topaz119: (somanybooks)
topaz119 ([personal profile] topaz119) wrote2016-03-23 12:18 pm
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brain weasels & books

Today’s goal: add "but I’m making progress" every time the brain weasels tell me how there’s so much to do. (My to-do lists really do overfloweth, but having my brain tell me a hundred times an hour how I’ll never cope is not helpful at all and since I am failing at turning that inner-monologue off, I’m trying to tack the progress part onto the end.)

Adulting is no fun sometimes (but next weekend is unlimited food & wine which is in the Adulting!YAY! column.) (See what I did there?)

Also, it is Wednesday, so I will catch up on the reading meme, which crosses that off the Virtual Life list AND allows me to interact with y’all. Double-score?

finished
Silk Is For Seduction, Loretta Chase – Another of LC’s fabulous historical romances, in which the heroine is *not* an innocent young miss waiting for her Prince Charming. There is lots of good stuff in this, not the least of which is that the actual romance part and how well it worked. I would love for someone to have illustrated all the gowns Marcelline and her sisters designed and created—surely somewhere this exists?

Venetia, Georgette Heyer, audiobook narrated by Phyllida Nash – One of my favorite Heyers and the audio version just highlighted the ease and friendship between Venetia and Damerel. Unfortunately, it also highlighted the interminable mansplaining going on with just about every single male character. OY. I’m glad I knew there was a happy ending coming (also, for some reason, Damerel’s orgy comment is A Big Thing on goodreads, so I feel like I should add that if Venetia wants orgies, whatever the definition, OF COURSE Damerel is going to give them to her. Didn’t we just spend an entire book on the road to Venetia Really Really Really Knows What She Wants and Damerel Actually Listens?)

This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking, John Brockman, ed. – Finished in that I officially noped right on out of it. Disappointing.

now
White Night, Jim Butcher, audiobook narrated by James Marsters – Yep, still trucking along with the Dresden series. This one has both Thomas and Marcone, so that’s a plus.

Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow – I had to send it back to the library unfinished (it’s 700+ pages) but I am back on the Hold list so I can keep going with it. The goal is to have it finished by July, when we have tickets for the Broadway show. If nothing else, Beach Week is the week before that, so I’ll have some dedicated reading time available then.

March, Geraldine Brooks – I’d just started this when my mom passed away, and I lost all focus, but I might pick it back up again shortly. If March himself turns out to be… difficult (read 'mansplaining ass') (as Bronson Alcott was IRL) I reserve the right to DNF.

next
I am adopting a 'cruise through the books I already own and see what pops' policy, b/c, y’all, my TBR list is utterly out of control. I would like to get the number of unread books I have laying around (both actually and virtually) into double digits.

ALSO! The Spring 2016 Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon is April 23! Sign-ups are open now – I am too old to stay up for 24 hours, but it is an *excellent* excuse to do nothing but read all day long (and have people cheerlead for you while you do it!)
lilacsigil: Hermionie Granger, "Hooray Books" (hermione)

[personal profile] lilacsigil 2016-03-24 03:00 am (UTC)(link)
I enjoyed "March" - there was some mansplaining early on but it was thoroughly contextualised as mansplaining and ignorance and there are some other terrific characters in the book.
turps: (Default)

[personal profile] turps 2016-03-25 10:35 am (UTC)(link)
That's very much adulting!yay. I hope next weekend arrives fast for you.
ancarett: I "Heart" Libraries (Libraries Heart)

[personal profile] ancarett 2016-03-23 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I really liked the Loretta Chase series (well, the ones that I've read in it so far) and Venetia is a perennial Heyer favourite!

[identity profile] topaz119.livejournal.com 2016-04-08 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I read the second of Chase's dressmaker sisters & while I liked it, I feel like she better be getting the jilted fiancée/sister a small kingdom to make up for two DeLucey's marrying into the family. Nothing too ostentatious, just a principality in Europe or the Mediterranean...