Books for January
Feb. 2nd, 2020 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnOK, rachelmanija has raised the challenge to blog about every single book read this year. I don't know that I can handle this for an entire year, but let's take this a month at a time and see :) Fortunately (I guess?) I didn't read too many books this month, so I can do it for this month :P
Émilie du Châtelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment (Judith Zinsser) - reviewed in a portmanteau post here along withmildred_of_midgard's review of a Voltaire/du Châtelet bio by David Bodaris. (To find my review, scroll down about halfway or search for my username.) Briefly, I liked the bio a lot; although Zinsser had a couple of flaws as a biographer (I'm not always convinced of her arguments) but they were ones I could live with; and as a very big plus she generally is good about citing her sources. She also clearly really doesn't like Voltaire :) (And may have convinced me. What do you do with a guy who, comparing his writing a play to Émilie's just having had a kid (and by the way was also finishing her math-physics magnum opus AT THE SAME TIME, LITERALLY ON HER BIRTHING BED), says, "I am one hundred times more fatigued than she." )
Wylding Hall (Elizabeth Hand) - 4/5. This is an interesting and weird book thatrachelmanija's review convinced me to read. Apparently I missed skygiant's review entirely?? because that would have convinced me to read it too. (Mild spoiler -- the same spoiler -- at both links.) It's told entirely in a series of interviews with people in or associated with a folk rock band, and I am here for that!
But also --skygiants described it as "Wylding Hall feels like someone took the premise of 'what if FAIRIES! met a FOLK ROCK BAND!' and ruthlessly stripped all the romanticism out of it and just kind of let a chilly wind blow through the empty spaces that were left." And, yeah.
(ROT-13'd for spoilers, but
jung jnf hc jvgu gur raqvat?? Yvxr, V gubhtug V jnf sbyybjvat gung gur tvey vf guvf snrevr/zbafgre/jera gung Whyvna pnyyf naq gung qribhef uvz va fbzr jnl. Ohg gura ubj qbrf ur fubj hc ntnva va gur irel ynfg erzvavfprapr?)
The Dutch House (Ann Pratchett) - 4/5. The blurb that made me want to read it is "stepmother kicks brother and sister out of their house." Because, uh, family history (my step-grandmother kicked my dad and his sister out of the house). But it's really a story about families and people, and I really liked it.
The Quantum Doctor (some guy I don't remember) - 1/5 DNF. UGH. This is the kind of book I hate more than anything because it preys on people's troubles with legit medical issues AND is horrible terrible no-good very bad science, and I only looked at it because my sister asked me to. Even then I had to stop after the first couple of chapters. Like, I don't even disagree with his main idea that mind and body affect one another! But don't bring quantum consciousness (ARRRRGH) into it.
Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford D. Simak (Simak) - reread. I was looking for something sweet and comforting and Simak isn't always that, but he is frequently that. He believes that human beings are good at heart, that we can grow and learn, and I just wanted to read something like that. My favorite story is "Immigrant," which maybe reads as old-fashioned these days, but is just really... sweet.
rachelmanija has raised the challenge to blog about every single book read this year. I don't know that I can handle this for an entire year, but let's take this a month at a time and see :) Fortunately (I guess?) I didn't read too many books this month, so I can do it for this month :PÉmilie du Châtelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment (Judith Zinsser) - reviewed in a portmanteau post here along with
mildred_of_midgard's review of a Voltaire/du Châtelet bio by David Bodaris. (To find my review, scroll down about halfway or search for my username.) Briefly, I liked the bio a lot; although Zinsser had a couple of flaws as a biographer (I'm not always convinced of her arguments) but they were ones I could live with; and as a very big plus she generally is good about citing her sources. She also clearly really doesn't like Voltaire :) (And may have convinced me. What do you do with a guy who, comparing his writing a play to Émilie's just having had a kid (and by the way was also finishing her math-physics magnum opus AT THE SAME TIME, LITERALLY ON HER BIRTHING BED), says, "I am one hundred times more fatigued than she." )Wylding Hall (Elizabeth Hand) - 4/5. This is an interesting and weird book that
rachelmanija's review convinced me to read. Apparently I missed skygiant's review entirely?? because that would have convinced me to read it too. (Mild spoiler -- the same spoiler -- at both links.) It's told entirely in a series of interviews with people in or associated with a folk rock band, and I am here for that!But also --
skygiants described it as "Wylding Hall feels like someone took the premise of 'what if FAIRIES! met a FOLK ROCK BAND!' and ruthlessly stripped all the romanticism out of it and just kind of let a chilly wind blow through the empty spaces that were left." And, yeah.(ROT-13'd for spoilers, but
jung jnf hc jvgu gur raqvat?? Yvxr, V gubhtug V jnf sbyybjvat gung gur tvey vf guvf snrevr/zbafgre/jera gung Whyvna pnyyf naq gung qribhef uvz va fbzr jnl. Ohg gura ubj qbrf ur fubj hc ntnva va gur irel ynfg erzvavfprapr?)
The Dutch House (Ann Pratchett) - 4/5. The blurb that made me want to read it is "stepmother kicks brother and sister out of their house." Because, uh, family history (my step-grandmother kicked my dad and his sister out of the house). But it's really a story about families and people, and I really liked it.
The Quantum Doctor (some guy I don't remember) - 1/5 DNF. UGH. This is the kind of book I hate more than anything because it preys on people's troubles with legit medical issues AND is horrible terrible no-good very bad science, and I only looked at it because my sister asked me to. Even then I had to stop after the first couple of chapters. Like, I don't even disagree with his main idea that mind and body affect one another! But don't bring quantum consciousness (ARRRRGH) into it.
Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford D. Simak (Simak) - reread. I was looking for something sweet and comforting and Simak isn't always that, but he is frequently that. He believes that human beings are good at heart, that we can grow and learn, and I just wanted to read something like that. My favorite story is "Immigrant," which maybe reads as old-fashioned these days, but is just really... sweet.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-03 06:57 am (UTC)V guvax gur tvey vf n greevslvat jera snrevr jubz Whyvna pnyyf hc, ohg V qba'g guvax fur qribhef uvz. V guvax fur evcf uvz bhg bs gvzr naq fcnpr va n ivbyrag/ubeevslvat znaare (urapr gur oybbq). Erzrzore uvf pbairefngvba nobhg jnagvat gb cnhfr zbzragf va gvzr?
Fb vg'f xvaq bs yvxr n Gnz Yva fgbel, bayl Snrevr vf orvat sberire cnhfrq va n zbzrag - ur'f gur fnzr ntr, ur'f jvgu ure. Bayl vg'f pbfg uvz uvf zrzbevrf. Irel cbffvoyl nyfb uvf fbhy.
I bet my parents adore The Quantum Doctor. If they don't, it's only because they've never encountered it. May they never encounter it.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-03 05:38 pm (UTC)gahhhhhh your parents probably do love it, if they've encountered it. (If one is not trained in physics, I suppose it doesn't sound as utterly loony -- like, my sister wanted me to read it because it kinda pinged her "loon" radar but she wasn't sure.) Though very possibly they haven't, because I can't imagine they wouldn't have told you alllllll about it if they had.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-03 09:43 pm (UTC)Look at the dude's other books! He basically just inserts the word "quantum" into a title.
Quantum Doctor
Quantum Creativity
Quantum Economics
How Quantum Activism Can Save Civilization
The Quantum Science of Happiness
The Quantum Book of Living, Dying, Reincarnation, and Immortality
no subject
Date: 2020-02-04 05:21 am (UTC)I love your icon, though. VERY relevant.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-04 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-04 05:23 am (UTC)