divided by blue

Three weeks for Dreamwidth: Name three books (or book series) that had an impact on you

I’m going to answer that only considering fiction books, no non fiction.

Robin Hobb, Farseer series

I read these books in my youth, and I think this fantasy series got me into really enjoying reading. For school, we got these lists of books to read, and I often didn’t connect with those books, especially not the young adult books they advised us to read. They were frequently full of drama, and I already had a difficult situation to cope with at home, so I didn’t want to read things that were depressing as well.

I found this book series in a bookstore, read the description about a young man growing up in a castle full of intrigue, training to be an assassin, though he didn’t want to be one. He also had an extraordinary magical gift to communicate with animals. I hadn’t read any reviews on this series, but I really liked the description and bought the first book. I loved it, read the whole first trilogy. I saw there were (at the time) two more trilogies following this story, so I read them as well. I have very fond memories of this, staying up late to discover what was going to happen. I started reading other fantasy books after that, as well as classic seventies speculative fiction that my father had on his bookshelf and that he had read when he was young.

Terry Moore - Strangers in Paradise

This comic book series is about Katchoo, a young woman growing up and being in love with her best friend Francine - who keeps dating men who were mostly bad for her. It starts as just a fun growing-up tale, with plenty of humor, but it evolves further to incorporate aspects of the crime and thriller genres.

I read the book while in college, studying economics, but what I really wanted to do was to study art or take art courses. Katchoo grew up to be an artist, and the book showed me parts of a life I liked to have: learning about art and taking life drawing courses. Being an artist. She also was a badass, taking no shit from anyone. I admired her, wanted to be more like her in some ways. I loved reading about her, and I think this is one of the few books I reread years later. It was again a wonderful experience.

Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being

This was a mandatory read for a college course about literature. I remember being intimidated by the title. I thought this would be a tough book to read and connect with, but I was very wrong. It read really nicely, and told the story about two people who had an entirely different way of seeing life and about what life should be. One chooses security, planning everything out, wanting security, and for instance, a steady romantic relationship. These were things that other protagonists saw as ‘heavy’, as she wanted a life that was light and free of responsibilities, taking everything one day at a time, and just having fleeting flings with people. The ultimate question this book raises is, what kind of life is ‘light’ and ‘heavy’; and I find myself often thinking back to how the novel dealt with these questions, frequently posing myself the same ones as I go through life. Not many books linger in my mind like that.

Three weeks for Dreamwidth: What are you currently reading?

I’m reading a novel and three fanfiction stories, one of which is finished and the other two are still ongoing.

* The book I’m reading is Winterwode by J. Tullos Hennig. It’s the third book in her series of books of the Wode, which currently consists of five books. The books tell (or retell) the story of Robin Hood, as he comes of age, discovers he’s a main part of the old pagan religion and has adventures as he gets older. In the books, some of the things we come to expect from a Robin Hood tale are changed somewhat. Robin is a gay man who falls in love with the son of a Christian nobleman. Maid Marian is Robin’s sister.

I was initionally drawn to the books thanks to it being a reimagining of Robin Hood with a queer perspective, and I can say the books are really wonderful. There’s a lot happening, a clash between the old pagan religion and the then-new Christian faith that is rapidly spreading. There’s a lot of adventure and intrigue, a lot of companionship (Robin’s merry men form a great lot of friends). There’s history in it, with the crusades going strong and the Knights Templar coming into play. There is magic in it, in a way that the stories read as something between fantasy and magic realism. I greatly recommend the book series.

* The main fanfiction story (the one that is finished) that I’m reading is the Spanish 1983 by Lookupthestars_ on Wattpad. It is a Marta & Fina fanfiction story from Sueños de Libertad, but it is set in a new timeframe (modern day) with a different setting. A young female reporter/ photographer, by chance, discovers a box full of beautiful black and white photographs by an unknown author who recently passed away. In awe of this find, she becomes intrigued with wanting to know more about this photographer and her life, and starts looking for clues in the photographs to learn more about the identity of this photographer. One thing she quickly discovers is that one woman is photographed multiple times over the course of years. She becomes fascinated by this woman in the pictures and searches for her identity, wanting to meet her and show her the pictures.

This story is a sapphic romance story, and it is beautifully written. Its quality is on par and sometimes even better than the published romance stories I read. I highly recommend this story to anyone who is a fan of sapphic romance (and knows Spanish, since it’s written in Spanish), even if you’re not familiar with the TV show. No previous knowledge of anything is required to read it; it just reads like an excellent book. Anyone who wants to check it out can find it HERE.