Yes! It's my second year doing it properly, and it was very fun last year, so I was definitely looking forward to doing it again. Are you doing it too?
"Pride of Baghdad"? Did I overlooked it when you wrote about it, or you did not? And yes, it was sad. So not fair ending, even if true...
Huh, somehow I was under impression that you must have known Mary Roach for longer than a year... Does it mean you'll about to discover her other books yet? I envy you! ;D
"People speak highly of her [Mrs Earwig]" Granny sniffed. "Do they speak highly of me?" she said. "No, they speak quietly of you, Esme." "Good." Hehe... I love "The Sea and Little Fishes". I liked the notion that once you're best, you always have to be best, which is not really a nice position.
Peace Talks (does that have a release date yet?) Not last I checked, which sucks...
I wrote about Pride of Baghdad briefly, here, and, yes, the ending made me so sad. I should've figured it out since it was based on a true story, but I agree with you -- no fair! :(
Does it mean you'll about to discover her other books yet? I envy you! ;D
Indeed! I've known ABOUT Mary Roach for ages, but this was the first year I actually read something by her. I've not read any non-fiction for ages before the reading bingo I started doing in 2014, so that explains it for the most part, but I've been having such fun with the nonfiction books I've read in the last two years, I'm definitely planning to continue.
I liked the notion that once you're best, you always have to be best, which is not really a nice position.
Yes, that was another of my favorite quotes from the story, Nanny on the benefits of being a runner-up :) It's a very Nanny sort of philosophy, and I love the contrast between that and Esme's not knowing how to lose.
aletheiafelinea passed on the joke/rumor that Butcher was holding off to try to cram in as many Star Wars 7 jokes as possible. Which means he should be able to release it now finally, haha!
it's interesting that we've both more or less evened out on the female/male protags, and that's despite there being notably more female authors. in my case the number is skewed heavily by the romance novels, them having male-female protag pairs, but still. and if i look at my stats overall, not just for 2015, male protags still overwhelm by half.
hooray for craft sequence and lia silver's various things! and i'm looking forwards to your reviews for the remaining and new books in the series.
the marek scene IS brilliant and chilly and perfect. one of the strongest in the book (the strongest, for me, being kacia's woor cleansing).
>I also read Ulysses, which I think is sort of outside of everyone's comfort zone by definition. ::snort:: :D
it's interesting that we've both more or less evened out on the female/male protags, and that's despite there being notably more female authors.Yeah, that really jumped out at me when I looked at your post, because your female/male author number are much more dramatic than mine this year, so it's extra interesting that you are still at protagonist gender parity. I remember the same thing basically happening even the year when it felt like all I'd read was Mercy Thompson-Sookie Stackhouse-Kate Daniels -- and still somehow ended up with nearly as many male protagonists as female ones
( ... )
there's this uncomfortable bit of meta, i forgot where i read it - that women are taught to humanize the Other, and hence female writers invest all these feelings and things into male characters, whereas male writers don't feel the need to humanize the Other at all, and just write by default. which, of course, is too broad of a generalization to be universally useful, but, you know...
That does make sense (though, yes, is definitely not the whole story / is too broad)
I think I might want to start keeping track specifically of books I read written by men with female protagonists (not read them preferentially, but just keep track, and how many of them I enjoy vs am annoyed by). Obviously there are some good ones, like Pratchett's Witches and the aforementioned Gladstone, but it's hard to come up with a sizeable list...
You're reminding me that there was another e-book I meant to send you. Will have to rectify that. [Edit: Oh, yes, I remember why I didn't. For some reason it won't let me gift it, but it WILL let me lend it to you. So, uh, let me know when you're ready for a new e-book and I'll send it over?]
You're the second person I've seen in two days mention (and rave after) The Raven Cycle.
I'm always so jealous about the number of books you manage to read in a year!!
Thank you for the offer! Any hint of what book it is, or should it be a surprise? :) I've got less than a day's reading left on my current ebook, so I think I'll probably be ready in a day or two.
I haven't tried lending or borrowing books on Kindle before, so am curious to try out that functionality. It seems to apply in mysterious ways -- I wasn't able to lend a book to someone through the Amazon portal, but I could send it to them directly just fine...
I would say I'm a serious fan of The Raven Cycle, but they are fun books with one character I'm really fond of, and some other amusing ones, plus some fun (if occasionally way-overblown) prose. I've actually been wondering if you might enjoy them. They're less "different world" than a lot of the urban fantasy you enjoy -- basically, modern teenagers fumbling with some supernatural stuff, rather than a whole magical society, like with Shadowhunters or the Folly, but they are a fun read.
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I do love your lists!!
And yay!! You joined in the Snowflake Challenge! So excited!
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:D
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Huh, somehow I was under impression that you must have known Mary Roach for longer than a year... Does it mean you'll about to discover her other books yet? I envy you! ;D
"People speak highly of her [Mrs Earwig]"
Granny sniffed. "Do they speak highly of me?" she said.
"No, they speak quietly of you, Esme."
"Good."
Hehe... I love "The Sea and Little Fishes". I liked the notion that once you're best, you always have to be best, which is not really a nice position.
Peace Talks (does that have a release date yet?)
Not last I checked, which sucks...
Reply
Does it mean you'll about to discover her other books yet? I envy you! ;D
Indeed! I've known ABOUT Mary Roach for ages, but this was the first year I actually read something by her. I've not read any non-fiction for ages before the reading bingo I started doing in 2014, so that explains it for the most part, but I've been having such fun with the nonfiction books I've read in the last two years, I'm definitely planning to continue.
I liked the notion that once you're best, you always have to be best, which is not really a nice position.
Yes, that was another of my favorite quotes from the story, Nanny on the benefits of being a runner-up :) It's a very Nanny sort of philosophy, and I love the contrast between that and Esme's not knowing how to lose.
Reply
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hooray for craft sequence and lia silver's various things! and i'm looking forwards to your reviews for the remaining and new books in the series.
the marek scene IS brilliant and chilly and perfect. one of the strongest in the book (the strongest, for me, being kacia's woor cleansing).
>I also read Ulysses, which I think is sort of outside of everyone's comfort zone by definition.
::snort:: :D
Reply
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I think I might want to start keeping track specifically of books I read written by men with female protagonists (not read them preferentially, but just keep track, and how many of them I enjoy vs am annoyed by). Obviously there are some good ones, like Pratchett's Witches and the aforementioned Gladstone, but it's hard to come up with a sizeable list...
Reply
You're the second person I've seen in two days mention (and rave after) The Raven Cycle.
I'm always so jealous about the number of books you manage to read in a year!!
Reply
Thank you for the offer! Any hint of what book it is, or should it be a surprise? :) I've got less than a day's reading left on my current ebook, so I think I'll probably be ready in a day or two.
I haven't tried lending or borrowing books on Kindle before, so am curious to try out that functionality. It seems to apply in mysterious ways -- I wasn't able to lend a book to someone through the Amazon portal, but I could send it to them directly just fine...
I would say I'm a serious fan of The Raven Cycle, but they are fun books with one character I'm really fond of, and some other amusing ones, plus some fun (if occasionally way-overblown) prose. I've actually been wondering if you might enjoy them. They're less "different world" than a lot of the urban fantasy you enjoy -- basically, modern teenagers fumbling with some supernatural stuff, rather than a whole magical society, like with Shadowhunters or the Folly, but they are a fun read.
Reply
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