somewhat weekly reading meme

[firecat]

What are you currently reading?

A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King (#3 in the Mary Russell series)

The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner (Riverside #2), audiobook narrated by Ellen Kushner, Barbara Rosenblat, and others

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

What did you recently finish reading?

Lilith's Brood, (aka Xenogenesis), Octavia Butler. I loved this so much even though I was seriously creeped out by it. Alien aliens! Real biology! Ambivalence, adaptation, allies, bonding, captivity, coercion, communication, conflict, consent, enemies, family, freedom, gender, genetics, genocide, healing, hierarchy, identity, knowledge, needing, reproduction, resisting, sex, symbiosis, telepathy, tribe, wanting, war, xenophobia.
These essays are linked from the Wikipedia page; I posted them before but I thought they were worth posting again.
"Dialogic Origins and Alien Identities in Butler’s XENOGENESIS" by Cathy Peppers
Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy: A Biologist’s Response by Joan Slonczewski

August Heat by Andrea Camilleri (Montalbano #10). Audiobook. Montalbano is a Sicilian cop. Almost all the novels are about sex crimes, and I usually figure out the plot before the end, but I like them anyway. The translator and narrator are really good.

What books did you acquire this week?

The Wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri (Montalbano #11)

Comments

[fyreharper]

I quite enjoyed The Privilege of the Sword. How is the audiobook version?

[firecat]

It's performed fairly theatrically and has sound effects. I tend to like them more low-key, so for me it's taking some getting used to. I'm starting to like it. But I don't think I will listen to Swordspoint, which is done the same way. Because I've read Swordspoint and I already have ideas about how the characters are supposed to sound, and I'm afraid that might clash with the reading.

[fyreharper]

Somehow I had missed that these characters had more books! I will have to look up Swordspoint, thanks.

[striped]

Ooh, what do you think of Lavinia? I absolutely loved it, despite not being familiar with the original myth; it was one of those books that was not larger than life, but a small gem.

[firecat]

I'm only a little way into it, but it's got all the qualities that I love in Le Guin's work, the way she really notices things about the world and people, and describes them so simply that there's room for all sorts of feelings to arise in the reader.

[striped]

Yes! She's very perceptive and fine-tuned, and compassionate without trying to dictate emotions to the reader.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Butler essay links. I'm half-way through the middle book and will come back to the essays when we're done with the trilogy. It's a re-read, but it's probably been 15 or more years since I first read the trilogy.