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furyofvissarion) wrote2007-06-17 09:33 pm
furyofvissarion) wrote2007-06-17 09:33 pm
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Why We Love the Dogs We Do: How to Find the Dog that Matches Your Personality - Stanley Coren. Fascinating! Coren, a psychology professor, surveyed dog experts about the personalities of various dog breeds. He then grouped them into 7 categories based on personality. His next step was to survey thousands of dog owners on the breeds of dogs they've owned, what they liked or didn't about them, & if they would have that type of dog again. They also completed a personality survey. After crunching all this data, Coren presents the results in this book: what types of dogs tend to do best w/what types of personalities. The book is packed w/a lot of interesting dog trivia & case studies, too. My one question is about mixed-breed dogs--how did he allow for this in the survey? What about the fact that some folks may not correctly identify the breed of dog they have? I suppose he has made allowances for this, but he didn't explain this in his technical appendix. I should go dig on his website & see if he's answered this. The groups that came up for me were interesting--some of the dogs I actively dislike (poodles--although that's mostly b/c I think they're ugly & I hate snotty poodle owners w/poodles in show coat). And Norweigian Elkhound didn't come up, although I loved our family's. He does point out that of course you can have a wonderful relationship w/a dog not in your groups--it just is less likely, or there might be bumps in the road (I was definitely frustrated w/Bandit sometimes, heh). Anyway, a fast & glorious read. Hee!
All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris. This is the latest from Harris's Southern Vampire series. Sookie & the gang are headed to a regional vampire summit. She's being brought along as a paid consultant for the queen of Louisiana, whose power base is seriously weakened after Hurricane Katrina & the death of her husband, whose demise she is on trial for. Through it all, Sookie is still trying to navigate through the vampire world as a human trying to keep her independence; & she's still having hot sex & trying to figure out her love life. Harris's usual humor is here as well; despite that, the book does have some very dark moments in it. I don't know if I liked the book as much as some of her others, but I'm still definitely a fan of Sookie as a character, & of Harris's storytelling.
Half Life - Shelley Jackson. Nora and Blanche Olney are conjoined twins in a world where fallout from nuclear testing makes conjoined twins not uncommon. However, Blanche has been asleep for nearly two decades. Nora, on hearing about a secretive doctor that performs surgery for "twofers" to get rid of their other half, decides to go for it. Sounds intriguing, right? That's what I thought, & I kept wanting to find out what happened--I just didn't want to go through everything this book made me in order to find out. There was a lot of funny, clever stuff, but the book just felt long, long, long.
The Autumn Castle - Kim Wilkins. Two fantasy worlds intersect: one, the faery world of Ewigkreis, & the other, that of a bunch of artists on fellowship in Berlin. Christine Starlight, the daughter of '70s rock stars, is the girlfriend of one of these artists (Jude Honeychurch! Oh, these names...). Her childhood friend, May, who was abducted as a child & is presumed dead, reappears. She's been made the queen of Ewigkreis & is now all faery (& not a v. nice person, to boot). Things get messy because Jude's benefactor happens to be a psycho faery hunter. Things also get messy because May & Jude have a thing for each other, & because Jude's keeping a biiiig secret. This book was predictable in a lot of ways, including the neat & tidy ending, but I still enjoyed it despite that. Although I didn't like the way the faery world was set up, so that they basically don't do anything but trill around enjoying themselves, & they have seasonally-induced amnesia. Yawn.
Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics - Cynthia Enloe. This book feels a bit outdated; it was first published in 1990 & this updated edition is from 2000. The sections on sex tourism & globalized clothing manufacture, in particular, didn't really tell me anything I hadn't read elsewhere a thousand times by now. What was most interesting to me was the section on international diplomacy & women: the way in which women married to diplomats were assumed to be unpaid auxiliaries (arranging dinners & other social gatherings for the diplomats), & in fact, sometimes were explicitly barred from having their own careers. Yowsers.
All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris. This is the latest from Harris's Southern Vampire series. Sookie & the gang are headed to a regional vampire summit. She's being brought along as a paid consultant for the queen of Louisiana, whose power base is seriously weakened after Hurricane Katrina & the death of her husband, whose demise she is on trial for. Through it all, Sookie is still trying to navigate through the vampire world as a human trying to keep her independence; & she's still having hot sex & trying to figure out her love life. Harris's usual humor is here as well; despite that, the book does have some very dark moments in it. I don't know if I liked the book as much as some of her others, but I'm still definitely a fan of Sookie as a character, & of Harris's storytelling.
Half Life - Shelley Jackson. Nora and Blanche Olney are conjoined twins in a world where fallout from nuclear testing makes conjoined twins not uncommon. However, Blanche has been asleep for nearly two decades. Nora, on hearing about a secretive doctor that performs surgery for "twofers" to get rid of their other half, decides to go for it. Sounds intriguing, right? That's what I thought, & I kept wanting to find out what happened--I just didn't want to go through everything this book made me in order to find out. There was a lot of funny, clever stuff, but the book just felt long, long, long.
The Autumn Castle - Kim Wilkins. Two fantasy worlds intersect: one, the faery world of Ewigkreis, & the other, that of a bunch of artists on fellowship in Berlin. Christine Starlight, the daughter of '70s rock stars, is the girlfriend of one of these artists (Jude Honeychurch! Oh, these names...). Her childhood friend, May, who was abducted as a child & is presumed dead, reappears. She's been made the queen of Ewigkreis & is now all faery (& not a v. nice person, to boot). Things get messy because Jude's benefactor happens to be a psycho faery hunter. Things also get messy because May & Jude have a thing for each other, & because Jude's keeping a biiiig secret. This book was predictable in a lot of ways, including the neat & tidy ending, but I still enjoyed it despite that. Although I didn't like the way the faery world was set up, so that they basically don't do anything but trill around enjoying themselves, & they have seasonally-induced amnesia. Yawn.
Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics - Cynthia Enloe. This book feels a bit outdated; it was first published in 1990 & this updated edition is from 2000. The sections on sex tourism & globalized clothing manufacture, in particular, didn't really tell me anything I hadn't read elsewhere a thousand times by now. What was most interesting to me was the section on international diplomacy & women: the way in which women married to diplomats were assumed to be unpaid auxiliaries (arranging dinners & other social gatherings for the diplomats), & in fact, sometimes were explicitly barred from having their own careers. Yowsers.