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opusculus I'll be attempting to do the ones I haven't mentioned since last time, but man it's been a while so I know I'm missing/repeating stuff.
Cast in something series by Michelle Sagara - I'm not separating them out into separate books because I'm lazy and there's six books in it. I have issues with the pacing of the series overall (though not the individual books), and I'm not terribly fond of incompetent heroes even if Kaylin's maturing at a pretty decent clip by now. I kind of wish she'd establish her childhood friend as either a sibling or a candidate for romance - I honestly don't have any huge preferences one way or the other, but at six books in, I'd at least like to know which he is. But I like the fact that romance is a very minor subplot despite the Luna imprint! I remember drifting away from the political epic series by the same author because her prose occasionally gets...idk really confusing? It makes me skim enough that I lose track. These books have the same problem on occasion, but overall I enjoy them enough that I don't particularly mind it.
City of Ghosts by Stacia Kane - Meh. It's okay, but it's not entirely my thing. Really awesome worldbuilding setups that never get fleshed out to the point where they feel realistic bug me, and I just don't particularly like any of the characters. I'm surprisingly indifferent to Chess' drug addiction, but I think it lies behind some of what bugs me about her as a narrator - she's very not interested in things outside herself, in general, and it makes it harder for me to get a grasp on the world when she doesn't give a damn about it.
Life in the Soil by James B Nardi. SOMEDAY I WILL FIND INFORMATION ABOUT THE 10 METER AUSTRALIAN WORMS DAMNIT. He even mentioned them as a side note, but this was still not that day. I'm not a huge fan of books that are broken up into short articles about some type of creature, honestly. I enjoyed the front and ending, but not the list that was most the book. Oh well.
Liar by Justine Larbalestier - I'd heard a lot of good things about this, and I can actually see why the whitewashed cover did legitimately cause confusion as well as being racist as hell now. There's so much we're left questioning about Micah that the possibility that she was lying about her skin color as well really throws things off even more. I'm not sure I liked it? I found the ending incredibly frustrating because I don't like not having the faintest idea what actually happened. I was iffy about the spoilery thing midway through, that shifted the genre to psychological thriller to...well, that's part of the spoiler. I can see why a lot of people like it, and I think it was very well done, but ultimately I just like my books a little more concrete than this.
Moon Dance THIS WAS WEIRD. Largely because I randomly started reading it in the exact same place some scenes take place and it weirded me out. It was honestly pretty mediocre though. I'm really not a huge vampire/werewolf fan, honestly. I think I might have bought this one by actual accident - screw Amazon's buy it now button seriously. I'm this close to disenabling the Kindle on my iPad because you don't get the chance to confirm a purchase and I really dislike it.
Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon - This is actually awesome, though I can see why I disliked it as a child. Yay awesome old woman as the first alien contact!
Out of Poverty by Paul Polak - Entrepreneurial approach to poverty, basically, where he figures the best way to improve really poor people's chances is to start treating them as a valid market, and start selling them things they really need rather than giving it to them with insufficient research. I think he has a point with the idea that a lot of donations go to waste because they give them stuff they don't need/want rather than what they do, and selling it to them rather than giving it to them so that there's mutual communication going on about what they need is a way to go about it. I'll admit I know jack shit about poverty, though. Weirdly, though, I was just thinking like the week before I read this that one of the problems of capitalism was that marginalized people get less served by markets, because they don't generally have the access to capital that straight white cis men do, and therefore it's rarer that their needs are considered when deciding what to sell. Most people are basically trying to sell to the people like them, after all. A lot of this book explores that in more depth.
Who Fears Death ...Did I ever mention this one before? I can't recall. Honestly, it was too depressing for my taste. I liked the characters, and I found the world interesting, but I'm really not a fan of [everyone dies] stories.
Virgin by Hanne Blank: I...actually remember absolutely nothing about this, except I found it interesting. And I was surprised at the number of historical ways people have had to ascertain virginity that all failed miserably.
Sleeping Beauty by Mercedes Lackey. Yay mindcandy! The unicorn was awesome. /deep thoughts
And I think all the rest of the nonfiction I've read lately I haven't finished yet or is a reread.
Cast in something series by Michelle Sagara - I'm not separating them out into separate books because I'm lazy and there's six books in it. I have issues with the pacing of the series overall (though not the individual books), and I'm not terribly fond of incompetent heroes even if Kaylin's maturing at a pretty decent clip by now. I kind of wish she'd establish her childhood friend as either a sibling or a candidate for romance - I honestly don't have any huge preferences one way or the other, but at six books in, I'd at least like to know which he is. But I like the fact that romance is a very minor subplot despite the Luna imprint! I remember drifting away from the political epic series by the same author because her prose occasionally gets...idk really confusing? It makes me skim enough that I lose track. These books have the same problem on occasion, but overall I enjoy them enough that I don't particularly mind it.
City of Ghosts by Stacia Kane - Meh. It's okay, but it's not entirely my thing. Really awesome worldbuilding setups that never get fleshed out to the point where they feel realistic bug me, and I just don't particularly like any of the characters. I'm surprisingly indifferent to Chess' drug addiction, but I think it lies behind some of what bugs me about her as a narrator - she's very not interested in things outside herself, in general, and it makes it harder for me to get a grasp on the world when she doesn't give a damn about it.
Life in the Soil by James B Nardi. SOMEDAY I WILL FIND INFORMATION ABOUT THE 10 METER AUSTRALIAN WORMS DAMNIT. He even mentioned them as a side note, but this was still not that day. I'm not a huge fan of books that are broken up into short articles about some type of creature, honestly. I enjoyed the front and ending, but not the list that was most the book. Oh well.
Liar by Justine Larbalestier - I'd heard a lot of good things about this, and I can actually see why the whitewashed cover did legitimately cause confusion as well as being racist as hell now. There's so much we're left questioning about Micah that the possibility that she was lying about her skin color as well really throws things off even more. I'm not sure I liked it? I found the ending incredibly frustrating because I don't like not having the faintest idea what actually happened. I was iffy about the spoilery thing midway through, that shifted the genre to psychological thriller to...well, that's part of the spoiler. I can see why a lot of people like it, and I think it was very well done, but ultimately I just like my books a little more concrete than this.
Moon Dance THIS WAS WEIRD. Largely because I randomly started reading it in the exact same place some scenes take place and it weirded me out. It was honestly pretty mediocre though. I'm really not a huge vampire/werewolf fan, honestly. I think I might have bought this one by actual accident - screw Amazon's buy it now button seriously. I'm this close to disenabling the Kindle on my iPad because you don't get the chance to confirm a purchase and I really dislike it.
Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon - This is actually awesome, though I can see why I disliked it as a child. Yay awesome old woman as the first alien contact!
Out of Poverty by Paul Polak - Entrepreneurial approach to poverty, basically, where he figures the best way to improve really poor people's chances is to start treating them as a valid market, and start selling them things they really need rather than giving it to them with insufficient research. I think he has a point with the idea that a lot of donations go to waste because they give them stuff they don't need/want rather than what they do, and selling it to them rather than giving it to them so that there's mutual communication going on about what they need is a way to go about it. I'll admit I know jack shit about poverty, though. Weirdly, though, I was just thinking like the week before I read this that one of the problems of capitalism was that marginalized people get less served by markets, because they don't generally have the access to capital that straight white cis men do, and therefore it's rarer that their needs are considered when deciding what to sell. Most people are basically trying to sell to the people like them, after all. A lot of this book explores that in more depth.
Who Fears Death ...Did I ever mention this one before? I can't recall. Honestly, it was too depressing for my taste. I liked the characters, and I found the world interesting, but I'm really not a fan of [everyone dies] stories.
Virgin by Hanne Blank: I...actually remember absolutely nothing about this, except I found it interesting. And I was surprised at the number of historical ways people have had to ascertain virginity that all failed miserably.
Sleeping Beauty by Mercedes Lackey. Yay mindcandy! The unicorn was awesome. /deep thoughts
And I think all the rest of the nonfiction I've read lately I haven't finished yet or is a reread.
*wandered over here from lifting_heavy_things, hoping that's okay*
Date: 2010-08-24 07:25 pm (UTC)Will info on 2-metre worms do?
http://museumvictoria.com.au/discoverycentre/infosheets/giant-gippsland-earthworm/
http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2008/09/behold-australi.html
Re: *wandered over here from lifting_heavy_things, hoping that's okay*
Date: 2010-08-24 07:35 pm (UTC)Re: *wandered over here from lifting_heavy_things, hoping that's okay*
Date: 2010-08-24 07:42 pm (UTC)