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reading [insert day of week here]
Feb. 28th, 2019 08:55 pmSo posting did not happen there for a few weeks; hopefully this won't set a pattern for the future, as I've found I miss writing up little bits and pieces about what I'm reading.
First, however, I'd like to link to my Fandom Trumps Hate auction page; I'm offering a Black Sails or Society of Gentlemen fic if you're willing to donate to a good cause. Bidding ends tomorrow (March 1) at 8:00 PM EST.
I find I don't have the brainspace right now to write up all that I've read since my last Reading Wednesday, but my two favorite things I read recently were:
Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin. One I've been meaning to read forever, and I'm so glad I finally did. A fascinating bit of gay and literary history; it comes with most of the caveats you'd expect from a book about gay characters published in 1956, including the dreaded death of one of the main characters (not a spoiler, you find out almost immediately upon starting it), but it's very interesting and very worthwhile.
No Bond But the Law: Punishment, Race and Gender in Jamaican State Formation, 1780-1870, by Diana Paton. I can't recommend this one enough. Paton looks at how the British prison reform movement was utilized in Jamaica, and by so doing teases out the ways that looking at the broader empire contradicts a lot of what is traditionally said about the rhetoric and implementation of prison reform in Britain. Paton writes excellent and elucidates a topic that I knew only pieces about very clearly and fascinatingly.
First, however, I'd like to link to my Fandom Trumps Hate auction page; I'm offering a Black Sails or Society of Gentlemen fic if you're willing to donate to a good cause. Bidding ends tomorrow (March 1) at 8:00 PM EST.
I find I don't have the brainspace right now to write up all that I've read since my last Reading Wednesday, but my two favorite things I read recently were:
Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin. One I've been meaning to read forever, and I'm so glad I finally did. A fascinating bit of gay and literary history; it comes with most of the caveats you'd expect from a book about gay characters published in 1956, including the dreaded death of one of the main characters (not a spoiler, you find out almost immediately upon starting it), but it's very interesting and very worthwhile.
No Bond But the Law: Punishment, Race and Gender in Jamaican State Formation, 1780-1870, by Diana Paton. I can't recommend this one enough. Paton looks at how the British prison reform movement was utilized in Jamaica, and by so doing teases out the ways that looking at the broader empire contradicts a lot of what is traditionally said about the rhetoric and implementation of prison reform in Britain. Paton writes excellent and elucidates a topic that I knew only pieces about very clearly and fascinatingly.
