Book Roundup
Jul. 1st, 2003 03:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayhapOooh, it's delightfully stormy out. Meaning that it's absolutely pouring rain, which I find delightful for some reason, so long as I am a.) inside and b.) placed so that I can hear it on the roof, which doesn't happen quite as often in New York. Also, our internet has been restored, so I am far less inclined to become fractious. Thanks be to any and all Powers That Be, even ones I don't particularly like, such as TimeWarner Cable.
Hmm, my bed is full of books. Not that that's a bad thing; plenty of room for them, since I actually occupy about one-quarter of my bed. Good books, too. Downright squee-inducing books. No spoilers.
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker
*laughs at idea of nonfiction spoilers*
My love affair with Steven Pinker began with The Language Instinct, which I turned into the basis for an independent study my senior year in high school. I admire his clarity, his ability to construct an argument. I believe every word that comes out of his mouth, so it's a good thing that he is properly cautious and prone to use qualifying phrases when they are appropriate.
This latest book really impressed me with its excellent smackdown of people who don't have a damned clue about what genes really do, and its insight about the sorts of things humans really do. Highly recommended.
Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black
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blackholly, how I love you. And Tithe. And Roiben. And the fandomy bits. I can see that, like Coraline, this is going to be one of those books that I give people for gifts.
I think the reviews on Amazon.com and such and kind of spoilery. I was quite happy not to know for certain that Kaye was definitely a changeling pixie, and thought what was in the book jacket was just right.
The Wild Swans bypegkerr
Oh, this book made me weep which hardly ever happens, because it just isn't my usual reaction to things I think. I wasn't familiar with the Hans Christian Andersen tale, which was quite remiss of me but I was put right off Andersen when I got ahold of the "real" Little Mermaid story when I was seven and I've never quite gotten over it. That probably made the impact greater, though. Maybe. As if it needed to be made greater.
By the time I figured out what was going on, anyway, I was incredibly impressed by the way the two stories fitted together so very, very perfectly. This was after I had finished sobbing, and had started in on the excellent notes at the end. I like to explain why I started writing stories, and I like it when others do the same thing.
Presumption of Death, a new Lord Peter book by Jill Paton Walsh
I thought this book was much better than Thrones, Dominations, although to be sure I am unwilling to reread Thrones, Dominations to further assess it. This one has a plot invented out of whole cloth mated with a setting essentially derived from the Wimsey Papers, which depicted the various members of the family getting through WWII.
As I say, I found this rather more successful than the previous novel based on an intricate diagram in colored inks. It was a nice plot, and it had a nice Harriet narrating. It by and large lacked any Lord Peter to speak of, but that of course is because he is involved in wartime intelligence. One of the chapter headings was from Religio Medici, which was a nice touch. Characters who happened to feature in the plot of Busman's Honeymoon were leaned upon rather heavily, but as a fanfic author I certainly know how that goes. Again, as in Thrones, I am bewildered by Paton Walsh's idea that the Dowager Duchess either speaks or writes in this coherent manner. She does nothing of the kind. But she enters into this one less, so I was less annoyed.
Also, two non-book items:
Shakespeare in Love
I do believe this is the sexiest movie ever made, inasmuch as I absolutely adore poetry in bed and it is a movie that I have actually seen. (My family? Not so much into movies. For various reasons.) Besides which, watching it was the first thing I did with my high school belovedsatyadasa outside of school activities, years ago. (satyadasa, you need to put some more well-rounded things on your LJ, since I keep linking to it, and it makes you look an absolute bore.)
My little brother, who just got his license and is oh so excited, dragged me out to his favorite retail haunts, Best Buy and Gamestop, where he just browsed but I bought this DVD and:
a Star Trek: Nemesis Captain Picard action figure! How could I resist? He was $2.50, after all. He comes with a phaser that looks ridiculously like an electric razor. He's all like, "Don't make any sudden moves, or I'll shave off what remains of my hair!"
I waited a while for my AA batteries to charge so I could get that picture off my camera. It also had my pictures from the Harry Potter midnight party at Barnes and Noble which are mildly interesting. Sadly the picture is rather fuzzy, but I'm not getting out of bed to take another one.
Hmm, my bed is full of books. Not that that's a bad thing; plenty of room for them, since I actually occupy about one-quarter of my bed. Good books, too. Downright squee-inducing books. No spoilers.
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker
*laughs at idea of nonfiction spoilers*
My love affair with Steven Pinker began with The Language Instinct, which I turned into the basis for an independent study my senior year in high school. I admire his clarity, his ability to construct an argument. I believe every word that comes out of his mouth, so it's a good thing that he is properly cautious and prone to use qualifying phrases when they are appropriate.
This latest book really impressed me with its excellent smackdown of people who don't have a damned clue about what genes really do, and its insight about the sorts of things humans really do. Highly recommended.
Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black
blackholly, how I love you. And Tithe. And Roiben. And the fandomy bits. I can see that, like Coraline, this is going to be one of those books that I give people for gifts.I think the reviews on Amazon.com and such and kind of spoilery. I was quite happy not to know for certain that Kaye was definitely a changeling pixie, and thought what was in the book jacket was just right.
The Wild Swans by
pegkerrOh, this book made me weep which hardly ever happens, because it just isn't my usual reaction to things I think. I wasn't familiar with the Hans Christian Andersen tale, which was quite remiss of me but I was put right off Andersen when I got ahold of the "real" Little Mermaid story when I was seven and I've never quite gotten over it. That probably made the impact greater, though. Maybe. As if it needed to be made greater.
By the time I figured out what was going on, anyway, I was incredibly impressed by the way the two stories fitted together so very, very perfectly. This was after I had finished sobbing, and had started in on the excellent notes at the end. I like to explain why I started writing stories, and I like it when others do the same thing.
Presumption of Death, a new Lord Peter book by Jill Paton Walsh
I thought this book was much better than Thrones, Dominations, although to be sure I am unwilling to reread Thrones, Dominations to further assess it. This one has a plot invented out of whole cloth mated with a setting essentially derived from the Wimsey Papers, which depicted the various members of the family getting through WWII.
As I say, I found this rather more successful than the previous novel based on an intricate diagram in colored inks. It was a nice plot, and it had a nice Harriet narrating. It by and large lacked any Lord Peter to speak of, but that of course is because he is involved in wartime intelligence. One of the chapter headings was from Religio Medici, which was a nice touch. Characters who happened to feature in the plot of Busman's Honeymoon were leaned upon rather heavily, but as a fanfic author I certainly know how that goes. Again, as in Thrones, I am bewildered by Paton Walsh's idea that the Dowager Duchess either speaks or writes in this coherent manner. She does nothing of the kind. But she enters into this one less, so I was less annoyed.
Also, two non-book items:
Shakespeare in Love
I do believe this is the sexiest movie ever made, inasmuch as I absolutely adore poetry in bed and it is a movie that I have actually seen. (My family? Not so much into movies. For various reasons.) Besides which, watching it was the first thing I did with my high school beloved
satyadasa outside of school activities, years ago. (satyadasa, you need to put some more well-rounded things on your LJ, since I keep linking to it, and it makes you look an absolute bore.)My little brother, who just got his license and is oh so excited, dragged me out to his favorite retail haunts, Best Buy and Gamestop, where he just browsed but I bought this DVD and:
a Star Trek: Nemesis Captain Picard action figure! How could I resist? He was $2.50, after all. He comes with a phaser that looks ridiculously like an electric razor. He's all like, "Don't make any sudden moves, or I'll shave off what remains of my hair!"I waited a while for my AA batteries to charge so I could get that picture off my camera. It also had my pictures from the Harry Potter midnight party at Barnes and Noble which are mildly interesting. Sadly the picture is rather fuzzy, but I'm not getting out of bed to take another one.
