Reading roundup

[hamsterwoman]

40. Olga Gromyko, Vernye Vragi (Faithful Enemies) -- I started reading my Gromyko backlog after finishing Kosmobioluhi, and this was very enjoyable, but not as much fun as KB, even though it's probably the better book.

Comments

[ladymercury_10]

Wow, I didn't realize how many Ender-related books there were! It sounds like that one was pretty painful. :/

[hamsterwoman]

So many books XD I'm not sure how far in the series you've read? I think Ender's Game is brilliant, obviously, and Speaker for the Dead added a very interesting new dimension to the universe (though it's not nearly as much of a gem as EG), and Xenocide/Children of the Mind get progressively odder and less interesting to me. The Shadow books start out as self-fanfic, and while I kind of resented Ender's Shadow (the first Bean-centric book) for being a revisionist rewrite of a book I loved, it was at least interesting. But past that point, they've been getting progressively more boring to me and also cringeworthy. I will say that the Battle School-set novella A War of Gifts was one I actually liked a lot, to my own surprise.

[ladymercury_10]

I actually haven't read any of them. I have been sort of wanting to start the first one but the library copies have all been out lately because of the movie.

[hamsterwoman]

Ah. I would definitely say Ender's Game is worth reading, and Speaker for the Dead too (although it's a rather different book), but I would quit there, honestly.

[aome]

I saw Openly Straight at B&N awhile back, and gave it some consideration, but didn't get it. I've skipped your spoilers, but it looks like you enjoyed it overall, so that's good. Alas, doesn't look like our library has it.

Btw, speaking of books and other things, is there anything in particular the rodents might like for New Year's?

[hamsterwoman]

Yep, I enjoyed Openly Straight -- a good YA read, and I liked the first-person POV style with one exception (there are notes from the protagonist's teacher that I didn't enjoy as much) that didn't intrude too much. (L also read it, btw, and thought the theme was weird. In any case, I enjoyed it more than she did, it would appear.)

I was just thinking about holiday presents for Two and MiniPlu, too, so, same question back to you :) Also, since her birthday is coming up, too, is Two still into spy stuff? are penguins still in favor?

L has been regretting not buying My Summer of Pink & Green at her school book fair. She also enjoyed Grave Mercy (she read it before I did -- I'm still reading), so may enjoy the sequel, too. And O is still loving the Rangers Apprentice books (#9 is the next one he hasn't read). They also seem to be both going through a Harry Potter revival, and Hunger Games and the Hobbit are all over again because of the new movies, so if there is franchise stuff (action figures or whatever for O -- he has Thorin and

[aome]

Ok, will look into My Summer of Pink & Green for L, and/or Dark Triumph. RA #9 for O, check. I'll look and see what's around at Toys R Us as far as action figures - I like having the kids with me so they can help pick out items, but I hesitate to take Two into Toys R Us because then he'll (I'm working on pronouns) find about a billion other things that HE wants for Christmas/bday, and I've already got a good grip on my list. :P But, we'll all go together, I'm sure, because it would seem mean not to. And I'm sure N will cheerfully pick out good stuff at Claire's or somewhere similar. (Any particular shades of nail polish L's currently lacking or, conversely, already has a lot of?) For hair things, does she like headbands? Bows? (and by "bows" I mean those circular ribbon things) Barrettes? Bun clips

[hamsterwoman]

I looked at L's box o' nail polishes, and it looks like all colors are decently represented. She was talking about nail art the other day, though -- nail art pens and/or stickers, so that may be a good idea for her, too :) The shades she has a lot of are light blues and all manner of greens (well, the greens are mine, but there's enough of it for all her needs).

For hair things, she does like headbands (both the soft fabric kind and the hard plastic/metal "backbone" kind) and is always running out of them for various reasons. She hasn't worn barettes lately, since her bangs have grown out, so maybe not that, and bun clips don't seem to hold in her hair. But she has been wearing her hair in ponytail a lot for PE (and out of general laziness), so ponytail holders / scrunchies would likely get a lot of use, too.

If they're going through an HP revival, do you think they might like that?Yes, I think they would! And O has been bugging me for a pack of novelty playing cards, actually, saying the deck they play with is getting worn and

[sephystabbity]

TBH, this whole digression, including women-free planets, felt like an authorial argument with Bujold

What? I'm not very caught up on the goings on of the reading world, but was there an argument between them or something?

And haha, I feel you on the Ender series thing. I reeeeeally liked Speaker for the Dead, so because of that I kept up with the Ender stories, but then I got really bored with the wait for the Shadow series. I think I'd have probably finished them except that I lent the series to a friend and never got it back and after that it was just like Out of Sight, Out of Mind o.O

I liked War of Gifts too. Enough to buy the comic version of it, incidentally, which has no sense of linear progression and makes no sense whatsoever unless you already know the story beforehand :|

[q99]

-What? I'm not very caught up on the goings on of the reading world, but was there an argument between them or something?
-

I don't think so, but she features artificial wombs heavily in her works, and has pretty diametrically opposed views.

Ethan of Athos is a book about a guy from a planet where all reproduction is done by artificial wombs and gay-by-default is the norm because everyone's male. OSC does an argument against artificial wombs and is notably anti-gay. There's a clear contrast at minimum.

[sephystabbity]

Oh, that makes sense. For some reason I interpreted "authorial argument" as a purposeful in-text authorial debate or something *definitely needs more coffee in her system*

And yeah, I knew about the anti-gay thing, which is why I washed my hands off him despite the Ender series being one my childhood favourites :| Definitely had no idea about the anti-artificial wombs thing though, although those two particular brands of stupidity seem to tend to run together :|

[q99]

On a similar note, there's an anime where one of the background elements is a controlling matriarchy trying to crack down on birth-capable androids... (Armitage III)

[q99]

I don't event touch anything OSC anymore. His politics completely put me off.

[hamsterwoman]

For a while, I was able to read his books (borrowed from the library) as divorced from his personal politics. He's still capable of being a good storyteller, but the crazy has started seeping into his fiction, I feel like, which makes it much harder to enjoy them. And yet, at this point, they're like a trainwreck to me -- I keep reading the bloody things out of some kind of horrified fascination... :/

[q99]

And I just wouldn't feel comfortable *buying* anything of his.

[hamsterwoman]

I buy so few books, it's mostly not an issue for me, but I wouldn't either. Fortunately, my parents own secondhand copies of Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, which I do want the rodents to read (and, well, there's always the library). And beyond that, I plan to adopt the same attitude towards subsequent Enderverse books as towards the AtLA movie, where the rodents are concerned :P

[re_vised]

Thanks for some good reading ideas!

[hamsterwoman]

Well, really, I can only recommend Openly Straight, because the later Ender books are best avoided, I think... The Russian fantasy was a lot of fun, though -- if it ever ends up translated into English, I would recommend it also :)

[re_vised]

Yes, I'm not able to read Russian... Though, I am frequently called "The Russian" by a friend. (I'm half Czech.) Which... okay?

[hamsterwoman]

Oh, I didn't realize you were half Czech -- was one of your parents actually born there, or is it more generations than that?

We are great fans of the Czech Republic and especially Prague -- it's one of our favorite places we've ever been, aesthetically, and I can't think of any place that beats it for food :)