Book Bingo: March 2020

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I've just binge-read 4 romance novels in 3 days and I feel a bit hungover.

All were by Cat Sebastian, an author recommended because I like K. J. Charles. All M/M Regency stories. Two e-books and 2 audiobooks (each 7 hours long!).

It Takes Two to Tumble. A The Sound of Music set-up where a vicar takes care of three kids and then the kids' widowed sea captain father returns. Made me think of Hobbit's Leonard. It is part of the Seducing the Segwicks (!) series.

Three were part of the Turner Series, a nice little intertwined AU

The Ruin of a Rake A ludicrous premise, but it (and the next) was an audiobook narrated by the very British and fabulously-named Gary Furlong (!) and I adore the way he says 'fuck' and 'cock-sucking' and he says them in the first 2 minutes, so yay! And it makes accounting and estate management sound sexy. And kittens.

The Laurence Browne Affaire My favourite. The reclusive, brilliant earl inventing the telegraph in his crumbling Cornish castle meets the con man with a heart of gold. And a lovable dog.

The Soldier's Scoundrel Injured soldier and amateur 'problem-solver.' Sound familiar?

My only small qualm is that I don't think pre-come is as lubricating as the author would have us believe or else this particular subset of men just produce copious amounts of extra slippery pre-come. I mean, I don't think it's enough for a whole handjob. And there are A LOT of class issues which got old after 4 books.

I have also read 3 books for the Bingo. And 1 other book. I've listened to tons of audiobooks.




Diverse Reads: The Widows of Malabar Hill. Book 1 in the Perveen Mistry series. It is set in Bombay in the 1920's. She is India's first female lawyer. I liked it a lot and learned a lot. Perveen is sort of an Indian Maisie Dobbs, but with law instead of psychology. And a white British lesbian bestie. And a supportive family and a tragic backstory. At some point, I want to read the next.

More than 300 pages: The Silent Patient [audiobook, 9 hours] by Alex Michaelides. This is a thriller. I checked it out because Louise Brealey (who plays BBC Sherlock's Molly) was the female voice. There's a male voice, too, who looks nothing like Ben Whishaw but whom I imagined was Ben Whishaw. The twist was a 'gotcha' moment for me but readers familiar with the genre might guess it early. A lot of bad shit happens to the main character, and you sort of imagine if she'd had one decent person in her life, things might have been different.

Romance: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. This is the only bingo book that I haven't really enjoyed. It is the GYWO comm book club book at the moment. The First Son and the Prince of England. Very hip and young. A fade-to-black about the sex that striked me as weird and vague (given I'm used to explicit fanfic). I mean, at one point, I asked myself 'But is he topping?' And I felt ashamed but you know, in the Sherlock fandom, you would definitely KNOW who was topping even if it shouldn't matter. Too much Rich People's problems. It was difficult not to cast Prince William of my youth and that actor from High School Muscial as the leads. It reads like a movie, one I would never watch, if that makes sense.



I've also read:

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz. Book #2 of the Hawthorne series. Anthony Horowitz is still a megalomaniac and he's re-using his tricks from Book 1 so I'm not keen to read anymore. Still Clever, though.

I have also been listening to tons of audiobooks:

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer, read by my favourite narrator David Case.
The 39 Steps by John Buchan, also read by David Case.

Some angel has put all of Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn novels on the Youtube (all read by the wonderful James Saxon) so I re-listened to Death and the Dancing Footman, Overture to Death, and Death at the Bar.

Previously:

The First Book in a Series: A Death in Vienna by Frank Tallis [ebook]
Humour: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
Non-fiction: The Interior Castle by Saint Teresa of Avila
Movie/TV tie-in: War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (audiobook)
An Animal on the Cover: Devotions by Mary Oliver
Mystery/Crime: This Poison Will Remain by Fred Vargas
Title has a Name in It: Lord Darcy Investigates by Randall Garrett (e-book)
Children/YA: Clay the Cromer Crab and the Invasion of the Jeellyfish by Salena Dawson
Colour in the Title: Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh [ebook]
An Author You've Never Read Before: The Raven Tower by Anne Leckie (audiobook)
100 pages or less: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Comments

[ancientreader]

Oh, you've reminded me to check whether the BPL has any Cat Sebastian on audiobook -- I've been desperate for something to listen to while I cook, and I've exhausted all the podfic my favorite podficcer, who has spoiled me, has recorded for fandoms I'm even remotely interested in.

I'm highly entertained that you disliked Red, White, and Royal Blue, because we are continuing our grand tradition of Not Liking the Same Things! GO, US. (Yep, after a rocky start, I popcorned it. Let us fist-bump, but at a noncommunicable distance.)

Agreed that the fade-to-black sex is disconcerting after fanfic. A YA thing, I think: no nibbling of foreskins before high school graduation!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I really enjoyed Gary Furlong's voice on The Ruin of a Rake and The Laurence Browne Affaire. He also did A Soldier's Scoundrel but my library didn't have it and I didn't like that one as much anyway. And there is a book 2 of Seducing the Segwicks with one POC lead, so that's interesting. My library doesn't have that one either.

Oh, shit. Well, I don't know. I didn't like Alex and I definitely didn't think he deserved a prince. It made me feel old.

Yeah, I mean, I understand not having explicit sex but the euphemisms & phrasing used made things more vague and puzzling. Even if, say, you were writing a fanfic and wanted to keep things M instead of E you wouldn't write it like that. It's great that they are enjoying it, but more than once I was, like, what are they actually doing??

[ancientreader]

Oh, I definitely felt old. Although reading YA does serve the purpose of keeping a person who doesn't have kids sorta kinda a little bit in the loop. Maybe?

I continue to think it's funny that we get along so well and diverge so much in our reading tastes. Although, many points of commonality as well, like Raven Tower and KJ Charles.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Ah, I see. I wonder if I'll read more as the boys get older.

It's good for me that we keep going despite the differences. I need to learn to sit with the dissonance and let it go rather than allow it to fester into something more acidic and self-eating.

[ancientreader]

If it helps, I've known my best friend for over forty years and in that time I think we have perhaps agreed on a dozen books. Everything else is violent repulsion vs utter delight. I exaggerate for effect, but not as much as you might think.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

You have a lot of wholesome relationships and experiences that are useful for me to hear about.

My sister is the only adult in RL I know who reads for pleasure. We don't agree either (she likes lighter mysteries) but we don't really talk about books much.

[ancientreader]

My other best friend (I kind of have two, IDK) reads nothing but economics and epidemiology texts, so there's nothing to discuss there at all! <3 <3 <3

[kingstoken]

Bingo card is looking good. **thumbs up**

What you said about pre-come and a lack of lube stuck me as true, I don't read a lot of M/M, but in those I have read it seems to be a theme that the writers just don't always consider the logistics, for lack of a better term, and sometimes there are things that are self lubricating, that shouldn't be (unless you're writing A/B/O, then almost anything goes)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you! I have a nice TBR pile that will add to it, slowly but surely.

Yeah, I mean, it's a very small thing but having read so much of the same author in a short span of time, it stood out. She has one partner use the pre-come of the other as lubricant (in more than one book and with more than one pairing) and she never mentions them reaching for more lubricant (or spitting or anything else). But they still seem to have satisfying, not-chafing handjobs. The anal is fine, there's plenty of lube there, but I just have a hard time imagining that it's enough lubricant for a whole handjob. I mean, pre-come is kind of sticky, too.

Plus, if you do that shit in fanfic, someone's going to call you out. I mean, I had fic commenter two months ago criticize me saying that Sherlock wouldn't have been able to smile around John's cock while giving head if John's cock was as big as I said it was (!!).

[kingstoken]

Oops, I should have congratulated you on your first bingo!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thanks!

[mightymads]

Could you tell more about A Soldier’s Scoundrel? Is it worth checking out? The familiar premise got me intrigued.

Also The-Seven-per-cent Solution, share your impressions? I don’t like the idea that the whole Reichenbach business was a hoax to cover up Holmes’s drug problem, so I’m vary about reading the book and watching the movie. But I was vary in a similar way about The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, and, having watched it, I kinda liked it as it turned out to be not so sad and hopeless as I had thought. Maybe The-Seven-per-cent Solution has its perks too? After all, it is praised by many.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I don't know if you'd like it or not. Oliver is the Watson character and he's fairly Watson-ish (but not a doctor or a Boswell). He is younger than Jack. Jack is the Holmes character but he isn't like Holmes. He's from a very poor and criminal background and he is a detective/problem solver working outside the law. But he isn't Clever and doesn't do deductions. There is a case. And the tension and sex are good (in my opinion). There's a lot of class angst.

I don't think you'd like The Seven-Per-Cent Solution because Watson's happily married to Mary and there's suggestion that he fathered children he never wrote about. And the very end (after the case), left me a little 'ugh' (I don't want to say what it is for spoilers but for a couple of reasons I didn't like the very ending).

But Watson shows almost unbelievable devotion to Holmes in trying to get him off the cocaine. And then there's a case, which sort of jolts Holmes (after the cocaine weaning, he becomes a kind of vegetable) back into himself. And the case is very cinema-esque (think a James Bond or any other action movie).

I haven't seen the film. And the narrator (I listened to it on audiobook) is one of my all time favorite voices (and I'm a voice junkie) so that made is a great listen for me. I liked the case. I liked the love that Watson shows Holmes. I liked Freud and the role he played.

[mightymads]

Curiosity got the better of me and I checked the Scoundrel out. It was amusing to see all the similarities or nods to Holmes and Watson: the injured leg, the temper, the good-naturedness of the one and the unconventional beauty, the moodiness, the disliking of the country, etc. of the other. Sarah has Mrs. Hudson’s vibes. Also, there seems to be a whiff of Downton Abbey too.

Re: the Seven-per-cent Solution, you’re right, maybe another time. Watson’s devotion and the case sound good, though.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Cool! I am glad you liked it. There is a huge whiff of Downton Abbey about the whole Turner series.

[mightymads]

I checked out the Rake too because I’m lazy during the lockdown. These two books brought to my mind a short story by ACD also set in the Regency Era, The Fall of Lord Barrymore. It’s about the rivalry between two socialites Sir Charles Tregellis and Lord Barrymore, who hated each other’s guts. Tregellis was a flamboyant fashionista, and one day was visited by a nephew, as flamboyant and obnoxious, who had been sent down from Oxford and offered the uncle to rid him of his rival by making the rival the laughingstock of the society. Well, it’s a fun story which involves cross dressing and boxing (simultaneously!), and after Cat Sebastian I wish there was a book about Tregellis/Barrymore enemies to lovers, and another book about his nephew and the nephew’s pal XD

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

That sounds fun. I shall have to add to my TBR pile.

[mightymads]

It’s quite short too, so it won’t take up much time :) It’s really astounding how easily quite a few of ACD’s short stories (beside Holmes) could be opening chapters of enjoyable m/m romance novels.

[ancientreader]

I came back to this entry because the comments on okapi's entry's are so often interesting, and lo! that story certainly does Lend Itself. I wonder whether anyone has put it in front of K. J. Charles.

[mightymads]

If they did, I would certainly like to read the results :)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

So would I! :)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

My initial reaction to the whole 'hire someone to improve one's public reputation' is utter historical trope-tastic nonsense, but then I remembered that it was a driving force in Red, White & Royal Blue, which is very, very modern, so the trope stands the test of time, no? Interesting.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I am always partial to the one with the giant man-eating Venus flytrap :) But I take your point.

[smallhobbit]

Wow, you're really steaming ahead with your book bingo card. Congratulations on your first bingo. (And if you use one of the other books which doesn't fit in any of the categories for the Free Space, you'll have another bingo!)

The Widows of Malabar Hill sounds interesting. I really don't like Anthony Horowitz and won't read anything more by him. Also, hooray for Ngaio Marsh on youtube. (I'm currently reading Final Curtain)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you! Yes, well, there's time to read, and I get in moods where I get tired of one amusement and turn to another and back again.

If you like Maisie Dobbs, I think you'll like Perveen. I was happy that it showed Indian families in a more realistic light (sometimes supportive, sometimes not). I think often they are shown as conservative and uncaring and caste-ish. And the case is about Muslim widows in seclusion. So there is a lot I didn't know. But Perveen's story is sad but she is Very Competent :) and not a victim. I don't know. I liked it. And the author is a Indian woman from Baltimore.

Yes, that kind angel also posted a lot of Maigret, Ruth Rendell, and Wodehouse. He really is a blessing (until the copyright folks yank him).

[luthienberen]

Wow congrats on reading 4 books in 3 days! I seriously need to up my game 😂.

Interesting array of m/m Regency romance!

Congratulations on your First Book Bingo!!!

I admire the number of audiobooks you have listened too. I am struggling through my second one and it is for one of my favourite novels too!

Glad you're enjoying so many diverse reads :-)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Oh, no! Don't take it as a challenge. I wouldn't wish my mental make-up on anyone. I binge. And sometimes I binge on books. But sometimes it's other things.

Thank you!

I am a voice junkie. I love certain voices. I seek out voices I like, so audiobooks are a mainstay. I am almost always listening to something and it drowns out the noise of screaming children!

[luthienberen]

Hugs x (Sorry for not replying yesterday, time got away with me!)

I understand binging on things. xx I hope today was a good day💗

I do have a couple of audiobooks I love for Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion (Rob Inglis for LOTR -the voices he conjured! Martin Shaw for the Sil.), but I believe you are right. Find the right voice and it is easy to listen :-)

I am almost always listening to something and it drowns out the noise of screaming children!

🤣 That is an excellent use of audiobooks! If I ever have children I shall pop on some audiobooks!

[write_out]

I always love to see what people are reading! I'm making notes to check out some of these titles.

I still need to finish my book cover challenge and rec some Stephen King. Just waiting to recover some mental energy!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Cool! This bingo is helping me stretch a little but left to my own devices, I read only mysteries.