took things in a very slight AU, which really worked beautifully.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, thanks! I remembered that one of my flist had written one and went straight off to read it, and enjoyed it very much.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, and not to be a nuisance or anything, but if you did want to leave any characters/ships for me in the 500 prompts list, you'd be very welcome! I feel bad that I didn't manage to do your nice meme prompts last time. (And we share some fandoms I like a lot that I don't as often get prompts for, too. :-D)


(But also, don't worry if not; it's hardly obligatory and I wouldn't want you to feel cornered! <3)

[luthien]

I'll see what I can do!

No worries about the last ones. I know how that goes.

[sovay]

Then I read Katherine by Anya Seton and loved it, which was a surprise because when I was worse, a few years ago, I read Devil Water which turned out to be a randomly easy to read book for me at the time, so that was good, but it also seemed quite weird in some ways.

I really liked Seton's Foxfire (1950). That and the historical Gothic Dragonwyck (1944) are the only novels of hers I've ever read.

[thisbluespirit]

I mean to look out for any I see - my usual charity shops and stalls have already given me Devil Water and Katherine so we'll see what happens next.

But I liked Katherine a lot! It's a bit hard to talk about a book I read when I was so ill I'm not reliable, but I got the impression that Katherine was a passion project in a way the other one probably just wasn't. I wish I'd kept it, though. I liked K enough, I'd like to give that one a second go-over with more of a brain!

[singe]

Because I are stoopit it took me years to realize my kindle's memory can be expanded with a teeny tiny memory card. ALL MY COLLECTIONS FIT NOW! I'm a reading maniac...I think I'll find 'The Knife Man,' it sounds interesting.

[thisbluespirit]

Have fun!

[scripsi]

It was the characters and the character developments I really enjoyed with The Black Magician Trilogy. I remember them very well. The actual plot- not so much...

[thisbluespirit]

Well, if it's only going to be one of those that works, the characters have my money, so I suppose that works out! I'd say the same, really. I'm not sure I'd rush out to read her other stuff, but I am curious about the other ones that have the same characters, because I did like them a lot.

[scripsi]

So true! I take character over plot too, if I have to choose. :) And I didn't think the plots were actively bad- just rather predictable.