Kat

The usual collection of rape, slut-shaming and misogyny from an author I used to think was pretty cool.

TL;DR

Not Terrible: Horse From a Different Sea, The Great Canine Chorus, Finder's Keeper, Apple.
Avoid At All Costs: A Meeting of Minds, The Thorns of Barevi, Honeymoon

Lady in the Tower: This later became part of the novel The Rowan. It's actually less terrible on its own, but still kinda cringe-y.

A Meeting of Minds: In which the daughter of The Rowan eventually realizes the dude who was formerly, unrequitedly in love with her mother is in love with her, ew ew ew.

“And he was suddenly a very different man. A man! That was it. He was so excessively masculine. How could she have blundered around so, looking for a mind that was superior to hers, completely overlooking the fact that a woman's most important function in life begins with physical domination?”

That's when I threw the book across the room, but sadly, I eventually retrieved it and read the rest.

Daughter / Dull Drums: This actually had some promise, as it's about a young woman studying to be a computer scientist, and kicking ass at it, despite her father being a misogynist and a seemingly endless stream of dudes manhandling her “affectionately”. But then it transpires that she has TOO MUCH EMPATHY to be a scientist!!!! And needs the men in her life to paternalistically tell her to change majors, because they know better than she what will make her happy. ARGH

Changeling: I knew this was going to be... interesting... when McCaffrey's introduction emphasized how many “homosexual male friends” she had.

I don't really know what to say about it, because on the one hand it's... almost... a pretty positive polyamory story, but ALSO this woman is in (unrequited) love with the gay dude and agrees to have his child and then she goes into labor and he kidnaps her to a mountain cabin instead of taking her to the hospital (despite her protests) and it's just... all a little weird. Also stories about giving birth give me the heebie-jeebies.

Weather on Welladay: First non-terrible story! Though personally I found it a bit dull.

The Thorns of Barevi: In which a woman gets kidnapped and enslaved by aliens, escapes them, then reveals herself to aid one....... who shows his gratitude by raping her. AUGH NO STOP BAD

In her introduction to the story, McCaffrey states that it was “an attempt to cash in on the lucrative market for soft- and hard-core pornography in the 60's”, so, that's charming.

Horse From a Different Sea: Okay actually kind of funny.

The Great Canine Chorus: Probably best thing in this collection.

Finder's Keeper: Another pretty okay story, though the ending was pretty weak.

A Proper Santa Claus: I give McCaffrey credit for not pulling the punch at the end of this grim tale, though I found it needlessly depressing.

The Smallest Dragonboy: It's like someone asked McCaffrey to write the most generic Pern story possible. Like you know from the very beginning that Keevan is going to Impress a hatchling – it's in the title, ferchrissakes – which pretty much undermines any dramatic tension this extremely straightforward underdog-gets-his-comeuppance story could possibly have.

Apple: Another pretty good telepath story, similar to “The Great Canine Chorus”, although I'm getting a bit tired of this “women Talents are all unstable psychopaths” thing??

Honeymoon: The Ship Who Sang is actually pretty cool, except what is this nonsense where she is worried her “brawn” will rape her, and then some weird alien stuff happens that seems to amount to “he and a group of aliens pressured her into having sex with him”?

The history of Pern was pretty thoroughly sketched out in the original books; honestly I don't think there's enough to say about it to make it much of a story. The (sadly) usual dose of weird sexism and kind of not-exactly-consensual sex made me grit my teeth through some parts.

I am not a Batman fan especially, but this was pretty good. A surprisingly subdued little story that sets the Joker up as a dark mirror of Batman and philosophizes about the fragile nature of sanity. (My favorite bit: the Joker commenting that the only difference between him and the rest of the world was “one bad day”... and then pointing out that Batman had a bad day once, too, a day that changed everything.)

I enjoyed the implication that superheros are as broken as the villains they hunt, they have just drawn different conclusions from the events that removed them from the rest of the human race.

I've been groping for the words to describe the tone of this story, and just realized it reminded me of Sandman more than anything else. It has the same sort of... sympathetic tone toward everyone, regardless of which side of the battle they're on or what part they play in the story.

This was on my to-read list for some reason... I no longer remember why.

Anyhow, it's got some mildly interesting ideas/tips in it, but is mostly a rehash of GTD, but written like a sales pitch and padded out with incredibly insipid tripe.

Here's an example, from the section on “Control Your Inner DIalogue” (which, by the way, is perfectly good advice in and of itself):

To keep yourself motivated and to overcome feelings of doubt or fear, continually tell yourself, “I can do it! I can do it!” When people ask how you are, always tell them, “I feel terrific!”

Haunting, perfect, Murakami at his best.

These stories are wonderful. Like koans. Between this and [b:Norwegian Wood 11297 Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166468809s/11297.jpg 2956680], Murakami has officially made it onto my list of favorite authors.

HOW IS THIS SERIES SO GOOD. HOW.

Classic Murakami. Hilarious, poignant and profound, sometimes by turns and sometimes all at once.

Like most of his books, I could reread it over and over again. I love his deliciously simple descriptions of the ordinary, I love his unexpectedly perfect metaphors, I love the way he sets up very ordinary characters and settings and then throws you a curve-ball of utter absurdity. Somehow, instead of stretching your credulity, it serves only to highlight the essentially weird and wonderful nature of the universe.My favorite one from this book: “Far off, someone was practicing piano. It sounded like tripping down an up escalator.”

I read this hoping it might grant me some insight into why people seem to love the movie so much. It was not a successful experiment.

Just like the movie, the overarching plot is insipid as best, though you can (and I, of course, would greatly like to) read it as a sort of cynical meta-commentary on adventure stories as a genre. The author's asides and digressions are tiresome (not to mention full of casual sexism and fat-shaming, so that's fun). There are certainly moments where it is oddly charming. But on the whole... meh.

I think this is just going to be one of those things that I never really “get”.

I remembered this being a whole lot better than it was. The premise is SO COOL and there are moments of genuine introspection / exploration of mortality / identity / human nature BUT oh my god 90% of this book is macho dudes having pointlessly overwrought conversations with each other and engaging in pissing contests about who is more of a “real man” and who is going to win the trophy woman. (Also CW for casual domestic violence yeesh.)

The conversations Main Scientist Dude has with his girlfriend are actually super unintentionally hilarious because he just Wall of Texts her all the time (for PAGES) and never lets her say anything and then she's like “I love you”. I just chose to read all her replies to him sarcastically, like when he's all telling her about his childhood and then:

‘Please go on telling me about yourself,' she said.

‘Do you want to know what it is with you and women?'
Hawks blinked at her. ‘Yes. Very much.'
‘You treat them like people.'
‘I do?' He shook his head again. ‘I don't think so.'

‘I take up as much room in the world, the way you see it, as you do. Do you have any idea of how rare a thing that is?'
Hawks was puzzled. ‘I'm glad you feel that way,' he said slowly, ‘but I don't think that's true.'

‘Cobey'll be very upset,' Hawks was saying, lost in thought. ‘He'll have to pay the technicians bonus-time rates.'
‘Who's Cobey?'
‘A man, Elizabeth. Another man I know.'

‘Women–' he said earnestly, ‘women have always fascinated me. [...] there was something about women. I don't mean the physical thing. I mean some special thing about women: some purpose that I couldn't grasp. What bothered me was that here were these other intelligent organisms, in the same world with men, and there had to be a purpose for that intelligence. If all women were for was the continuance of the race, what did they need intelligence for? A simple set of instincts would have done just as well. And as a matter of fact, the instincts are there, so what was the intelligence for? There were plenty of men to take care of making the physical environment comfortable. That wasn't what women were for. At least, it wasn't what they had to have intelligence for ... But I never found out. I've always wondered.'

He opened the car door, half turned to step out, and then stopped. ‘You know – You know,' he began again, ‘I do talk a lot, when we're together.' He looked at her apologetically. ‘You must get awfully bored with it.'
‘I don't mind.'
He shook his head. ‘I can't understand you.' He smiled gently.
‘Would you like to?'
He blinked. ‘Yes. Very much.'

‘Maybe I feel the same way about you?'
He blinked again. ‘Well,' he said. ‘Well. I've been sort of assuming that all along, haven't I? I never thought of that. I never did.' He shook his head.

facepalming intensifies

‘My God, Ed, what's happened to me? What am I doing to both of us? All I ever wanted to do was help you, and somehow it's come out like this. I never should have come here today, Ed. I shouldn't have done this last thing to you.'

CW: Real talk about death and mortality.

These stories are well-written and Ellison, as usual, doesn't pull any punches. That being said, I'm not sure how many of them will stick with me in the long-term.

Favorites: Paladin of the Lost Hour, Footsteps, Eidolons.

One of my perennial favorites. It's wrapped in the clichés and archetypes of fairy tales, but it's much more than it seems. It's about transformation, about love, about the way happiness can make you sad and getting what you want can be bittersweet. It's about becoming who you are, and what you might lose when you do. It's about mortality and our yearning for the timeless. It's a story about stories and how real life doesn't work that way, except when it does. I never tire of it, and every time I read it, it is different.

An undercurrent of darkness runs through these stories. Despite the copious amounts of outrageous sex being had (it is erotica after all), every one of the characters seems to be fundamentally unfulfilled, indulging in sexual exploits in a desperately doomed attempt to ease some deep-seated suffering or neurosis. It's less about sex than about power, and for every beautiful description of wild adventure between mutually-consenting adults, there are several that are squicky and/or triggering (featuring various sorts of rape, emotional abuse, pedophilia, incest, bestiality, etc.) and many more borderline cases of subtle manipulation. Any and all of which might be your thing, and that's cool, but it doesn't do a lot for me.

I love it for that strangeness and for its astonishingly nuanced portrayal of human relationships, but for me, that undercurrent makes it function poorly as erotica... while the stories don't have enough narrative solidity to function well as anything else.

Short, straightforward, commonsensical. I didn't think there was anything especially new or thought-provoking about it, but then again I follow quite a few of these rules already (e.g. only shopping the edge of the supermarket, eating colors, avoiding HFCS, stuff like that). There's some unexamined privilege here (rules like “cook”, “shop at farmer's markets” and “spend more on food”), but hey, Pollan is attempting to tackle personal changes, not systemic ones.

I wouldn't spend money on this book, since it's tiny and mostly a predictable expansion of “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” But hey, you can read it in like half an hour so there's not much to lose, and maybe you'll pick up a couple new mnemonics for healthy eating.

This is kind of Infinite Jest Lite, which is to say it is definitely DFW (for better or for worse), and while you might rightfully expect a collection of essays to be a bit more palatable than IJ in its entirety... well, don't expect easily-digestible, bite-sized, sit-back-and-enjoy-it kind of Entertainment, because you won't find it here.

Similar to IJ, this collection mixes the mindblowing (on TV/media/irony or David Lynch, which contained bits I was reading/sharing with anyone who would listen), the impenetrably academic (on postmodern literature), the humorous (the titular essay), and the incredibly-dull-and-superhumanly-detailed-but-still-inexplicably-captivating (on tennis competitions or a rural state fair).

If you want to find out whether you will love or hate IJ, this is probably a good litmus test. I do personally think he was, if not a genius, an absolutely incredible intellect and one of the most brilliant writers in recent history.

It's hard to overstate how disappointing this book was. Long. Dull. Uninspired. Anticlimactic. A pale, passionless shadow of the way the series started out.

I'm glad all the loose ends got tied up and the story all sorted itself out, but boy was it a slog to get here. Unlike the others, this book takes place in a single time period, which makes it even more obvious that Kerr has given up on the one truly original and interesting aspect of Daggerspell – the reincarnation and Wyrd.

Minus the interesting echoes of past lives, we're down to your basic fantasy novel, and a mediocre one at that. The plot is repetitious and meandering, the characters are kind of dumb, the bad guys are a complete joke, and 300+ pages of tension and plotting lead up to a complete non-event of a final showdown.

For others who have read the first three and want to read this one just to see how it all pans out: Rhodry is un-exiled and appointed the heir, but has meantime gotten himself kidnapped and sold into slavery in Bardek. Jill and Salamander go chasing after him, eventually finding him and disposing of the bad guys, who turn out to be incompetent cowards who can't match Nevyn's power. They take Rhodry back to Deverry, where Jill predictably realizes she wants/needs to study dweomer more than she wants to be trapped into the courtly life of a queen. After some agonizing, she leaves Rhodry and goes off to become Nevyn's apprentice. This decision made, she almost immediately remembers all the details of her former life, and tells Nevyn she (Brangwen) forgives him. There, now I've spared you the hours of your life you would've wasted on this book.

Not Brin's best work by any stretch of the imagination, but a solid and believable post-apocalyptic tale.

I like the story, but it took me forever to get through. This book is almost impenetrably esoteric, even on Kindle where I could look up words in place and attempt to translate the numerous French and Latin quotations. I'm honestly not sure that I ever actually finished the paperback version that's been on my shelves for years.

Still, it's a thought-provoking and troubling book about the human search for – and invention of – meaning. It was certainly one of my first introductions to the concept of apophenia and fed the fuel of my teenage obsession with conspiracy theories.

When I first encountered this book, I thought the difficulty of the text was an indication of its worth. Now I think it is a good story despite how much work it is to read, and it certainly prefigured and influenced many lesser stories, like The Da Vinci Code. But I don't see myself revisiting it anytime soon.

I'm having a hard time mustering many words to say about this one. Sure was a Culture novel. Slow to get going, felt a bit long, pleasant use of fantasy tropes, ending was vaguely dissatisfying. Having a woman as more of a main character was a pleasant change. This has got to be the Culture book it's taken me the longest to actually finish.

This was the first Discworld book I ever read, and even though it is not, on revisiting, the best of the series, it will always hold that special place in my heart.

Gaiman is a consummate storyteller, of course. This book seemed a little bland compared to his other work, though. Perhaps it just wasn't quite as relevant to me. It seemed very similar to American Gods, though I haven't read that one in awhile.

Hmm, well. I really love Handler's writing (as Lemony Snicket and as himself), but this book just didn't really do it for me. It's well-written but Handler's usual humor and wordplay is notably absent. The plot is disturbing and the format experimental; neither of those things are necessarily a bad thing, for me, but this just wasn't quite my jam.

I'm pretty sure that this is an objectively good book that just didn't resonate for me. I love the descriptiveness of Helprin's prose and the way he has of evoking an undercurrent of serene justice beneath even the most mundane events.

That being said, it's largely a political farce / satire, which places it pretty squarely in the category of Not Really My Thing. And if you're like me and find it extremely unpleasant to read about people committing social faux pas and embarrassing themselves in front of large audiences, avoid this book, because it happens pretty much constantly.

This was a gift from my father, more than ten years ago. Some bits of it really resonate for me, while others leave me cold. The stoic philosophy recommends a sort of emotional uninvolvement, a resignation that I can't really accept. At the same time, there is something intensely comforting about Aurelius' unwavering faith in a reasonable, well-ordered universe, presided over by gods who are ultimately just. So on a big-picture level, I can't really relate to his philosophy – yet, the book is full of these little bite-sized admonitions, some of which can be relevant regardless of your personal philosophy. It did make me think about things in a slightly different way. So three stars, and I'm keeping it not just because it was a gift, but to read again in the future, when I'm sure I will interpret it very differently.

A fascinating glimpse into a particular world, a particular time and place... and the writing was lovely, very evocative, with the first-person narrative giving it a storytelling cadence that just draws you in.

But, it wasn't always pleasant to read about a woman who never has any control over the events that shape her life, from beginning to end... besides which, the ending seemed a little too pat and really strained my suspension of disbelief. It's also hard to put myself in her shoes, especially when she throws away her friendship with a man she genuinely likes, in order to have a chance with the man she has idolized since childhood but barely knows.

Also deserves a trigger warning for some pretty rape-y scenes, though I suppose if you pick up a book about a geisha, well... Everything about Sayuri's life involves coercion of one sort or another.

In the end, Pumpkin (who I liked for the whole book) unexpectedly betrayed her (a conflict which was never mended), Mameha turned out to have helped her because the Chairman asked her to (though I like to think they were really friends in the end), and Nobu never forgave her the transgression she set up in order to avoid becoming his mistress. So she really had only the man whose mistress she became, and from her description of their interactions, it's hard to think that he really knew her, either.

I just read on Wikipedia that one of Golden's sources later sued him for defamation of character, and wrote her own autobiography. Might have to read that next.