Wednesday reading — brothers and others
Jan. 13th, 2016 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayhapWhat I've been reading
I read Duel with the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America's First Sensational Murder Mystery. It's an enjoyable, true crime-y recounting of the murder, the attempted railroading of Levi Weeks, and his all-star defense team. The "duel" reference in the title is strained but you're not going to publish a book about Hamilton and Burr without something about duels in the title so I'll allow it. Levi Weeks was super lucky that his brother was a contractor and the two best lawyers in New York both owed him a bunch of money for the work he'd done on their respective stately homes.
I read Mycroft Holmes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Holmes fanfiction. The mystery/adventure plot is pretty good, but what I really liked was the relationship he created between the young Mycroft and his sole friend, an immigrant from Trinidad. They are fiercely devoted to each other (actually, it's pretty shippy) and they come up with creative ways to negotiate period-appropriate racism together. It's kind of wish-fulfillment/self-insert-y, but I don't mean that as a criticism at all.
I reread The Blue Castle, because I had a craving. It's one of those books that I know pretty well by heart, but it's just so perfectly constructed that it just works every time.
I read Founding Brothers, something I'd been sort of vaguely interested in doing since back when it came out, and it was entertaining. My primary takeaway is that Ellis is a huge Jefferson/Adams shipper. Jefferson/Madison is too boring for him and lacks the spice of Jefferson/Adams.
I reread Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories, both because I wanted to read it and because I wanted to do a full reread and it was actually the first Lord Peter book I read. I distinctly remember that someone on the late 90s internet recommended it as a good entry point to the series, which I would cosign…up until a point. "The Haunted Policeman" and "Talboys" certainly surprised me and thoroughly spoiled me for the Peter-Harriet sequence, which, okay, I doubt I would have really believed that it would ever have ended any other way anyway, but still. And then "Talboys" was also my favorite story and I am eternally disappointed that there are no novels or other stories or anything set during that period.
I read The Dreyfus Affair: A Love Story and it was so delightful and fun and perfect.
I read Duel with the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America's First Sensational Murder Mystery. It's an enjoyable, true crime-y recounting of the murder, the attempted railroading of Levi Weeks, and his all-star defense team. The "duel" reference in the title is strained but you're not going to publish a book about Hamilton and Burr without something about duels in the title so I'll allow it. Levi Weeks was super lucky that his brother was a contractor and the two best lawyers in New York both owed him a bunch of money for the work he'd done on their respective stately homes.
I read Mycroft Holmes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Holmes fanfiction. The mystery/adventure plot is pretty good, but what I really liked was the relationship he created between the young Mycroft and his sole friend, an immigrant from Trinidad. They are fiercely devoted to each other (actually, it's pretty shippy) and they come up with creative ways to negotiate period-appropriate racism together. It's kind of wish-fulfillment/self-insert-y, but I don't mean that as a criticism at all.
I reread The Blue Castle, because I had a craving. It's one of those books that I know pretty well by heart, but it's just so perfectly constructed that it just works every time.
I read Founding Brothers, something I'd been sort of vaguely interested in doing since back when it came out, and it was entertaining. My primary takeaway is that Ellis is a huge Jefferson/Adams shipper. Jefferson/Madison is too boring for him and lacks the spice of Jefferson/Adams.
I reread Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories, both because I wanted to read it and because I wanted to do a full reread and it was actually the first Lord Peter book I read. I distinctly remember that someone on the late 90s internet recommended it as a good entry point to the series, which I would cosign…up until a point. "The Haunted Policeman" and "Talboys" certainly surprised me and thoroughly spoiled me for the Peter-Harriet sequence, which, okay, I doubt I would have really believed that it would ever have ended any other way anyway, but still. And then "Talboys" was also my favorite story and I am eternally disappointed that there are no novels or other stories or anything set during that period.
I read The Dreyfus Affair: A Love Story and it was so delightful and fun and perfect.
