Reading roundup: Worldcon prep and follow-up edition

[hamsterwoman]

So I haven't done a proper reading post in almost two months, since before Worldcon, and am finally almost caught up. Unlike how I normally do these, I wrote these up out of order, because I was hurrying through the Hugos, and am posting them a little bit out of order, too -- book #59 was The Will To Battle, which wouldn't fit in this post, so will

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[aletheiafelinea]

Somehow recently (*cough* a long 'recently') I've been living on mostly fanfics + non-fiction with rare original fiction exception every few months or so...

ETA
Bonus fun fact: Polish informal for 'once in a blue moon' is 'raz na ruski miesiąc' = once in a Russian month. I don't know, I guess due of the shift between the two callendars, Russian months were perceived as longer or something? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Anyway, I read original fiction raz na ruski miesiąc now.

[hamsterwoman]

'raz na ruski miesiąc' = once in a Russian month.

Huh! That is so odd and delightful to know! :D

Hey, I've yet to read ANY non-fiction this year, though I'm hoping that my hold on Jo Walton's history of the Hugo awards comes in soon enough for me to be able to reach my goal of reading at least one non-fiction book in 2018.

What non-fiction have you been reading? (I'm assuming the fic is Bucky/Steve :P)

[aletheiafelinea]

I'm hoping that my hold on Jo Walton's history of the Hugo awards comes in soon enough for me to be able to reach my goal of reading at least one non-fiction book in 2018.
If not, I'm pretty sure travel guides count, and including online ones will be only a small stretch. ;D

I'm assuming the fic is Bucky/Steve :P
Oh my, how did you guess? XD I read gens though, too! If they happen to exist, that is...

Currently rereading Wisława Szymborska's "Literary Mail" from circa fifty or sixty years ago when she ran a column in a literary magazine, which boiled down to explaining tons of wannabe writers why their magnum opuses are unprintable. Golden stuff, nowadays sporkers could learn a thing or two. :')
At least half of others and some of the best were Polish, too, but some of those that weren't:
- The Story of Gardening by Penelope Hobhouse (because I actually impulse-bought that; I should be kept away from bookstores...)
- The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers (the only one read in original; wow, a thing written by a feminist and

[hamsterwoman]

which boiled down to explaining tons of wannabe writers why their magnum opuses are unprintable. Golden stuff, nowadays sporkers could learn a thing or two. :')

This was the sharp-tongued poet you like, right? I can imagine how entertaining such a column would be!

- The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers (the only one read in original; wow, a thing written by a feminist and from a feministic point of view that turns out actually refreshing, that's new

That does sound really interesting!

The "Are We Smart Enough" original cover is pretty! I'm puzzled by the polish one, though -- does the book get an extra title (above the subtitle) that the original doesn't have?

And of course I'd happily read a more exhaustive entry, too, if you find the time/energy/interest for one :)

[qwentoozla]

Zeiat made me laugh out loud a lot too, and I really enjoyed Sphene too. Interesting that you preferred the second book, because it's definitely my least favorite of the three--I still enjoyed it, but the sidequest-y plot just didn't keep me quite as invested as the others, I guess. I do feel quite attached to Breq as a character, personally! I think she has that quality of being clever and calculating that tends to appeal to me.

I definitely felt angry on Faith's behalf reading The Lie Tree too! It really makes you feel the frustration and restriction she lives with. I really must read more of Hardinge's work, that was the only one I've read, but I was really impressed with it.

[hamsterwoman]

I reread my write-up of book 2 just recently when I was looking for something else in my tags, and I was initially disappointed that it wasn't as grand -- it totally does feel like a sidequest XP But from the vantage point of having read the entire trilogy -- like, the first book was definitely the more striking, because it established the world. But once the trilogy is complete, that just becomes the world of the series, you know? And without the brilliance and the novelty of the worldbuilding, there's not much in book 1 that actually grabbed me (Lieutenant Awn did, and Breq's devotion to her, and Breq's conversation with the doctor, who is horrified (justly) by ancillaries overwriting the previous living person, but doesn't think of Breq-as-she-is as a person, which was a really interesting scene). In book 2, although it introduced fewer grand ideas, I found myself enjoying the setting more, and getting more into the people's lives. So, anyway, it was a book I didn't think of as much when I first read it, but that I'm apparently

[qwentoozla]

I can definitely see what you mean about book 2, it does get into people's lives more.

A Skinful of Shadows and The Cuckoo's Song are both on my to-read list! Hopefully I will be able to pick one up soon.

[q99]

On the Ancillary trilogy, I really liked Anaander Mianaai- her nature made her a great villain that I want to see more of. I do wonder where else the universe is going!

[hamsterwoman]

She was a really interesting idea for a villain -- and it makes perfect sense that, after so much time, a personality like that would start to fall apart and scheme against herself. Anaander didn't work for me all that well in book 1, except as an idea, but Tisarwat and the very young, out-of-her-depth Annander we see in book 3, made me appreciate the character as a whole a lot more

[q99]

I wonder how much the Presger can be expanded upon/if she has ideas for them, that's a key factor on if a Translator novel could work...