Holdouttrout

I am about to read the first two books in my honorary nieces' favorite series: Dragon Masters. Pretty sure there is nothing cuter than little kids getting excited about their stories. I told them that I LOVE dragons and they said that I should borrow the books and I had to start with the FIRST one.

I have high hopes.

ETA: I just finished them both, and they are, in fact, delightful. I hope they'll let me borrow more...

I mentioned on my last post that I've been reading a LOT this year, and archersangel suggested that I share a little bit more detail. I won't go into all of the books I've read this year*, but I will share four for now and maybe more later.

I should also mention that part of the reason I'm reading so much is because I have made a friend who LOVES to read and talk about books as much as or more than I do! I don't think she's on DW, but Annie is from Greece and planning to study English Lit in England soon. She's pestered encouraged me to read a bunch of books that I might not have otherwise, and it's been delightful.

One of the books Annie strongly recommended to me was The Secret History, by Donna Tartt--a book that I highly recommend as long as you like books about terrible people murdering other terrible people. It reminded me a bit of Crime and Punishment, in that it's more about the mental state of the perpetrators than the actual murder.

I also have been in a book club for a couple of years. So far this year, the book I enjoyed most from the book club is A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles. We read it just slightly after everything shut down for COVID-19, which was really strange timing, considering that the book is about a man sentenced to "home arrest" in a hotel in Moscow. It was a surprisingly hopeful and uplifting book with some charming characters.

The other book club I follow is Sword and Laser. I don't always read the books they set, but I do try to read along now and then and enjoy the podcast. A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine was a fish-out-of-water story with imperial intrigue, mysteries aplenty, with just a dash of romance. I liked it a lot!

Finally, The books that caught my heart and soul and at least 90% of my brainpower these days are Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth, (aka The Locked Tomb) by Tamsyn Muir. Lesbian necromancers in spaaaaaaace! It's angsty and convoluted and DRAMATIC and funny and weird and I love the series to itty bitty pieces. Honestly, I loved Gideon the Ninth so much that I wasn't sure about continuing the series, but Harrow is so weird and so confusing and also delightful, and so I'm ride or die. I have always maintained that fandoms don't usually come up and politely tap me on the shoulder, but instead deceive me into thinking I can quit any time, that it's not that big of a deal, until oh crap, I'm a goner. But Gideon.... sauntered up, flirted with me outrageously, beckoned a little finger, and then.... clobbered me over the head and dragged me off to its lair.

Also, I found a discord server with plenty of like-minded people also in love with these weird-ass books, so I'm pretty happy.

*My Goodreads account says I've finished 49, which is true but doesn't include the books I've re-read, for example.

If anyone’s looking for excellent apocalyptic fiction (not fic), you should go read Severance, by Ling Ma.

It’s so good. I barely put it down. It has themes and character development and lots of grisly details just lurking around the corner but not like… Assaulting you with grisly derails on every page.

And if you have read it, let me know so we can talk, yeah?

 It’s always nice to talk with someone you already know is an agreeable soul and, as a bonus, find out they are reading Animorphs.

#Animorphs #The book series that defines millenials #I really want to reread them

 

@dduane 
This is my honorary niece about a year ago, when she was two. I loaned my copy of So You Want to be a Wizard to my BFF and she apologized to me a few days later, telling me that her daughter had commandeered the book as her favorite and it might be a little less than pristine.

But really, who wouldn’t sacrifice a paperback or two to that face?

(A year later she still carries it around to ‘read.’)

Rules: In a new text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. It’ll only take a few minutes, and you don’t have to think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” books or “great” works, just ones that have touched you. Then tag ten other folks, etc. You all know how this goes!

I can’t follow instructions, because I gave a short reason for picking each one and also won’t tag people–but I’d love to see everyone’s lists!

1. Hinds Feet on High Places, by Hannah Hurnard.
It’s a Christian allegory, a la Pilgrim’s Progress. It makes me cry and think.

2. So You Want to Be a Wizard, by Diane Duane.
It’s my “Harry Potter,” or the book that made me start expecting to be whisked sideways into a world with magic and adventure… and end up with a lot of personal responsibility for doing what I can to make things right.

3. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen.
It’s about living with and loving wonderful, flawed people… and how to know when the “wonderful” doesn’t apply.

4. The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis.
It was a book I originally shunned because of the title and grew to love because of my confounded expectations.

5. Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede.
Because it points out the humor and tropes of fairy tales and has an awesome main female character or five.

6. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott.
Because Jo didn’t marry Laurie.

7. The Farthest Away Mountain, by Lynne Reid Banks.
Because… well, I’m not sure. It’s just always the children’s book I remember best from that era.

8. Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E Butler.
I need to read this one again. Made me think about religion and how we treat each other and why it matters.

9. Christy, by Catherine Marshall
I read this again recently and thought, “Oh, that’s where I got that idea from” a lot.

10. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway.
It makes me sound pretentious, especially when I say I think it’s the most perfect thing ever written. I understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and I honestly think the fact I liked it so much says more about how strange I am than how amazing it is. I just read it and thought it was beautiful.


Pepper, I SO almost picked Alanna and The Little Princess and Sunshine. Those are all fabulous books!

Okay, I admit it--I can't stop buying Stargate stuff. Especially Stargate novels. Of course, my one, lone bookstore that used to carry them (I think just for me, even though they didn't know who was buying their one copy of all of the Stargate books) no longer has new ones... but apparently, you can buy them as Kindle books!

YAY.

However, I'm a little shy about buying them without recommendations. Is anyone else still reading them? If not, I'll just bite the bullet and pick up a couple of the ones I haven't read yet--probably Transitions and Oceans of Dust, since those are the next ones. Then I can do reviews. Mwa ha ha!

I'm looking for a book that I read when I was a young whippersnapper*, and of course I can't remember the title or author. This is the SECOND time I've tried to track this book down--the first time I spent hours combing the library shelves where I knew it ought to be, and I did finally manage to find it (it was one of those "I know it has a green cover**!" things). Alas, that library is long gone (to a happier, larger home), so that strategy is right out.

Here's what I know:
The main protagonist is a young girl.
She is not a mermaid, but she does have some mermaid ancestry.
Her sister is much more mermaid-like than she is.
There are environmental concerns because of stupid humans. (I remember something about butterflies being extinct, or nearly extinct.)
The merfolk are actually called something more like "Sea People."
It's set in the "future," which may not actually be the future anymore.

Any ideas? I feel ridiculous even looking for this book. Mermaids. I mean. Really. It's just BUGGING ME.

*I probably read it in the 90s.

**It probably doesn't have a green cover. If that helps.

I've had a couple of moment lately where I said "I should write an entry about that!" but I can't remember what they were, due to the slight heat wave we've been experiencing, leading to a lack of sleep.

Oh, and the weirdly obsessive reading I've been doing lately. I just finished a re-read of all eight Anne of Green Gables books (I almost wrote Anne of Green Bagels there), which was interesting on so many levels, not least of which was a sort of bittersweet nostalgia for the way I thought the world ought to work when I was a child. And, you know, the sheer delight of reading someone who can create character and scenery with a few well-picked words.

Then there were The Hunger Games. I'd read the first one a while ago, liked it, and... not gotten around to the second or third (this was not due to lack of interest, but lack of time and really long wait times for the library copies). However, I was spurred into finishing them by my boss' daughter, who does not like Twilight and thinks The Hunger Games is amazing. Really, really good reads. I think I want to re-read them so I can think about them a little more not that I don't have to devour them to find out what happens.

Speaking of finding out what happens, apparently spoilers actually increase our enjoyment of a material. I can't believe this is universally true, or at least not true in the sense that any and all spoilers are welcome. I think it changes our enjoyment of books/tv/movies more than increases it. For instance, I was spoiled for Sixth Sense and still quite enjoyed it, but I missed the opportunity to have that thrill of discovery, the moment when the whole movie clicks into place and releases you from suspense.

I LOVE those moments. There was one in Animorphs* that was so delightful, so unexpected, that I actually had a histerical laughing fit in my kitchen, and I wouldn't have traded that for a million spoilers. Those moments get less frequent as I get older, as I run through the possible twists and permutations of common tropes, as I draw my bell curves to edge out surprises.

And I miss them.


*Stop laughing. Animorphs was awesome.

P.S. annerbhp: I read The Thief, and will start reading the next one either today or tomorrow. (I liiiiiiked it, although I guessed... everything. *g*)

P.P.S. Is it Sanctuary time yet?

I lost a song.

I was in a coffee shop--it's my new favorite place ever, because it has a great cozy-yet-slightly-industrial feel, and it's small, and has wonderful cinnamon rolls, and isn't the old coffee shop of which I will not speak. Mind you, no coffee-drinking actually takes place while I'm there, at least not at my table.

Anyway, I was at the coffee shop, and this Song came on. It was so beautiful my friend and I actually stopped talking to listen to the whole thing, and while I meant to write down a portion of the lyrics, various circumstances conspired against me and I can't remember enough to find it.

I seriously considered being the nutty customer who goes up to the counter and asks, "So, there was this song, in a minor key, sung by a woman, really soft and melodic, and it was a couple of weeks ago that I heard it… do you know it?" But I didn't.

*sighs*

I will have more Stargate rewatch soon, but 'Politics' severely slowed me down. Clips shows are remarkably boring when you're watching faster than once a week.

Meanwhile, here are some awesome internet things:

gravity linked this wonderful time-waster.

I laughed… because it's true(ish).

The Periodic Table of Storytelling.

Beautiful, sad Fringe Vid.