Books read, Jul-Dec 2015

[bironic]

(cont. from here)

26. Grey - EL James
27. China Mountain Zhang - Maureen F. McHugh
28. My Brief History - Stephen Hawking (skim) & Travelling to Infinity - Jane Hawking (skim)
29. [Textbook for work]
30. A Patient's Guide to PCOS - Walter Futterweit (reread)
31. Uprooted - Naomi Novik
32. Blood & Gold - Anne Rice (reread)
33. Saga vol. 5 - Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples
34. The Book of Three - Lloyd Alexander
35. Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie (reread)
36. Ancillary Sword - Ann Leckie (reread)
37. Ancillary Mercy - Ann Leckie
38. Step Aside, Pops! - Kate Beaton
39. Master & Commander - Patrick O'Brian
40. The Black Cauldron - Lloyd Alexander - partial
41. The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula Le Guin (reread)

Happy to talk about any of them if you like.

And that was that. We'll call it a baseline to compare 2016 to, since I hadn't counted books before. In any case, the last couple of years have been better than those preceding, since I moved & started taking the bus to work instead of driving.

Expected reads for early this year:

- Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
- Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe
- Pawpaw: In Search of America's Forgotten Fruit by Andrew Moore
- Neil Gaiman's recent book that a coworker lent me
- Dark Orbit by Carolyn Gilman
- Get in Trouble (short stories) by Kelly Link
- The Dark Forest and/or The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
- High time to try something from N.K. Jemisin, seriously
- Hm: And could this finally be the year of Vorkosigan?

Maybe some audiobooks, too. Recommendations always welcome for fem-positive SF/F (particularly SF).

Comments

[nightdog_barks]

Oh, Kelly Link! I LOVED Get in Trouble -- it was one of my favorite reads last year. I want to read all her collections, and I've already bought Pretty Monsters.

Also, Kate Beaton FTW. :D

[bironic]

Oh, good! You know, it's funny, Get in Trouble just came in at the library from my requests list and I couldn't remember where I'd even come across the recommendation. Maybe it was you? Or maybe some official review or best-of-year list.

And ya, the Hark! sequel was fun, though IMO not as fun as the first. I did particularly enjoy "I had fun once and it was awful." http://40.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmhex1nMNB1qzw2nao1_500.png

[bironic]

PS I remembered - Get in Trouble was on io9's Best of 2015 books list. I'm only on the second story but wow, "The Summer People" sure packed an unsettling punch.

[nightdog_barks]

DIDN'T IT? I actually turned a few pages back to make sure I hadn't missed a page, and it was only then that I realized what Fran had done, and ... well.

I got Mister Nightdog to read the collection, and our last conversation went something like this --

ME: So what do you think?
MISTER N: She's weird.
ME: (enthusiastically) I know! She's so talented!
MISTER N: She's very talented. And SHE'S WEIRD.

:D

*warning to passersby: spoilers*

[bironic]

>>I actually turned a few pages back to make sure I hadn't missed a page

Me too!

>>, and it was only then that I realized what Fran had done, and ... well.

Actually I'm still not sure I understand, unless it's simply that she fed the two debt repayment-seekers to the fairy folk and dumped her caretaking responsiblity on Ophelia. Way creepier book than I was expecting, enhanced in that case by the Grimm fairy tale-like ending where escape only brings poverty, loss and disease! I am enjoying it, though. On story 3 now, where the girl goes to meet her online correspondent and ends up drunk in the superhero convention hotel. Something tells me things are about to get a lot darker [for that heroine].

Re: *warning to passersby: spoilers*

[nightdog_barks]

That's what I think -- the debt-repayment people and tricking Ophelia into becoming the caretaker. Which ... I don't know. I wasn't sure exactly what to think about Ophelia's fate. I mean, on the one hand? Ophelia was enchanted by the Summer People. She was fascinated by them, wanted to know everything about them. She might have liked becoming their caretaker. On the other hand, not everything Fran said about the Summer People was nice -- there was that line about them leaving marks when they pinched you, and she was always at their beck and call. I guess all I'm left with is that it's a way more disturbing story than it appears on the surface.

I liked the Paul Zell story (the one you're on), "Secret Identity." I think "Valley of the Girls" was the only one that didn't really work for me -- I thought it was a really interesting premise, but it took too long for me to figure out WTF was going on.

I think you'll like "Two Houses." :D

[thedeadparrot]

I just finished The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, and it's excellent. Definitely recommended.

[bironic]

Was it the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms that people didn't like as much as her others, or that one? Haven't learned enough yet to keep titles straight and figure out which one might be best to start with.

[thedeadparrot]

The Fifth Season came out this year, and it's the first one in a series, so you don't have to have read anything else by her to understand it. I don't know if it's the best one to start with, but it's definitely the best one from her I've read so far.

[snickfic]

Sagaaaa. How are you feeling about the latest volume? I really loved the Gwendolyn/Brand/Sophie/Lying Cat quest right up until the end, but I was... not enthused with how that ended, or with what it seems to be setting up for The Will. And I was sorry we didn't get any rough moments of understanding between Marko and Prince Robot IV, but I guess that's what fanfic is for.