The Marquis Who Mustn't

The Marquis Who Mustn't, Courtney Milan (2024 TBR stack)

This is the second book in Courtney Milan's Wedgeford Series - with a third book coming in July. The setting is a small town in Kent in the 1890s, where a community of Asians (some recent immigrants, some natives of England) have settled. The town is best known for an annual competition called The Trials, which draws people from all over the kingdom to play. According to the author's note in the first of the series, The Duke Who Didn't, it is based on "The Royal Shrovetide Football Match" held in Ashbourne in Derbyshire since the Middle Ages. The first book is centered around The Trials, with the titular Duke returning to take part.

In this second book, another former resident returns home. Liu Ji Kai lived in Wedgeford as a child, while his father systematically conned the residents out of their savings. He claimed an ancient Chinese title, and he told the town that he had the secret to creating priceless works of ceramic pottery. One night he abandoned the six-year-old Kai in the village, returning later to drag him off to learn his part in the family's real inheritance: fraud. Twenty years later, Kai is coming back to restore what his father stole.

On his way to Wedgeford, he meets Naomi Kwan, who works her family's inn (Naomi played a key part in the first book). She desperately wants to take ambulance classes, since the town has no doctor. Her parents have talked her out of it year after year, but when she finally makes her way to register, she is told that she must have permission from her father or husband. Naomi quickly presents Kai as her fiancé, and he plays along, though he doesn't tell her that they were betrothed as children. Since this is a romance, it shouldn't be a spoiler to say that their fake (second) engagement starts to become more real. But Kai still needs to face his past and his father's actions, and Naomi has her own family complications to deal with. It's lovely to see them stand up for each other as they are learning more about themselves and each other.

I really enjoy Courtney Milan's historical romances. My only quibble is that they can be a bit repetitive, with people asking the same questions or having the same mental conversation more than once. Her books are self-published, and someone recently asked on Goodreads if she has an editor, who might catch some of this. I also saw some typos in this book. But these are quibbles, and I am looking forward to the third book next month, The Earl Who Isn't.

The Inheritance Trilogy, N.K. Jemisin

 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (re-read)

The Broken Kingdoms (re-read)

The Kingdom of Gods (finally reading)

Nine years ago I read the first book in this trilogy, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, about a young woman summoned to her mother's homeland, to learn she is now one of the candidates to succeed her grandfather as the head of the titular kingdoms. But she also learns that she is intended to be the sacrifice that brings one of her cousins to the real power. Things don't quite work out as her grandfather intended, and in the process, some powerful and vengeful gods are freed from enslavement to her family.

This was the first book I read by N.K. Jemisin, and I've just learned it was her first book published. I was so blown away by the book, the world she created, and her characters. I immediately inhaled the second book, The Broken Kingdoms, where a woman living in the capital city of the capital kingdom takes in a fallen god. An artist, she is blind, but she can see his power. With him she is drawn into a mystery about who is murdering godlings, and what role the magic in her art might play, amid the rise of a new religious group. I loved this story even more, because of the main character Oree. I never wrote about it though, perhaps because I immediately started the third book, The Kingdom of Gods.

I don't remember exactly why after all these years, but I gave up on the third book very quickly. I not only gave up reading it, I gave it away to the library sales. It's honestly a bit frustrating not to remember why I took such exception to it. The other day I got a sudden urge to revisit these stories, and a determination to try the final book again. The first two were as good as I remembered, and the last book? I'm also frustrated with myself for missing such a great story. 

The Kingdom of Gods has as its main character Sieh the Trickster, a godling who plays a major part in the first story. He is a god of childhood, usually appearing as a child. In this story he meets a mortal girl and boy, later heirs to the kingdoms. He swears an oath of friendship with them, which has the appalling consequence of making him mortal, and aging at an accelerated rate. At the same time a dangerous new godling has appeared, who wants to overthrow the existing hierarchy of gods and rule alone - but that will destroy the mortal world.

These stories are definitely not cozy fantasy. There is on-page violence, people and groups seen as lesser are abused and sacrificed, the enslaved gods suffer physical and sexual abuse, and the gods mate among themselves in ways that qualify as incest in the human world (gender is fluid for many of them). I sometimes find N.K. Jemisin's stories too bleak, but the Inheritance Trilogy has a permanent place on my shelves - all three books, now.

Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey

Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey, Lillian Schlissel (from the TBR stacks)

Last year I read Covered Wagon Women, Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1849, edited by Kenneth L. Holmes. It is the first in a series of eleven compilations, covering different decades of emigrant women's diaries. I did check to see if my library had the later books (they don't), and I resisted immediately looking for copies on-line. When I came across Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey on the library sale shelves, I immediately picked it up.

After a brief introduction by the editor, Covered Wagon Women comprises twelve sets of letters and diaries, including several from the Donner party. I had not fully understood the horror of that tragedy before reading these. Women's Diaries on the other hand has only five accounts (diaries and reminiscences). The bulk of the book is a discussion of women's experiences on the trails. I found that part very interesting and informative. The diaries are included at the end, and they are much less interesting and comprehensive than the ones in the first book.

This book was originally published in 1982 and revised in 1992. The author's main argument seems to be that there were fundamental differences in how women and men experienced their travels, and it is crucial to understand those differences. I think this may have been one of the first books to center women's experiences, and to try to expand the history of the western pioneers to include their perspectives. From her author's notes, it seems that at the time she was writing the book, women's diaries were scattered in archives and private collections, and not well known. Covered Wagon Women (the first volume) was published a year later, which fits that timeline.

Prof. Schlissel organizes her overview by decade. I had not realized how profoundly the journey changed, from the first emigrants who pretty much just loaded their wagons and headed west, with no real understanding of exactly where they were going or what they would face along the way. By the end, people were traveling in relative comfort, even by railway rather than wagons. Among the many things I learned: most women did not want to go west, particularly when it meant leaving family behind. I was stunned at the number of women who set off on their travels while pregnant. Prof. Schlissel argues that their condition was not considered a reason for delay, nor did it excuse them from the work of the journey - work that she explains was exhausting and difficult. As dangerous as childbirth was in the 19th century in general, these women also faced delivering a child on the road, likely with no doctor or midwife if something went wrong. And then they had to get back on the trail within a day or so. The diaries of these Victorian women do not discuss any details of pregnancy or childbirth, but they do record the deaths of mothers and children. That is apparently another difference with the diaries kept by men: the women noted the deaths and the (many) graves they passed every day in great detail, while the men tended to gloss over or ignore them.

One aspect of these journeys that I had never considered is that on the flat open prairies, which went on for hundreds of miles, there were no convenient bushes or trees for bathroom breaks. This was a constant concern for the women, particularly those traveling alone in groups of men. Prof. Schlissel argues that traveling with other women could be a comfort on many levels, most basically because women in long skirts could provide privacy screens for each other. In a fascinating bit of historical theory, she thinks that is why bloomers never really caught on with the emigrant women. They wanted the skirts as shields.

I enjoyed this book very much, while realizing that I am very grateful for modern travel conveniences. Next time I am in Oregon, I want to visit the End of the Oregon Trail Museum near Portland. And I may look for one of those remaining ten volumes of diaries - or wait to see if they show up on a sale shelf.

Christopher and Columbus (re-read)

One bookish goal of mine is to have all my books on shelves. Currently I have the 2024 TBR stacked right next to the computer, as a reminder. I also have a matching stack of books on the other side that I'd like to read this year. I have some gifted books stacked beside a bookcase as well. I do feel at least that these are manageable stacks.

I even have a little bit of space on the shelves. That's partly because I don't buy as many books these days. I'm on my second year of "52 new books for the year" and it's working pretty well. It also helps that my neighborhood Barnes & Noble has closed for renovations, which has really cut down my impulse purchases. I am also culling my shelves, in a version of Marie Kondo's famous method. I don't ask if a particular book sparks joy, but I do ask if I think I will re-read it. That is my main criterion for keeping a book, that I want to have it on hand for re-reading. I've taken a good number of books that I decide I won't re-read to donate to the library (I always wonder what they make of the very mixed bags of books I drop off).

One of the authors whose books I was looking at is Elizabeth von Arnim, once I realized that I have never yet picked up one of her books to read again. It was easy to let The Pastor's Wife go, it's such a bleak story, and Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther also went on the donation stack. But when it came to Christopher and Columbus, I hesitated. I remembered something of the story, and that I thought it wasn't one of her stronger books. I was curious enough to read it again, and I have to say I enjoyed it much more this time than when I first read it in 2011. I found it a lot funnier than I remembered. My original post covered the plot. What I particularly enjoyed this time was the setting during the Great War, the travel by liner (across the Atlantic) and by train (across the US), and the whirlwind setting up of a tea shop (one of my favorite tropes - though sadly this one closed soon after opening). My main quibble is that the ending felt very rushed, and I am uncomfortable with the "happy" ending where the 17-year-old twins marry in haste (one to a man twice her age). 

So this one will stay on the shelves for now. But there's space for it, with fewer books double-stacked. It feels good to let books go.

The Penguin Book of Dragons

 From the TBR stacks: The Penguin Book of Dragons, edited by Scott G. Bruce

I don't remember the first stories I heard or read about dragons, but they have always been my favorite mythical creatures. Maybe because I associate them with cats? My ideas of dragons were shaped first by Ursula Le Guin, in her Earthsea books. Then I fell deeply in love with Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, with their dragons and fire lizards. I wrote what was technically fan-fiction when I wrote myself into the books - of course I Impressed a queen dragon. It was magical meeting someone at college who shared my love of those books. Just a couple of weeks ago, I discovered that my sister-in-law, whom I've known for almost 40 years, also read and loved the Pern books. And then there is J.R.R. Tolkien's Smaug.

I still read stories of dragons with delight, particularly when the dragons are complicated characters. Among my recent favorites:

• The Termeraire series by Naomi Novik - the Napoleonic Wars with dragons (at least the early books, I gave up on the series when the war moved to Russia)
• Tooth and Claw, by Jo Walton - Anthony Trollope's Framley Parsonage, with dragons
• When Women Were Dragons, by Kelly Barnhill - women become dragons to escape, to revenge themselves, to be free
• And one of the best books I read last year, To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose, which just won a Nebula award - Anequs, a Native American girl in an America colonized from Scandinavia, becomes bonded to a dragon hatchling - and is immediately forced to attend a colonizers' dragon academy.

I bought a copy of The Penguin Book of Dragons as soon as I saw it advertised, back in 2021. I finally picked it up a couple of days ago, thinking it would be a book to dip in and out of. To my surprise, I couldn't put it down. It covers so many aspects of how dragons have been written about and reported on, going back to ancient China, India, Greece, and Rome. It ends with stories by Kenneth Grahame and E. Nesbit, who were part of a trend of domesticating dragons, especially for children's stories. The editor, Scott Bruce, connects this to the current popularity of dragons in books and TV/film, down to Game of Thrones (which I couldn't read and didn't want to watch). 

I was familiar with the Christian connections of dragons to Satan and the fallen angels, from the Book of Revelation. I didn't realize though how seriously people took dragons. There are lengthy extracts from two 18th century naturalists whose books combined historical overviews of dragon lore down to current events involving dragons, which they firmly believed were authentic. I also enjoyed the stories from Asia, including one from the Rig Veda (1500-1200 BCE) of the storm deity Indra battling a dragon who is holding the world's water hostage - the earliest dragon story the editor has found.

One thing I didn't know: Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene is a political and religious allegory, where dragons represent the sins and evils of the Roman Catholic Church. The excerpts included from that were rather gruesome.

More of a reading/books diary? Also, new books

I read a recommendation for a book, The Imposter Heiress by Annie Reed, and I had that "I need to read this" feeling that has led to the TBR stacks. That didn't stop me from ordering a copy (since it comes out tomorrow, I couldn't find a copy to request through interlibrary loan). 

I was excited to learn that Ovidia Yu has released a new book in the "Mystery Tree" series, The Angsana Tree Mystery, though the print copy doesn't come out until September. I have really enjoyed this series, but I have to admit, I'm glad that the latest book takes place after the end of World War II. I recently read Hawker Dreams, by Oanh Ngo Usadi, a memoir of her family relocating to Singapore from the US for three years, for her husband's work. Singapore is one of the places I hope to visit one day, in no small part thanks to Ovidia Yu.

One of my favorite books of last year, To Shape a Dragon's Breath, by Moniquill Blackgoose, won a Nebula award last night. I am so happy to see that. It is an amazing book, an alt-history where America was colonized by Scandinavians rather than the British, but the Native American population suffered just as much - as did their dragons. 15-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling, only to be forced into an academy for dragon companions, where as a Native American women she is most unwelcome. I have high hopes for a sequel. Probably not coincidentally, I am currently reading The Penguin Book of Dragons.

Just read off the TBR stacks: My Fair Concubine, by Jeannie Lin. A version of My Fair Lady, set in China's Tang dynasty. It has a really vivid sense of place, and I loved Yang Lin, the foundling from a tea house who is recruited for a diplomatic marriage (to replace the hero's sister, who eloped to avoid the marriage).