i'm hot and humid but i finished a book!
What I just finished reading:
blackout, which could've used some editing. there are a lot of places where connie willis takes four pages to detail every single movement and every single thought of one of the characters, even tho the entire thing could be condensed into like two or three paragraphs. also there are a lot of instances where someone will decide something is going to happen (or has already happened) on almost no actual fact-based evidence, and then they panic when it doesn't happen. and pretty much every single child is unrelentingly awful. (not necessarily badly written, but awful as people. like, i wanted to give them all such a smack.) this book did not need to be as long as it is. and because it's about time travel, there's a certain amount of "what if i changed history by doing/not doing this thing?" without any recognition that the thing might have/have not happened anyway. there's a certain amount of unnecessary angst and hand-wringing to the point i wondered why anyone was ever allowed to go back in time, if absolutely everything they did could change history.
on the other hand, i like a lot of the relationships between the main characters and the supporting characters, and because it's set (mostly) in london in 1940, everyone's dealing with the blitz and that stuff is very well written.
i also read phoebe and her unicorn, written and drawn by dana simpson, which is a collection of comic strips about nine-year-old phoebe who skips a rock across a pond and rescues a unicorn from her own reflection. the unicorn (whose name is marigold heavenly nostrils) (heh) grants phoebe a wish, and that wish is for marigold to become her best friend. it's ADORABLE. kind of calvin and hobbes-ish but with the occasional pop culture reference, and if people saw hobbes as a real tiger and not a stuffed one.
What I am reading now:
all clear, the sequel, because despite the stupidity of blackout i have to know how it ends. >.<
What I'm going to read next:
we sold our souls, by grady hendrix, which is about what happens when the has-been former lead guitarist of an almost-famous metal band discovers that the lead singer sold the band's souls when he broke them up to go solo. i saw it in the bookstore when i got all clear and it just seemed like something i'd like.
i got out of work early today and while i did have stuff to do while i was there, it was so quiet i had a hard time getting it done. this is a running theme. i used some of my afternoon free time to work on my bang, mostly trying to fix the ending. i want to make one more pass for spag and then i think it might be ready to be seen by strangers. hopefully.
which brings me to a question! in the fic genevieve owns a bar called the glass lamp, which i basically pulled out of my ass because i didn't want to stop writing long enough to think of a better name. i want to rename it, now that i can. it's your basic smuggler bar in kind of a fringey kind of spaceport - like, not totally lawless but not full of honest law-abiding people. suggestions?
i have a cousin in atlanta whose oldest daughter is getting married on sunday, so i need to go pack. yay. fun. well, the weekend should be fun - i like weddings and i generally like that side of the family, and i never get to see these cousins because none of them live nearby - it's just packing that's a pain in the butt.
blackout, which could've used some editing. there are a lot of places where connie willis takes four pages to detail every single movement and every single thought of one of the characters, even tho the entire thing could be condensed into like two or three paragraphs. also there are a lot of instances where someone will decide something is going to happen (or has already happened) on almost no actual fact-based evidence, and then they panic when it doesn't happen. and pretty much every single child is unrelentingly awful. (not necessarily badly written, but awful as people. like, i wanted to give them all such a smack.) this book did not need to be as long as it is. and because it's about time travel, there's a certain amount of "what if i changed history by doing/not doing this thing?" without any recognition that the thing might have/have not happened anyway. there's a certain amount of unnecessary angst and hand-wringing to the point i wondered why anyone was ever allowed to go back in time, if absolutely everything they did could change history.
on the other hand, i like a lot of the relationships between the main characters and the supporting characters, and because it's set (mostly) in london in 1940, everyone's dealing with the blitz and that stuff is very well written.
i also read phoebe and her unicorn, written and drawn by dana simpson, which is a collection of comic strips about nine-year-old phoebe who skips a rock across a pond and rescues a unicorn from her own reflection. the unicorn (whose name is marigold heavenly nostrils) (heh) grants phoebe a wish, and that wish is for marigold to become her best friend. it's ADORABLE. kind of calvin and hobbes-ish but with the occasional pop culture reference, and if people saw hobbes as a real tiger and not a stuffed one.
What I am reading now:
all clear, the sequel, because despite the stupidity of blackout i have to know how it ends. >.<
What I'm going to read next:
we sold our souls, by grady hendrix, which is about what happens when the has-been former lead guitarist of an almost-famous metal band discovers that the lead singer sold the band's souls when he broke them up to go solo. i saw it in the bookstore when i got all clear and it just seemed like something i'd like.
i got out of work early today and while i did have stuff to do while i was there, it was so quiet i had a hard time getting it done. this is a running theme. i used some of my afternoon free time to work on my bang, mostly trying to fix the ending. i want to make one more pass for spag and then i think it might be ready to be seen by strangers. hopefully.
which brings me to a question! in the fic genevieve owns a bar called the glass lamp, which i basically pulled out of my ass because i didn't want to stop writing long enough to think of a better name. i want to rename it, now that i can. it's your basic smuggler bar in kind of a fringey kind of spaceport - like, not totally lawless but not full of honest law-abiding people. suggestions?
i have a cousin in atlanta whose oldest daughter is getting married on sunday, so i need to go pack. yay. fun. well, the weekend should be fun - i like weddings and i generally like that side of the family, and i never get to see these cousins because none of them live nearby - it's just packing that's a pain in the butt.