The tagline of "A humorous romantic fantasy" caught my eye.... and it's definitely all three.
What are you reading?
Re: What are you reading?
I really liked "The House Witch" series by Delemhach.
The tagline of "A humorous romantic fantasy" caught my eye.... and it's definitely all three.
The tagline of "A humorous romantic fantasy" caught my eye.... and it's definitely all three.
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RoseMorninStar
- Posts: 12951
- Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:07 am
- Location: North Shire
Re: What are you reading?
Oh! I recently read 1 and I think 2, I've not read 3.
My heart is forever in the Shire.
Re: What are you reading?
There's even a recently released sequel happening 20 years later. That one's good, too.
Re: What are you reading?
I was given a boxed set of all the Bronte novels when I was 12, so quite a while ago. 
I'm embarrassed to say that I only ever read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. All the others have sat unread. So a few days ago I set out to read them all. Currently about halfway through Villette.
I'm enjoying it, but wow, it's so intense by modern standards. No wonder people got "brain fever" (whatever that may be) if they worry about stuff that much. Every tiny little thought and feeling is dissected as if it was the most important thing in the world. I suppose that's inevitable if you're cooped up in a Haworth parsonage with the rain beating on the windows.
Listening to Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions on audiobook, narrated by John Malkovich (who is brilliant). Quite disturbing but excellent at the same time.
I'm embarrassed to say that I only ever read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. All the others have sat unread. So a few days ago I set out to read them all. Currently about halfway through Villette.I'm enjoying it, but wow, it's so intense by modern standards. No wonder people got "brain fever" (whatever that may be) if they worry about stuff that much. Every tiny little thought and feeling is dissected as if it was the most important thing in the world. I suppose that's inevitable if you're cooped up in a Haworth parsonage with the rain beating on the windows.
Listening to Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions on audiobook, narrated by John Malkovich (who is brilliant). Quite disturbing but excellent at the same time.
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Voronwë the Faithful
- At the intersection of here and now
- Posts: 46196
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:41 am
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Re: What are you reading?
That seems like an excellent choice. I'm not big on audiobooks, but I might have to check that out at some point. It's been a long time since I read that book.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Re: What are you reading?
The version I’m listening to is Audible’s 2015 release. It’s worth listening to for Malkovich’s performance alone; laden with world-weariness, dripping with “well, what did you expect?”. Outstanding.
Very different from our own dear JRRT.
Very different from our own dear JRRT.
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narya
- chocolate bearer
- Posts: 4904
- Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:27 am
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Re: What are you reading?
Time to check in again. My book consumption has decreased, I think, because I’ve succumbed to YouTube. In particular, the podcast “Ty and That Guy”, which has the two-pronged approach of discussing an episode of The Expanse in detail, often with a member of the crew, such as a cinematographer or director, then examining some facet of movie and TV production in general. Now that they have finished all of the Expanse episodes, they are looking in depth at their favorite movies and directors. Anyway, I’m learning a lot about how shows are made, and it’s fascinating. And I read the Expanse book series again (OK, twice), because just like watching old Star Trek reruns, there’s a strange comfort in it. I especially like to intersperse chapters of well-read books with chapters of highly stressful non-fiction books. I get a little agitated if I don’t do that. Plus, I’m finding interesting articles and YouTube videos about rocket science, which I find mentally stimulating.
As for books I’ve read in the last 5 months (not including the Expanse books), I can offer my assessment of these 27-odd books and novellas. They were mostly audio, read at a slightly increased speed, so that I could have a life concurrent with reading books. I have the habit of not finishing books if they don’t keep me entertained, so this list only contains books I’ve finished, and therefore could probably recommend to you, to a greater or lesser degree. I’m a member of several book clubs, which has broadened my horizons. Sadly, all this reading has not shortened my to-read list, which is now about 400 books long. But I will make a valiant attempt!
Book club selections:
“The Christie Affair”, by Nina de Gramont. The book addresses the 11 days that Agatha Christie disappeared and never explained where she was when she came back. It involved lots of scandalous activities. Actually, more than one book has been written on this subject, each with a wildly different fictional account of what happened. Another one, “The Mystery of Mrs. Christie”, by Marie Benedict, was so luke-warm, I did not finish it.
“Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand”, by Helen Simonson. Sweet, but a little irritating, in that the Pakistani main character seems as British as the British characters, and that’s what Major Pettigrew loves about her.
“L.A. Weather” y “La Clima de Los Angeles”, by María Amparo Escandón. I read this in English and Spanish because it was one of those rare books where a bilingual author wrote both versions, rather than having a translator re-write the second language. I was hoping to introduce it to my Spanish language book club, as a future selection, but I stopped going to that book club, because their Spanish was far beyond my ability to make cogent observations. The book is a fairly simple story of an extended family in LA, going through divorces and other family trauma.
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, by Sherman Alexie. This is a somewhat autobiographical book about the author, a disabled kid, who balanced between his life on the rez with his life in a preppy all-white high school, an hour’s drive away, where he had enrolled in an attempt to get a better education. It was interesting discussing it with the charming white older ladies in my senior center book club, giving them a clue.
“You are Not Expected to Understand This”, edited by Torie Bosch. A series of essays on the history of computer coding. Having started coding myself back in the 1970s, I can appreciate the evolution. The title quote is from a famous bit of comment tucked into the Linux system. Actually, the book was well written, explained a lot, and was entirely understandable.
My recommendations for speculative fiction:
“Among Others”, by Jo Walton. This is a sweet coming-of-age story about a girl who loves speculative fiction. By the time I was done reading it, I had twenty more books added to my burgeoning to-read list. There’s also magic and fairies. I think members of this thread would enjoy it.
“Children of Time”, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Not for the arachnophobic. An ark ship of humans finds a planet that was previously visited by humans, who had conducted a terraforming experiment that went horribly wrong. The problem of spanning long time periods needed to other systems in sub-light speeds is solved by periodically switching passengers on and off from their hibernation. The reader gets to see a great stretch of time. The passengers get pretty disoriented, though, seeing only snatches of time. The chapters alternate between the human POV and the alien POV, in a refreshingly contrasting way. The ending is very satisfying. The second in the series “Children of Ruin”, is in my queue.
“The Terraformers”, by Annalee Newitz. This author addresses the problem of spanning long periods of time to terraform planets by simply making human life spans 500 years long. And of course, with terraforming, there is always the chance that there was someone/something worth saving before you decided to raze/rebuild the planet.
“Network Effect” and “Fugitive Telemetry” by Martha Wells. Novellas 5 and 6 of the Murderbot Series. These are not as good as the first four in the series, which were quite riveting, but still well worth reading.
“Pushing Ice”, by Alastair Reynolds. Premise of the story is that Humanity has pushed out into the solar system and someone found a strange moon of Saturn that turns out to be alien in origin. This sounded enough like The Expanse that I felt I had to read it. The plot then took off in a completely different direction. It was OK, but a little confusing, perhaps because I kept falling asleep while listening to the audio book.
“Honor Among Thieves”, by James S.A. Corey. Surprisingly awful novel written in the Star Wars universe. According to the authors, they watched the original Star Wars movie three times, then tossed off this novel, with a supremely whiny Luke, whiny Solo, and whiny Leia. Lots of action. Irritating dialog. No redeeming qualities. It might be worth reading for those very reasons.
“Record of a Spaceborn Few”, by Becky Chalmers. Comfortable, subtle messages, but without the rollicking action of the previous novels in the series.
“Una arruga en el Tiempo”, de Madeleine L’Engle, novela gráfica. Graphic novel of a Wrinkle in Time, but in Spanish.
“Model Minority” and “Radicalized”, by Cory Doctorow. This author has a series of novellas addressing how a run-of-the-mill person could get radicalized into doing terrible things in the name of a cause. That’s the basis of “Radicalized”, about a man sucked into angry, ranting message boards. The “Model Minority” is is about a Superman-like alien, living on Earth, trying to deal with Crime, from a completely different perspective.
“The Mimicking of Known Successes”, by Malka Older. This attempt at Holmesian mystery, set in a Victorian knock-off neighborhood in orbit around Jupiter, is a bridge too far for me. This isn’t hard sci fi – this isn’t even squishy sci fi. But if you can turn your scientific-analytic brain off, while keeping your mystery-analytic brain on, it is a tolerable mystery story.
“Starless” by Jacqueline Carey. As I recall, it was a typical fantasy, ninja, hero’s journey type of book.
And I will again urge you to (re)read The Expanse by James S.A. Corey if you are a fan of well-written space opera and hard sci fi. It’s difficult to find both in one series. If you have recommendations for similar books, let me know.
Here are my recommended non-fictions and memoirs, that you might enjoy if the topic interests you. All are well written:
“The Riders Came Out at Night”, by Ali Winston and Darwin BondGraham. A harrowing history of police brutality and corruption in Oakland, California. It may be that the same sort of story is playing out in a major city near you. The final chapter, if you have the strength to read to the end, has some hope.
“I Swear”, by Katie Porter. A memoir by a US Representative. I read it (or rather, had it narrated to me on audiobook by the author) because she is running for US Senator for my state. My intent is to read a book by each of the contestants, and this is the first one I’ve finished. She gives a glimpse into what it’s like to be a member of the House, and before that, a consumer protection advocate. When I finished, I was ready to vote for her, until I found out her competitors are Rep. Barbara Lee and Rep. Adam Schiff. This will be a hard decision to make!
“The Last Diet”, and “The Kindness Method”, by Sharoo Izadi. The author is from an addiction recovery counselor background, and looks at dieting, and how you treat yourself in general, from that lens. There are lots of questions to answer, in hopes of giving yourself more insight. I wrote down all the questions. One of these days I’ll answer them. [eye roll]
“Stay True”, by Hua Hsu. Pulitzer Prize winning memoir of a Chinese-American journalism student. It reminded me, somehow, of “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, that I read half a century ago, but still have in the back of my mind.
“Monsters”, by Claire Dederer. This starts out with the question of separating the art from the artist. (Art in the broader sense of books, paintings, movies, etc.) Can we enjoy and support the work of monstrous people? Does it matter if they are still alive and might profit from our purchase of their products? Can we enjoy movies by a director who abused underaged girls? Can we enjoy books written by an author who drank and abandoned his family? Just exactly what is “monstrous”? How is monstrosity different for a male artist vs a female artist? This book is not a critical essay on the subject, so much as it is an autobiography of an art consumer trying to define what was monstrous to her. By the end of the book, the author realizes that she, as a formerly alcoholic writer who could not be both a full-time mom and full-time writer, was perhaps a monster herself, and that perhaps we are all monsters to some degree, and should cut our fellow monsters some slack. I somewhat disagree, and will have to stew further on this issue.
“White Women”, by Regina Jackson and Saira Rao. This is a non-flinching look at how white women have treated women of color. It is written in the second person, and pulls no punches. Very insightful! And I’d recommend it for everyone, not just white women. I found the part on southern white female culture to be especially enlightening, because I was not raised with it, and have often been blindsided by it.
“The Dawn of Everything”, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. An acerbic look at history, from a decidedly non-Eurocentric lens. Very well written, and so packed full of info and ideas, that I had to circulate it in an out of my reading list several times until I was able to finish it.
~~~~
Frelga, in Libby, you can do a “deep search” for other books by a favored author and put a “smart tag” on them for future notification.
Scirocco, I agree, Bronte is quite intense! As is Austen.
As for books I’ve read in the last 5 months (not including the Expanse books), I can offer my assessment of these 27-odd books and novellas. They were mostly audio, read at a slightly increased speed, so that I could have a life concurrent with reading books. I have the habit of not finishing books if they don’t keep me entertained, so this list only contains books I’ve finished, and therefore could probably recommend to you, to a greater or lesser degree. I’m a member of several book clubs, which has broadened my horizons. Sadly, all this reading has not shortened my to-read list, which is now about 400 books long. But I will make a valiant attempt!
Book club selections:
“The Christie Affair”, by Nina de Gramont. The book addresses the 11 days that Agatha Christie disappeared and never explained where she was when she came back. It involved lots of scandalous activities. Actually, more than one book has been written on this subject, each with a wildly different fictional account of what happened. Another one, “The Mystery of Mrs. Christie”, by Marie Benedict, was so luke-warm, I did not finish it.
“Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand”, by Helen Simonson. Sweet, but a little irritating, in that the Pakistani main character seems as British as the British characters, and that’s what Major Pettigrew loves about her.
“L.A. Weather” y “La Clima de Los Angeles”, by María Amparo Escandón. I read this in English and Spanish because it was one of those rare books where a bilingual author wrote both versions, rather than having a translator re-write the second language. I was hoping to introduce it to my Spanish language book club, as a future selection, but I stopped going to that book club, because their Spanish was far beyond my ability to make cogent observations. The book is a fairly simple story of an extended family in LA, going through divorces and other family trauma.
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, by Sherman Alexie. This is a somewhat autobiographical book about the author, a disabled kid, who balanced between his life on the rez with his life in a preppy all-white high school, an hour’s drive away, where he had enrolled in an attempt to get a better education. It was interesting discussing it with the charming white older ladies in my senior center book club, giving them a clue.
“You are Not Expected to Understand This”, edited by Torie Bosch. A series of essays on the history of computer coding. Having started coding myself back in the 1970s, I can appreciate the evolution. The title quote is from a famous bit of comment tucked into the Linux system. Actually, the book was well written, explained a lot, and was entirely understandable.
My recommendations for speculative fiction:
“Among Others”, by Jo Walton. This is a sweet coming-of-age story about a girl who loves speculative fiction. By the time I was done reading it, I had twenty more books added to my burgeoning to-read list. There’s also magic and fairies. I think members of this thread would enjoy it.
“Children of Time”, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Not for the arachnophobic. An ark ship of humans finds a planet that was previously visited by humans, who had conducted a terraforming experiment that went horribly wrong. The problem of spanning long time periods needed to other systems in sub-light speeds is solved by periodically switching passengers on and off from their hibernation. The reader gets to see a great stretch of time. The passengers get pretty disoriented, though, seeing only snatches of time. The chapters alternate between the human POV and the alien POV, in a refreshingly contrasting way. The ending is very satisfying. The second in the series “Children of Ruin”, is in my queue.
“The Terraformers”, by Annalee Newitz. This author addresses the problem of spanning long periods of time to terraform planets by simply making human life spans 500 years long. And of course, with terraforming, there is always the chance that there was someone/something worth saving before you decided to raze/rebuild the planet.
“Network Effect” and “Fugitive Telemetry” by Martha Wells. Novellas 5 and 6 of the Murderbot Series. These are not as good as the first four in the series, which were quite riveting, but still well worth reading.
“Pushing Ice”, by Alastair Reynolds. Premise of the story is that Humanity has pushed out into the solar system and someone found a strange moon of Saturn that turns out to be alien in origin. This sounded enough like The Expanse that I felt I had to read it. The plot then took off in a completely different direction. It was OK, but a little confusing, perhaps because I kept falling asleep while listening to the audio book.
“Honor Among Thieves”, by James S.A. Corey. Surprisingly awful novel written in the Star Wars universe. According to the authors, they watched the original Star Wars movie three times, then tossed off this novel, with a supremely whiny Luke, whiny Solo, and whiny Leia. Lots of action. Irritating dialog. No redeeming qualities. It might be worth reading for those very reasons.
“Record of a Spaceborn Few”, by Becky Chalmers. Comfortable, subtle messages, but without the rollicking action of the previous novels in the series.
“Una arruga en el Tiempo”, de Madeleine L’Engle, novela gráfica. Graphic novel of a Wrinkle in Time, but in Spanish.
“Model Minority” and “Radicalized”, by Cory Doctorow. This author has a series of novellas addressing how a run-of-the-mill person could get radicalized into doing terrible things in the name of a cause. That’s the basis of “Radicalized”, about a man sucked into angry, ranting message boards. The “Model Minority” is is about a Superman-like alien, living on Earth, trying to deal with Crime, from a completely different perspective.
“The Mimicking of Known Successes”, by Malka Older. This attempt at Holmesian mystery, set in a Victorian knock-off neighborhood in orbit around Jupiter, is a bridge too far for me. This isn’t hard sci fi – this isn’t even squishy sci fi. But if you can turn your scientific-analytic brain off, while keeping your mystery-analytic brain on, it is a tolerable mystery story.
“Starless” by Jacqueline Carey. As I recall, it was a typical fantasy, ninja, hero’s journey type of book.
And I will again urge you to (re)read The Expanse by James S.A. Corey if you are a fan of well-written space opera and hard sci fi. It’s difficult to find both in one series. If you have recommendations for similar books, let me know.
Here are my recommended non-fictions and memoirs, that you might enjoy if the topic interests you. All are well written:
“The Riders Came Out at Night”, by Ali Winston and Darwin BondGraham. A harrowing history of police brutality and corruption in Oakland, California. It may be that the same sort of story is playing out in a major city near you. The final chapter, if you have the strength to read to the end, has some hope.
“I Swear”, by Katie Porter. A memoir by a US Representative. I read it (or rather, had it narrated to me on audiobook by the author) because she is running for US Senator for my state. My intent is to read a book by each of the contestants, and this is the first one I’ve finished. She gives a glimpse into what it’s like to be a member of the House, and before that, a consumer protection advocate. When I finished, I was ready to vote for her, until I found out her competitors are Rep. Barbara Lee and Rep. Adam Schiff. This will be a hard decision to make!
“The Last Diet”, and “The Kindness Method”, by Sharoo Izadi. The author is from an addiction recovery counselor background, and looks at dieting, and how you treat yourself in general, from that lens. There are lots of questions to answer, in hopes of giving yourself more insight. I wrote down all the questions. One of these days I’ll answer them. [eye roll]
“Stay True”, by Hua Hsu. Pulitzer Prize winning memoir of a Chinese-American journalism student. It reminded me, somehow, of “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, that I read half a century ago, but still have in the back of my mind.
“Monsters”, by Claire Dederer. This starts out with the question of separating the art from the artist. (Art in the broader sense of books, paintings, movies, etc.) Can we enjoy and support the work of monstrous people? Does it matter if they are still alive and might profit from our purchase of their products? Can we enjoy movies by a director who abused underaged girls? Can we enjoy books written by an author who drank and abandoned his family? Just exactly what is “monstrous”? How is monstrosity different for a male artist vs a female artist? This book is not a critical essay on the subject, so much as it is an autobiography of an art consumer trying to define what was monstrous to her. By the end of the book, the author realizes that she, as a formerly alcoholic writer who could not be both a full-time mom and full-time writer, was perhaps a monster herself, and that perhaps we are all monsters to some degree, and should cut our fellow monsters some slack. I somewhat disagree, and will have to stew further on this issue.
“White Women”, by Regina Jackson and Saira Rao. This is a non-flinching look at how white women have treated women of color. It is written in the second person, and pulls no punches. Very insightful! And I’d recommend it for everyone, not just white women. I found the part on southern white female culture to be especially enlightening, because I was not raised with it, and have often been blindsided by it.
“The Dawn of Everything”, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. An acerbic look at history, from a decidedly non-Eurocentric lens. Very well written, and so packed full of info and ideas, that I had to circulate it in an out of my reading list several times until I was able to finish it.
~~~~
Frelga, in Libby, you can do a “deep search” for other books by a favored author and put a “smart tag” on them for future notification.
Scirocco, I agree, Bronte is quite intense! As is Austen.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus
Re: What are you reading?
Just finished "Daisy Jones and the Six", and currently reading "Crazy Dreams" the autobiography of Paul Brady, an Irish musician
The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End
Re: What are you reading?
I'm really enjoying Lindsay Buroker's Star Kingdom series. She borrows heavily from many of my favorite space opera stories, but isn't too obvious about it and and does a good job of weaving those elements into her own tales. I'm hooked. I've also read her Dragon Blood series, which is also quite good. It's steampunk, though, not space opera.
Both series keep me buying audiobooks at an alarming rath, though.
I just had to renew the audible plan early in order to get the next book. 
Nathan Lowell's Solar Clipper follow up series has got the first 3 books out now, but they aren't on audible yet. So, I signed up for a free trial of kindle unlimited and have been reading the first one at work on my computer. It's been a long time since I've read a lot of print, preferring to be able to listen to the story and do something constructive with my hands... but it's working out OK at work where I'm not doing handwork at the moment.
I adore everything I've read by Nathan Lowell.
It's steampunk, though, not space opera.Both series keep me buying audiobooks at an alarming rath, though.
I just had to renew the audible plan early in order to get the next book. Nathan Lowell's Solar Clipper follow up series has got the first 3 books out now, but they aren't on audible yet. So, I signed up for a free trial of kindle unlimited and have been reading the first one at work on my computer. It's been a long time since I've read a lot of print, preferring to be able to listen to the story and do something constructive with my hands... but it's working out OK at work where I'm not doing handwork at the moment.
I adore everything I've read by Nathan Lowell.
Re: What are you reading?
Maria, someone probably already asked, but have you tried Libby? It's free, you just need a library card.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Re: What are you reading?
That's probably worth a try. I used to use Overdrive to listen to library audiobooks, but the app was so glitchy I gave up on it eventually.
I'll look into Libby. Thanks!
I'll look into Libby. Thanks!
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RoseMorninStar
- Posts: 12951
- Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:07 am
- Location: North Shire
Re: What are you reading?
It is nice to check things out electronically from the library/Libby. They may not have some of the lesser known series but they do have a pretty good selection.
My heart is forever in the Shire.
Re: What are you reading?
It depends on the library collection, and the way some of the red states gutted their libraries may affect what's avaliable.
In my experience, books most likely to be missing are older fantasy, SF, and thrillers that are not in public domain yet. These seemed to be less likely to exist as ebooks or audio books.
By contrast, newer fantasy and SF becomes available fairly quickly.
Meanwhile I seem to have hit another "can't process fiction" block.
I've been listening to the first Sharpe book. The narrator is really putting on a one-man show. The way he does various accents is subtle yet distinctive, not over the top as is often the case. It would be fun if I had the emotional bandwidth to spare. Also doesn't help that I am rooting for the Tippoo against the British.
In my experience, books most likely to be missing are older fantasy, SF, and thrillers that are not in public domain yet. These seemed to be less likely to exist as ebooks or audio books.
By contrast, newer fantasy and SF becomes available fairly quickly.
Meanwhile I seem to have hit another "can't process fiction" block.
I've been listening to the first Sharpe book. The narrator is really putting on a one-man show. The way he does various accents is subtle yet distinctive, not over the top as is often the case. It would be fun if I had the emotional bandwidth to spare. Also doesn't help that I am rooting for the Tippoo against the British.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Re: What are you reading?
Quote from one the Nathan Lowell books:
A starship captain talking about space travel, "It's all boring after the first hundred days. Boring is good. We like boring. The opposite of boring isn't interesting. It's terrifying, and that's not where we want to be."
So few SF authors get this.
Nathan Lowell writes SF where nothing much exciting happens, but the stories are interesting anyway. I don't understand how he does it.
A starship captain talking about space travel, "It's all boring after the first hundred days. Boring is good. We like boring. The opposite of boring isn't interesting. It's terrifying, and that's not where we want to be."
So few SF authors get this.
Nathan Lowell writes SF where nothing much exciting happens, but the stories are interesting anyway. I don't understand how he does it.
Re: What are you reading?
What Jude said.
'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude
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narya
- chocolate bearer
- Posts: 4904
- Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:27 am
- Location: Wishing I could be beachcombing, or hiking, or dragon boating
- Contact:
Re: What are you reading?
Sadly, among my 12 library cards on Libby, I can find only one novel and 4 short story collections by Lowell, none that you mentioned, Maria. On the other hand, I have a choice of 68 books by Buroker, including the Dragon Blood series. My 'to read' tag list is getting way too long to finish in this lifetime, but I will endeavor.
And Maria, I agree that most sci fi doesn't address the concept that Space is Big, and unless you can figure out how to travel really fast without those pesky laws of physics, it will take a long time to get from one place to another. That was discussed repeatedly in the Expanse novels, about how it took months just to get from one planet to another, and that certain kinds of people liked long-haul shipping, while it drove others nuts. (The TV series, being constrained more by laws of TV production than laws of physics, neglected to show that.)
Recently finished books (not including repeats) that I can recommend:
* Unauthorized Bread, by Cory Doctorow, a 3 hour novella, mildly amusing, and pointedly anti-capitalist-dystopia, as are all of his books. The name comes from the requirement that the toaster that came with her subsidized-rent apartment can only use "authorized" bread - a particular brand name that the toaster mega-company sells, which is, of course, more expensive, and gives kickbacks to the landlord. So naturally, the protagonist has to teach herself, via videos on the dark net, how to hack the system for this and all the other appliance-related authorizations.
* Thinning Blood, by Leah Myers, about a member of the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe in Washington State. The author discusses the impact of her dwindling tribe's population and mixed heritage, and how she fits in, as an enrolled tribal member, but almost-white appearing. Like my mom, the author was often mistaken for Hispanic or Asian or Caucasian, but identifies strongly with her tribe and is accepted in her tribal community. The Federal government erases Native people by using blood quantum as a tribal enrollment requirement. The feds divided up the Salish people (currently over 56,000 enrolled tribal members) into several dozen tribe-lets, some with only a few hundred people each. You can only enroll in one tribe. So someone could have 4 grandparents who were each from a different, adjacent Salish village. Not unlikely, because who wants to marry someone from your small town that you are probably related to already? They would be 100% native blood, 100% Salish, but only 1/4 Native blood in the eyes of the feds, because they could only enroll in one of those ancestral villages, and only claim blood from that village. If this person were to marry a non-Native, all of this person's kids would be 50% Native blood, but only officially 1/8 blood quantum. If the tribe has a 1/8 blood quantum minimum, any tribal citizen of 1/8 blood quantum is effectively sterilized from having any tribal citizen kids. That is what is happening to the author's tribe-let, which has only 540 citizens, of which 60% are only 1/8 blood quantum, and all are somewhat related and unlikely to marry within their community. In a generation or two, they will be wiped out, officially, even if their actual numbers are growing. This is an ongoing debate in Indian Country, with different tribes coming to different conclusions.
* They Call Us the Enemy by George Takei, a graphic novel with a very moving story line and illustrations, about Takei's life as an American kid of Japanese descent in an internment camp during WWII.
I've joined another book club. This one is an offshoot of the local senior women's walking group, and we will be walking, then sitting down at a tea house for a cuppa and discussion of a wellness/empowering book. We just had the organizational meeting, and the small group of women I met were very like-minded about a number of things. (Not hard sci fi, alas, but you can't have everything.)
And Maria, I agree that most sci fi doesn't address the concept that Space is Big, and unless you can figure out how to travel really fast without those pesky laws of physics, it will take a long time to get from one place to another. That was discussed repeatedly in the Expanse novels, about how it took months just to get from one planet to another, and that certain kinds of people liked long-haul shipping, while it drove others nuts. (The TV series, being constrained more by laws of TV production than laws of physics, neglected to show that.)
Recently finished books (not including repeats) that I can recommend:
* Unauthorized Bread, by Cory Doctorow, a 3 hour novella, mildly amusing, and pointedly anti-capitalist-dystopia, as are all of his books. The name comes from the requirement that the toaster that came with her subsidized-rent apartment can only use "authorized" bread - a particular brand name that the toaster mega-company sells, which is, of course, more expensive, and gives kickbacks to the landlord. So naturally, the protagonist has to teach herself, via videos on the dark net, how to hack the system for this and all the other appliance-related authorizations.
* Thinning Blood, by Leah Myers, about a member of the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe in Washington State. The author discusses the impact of her dwindling tribe's population and mixed heritage, and how she fits in, as an enrolled tribal member, but almost-white appearing. Like my mom, the author was often mistaken for Hispanic or Asian or Caucasian, but identifies strongly with her tribe and is accepted in her tribal community. The Federal government erases Native people by using blood quantum as a tribal enrollment requirement. The feds divided up the Salish people (currently over 56,000 enrolled tribal members) into several dozen tribe-lets, some with only a few hundred people each. You can only enroll in one tribe. So someone could have 4 grandparents who were each from a different, adjacent Salish village. Not unlikely, because who wants to marry someone from your small town that you are probably related to already? They would be 100% native blood, 100% Salish, but only 1/4 Native blood in the eyes of the feds, because they could only enroll in one of those ancestral villages, and only claim blood from that village. If this person were to marry a non-Native, all of this person's kids would be 50% Native blood, but only officially 1/8 blood quantum. If the tribe has a 1/8 blood quantum minimum, any tribal citizen of 1/8 blood quantum is effectively sterilized from having any tribal citizen kids. That is what is happening to the author's tribe-let, which has only 540 citizens, of which 60% are only 1/8 blood quantum, and all are somewhat related and unlikely to marry within their community. In a generation or two, they will be wiped out, officially, even if their actual numbers are growing. This is an ongoing debate in Indian Country, with different tribes coming to different conclusions.
* They Call Us the Enemy by George Takei, a graphic novel with a very moving story line and illustrations, about Takei's life as an American kid of Japanese descent in an internment camp during WWII.
I've joined another book club. This one is an offshoot of the local senior women's walking group, and we will be walking, then sitting down at a tea house for a cuppa and discussion of a wellness/empowering book. We just had the organizational meeting, and the small group of women I met were very like-minded about a number of things. (Not hard sci fi, alas, but you can't have everything.)
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus
Re: What are you reading?
I couldn’t find Nathan Lowell at both of mine, either.
'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude
Re: What are you reading?
"Quarter Share" is the first in the SF series. The author recommends this reading order:
https://nathanlowell.com/catalog/bookslist/ and I agree.
If you'd prefer present day settings, I also really liked his "The Wizard's Butler". There's only one book so far, but "The Wizard's Cat" is supposed to be in the works.
Re: What are you reading?
My library has absolutely nothing by him. I think I'll take a chance and order his first book from my local bookshop and see how it goes.