Entry tags:
Likes Books and Long Walks on the Beach
Currently Reading:
Un Lun Dun by China Miéville (reread)
Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks (reread)
The Short Victorious War David Weber (reread)
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene
Finished Reading:
The Holmes-Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen
An Old Friend of the Family by Fred Saberhagen
Twelve Kingdoms, Volume 1: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Liar by Justine Larbalestier
Houran and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander Mccall Smith
The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander Mccall Smith
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander Mccall Smith
Dawn by Octavia Butler
Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse
To Read Pile:
The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
Field of Dishonor by David Weber (reread)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula le'Guin
Earth Logic by Laurie J. Marks
Edit to add:
The Conquest by Yxta Maya Murray
I Saw the Sky Catch Fire by T. Obinkaram Echewa
The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisbergcer
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
Boooooooooooks.
And now, my thoughts on~
Liar:
Props to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bookshop for pushing this book, I'd probably passed it by otherwise (I'd read Larbalestier's previous novel How to Ditch Your Fairy and found it fun but not a keeper). This book is a marvel of story structure, made up of intricately fabricated layers of lies and truth and the vast gray area in between. I'll admit that I don't actually care much about Micah - didn't really connect with her as a character - but I could (and have) sit and try to tease apart her stories for hours.
nepenthe, I think you'd be really interested in this one (and I could mail it to you with the rest of the stuff).
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency & the Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries:
How much do I love these books? SO MUCH. So. Much. I love the characters and the wry humor and the writing style and the women who are vibrant and whole and alive. Ladies' Detective Agency is still my favorite, but the Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries have proved vastly entertaining as well. I love that the philosophical references come fast and furious, as do the musical, historical, and political ones. I love that both idle wishes I made when I started reading them (1) Needs less heteronormativity and 2) Isabel needs to fall for that hot young thing) came true within pages of wanting them.
Most of all, I love that Isabel is the first character I've read with a headspace similar to my own (and that I disagree with her at least half the time). Really need to track down Mccall Smith's Scotland Street Books.
Dawn:
In which Octavia Butler succeeds in blowing my mind. This is a story (the first in a series) about people, and aliens, and the end of life on earth as we know it - a familiar premise. Which is what keep catching me up - I thought I knew how it would go, how a character would react, and Butler kept almost giving it to me... all the while making these subtle choices that ended up somewhere quiet different. It's a story about survival, and love, and consent, and freedom of choice, and our identity as a species. It's so incredibly cool and personally formative/perception altering.
Houran and the Sea of Stories:
A couple weeks backdhobikikutti posted an Un Lun Dun fic that crossed over with Salman Rushdie's Houran and the Sea of Stories. I hadn't read Houran, but if dhobikikutti's crossing it with Un Lun Dun it must be an Awesome Thing, right? So I picked it up on one of my book runs (With Liar, actually) and hfc, it is. If you liked Un Lun Dun or The Phantom Tollbooth or just books with magic and wonderful wordplay and/or stories about stories (my very favorite kind), you will love this book. Go! Read it!
In other news, Yuletide! I'm gonna do it! Really. I get kicked if I default again, I figure that's incentive enough to actually put pen to paper.
My nominations:
Blue Beetle
Darkwing Duck
Hayate x Blade
The Middleman
Night at the Museum
Persona 4
These... are probably not the fandoms I'm going to request or offer (well, not all of them), but they're the ones I wanted to be sure got listed.
Un Lun Dun by China Miéville (reread)
Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks (reread)
The Short Victorious War David Weber (reread)
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene
Finished Reading:
The Holmes-Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen
An Old Friend of the Family by Fred Saberhagen
Twelve Kingdoms, Volume 1: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Liar by Justine Larbalestier
Houran and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander Mccall Smith
The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander Mccall Smith
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander Mccall Smith
Dawn by Octavia Butler
Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse
To Read Pile:
The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
Field of Dishonor by David Weber (reread)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula le'Guin
Earth Logic by Laurie J. Marks
Edit to add:
The Conquest by Yxta Maya Murray
I Saw the Sky Catch Fire by T. Obinkaram Echewa
The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisbergcer
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
Boooooooooooks.
And now, my thoughts on~
Liar:
Props to
bookshop for pushing this book, I'd probably passed it by otherwise (I'd read Larbalestier's previous novel How to Ditch Your Fairy and found it fun but not a keeper). This book is a marvel of story structure, made up of intricately fabricated layers of lies and truth and the vast gray area in between. I'll admit that I don't actually care much about Micah - didn't really connect with her as a character - but I could (and have) sit and try to tease apart her stories for hours. nepenthe, I think you'd be really interested in this one (and I could mail it to you with the rest of the stuff).The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency & the Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries:
How much do I love these books? SO MUCH. So. Much. I love the characters and the wry humor and the writing style and the women who are vibrant and whole and alive. Ladies' Detective Agency is still my favorite, but the Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries have proved vastly entertaining as well. I love that the philosophical references come fast and furious, as do the musical, historical, and political ones. I love that both idle wishes I made when I started reading them (1) Needs less heteronormativity and 2) Isabel needs to fall for that hot young thing) came true within pages of wanting them.
Most of all, I love that Isabel is the first character I've read with a headspace similar to my own (and that I disagree with her at least half the time). Really need to track down Mccall Smith's Scotland Street Books.
Dawn:
In which Octavia Butler succeeds in blowing my mind. This is a story (the first in a series) about people, and aliens, and the end of life on earth as we know it - a familiar premise. Which is what keep catching me up - I thought I knew how it would go, how a character would react, and Butler kept almost giving it to me... all the while making these subtle choices that ended up somewhere quiet different. It's a story about survival, and love, and consent, and freedom of choice, and our identity as a species. It's so incredibly cool and personally formative/perception altering.
Houran and the Sea of Stories:
A couple weeks back
dhobikikutti posted an Un Lun Dun fic that crossed over with Salman Rushdie's Houran and the Sea of Stories. I hadn't read Houran, but if dhobikikutti's crossing it with Un Lun Dun it must be an Awesome Thing, right? So I picked it up on one of my book runs (With Liar, actually) and hfc, it is. If you liked Un Lun Dun or The Phantom Tollbooth or just books with magic and wonderful wordplay and/or stories about stories (my very favorite kind), you will love this book. Go! Read it!In other news, Yuletide! I'm gonna do it! Really. I get kicked if I default again, I figure that's incentive enough to actually put pen to paper.
My nominations:
Blue Beetle
Darkwing Duck
Hayate x Blade
The Middleman
Night at the Museum
Persona 4
These... are probably not the fandoms I'm going to request or offer (well, not all of them), but they're the ones I wanted to be sure got listed.