Sunglasses, Shakespeare (not the one you think) and some Sci-Fi
I've been reading a lot lately, so some of these are going to be short and sweet.
The Meaning of Sunglasses was really good. The author parses the meaning of fashion very well, and while I disagreed with many of her points (there is an exception to almost every rule she set forth), the guidelines are overall are good. Grown women shouldn't wear pink, a little black dress looks good on everyone and sunglasses can improve almost everyone. Being a Brit, I don't know when she gets the chance to wear sunglasses, but there it is. It was pretty funny and just about everyone can benefit from her advice.
As She Climbed Across the Table was recommenced on the io9 site and I'm still not quite sure how much I liked it. It was (to use a British expression) too clever by half. By that I mean it was very clever and well aware of it. It's the story of a grad student and the particle physicist he loves-who falls in love with a black hole. The black hole was developed in the lab and she's become obsessed with it. The bring things to (food, furniture, grass clippings) and it takes some of them and others it leaves behind. And she loves it. I did like how the story wound up-how he goes into the black hole (and it will take him but not her) and in doing so, becomes part of it-they fuse, in a way. That part was very cool and interesting. If only it weren't so self-aware! Look how clever I am! Look how witty I can be! It's just on the verge of greatness and that's what annoyed me-that it never made it over that edge.
More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon is one of those books that all sci-fi people say you have to read, even though they haven't read it themselves. It's always on the list of 100 Best Science Fiction books and since I'm trying to read some classic sci-fi, I thought I'd give it a shot. This is a book that I can say I didn't really like until the end, when it was really good. There's a cast of several characters-a boy who seems to be mentally deficient, a girl with telekinesis, little twin girls who can teleport and a baby genius, (who can speak only with his brain-it's a good thing he can talk to telekinetic girl) and a very clever boy with no conscience whatsoever.
There were things that annoyed me about this book. I've read books set in the 50's and 60's and did women really talk this way? The women all call everyone darling and dear, in a very idiotic way. And the guys are the ones with the brains-the girls can only move things (or themselves) or tell other people what the smart baby is thinking. It's books like this that help me to realize why the revolution of the 60's happened-the women are smart but are still being condescended to. Nevertheless, the plot as a whole about this group of disparate personalities and how they belong together (and why) really came together at the end. It was almost enough to make up for the rest of it.
After all these books, I was going to read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (which I Bought LONG BEFORE Oprah announced it as her pick. Thanks Oprah-I do my best to avoid the books you pick mainly because they seem to be women in distress books who find a way to overcome their problems, which are not my type of book-and then you pick a book I bought two months ago. Thanks a lot) Anyway, I did not start Sawtelle. Instead I read Shakespeare's landlord and Shakespeare's Trollop by Charlaine Harris. I've liked her Southern Vampire books (although not lately, but the first three were really good) and I liked theses two. They're traditional murder mysteries, set in the south, but the characters are engaging. They won't make you work for the story but they were fun.
And now I've started Edgar Sawtelle. It;s quite good-well written and interesting-and I'm hoping it doesn't take me forever to read-it's quite long. Edgar (who can't speak but can hear very well) and his mother and father raise dogs in Northern Wisconsin...and his father's brother comes to visit. His father dies (of what seems to be a stroke but the prologue makes it clear was not) his uncle stays to help...and marries his mother. Yes, it's based on Hamlet (and the names alone let you know this-Claude, Trudy and Gar) and I like it so far. We'll see what happens.
The Meaning of Sunglasses was really good. The author parses the meaning of fashion very well, and while I disagreed with many of her points (there is an exception to almost every rule she set forth), the guidelines are overall are good. Grown women shouldn't wear pink, a little black dress looks good on everyone and sunglasses can improve almost everyone. Being a Brit, I don't know when she gets the chance to wear sunglasses, but there it is. It was pretty funny and just about everyone can benefit from her advice.
As She Climbed Across the Table was recommenced on the io9 site and I'm still not quite sure how much I liked it. It was (to use a British expression) too clever by half. By that I mean it was very clever and well aware of it. It's the story of a grad student and the particle physicist he loves-who falls in love with a black hole. The black hole was developed in the lab and she's become obsessed with it. The bring things to (food, furniture, grass clippings) and it takes some of them and others it leaves behind. And she loves it. I did like how the story wound up-how he goes into the black hole (and it will take him but not her) and in doing so, becomes part of it-they fuse, in a way. That part was very cool and interesting. If only it weren't so self-aware! Look how clever I am! Look how witty I can be! It's just on the verge of greatness and that's what annoyed me-that it never made it over that edge.
More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon is one of those books that all sci-fi people say you have to read, even though they haven't read it themselves. It's always on the list of 100 Best Science Fiction books and since I'm trying to read some classic sci-fi, I thought I'd give it a shot. This is a book that I can say I didn't really like until the end, when it was really good. There's a cast of several characters-a boy who seems to be mentally deficient, a girl with telekinesis, little twin girls who can teleport and a baby genius, (who can speak only with his brain-it's a good thing he can talk to telekinetic girl) and a very clever boy with no conscience whatsoever.
There were things that annoyed me about this book. I've read books set in the 50's and 60's and did women really talk this way? The women all call everyone darling and dear, in a very idiotic way. And the guys are the ones with the brains-the girls can only move things (or themselves) or tell other people what the smart baby is thinking. It's books like this that help me to realize why the revolution of the 60's happened-the women are smart but are still being condescended to. Nevertheless, the plot as a whole about this group of disparate personalities and how they belong together (and why) really came together at the end. It was almost enough to make up for the rest of it.
After all these books, I was going to read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (which I Bought LONG BEFORE Oprah announced it as her pick. Thanks Oprah-I do my best to avoid the books you pick mainly because they seem to be women in distress books who find a way to overcome their problems, which are not my type of book-and then you pick a book I bought two months ago. Thanks a lot) Anyway, I did not start Sawtelle. Instead I read Shakespeare's landlord and Shakespeare's Trollop by Charlaine Harris. I've liked her Southern Vampire books (although not lately, but the first three were really good) and I liked theses two. They're traditional murder mysteries, set in the south, but the characters are engaging. They won't make you work for the story but they were fun.
And now I've started Edgar Sawtelle. It;s quite good-well written and interesting-and I'm hoping it doesn't take me forever to read-it's quite long. Edgar (who can't speak but can hear very well) and his mother and father raise dogs in Northern Wisconsin...and his father's brother comes to visit. His father dies (of what seems to be a stroke but the prologue makes it clear was not) his uncle stays to help...and marries his mother. Yes, it's based on Hamlet (and the names alone let you know this-Claude, Trudy and Gar) and I like it so far. We'll see what happens.
posted by SHbookworm at 9:03 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home