Wednesday reading

[boxofdelights]

Book Lovers, by Emily Henry

The one thing I cannot do without, if I'm going to believe the author's claim that two characters are falling in love, is that they make each other laugh. The protagonist of this novel is named Nora, after Nora Ephron, and I took that as a promise that she and her love-interest would make each other laugh a lot. And they do.

The obstacles keeping the lovers apart are real, and believable. None of them depend on Stupid Failure to Communicate.

Nora's sister, on the other hand, keeps secrets in a way that does not seem plausible, given her personality, their relationship, and human nature; and reveals them in a time and manner that serves only to add maximum drama to the plot. Twice!


I got my flu shot and my bivalent Covid booster today, and I am very sore, so maybe I will spend tomorrow in bed with books. I have four overdue library books, plus four book groups this month: Nightbitch, by Rachel Yoder, for SF bookgroup; The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster, for classics bookgroup; World of Wonders: In Praise Of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, And Other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, for Tawanda bookgroup; and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong, for library bookgroup.


Right now I am reading Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky. So good! I do not know what is more delicious than seeing two people from different cultures, each doing their best to communicate clearly, and each interpreting the other's communication in a way that makes sense in their own culture, but is not what the other person meant.

Comments

[conuly]

TBH, I feel like Elder Race's "wizard" could've done a substantially better job at a. communicating and b. actually listening to and trying to understand what those people were attempting to tell him. He started off assuming that communication would go a certain way and that, anyway, he knew better and - shockingly, it takes into the near end of the book for him to realize that at least half of those two assumptions is very wrong.

[isis]

I think his failure here is a very realistic "we the advanced civilization know better than you primitive barbarians" attitude!

Also, boxofdelights, I nominated this for Yuletide, so maybe some fic will happen!

[conuly]

I didn't say it was unrealistic, just that he really, really needs to work on his communication skills, in both directions.

[boxofdelights]

I agree that, as an anthropologist, he really should have been more aware of the cross-cultural miscommunication going on.

I found his obliviousness believable, not just because of the privilege that isis pointed out, but also because of the deep depression he was struggling with.

[boxofdelights]

I hope so! I would happily read a Children of Time-sized tome set in this world.

[lunabee34]

I listened to a presentation on the Vuong novel at an academic conference, and it sounds really, really good.

[boxofdelights]

It sounds hard, though.

[lunabee34]

Yeah, that's true. The subject matter is difficult.

[oracne]

I very much enjoyed my post-booster PJs and Bathrobe All Day.

[boxofdelights]

me too!