Time Travel Made Easy

Yep, still reading, just not at the rate I ought to be. I plead February for my laxity, but I really don't have much excuse for the beginning of March.

The Wordy Shipmates is Sarah Vowel's witty and heartwarming exploration into the lives and times of the original Massachusetts Bay Colonists. I pretty much only ever read one non fiction book a year outside of those I read for classes, and that's only because my father makes a point of giving me one for Christmas every year. Vowel's often irreverent commentary on the Puritans and the seventeenth century British is good fun, though; perhaps if I remind myself that not all nonfiction reads like my textbooks, I'd read more. And perhaps if I read more about American history, I'd feel less ashamed of my very, very sketchy background in that subject. (Thanks, public school! (I kid, I kid, I'm very grateful to have gone to public school- but US History 2 was essentially a second study hall, when I caught up on sleep or my pre-calc homework.))

The Egyptian Earth is actually something I had to read for my politics class, but I'm counting it because it's a novel and it wasn't on the textbook list. I have to write a paper examining some aspect of Arab social dynamics in it- complete draft is due Monday, and I'm getting very very tired of the fact that every aspect of this class causes me some level of anxiety.

At any rate, it's not at all my usual fare, and I've still got it percolating in my head; you have an Egyptian peasant village suffering the abuses of the government and struggling to rebel in productive ways that really don't go anywhere. It presents a sort of idealized version of peasant social relationships, if not of peasant life- these are not happy, idyllic peasants, they are poor and filthy and frequently irritable and full of vicious gossip, but when push comes to shove they unite against a common cause.

Under normal circumstances, I'd stick with what I know and write about gender relations in the book, but I just finished my gender and sexuality midterm, and I'm a little sick of it. I need to produce some amount of bullshit to hand in; so long as it looks like a potentially complete paper, I can edit it as much as necessary before handing in the final version some time in April. *sigh* Still not feeling this semester at all, and it's half over.

I haven't actually read any Discworld since highschool, which seems a little strange and shameful considering the number of people I know who have read every single book in the series. And it's taken me several years to read Going Postal, which also seems strange, given that I was living with a Pratchett fan with family members in the postal service when the book came out.

I'd forgotten how much I really, really liked Pratchett- sure, there are moments when the book is over the top and emotionally manipulative, but then there are moments of spine tingling, profound awesome, like Mr. Pump's actuarial approach to murder, and more or less every time Vetinari appeared on page. I'd somehow forgotten how much I enjoyed Vetinari- now I need to find a book about the Watch to see if I still enjoy Vimes as much as I used to.

It's taking me longer to read books now that I can't just spend a day in one of the chairs in the library; I read Going Postal on my meal breaks at work and then finished it as a treat for doing my homework on Sunday.

I now have The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo, Cities of Coin and Spice by Cat Valente, and one of the Aubrey and Maturin books (for real, this time!) out from the library; hopefully I will find myself more time to read this week.

I am determined to read at least fifty books this year. I love books, there's no reason for me to be doing as little reading as I do. And so: first book of the new year! I had a bit of free merchandise credit to spend at Borders after Christmas, and this was the only thing that leapt off the seriously picked-over shelves. Turns out it was an excellent choice.

The Drowning City is part high-fantasy action adventure, part spy thriller- Isyllt Iskaldur is a Selafai spy and necromancer sent to the city of Symir to help foment a revolution among the native Sivahran people so the occupying Empire won't turn its sights to her homeland.

This book hits so many of my story kinks- necromancy, assassins, fantastical cities, sensible elemental magic systems, spiritual possession. It has the added bonus of being populated primarily by Asian and Middle Eastern equivalent cultures, which was unexpected and awesome. It also passes the Bechdel test with flying colors- all of the viewpoint characters are women, none of them are defined by their romantic relationships (affected by them, yes, but not defined by them, and all three of them are effectively single by the end of the story), Sivahran society is quietly matriarchal, and most of the moving and shaking of the plot is done by women.

And man, what a plot. Intrigue! Spies! Terrorists and revolutionaries! Corrupt government officials! Isyllt's story is just a small part of the whole, bloody, revolutionary mess, and I do love a tale of revolution. Once the story gets going, there are a few madcap reveals of awesomeness (although you see the thing with Asheris, the Lord Inquisitor, coming a mile away, but it's fine because Asheris is fantastic. I have a thing for pyromancers, what can I say.).

There's pretty much nothing I didn't enjoy about this book, apart from the occasional stylistic sentence fragment and the overuse of the word "gooseflesh." But I'm the sort of freak who thinks too hard about tiny flaws in writing, so. *coughs, hides rants on the first half of The Name of the Wind under the rug* I'm looking forward to the sequel, as I thoroughly enjoyed Isyllt and her adventures- though I do hope some of the characters from The Drowning City show up in The Bone Palace when it comes out.