you got katana in my medulla oblongata

Allergies suck. But, since this post is not about me whining about my various bodily ills, that is all I have to say on the subject. This is actually a book rec, brought to you courtesy of my au_bigbang fic.

As it did last year when I was writing Road to Damascus, my brain is starting to kick over into hyper gear, that place where I'm absorbed by whatever I'm writing to the exclusion of almost everything else. While in this place I read as feverishly as I write, usually material related in one way or another to my story. Last year, I read countless circus-oriented books, fictional and non, and since I'm presently writing the sequel to RtD, I decided to revisit a book I read last year and enjoyed so much I bought a copy.

I might have recced this before, but if I did, I don't think a second rec is going to hurt; there's no such thing as too many book recs, and The Circus in Winter is worth a second rec.

Cathy Day, the author, is a descendant of circus folk who grew up in a town that used to be the winter headquarters for a circus, and it really shows in her writing: she's invested. The book is a series of interconnected stories about circus people's lives during performance season and after the tents are packed away for the year and winter hiatus begins. The timeline stretches from the late 1800's into the late 1900's; the characterization is fantastic, and Day's writing is truly excellent. Her style is one of those I like best: clean and clear and simple in places, but never simplistic. She backdrops out of the ordinary people and events with day-to-day language and emotion, makes her stories real and immediate in way most writers can't. Her prose is beautiful and her subject is -- for me, at least -- absorbing. And even if the circus isn't one of your enthusiasms, The Circus In Winter is worth reading for characterization alone.

I loved this book. I can't guarantee that you will too, but I'll put my money where my mouth is and say there's a good chance you might.