Jan Priddy > Recent Status Updates

So there there were all these extra homeless people in a post-apocalyptic LA. Where is the water coming from? LA is a desert without water from a very long distance. [Sourcing water was an issue in Station Eleven too—for me, not in the book where water sources were generally ignored.] Otherwise, interesting.

So many people love this novel, and I understand why. I just can't read it.

I skipped to the last story by Karen Joy Fowler, which is excellent and realist. Then backed up to Kelly Link's story which I thought was the best she's ever written.

I've given up reading the stories in order and any commitment to reading every word.

I knew Ursula well enough to call her by her first name. I had a class with her, she gave me tea in her kitchen, I drove her to events.

I've found a couple of stories so far that remind me of her. Molly Gloss's story does that best. Two or three so far reference Le Guin directly but without capturing anything of her or her work that I recognize. One is an academic essay pretending to be a narrative. Disappointing.

So far, two stories I love and one I could be bothered to finish.

Loving about half the stories so far.

I admired Huck Finn, not Tom or Becky, never Becky

oh, my

Well-researched.

Right off, the cover is attractive until I saw up close that it's pseudo-NW Coast. Already mentions fishers shooting seals, which I have published about. The author's website hasn't been updated since 2020.

This is not the edition I am reading, which is Peter Pauper Press and has 84 pages, but as close as I can find listed.

So far, I recognize two of the pieces and can follow their rhythm.

So far, unusual that it's mostly dialogue. I suspect where it's going, but the Nick-and-Nora set up of husband and wife detectives and a 1920s story of patriarchal abuse of daughters and wife is effective. We see it in Sayer's Harriet Vane novels, but the tension is effectively bald here.

I will finish this novel today and begin Philippa Gregory's Royal Witch.

Ridiculous male egos that are so fragile they must completely dominate women in everything, in money, competence, strength, intelligence... All my life I've seen this but never so bald as what I find in historical novels. Men are , sometimes, more polite today, but many approach women in this same way.