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6xH: Six Stories by Robert H. Heinlein (Robert A. Heinlein): 1961 collection of "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag", "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants", "All You Zombies", "They", "Our Fair City", and finally, "And He Built a Crooked House".

( Cut for length and one Unpleasant Profession spoiler. )

I think the unifying theme of the collection (other than, "hey! We have the rights to six random Heinlein stories!") is the all-consuming Idea, the single sense-of-wonder moment when your mind expands a bit to contemplate a new perspective. Most contemporary SF fails at this, possibly because we've come to emphasize other writing components: character, plot, elaborate worldbuilding, meta. Instead of the writing building to that vertiginous Moment of Cool, we get the more considered Novel of Interesting, and occasionally very interesting genre conversation. But I came for the cool, for the morning of the world, and its afternoon sometimes fades compared to the remembered joy of the Idea.

Girl, Interrupted (Susanna Kaysen): Autobiographical vignettes of a year as a mental health resident. This could have been a downer, this could have been emo, this could have been just terrible. However, Kaysen sticks to her strengths - pithy, sharp turns of phrase - which forces the reader to pay attention to snapshots of life in the ward as they come. I will not say that it rewards close attention, though people paying more attention than me might find something to say about the psychology and biochemistry mental illness; life in the United States, 1967 - 1969; or health care in the same time and place, and now; but I do think the prose is astonishing. If Diana Wynne Jones' prose is a very workmanlike basket for holding story, if Lois Bujold's is a yellow brick road of practicality and flippant whimsy, then Kaysen's is a lens or a prism, catching the light and forcing your eye to follow it where the lens-creator intended.

Related link: Girl Interrupted in her Music, a painting by Vermeer. There is a connection between the book and the painting.

The Collapsium (Wil McCarthy): This is not a fixer-upper novel. It's an expanded novella! I think expanding previous works is the worst idea ever, and submit for consideration Asimov's "Nightfall", Card's "Ender's Game", and Kress's "Beggars in Spain", as well as "Once Upon a Matter Crushed", which was expanded for this novel. ( After you get past that, it's pretty fun. )

I also reread great swaths of the graphic novel version of Stardust, a pretty little fairy tale written in Neil Gaiman's comptetent fashion and brought to life by Charles Vess's illustrations. I think the words-only version is much inferior, and strongly urge you to hold out for the graphic novel for many reasons, including the Vess panel on the very last page, which works magnificently with the concluding written paragraphs.

Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein): A 208 page political polemic I managed to miss in my feckless teen years. Papa Heinlein, educate us all on how life as the infantry is the best way to train hot-blooded men to value their electoral franchise.

( I thought I didn't have much left to say about this, but apparently not! )

Polio: An American Story (David M. Oshinsky): Entertaining account of the creation of the polio vaccines. Oshinsky juggles the glut of characters and their agendas very nicely. This is more a book about the social side than the science side; I was hoping for tangents into the biochemistry of polio, but this is more about the whos and whys than the science. But what a story. The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis very conciously manipulated the public to wring donations "for the children" from them, through tactics like the March of Dimes and FDR's involvement. It's disturbing to read a level-voiced account of fundraising, but that may be a personal quirk. Three cheers for heavily footnoted histories!

I could do a knee-jerk reaction to Dr. Isabel Morgan's contributions to polio research, and how they came to a screeching halt when she married and Dr. Morgan got sidelined by Mrs. Mountain, but if you're reading this, you're probably familiar with the story of women's careers getting shafted by their gender and marriage.

Only two books, and both - by an extremely flexible definition - romances. In revenge compensation, I intend to spend March reading The Vagina Monologues and popular science nonfiction.

Outlander (Diana Gabaldon): ( I think I hated this book in plot-spoiling detail. ) Also, everyone else hates it, all for different reasons, so just this once, I'll go with the majority opinion.

My One True Romance goes something like this: Person A and Person B must solve a problem. Resolving the McGuffin brings them closer together. Plot, smartass banter and comedy ensue. Ultimately, the problem is solved, and A+B form a lasting romantic partnership with smartass banter, comedy, and possibly cohabitation. Steamy sex scenes or fade to black on the smooches both acceptable. I know exactly the emotional charge I want here.

It occurs to me, at least four years after the fact, that Gaudy Night may have set or reinforced some of my romantic preferences, and also that I may have done myself a grave disservice when I said, "Lord Peter novels? Well, everyone gushes over Gaudy Night, I'll start there!"

Another example of my One True Romance:
SAX RUSSELL: After 2 1/2 novels of fighting with each other, I am not in love with Ann. We're friends. Really. Friends who are both lab rat die-hards, except for the part where she doesn't want Mars terraformed and I'm one of the stars of the terraforming effort. Denial is a river in Egypt!
ANN CLAYBOURNE: Sax? Evil. Really. Evil terraformer. I hate his guts. I am not in denial of any mutual spark!
Sax: Hey, remember Antarctica?
BOTH: Aw, f-
AND THEY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

Please note this is a secondary (or tertiary) thread in a 900-plus page epic about colonizing Mars.

Having read a modern romance, I dug into my "to read" pile and found something a little more related to the literary concept of romance.

The King of Elfland's Daughter (Lord Dunsany): The peace of the vale of Erl is slowly undone after the Parliament of Erl asks for a magic lord.

( I had two major reactions, to the plot and the prose. Both are pretty spoiler heavy. )

I feel like I should try to broaden my reading horizons, but bad books are a real turnoff. If you can, reccomend me one (1) romance, one nonfiction book, and/or one mystery.

Sethra Lavode (Steven Brust): The final volume of the "Viscount of Andrilankha" sort-of trilogy. People die. People live. The novel pretty much filled expectations without overflowing them. The cover art is astonishingly bad.

The Afterword is astonishingly incomprehensible, and if someone could shed some light on it I'd appreciate it.

( Instead of commentary, quotes, because Brust's dialogue is a delight. Massive spoilers are inevitable. )

This has been moldering for almost half of June; I'm just going to post what I've got. Only one cut, for length and frank discussion of stuff that happens in the third book of a trilogy. So you might call it a spoiler.

( Mars trilogy (Kim Stanley Robinson): Nice, meaty... reread. )

Random comment: was skimming Cyteen last night and came across a quote: "The interests of all humans are interlocked . . . and politics is no more than a temporal expression of social mechanics." KSR draws optimistic social systems; Cherryh likes to play with the places where the system breaks down. I would love to see both of them on a panel discussing political systems in SF.

American Gods (Neil Gaiman): Reread. Archetypes, coin tricks, and other deceptions. Gaiman's style is distinctive, and I'm still not sure if I like it or not. But I keep reading his books, which must count for something.

Two-Bit Heroes (Doris Egan): Reread. Theodora and Ran Cormallon's sort-of honeymoon is derailed when they're swept up by a band of outlaws in the Northwest Sector of Ivory, the only planet where magic is known to work. The Ivory trilogy (The Gate of Ivory, Two-Bit Heroes, and Guilt-Edged Ivory) is comfort reading for me. Easy prose, vivid characterization, scattered literary references, and occasional use of magic to remind the reader that yes, this is an sf/f novel. Two-Bit Heroes features adaptation to the bandit life, calculated application of the Robin Hood myth, and some very effective "yes, it's all fun and games until they stick your head in a noose" moments. Doris Egan (tightropegirl) hasn't written any fiction in about a decade, being employed in Hollywood and having (apparently) no time for it, but if she ever does I may have to add an author to my "buy on sight" list.

Digital Photography for Dummies (Julie Adair King): Not a reread. Buying and using your first digital camera, with trial image processing software and suggestions on how to use it. I already had the camera, so I skimmed to the "using it" section, and have enough experience with photoshop that a lot of the post-production stuff was review, but the "point and shoot" sections were written in a clear and entertaining style. I'm only getting around to trying the shareware CD today (6/14), since I suspect there's at least one addictive, expensive program in there, which I don't need.