reviews
Patricia Briggs, Masques: I actually read (or reread) this out of order. Aralorn, a mercenary, meets Wolf, a shapeshifter/mage, and they fight evil. It’s decent but not noteworthy; Briggs made a big leap with Hurog a couple of books later.
George R.R. Martin, Nightflyers: Novella/short story sf collection from the 1970s. Martin’s complex characters and extremely grim but not entirely fatalistic worldbuilding were underway, but sometimes missed their mark. The story that affected me most, And Seven Times Never Kill Man, involving aliens genocidally slaughtered by a human cult, has a denouement that left me pretty confused about the mechanics, but was still creepy. For devoted fans only, I think.
Alexandra Robbins, The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Quirk Theory and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School: Free LibraryThing Early Reviewer book. Though I enjoyed the book, the title is a bit misleading-very little is about following people after high school, though it does argue that the things that make people “unpopular” in high school can make them successful, respected and happy afterwards. Mostly Robbins follows a number of people through a year of high school, scattered across the country and across various demographics (there’s a reveal I wasn’t expecting that’s pretty cute). There are outcasts with various labels and one “popular bitch,” though Robbins sets each one a challenge to defy expectations. Reading about how Whitney (the popular bitch) spent two hours getting ready for school-not doing homework, but picking an outfit and doing hair and makeup-was depressing, as were other accounts of what teens do to each other with the tacit and often explicit approval of the adults around. But I was very interested in the overall story Robbins tells, which includes the fact that we have separated popularity from likeability-turns out the “popular” kids are often not the ones people like and vice versa; we’ve encouraged the development of a toxic form of adolescent popularity that relies on putting other people down. I like to think we could do it differently, and Robbins’ success stories are ultimately hopeful, but she shouldn’t be the only adult in the picture celebrating things other than status competition.
John Lanchester, I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay: Short, readable, and not very deep book on the financial crisis, though he’s quite mad at the bankers and writes engagedly and enragedly about the stupidity of the risk analysis they undertook. A British perspective makes this different from many of the financial crisis books I’ve read; Britain is the closest to the U.S. in ideology-both bank-related and homeownership-related-in Europe, so the similarities are quite striking.
Paula Franzese, A Short and Happy Guide to Property: 114 pages, so yes, it’s short. Focusing on mnemonics and key catchphrases, this is the type of book that might help certain kinds of learners on a closed-book exam, but my guess is that you can find similar flashcards/study guides online for free.
Tina Fey, Bossypants: Yes, it was funny! And mildly feminist, of the “can’t change structural inequalities so just say fuck ‘em and be funny anyway” variety. I liked the rules for managing people, including “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30.” That reminded me of
cesperanza’s great post from a couple of months back and the TED talk by Sheryl Sandburg she linked to.
As Ces says (and this isn’t totally off-topic for the review, because actually Ces is a lot like Fey as a writer, only Ces has sharper edges because she doesn’t have to (1) deal with a bunch of other people to produce her output or (2) be edited by corporate overlords who occasionally want you to tone it down a bit): “[Sandburg says] ‘Don't Leave Before You Leave,’ which is to say, she advises women not to begin scaling back/withdrawing from work on the idea that you might have children before you actually have children. This is good advice for any number of reasons: hers is because once you start to withdraw, work becomes less interesting, and then it's much less compelling to return to; I would add that 1) it also might take longer to have children than you think, for various reasons, or you might never have children at all and; 2) because the longer and more engaged you are WHILE at work, the more power you might have later when you have children and could USE some power and; 3) men phone it in all the fucking time and they still call it FULL TIME WORK.” From her writing, Fey took that advice. She always knew her job was interesting and works to raise her child (I understand she’s expecting another) as an important part of her life, along with her career, despite the incessant cultural messages that she’s got to be fucking up both child and job in so doing. Fey comes off as warm, neurotic, and overall the kind of person you want telling stories at parties.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.
George R.R. Martin, Nightflyers: Novella/short story sf collection from the 1970s. Martin’s complex characters and extremely grim but not entirely fatalistic worldbuilding were underway, but sometimes missed their mark. The story that affected me most, And Seven Times Never Kill Man, involving aliens genocidally slaughtered by a human cult, has a denouement that left me pretty confused about the mechanics, but was still creepy. For devoted fans only, I think.
Alexandra Robbins, The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Quirk Theory and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School: Free LibraryThing Early Reviewer book. Though I enjoyed the book, the title is a bit misleading-very little is about following people after high school, though it does argue that the things that make people “unpopular” in high school can make them successful, respected and happy afterwards. Mostly Robbins follows a number of people through a year of high school, scattered across the country and across various demographics (there’s a reveal I wasn’t expecting that’s pretty cute). There are outcasts with various labels and one “popular bitch,” though Robbins sets each one a challenge to defy expectations. Reading about how Whitney (the popular bitch) spent two hours getting ready for school-not doing homework, but picking an outfit and doing hair and makeup-was depressing, as were other accounts of what teens do to each other with the tacit and often explicit approval of the adults around. But I was very interested in the overall story Robbins tells, which includes the fact that we have separated popularity from likeability-turns out the “popular” kids are often not the ones people like and vice versa; we’ve encouraged the development of a toxic form of adolescent popularity that relies on putting other people down. I like to think we could do it differently, and Robbins’ success stories are ultimately hopeful, but she shouldn’t be the only adult in the picture celebrating things other than status competition.
John Lanchester, I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay: Short, readable, and not very deep book on the financial crisis, though he’s quite mad at the bankers and writes engagedly and enragedly about the stupidity of the risk analysis they undertook. A British perspective makes this different from many of the financial crisis books I’ve read; Britain is the closest to the U.S. in ideology-both bank-related and homeownership-related-in Europe, so the similarities are quite striking.
Paula Franzese, A Short and Happy Guide to Property: 114 pages, so yes, it’s short. Focusing on mnemonics and key catchphrases, this is the type of book that might help certain kinds of learners on a closed-book exam, but my guess is that you can find similar flashcards/study guides online for free.
Tina Fey, Bossypants: Yes, it was funny! And mildly feminist, of the “can’t change structural inequalities so just say fuck ‘em and be funny anyway” variety. I liked the rules for managing people, including “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30.” That reminded me of
cesperanza’s great post from a couple of months back and the TED talk by Sheryl Sandburg she linked to.
As Ces says (and this isn’t totally off-topic for the review, because actually Ces is a lot like Fey as a writer, only Ces has sharper edges because she doesn’t have to (1) deal with a bunch of other people to produce her output or (2) be edited by corporate overlords who occasionally want you to tone it down a bit): “[Sandburg says] ‘Don't Leave Before You Leave,’ which is to say, she advises women not to begin scaling back/withdrawing from work on the idea that you might have children before you actually have children. This is good advice for any number of reasons: hers is because once you start to withdraw, work becomes less interesting, and then it's much less compelling to return to; I would add that 1) it also might take longer to have children than you think, for various reasons, or you might never have children at all and; 2) because the longer and more engaged you are WHILE at work, the more power you might have later when you have children and could USE some power and; 3) men phone it in all the fucking time and they still call it FULL TIME WORK.” From her writing, Fey took that advice. She always knew her job was interesting and works to raise her child (I understand she’s expecting another) as an important part of her life, along with her career, despite the incessant cultural messages that she’s got to be fucking up both child and job in so doing. Fey comes off as warm, neurotic, and overall the kind of person you want telling stories at parties.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.