(no subject)

[notthemarimba]

 Guardian of the Dead- Karen Healey

Read after Dorian would not stop bothering me about it. I'm glad he didn't, because this is actually really great. YA fiction that draws on Maori mythology, has a non-annoying protagonist, several queer and non-white characters, and is just generally an engrossing read. Highly recommended. 

 

Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish- Supervert

Lent to me by wrabbit, who wrote a paper on it last semester. It's the literary equivalent of a movie that's brilliantly made but almost too gruesome to watch. I liked it, but I'm not sure I was supposed to. 

 

Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism- Margaret Ward

This is a great resource on women in Irish nationalism from 1881 to about 1920, but doesn't really go past there. It's a fascinating era so I'm glad I read it, but the book's information implied that it covered events into the present day, and so I kind of kept reading it going "okay but when are we going to get past 1918" only to find that this would never happen. This is a very well-put-together book and it does not deserve my minor criticisms. 

 

A History of Utah Radicalism- John S. McCormick and John R. Sillito

In an alternate universe where this book is maybe half as long and actually adopted a workable organizational principle for itself, I would recommend it heartily to almost everyone as a nice, interesting nonfiction book for people who are into that kind of thing. As it stands, it's far too long and I was annoyed by the way it's organized. Glad I read it, but not sure I would tell anyone else to. 

 

A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman: the Complete Short Stories- Margaret Drabble

A birthday present from my dad. Everyone in these stories is English and unhappy and in an unhappy marriage and having an affair that also makes them unhappy. For me, this is like someone sat down and said "hey, I'm going to write you some stuff you're going to be super into and sigh a lot while reading and you'll get unexpectedly emotionally involved in it" and I'm like "hells yes, where do I sign?" So I guess if short stories about sad English women are your cup of tea, then clamber aboard. 

 

Irish Women's Studies Reader- Ailbhe Smyth
Blurgh, I was going to write about this when I still had my copy of it but then I gave it back to my stepmom without thinking about it, so I can't remember the titles of any of the articles. It was mostly good, I remember having Issues with an essay that started with the premise that feminism and Irish nationalism are incompatible and then just kind of went on from there without giving any reasoning or evidence for that viewpoint. 

Comments

[dorianisms]

I pledge to never stop bothering you about delightful books

[notthemarimba]

I like this plan.

[wrabbit]

I'm interested in your good-bits summary of A History of Utah Radicalism.

[notthemarimba]

It's mostly about socialism and socialist cultural institutions in Utah in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Socialist candidates were very successful in certain municipalities for a while and there was a growing sense that they were going to be the new powerhouse political party, not just in Utah but across the country. In Utah, though, the socialist party was very dependent on Mormons who felt that socialism was very compatible with the church's teachings (esp. those who had been around/had a good knowledge of the church's brief experiments with communal living). However, as part of the church's general effort to move back into "mainstream" society and the federal government's good graces, it began actively discouraging members from participating in the socialist party, which made its numbers dwindle significantly, and eventually the party just kind of died out here.

[wrabbit]

That's really interesting. It makes sense, but I wouldn't have guessed. I wonder how it's affected the tone of Mormon conservatism...

[notthemarimba]

you will have to wait for my PhD thesis on it :P