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Ink and Steel, Elizabeth Bear. I've been enjoying this book but not super grabbed by it -- and knowing that this book is only half of the story makes it less motivating. I'll probably check out the library e-book again but not right away.
The Busie-Body, Susanna Centlivre. Play read-aloud -- a Restoration play by a woman playwright! The plot is a very standard romantic comedy of the sort you get from Molière -- two young couples in love, the main obstacles being that womens' parents/guardians have other plans. (There's an interesting bit where one of the men is in love both with a woman he's seen but never talked to, and a woman he's talked to but only while she's masked. However he figures out halfway through the play that they're the same woman, without any particular angst along the way.) The main plot innovation is Marplot, the titular "busie-body" who is just incredibly clueless, in the way where when a friend says "I'm going somewhere, don't follow me", he's like "I don't want to miss out on the fun, I'll follow him secretly". This never ends well (for anyone, but particularly not for him), and by the end we were al just going "OH Marplot NO". This was popular enough that marplot made it into the dictionary, but not really my thing. (I think this play also suffered from my having read She Stoops to Conquer recently, which though problematic has more interesting characters.)
The Women, Clare Boothe Luce. Another play-readaloud: a play from the 1930's with an all-female cast. Mostly focuses on the lives of upper-class married society women, who are not particularly nice people (Sylvia is *The Worst*) but produce entertaining drama -- though there's also a larger cast of working-class women who kind of function as a Greek chorus, providing commentary and pointing out how easy the richer women get it.
Lolly Willowes, or the Loving Huntsman, by Sylvia Townsend Warner: someone mentioned this was in the public domain now, so I picked it up. The first part is a well-done character sketch of Laura "Lolly" Willowes, the put-upon and quietly eccentric spinster aunt (I love the bit where she puts off a hopeful suitor with "If you are a were-wolf, and very likely you may be, for lots of people are without knowing, February, of all months, is the month when you are most likely to go out on a dark windy night and worry sheep.") I'm now into the second part where Lolly has moved to the small country town of Great Mop and is living for herself.
The Busie-Body, Susanna Centlivre. Play read-aloud -- a Restoration play by a woman playwright! The plot is a very standard romantic comedy of the sort you get from Molière -- two young couples in love, the main obstacles being that womens' parents/guardians have other plans. (There's an interesting bit where one of the men is in love both with a woman he's seen but never talked to, and a woman he's talked to but only while she's masked. However he figures out halfway through the play that they're the same woman, without any particular angst along the way.) The main plot innovation is Marplot, the titular "busie-body" who is just incredibly clueless, in the way where when a friend says "I'm going somewhere, don't follow me", he's like "I don't want to miss out on the fun, I'll follow him secretly". This never ends well (for anyone, but particularly not for him), and by the end we were al just going "OH Marplot NO". This was popular enough that marplot made it into the dictionary, but not really my thing. (I think this play also suffered from my having read She Stoops to Conquer recently, which though problematic has more interesting characters.)
The Women, Clare Boothe Luce. Another play-readaloud: a play from the 1930's with an all-female cast. Mostly focuses on the lives of upper-class married society women, who are not particularly nice people (Sylvia is *The Worst*) but produce entertaining drama -- though there's also a larger cast of working-class women who kind of function as a Greek chorus, providing commentary and pointing out how easy the richer women get it.
Lolly Willowes, or the Loving Huntsman, by Sylvia Townsend Warner: someone mentioned this was in the public domain now, so I picked it up. The first part is a well-done character sketch of Laura "Lolly" Willowes, the put-upon and quietly eccentric spinster aunt (I love the bit where she puts off a hopeful suitor with "If you are a were-wolf, and very likely you may be, for lots of people are without knowing, February, of all months, is the month when you are most likely to go out on a dark windy night and worry sheep.") I'm now into the second part where Lolly has moved to the small country town of Great Mop and is living for herself.