yet another cat macro post (sorry) + BOOKS
I have a new (crappy homemade) icon! Two thumbs up for parent-teacher conferences (sans parents... oops).
In other news, I have macro'd another picture in homage to my regular icon (yes, conference days are long and boring, why do you ask?):
And I've decided to go ahead and count all the books I can recall reading since January 1, and review them here. Whee!
1. Heroes, by Robert Cormier. 4.5/5, only because I found it a little predictable--but then again, I'm not 14 and I enjoy guessing endings. :) And I did find it absorbing and thought-provoking. I read it in about a day, but most of that was me sitting at the doctor's office waiting for them to track down the results of the blood test I took a week ago (result: I am healthy! Yay!). The book concerns WWII, a boy named Francis who has had his face blown off, and the regular Robert Cormier themes: "tyranny and the abuse of power, at treachery and betrayal, at guilt and forgiveness, love and hate, and the corruption of innocence" (from the Random House readers' guide). Spot-on. The only other book of his that I've read is The Chocolate War, which I didn't like as much (they're both bleak, but TCW was... man. Intense, maybe?).
2. A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. 5/5 WHERE IS THE SECOND BOOK IN THE SERIES OMG LIBRARY GIVE IT TO ME NOOOOW. Ahem. Sorry. By that, I mean: I picked this up because the radfems at IBTP seemed to think that he was one of the few scifi/fantasy writers who wrote well-rounded (uh, in terms of realism, not bustiness) female characters, and because he's co-hosting a writers' panel this summer with Connie Willis, my all-time favorite (living--sorry, Connie, I'm not totally sure you've got Billy Shakes beat out juuuust yet) author. I went into it slightly dubious because, in general, I have found that I don't really enjoy adult high fantasy--or so I thought. Now I wonder if I just got "high fantasy" and "uninteresting sexbot placeholders instead of women characters" mixed up due to poor previous experience, because I loved this. And, in addition to being high fantasy, it was high tragedy. Martin gave me a full cast of characters that I loved, set up in an extremely traditional, patriarchal society (uh, I was a little sensitized to this because I was expecting something different from the IBTP recs), then showed how that system was conspiring against the characters to DESTROY THEM ALL. Seriously. And their fatal flaw? HONOR. Dayum. Read this book. Then buy me the sequel.
3. Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle, by Gordon Korman. 3.5/5. Man, I love me some hilarious teen fluff about the mob. Plus, you've got the Romeo & Juliet undertones (because OF COURSE the son of the mob falls for the daughter of the FBI! Why wouldn't he??). This is a sequel, and was as delightfully ridiculous as the first. I look forward to more. Score lowered for sheer lack of redeeming literary merit (but high because I <3 fluff!).
I'm also in the process of reading these:
(I find the "search inside" option on that first one particularly hilarious, because clearly I am no longer in any way "mature.")
I'm sure there are others I've read this year (Northanger Abbey, for one, and probably others...) but for now: CONFERENCES ARE OVER IT'S FRIDAY WOOOOO!!! Time for me to go home and goof off think about this later.
Perhaps after this I'll start having a system like gryphonmage's where I post every 10 books or so. Or maybe I'll do ever five, since a)I forget things a lot and b)I enjoy spamming your friends' pages when I can (as you well know).
I also think I want to have a clothing swap party (aka a naked lady party, although I feel that that name is not properly descriptive since, well, nobody is actually naked). Anyone who can be in Indy is welcome to bring clothes they no longer want/invite friends with clothes they no longer want/show up and take away all the clothes I no longer want. Extras will be given to the thrift store whose sales benefit the Julian Center, Thrifty Threads. So, if you are a girl with clothes, or a guy with clothes, and you have more clothes than you like, and you'll be in Indianapolis sometime soon, COME TO MY NON-NAKED PERSON PARTY!!!!
And bring your friends!
In other news, I have macro'd another picture in homage to my regular icon (yes, conference days are long and boring, why do you ask?):
And I've decided to go ahead and count all the books I can recall reading since January 1, and review them here. Whee!
1. Heroes, by Robert Cormier. 4.5/5, only because I found it a little predictable--but then again, I'm not 14 and I enjoy guessing endings. :) And I did find it absorbing and thought-provoking. I read it in about a day, but most of that was me sitting at the doctor's office waiting for them to track down the results of the blood test I took a week ago (result: I am healthy! Yay!). The book concerns WWII, a boy named Francis who has had his face blown off, and the regular Robert Cormier themes: "tyranny and the abuse of power, at treachery and betrayal, at guilt and forgiveness, love and hate, and the corruption of innocence" (from the Random House readers' guide). Spot-on. The only other book of his that I've read is The Chocolate War, which I didn't like as much (they're both bleak, but TCW was... man. Intense, maybe?).
2. A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. 5/5 WHERE IS THE SECOND BOOK IN THE SERIES OMG LIBRARY GIVE IT TO ME NOOOOW. Ahem. Sorry. By that, I mean: I picked this up because the radfems at IBTP seemed to think that he was one of the few scifi/fantasy writers who wrote well-rounded (uh, in terms of realism, not bustiness) female characters, and because he's co-hosting a writers' panel this summer with Connie Willis, my all-time favorite (living--sorry, Connie, I'm not totally sure you've got Billy Shakes beat out juuuust yet) author. I went into it slightly dubious because, in general, I have found that I don't really enjoy adult high fantasy--or so I thought. Now I wonder if I just got "high fantasy" and "uninteresting sexbot placeholders instead of women characters" mixed up due to poor previous experience, because I loved this. And, in addition to being high fantasy, it was high tragedy. Martin gave me a full cast of characters that I loved, set up in an extremely traditional, patriarchal society (uh, I was a little sensitized to this because I was expecting something different from the IBTP recs), then showed how that system was conspiring against the characters to DESTROY THEM ALL. Seriously. And their fatal flaw? HONOR. Dayum. Read this book. Then buy me the sequel.
3. Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle, by Gordon Korman. 3.5/5. Man, I love me some hilarious teen fluff about the mob. Plus, you've got the Romeo & Juliet undertones (because OF COURSE the son of the mob falls for the daughter of the FBI! Why wouldn't he??). This is a sequel, and was as delightfully ridiculous as the first. I look forward to more. Score lowered for sheer lack of redeeming literary merit (but high because I <3 fluff!).
I'm also in the process of reading these:
(I find the "search inside" option on that first one particularly hilarious, because clearly I am no longer in any way "mature.")
I'm sure there are others I've read this year (Northanger Abbey, for one, and probably others...) but for now: CONFERENCES ARE OVER IT'S FRIDAY WOOOOO!!! Time for me to go home and goof off think about this later.
Perhaps after this I'll start having a system like gryphonmage's where I post every 10 books or so. Or maybe I'll do ever five, since a)I forget things a lot and b)I enjoy spamming your friends' pages when I can (as you well know).
I also think I want to have a clothing swap party (aka a naked lady party, although I feel that that name is not properly descriptive since, well, nobody is actually naked). Anyone who can be in Indy is welcome to bring clothes they no longer want/invite friends with clothes they no longer want/show up and take away all the clothes I no longer want. Extras will be given to the thrift store whose sales benefit the Julian Center, Thrifty Threads. So, if you are a girl with clothes, or a guy with clothes, and you have more clothes than you like, and you'll be in Indianapolis sometime soon, COME TO MY NON-NAKED PERSON PARTY!!!!
And bring your friends!