(no subject)

[skygiants]

In addition to my awesome Yuletide fic, I also got an awesome Yuletide treat! Solve for XX is an awesome ficlet that continues to assuage my constant craving for YANKUMI TEACHING DELINQUENT GIRLS:

Kumiko blanched. This was a teacher's worst nightmare.

As usual, I am working my way through the rest of the archive VERY SLOWLY, often backwards and in reverse (one gets such a feeling of accomplishment working up from the Zs, the letters go so much more quickly than the top of the alphabet ...) I am also continuing to work my way through December meme posts! For the 21 I was supposed to write about Georgette Heyer for bookblather.

It's kind of hard for me to remember that I only read my first Georgette Heyer book towards around the end of college -- she's such solid comfort reading for me now that I feel like I have been reading her books FOREVER. My favorite Heyers (Cotillion, Talisman Ring, Sylvester, The Unknown Ajax, Frederica, etc.) are pretty much guaranteed mood pick-me-ups for me; they're light and frothy and ridiculous and it's impossible to be stressed while reading them. Everything is charming and nothing hurts!

...that said, I mean, for all her books are sweet as spun-sugar candy on toast, Georgette Heyer was not a nice lady. She was classist and anti-Semitic as hell, and probably racist too, although since I don't think I've ever encountered a non-white person in any of her books that fact is not as immediately evident. But who can ever forget all those charming plots along the lines of "well, this terrible thing would be OK if it happened to that kind of girl, but it can't happen to our heroine, she has CLASS?" I have also discovered that even in times of great stress I can only read so many Georgette Heyer books at a time, otherwise I start to feel a level of simmering irritation with all these cheerful and charming aristocrats who don't do anything. WHATEVER, DUDES! GET A JOB!

That said, it's still nice to know that I have a bunch of unread Heyers yet to discover for next time a period of great stress comes around and I just want to be reading about a bunch of cheerful and charming aristocrats who don't do anything. A Civil Contract, Cousin Kate and The Nonesuch are top of my current list, but for the moment I am saving them in the metaphorical literary freezer as Emergency Heyer.

Comments

[rymenhild]

Ugggggh, do not use Cousin Kate as emergency Heyer. Save it for a time you feel like hate-reading unsuccessful Gothic with unpleasant treatments of mental illness.

[skygiants]

With this, I now have a total of one trustworthy personalized rec and one trustworthy personalized anti-rec for Cousin Kate! This is great because it means I won't feel guilty no matter how I end up feeling about it when I read it. :D (It's like how I couldn't read The Goblin Emperor until I found someone who disliked it. ...I mean I haven't read it yet, but now I feel I will be able to!)

[gogollescent]

/PATIENT STARE

[skygiants]

THANKS GOGOL

[gogollescent]

I'm just saying. You should read it. Somehow the contents of my "rec" have still failed to persuade anyone, but you could jump-start that statistic! sort of.

(Also, unrelated to anything in this post, I just picked up A Face Like Glass, and--am I wrong to find myself reading it as a sort of adorable Tutu remix? Neverducked! Rue-elle! Fakir would have been even cuter with a name like Erstwhile.)

[skygiants]

Emma also tackled me when I saw her in NY (admittedly with a more positive rec.) I am beset on all sides!

(I DON'T THINK YOU'RE WRONG. At least as far as Why Is This Adorable Naif Attempting So Hard To Befriend Me goes. I mean the Fakir parallel is ... shakier. But I would read the AU where Drosselmeyer has a fatal self-sabotaging personality disorder.

....actually that makes it kind of a Tutu/Ancillary Justice crossover...)

[gogollescent]

>> Of course, you should also... embrace goblining on your own time.......

(He's just so surly. That's my only justification. But yeah, having gotten to the point of Right-eye Left-eye autodestruct I am seriously struggling not to picture poor Neverfell implanted with a residual Steward-AI, and possibly developing Striking Lilac Eyes in the process.)

[percysowner]

A Civil Contract is on my list of best Heyer novels. Others are Friday's Child, Frederica, Cotillion, Sprig Muslin and Sylvester. That gives you an idea of what I look for in her books. That said, A Civil Contract gets rated low by a lot of people. It's not her usual plot, so some people are disappointed. I'm really looking forward to you take on it, once you use it as your Emergency Heyer read.

[skygiants]

I enjoy Friday's Child and all the others on your list are also among my top favorites, so that does indicate a high probability that I will like Civil Contract also! (Though I am warned that it is more bittersweet than her others.)

[percysowner]

It is more bittersweet than her others, but it also feels very realistic, so I don't mind. Basically at the end my reaction is if [certain character] is happy, then I'm happy. I do this with Devil's Cub, but at least with A Civil Contract I'm not rooting for anyone to be happy with someone who tried to rape her. (I really do enjoy Devil's Cub, but Mary deserves so, so much better, but she wants him, so if she's happy, I'm happy.)

[skygiants]

Oh god, Devil's Cub. I always feel like I should enjoy Devil's Cub less than I do, because he is SO TERRIBLE ... but Mary is so great ... and their interactions are so hilarious ... dammit, Heyer!

[lnhammer]

Read those three in the reverse order given.

---L.

[rymenhild]

I do agree that A Civil Contract should be last, to finish off the genre. Why that ordering of Nonesuch and Cousin Kate?

[lnhammer]

A) Quality and b) to put them in order of Heyer Classic and Late Heyer.

---L.

[skygiants]

Duly noted! Though I have not yet followed any particular Heyer order at all.

[ninjapenguin]

I think you will like The Nonesuch. The heroine has a job as a governess! The hero spends his fortune on establishing orphanages! There are, unfortunately, no dogs, hot air balloons, or smugglers.

[skygiants]

There are like THREE Heyers with governess/Lady Companion heroines and I don't think I've read ANY of them. I think The Nonesuch is the one that has been most-recommended to me though! (Though I will miss the hot air balloons and smugglers. I can take or leave the dogs.)