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In which there are Two Women, one woman, and a whole Patchwork of women
Apr. 7th, 2026 04:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiralsheepRead to 31 March 2026: 35 books (no dnfs but one I wish I had).
To read shelves: 61 books.
Current reading quote: "In the lives of the good, bad people are the deciding factor. That's just how it goes. In the lives of the bad, the good ones disappear. They don't even notice them."
Highly rated or interesting books I read in March:
- 28. Two Women Living Together, by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo, 2019 (2026), non-fiction memoir self-help, 3/5.
( Because y'all might be interested. )
- 31. Woman Alive, by Susan Ertz, 1936, novel fantasy / science fiction "feminism" (of a sort), 2/5.
( Neither good nor especially interesting but a must for feminist sf or utopia completists. )
- 33. Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre, 2009, the second edition including the previously redacted chapter 10 "The Doctor Will Sue You Now", non-fiction science biology medicine, 5/5.
I've begun reccing this to younger people a generation after this was published because it remains one of the best popular How To Think About Science books as the arguments are both clearly written and entertaining.
Worked up from newspapers columns so very quotable, e.g. pg116: "Using this process, called photosynthesis, plants store the energy from sunlight in the form of sugar (high in calories, as you know), and they can then use this sugar energy to make everything else they need: like protein, and fibre, and flowers, and corn on the cob, and bark, and leaves, and amazing traps that eat flies, and cures for cancer, and tomatoes, and wispy dandelions, and conkers, and chillies, and all the other amazing things that the plant world has going on."
Also includes the infamous one-liner about Gillian McKeith, lmao.
- 34. Patchwork, a Graphic Biography of Jane Austen, by Kate Evans, 2025, comics history biography, 5/5 or 6/5. ;-)
Superlatively brilliant. Very Kate Evans. Jane Austen's life as a patchwork of what we know, with a central interlude telling double page spread histories about where the cotton and fabrics for Jane's patchworking came from and how her gentry family benefitted from Britain's unscrupulous trades. Highly recommended both as an Austen biography that includes her all-important familial relationships, and for placing the Austens' lives into historical perspective. I also rec Evans' previous graphic biography Red Rosa about Rosa Luxemburg.
Note: I recently read The Novel Life of Jane Austen, another graphic bio, which was a solid 4/5 for the life but lacked wider context compared to Patchwork, published only six months later, which is unfortunate timing for the creators Janine Barchas and Isabel Greenberg.
To read shelves: 61 books.
Current reading quote: "In the lives of the good, bad people are the deciding factor. That's just how it goes. In the lives of the bad, the good ones disappear. They don't even notice them."
Highly rated or interesting books I read in March:
- 28. Two Women Living Together, by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo, 2019 (2026), non-fiction memoir self-help, 3/5.
( Because y'all might be interested. )
- 31. Woman Alive, by Susan Ertz, 1936, novel fantasy / science fiction "feminism" (of a sort), 2/5.
( Neither good nor especially interesting but a must for feminist sf or utopia completists. )
- 33. Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre, 2009, the second edition including the previously redacted chapter 10 "The Doctor Will Sue You Now", non-fiction science biology medicine, 5/5.
I've begun reccing this to younger people a generation after this was published because it remains one of the best popular How To Think About Science books as the arguments are both clearly written and entertaining.
Worked up from newspapers columns so very quotable, e.g. pg116: "Using this process, called photosynthesis, plants store the energy from sunlight in the form of sugar (high in calories, as you know), and they can then use this sugar energy to make everything else they need: like protein, and fibre, and flowers, and corn on the cob, and bark, and leaves, and amazing traps that eat flies, and cures for cancer, and tomatoes, and wispy dandelions, and conkers, and chillies, and all the other amazing things that the plant world has going on."
Also includes the infamous one-liner about Gillian McKeith, lmao.
- 34. Patchwork, a Graphic Biography of Jane Austen, by Kate Evans, 2025, comics history biography, 5/5 or 6/5. ;-)
Superlatively brilliant. Very Kate Evans. Jane Austen's life as a patchwork of what we know, with a central interlude telling double page spread histories about where the cotton and fabrics for Jane's patchworking came from and how her gentry family benefitted from Britain's unscrupulous trades. Highly recommended both as an Austen biography that includes her all-important familial relationships, and for placing the Austens' lives into historical perspective. I also rec Evans' previous graphic biography Red Rosa about Rosa Luxemburg.
Note: I recently read The Novel Life of Jane Austen, another graphic bio, which was a solid 4/5 for the life but lacked wider context compared to Patchwork, published only six months later, which is unfortunate timing for the creators Janine Barchas and Isabel Greenberg.
