Taking a break from the Manosphere today. Instead, I’m reading the new biography of Joan Didion.
What are you all reading?
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We Hunted The MammothBucking the Backlash
@Matthew Field:
yeah, I found The Decameron to be funnier.
And? Less religious piety.
And? More sex.
Yeah, Dante wrote his first, but when you tell your kids that you’ve read the two most important authors of 14th century Italian literature and while you can see why the pre-Hobbesian European powers would promote one, actually you find the witty skewering of the powerful throughout the writing of the other to be more valuable today …well, you can shorten the bedtime process by a good 20 minutes. I tell you, that’s worth it’s weight in iPhones.
“Welcome to Nightvale” in on my shelf, just waiting for me to stop knitting so I can pick it up.
“A Legal History of Michigan” which is actually well written and pretty engrossing. It starts with how the territory became a state and the struggle between farmers and capitalists as the economy switch from subsistence based to cash based. And it includes all the drama, infighting and sniping that makes history great to read while explaining the legal machinations behind it.
“people of the Earth” on audiobook written by two archeologist, I really enjoy thier “North Americas Forgotten Past” series, and each book is its own story, you don’t have to read them in order.
Non-fiction: The Dog Who Saved My Life, a collection of five true stories about dogs in war. Fiction: various. Dun Lady’s Jess, about a horse turned into a woman, is proving entertaining so far.
@epitome, that series was mentioned in one of the secondary sources that I read for my thesis. I learned about the series too late to read it, but I’m going to look around for it.
@brian, this is my first Miéville novel. I had a mind of reading “Perdido Street Station” for inclusion in my thesis, but I didn’t put enough effort into looking for it.
@Biot:
Well, if you enjoy The City & the City, I’d recommend giving Embassytown or Kraken a read. The Bas-Lag books (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council) are good too, but be prepared for a really weird, grim fantasy world, almost aggressively sad endings (especially with Perdido), kind of imbalanced pacing (again, especially Perdido), and a rather baroque writing style. I still love them, personally, but they’re not what I’d call particularly accessible.
Oh, and somehow Railsea and UnLunDun completely slipped my mind in that post. Those are his two YA novels. Those are fun too, especially UnLunDun. They have a lot less in the way of big, weird ideas for the most part though UnLunDun does have the fun premise of “What if the chosen one of prophecy can’t step up and the one who’s supposed to be the sidekick does it all instead?”
I’m visiting my old friend, Miles Vorkosigan, and his extended and rather hectic family.
Ha, I thought “Castle Otranto? Is that the one with the helmet?” so at least some of my education took.
The Serpentwar saga: Raymond E Feist
The Crippled God: Steven Erikson
I like High Fantasy, and I especially likes Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen, a ten book epic about the importance of humility and compassion, and the dangers of righteous anger and harsh judgements.
I read Atlas Shrugged a number of years ago. That is a very powerful book – I’ve since described it as the Necronomicon of political fiction – full of ancient secrets* and prone to driving its readers mad. It. . . did strange things to my mind, and I was a grown adult when I read it. At least now when I mock it online, I have a comeback for the Randroids who demand, “But have you READ it?!” I even read every word of the goes on forever ‘Your minds – your stupid, stupid minds!’ speech. And yes, that’s a Plan 9 from Outer Space reference.
*That should have remained secret.
Robert: The only book that truly deserves the World Fantasy Award.
I changed to a different psychologist in part because my previous one told me that one of his favorite books was Atlas Shrugged and after that I kept thinking “I’m not sure I can trust anything this man says ever again…”
I’ve been reading the diaries of Adam de Gurowski, which are awesome. Nineteenth-century Polish emigres are a pretty badass breed in general, but he’s just something else altogether. De Gurowski understands politics and war very well, and has an intuitive grasp of realities that other people miss. What makes him truly great, however, is the fact that he bucks the trend of people who think that “realistic” means “cynical.” De Gurowski is deeply idealistic and genuinely believes in a better future, which he writes in a splendidly flamboyant nineteenth century fashion. I would highly recommend it, especially to Americans.
I’ve also been doing NaNoWriMo. I’m badly behind on my word count, but if anyone wants to cast an eye over some early drafts I’d be very grateful. It’s a historical novel set amidst the people who orbited Joseph Stalin, in the years 1929-1937, and aimed at people who liked Hunger Games but thought it was just a little too immature.
I’m rereading one of my favourite series, Obernewtyn, because after finally seeing Mad Max I’m in the mood for more Aussie-flavoured post-apocalyptic feminist fantasy. Hell yes.
@brian
Good call!
@ brian – South Park got Atlas Shrugged right (the one about the chicken lover).
@ SFHC
Tank Girl? (The comics perhaps rather than the mess of a film. Although they do get the tank right)
Would it be fair to call Tank Girl feminist? I don’t know, I haven’t read it recently enough. I’d be interested to read a scholarly analysis. Or an angry fangirl rant. Either works.
@EJ:
I did NaNoWriMo for four years in a row (2011-2014) but decided not to this year because I think I’ve gotten all I can get out of it for now and had started to actually use it as an excuse to not do other things… Instead this month I’m trying to write or otherwise work on a different kind of creative project every single day, without any particular word count or other goal. More attempting to establish the habit of writing/working on a frequent, regular basis moving forward… hopefully it works!
But good luck with NaNo! I found it fun (in a work-y sort of way) and satisfying to “win” even if (as is to be expected) the novel isn’t very good. The first year I did it, I used a book, sent to me by one of my older brothers, by the guy who started it called “No Plot? No Problem!” which is basically tips for how to do NaNo… But I’ll tell you the tip that I think he had in the Week 3 section that I’d wish I’d read waaaay earlier. It works really well for me, though you might be different.
I had a lot of trouble when I said, like “Okay, I’m going to write for two hours now.” I’d sit down at the computer, but I’d end up screwing around a lot, looking things up online, checking email, all that. Well, the book suggested you take a block of time and split it up like this: 30 minutes writing, 10 minute break, 30 writing, 10 break, 30 more writing. I found that SUPER useful for me. It was much easier to focus on JUST writing if I knew I was only doing it for 30 minutes before a short break, so for the rest of that first year, and all of the next 3 I did it, my writing speed got way more consistent. Maybe that will help you too.
Good luck!
Just posting to say I am extremely infuriated and sad over the anti-refugee hate that’s running rampant. And it’s all the more pathetic because no matter what people try to hide it behind, it’s almost always based on the ridiculous fear of taking in terrorists.
@EJ
I wouldn’t call it feminist. I would say that it’s relatively non-sexist, but not really anti-sexist.
It’s been a long time since I read it, but I did and so did several of the Lesbian Avengers I was hanging out with at the time. I think one of us didn’t like it b/c violence and yes, there is gratuitous skin showing. But in the comic book, Tank Girl and Jet Girl have a relationship (unlike in the movie, where they both fuck Kangaroo Men so that the big studios didn’t have to show unnatural human woman to human woman attraction), which was pretty progressive for the time to have that depicted at all.
I think the main points that it was feminist were that relationship and the points we give out to the few authors willing to put multiple women in powerful and central positions in their books. Other than that, it’s wasn’t feminist per se. It just avoided a good deal of the sexist mistakes of other comic books of that (and even this) era.
So if you want to read a comic book, that one won’t offend you on most feminist grounds (though, gee! all the characters are so skinny! and the starring ones are so white!). But don’t read it because you think you’re going to get some awesome feminism.
@brian:
Thanks for that! I’m not following any sort of established NaNoWriMo lore or writing scheme, I’m just using it as an excuse to get a first draft done. I have a long commute every day and it’s a good opportunity to pound out about 1500-2000 words. Some days I even succeed.
@Crip Dyke:
I suppose a lot of it is to do with context. Tank Girl emerged from a market hypersaturated with ultramasculine power fantasies, compared to which its message of female participation came across as empowering, even subversive (even if, as you point out, it was skinny white female empowerment.)
I should probably reread it. I don’t read or view enough Australian content these days. I think I’ve seen two Australian films (The Babadook and Mad Max Fury Road) in the last two years, and couldn’t name any interesting new Australian musicians.
These days I’m reading Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series, which the movie Master and Commander was based on.