Novel novels: March 2010

Note: I'm starting to write this series multiple months after I've finished reading the books, so in most cases I don't remember a whole lot. I'll include stuff I remember, including trigger warnings, but I'm not going to remember everything. I hope to rectify this when I catch up and am writing about stuff I just got done reading.

1. Storm Front by Jim Butcher

• 3 stars
• Amusing, most of all for the protagonist's resemblance to the friend who recommended this series to me

2. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

• 2.5 stars

3. Man Walks into a Room by Nicole Krauss

• 3 stars

4. Come Along With Me by Shirley Jackson

• 3 stars
• Worth reading for the classic short story "The Lottery"

5. The Belgariad by David Eddings

• 3 stars
• Five-book series. Fairly enjoyable at the start, but after a while I got kind of tired of the "lowly Hero finds out He's actually Really Important and also there's a Prophecy about him, gathers a motley band of Followers, becomes some sort of leader/general/king person and doesn't believe in the Prophecy at all but end up following/fulfilling it anyway" thing. I did like many of the characters. I also started reading The Mallorean, but quit partway through.

6. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

• 4 stars
• I liked the humour of this autobiographical graphic novel quite a bit. I usually don't enjoy graphic novels because I tend to just read the words and skip the pictures, but Bechdel's images managed to grab my attention well.

7. A Lifetime of Secrets by Frank Warren

• 3 stars
• A PostSecret book. Not much else to say.

8. Perfect by Natasha Friend

• 2.5 stars
• Basic adolescent-girl-struggling-with-eating-disorder book. Trigger warning, obviously.

9. The Land of the Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer

• 3.5 stars
• I love Nancy Farmer's books and I love Norse mythology. So why did I not absolutely love this book? I really can't remember. It's probably because it wasn't as good as the first book of the series, The Sea of Trolls.

10. The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint

• 3.5 stars
• Charles de Lint is another favourite author and every so often I go on a de Lint kick and emerge three or four books later with a rather glazed expression and seeing fey folk everywhere. I prefer his short story collections, but this young adult book was enjoyable.

11. Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves

• 3 stars
• I liked the travelling-between-permutations-of-possible-worlds storyline. I think I was a bit disappointed by the speeding up of the plot at the end.

12. Behind the Mountains by Edwidge Danticat

• 2.5 stars

14. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

• 2.5 stars
• After finishing this, I think I finished with Butcher, unless I happen to start hankering for semi-juvenile fantasy dripping with machismo.

Scoring system is as follows:
1 star = hated
1.5 stars = didn't enjoy, but didn't hate
2 stars = didn't enjoy particularly
2.5 stars = enjoyed somewhat
3 stars = enjoyed, but might not read again
3.5 stars = would probably read again
4 stars = would like to own a copy
4.5 stars = would like to own a copy, and would probably read occasionally
5 stars = would like to own a copy, and would probably read often

my hate-hate relationship with social networking sites

After reading this Shakesville post yesterday*, which featured Deeky and Liss' commentary on this Non Sequitur comic:

Image description: Drawing of a wedding ceremony taking place in a church. Visual focus is on a (presumably) white, cis-male, non-disabled, hetero groom wearing a black tuxedo; a (presumably) cis-female, non-disabled, hetero bride wearing a white dress with a train and waist-length veil; a (presumably) white, cis-male, non-disabled officiant wearing clerical black underthings, white robe, purple stole. The three figures have their backs to one another and are holding iPads. Text boxes coming from the iPads read, respectively "I DO. [send]", "i do. [send]" and "COOL! U R NOW HSBND N WIFE." The title "iRomance" appears in the lower right-hand corner.


I was so very pleased to see the story "Apple geeks conduct 'iPad wedding'" linked to in a Cake Wrecks post today*.


The internet is great, I'm with you there. Lots of information, people, whatever. Facebook? Okay, I like having one place where I can contact a lot of people if I don't want to use email; I still minimize my FB time as much as possible. Twitter? No thanks, I'm sure if I got started I could never be able to stop and would never ever have any free time ever. Apple, for me, is evil. I will never buy another Apple product if I have any choice in the matter. Google, also evil, but they've sucked me in and haven't screwed me over completely yet, so I'm still with them. 


If you're all yaygoFacebookTwitterAppleeverything!!!1!eleventy!!1!!!! more power to you. That's just not me. I don't even have a cell phone, because I don't want people to feel like they can contact me whenever they want and expect me to respond. I am lucky enough that I don't have the kind of responsibilities that would make not owning a cell phone irresponsible.


There doesn't really seem to be a point to this post, other than 'hey, this is kind of like the meatworld version of that one comic Liss and Deeky were talking about!' but wev.


*Yes, I know that's not when they were published. That's when I read them.