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book meme - day 02
Jul. 23rd, 2010 10:30 amHey, so I'm 27 now! Not that 27 is a particularly awesome age or anything. Twenty-six, at least, has the distinction of being the first year post-25, where you start off with, "Okay, NOW I'm a real adult!" before this sort of thing sets in and you realize that you are never ever going to consistently CLEAN ALL THE THINGS or GO TO THE MOTHERFUCKING BANK LIKE AN ADULT until you're, oh, in your mid-forties or so.
Or maybe that's just me.
And 28, well, 28 is when you get to say you're in your late twenties as opposed to your mid-twenties, which...I guess that's noteworthy? How do you even define 27, anyway? Late mid-twenties? Early late-twenties. WHY AM I EVEN WORRYING ABOUT THIS.
Anyway, I think I might treat myself to a Powell's trip after work. Because buying more books is totally what I should be doing when preparing for a move! *facepalm*
See? Motherfucking ADULT!
Book meme!
Day 02 - A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
The Princess series by Jim Hines is really fun, and I want more people to check it out. They're loosely based on classic fairy tales, and they're smart and funny and full of wonderfully written, well-rounded women. There are major characters who aren't straight! And there are major characters who aren't white! And just about all of the active characters, heroes and villains both, are women! I LOVE THAT. Hell, the prince in the first book is pretty much a MacGuffin, and Danielle (otherwise known as Cinderella) has to go to his rescue. The heroines all have different ways of solving problems and they have realistic strengths and faults, which is nice to see when "strong female character" so often translates to "female character who is strong" and not "strong character who is female". The third book in the series just came out recently, and I'm going to try to snag it at Powell's today.
Another book more people need to know about is The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin. Holy SHIT, is this book awesome! It's the first in a series, but I think it stands alone beautifully and doesn't have the sort of cliffhanger ending that usually fills me with rage. It's unlike anything I've ever read in SF/F. The imagery is gorgeous, and I could spend AGES geeking out about the worldbuilding and mythology Jemisin has developed. To put this in perspective, I tend to shy away from stories where gods are main characters, because so few authors do it well. But Jemisin? She nails it. Her gods and goddesses are complicated, fascinating creatures that are just human enough to seem familiar and yet alien enough to be utterly horrifying sometimes. And Yeine! Oh, I loved Yeine SO MUCH. She's the best sort of protagonist, one who's smart and capable and interesting, one who gets a lot of things right and sometimes gets things really, really wrong. She's acerbic and engaging, and I really loved reading about her.
I also think it's awesome that The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms doesn't go the usual Euro-inspired SF/F route. Yeine and a lot of the other main characters are PoC, and the world they inhabit doesn't feel European in the least. Love love LOVE that.
( Other days of the book meme! )
Or maybe that's just me.
And 28, well, 28 is when you get to say you're in your late twenties as opposed to your mid-twenties, which...I guess that's noteworthy? How do you even define 27, anyway? Late mid-twenties? Early late-twenties. WHY AM I EVEN WORRYING ABOUT THIS.
Anyway, I think I might treat myself to a Powell's trip after work. Because buying more books is totally what I should be doing when preparing for a move! *facepalm*
See? Motherfucking ADULT!
Book meme!
Day 02 - A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
The Princess series by Jim Hines is really fun, and I want more people to check it out. They're loosely based on classic fairy tales, and they're smart and funny and full of wonderfully written, well-rounded women. There are major characters who aren't straight! And there are major characters who aren't white! And just about all of the active characters, heroes and villains both, are women! I LOVE THAT. Hell, the prince in the first book is pretty much a MacGuffin, and Danielle (otherwise known as Cinderella) has to go to his rescue. The heroines all have different ways of solving problems and they have realistic strengths and faults, which is nice to see when "strong female character" so often translates to "female character who is strong" and not "strong character who is female". The third book in the series just came out recently, and I'm going to try to snag it at Powell's today.
Another book more people need to know about is The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin. Holy SHIT, is this book awesome! It's the first in a series, but I think it stands alone beautifully and doesn't have the sort of cliffhanger ending that usually fills me with rage. It's unlike anything I've ever read in SF/F. The imagery is gorgeous, and I could spend AGES geeking out about the worldbuilding and mythology Jemisin has developed. To put this in perspective, I tend to shy away from stories where gods are main characters, because so few authors do it well. But Jemisin? She nails it. Her gods and goddesses are complicated, fascinating creatures that are just human enough to seem familiar and yet alien enough to be utterly horrifying sometimes. And Yeine! Oh, I loved Yeine SO MUCH. She's the best sort of protagonist, one who's smart and capable and interesting, one who gets a lot of things right and sometimes gets things really, really wrong. She's acerbic and engaging, and I really loved reading about her.
I also think it's awesome that The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms doesn't go the usual Euro-inspired SF/F route. Yeine and a lot of the other main characters are PoC, and the world they inhabit doesn't feel European in the least. Love love LOVE that.
( Other days of the book meme! )