Reading

[kivrin]

Recently finished Longbourn by Jo Baker, which is highfalutin' professional Pride and Prejudice fanfic. I say that in no pejorative sense. It is focused on the servants in the house, and their own lives and concerns of the heart which must be squeezed in around hauling water and doing horrendous gobs of laundry (menstrual rags for five women, sweet Jesus have mercy.) It's very good. The narrative is primarily centered around the housemaid, but there is a lengthy digression into the footman's backstory which is quite violent, so be aware of that.

Also recently read Time for Tea by Erica H. Smith, which is a very satisfying time-travel novel with mystery and relationship elements. I described it on Goodreads as being situated in the Venn diagram overlap between Kage Baker and Connie Willis, specifically the elements of both which I most enjoy. There's the future-worldbuilding-and-politics of Baker and the historical-detail-and-emotional-compellingness of Willis. I'm in a semi-anonymous gift exchange right now and I've bought a second electronic copy of the book to send to my recipient. (The recipient I know to be a fan of the Outlander books by Diana Galbadon, which is of course a totally different and to my mind far less satisfying genre of time-travel story.)

I'm in the middle of Tamora Pierce's first Beka Cooper book, Terrier, and I'm enjoying it very much. I loved the Alanna books back in the day but I haven't kept up very well with Pierce's later work. I really enjoy how the culture and especially the religion of Tortall have more detail and texture in this book.