Kim @ Traveling in Books posted: " I had one of those wonderfully low-key sorts of weeks. We went bowling. I enjoyed a nice thunderstorm. I played with Mina and did a lot of reading. It was nice and relaxing. I think we could all do with some nice and relaxing weeks more often. " Traveling in Books
I had one of those wonderfully low-key sorts of weeks. We went bowling. I enjoyed a nice thunderstorm. I played with Mina and did a lot of reading. It was nice and relaxing.
I think we could all do with some nice and relaxing weeks more often.
Obligatory Mina Photo:
A moth got into my apartment, and you can bet that Mina saw it. She chased it all over the living room and into the bedroom and then up onto the dresser when it fluttered up into the corner near the ceiling.
I expect this from a cat. The problem arose when, instead of realizing that the moth was well out of her reach, Mina decided to leap up after it. When she landed and tried to go after the moth again, she knocked over the lamp, four framed photos, and a framed antique print in addition to scratching my arm as I tried to pull her off the dresser before she wreaked even more havoc. Fortunately, she didn't break anything or hurt herself or me.
But she didn't get the moth.
What I Finished Reading Last Week:
Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World by Thomas F. Madden, audiobook narrated by Edoardo Ballerini
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs, audiobook narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World is an overview of the history of Istanbul, beginning with its founding by Greek colonists who named their new city Byzantium, through its history as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire after being renamed Constantinople, its capture by Ottoman Turks in 1453, and into the twenty-first century. Given that the book deals with 2,500 years of history, Madden doesn't go terribly in-depth for much of anything save for some of the most pivotal moments in the city's history (the Nika Revolt, for example, or the Crusaders' sacking of the city in 1204), but it's an interesting story all the same. Madden describes the various rises and falls that Istanbul has been through in its storied history, so if you want to start looking at the history of the region, I think this is an excellent book to begin with.
Ink Blood Sister Scribe is Emma Törzs's debut novel in which a pair of estranged sisters must resolve their decade-old conflict. Joanna must learn to let go of her attachment to the life of protecting a collection of magical books her father raised her around, while Esther must figure out why she has had to spend her life on the run. Along with a young man named Richard, who writes shady spells for even shadier billionaires, Joanna and Esther must solve the various mysteries they have been enmeshed within to find the answers that will free them from the shackles of their pasts. I thought this was a solid novel with well-rounded characters and a well-constructed world, though there were some bits I thought were drawn out longer than necessary which killed the tension. There was also some heavy-handed worldbuilding at the 90% mark that could have been handled better, but on the whole, I enjoyed this book and I'll be keeping an eye out for Törzs's next novel.
The Atlas of Middle-earth is Karen Wynn Fonstad's excellent collection of maps drawn from various sources relating directly to Middle-earth and Tolkien's Legendarium. The maps are accompanied by Fonstad's descriptions of the landforms, their structures, and their climate, as well as the "historical" events and movements that took place there. There are maps from the First and Second Ages, but most of the book is devoted to the Third Age, describing in detail the events of The Hobbit and especially The Lord of the Rings. This is another book that provides a wealth of information for die-hard fans of Tolkien's work or people who just enjoy well-made maps.
I recently finished my reread of Jane Eyre. It's been several years since I last read it, but I don't think my opinion of it has changed. I still love this book and I love Jane and her unwillingness to let society (or men) dictate her life to her. I still don't like Mr. Rochester or St. John Rivers, and I still adore Diana and Mary Rivers. I love Brontë's writing, and I can fall into the story in a matter of a few pages. I also understand the centuries-old appeal of the story-- Mr. Rochester is one of the original Byronic heroes: dark, gloomy, and dangerous. He is not the sort of man you would actually want to fall in love with if you met him in real life, as he's a terrible human being. But fiction gives us a place to explore our dark sides and melodramatic selves in a safe place. Through Jane, we can be captivated by the dangerous man without having to deal with him ourselves. I don't think Charlotte Brontë saw Mr. Rochester as an ideal romantic figure. I think she knew he was a controversial figure, and she was fascinated by the sparks that flew between Jane, this little firecracker of a character, and her Byronic Mr. Rochester. I don't like Mr. Rochester. I never have. But I love this story and the drama I find within the pages.
What I'm Currently Reading:
Witch King by Martha Wells (79/432)
The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (37/402)
The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy by Thomas Penn, audiobook narrated by Roy McMillan (16%)
I made basically no progress in With King because I decided I wanted to focus on Jane Eyre so I could get it finished instead of drawing out both books longer than necessary. So I'll be focusing on Witch King (which I am enjoying) this week and will report back next Sunday.
I started listening to the audiobook of Italo Calvino's The Complete Cosmicomics, not realizing that this was a collection of short stories. Because I have a hard time following short stories via audio, I decided to switch over to my physical copy and listen to a different audiobook. The Complete Cosmicomics is Calvino's collection of stories in which he explored the scientific theories that were coming up in the 1960s-80s. In these stories, his ageless guide Qfwfq walks the reader through things like the Big Bang or the development of the solar system via a series of funny stories that delve into the nature of the universe and language itself. I'm not very far into this, but I have enjoyed the few stories I've read so far, and I'm looking forward to continuing.
The Brothers York is the audiobook I downloaded after The Complete Cosmicomics. I've been meaning to get to it for quite some time, as it deals with a period of history I want to know more about: the English Wars of the Roses, in which the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions spent two generations fighting over the throne. It shifted back and forth between the weak Henry VI and the charismatic Edward IV until Henry VI's suspicious death in captivity. After Edward IV's death, his son Edward V should have inherited the throne, but he was usurped by his uncle, the notorious Richard III, who himself was overthrown by Henry Tudor in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field. The Brothers York focuses on the three Plantagenet brothers: Edward IV, George, Duke of Clarence, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester later Richard III. Penn explores the complicated relationships between the brothers and the power they held within England. The "royal tragedy" part of the subtitle comes from the idea that, had they stood together, the brothers would have been nigh unstoppable. But their conflicting wants and ideas ultimately drove them apart, leading to the downfall of the centuries-old Plantagenet dynasty. I'm not even twenty percent of the way through this, but so far it's a fascinating read. I'm already familiar with the Paston family whose letter Penn has referenced several times (thanks to their collection of letters I read earlier this year), and I want to know more about Cecily Neville, who was a force to be reckoned with in her own right. I've had Annie Garthwaite's historical novel based on her life, Cecily, on my TBR for a while now, so I will probably bump it up a little higher once I've finished this.
Listening to Things:
Thanks to all the audiobooks I've been listening to, I haven't listened to much music. The only album I pulled up was Steven Price's 2013 Academy Award-winning score for Gravity. This is quite a dramatic work- not surprising, given the film's subject matter- but I ultimately found it to be rather forgettable. I've listened to it twice, and I'd be hard-pressed to pick out any given track from this score from a line-up of similar scores.
I'm not familiar with the other film scores that were nominated in 2013, so I can't say whether or not I think Gravity deserved to win. It's a perfectly good score, but obviously not one that's stuck with me. Alas.
On to the 2014 winner, which was Alexandre Desplat's score for Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel.
About That Writing Thing:
The editing for my latest, mostly-complete Work in Progress is going fairly well. I tend to procrastinate on the editing part of things. In my head, I always build it up as this grand process that's going to be terribly difficult and time-consuming, but it's not. I can usually clear up the continuity problems with quick rewrites, and the line editing is not a problem, either. It's probably more a matter of dealing, yet again, with a work I've been staring at and thinking of for (in this case) a year and a half. I'm so familiar with it that it seems uninteresting to me, though I know the series' subscribers are looking forward to it and will be excited to read the new chapters.
Still, I'm making steady progress and have just reached the halfway point. Chapter eight will have the most significant rewrites, but after that, it should be smooth sailing.
In the meantime, I've been working on a far more freewheeling story in the same fandom, and that has been going well. I've decided I won't write the whole thing before I start sharing it. I'll just post each chapter as I finish it and let the chips fall where they may. I have a vague idea of where the story is going, but I have no idea how, exactly, it will get there. Now that I'm so close to the end of the series I've spent nearly ten years writing, I have so much more brain space to devote to new stories. Writing this new story has been a lot of fun, and I think the readers can tell. I'm looking forward to this new writing adventure!
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