Recommendations

[nightengalesknd]

So I have a bunch of stuff to recommend. I can't remember what I've mentioned to whom, so I'm just putting it here in one swell foop.

Books
For science fiction fans who like science in their fiction (specifically life sciences) you can't get much better than David Gerrold's Chtorr books. David Gerrold is the same person who brought us Trekies "The Trouble with Tribbles." The books feature an alien invasion - but not little green men or anything so hackneyed. Rather, it's a biological invasion, affecting and infecting humanity at every conceivable level. Lots of ecology and sociology and some rather compelling, complex characters. I own two - long story - and unfortunately not the first two. Don't start the first book at bedtime.

For science fiction fans and murder mystery fans, especially if you are both, try J.D. Robb's "In Death" books. This is a pseudonym for romance writer Nora Roberts - I don't read romances so I refuse to comment on how the "In Death" books read on a romance front. What they are is decent standard murder mystery fare, the cop variety, not the cozy amateur variety, with the twist being they are set in 2058. Cars fly (although protagonist Eve Dallas' is generally broken), guns have been outlawed, we've got a few off-planet colonies, but crime is pretty much crime, and the conversations between the characters are enjoyable. I own three, including the first but otherwise non-consecutive.

For murder mystery fans and library people, I present Elizabeth Peters's (Barbara Michaels, Barbara Mertz) Jacqueline Kirby. She's a college librarian, a quoter of everything from Gilbert and Sullivan onwards and a collector of eclectic knowledge. Her glasses are always slipping (they are a barometer of her moods) and she carries a Purse which her students think (not altogether unjustifiably) is magic. In later books, she decides to write a bad romance novel on a whim and ends up getting published. I want to be Jacqueline Kirby when I grow up. I actually own all four books in this series. How did that happen?

For those interested in autism, on shrewreader's recommendation, read Elizabeth Moon's The Speed of Dark. You may know Elizabeth Moon from her more classic sci-fi writing - this is different although it is mildly SF. She knows her subject, a fact which is evident in every line of dialogue, every glimpse into the protagonist's mind. If you read it, please tell me what you think of it because I'm sort of edgy to discuss it.

Movies
Just to see if you were still paying attention. Movies? Me? Movies? Riiiiight.

Web things

If you have a disability, or are interested in disability, or know someone with a disability (and you do, besides the one in ten Americans statistic, you know me!) please consider stopping off at The ADA Game It's an on-line game where you answer questions about the ADA and then give points to your city. taneliashke,lywen and batshua and I desperately need backup on the Biloxi team. One of the beautiful things about the game is that you are only allowed to answer five questions per day. While this is bad for getting your team more points, it is wonderful because then you can't end up stuck playing the game long past when you should be doing other things like studying or earning a living. I play for about 2-10 minutes/day, max.

batshua has been sending me amusing links of late and this one is too good not to share. The Invisible Library references books which only exist within the pages of other books. It includes all the books that are mentioned in the Harry Potter series, for instance.

And last but not least, really really not least, if you haven't read The Spoon Theory, go read it now. If it doesn't help explain your life, read it because it sure helps explain mine.

Comments

[batshua]

Yay ADA Game and Spoon Theory!

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

The Spoon Theory explains my life so thoroughly that I am occasionally tempted to proselytize about it on street corners. Sigh.

[nightengalesknd.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I wish I could make my classmates and profs read it, but I'm afraid they would either laugh, or go all "inspirational cripple" on me.

So I posted it to LJ instead. Maybe that will help? Some?

[ericaceous.livejournal.com]

I've read The Speed of Dark. It was at least a yera ago, but I think I remember it. I thought it was well done, except I was not so sure about the ending.

[nightengalesknd.livejournal.com]

I adored it until the end as well. Then it sort of went all "Flowers for Algernon," about which I have mixed feelings.

[meanfreepath.livejournal.com]

I've just finished The Speed of Dark. On the whole, I thought it was fairly well done, but I have some doubts about the endings.

To me, one of the most central themes in the novel is the question of what is normal. I think this gets somewhat lost at the end; we never really get to resolve the conflicts, if there are any, between the former Lou and the new Lou because the development more or less ends. As an overall question, however, I think the author's treatment is pretty good and ties in with what I've read about constructing and deconstructing disability. I'm not an expert on postmodernism though.

One specific thing that bothers me about the presumably happy ending of the novel is that it ignores the elements of the futuristic society that to me seem dystopic. In particular, I find the addition of mind-altering chips to the penal system, with their ability to fundamentally alter the thoughts and beings of the criminal, rather frightening. Should criminality be something that governments force out of people by inherently changing them? Going as far back as Descartes' Cogito, ergo sum, how much do our thoughts define us? How different is Lou after his procedure? Obviously there's a lot of material here...

On a literary level, I think the characterization of Lou is well done. We get a glimpse into his daily life, his thought processes, and his feelings. The internal conflicts he has about having the procedure are well-expressed. Lou is perhaps the only fully developed character in the novel; most of the others are flat. Mr. Crenshaw in particular is just a stock villain. But I think it generally works with the narration, mostly through Lou's eyes.

I'm not so sure how well it works for the narrative to keep switching from Lou to omniscient. Would the effect have been smoother if we stayed with Lou's perspective the entire time? On the other hand, we get a lot of important plot information from the interactions and speech of the other characters when Lou is not there.

Overall, I'd strongly recommend this book. Also I'd very much like to discuss it some more when you have the time.

[ericaceous.livejournal.com]

I joined the biloxi team and answered my 5 questions! I sort of don't get what you do with your points, though.

Now for reading the Spoon Theory.

[nightengalesknd.livejournal.com]

You have 3 choices what to do with points.

If you do individual actions, you get more "leadership" credits. Without lots of leadership credits, your actions tend to fail.

If you do community actions, you get some leadership credits and can give the city points. Which is good because Biloxi needs points. But if your leadership credit isn't high enough, the action fails unexplicably and no one gets any points.

If you do group actions, different people throw points into one task until it reaches the goal, then the city gets all those points.

[batshua]

Yay for joining Biloxi! Thank you!!

[megan-powell.livejournal.com]

I like the Spoon Theory. Why is it always a spoon? ("Always" in this case consisting of the Spoon Theory, the Tick, and The Matrix. We know the rationale for the spoon in Prince of Thieves.) Why is it never a shrimp fork?

Yes, must move the Chtorr books up a bit on the reading list. Of course, I still haven't started Perdido Street Station and it's been sitting there for months...still, I finished The Baroque Cycle in record time, so my brain can't be turning completely to mush. Must confess to not liking the "In Death" book I read way back when...though I can associate it with fennel and Satan and thereby find amusement. It (the book, not fennel) felt like SF from someone who'd watched three and a half episodes of Star Trek, the mystery/suspense wasn't very mysterious or suspenseful, and the relationships weren't very interesting. Maybe she does better when she doesn't try juggling so many genres, but I have my doubts. Head hopping is definitely not a turn on for me; it reads as sloppy. Unless it's Frank Herbert, but as someone or other said, if you can write like Frank Herbert [at least, Herbert at his best] you don't need to worry about following anybody else's advice.

For something completely different, wonderfully silly, and deeply flawed, you ought to try Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun. It's about a murder at a science fiction convention. Some things are spot on, some things are just wrong, and it could've been improved with another couple rewrites...but then it would also lose the banged out over the weekend feeling, which is kind of charming. Quite the contrast to some of her other work. I don't recommend reading The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter if you're feeling depressed already (or don't want to become depressed).

[batshua]

It can't be a shrimp fork because shrimp aren't kosher. And we all know that Judaism has seeped into the collective subconcious in strange and amusing ways.

[megan-powell.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the delightful image of the Elders of Zion, Ben Edlund, and the Wachowski brothers huddled together in a lair plotting world domination.

[batshua]

I just came back from seeing Jewtopia. But I wasn't implying plotting so much as the proliferation of random bits of Judaism into pop culture with occasionally unfortunate results.

[megan-powell.livejournal.com]

But plotting's much more entertaining. Especially if the Elders are joined by the Gnomes of Zurich, the Children of Cthulu, and the Bavarian Illuminati.

[batshua]

Hell, I bet they invented shrimp forks. You know, along with milchig, parve, and fleishig forks.

I have a theory that the Jews were the ones who invented forks and that is why Christians considered them associated with the devil for so long. It didn't help that it looked like a pitchfork.

So I'm sure at some point a smart Jew said "we can make the three-pronged and make up some stuff about how the prongs represent The Trinity and then they'll leave us alone".

[megan-powell.livejournal.com]

And I guess there are 222 reasons why it's the Trinity's Beast....

Ouch. Math hurts at 2 AM.

[batshua]

Yes.

You should rest.

Math should never be done at 2 AM.