Witches & queens & elections

The Queen of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner

I have had the latest Tiffany Aching book (I Shall Wear Midnight) on the TBR pile since last year.  It has been so long since I read one of the Tiffany books, though, that I thought I'd re-read Wintersmith, just to sort of set the stage.  I'd only read it once, when it came out in 2007 - so other than the dance with the Wintersmith, I remembered nothing.  It's such a perfect book, one of Pratchett's best - one of those that blend the humor with the more serious elements, and really make you think - and it has not only Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, but my favorite minor character/goddess Anoia.  It was such a good read that when I sat down with I Shall, it was a disconnect.  I wanted more of the Wintersmith/Lancre story.

So I set it aside for the moment, and picked up The Queen of Attolia. Turner has been highly, enthusiastically & repeatedly recommended on the Dorothy Dunnett lists to which I belong. I bough The Thief  last year and enjoyed it - and after getting the other three books from the library & not reading them, I of course bought them & added them to the TBR pile.  The Queen is very different from The Thief - in the 3rd person, with the story shifting away from Gen for much of the book. I found some of the politics confusing, and I think a map would be a great  help.  I'm interested to see where this marriage goes, since I'm not totally convinced it's a love match.  But I do love Gen (and Eddis) - who has some Lymondish qualities.  And that's one more off the recent TBR pile.

When I got tired of Attolian politics, I read Rebecca Traister's Big Girls Don't Cry, about "The [2008] Election That Changed Everything For American Women."  I found it inspirational, informative, and even infuriating in spots (not Traister herself, but the instances of blatant sexism that Hillary Clinton faced every day of that campaign).  And proving that all roads lead to Jane Austen, she pops up in the chapter on "Pop Culture Warriors."  This was a library book, but I may need a copy, just to remind myself.