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flemmings ([personal profile] flemmings) wrote2013-09-11 08:25 pm
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Yo-yo weather

Monday was autumn. Not aggressively so- high of 20, and I think a cloudy-sunny day, as seen from the fog of the sleep-deprived. Tuesday was summer: warm when I woke up, eventually something between 31 and 34 depending whose webpage you read, with a humidex over 40 (105F). Came home mid-day and found my walls wet-- actual droplets of water-- which threw me until I figured it was the result of still-chilly interior and suddenly-steamy ex-, when the heat had appeared as suddenly as cold fronts tend to. I've never experienced that before; nor the smell that came from the silk haoru that has hung in the front hallway for fifteen years and that suddenly revealed itself in need of dry cleaning. (Hung it out in the blistering sun yesterday afternoon, which seems to have helped a little.) Today was warm and breezy; tomorrow will be cooler and wet; Friday will be cold. Between the weather weirdness and truncated sleep this morning and allergies, I feel like I've slipped into some alternate reality. Maybe I'll be myself again on the weekend.

What have you just finished reading?
Briggs, River Marked. That was a nice easy series for a busy time; there's a side-series too that I might look into. Never thought to find wolves and/or werewolves so congenial.

What are you reading now?
Carriger, Etiquette and Espionage, opportunely come in to the library so I'm not at a loose end.

What will you read next?
Several more books are in transit, including a Japanese mystery and The Golem and the Jinni, most oddly, because last I saw there were 40 people ahead of me for that. And I must read it fast because there are 134 people waiting for one of the 64 copies, meaning two more people waiting for mine.

What ahve you given up on?
Possibly The Secret History. Rich New Englanders may be fantastic compared to the reality I know, but werewolves are more congenial.

[identity profile] cerberusia.livejournal.com 2013-09-13 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
The very idea of humidity like that makes me want to hiss. The heat I can take, but humidity, ugh - I visited New York a couple of years ago, and I vividly remember stepping out of the aggressively air-conditioned hotel to a sensation which felt like being slapped in the face with a wet towel. Suddenly, I understood all the references to A/C units in fictional North American houses - you wouldn't survive without them.

Etiquette and Espionage is DELIGHTFUL. Engaging plot, charming characters, and I cackled out loud at almost every page. Alas for giving up on Tartt - I adored The Secret History when I read it several years ago, and I'd have thought it'd be your sort of thing. It probably helped that if I squinted, 'Harvard' turned into 'Oxford' - these old universities are alike no matter where they are.

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2013-09-13 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Dry heat is getting harder and harder to find these days. North Africa, basically, if you want to be in North Africa. Otherwise I feel the whole world is turning into Singapore. Clusters of tall buildings will do that: traps heat, creates more.

Etiquette and Espionage is indeed being fun, especially as a prequel to The Parasol Protectorate series. I fancy The Secret History would work better if seen as Oxbridge, where classics feels somehow integral and not the rarefied snobbish study that Americans like to make it seem. I'm sure Oxbridge privileged are as annoying as New England privileged, but I'm closer to the American model and it irks me.