wednesday books are headed to toronto

[landofnowhere]

OOr, rather, the characters in one of them are. I'm not going anywhere except inside a book.)

Jonathan Strange et Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke, translated by Isabelle Delord-Philippe. I've made it to Jonathan Strange, and things are getting more exciting! Not much to remark on regarding the translation, except that I seem to laugh out loud more often reading this in French, and I'm not sure if it's how the narrative sarcasm is translated, or if it's something different about the experience of reading in a foreign language. Or maybe I'm just punchy this time around? Anyway I'm putting it on hold for:

When Sorrows Come, Seanan McGuire. New Toby! I'm only a few chapters in, but Toby has just had a surprise wedding planned for her, and is not thrilled (well, happy to be getting married, not thrilled by the surprise). Should get back to this soon.

Recently mentioned on Discord my complaint about the lack of SF/fantasy from the point of view of a teacher (there are often important teacher/governess characters, they just usually don't get POV, something something vocational awe). Got a few recs, including Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic by David J. Schwartz, which is now on my to-read list. Any other suggestions?

Comments

[sorcyress]

No teacher suggestions, but would love to hear what else you'd been rec'd!

[landofnowhere]

The only one I've read myself is The Just City by Jo Walton, which is really good but heavy (time-travelling philosophers try to recreate Plato's Republic with actualy kids, one of the 3 POVs is a teacher, the other 2 are kids).

Others: The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker, some Zenna Henderson stories apparently, someone suggested Mirabile by Janet Kagan where the POV character isn't officially a teacher but does a lot of teaching.

[carbonel]

For shorter works, "And Madly Teach" by Lloyd Biggle fits the bill.

It's available online at the Internet Archive, albeit in a rather annoying format.
https://archive.org/stream/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v030n05_1966-05_PDF/Fantasy__Science_Fiction_v030n05_1966-05_PDF_djvu.txt

It's also been collected in a few anthologies.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?53913

[landofnowhere]

Thanks!

[landofnowhere]

Read it -- I can see why it's been anthologized: good, if a little cheesy. The dystopia was a little over-the top but entirely believable and still relevant as social commentary.

[carbonel]

It was a "lost" story for me for many years, and I eventually found it again and was happy that it still stood up reasonably well.

I think I first read it in high school, and it was only much later that I realized what the title had been riffing off of.