finished Lolly Willowes yesterday (what an odd little contemplative story) and then today I was rereading MFK Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf, and she compares a woman she had met with Lolly.
How many times have I read that passage and just let the reference pass over without notice?
I was thinking about the similarities and differences between Lolly Willowes and Lucy Maud Montgomery’s The Blue Castle. Turns out that they’re both published in 1926. Even more interesting in their pushing against societal norms for single women. Blue Castle is a fairly standard HEA romance, but both it and Lolly Willowes argue for ignoring what society wants single women to do and getting more connected with nature. Also both mention how much cheaper this lifestyle is.
anyways, the pastoral thing and it being possible to live honestly, etc etc (eta: Rousseau. I’m sure there are Romans doing the whole ‘back to the land and honestly’ thing too, complaining about the fakeness of the city, but when did the female voice start with the same?)
How did I miss this thread?
I’m currently reading The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden. It’s Afrofuturism, it reminds me a bit of American Gods plus cyberpunk (Snow Crash, The MurderBot Diaries). The beginning chapters jump around to different characters but clearly says which chapter is for which character. I don’t love when books jump around like that but halfway through it’s coming together and even probably a third of the way through there were very strong indications of how it would eventually come together so it didn’t feel too splintered for too long.
TW: In the beginning of the book there is male genital mutilation of a teenage boy - it’s not explicit but it is something he worries about prior to a ceremony, then in a later chapter he’s icing his crotch at a family party to celebrate him becoming a man.
Picked up a couple new books over the holidays…
Reboots: Undead Can Dance (Mercedes Lackey and Cody Martin)–generally a pretty quick and light/fun read. Also about the first werewolves/vampires/zombies (in space!) books that didn’t make me want to bang my head against a wall
The Spark/The Storm/The Serpent (David Drake)–based on Arthurian legend but with really interesting worldbuilding between all three, although I’d call it more fantasy than science fiction. On the other hand in the first book the protagonist needed a personality, in the second his love interest really needed it, and The Serpent feels like someone published the outline and forgot about the whole fleshing-out-the-story thing. I don’t remember this being an issue with some of his earlier series (ex. Belisarius) so I wonder how much is my tastes changing and how much is the writing. Will have to go back and do some rereading.
I picked up Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers for some unknown reason - someone must have recommended it, probably an author newsletter. Mysterious pandemic(s), right wing shenanigans, rogue(?) AI. Written in 2019. I am 400/780 pages in
And the other book I’ve got going atm is a Neal Stephenson 900 page tome (Ananthem - math monks and hijinks and lots of philosophical discussions)
I need to quit my job just to keep with my reading obviously.
610 pages in, I started it today. I swear I attended that day-long team goalsetting/sharing meeting.
FYI, if you want to carry the Wild Magic books with you, in another media. There’s these:
and complete - though I skimmed past the right wing stuff. Well written. Many trigger warnings. But if you’re in the mood for a pandemic story? Though people actually wear their masks in this one.
I finished The Family Firm today. I’m not as impressed as with Expecting Better. I like her decision-making framework but didn’t understand the “family big picture” stuff at all. Like I understand how the “big picture” applies to an actual company but not a family.
Also, FYI, there is some stuff about weight/BMI and she does seem to take it for granted that lower is better.
I noticed the same thing in Expecting Better. She was also just sort of assuming that all her readers are “normal” weight even though statistically most American people-who-might-be-pregnant are over.
A few new books (legitimately new this time, I think all have come out within the last two months):
Where the Drowned Girls Go (Seanan McGuire)–latest in the Wayward Children series, and I thought it was much better than Across the Green Grass Fields which felt like it was just trying for character introduction and would have worked better as a prologue/novella (which it could have been since the main character from that one pops up here with some plot relevance). It was nice to see Cora and Sumi again, too, although Kade and Christopher mostly just get mentions.
Buried Memories (Simon R. Green)–latest and I possibly last in the Ishmael Jones series. If it was the ending it was a pretty decent one, wrapping up the big mysteries that have been building while still leaving a few things as hints and suspicions, and if it’s not there are still some interesting ways to take the stories. No characters got whacked with the stupid stick in this one, either, which makes it much better than the last couple.
The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley (Mercedes Lackey)–Pretty sure the author had some unused plot ideas from From a High Tower and decided to just mash them together and hope that no one noticed that the main character is Giselle Version Two (the fact that the blurb completely incorrectly describes Giselle showing up to train her doesn’t help, either). ‘Main’ villain is also weirdly tacked on and has no reason to show up when/where he does, but the Elemental Master stories tend to have varying quality villains anyway.
Finished Anathem, so I cannot argue that I need to RE in order to get through this tome.
It is exceptionally slow pacing, so one needs to be in the right mode, don’t try to force it. Also, like the last book, quantum & necessary sacrifice.
I just read From Blood and Ash, a fantasy romance novel in which there is a character named Tawny Lyon (who is surprisingly NOT the main character). She is “tall and lithe, with rich brown skin, beautiful brown eyes”, and has a head of brown and gold curls that can’t quite be contained by any hairstyle. I read it anyway, found a Hawke Flynn, and realized I picked it up partially because it was a random fantasy romance and partially because the title reminds me of a curse from Wheel of Time.
Regardless, it was entertaining, and now I have to wait for the sequel e-books to be returned before I can find out if the main characters love each other forever or if they’re intractably opposed since he kidnapped her and neglected to tell her he’s really a prince.
I am reading the coolest book, called Paperback Crush- it is about teen and tween novels from like the late 70s to mid 90s. If you were a girl in that age range, I recommend it. There are books in there I haven’t thought about in YEARS.
Some examples:
Up in Seth’s Room by Norma Fox Mazer
Waiting Games by Bruce and Carol Hart
The Girls of Canby Hall series, which I only ever encountered at the frequent yard sales of a neighbor
The Against Taffy Sinclair Club
Etc.
So it really was a series? I had ONE book in that series that I read like ten times, and I never could find any of the others.
It was! I don’t know where my neighbor got them and never heard of them in any other context, but I know I had at least a few.
Reread Neuromancer (published '84), and I think the piece that aged the most is that someone steals 3MB of RAM. And the unprotected sex.
I wish the timeline didn’t look so plausible still.
I’ve read a few books by Paula Brackston in the past and enjoyed them. I’m just starting Secrets of the Chocolate House which is the second book in her Found Things series. I picked up books 2,3, and 4 today so I have lots of reading to do.
picked up Four Thousand Weeks, I think on recommendation of someone here. Very good thinking through the need to acknowledge our limitations, that we can’t optimize our way out of making difficult decisions and not doing everything we wish we can. Also speaking to the idea that we might be trying to control our time because we feel out of control in so many other ways, but it is just a bandaid.
Defekt by Nino Cipri is a standalone sequel, following Derek, a model employee at NotIkea, who lives in a shipping container on the edge of the parking lot. We saw Derek very briefly in Finna before those protagonists fell through a malicious wormhole - a common problem in NotIkea.
After taking his first sick day, Derek, with his 4.74 customer satisfaction rating, is told he needs to work after hours inventory. Turns out there are some challenges with the latest stock delivery.
Much more optimistic than Finna.