What have you read lately?

[hmaria1609]

From the library:
Independent Press in DC and Virginia by Dale M. Brumfield
This local history book chronicles the heyday of alternative newspapers in 60s and 70s in DC and VA.

[apl68]

Wild Ocean, by Alan Villiers.  Awhile back I read a book about the Atlantic Ocean by Simon Winchester.  Some half-century earlier, in the mid-1950s, Alan Villiers wrote this work about the same subject.  He covers a broadly similar variety of subject matter.  Villiers has a good deal less about the physical science of the ocean and its currents, climates, etc. than Winchester does.  Understandable, as much less was then known about such things.  Villiers' concerns are with the more classically "romantic" subjects of ships and seafaring. 

Which is understandable, given Villiers' experience.  Winchester begins his book with a description of crossing the Atlantic in his youth aboard one of the last ocean liners to ply its waters in the old style.  Villiers writes of how in his youth he sailed as a seaman aboard some of the last true commercial sailing ships.  He wrote a lot of articles about his experiences for National Geographic and the like back in the day.

The difference in perspective between a writer born in 1903 and one born in 1944 is pretty dramatic.  Naturally Winchester's perspective is in many ways one that today's readers would find more congenial--it's far less Eurocentric for one thing.  But Villiers' perspective is interesting in its own right.  In one chapter he writes about what it must have been like to sail aboard the Mayflower, citing his own experience of sailing in an Arab dhow crowded with migrating families.  Experiences like that gave firsthand insights that writers today simply can't have.  It's interesting to note that at least one of the flurry of books that came out around the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage--I think it was Nathaniel Philbrick's--very clearly drew on Villiers' account to describe what the experience of that voyage must have been like.

[hmaria1609]

Binge reading from the library: "Gilded Newport Mystery" series by Alyssa Maxwell
A historical mystery series set in 1895 Newport, RI.

[paultuttle]

Good Omens, Mystery at Thunderbolt House, and Creating the Not So Big House.

Oh, and Elizabeth Moon's Familias Regnant series (all seven books).

[Parasaurolophus]

February:


Peter Watts and Laurie Channer - Bulk Food: Just a short story, but I've been meaning to get to it for a while. Basically, imagine we learn to communicate with orcas, and it turns out that orcas are kind of shitty. It was fun, but it lacked some of the punch I associate with Watts's work.

Sam J. Miller - Blackfish City: This is a pretty weird work of cliphi, and I liked it very much. Basically, a middle-aged woman shows up at a floating city riding an orca and towing a caged polar bear, and nobody knows what the hell is going on. Very effective world-building, with interesting characters. The final act devolves into a bit of a teen novel (I like teen novels, but the rest of it is kind of grimly unforgiving and adult, so it's a noticeable shift). But I enjoyed it very much, and tore through it.

Tracy Chevalier - Remarkable Creatures: As I recall, mamselle recommended this one as something of an antidote to Brusatte's somewhat bro-y Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. My first surprise was when I discovered it was a period novel (about Mary Anning's discoveries), rather than a work of non-fiction. My second surprise was just how much I liked it. I couldn't put it down. I don't much care to read stories about suitors and such (though I enjoy watching them), but this was just lovely, and did a great job of weaving the fossil hunting into the story. I wish I'd read it sooner, though, so that I could have told her how much I enjoyed it, and thanked her for recommending it.

[FishProf]

Remarkable Creatures is a great read and I've used parts of it in my Dinosaurs class.

Previous discussion here of  old-school Sci-Fi, which encouraged me to go back and re-read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.  It's an interesting story of the effects of time dilation on soldiers fighting against the Taurans who use FTL transportation.  The technical details of the weapons, and the combat challenges in low G and on planets at 2-3 kelvins I remembered well-enough from my 15 yo reading. 

The societal changes on Earth (and later colonies) as 30-300 years pass on Earth for 3-6 months subjective time for the soldiers were new to me.  The major change is the gradual conversion of homosexuality from an aberration in the 1970's, to being common, and eventually being universal except for a few 'old queers' (the original hetero soldiers from the 1990s).  There are two other books in the series that I haven't read, but now I'm intrigued to see how well other predictions of the future have held up.

[ergative]

Ooh, Remarkable Creatures sounds right up my alley! Especially because I agree that Brusatte was displeasingly bro-y.

[Parasaurolophus]

Previous discussion here of  old-school Sci-Fi, which encouraged me to go back and re-read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.  It's an interesting story of the effects of time dilation on soldiers fighting against the Taurans who use FTL transportation.  The technical details of the weapons, and the combat challenges in low G and on planets at 2-3 kelvins I remembered well-enough from my 15 yo reading. 

The societal changes on Earth (and later colonies) as 30-300 years pass on Earth for 3-6 months subjective time for the soldiers were new to me.  The major change is the gradual conversion of homosexuality from an aberration in the 1970's, to being common, and eventually being universal except for a few 'old queers' (the original hetero soldiers from the 1990s).  There are two other books in the series that I haven't read, but now I'm intrigued to see how well other predictions of the future have held up.

I read The Forever War four or five years ago, and I guess I would have posted about it on the old forum. I enjoyed it as a thought experiment, but I'm hesitant to pick up the others, because I'm not sure that they'll be able to add much. I mean, where does the concept go from there?

Ooh, Remarkable Creatures sounds right up my alley! Especially because I agree that Brusatte was displeasingly bro-y.

Oh yes, do! You'll definitely enjoy it!

[FishProf]

I read The Forever War four or five years ago, and I guess I would have posted about it on the old forum. I enjoyed it as a thought experiment, but I'm hesitant to pick up the others, because I'm not sure that they'll be able to add much. I mean, where does the concept go from there?

My completionist tendencies mean that you don't have to.  I'll get to it shortly and suggest it or save you the experience.  Your question is why I want to read more.

[Parasaurolophus]

I read The Forever War four or five years ago, and I guess I would have posted about it on the old forum. I enjoyed it as a thought experiment, but I'm hesitant to pick up the others, because I'm not sure that they'll be able to add much. I mean, where does the concept go from there?

My completionist tendencies mean that you don't have to.  I'll get to it shortly and suggest it or save you the experience.  Your question is why I want to read more.

Well, I look forward to it. Good luck!

[ciao_yall]

Just finished Rodham by Curtiss Sittenfeld who is a woman, BTW.

It is imagining what would have happened had she not married Bill.

[apl68]

Polar Exposure:  An All-Women's Expedition to the North Pole, by Felicity Aston.  The author was a polar meteorologist who became a polar adventurer.  In the later 2010s she recruited an international European/Persian Gulf States all-women's team.  After several group training expeditions, they flew to the Russian Barneo Arctic drift station in April 2018 and spent six days skiing to the North Pole.  And are immensely proud of their achievement.

The books spends much more space on the organization and training for the expedition than on the expedition itself.  Because, honestly, the expedition itself seems like something of an anticlimax.  Barneo has spent much of the 21st century paying for its scientific research program by serving as a jumping-off point for assorted commercial polar "expeditions."  Aston's expedition spent six days skiing to the Pole, which evidently any number of commercial expeditions have done in recent decades.  One member failed to take good care of her hands and had to be flown out with frostbite after the first day.  The others made it to the Pole as planned without much in the way of incident.  They seem to have gotten along with each other admirably well.

There's been a lot of polar adventuring in recent decades.  People are constantly skiing, dog-sledding, walking, bicycling (!), kiting, etc. across Antarctica or the Arctic sea ice to one or the other of the poles.  There are so many permutations that there's now a whole web site devoted to codifying them, to avoid another cheater like the notorious Colin O'Brady.  Polar "expeditions" are really more a form of extreme sport than anything else now, although they often fit in a few scientific observations to provide a fig leaf of scientific justification for the trip.  The vast majority of the adventurers are guys who feel they have something to prove, naturally, but there are women who want in on it as well.  And that's pretty much what the Aston "expedition" seems to have been about.

It's a beautifully illustrated book.  The members of the expedition come across as nice people who get along with each other and want to be good role models.  There's no doubt that they've pulled off a physically grueling feat that most of us could only dream about accomplishing.  But I've got to say, the whole thing looks awfully pale compared to the polar expeditions of yesteryear.  The members took some chances, but there wasn't much drama, and you don't get the sense that there was really very much at stake.  They had a documentary camera crew accompanying them all the way.  The whole thing seems about as groundbreaking as an international team climbing Everest among the hordes of climbers in a given season.

I can see commentators of an intersectional bent raking these women over the coals for failing to check their privilege and the like (Aston spends about a page or so toward the end nodding in that direction--but I suspect that for some it wouldn't be nearly enough).  There's also perhaps a bit of cognitive dissonance in the way the participants talk about raising awareness of the need to combat global climate change, even as they burn immense amounts of Russian jet fuel to position themselves to carry out an "expedition" that seems more about proving themselves personally than any actual scientific research.  They've proven that a team of women can do extreme sports as effectively as a team of men.  Women have been proving for a long time now that they can do much more significant things than extreme sports.

[Juvenal]

My interest in (re)reading wanes.  I pulled Barchester Towers up from the basement "library" and found myself unable to do more than four or five chapters.  Plunk! on the floor by the bed;  I know how it comes out.  A friend thanked me for turning her onto Trollope, in particular, The Way We Live Now, and it appears unlikely I'll ever read it again (as much fun as it was four or five years ago).  Bring on the trash!

[FishProf]

I was going through some old boxes over spring break and came across all my old Dungeons and Dragons books.  Sometime later, down the rabbit hole, I was perusing the Deities and Demigods book and found the section on the Melnibonean mythos, which is based on the Elric novels by Michael Moorcock, and I thought "Hey, I've never read those".

So I did.  The first book, Elric of Melnibone, was a fun albeit dark scord and sorcery adventure.  Nothing too terribly deep, but good for 1961.  I look forward to the rest of the series.

I will also be getting into the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser/World of Newhon books soon. 

I find these make good palate cleansers between heavier academic tomes.

[onthefringe]

My interest in (re)reading wanes.  I pulled Barchester Towers up from the basement "library" and found myself unable to do more than four or five chapters.  Plunk! on the floor by the bed;  I know how it comes out.  A friend thanked me for turning her onto Trollope, in particular, The Way We Live Now, and it appears unlikely I'll ever read it again (as much fun as it was four or five years ago).  Bring on the trash!

No idea if this would interest you, but Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw is basically Trollope but with dragons (A more complete explanation is in this essay). I think it's charming, and figuring out the system that provides biological motivations for Victorian attitudes is a lot of fun.

Apparently when asked if she would ever write a sequel Walton said people who wanted one could read Trollope and imagine the main characters are dragons.