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What I read -- August 2018


LHC#14: “The Seven Basic Plots” by Christopher Booker. I kept deferring this one owing to its vast size. But it’s summer so I figured I could make it work. Then I accidentally committed to reading those Kate Elliott books and wound up having to make a schedule so this could get done. Fortunately it was easy to read short bits at a time. The first 200 pages were good. I made notes! It was really heteronormative, and I wish he’d used the word “cardboard” a few less times. CB seems to really miss feudalism and lacks self-awareness.
My favorite part was where a previous reader marked in some copyedits – duplicate words, crossed out the occasional adverb… 

LHC#15: “Arabella of Mars” by David Levine. I needed something light after the slog that I just finished. This was totally the right book! The only thing that annoyed me was, next time I read a book that has a girl masquerading as a boy to do some cool shit, I want her to find out that like 20% of the people she’s hiding her gender from are also hiding their gender because they’re also girls doing cool shit. I’m tired of there always being only one girl who gets to do cool shit.

LHC #16: “Archivist Wasp” by Nicole Kornher-Stace. It wasn’t exactly next on the list, but I’ve heard so many good things, I just wanted to read it. It did not disappoint. Great characters.
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