![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
New Year, Old Friends (January Reading)
Jan. 31st, 2010 11:46 pmChanging the World: All-New Tales of Valdemar (Mercedes Lackey, ed.): I know someone who had a story in this, and after I read the one story, I was compelled to flip through the rest of the stories. If I had gotten more than a flicker of amusement from anything other than "Interview With a Companion", I would be less ashamed to admit I read this. Unfortunately, it reminded me of all the things those crazy kids can get up to when they're mind-bonded to a psychic spirit-horse and kicked off a Lackey binge.
My name is Asher Lev (Chaim Potok): Hasidic Jew's artistic passion sets him at odds with his family and the Orthodox Jewish community. Potok's novels sometimes show up on high school reading lists, so I picked this up in a spate of culture, and came away thinking certain family issues make a lot more sense in context of the Law, even if no one's been to temple in 30 years. As far as the book itself, I think Asher Lev was a bit of a self-centered brat, but his selfishness is in the context of a rigid and homogenous community (justifiably?) anxious about its future, so I am more interested in Asher as an insight into community or society, and where it breaks down, as well as the Jewish community in the late '40s through '60s, than I am interested in his art-related angst.
The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant (An Adoption Story) (Dan Savage): Dan Savage and then-boyfriend-now-husband-in-Canada adopt. The title is nearly longer than the book, but it's a funny take on the serious topic of open adoption.
The Valdemar binge of shame and overtime, or, what my brain could deal with during a 50 hour work week: the Arrows trilogy, the Last Herald-Mage trilogy, the Tarma and Kethry duology and collected short stories, and a special power-skim edition of By the Sword and the Winds trilogy.
( Emotional reactions to emotional books. )
My Lackey binge is over (I hope). There are exactly two trilogies, one duology, and one short story collection worth reading, so once you've read the Arrows trilogy, and the Vanyel trilogy, and the Tarma and Kethry stories, you can stop. Many of the books set in Velgarth have an overdose of Tayledras being like Native Americans, but awesomer. (See also XKCD.) Obviously, there are a number of drawbacks to that setup, none of which I feel the need to discuss at this time.
Numbers game: 12 total finished. 3 new, 9 reread; 11 fiction, 1 nonfiction; 2 short story collections.
My name is Asher Lev (Chaim Potok): Hasidic Jew's artistic passion sets him at odds with his family and the Orthodox Jewish community. Potok's novels sometimes show up on high school reading lists, so I picked this up in a spate of culture, and came away thinking certain family issues make a lot more sense in context of the Law, even if no one's been to temple in 30 years. As far as the book itself, I think Asher Lev was a bit of a self-centered brat, but his selfishness is in the context of a rigid and homogenous community (justifiably?) anxious about its future, so I am more interested in Asher as an insight into community or society, and where it breaks down, as well as the Jewish community in the late '40s through '60s, than I am interested in his art-related angst.
The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant (An Adoption Story) (Dan Savage): Dan Savage and then-boyfriend-now-husband-in-Canada adopt. The title is nearly longer than the book, but it's a funny take on the serious topic of open adoption.
The Valdemar binge of shame and overtime, or, what my brain could deal with during a 50 hour work week: the Arrows trilogy, the Last Herald-Mage trilogy, the Tarma and Kethry duology and collected short stories, and a special power-skim edition of By the Sword and the Winds trilogy.
( Emotional reactions to emotional books. )
My Lackey binge is over (I hope). There are exactly two trilogies, one duology, and one short story collection worth reading, so once you've read the Arrows trilogy, and the Vanyel trilogy, and the Tarma and Kethry stories, you can stop. Many of the books set in Velgarth have an overdose of Tayledras being like Native Americans, but awesomer. (See also XKCD.) Obviously, there are a number of drawbacks to that setup, none of which I feel the need to discuss at this time.
Numbers game: 12 total finished. 3 new, 9 reread; 11 fiction, 1 nonfiction; 2 short story collections.