August Reading
Oct. 5th, 2024 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunlit_stoneNot much reading this month--and a month late! but here it is.
**Finished**
Lady of Quality, Georgette Heyer
I liked this one, though it's not a favourite. I appreciated Annis' relationship with her brother, it felt very real, and their point of connection through their mutual appreciation of his wife. Not a particularly plot-heavy one. At one point Annis was thinking about why she liked Oliver, as opposed to any of the men who have actually acted politely and so forth. and can't figure out why, and I wanted to say to her: I'm not exactly sure I can say he respects you, but at least he respects your intelligence; in a way she's pretty clearly not used to getting. This was a bit unfortunate in a way, inasmuch as it made me think of the actual relationship dynamics; the Heyer dynamic where the man just keeps kind of overruling the woman isn't my favourite! Ah well. Ninian and Lucilla were cute.
Bath Tangle, Georgette Heyer
Another one that I enjoyed but isn't a fav. At first I thought it was in dialogue with Pride & Prejudice, especially with the earlier scene when Serena calls Rotherham out for his rude behaviour at the dance, but the theory didn't hold up over time. Rotherham is SUCH a dick to Emily but I couldn't help but find him funny, and I enjoyed his and Serena's scenes. Hector is interesting as a romantic false lead; he and Fanny will clearly suit each other!
Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer
I liked this one! I did wish we had more scenes from the perspective of the AI, just because I like it. (And it has excellent priorities in pictures.) I'm honestly quite curious about some of its other personas in the other CatNet rooms! That said, I did really like Stephanie. She's quite clever and suspicious, and I love her investigating and working out what's going on with her mom over time--I love her mom as a character too; she's clearly done some damage to Stephanie, and is clearly damaged herself, but the danger she's fleeing from is very fucking real and she's not, like, fucking Stephanie over just because. The build of Steph's relationship with Rachel feels pretty convincing and is also very cute.
I said I'd have liked more of the AI's perspective, but I think conversely I'd also have enjoyed--a deeper dive into Steph's character? I don't know, I liked her character and while it's not that she felt shallow at all, the book just wasn't about examining her in great detail. But what if it had been! Oh well.
(This inspired me to check if it was nominated for Yuletide but it doesn't seem to be, damn.)
I also like the near-future setting. There's a detail I liked, early one, where someone says a delivery drone dropped something--and someone else interrupts, they never drop anything, there's safety concerns! It made the world feel very real, I liked it.
Chaos on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer
Sequel to the above! I liked it, in some ways more than the original; I liked seeing more of Steph's mother and the broader world, I really liked the new character who become's Steph's friend even if I did miss Rachel. The idea of a copy of the AI who'd been altered in various ways was very cool, but I do wish...more had been done with it? I did feel like the plot overall didn't quite work for me; I think the ideas were interesting but the book was too short to explore them properly. Well, once again, that's not the book it's trying to be! But I did like all the characters, and the near future setting, and I like Stephanie and her relationship with her mother (and the surprise grandmother!) a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if I reread these later on, and/or nominated them for Yuletide at some point.
**Percentage Reads**
The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness, by Andi Puddicombe, 40%->63%
The Iliad, Caroline Alextander translation, 52%->83%
The Poetic Edda: A Dual-Language Edition, Edward Pettit translsation, 3%->7%
Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn, 1%->49%
How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology, editor Zong-Qi Cai, 12%->15%
Programming In Scala, Fourth Edition, 28%->40%
**Finished**
Lady of Quality, Georgette Heyer
I liked this one, though it's not a favourite. I appreciated Annis' relationship with her brother, it felt very real, and their point of connection through their mutual appreciation of his wife. Not a particularly plot-heavy one. At one point Annis was thinking about why she liked Oliver, as opposed to any of the men who have actually acted politely and so forth. and can't figure out why, and I wanted to say to her: I'm not exactly sure I can say he respects you, but at least he respects your intelligence; in a way she's pretty clearly not used to getting. This was a bit unfortunate in a way, inasmuch as it made me think of the actual relationship dynamics; the Heyer dynamic where the man just keeps kind of overruling the woman isn't my favourite! Ah well. Ninian and Lucilla were cute.
Bath Tangle, Georgette Heyer
Another one that I enjoyed but isn't a fav. At first I thought it was in dialogue with Pride & Prejudice, especially with the earlier scene when Serena calls Rotherham out for his rude behaviour at the dance, but the theory didn't hold up over time. Rotherham is SUCH a dick to Emily but I couldn't help but find him funny, and I enjoyed his and Serena's scenes. Hector is interesting as a romantic false lead; he and Fanny will clearly suit each other!
Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer
I liked this one! I did wish we had more scenes from the perspective of the AI, just because I like it. (And it has excellent priorities in pictures.) I'm honestly quite curious about some of its other personas in the other CatNet rooms! That said, I did really like Stephanie. She's quite clever and suspicious, and I love her investigating and working out what's going on with her mom over time--I love her mom as a character too; she's clearly done some damage to Stephanie, and is clearly damaged herself, but the danger she's fleeing from is very fucking real and she's not, like, fucking Stephanie over just because. The build of Steph's relationship with Rachel feels pretty convincing and is also very cute.
I said I'd have liked more of the AI's perspective, but I think conversely I'd also have enjoyed--a deeper dive into Steph's character? I don't know, I liked her character and while it's not that she felt shallow at all, the book just wasn't about examining her in great detail. But what if it had been! Oh well.
(This inspired me to check if it was nominated for Yuletide but it doesn't seem to be, damn.)
I also like the near-future setting. There's a detail I liked, early one, where someone says a delivery drone dropped something--and someone else interrupts, they never drop anything, there's safety concerns! It made the world feel very real, I liked it.
Chaos on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer
Sequel to the above! I liked it, in some ways more than the original; I liked seeing more of Steph's mother and the broader world, I really liked the new character who become's Steph's friend even if I did miss Rachel. The idea of a copy of the AI who'd been altered in various ways was very cool, but I do wish...more had been done with it? I did feel like the plot overall didn't quite work for me; I think the ideas were interesting but the book was too short to explore them properly. Well, once again, that's not the book it's trying to be! But I did like all the characters, and the near future setting, and I like Stephanie and her relationship with her mother (and the surprise grandmother!) a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if I reread these later on, and/or nominated them for Yuletide at some point.
**Percentage Reads**
The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness, by Andi Puddicombe, 40%->63%
The Iliad, Caroline Alextander translation, 52%->83%
The Poetic Edda: A Dual-Language Edition, Edward Pettit translsation, 3%->7%
Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn, 1%->49%
How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology, editor Zong-Qi Cai, 12%->15%
Programming In Scala, Fourth Edition, 28%->40%
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-10 02:11 am (UTC)What! Well, damn, I hadn't realized. That's a shame; I'd have enjoyed seeing more deeply into that world.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-10 02:38 pm (UTC)