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What are you reading these days?
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit.
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I'm currently reading I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett. It's the second to last book in the Tiffany Aching series, the last of which was the posthumously published The Shepherd's Crown. I bought the latter book on the day it came out and it's only just now I think I'm ready to read it, but I wanted to re-read the whole series so I don't miss anything in the finale. It's been a long time but I think I can cope with there being no more unread Pratchett in my world. I may not reach the end of The Shepherd's Crown, I'm not sure.
Before that I was reading Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which was a slightly disappointing, albeit not terrible, followup to his genuinely superb Children of Time. I recommend anyone who likes sci-fi read the latter but maybe not the former.
GNU Terry Pratchett.
I just finished with Tell: Love, Defiance, and the Military Trial at the Tipping Point for Gay Rights by Margaret Witt and Tim Connor.
It is the story of Major Margie Witt (the lead author, though the book is written in third-person) who served as a flight nurse in the United States Air Force for nearly twenty years. She was a beloved member of her unit and provided outstanding medical care, but after she was outed as gay she faced a suspension and eventual discharge for violating the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding gay service members. She filed suit, the eventual outcome of which was the impetus for the United States to overturn its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and allow gay and lesbian service members to serve openly.
The book is an interesting story, though it goes pretty in depth with its descriptions of military and legal proceedings, many of which went over my head. Had I read the book instead of listening to the audiobook I would have been able to supplement my understanding by looking things up, but I listened to most of the book while driving so I had to take everything at face value.
That said, I still thoroughly enjoyed the book. I love reading stories of queer pioneers and role models, as I grew up without stories like hers. The book also talks a lot about the history of queer service members in the US military, and it was in this exposition that I learned about another: Perry Watkins, who was an openly gay service member for over a decade in the late 60s and 70s (what courage!). The book frequently references Randy Shilts's Conduct Unbecoming, which has been on my to-read list for over a decade now, so this might be the push I need to finally sit down with it.
Outside of that, I'm halfway through a book that my husband gifted me for Christmas: Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele. I'm loving it so far. It's a great introduction to, well, the word "queer" and all of its various lenses: descriptor, identity, queer theory, and queer studies. It covers a lot of ground and reads more like a textbook than a graphic novel (this is a good thing, IMO). It's not formalistic or prescriptive at all, and instead simply lays out different, often conflicting perspectives in an attempt to bring clarity and understanding to what can be very murky topics. I haven't finished it yet so I can't give my full thoughts, but I can say that I really appreciate what I've read so far.
EDIT: I finished with the book. I think it's a great primer on queer theory. It reads like an easily accessible SparkNotes version of the topic, with a broad who's who of queer discourse. It doesn't go into depth at all but gives plenty of jumping off points for further reading or study.
Also, for anyone who caught my Reading the Alphabet challenge thread, I'll be posting little updates in these threads at the ends of my comments. I've decided to do three separate scorecards: one for print books, one for graphic novels, and one for audiobooks. They're pretty much empty right now but I plan to fill them in as the year goes! The audiobook one will be the easiest one (I'll likely be able to fill up two full scorecards by year's end), while the print one will be the hardest. I finished 50+ audiobooks last year but only about 10 print books. I need to get reading!
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Q: Meg-John Barker; Julia Scheele - Queer: A Graphic History
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W: Margaret Witt; Tim Connor - Tell: Love, Defiance, and the Military Trial at the Tipping Point for Gay Rights
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Been playing a lot of games instead of reading and just starting on a few books, but here's what I've finished lately:
I'm still reading Under The Southern Cross by Henry Cornish. This is a fascinating book. The writer has a way of making you feel like you're right there. I just finished a section where he describes his cross-country coach trip from Wodonga to Wagga Wagga (the then-unfinished gap in the Sydney to Melbourne railway), and I could practically see inside the coach and feel the jolting of the rough road and watch the passing scenery. He also has an occasional dry wit that he lets show. I'm really enjoying the book.
I'm supplementing this with Stephen Fry's novel The Liar. I don't remember reading this book before, but passages feel familiar as I read them. More importantly, I'm not really liking it. It's a bit disjointed. The central character is annoying (and not in a good way). It's clever, but not funny. I'll see how far I get before I give up.
I just finished Attract Women Through Honesty, the dating-advice/self-help book by the author of The Art of Not Giving a Fuck. It does contain good pointers and reinforces many of my intuitions. At the same time, books like that make me sad about humankind (all genres). The things we look in our partners reflect how selfish and primal we still are, and the whole thing about not showing "neediness" (short for weakness...) is a curse to every man. The book makes great efforts to show we should show our emotions and demonstrate vulnerability, but only in a way that actually enhances our perceived strength.
So this a book that proposes a new masculinity that is updated to the current times and is enhanced in many ways, only to defend a new form of virility that ends up reintroducing many of the failings of the dated and misogynist advice from machismo and the pick-up-artists community. I'm not saying this is necessarily bad advice, it's just sad to realize how such advice remains relevant. I kinda wished for a novel proposal that abandoned the classic notions of virility altogether, but I realize this may be asking too much from a self-help book (even from an author that shows a reasonable level of intellectual sophistication).
I'm heterosexual, and a cisgender man when it comes to appearance and external behavior, but my psychological composition is heavily androgynous. All these generalizations and preconceived ideas about masculine psychology are to me extremely inconvenient, and I believe that's true about many of us (the same line of reasoning is certainly true about all genders).
It doesn't help that the author repeats over and over that creating true emotional connections is the ultimate goal, only to reiterate his success on sleeping with over 100 women all over the world (roughly the same count the historical Casanova had in his 70s. The author is 35) and approaching about 3 times that. I mean, nothing against having lots of sex, but if this is not the goal of the book what is the relevance of this information?
BUT, for what its worth, I think the main takeaways of the book are solid:
I picked up On Writing by Stephen King and it’s been great so far. If you’re interested in learning more about King, his upbringing, his writing, or how to write in general, I recommend it.