Whatcha Readin'?

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Speaking of T. Kingfisher and Ursula Vernon, January will be brightened by the release of

http://www.arisia.org/KingfisherBook

Which as the blurb says is a compilation of most of Ursula’s annotated fairy tales and the formerly digital-only Toad Words. For an example of one of her annotated tales, I recommend her version of Tatterhood.

“Perhaps I know one way to help you,” said the beggar woman. “Your majesty must make them bring in two pails of water some evening before you go to bed. Wash yourself in each of them, and afterwards throw the water under your bed. When you look under your bed the next morning, two flowers will have sprung up, a beautiful one and an ugly one. Eat the beautiful one but leave the ugly alone. Be careful not to forget this last bit of advice.” That was what the beggar woman said.

All those who think the queen is going to listen, raise your hand. No, keep ‘em up so I can count them.

Right. You have failed Fairy Tales 101. Report to the old well to be assigned whatever horrible thing will fall out of your mouth whenever you talk from now on. Ask for earthworms, they’re easier to hide than toads. And good in the garden.

Incidentally, that’s a lot of water to dump under the bed. If I did that, I’d expect a leak in the living room.

Yes, the queen did what the beggar woman advised her to do; she had the water brought up in two pails, washed herself in them, and emptied them under the bed; and when she looked under the bed the next morning, there stood two flowers; one was ugly and foul, and had black leaves; but the other was so bright, and fair, and lovely, she had never seen anything like it, so she ate it up at once. But the pretty flower tasted so sweet, that she couldn’t help herself. She ate the other one too, for, she thought, “I’m sure that it can’t hurt or help me much either way.”

Remarkably, the queen will not learn from this mistake.

Well, sure enough, after a while the queen was brought to bed. First of all, she had a girl who had a wooden spoon in her hand, and rode upon a goat.

There is almost no way to interpret this that does not involve the queen giving birth to a riding goat. I am guessing there was a lot of screaming and a lot of head-scratching on the part of the midwives—and how do you even explain that to the king? “Say, Your Majesty, you aren’t aware of any…err…odd shoots on the family tree, are you? You know…extra limbs…maybe with hooves…?”

It’s even more disturbing if you take the literal interpretation that she rode out on the goat, under her own power. I am not entirely sure that dilation in centimeters is what’s called for here. Presumably the queen had like three epidurals and maybe some laudanum.

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Just finished re-reading Transmetropolitan, which now seems unpleasantly topical.

Currently reading Voices from Chernobyl: An Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster. Utterly heartrending and yet unexpectedly comforting in the most fatalistic way.

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Since last posting…

Ivory Vikings by Nancy Brown, a great English-language viking history/culture author. Recommended to history buffs interested in the development of Icelandic culture as a reaction to the increasing empowerment of Scandinavian Kings.

Darkship Thieves by Sarah Hoyt. A good romp if you don’t mind the libertarian style of SF (it’s not overtly polemical, but quite Heinleinesque, so not exactly subtle either).

The 1835 Wood translation of The History of the Assassins by the Chevalier Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall. Basically interesting propaganda about the history of the Nizari Ismaili Shi’a Muslims, including their fortification strategy and interactions with Saladin and the Crusaders.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Very much enjoyed this and read it in one sitting. It’s more a quirky exploration of some intriguing ideas than a “nuts and volts” type hard SF tale.

Maurice Druon’s The Iron King, first in the Accursed Kings series. Another excellent historical book, this one about Philip the Fair and his vicious but effective looting of the papacy, French Jews, and finally the Knights Templar.

Step Aside Pops by Kate Beaton who is a most wonderful wonder of wonderfulness. A cartoon book by a Canadian for we poor lost souls who guffaw at North American history jokes.

Wilderness by poet/SF author Roger Zelazny and American historian Gerald Hausfeld. This book seems unfinished to me; and I’m pretty sure it was published after Zelazny’s death, so that’s not impossible. It becomes increasingly mystical as it progresses from realistic depictions of the known facts concerning John Coulter and Hugh Glass, to hypothetical earlier and later scenes drawn from knowledge of the era. I think Zelazny could have polished it a great deal more but I enjoyed it anyway.

Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne, which presents a fairly even handed but distinctly Southern view of the brutal subjugation of the American Plains Indians. Gwynne shows more sympathy to the Comanche and the Confederacy than for the Union, and uses language constructs that are distinctly racist, but it was an age of racism and casual atrocities and nobody comes out of this one looking good. I learned more than I thought I would about Texas history!

A handful of Catherine Asaro’s Skolian Empire novels. Genre romantic space opera, really; they are very popular but I got tired of them before I finished the series.

And hundreds, if not thousands of pages of very dry technical documentation. In fact everything else mentioned here could probably be considered therapy.

And no, I still haven’t finished Infinite Jest, although I got a few chapters deeper while waiting for jury selection (no electronic commications allowed to jurors in Delaware’s courthouses, so it’s a good place to bring a thick book). It’s still not grabbing me.

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Let us know what you think. Finished Cok’s first three Black Company books. First books I’ve read in 3 years I htink, mobile articles and videos and message boards had killed off my reading habit.

But it feels great to get back into books. Now reading American Gods and ordering up the next Vol of Black Co. books.

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Dune.

Tor are doing a reread of herbert senior’s dune novels, and no more!

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Just finished:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00395ZYVI/
man, that was long.

Reading:

and

and, technically, still reading these two though they are back burnered:

and

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My son was so thrilled to see Step Aside Pops on bookstore shelves last Thanksgiving. An easy, affordable, permanent, Can-Con present for mom with no guessing, no age-limit to purchase. Any comics collection gift the giver can enjoy is a two-thumbs-up from Boy.

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I love the title piece.

“Good heavens it’s that awful velocopedestrienne!”

“You see me rollin’ up Pops you step aside.”

:laughing:

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I keep reading the male’s speech in David Mitchell’s voice:

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C’mon now, give us the TL;DR on Jesus Wars

@Medievalist - don’t give up on IJ.

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More than you ever wanted to know about Monophysites and people who hated them?

The book basically lays out the pro and anti-Monophysite controversies, the two councils at Ephesus, and the infighting of the early (mostly Eastern centered) church. It also shows how the way was paved for the later Muslim invasions by the alienation of much of the population from the larger churches, how Coptics got their own church, and so forth. It was just very long and if you aren’t into such things, probably would become tedious. Sort of like the book on the Peloponnesian War that I read last year (which may cause me to never need to read another).

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If you like that one, I heartily recommend this one:

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For the TLDR crowd:

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Isn’t there only one book on The History of the Peloponnesian War? :wink:

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No, that book is shorter than the one I read! I’m sure I posted about it somewhere above.

edit:

My goodreads profile:

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Plodding through this. I think that if I was feeling really generous I’d call it extremely dated.

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I liked it as a teen… probably not so much these days. For pure WTF sexist crazyville from that era of his writing try I Will Fear No Evil. It is fun but very cringeworthy as I think back on it now.

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Working my way through Death’s End. Enjoying it very much but it can be a bit of a slog at times.

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I’ll be picking up T.C. Boyle’s latest book, The Terranauts, at the library this afternoon. (And hopefully be able to finish reading it before it’s due.)

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What more needs to be said, really? XD

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