(no subject)
As I noted some time ago, cats can be serious readers, thanks to the delicate text-sensing organs they conceal beneath their belly fur.
Here's an update on the local reading list:
Jemmy: OK, does anyone know if Fidelio has any of Peter Green's other books? The Hellenistic Age wasn't as detailed as The Greco-Persian Wars, but it was good enough that I'd like to get my teeth into the Alexander biography or Alexander to Actium
Minerva: I think she has the biography; I seem to recall seeing it on the list when she had her Librarything list open.
Jemmy: So, the biographies are...over there. *considers bookshelf with brick and board construct on top of it* We'll all be in trouble if I knock the top part of that thing over to get to the Alexander book, right?
Zaza: Especially if you do it while I'm napping on the couch, because that would be in the path of the debris and I'd have to kill you. But I think the book is on one of the middle shelves, so if you're careful it should be safe.
Jemmy: You'd be dead, crushed underneath a bunch of books. How could you kill me if you were already dead?
Zaza: I'd manage, if I had to come back as a zombie cat.
Jemmy *paces in frustration*
Minerva: Here; try this Stephen Ambrose thing on the transcontinental railroad while you work on your plan.
Jemmy: Oh, great, the Ambrose family history factory.
Minerva: It wasn't too bad. Mostly about the people and the politics; not a lot of engineering. And about the money; he talks about the money.
Belle (from under the couch): *sings* The best things in life are free, but you can keep them for the birds and bees. I want money; that's what I want...
Jemmy: I know all that respect your elders stuff and all is important, but has it occurred to either of you two that Belle is just plain batshit crazy?
Minerva & Zaza: Often.
Belle: The hell with all of you. The Ambrose is pretty good popular history. I dipped into it while Fidelio was taking a bath and it does manage to cover a lot of interesting details. It's remarkable that none of the people behind the Union Pacific or the Crédit Mobilier, or the Big Four of the CP, for that matter, went to jail, or got lynched. The bits about the Chinese workers on the CP were interesting as well. And what's not to love about a title like Nothing Like It in the World?
Minerva: It was better than the fiction Fidelio's left lying around. Why, when she knows she hates chicklit, does she bring it into the house?
Zaza: Well, it's fantasy chicklit, so maybe she was hoping the fantasy part would make up for the rest of it. I have to admit that the Rachel Caine wasn't too bad.
Minerva: We're six books into a series with Thin Air; is there any final resolution in sight?
Zaza: Not that I can see, but then, it's a successful franchise, so why would they want to stop? For our sake! Think of the kitties! We cannot stand any more! At least, I cannot!
Belle (still under the couch): It could be yet another in the unending series of Dune books, like Tediously Unending and Unnecessarily Complicated Tripefest of Dune. Or Somebody's Brother-in-law's Second Cousin's Mother-in-law Somethingorother of Shannara
Jemmy: Speak not of these to us, O Ancient of Days; plainly it is these that have driven you to madness, and we don't want to go there.
Minerva: Totally.
Belle: Beware the Jabberwock, my son...wait, that was actually pretty good. But I hear you on the series that won't end. No love here. Resolution is a thing devoutly to be wished. Because I can see, out there on the distant sea, sharks being jumped.
Zaza: Well, the Caine hasn't reached that point yet, but I'm ready to not wait around and let it get there. Shark-leaping can occur without me. Which brings us to--Mary Janice Davidson!
Minerva: Oh, God, not more of the Vampire Queen books.
Jemmy *starts hairball hurking noises*
Zaza: No, this is a new character, who's half mermaid. Not nearly as annoying as Betsy, who is one of the most exasperating characters ever to appear in a mass-market paperback as a protagonist in this century. But it also looks like this will run forever, so I think it's time for a new rule: If Fidelio brings anything else in the shape of fiction where great shoes or "really cute guys" are a feature, we bite her.
Minerva: Agreed.
Jemmy: Done. Although it'll be hard on us cute guys.
Minerva & Zaza *eyeroll*
Belle: That's "really cute guys" as a trope, or whatever. Exceptions must be made for those characters whose pulchitrude and/or desirability to the protagonist does not constitute a nauseating factor in the plot. Also, if Elizabeth Bear mentions shoes, those books get a pass.
Jemmy: Oh, man I loved Dust. Loved it, loved it, loved it. All those insane AIs...the complicated family...I don't get the business about the Zelazny and Moorcock connections people keep bleating about online, though. Not that it matters.
Belle: Well, you'd have to have read the Elric books and the Amber books to get it. And they're really mostly brief hommages; the whole plot thing is Bear taking an old thing and turning it inside out for the new millennium, and all of that. Is there going to be another one?
Minerva: Yes! She's supposed to be writing it now! Cousin Medb is helping, of course.
Belle: Well, I hope I live to see it...
Jemmy: There are supposed to be more Prometheans later this year, and a new thing that's all Norse and doomful and all. Maybe Minerva can get them onto Fidelio's Amazon list so she'll remember to buy them for us.
Minerva: You'll have to turn the computer on for me. And then help me get the keyboard in place.
Jemmy: AUGHHHH! I hate that friggin' wireless keyboard!
Minerva: Don't get me started. Has anybody taken a look at that new plague book--what is it--Justinian's Flea?
Zaza: No, I've been busy finishing up Karen Abbott's Sin in the Second City. It's kind of nice reading a book about prostitution that doesn't wade right in and tell you right away "Whores are bad".
Minerva: That's the Everleigh Club book, right? *sings* Sisters! Never were there such devoted sisters!
Does it wander too far into faction?
Zaza: Not too badly. There's certainly a truckload of research in there, and lots of interesting pictures. And a lot of Chicago politics.
Jemmy: So, what's the difference between old-time Chicago politics and prostitution?
Minerva: The prostitutes weren't hypocritical about it? So, Jemmy, what have you read besides the Peter Green?
Jemmy: Stephen O'Shea's Back to the Front, which is about a guy who goes hiking along the line of the Western Front in Belgium and France, and tries to come to terms with the idea of the First World War.
Minerva: Simon Winchester's influence is a pernicious thing.
Jemmy: No, it's better than that. Because O'Shea doesn't try and pretend that it isn't about him, the way Winchester does until it's too late and you're halfway into the book. And maybe it's a good idea to try and look at how hard it is to get your mind around the past, and significant historic events, unless you just rub your face in them.
Zaza: Fifty points off for gratuitous canine imagery!
Belle: Oh, yeah, like you don't like a good sniff yourself now and then, sister.
Zaza: It's my wildcat ancestry.
Belle: HA!
Minerva: Oh, give it a rest, you two.
Here's an update on the local reading list:
Jemmy: OK, does anyone know if Fidelio has any of Peter Green's other books? The Hellenistic Age wasn't as detailed as The Greco-Persian Wars, but it was good enough that I'd like to get my teeth into the Alexander biography or Alexander to Actium
Minerva: I think she has the biography; I seem to recall seeing it on the list when she had her Librarything list open.
Jemmy: So, the biographies are...over there. *considers bookshelf with brick and board construct on top of it* We'll all be in trouble if I knock the top part of that thing over to get to the Alexander book, right?
Zaza: Especially if you do it while I'm napping on the couch, because that would be in the path of the debris and I'd have to kill you. But I think the book is on one of the middle shelves, so if you're careful it should be safe.
Jemmy: You'd be dead, crushed underneath a bunch of books. How could you kill me if you were already dead?
Zaza: I'd manage, if I had to come back as a zombie cat.
Jemmy *paces in frustration*
Minerva: Here; try this Stephen Ambrose thing on the transcontinental railroad while you work on your plan.
Jemmy: Oh, great, the Ambrose family history factory.
Minerva: It wasn't too bad. Mostly about the people and the politics; not a lot of engineering. And about the money; he talks about the money.
Belle (from under the couch): *sings* The best things in life are free, but you can keep them for the birds and bees. I want money; that's what I want...
Jemmy: I know all that respect your elders stuff and all is important, but has it occurred to either of you two that Belle is just plain batshit crazy?
Minerva & Zaza: Often.
Belle: The hell with all of you. The Ambrose is pretty good popular history. I dipped into it while Fidelio was taking a bath and it does manage to cover a lot of interesting details. It's remarkable that none of the people behind the Union Pacific or the Crédit Mobilier, or the Big Four of the CP, for that matter, went to jail, or got lynched. The bits about the Chinese workers on the CP were interesting as well. And what's not to love about a title like Nothing Like It in the World?
Minerva: It was better than the fiction Fidelio's left lying around. Why, when she knows she hates chicklit, does she bring it into the house?
Zaza: Well, it's fantasy chicklit, so maybe she was hoping the fantasy part would make up for the rest of it. I have to admit that the Rachel Caine wasn't too bad.
Minerva: We're six books into a series with Thin Air; is there any final resolution in sight?
Zaza: Not that I can see, but then, it's a successful franchise, so why would they want to stop? For our sake! Think of the kitties! We cannot stand any more! At least, I cannot!
Belle (still under the couch): It could be yet another in the unending series of Dune books, like Tediously Unending and Unnecessarily Complicated Tripefest of Dune. Or Somebody's Brother-in-law's Second Cousin's Mother-in-law Somethingorother of Shannara
Jemmy: Speak not of these to us, O Ancient of Days; plainly it is these that have driven you to madness, and we don't want to go there.
Minerva: Totally.
Belle: Beware the Jabberwock, my son...wait, that was actually pretty good. But I hear you on the series that won't end. No love here. Resolution is a thing devoutly to be wished. Because I can see, out there on the distant sea, sharks being jumped.
Zaza: Well, the Caine hasn't reached that point yet, but I'm ready to not wait around and let it get there. Shark-leaping can occur without me. Which brings us to--Mary Janice Davidson!
Minerva: Oh, God, not more of the Vampire Queen books.
Jemmy *starts hairball hurking noises*
Zaza: No, this is a new character, who's half mermaid. Not nearly as annoying as Betsy, who is one of the most exasperating characters ever to appear in a mass-market paperback as a protagonist in this century. But it also looks like this will run forever, so I think it's time for a new rule: If Fidelio brings anything else in the shape of fiction where great shoes or "really cute guys" are a feature, we bite her.
Minerva: Agreed.
Jemmy: Done. Although it'll be hard on us cute guys.
Minerva & Zaza *eyeroll*
Belle: That's "really cute guys" as a trope, or whatever. Exceptions must be made for those characters whose pulchitrude and/or desirability to the protagonist does not constitute a nauseating factor in the plot. Also, if Elizabeth Bear mentions shoes, those books get a pass.
Jemmy: Oh, man I loved Dust. Loved it, loved it, loved it. All those insane AIs...the complicated family...I don't get the business about the Zelazny and Moorcock connections people keep bleating about online, though. Not that it matters.
Belle: Well, you'd have to have read the Elric books and the Amber books to get it. And they're really mostly brief hommages; the whole plot thing is Bear taking an old thing and turning it inside out for the new millennium, and all of that. Is there going to be another one?
Minerva: Yes! She's supposed to be writing it now! Cousin Medb is helping, of course.
Belle: Well, I hope I live to see it...
Jemmy: There are supposed to be more Prometheans later this year, and a new thing that's all Norse and doomful and all. Maybe Minerva can get them onto Fidelio's Amazon list so she'll remember to buy them for us.
Minerva: You'll have to turn the computer on for me. And then help me get the keyboard in place.
Jemmy: AUGHHHH! I hate that friggin' wireless keyboard!
Minerva: Don't get me started. Has anybody taken a look at that new plague book--what is it--Justinian's Flea?
Zaza: No, I've been busy finishing up Karen Abbott's Sin in the Second City. It's kind of nice reading a book about prostitution that doesn't wade right in and tell you right away "Whores are bad".
Minerva: That's the Everleigh Club book, right? *sings* Sisters! Never were there such devoted sisters!
Does it wander too far into faction?
Zaza: Not too badly. There's certainly a truckload of research in there, and lots of interesting pictures. And a lot of Chicago politics.
Jemmy: So, what's the difference between old-time Chicago politics and prostitution?
Minerva: The prostitutes weren't hypocritical about it? So, Jemmy, what have you read besides the Peter Green?
Jemmy: Stephen O'Shea's Back to the Front, which is about a guy who goes hiking along the line of the Western Front in Belgium and France, and tries to come to terms with the idea of the First World War.
Minerva: Simon Winchester's influence is a pernicious thing.
Jemmy: No, it's better than that. Because O'Shea doesn't try and pretend that it isn't about him, the way Winchester does until it's too late and you're halfway into the book. And maybe it's a good idea to try and look at how hard it is to get your mind around the past, and significant historic events, unless you just rub your face in them.
Zaza: Fifty points off for gratuitous canine imagery!
Belle: Oh, yeah, like you don't like a good sniff yourself now and then, sister.
Zaza: It's my wildcat ancestry.
Belle: HA!
Minerva: Oh, give it a rest, you two.