ase

SEPTEMBER
The Wild Shore (Kim Stanley Robinson): ..meh. Postapocalyptic "what is America" bildungsroman where the protagonist learns that sometimes people lie to you and don't have your best interests at heart. This has some of the elements I like about KSR's other novels - attention to detail, location as almost a character in its own right - but the moral focus is uninteresting to me. The nuclear annihilation and post-nuclear log cabin existence of the new Americans, hemmed in by a UN ban (or forces manipulating the ban on the international scene) almost looks a little post-Iraq, if you squint, and ought to resonate with American challenges thirty years later. But it doesn't, to me. First novel-itis? The narrator's political naivete drove me to distraction, and then to indifference.

American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto (Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh): Nonfiction. Sociological study of the Robert Taylor Homes Project in Chicago from its inception to the '90s, looking at the goals and failures of the project. From almost the start, underfunding and over-subscription to services plagued individual buildings and the project as a whole. Venkatesh examines strategies residents devised to survive: under-the-table jobs and businesses, networks and favoritism, relationships with "legitimate" authorities. I found this interesting, and illuminating, but dry. Ventakesh makes evident in the use of theory and endnotes that he's writing a scholarly book first, and only secondarily for a lay audience. It's readable, but I suspect some of the theory went right over my head.

The Steerswoman's Road (Rosemary Kirstein): Reread. Collection of The Steerswoman and The Outskirter's Secret; contains my favorite eyewitness description of a mass non-natural disaster.

OCTOBER
Continued Kirstein re-read: on to The Lost Steersman and The Language of Power. There's something subtle and unexpected going on with gender and worldbuilding; consider this a holding place for a longer examination of the question.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy (J. R. R. Tolkien): Reread. When you don't know what else to read... Tolkien. "The Grey Havens" gets me every time.

Cryoburn (Lois McMaster Bujold): New Bujold is always awesome, but this one hit me in unexpected places. I sulked for a week after I finished this. I may still be sulking. Spoiler item was inevitable, but it ruined the last chapter for me, because I saw it coming. I'm also not pleased with other parts of the structure: I think A Civil Campaign's plot-with-a-bow-on-top structure spoiled me for novels of less artifice (Diplomatic Immunity, Cryoburn). The beautiful theme / plot dovetailing in Mirror Dance and Memory didn't help. I'm not sure if LMB is getting subtler, and I'm missing things because I'm not paying attention, or if there's another reason I'm not as happy with this book.

I also have very firm associations with the word "drabble" which completely threw me out of the last 500 words of the novel. Am I the only one?



Tongues of Serpents (Naomi Novik): Fifth in the series, following Victory of Eagles: Laurence and Temeraire, branded traitors to England, arrive at an Australian exile that is anything but settled, or restful.

( This got long, as well as mixed. )

I think my real problem is that I want the series to be something it's not. Novik's not writing about major aerial actions, and she's not writing an alternate universe English Dragon Revolution informed by 21st century social justice activism. That's okay, but it pops the sequels to the "beach and brainless" reading list.

The Honor of the Queen (David Weber): Second Honor Harrington novel; reread. The last time I touched anything Weber-authored was 2003; the last time I read a full HH novel must have been 2001 or earlier. This wasn't a particularly well-written novel in my memory, and rereading did not help its case. The plot's direct, but the writing rambles to the point of tediousness. I don't care how many kilometers per second your missile travels, evading penaids and point defenses; I care how much story-propelling boom it makes when it hits something.

Apparently, I absorbed the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth Honor Harrington novels (War of Honor, At All Costs, and Mission of Honor, all written by David Weber) in a two-day electronic binge. Does it count as power-skimming when you keyword-search to the characters you care about?

( My infodump about my reaction to infodumps, let me show you it. )

Numbers game: 15 total finished. 7 new, 8 reread; 14 fiction, 1 nonfiction

On Wednesday, I went to the SFPL main branch intending to find one or two novels and maybe a nonfiction book from its six stories of media. So how many books did I actually check out of the library?

Important context for bonus question: I thought about this for two days. Then I got a Christmas check in the mail. Then I thought about it for another day. Now I am posting a poll.

All comments screened. Commenting redirects to Dreamwidth to minimize my confusion.

I wanted to update on my weekend of epic sleeping, but then I cleaned my room. I was going to reflect on spring temps versus spring rain, but all my moralizing and observational skills were sidetracked by classwork. I thought about doing a post on how Guns, Germs and Steel is research for Project not-P, but I read someone's belated RaceFail reaction, and I am at the "forget that noise" stage. And then I went to study (read: beat my class presentation) with K, and guys, I miss college. I don't miss is enough to think going back full time is anything but a fool's game and a waste of all my resources, unless 1.) I have a plan, and 2.) someone is paying me to do so. So instead I bring you a poll.

[Poll #1367384]

And now I am taking my over-caffeinated brain to dreamland. Tomorrow: pre-presentation nerves, and probably another three-cup day. It's not that I think it's an intrinsically bad presentation, it's that I suspect someone in the audience will know more than me, and that flays my nerves.

So far this month: amnesiac with uncanny psychic powers explores the City of the Gods; Marine officer in training, Afghanistan, and Iraq; Soviet biowarfare scientist defects from Russia c.1991; black lesbian feminist poet reweaves her experiences of childhood and coming of age.

[Poll #1354477]

ETA: Yes, I'm going to read both; I am asking which one fits the Secret February Theme, and should be read first.

This week I've been reading Cyteen before crashing and Generation Kill on the bus. I don't know that swapping would help.

Tonight I'm supposed to go out and be social. What I really want to do is turn on the heater and faceplant on the floor. Therefore:

[Poll #1332501]

ETA: I went. Tickybox really should've taken a nap.

It is thirteen degrees out. Celsius people: -10 to you. This? This is not on.

[Poll #1319344]

Also, we're expecting a windy day. Wind chill advisory until 3 PM, brrr!

Having spent the weekend out in the middle of nowhere (really, dad, what were you thinking? The yard's nice, but the distance is nuts), I'm back to thinking about damage to my savings account.

[Poll #1307176]

I'm still not getting a car until the second quarter of 2009 at the very earliest, because life goes from a decent surplus straight to the red when I run the numbers, but this doesn't stop me from trying to beat the numbers into submission until then. (Yeah, basically: get a car, get a second job, do not pass go, do not collect debt.)

Ack, bus!

Happy Monday morning! (Oh shoot, I'm late out the door!)

1.) If you saw me in the back of a police car, what crime would you assume I was accused of?

2.) The wishlist thing: I don't like it. I am picky, and like buying things that are exactly right. But this year, I will say: GIVE ME YOUR FILM.

You know you have old 35 mm film left over from the dark pre-digital days. Donate it to Project Retro! For your contribution, you get the warm and fuzzy feeling that you have Done Charity with something you weren't using anyway.

I also want peace on Earth and goodwill toward men, and maybe some fiction that is awesome. However, gender-bending intersectional postcolonial comedy with large explosions is, um, hard to come by.

3.) It's Christmas card time! Or maybe a nicely signed "my 2008 in 1 page or less" holiday letter. And me lousy at keeping my ADDRESSES.XLS file current.

[Poll #1298890]