furyofvissarion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
furyofvissarion) wrote2007-07-12 06:28 pm
furyofvissarion) wrote2007-07-12 06:28 pm
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Organizing for Your Brain Type - Lanna Nakone, M.A. I have a sad affection for reading about organizing, & cleaning out your house. Unfortunately, what the 50-item quiz in this book revealed was that I mostly do just fine w/traditional organizing advice. So the astonishing new techniques she proffers to the rest of the population don't really suit me.
Benighted - Kit Whitfield. I got this for a dollar @ WisCon. I read the back cover out loud, snickering, to Jess & Phredd to explain why I had to have this book: "It is a world much like our own, with one deadly difference: Ninety-nine percent of the population is lycanthropic." Hahahaha! Right up my alley, probably. Well... I think I generally like lighter, smuttier supernatural stuff. Plus, I don't like it when supes are evil @ the core, like, all of them are evil. It's boring. In this case, the lycanthropes are normal-acting people except during the full moon, when they're savage & uncontrollable & have to be locked up. The small percentage of the population that isn't lycanthropic makes up the government agency in charge of keeping them in line. The barebacks, as they're called (& yes, I snorted @ that), face extreme prejudice from the rest of society. Enter Lola Galley, a bareback who gets involved in bringing the lycanthropic killer of her friend to justice. Like many barebacks, she has had a really difficult life. And it doesn't get any better. No one in this book is perfect or sin-free, which is good on the one hand; on the other, Whitfield didn't really make me sympathize w/most of the characters, although I did like Lola, mostly. Anyway--an interesting read, darker than my usual choices in this genre. I'll be putting it on Bookmooch, though.
She's Such a Geek!: Women Write about Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff - Edited by Annalee Newitz & Charlie Anders. I really appreciate the need for this anthology; I think it fills a real gap. That said, I got a bit tired of reading autobiographical essay after autobiographical essay that didn't seem to have much to say other than "I realized I could be a girl AND a geek, yay!" There were lots of essays that didn't fall into this pattern, of course, but I felt like too many of them did. I do like the breadth of topics in the anthology, in terms of the many ways a girl can be a geek: science, math, gaming (computer, tabletop, LARPing), etc. There were a few essays I noticed particularly were by women of color, but as a whole I don't think the book did a ton of considering of race. This mostly held true for class, too, I think. Worth a read, definitely, but I'm glad I got this one from the library.
Ingledove - Marly Youmans. Ingledove & her brother, Lang, are growing up in WWII-era Asheville, North Carolina. Their mother has died, & since their father disappeared long ago, they are living w/their foster mother, who is a housekeeper for a rich industrialist. Danagasta (the foster mother) recommends that the siblings go back to visit their mother's grave--near their rural childhood home, drowned by the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a dam. Ingledove & Lang set off by rowboat into a land still populated by folks who believe in, & use, magic. Except, thank fuck, it's not the straight-up Celtic imitation that's been bugging me so much lately. It's a mix of Cherokee & Scottish-Irish-English (from the early colonizers). I liked the journey part of the book itself: the landscape & the eeriness of floating through towns that no longer existed. I wish that the reason for the journey didn't become Ingledove having to save her brother Lang from an evil spirit woman that has bewitched him, though.
Clicker Training for Cats - Karen Pryor. What the title says. I loved reading about how people train their cats to do funny things like root around in a jar (like they're a human digging through a purse for keys) or hit the final note on the piano on cue when your owner is playing a Mozart piece. I'm looking forward to using clicker training to possibly get one of our cats less angry about being brushed, among other things. Now if only I could get off my duff.
Push - Sapphire. This is the story of Precious Jones, pregnant at 16 w/her second child by her father. She gets forced out of school b/c she's pregnant again, & enrolls in an alternative program where a teacher who actually gives a crap teaches her how to read, & inspires her to not give up on herself. I know that sounds like an after-school special, but this book was really devastatingly depressing w/o having to try. There were little bits of hope, especially @ the end. Sapphire also fits in a scathing critique of workfare, & how such programs fail people like Precious.
The Childless Revolution: What It Means to Be Childless Today - Madelyn Cain. Although this was published in 2001, it feels a lot older than that. Cain's exploration of how childless/childfree women find community, for example, would probably be even more focused on internet support groups & blogs than it is. I can't imagine she'd be able to leave out a discussion of the hateful folks co-opting the "childfree" label--the ones who refer to mothers as "moos" & children as "crotch-droppings." Anyway--this book was pretty slight, somehow. She talked to lots of women about why they don't have children, & divided them up into several categories based on the reasons. I thought that was a false division, though; for example, there are women who are happy w/their lives as is & don't want children; there are also women who don't want children as an environmental act. She seems to believe no woman would fall into both categories (as I myself do). Also, despite a brief discussion of queer women, the book was really heterosexual in focus & she talks extensively in one bit about how she feels that a child needs a father AND a mother. Le sigh. This book was the tip of the iceberg of an interesting topic; it just didn't go as deeply or as radically into it as I wanted it to.
Stray - Rachel Vincent. Why do so many of the novels involving were-creatures written by women focus so much on pushing against the restrictions of pride/pack/animal biology? Mind you, I find such plots generally interesting--it just occurred to me that all the ones I've read have been by women (although I haven't read a lot of paranormal fiction by men, period). I could posit that it's because women know what it's like to push against the expectations for women even w/o having the more rigorous strictures of animal nature to deal w/, but maybe it's just b/c such plots can also lead to lots of smut. Anyway--Faythe (yes, F-a-y-t-h-e) is a werecat, one of eight female werecats in the US (why are they called tabbies?). She managed to shake the pressures of Pride & leave home for college & grad school, but is summoned back to her family's ranch when tabbies start disappearing & being killed. Here's where I start getting irritated; I found the book to be fluffy, uncomplicated fun until it started getting slasher-y. The plot is realistic (er, for a supernatural book, I mean)--I just don't know if I need to read books where women are kidnapped, raped, & mutilated as a central part, y'know? Even if this ends up being a vehicle for Faythe to show everyone that, yeah, she can kick butt. So... I liked this book, for a lot of reasons, because it pushed my candy buttons, but... enough w/the women being tortured stuff.
Ironside - Holly Black. Black brings the focus back to Kaye, protagonist of Tithe, & her boyfriend Roiben, newly crowned King of the Seelie Court. I think she kept some of the grittiness from Valiant w/o falling so much into the trap of trying too hard to be cool like w/Tithe (although I still really liked that book). Also, I am a sucker for Kaye & Roiben, & am happy that her gay friend Corny manages to get some, & to start finding some peace w/himself. So, yay.
Benighted - Kit Whitfield. I got this for a dollar @ WisCon. I read the back cover out loud, snickering, to Jess & Phredd to explain why I had to have this book: "It is a world much like our own, with one deadly difference: Ninety-nine percent of the population is lycanthropic." Hahahaha! Right up my alley, probably. Well... I think I generally like lighter, smuttier supernatural stuff. Plus, I don't like it when supes are evil @ the core, like, all of them are evil. It's boring. In this case, the lycanthropes are normal-acting people except during the full moon, when they're savage & uncontrollable & have to be locked up. The small percentage of the population that isn't lycanthropic makes up the government agency in charge of keeping them in line. The barebacks, as they're called (& yes, I snorted @ that), face extreme prejudice from the rest of society. Enter Lola Galley, a bareback who gets involved in bringing the lycanthropic killer of her friend to justice. Like many barebacks, she has had a really difficult life. And it doesn't get any better. No one in this book is perfect or sin-free, which is good on the one hand; on the other, Whitfield didn't really make me sympathize w/most of the characters, although I did like Lola, mostly. Anyway--an interesting read, darker than my usual choices in this genre. I'll be putting it on Bookmooch, though.
She's Such a Geek!: Women Write about Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff - Edited by Annalee Newitz & Charlie Anders. I really appreciate the need for this anthology; I think it fills a real gap. That said, I got a bit tired of reading autobiographical essay after autobiographical essay that didn't seem to have much to say other than "I realized I could be a girl AND a geek, yay!" There were lots of essays that didn't fall into this pattern, of course, but I felt like too many of them did. I do like the breadth of topics in the anthology, in terms of the many ways a girl can be a geek: science, math, gaming (computer, tabletop, LARPing), etc. There were a few essays I noticed particularly were by women of color, but as a whole I don't think the book did a ton of considering of race. This mostly held true for class, too, I think. Worth a read, definitely, but I'm glad I got this one from the library.
Ingledove - Marly Youmans. Ingledove & her brother, Lang, are growing up in WWII-era Asheville, North Carolina. Their mother has died, & since their father disappeared long ago, they are living w/their foster mother, who is a housekeeper for a rich industrialist. Danagasta (the foster mother) recommends that the siblings go back to visit their mother's grave--near their rural childhood home, drowned by the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a dam. Ingledove & Lang set off by rowboat into a land still populated by folks who believe in, & use, magic. Except, thank fuck, it's not the straight-up Celtic imitation that's been bugging me so much lately. It's a mix of Cherokee & Scottish-Irish-English (from the early colonizers). I liked the journey part of the book itself: the landscape & the eeriness of floating through towns that no longer existed. I wish that the reason for the journey didn't become Ingledove having to save her brother Lang from an evil spirit woman that has bewitched him, though.
Clicker Training for Cats - Karen Pryor. What the title says. I loved reading about how people train their cats to do funny things like root around in a jar (like they're a human digging through a purse for keys) or hit the final note on the piano on cue when your owner is playing a Mozart piece. I'm looking forward to using clicker training to possibly get one of our cats less angry about being brushed, among other things. Now if only I could get off my duff.
Push - Sapphire. This is the story of Precious Jones, pregnant at 16 w/her second child by her father. She gets forced out of school b/c she's pregnant again, & enrolls in an alternative program where a teacher who actually gives a crap teaches her how to read, & inspires her to not give up on herself. I know that sounds like an after-school special, but this book was really devastatingly depressing w/o having to try. There were little bits of hope, especially @ the end. Sapphire also fits in a scathing critique of workfare, & how such programs fail people like Precious.
The Childless Revolution: What It Means to Be Childless Today - Madelyn Cain. Although this was published in 2001, it feels a lot older than that. Cain's exploration of how childless/childfree women find community, for example, would probably be even more focused on internet support groups & blogs than it is. I can't imagine she'd be able to leave out a discussion of the hateful folks co-opting the "childfree" label--the ones who refer to mothers as "moos" & children as "crotch-droppings." Anyway--this book was pretty slight, somehow. She talked to lots of women about why they don't have children, & divided them up into several categories based on the reasons. I thought that was a false division, though; for example, there are women who are happy w/their lives as is & don't want children; there are also women who don't want children as an environmental act. She seems to believe no woman would fall into both categories (as I myself do). Also, despite a brief discussion of queer women, the book was really heterosexual in focus & she talks extensively in one bit about how she feels that a child needs a father AND a mother. Le sigh. This book was the tip of the iceberg of an interesting topic; it just didn't go as deeply or as radically into it as I wanted it to.
Stray - Rachel Vincent. Why do so many of the novels involving were-creatures written by women focus so much on pushing against the restrictions of pride/pack/animal biology? Mind you, I find such plots generally interesting--it just occurred to me that all the ones I've read have been by women (although I haven't read a lot of paranormal fiction by men, period). I could posit that it's because women know what it's like to push against the expectations for women even w/o having the more rigorous strictures of animal nature to deal w/, but maybe it's just b/c such plots can also lead to lots of smut. Anyway--Faythe (yes, F-a-y-t-h-e) is a werecat, one of eight female werecats in the US (why are they called tabbies?). She managed to shake the pressures of Pride & leave home for college & grad school, but is summoned back to her family's ranch when tabbies start disappearing & being killed. Here's where I start getting irritated; I found the book to be fluffy, uncomplicated fun until it started getting slasher-y. The plot is realistic (er, for a supernatural book, I mean)--I just don't know if I need to read books where women are kidnapped, raped, & mutilated as a central part, y'know? Even if this ends up being a vehicle for Faythe to show everyone that, yeah, she can kick butt. So... I liked this book, for a lot of reasons, because it pushed my candy buttons, but... enough w/the women being tortured stuff.
Ironside - Holly Black. Black brings the focus back to Kaye, protagonist of Tithe, & her boyfriend Roiben, newly crowned King of the Seelie Court. I think she kept some of the grittiness from Valiant w/o falling so much into the trap of trying too hard to be cool like w/Tithe (although I still really liked that book). Also, I am a sucker for Kaye & Roiben, & am happy that her gay friend Corny manages to get some, & to start finding some peace w/himself. So, yay.
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Re: "She's Such a Geek." I'm only 1/2-way thru', but, yeah, autobiography after autobiography means i'm taking my time reading it. I've had genuine moments of thinking, "Ooooh, i'm really *not* alone" -- me, who is 35 and knows perfectly well there are other women geeks out there. I'm kind of surprised that i *still* need this sort of validation that i'm not alone -- not sure if that says more about me or society (50/50, maybe?).
I would like to have seen more *thoughtful* pieces, stuff that went beyond autobios. And there have been a few occasions where i've thought, "Oh, your parents are scientists/mathemeticians/professors? How NICE for YOU." :p And not everyone can afford their own computer at home or go to Oberlin or ....
I bought it (brand new, even!), and i'm still glad i did. Tho' i'll admit that i am still partial to buying Seal books new if i've determined that they're worth reading. I'm a sap!
She's suck a geek!
Yeah, me too. Rats.
I enjoyed it, but then I didn't at all know what to expect before I picked it up. As for the hmm apparent tokenism, well, I thought that the book was fairly diverse for what it is. Mostly I was happy that it wasn't all cookie-cutter similarity. Then again, sometimes I have very low expectations and thus am occasionally surprised (in a good way).
To me, it also seemed like the editors would have plenty of material to go further with a second book. I wonder if that's in the works? (Oh, to have read this just before WisCon, when they were there.)
Re: She's suck a geek!
I would also like to expand the definition of "geek" a little bit. Like, okay, there's never been a book like this about women geeks in traditional geeky fields like science. But what about folks who are geeky about... I dunno, knitting? But I realize that example crosses perilously into hipster territory. Um, I dunno... figure skating? Hahahaha. Just... there are so many different ways to be geeky, all w/their own difficulties.
Re: She's suck a geek!
Hee! I felt so cool talking with Charlie after the reading! I'm never the cool kid talking with authors after a reading -- it's always hard enough for me to just go up to an author and ask them to autograph my book (i completely FAILED to get Suzette Haden Elgin's autograph at WisCon '06). But it just seemed so *obvious* that i'd be able to relate to these women. So we chatted and she invited me to the after-reading drinks in the pub downstairs, and it was a shame i couldn't go (Spousal Unit leaving on his week-long business trip to Japan the next day -- i just wanted to get home), because I FELT SO COOL.
Re: She's suck a geek!
But, ya ARE, Blanche! Y'are.
Re: She's suck a geek!
On the other hand ... i'm, err, Blanche? Yikes!
Re: She's suck a geek!
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Re: She's suck a geek!
One of my co-workers from Cornish liked to quote it at random. "Eatchyer din din!"
Re: She's suck a geek!
(Not actually FROM the movie, but one of the delightful bits of trivia surrounding the movie -- if Wikipedia's to be believed, tho' i'm sure i heard it from the co-worker i reference in a reply to johanna below.)
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YESSSSSS re: the parents being professors & blah blah blah--good for you!
Y'know how the intro said they were deluged w/submissions? I wonder how they selected the final pieces... I assume they had @ least some eye to diversity, but I hope they also kept in mind that maybe less polished pieces that were written by folks who didn't have the class & education & family advantages of some of the other folks would've been worth including too. Dunno.
I guess it always sounds like I slam Seal anthologies, but the thing is, I always want to read them. Even when they're flawed, the topics are much more interesting & relevant to me than anthologies in general are, & the pieces that aren't flawed tend to be amazing.
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Oh, yes. Me, too. That's why i wound up not writing anything to submit to the anthology. What was i going to talk about? "I feel weird because i get 'missed my saving throw' references and no one else in my office does?" I'm one of those weird interstitial (hehe) geeks who really *likes* sciency things and other traditional (male?) geeky things, but who is, nevertheless, a humanities person. I may find physics intriguing, but i still identify as a POET, goddammit! Huh, i suppose i COULD have written about all of that. Oops. ;)
I do wonder if they'd ever consider doing a follow-up volume. I bet they'd STILL get deluged with submissions. I still haven't finished reading the thing, but a quick overview makes me feel like it's at least kinda balanced in what the women are geeky about -- computers, pure math, high energy particle physics. The *content* could have been a bit more fleshed out, tho' -- so far it feels so much like "women fighting against the patriarchy to get established as geeks," but that could just be the section i've been reading thru' recently.
I guess it always sounds like I slam Seal anthologies, but the thing is, I always want to read them. Even when they're flawed, the topics are much more interesting & relevant to me than anthologies in general are, & the pieces that aren't flawed tend to be amazing.
I can see what you mean, tho'. On the one hand, Seal could be doing what they're doing better, but on the other hand at least they're out there DOING IT. So much of what i want to do with Crabby Media, it must be admitted, stems from watching Seal do things and thinking, "Yes, but...."
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So, I can totally see why categorizing people who do not want children would prove problematic--there are probably as many motivations as there are people. I'd be more interested in reading a book about why people want children. I'm not saying I'm somehow anti-kid, but I think that people hardly ever really know why they are having children. "It's the right thing to do at this point in my life". I'd love to read about people who actually might have reasons for having children other than wanting to populate the Earth (which I'm sure is not even a top 10 reason for having children these days). It would be fun if both the childless and the child camps would be asked reasonings for their decisions :D
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I agree so much that folks need to think clearly about why they want to have kids! Not just b/c it's the next step on the societally-expected roadmap of life!!