Book Meme among other things..
Oct. 8th, 2017 05:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. On a rainy, somewhat warm day, I'm baking gluten-free artisanial flat-bread, with rosemary, garlic/parsely and parmessene sprinkled on top. I added the eggs, apple cider vinegar, water and olive oil -- to a pre-prepared gluten free flour mix. Mainly because gluten-free flours confuse me.
Have a conflict problem...small group ministry has invited me to a barbecue on Thursday night. And I have got to do laundry and the best night is Thursday. I may try to do it tomorrow. Do it tonight, but baking bread. Laundry is a bit of an ordeal...requires lugging laundry down to the basement, and hoping for an available machine. We have four washers and three dryers for 77 units. You have to plan it right to get around the other people.
Also be patient.
Trying to get self off the sweets and to the savory.
2. Finished latest romance novel that I was reading. So this is the Wed reading meme on Sunday, not that anyone is reading my memes...but in case you are stumbling upon it. Not sure why I'm compelled to read romances at the moment. If I were to hazard a guess -- I'd state it would be one or more of the following reasons, although I think it's hard to quantify why anyone likes or is interested in something at any given time.
* gender politics -- specifically how women writers view gender politics
* comfort -- happy ending
* resolving problems without violence, vengeance, etc -- instead with forgiveness and love
* class issues - for some reason these novels delve into it more deeply than other genres, I've no clue why that is.
* doesn't require that much concentration
Anyhow probably doesn't matter. We like what we like. Want what we want. As long as it isn't harming anyone, who bloody cares? No animals, pets, or humans were harmed during these readings or writings.
The latest two are by Christie Caldwell, a bestselling novelist and traditionally published. I point this out, because I've never seen so many typographical errors in a book...and glaringly obvious ones not subtle stuff like occasionally skipping over a "the" or leaving an "e" off. Obvious. Such as "she" instead of "he", "her" instead of "his", "pressured" instead of "pressure", and improper comma and punctuation placement. It may be a Kindle transference issue. But I doubt it. So, in case you are one of those people thinking only self-published or non-traditionally published books have these issues? Really not. Actually this one had more typos than many non-traditionally published books I've read. (This is obviously an issue for me -- because, besides myself, I have four family members that are self-published writers with varying degrees of success. So yeah, when someone disparages self-published works, I have to remind myself not to take it personally, and let it go. People are insensitive about these sorts of things. Getting traditionally published often has zip to do with talent and everything to do with who you happen to know, similar to most if not all professions in that regard. The only reason Harper Lee got published traditionally was she had contacts in the industry through her friends. And they changed her book to fit their needs. She hated the publishing industry afterwards.)
Caldwell's books are actually fairly good, except for a few plotting quibbles, and well the aforementioned typographical errors. Which are less prevalent in her latest work.
My Lady of Deception -- this story takes place during the Napleonic Wars (I think) shortly after the French Revolution. It's about a British Spy Organization called "The Brethren" that is attempting to keep England safe by whatever means necessary. In this case, determining if the heroine, Georgina, is loyal to Britain or to her father, a notorious terrorist, Irish Republican Cause. Her father, code-named The Fox, has captured a couple of spies and is torturing them for information. For those who despise torture scenes? No worries. We don't see them. Except in flashback or overheard screams. The focus is on the romance between Georgina and one of the captives, Adam Markman, a spy for the Brethren. Georgina without her father's knowledge, obviously, has been sending messages to the Brethren informing them of her father's traitorous activities with Emmet and his attempts to aid the involvement in France. She's also been trying to help the captives. She attempted to rescue one, but believes he died. And is in the midst of trying to rescue Adam, who she's fallen for.
The book is in three sections -- the captivity/rescue, their marriage/falling out, catching her father/forgiveness.
Main themes?
* The illogical syllogism or rather holding someone accountable for crimes committed by people either related to them or loosely associated with them by nationality.
Nice paralle structure here.
Georgina's father became a monster and hates all Englishmen because a handful of English soliders raped and murdered his mother in front of his eyes. So of course all Englishmen are bad.
Adam Markman and the Brethren convict and accuse Georgina of being a traitor merely because she's her father's daughter, regardless of her actions which included saving to agents at great risk to her own welfare and providing messages to the Brethren.
In both cases -- these views are shown to be absurd, to such an extent that I was jarred from the story in the case of the Brethren and the hero. I found it difficult to believe the hero, whose life was saved by this woman would question her loyalty based solely on the information that she lied about who her father was.
But, I'm beginning to think it may have been deliberate.Showing that both parties were flawed in the same way. Also if I think about it -- it's what humans have always done. Make judgments about others, life-altering judgements, based on very little and often irrelevant information.
Being a Muslim from Syria doesn't make you a terrorist, anymore than being a white male makes you racist or a gun carrying lunatic.
The other quibble I had was in regards to the Spy Organization, which was behind theme number two.
The question the author poses is if the ends necessarily justify the means. The Brethren destroy two of their agents lives, deliberately do it, as an experiment to see if Georgina is loyal to their cause and will intervene to rescue them. They put two men who trusted themselves to their care at risk for something that was completely unnecessary and could have been determined another way.
Not only that, they manipulate the hero and heroine throughout the book to help pull the notorious Irish Terrorist out of hiding, with little regard to their welfare. When confronted on this, the Duke of Aubrey states it was in the Best Interests of the Crown. Really? And hey, it turned out okay in the end, right? Not really. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. While it was interesting that the Brethren was a villain in the story, albeit an ambiguous one, with good intentions...I wondered if the writer went a bit too far with it? Then again, I have read some of the horrible things MI5 and CIA and the Mossad have done to people all in the interest of national security. So maybe not.
The writer also, like many historical romance writers, comments on how the institutional structure or government discriminates against women and systematically oppresses them. The Church of England requires the father's consent prior to an under-aged woman getting married. Mainly because women were often sold by their fathers into marriage or a bargaining chip. Caldwell comments on this in all her novels. It's not the religion's fault, it's the fault of the men who built it and set up those rules in order to further their own power and privilege. Not realizing that they've doomed themselves and all around them to a perpetual purgatory in the process. We do create our own hells by our own very need to assert our own self-importance or power. Institutional misogyny and sexism is and was the problem...far more so than individual sexism and misogyny. And Caldwell in this book and her other novels does an interesting job, if a rather hap-hazard one of commenting on it.
The Spy Who Seduced Her - The Brethren Book #1
This book is about the first of the two spies, Nathaniel Archer, who was held captive. And takes place twenty years after the first book. It's different in two ways -- the hero and heroine are in their mid-forties. The heroine has three grown children. And there's a mystery, where the principal villain in the book died before it started. There really isn't any bad guys but the guy who died before the book started.
Archer has changed the Brethren to be a more caring and less Machiavellian agency. He's now the Soverign. And he's reunited with his first and only love, who he lost due to captivity. She married a monster to give her unborn babe a name. That monster is in two other books, featuring the heroine's daughters romances which I have yet to read.
In this book, the hero and heroine are both kind, and there's no dark agenda, or alpha male/domineering crap. He's wounded and there is a misunderstanding of sorts, but it doesn't feel contrived and is resolved in an apt manner. Also the heroine has some spunk and is no wimp.
He's a bit bumbling but you can see why.
My only quibble with it was the pacing. There's far too much ...can we be together? Does he love me? Does she love me? Navel gazing. The writer could have condensed that.
I rather liked this better than the other one. The maturity of the hero and heroine helped. One of my issues with the romance genre is...everyone has to be between the ages of 18-32, because they need to get married early and have kids. As if that has to be the happy ending - kids. I've seen a couple jump outside of this box, but due to theageism stubborness of this genre and its stubborn adhereance to outdated conventions...we end up with 18-25 year old women and 26-40 year old men, regardless of the time period. Yawn.
I often hand-wave it. But, when I find books that jump outside of that convention, I applaud.
If you read enough books in any genre, you will sooner or later find the really good ones or the ones that jump outside conventions and take risks. And by enough, I mean more than 200. Or at least have access to people who have read more than 200-1000 and keep reviewing them for you. Smartbitches helps, as does my mother, who seems to read a book a day.
3. Bread was really good by the way. They are playing Lady Gaga above me, so I put music on. Not that I have anything against Lady Gaga, but I really don't feel like listening to muffled music at the moment.
This is Us -- was really good this week. Hit all the right marks, with no sappy over-voice or platitudes. Also, they did a good job of examining alcohol addiction without laying on the melodrama, something television doesn't always do effectively.
Have a conflict problem...small group ministry has invited me to a barbecue on Thursday night. And I have got to do laundry and the best night is Thursday. I may try to do it tomorrow. Do it tonight, but baking bread. Laundry is a bit of an ordeal...requires lugging laundry down to the basement, and hoping for an available machine. We have four washers and three dryers for 77 units. You have to plan it right to get around the other people.
Also be patient.
Trying to get self off the sweets and to the savory.
2. Finished latest romance novel that I was reading. So this is the Wed reading meme on Sunday, not that anyone is reading my memes...but in case you are stumbling upon it. Not sure why I'm compelled to read romances at the moment. If I were to hazard a guess -- I'd state it would be one or more of the following reasons, although I think it's hard to quantify why anyone likes or is interested in something at any given time.
* gender politics -- specifically how women writers view gender politics
* comfort -- happy ending
* resolving problems without violence, vengeance, etc -- instead with forgiveness and love
* class issues - for some reason these novels delve into it more deeply than other genres, I've no clue why that is.
* doesn't require that much concentration
Anyhow probably doesn't matter. We like what we like. Want what we want. As long as it isn't harming anyone, who bloody cares? No animals, pets, or humans were harmed during these readings or writings.
The latest two are by Christie Caldwell, a bestselling novelist and traditionally published. I point this out, because I've never seen so many typographical errors in a book...and glaringly obvious ones not subtle stuff like occasionally skipping over a "the" or leaving an "e" off. Obvious. Such as "she" instead of "he", "her" instead of "his", "pressured" instead of "pressure", and improper comma and punctuation placement. It may be a Kindle transference issue. But I doubt it. So, in case you are one of those people thinking only self-published or non-traditionally published books have these issues? Really not. Actually this one had more typos than many non-traditionally published books I've read. (This is obviously an issue for me -- because, besides myself, I have four family members that are self-published writers with varying degrees of success. So yeah, when someone disparages self-published works, I have to remind myself not to take it personally, and let it go. People are insensitive about these sorts of things. Getting traditionally published often has zip to do with talent and everything to do with who you happen to know, similar to most if not all professions in that regard. The only reason Harper Lee got published traditionally was she had contacts in the industry through her friends. And they changed her book to fit their needs. She hated the publishing industry afterwards.)
Caldwell's books are actually fairly good, except for a few plotting quibbles, and well the aforementioned typographical errors. Which are less prevalent in her latest work.
My Lady of Deception -- this story takes place during the Napleonic Wars (I think) shortly after the French Revolution. It's about a British Spy Organization called "The Brethren" that is attempting to keep England safe by whatever means necessary. In this case, determining if the heroine, Georgina, is loyal to Britain or to her father, a notorious terrorist, Irish Republican Cause. Her father, code-named The Fox, has captured a couple of spies and is torturing them for information. For those who despise torture scenes? No worries. We don't see them. Except in flashback or overheard screams. The focus is on the romance between Georgina and one of the captives, Adam Markman, a spy for the Brethren. Georgina without her father's knowledge, obviously, has been sending messages to the Brethren informing them of her father's traitorous activities with Emmet and his attempts to aid the involvement in France. She's also been trying to help the captives. She attempted to rescue one, but believes he died. And is in the midst of trying to rescue Adam, who she's fallen for.
The book is in three sections -- the captivity/rescue, their marriage/falling out, catching her father/forgiveness.
Main themes?
* The illogical syllogism or rather holding someone accountable for crimes committed by people either related to them or loosely associated with them by nationality.
Nice paralle structure here.
Georgina's father became a monster and hates all Englishmen because a handful of English soliders raped and murdered his mother in front of his eyes. So of course all Englishmen are bad.
Adam Markman and the Brethren convict and accuse Georgina of being a traitor merely because she's her father's daughter, regardless of her actions which included saving to agents at great risk to her own welfare and providing messages to the Brethren.
In both cases -- these views are shown to be absurd, to such an extent that I was jarred from the story in the case of the Brethren and the hero. I found it difficult to believe the hero, whose life was saved by this woman would question her loyalty based solely on the information that she lied about who her father was.
But, I'm beginning to think it may have been deliberate.Showing that both parties were flawed in the same way. Also if I think about it -- it's what humans have always done. Make judgments about others, life-altering judgements, based on very little and often irrelevant information.
Being a Muslim from Syria doesn't make you a terrorist, anymore than being a white male makes you racist or a gun carrying lunatic.
The other quibble I had was in regards to the Spy Organization, which was behind theme number two.
The question the author poses is if the ends necessarily justify the means. The Brethren destroy two of their agents lives, deliberately do it, as an experiment to see if Georgina is loyal to their cause and will intervene to rescue them. They put two men who trusted themselves to their care at risk for something that was completely unnecessary and could have been determined another way.
Not only that, they manipulate the hero and heroine throughout the book to help pull the notorious Irish Terrorist out of hiding, with little regard to their welfare. When confronted on this, the Duke of Aubrey states it was in the Best Interests of the Crown. Really? And hey, it turned out okay in the end, right? Not really. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. While it was interesting that the Brethren was a villain in the story, albeit an ambiguous one, with good intentions...I wondered if the writer went a bit too far with it? Then again, I have read some of the horrible things MI5 and CIA and the Mossad have done to people all in the interest of national security. So maybe not.
The writer also, like many historical romance writers, comments on how the institutional structure or government discriminates against women and systematically oppresses them. The Church of England requires the father's consent prior to an under-aged woman getting married. Mainly because women were often sold by their fathers into marriage or a bargaining chip. Caldwell comments on this in all her novels. It's not the religion's fault, it's the fault of the men who built it and set up those rules in order to further their own power and privilege. Not realizing that they've doomed themselves and all around them to a perpetual purgatory in the process. We do create our own hells by our own very need to assert our own self-importance or power. Institutional misogyny and sexism is and was the problem...far more so than individual sexism and misogyny. And Caldwell in this book and her other novels does an interesting job, if a rather hap-hazard one of commenting on it.
The Spy Who Seduced Her - The Brethren Book #1
This book is about the first of the two spies, Nathaniel Archer, who was held captive. And takes place twenty years after the first book. It's different in two ways -- the hero and heroine are in their mid-forties. The heroine has three grown children. And there's a mystery, where the principal villain in the book died before it started. There really isn't any bad guys but the guy who died before the book started.
Archer has changed the Brethren to be a more caring and less Machiavellian agency. He's now the Soverign. And he's reunited with his first and only love, who he lost due to captivity. She married a monster to give her unborn babe a name. That monster is in two other books, featuring the heroine's daughters romances which I have yet to read.
In this book, the hero and heroine are both kind, and there's no dark agenda, or alpha male/domineering crap. He's wounded and there is a misunderstanding of sorts, but it doesn't feel contrived and is resolved in an apt manner. Also the heroine has some spunk and is no wimp.
He's a bit bumbling but you can see why.
My only quibble with it was the pacing. There's far too much ...can we be together? Does he love me? Does she love me? Navel gazing. The writer could have condensed that.
I rather liked this better than the other one. The maturity of the hero and heroine helped. One of my issues with the romance genre is...everyone has to be between the ages of 18-32, because they need to get married early and have kids. As if that has to be the happy ending - kids. I've seen a couple jump outside of this box, but due to the
I often hand-wave it. But, when I find books that jump outside of that convention, I applaud.
If you read enough books in any genre, you will sooner or later find the really good ones or the ones that jump outside conventions and take risks. And by enough, I mean more than 200. Or at least have access to people who have read more than 200-1000 and keep reviewing them for you. Smartbitches helps, as does my mother, who seems to read a book a day.
3. Bread was really good by the way. They are playing Lady Gaga above me, so I put music on. Not that I have anything against Lady Gaga, but I really don't feel like listening to muffled music at the moment.
This is Us -- was really good this week. Hit all the right marks, with no sappy over-voice or platitudes. Also, they did a good job of examining alcohol addiction without laying on the melodrama, something television doesn't always do effectively.