Books Read for August
Aug. 31st, 2009 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ashnistrikeNo spoilers, some snarking.
Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin. Because I was explaining my love of the Ice and Fire books to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bifemmefatale , and then I wanted to read a Martin book that I hadn't read before. This has vampires and steamboats and a relatively low body count, and is very good. And then I had to reread
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, which is one of my comfort reads. Especially the bit with the lime.
Dawn by Octavia Butler. I've started this before, years ago, but don't think I've ever finished it before. It's absolutely brilliant, a meditation on power and helplessness and survival. Butler is the only author who consistently manages to talk about the cost of oppression to both the oppressor and the person being oppressed, with sympathy and compassion for both sides. I really wish that someone was writing books in conversation with her work the way that people do with Heinlein. But I understand why no one is, because when I think about trying I find myself rather intimidated. I don't think I'm a good enough writer yet, and I suspect I may never be a good enough person.
Butler wrote really, phenomenally good books that are also really, phenomenally uncomfortable. Several of them go on the short list of "Things You Shouldn't Read when Someone You Love is Having a Surrogate Pregnancy," and the sequel to Dawn, which I tried to read next, turns out to go on the short list of "Things You Shouldn't Read When You Have a Small Child With More Than Two Parents." Will try again later.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Covered in an earlier post. This took two weeks to read, and they would have been significantly worse weeks without it. Goes on the list with Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell of books to read when I don't want to handle the stress of world-shifting for a while.
The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars by Steven Brust. This is a Hungarian folk tale, interspersed with the story of a young man trying to complete a painting and hold his group studio together, interspersed with meditations on how to bea writer an artist. Reread in an attempt to jumpstart my creativity after a couple of slow months. It worked--I now know most of the plot for the Jester novel.
Other Media Consumed:
Seanan McGuire: Live at Duckon. Really good, and about half new songs that are going to be on the next album. "Wicked Girls" makes me want to do cartwheels.
Vixy and Tony: Live at Duckon. Also good, but almost all songs from Thirteen. It does include a really excellent version of S. J. Tucker doing "Firebird's Child."
Eureka Season 2, Episode 13. This did not make sense even with the Technocracy overlay.
Shadow Unit, Season 2, Episode 6 ("Cuckoo"). Oh. My. I'm not a hundred percent sure where this is going, but I'm very, very nervous. All my favorite characters, please be okay?
Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead. Not much to say about this one--it had the general feel of things that I like about the new DH, and I therefore enjoyed it. It also had a forgettable plot, and a companion-for-the-episode that I liked but am fine with not seeing more of.
Torchwood: Children of Earth, episodes 1-5. This P'd me O so badly. Eventually, doing bad things to people is not even interesting any more.
Eureka, Season 3, episode 1. I like Eva Thorne a lot, and I strongly suspect that I'm not supposed to.
Total Books: 5
Recent Publication: 1/5
Rereads: 2/5
Bear Ratio: 0/5, because Metatropolis hasn't arrived yet.
New Music: 2 albums.
New Media Produced: The plot to the Jester novel.
Does anyone have anything to say that might persuade me to continue reading the Justina Robson book that I started last night?
Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin. Because I was explaining my love of the Ice and Fire books to
bifemmefatale , and then I wanted to read a Martin book that I hadn't read before. This has vampires and steamboats and a relatively low body count, and is very good. And then I had to rereadAnansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, which is one of my comfort reads. Especially the bit with the lime.
Dawn by Octavia Butler. I've started this before, years ago, but don't think I've ever finished it before. It's absolutely brilliant, a meditation on power and helplessness and survival. Butler is the only author who consistently manages to talk about the cost of oppression to both the oppressor and the person being oppressed, with sympathy and compassion for both sides. I really wish that someone was writing books in conversation with her work the way that people do with Heinlein. But I understand why no one is, because when I think about trying I find myself rather intimidated. I don't think I'm a good enough writer yet, and I suspect I may never be a good enough person.
Butler wrote really, phenomenally good books that are also really, phenomenally uncomfortable. Several of them go on the short list of "Things You Shouldn't Read when Someone You Love is Having a Surrogate Pregnancy," and the sequel to Dawn, which I tried to read next, turns out to go on the short list of "Things You Shouldn't Read When You Have a Small Child With More Than Two Parents." Will try again later.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Covered in an earlier post. This took two weeks to read, and they would have been significantly worse weeks without it. Goes on the list with Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell of books to read when I don't want to handle the stress of world-shifting for a while.
The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars by Steven Brust. This is a Hungarian folk tale, interspersed with the story of a young man trying to complete a painting and hold his group studio together, interspersed with meditations on how to be
Other Media Consumed:
Seanan McGuire: Live at Duckon. Really good, and about half new songs that are going to be on the next album. "Wicked Girls" makes me want to do cartwheels.
Vixy and Tony: Live at Duckon. Also good, but almost all songs from Thirteen. It does include a really excellent version of S. J. Tucker doing "Firebird's Child."
Eureka Season 2, Episode 13. This did not make sense even with the Technocracy overlay.
Shadow Unit, Season 2, Episode 6 ("Cuckoo"). Oh. My. I'm not a hundred percent sure where this is going, but I'm very, very nervous. All my favorite characters, please be okay?
Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead. Not much to say about this one--it had the general feel of things that I like about the new DH, and I therefore enjoyed it. It also had a forgettable plot, and a companion-for-the-episode that I liked but am fine with not seeing more of.
Torchwood: Children of Earth, episodes 1-5. This P'd me O so badly. Eventually, doing bad things to people is not even interesting any more.
Eureka, Season 3, episode 1. I like Eva Thorne a lot, and I strongly suspect that I'm not supposed to.
Total Books: 5
Recent Publication: 1/5
Rereads: 2/5
Bear Ratio: 0/5, because Metatropolis hasn't arrived yet.
New Music: 2 albums.
New Media Produced: The plot to the Jester novel.
Does anyone have anything to say that might persuade me to continue reading the Justina Robson book that I started last night?
