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What I’m reading... Thursday, 12/22
Tumblr was being uncooperative for… some portion of yesterday, okay.
Books: I started a Lord Peter Wimsey reread so I’m currently in the middle of Unnatural Death. And after surveying my entire TBR list of Kindle books to determine if any of them would satisfy the “book over 500 pages” category in the Read Harder challenge, I picked Gambled Away to read next–it’s 600 pages of historical romance novellas in which somebody is won/lost as stakes in a game and currently on sale for 99 cents! (http://ift.tt/2gTmfsg)
Books finished:
Whose Body? (http://ift.tt/2hvIt0j) &
Clouds of Witness (http://ift.tt/2hvIt0j) by Dorothy L. Sayers
These are both rereads, though I think it’s been ten years since I read the entire series, so I was able to be surprised all over again by a few things (I posted a few favorite shippy bits from Whose Body? (http://ift.tt/2hh1Fme) and I need to type up the neurological explanation of PTSD and triggering that it includes–for something written in a popular detective mystery in 1923 (and therefore not including the words “PTSD” or “triggering”, of course) it was remarkably congruent to modern understanding, which makes me think about what avid reader from the 1940s might still have those ideas rattling around somewhere…
Anyway. Brilliant & highly recommended, of course.
Hold Me (http://ift.tt/2fzFzKn) by Courtney Milan
GUYYYYYS YOU WANT TO READ THIS BOOK.
OR AT LEAST I WANT YOU TO READ THIS BOOK AND I THINK YOU WILL ENJOY IT!!!
I lost most of yesterday to reading this book and being emotionally compromised by it–it made me cry repeatedly, but, you know, in the awesome way.
It’s a het romance where the hero is a bi/pan dude of Thai and Chinese descent and the heroine is a Latina transwoman, and NONE OF THOSE LABELS ARE WHAT THE STORY IS ABOUT.
Instead, it’s a “love each other online/hate each other in real life” story where the hero’s asshole behavior isn’t magically erased by apologies and I love yous–where there’s nothing as simple as a silly misunderstanding that can be quickly cleared up, because it all matters, and the characters, knowing each other online and off, good and bad, choose to struggle through their respective issues and the ways they’ve hurt each other because love matters too, and in the end, love–real love, flawed and human, brave and determined love–wins out.
Fic: I currently have 10 fic tabs open, 41 things Saved for Later on AO3, and, oh, look, here comes Yuletide… O___O
Fic finished:
(A sampling of stuff I’ve bookmarked recently–you can see all my bookmarks at http://ift.tt/2bFC4A9)
Where Is Thy Sting? (http://ift.tt/2hgUc6E) This is a WIP on the hydratrashmeme, but it’s up to part 11/? so you get a pretty satisfying chunk of story, and I think it’s pretty accessible to non-trash readers. This is an AU where Steve is found in 1947 and reunited with Peggy–and then, in 1954, Bucky is found as well, already having suffered a significant degree of programming (and significant abuses, including sexual), and Steve and Peggy are there to try to help him recover. The POV is Peggy’s, and I love everything about this perspective and this version of bringing Bucky in from the cold, her relationship with Steve, all of it. <3
Green Ice by Adina (http://ift.tt/2hvIu4n) I don’t think I ever realized that there was an expanded/completed version of the story that first appeared in Yuletide 2006, so I got to cry over Bertie all over again! For those not familiar, this is a Jeeves & Wooster/Lord Peter Wimsey crossover that seeks to reconcile the very different ways two mystery writers in the 1920s addressed the effects of the Great War on their military-aged main characters–Sayers delves into Peter’s trauma, while Wodehouse cheerfully ignores the whole bally thing. Which works as long as it’s allowed to work, and then…
Psychic AU (Hotel Heart & Safe as Houses) by Laughsalot3412 (http://ift.tt/1Ut7Kcj) Leverage OT3 where, as you might guess, psychics are a thing–Hardison is an empath who loves computers because they don’t feel things at him, Parker is a thief who uses her TK to assist her in jumping off of buildings, and Eliot… Eliot has been hurt and needs a team, even if he doesn’t realize it in the beginning. Rated T and there is indeed no actual sexual intimacy (the unexamined aceyness of the relationships is fascinating to me) but it’s tagged “Mind Rape” for Eliot’s pace and also for a lot of things that go on between Eliot and Hardison with dubious consent of the “no go ahead it’s fine, DAMMIT HARDISON I SAID IT’S FINE WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT” variety from Eliot. SO DELICIOUS.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2hvA38X
via IFTTT
Books: I started a Lord Peter Wimsey reread so I’m currently in the middle of Unnatural Death. And after surveying my entire TBR list of Kindle books to determine if any of them would satisfy the “book over 500 pages” category in the Read Harder challenge, I picked Gambled Away to read next–it’s 600 pages of historical romance novellas in which somebody is won/lost as stakes in a game and currently on sale for 99 cents! (http://ift.tt/2gTmfsg)
Books finished:
Whose Body? (http://ift.tt/2hvIt0j) &
Clouds of Witness (http://ift.tt/2hvIt0j) by Dorothy L. Sayers
These are both rereads, though I think it’s been ten years since I read the entire series, so I was able to be surprised all over again by a few things (I posted a few favorite shippy bits from Whose Body? (http://ift.tt/2hh1Fme) and I need to type up the neurological explanation of PTSD and triggering that it includes–for something written in a popular detective mystery in 1923 (and therefore not including the words “PTSD” or “triggering”, of course) it was remarkably congruent to modern understanding, which makes me think about what avid reader from the 1940s might still have those ideas rattling around somewhere…
Anyway. Brilliant & highly recommended, of course.
Hold Me (http://ift.tt/2fzFzKn) by Courtney Milan
GUYYYYYS YOU WANT TO READ THIS BOOK.
OR AT LEAST I WANT YOU TO READ THIS BOOK AND I THINK YOU WILL ENJOY IT!!!
I lost most of yesterday to reading this book and being emotionally compromised by it–it made me cry repeatedly, but, you know, in the awesome way.
It’s a het romance where the hero is a bi/pan dude of Thai and Chinese descent and the heroine is a Latina transwoman, and NONE OF THOSE LABELS ARE WHAT THE STORY IS ABOUT.
Instead, it’s a “love each other online/hate each other in real life” story where the hero’s asshole behavior isn’t magically erased by apologies and I love yous–where there’s nothing as simple as a silly misunderstanding that can be quickly cleared up, because it all matters, and the characters, knowing each other online and off, good and bad, choose to struggle through their respective issues and the ways they’ve hurt each other because love matters too, and in the end, love–real love, flawed and human, brave and determined love–wins out.
Fic: I currently have 10 fic tabs open, 41 things Saved for Later on AO3, and, oh, look, here comes Yuletide… O___O
Fic finished:
(A sampling of stuff I’ve bookmarked recently–you can see all my bookmarks at http://ift.tt/2bFC4A9)
Where Is Thy Sting? (http://ift.tt/2hgUc6E) This is a WIP on the hydratrashmeme, but it’s up to part 11/? so you get a pretty satisfying chunk of story, and I think it’s pretty accessible to non-trash readers. This is an AU where Steve is found in 1947 and reunited with Peggy–and then, in 1954, Bucky is found as well, already having suffered a significant degree of programming (and significant abuses, including sexual), and Steve and Peggy are there to try to help him recover. The POV is Peggy’s, and I love everything about this perspective and this version of bringing Bucky in from the cold, her relationship with Steve, all of it. <3
Green Ice by Adina (http://ift.tt/2hvIu4n) I don’t think I ever realized that there was an expanded/completed version of the story that first appeared in Yuletide 2006, so I got to cry over Bertie all over again! For those not familiar, this is a Jeeves & Wooster/Lord Peter Wimsey crossover that seeks to reconcile the very different ways two mystery writers in the 1920s addressed the effects of the Great War on their military-aged main characters–Sayers delves into Peter’s trauma, while Wodehouse cheerfully ignores the whole bally thing. Which works as long as it’s allowed to work, and then…
Psychic AU (Hotel Heart & Safe as Houses) by Laughsalot3412 (http://ift.tt/1Ut7Kcj) Leverage OT3 where, as you might guess, psychics are a thing–Hardison is an empath who loves computers because they don’t feel things at him, Parker is a thief who uses her TK to assist her in jumping off of buildings, and Eliot… Eliot has been hurt and needs a team, even if he doesn’t realize it in the beginning. Rated T and there is indeed no actual sexual intimacy (the unexamined aceyness of the relationships is fascinating to me) but it’s tagged “Mind Rape” for Eliot’s pace and also for a lot of things that go on between Eliot and Hardison with dubious consent of the “no go ahead it’s fine, DAMMIT HARDISON I SAID IT’S FINE WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT” variety from Eliot. SO DELICIOUS.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2hvA38X
via IFTTT
no subject
A lot of post WWI fiction has very accurately described/understood PTSD, though of course the terminology is different. I think it's mostly because so many people were either directly involved in WWI, or else knew people who were, so even if they didn't have any kind of academic or formal knowledge of shell shock, they knew what it was, what it looked like, AND probably had an idea of the range of people's reactions.
It was also the time when shell shock had started to be formally studied and treated - there was a hospital exclusively for shell-shocked soldiers during/post WWI, Craiglockhart, where Dr. W. H. Rivers developed the concept of talking about the trauma and came up with a lot of ideas which are essentially accurate and formed the basis of a lot of modern understanding of PTSD and how to treat it. If you're interested in that, Pat Barker's trilogy beginning with Regeneration is both excellent and extremely historically accurate.
Re: 1940s understanding of PTSD: you should watch John Huston's documentary on a hospital for WWII soldiers with battle fatigue. It's really interesting and includes a cure of conversion disorder by hypnosis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiD6bnqpJDE
no subject
And Cap fandom has amply supplied me with information about the understanding of battle fatigue in WWII, although I still haven't been able to bring myself to watch the actual videos of the poor guys. :\
no subject
It is on my list of "Brilliant things that still hurt me at the mere mention of their names however many years have passed since I read them."
no subject