RECENTLY READ RUMBLINGS
Mar. 23rd, 2022 01:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
javainkI still haven't made my Final Thoughts post on Giorno's season, but I've decided to re-watch the last few episodes, so I'll get around to writing up my final points at some point. Of course, I haven't gotten around to re-watching said episodes, despite it being a week or so now since I've finally seen the end, but I have do have a knitted scarf begging to be finished, so Giorno will be the perfect backdrop for that.
Last week I finished a book not on my Top Priority sub-section of my TBR book list, which is just predictable of me. But I finished a book, so it's still a win! To be fair all around, my friend M had read the book in January and was mad over it, wanted someone to talk about it with, to see if she was being too harsh--and coincidentally it was already on my e-book hold list with one of my libraries. I had to see if I agreed with her. Finally it was my turn with the e-book and I read it all last week.
It was A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.
Turns out M was not being too harsh.
I enjoyed reading the book, and it was fun. I would not truly recommend it to others.
It's not bad, it's just...a road-trip book that never stuck with a character long enough for me to get attached.
My biggest gripe was that it was a book of monologues. The dialogue was tiresome. Info-dump after info-dump. Some of the characters had matching voices. Literally in one scene, I mixed up one of the speaking characters with another and didn't notice until the end of the scene. I myself have a terrible time with character voices, so I get it, but it still was terrible to read. I never disagreed exactly with the characters' moral harping, but boy. You're making your dialogue do too much heavy lifting. Characters would give so much backstory or talk about moral discussions at great lengths. The conversations didn't lead to plot and were mainly just an explanation of the universe. There wasn't much of characters butting heads, so it was like listening to hallway gossip or someone retelling the news.
There are obviously exceptions to this claim of mine. Corbin is an outlier and can't be counted, the dude disagrees with everyone. The Ohan plotline (my favorite) had two tension-filled scenes, though we knew how each would end. There was one argument between the captain, Ashby, and the pilot, Sissix, and it was amazing, crackling like fire, right up until they switched the conversation to a different plotline that didn't need resolving. Frustrating all around.
Even worse, the character arcs were either given cop-outs or easily solved after being built up for so long. We really don't stick with some of these characters enough, or see enough conflict-centered scenes for it to hit readers hard like it's obviously supposed to. There are mentions of tough and tension-filled scenes, but we don't see them by ourselves, not for the main crew at least. The only moment I felt alive while reading this book was in the last 50 pages of this book when we first meet the Toremi and our Toremi POV character is having a terrible time. He nearly kills a fellow clan member, and WOOF what tension! (also it sparked my Enemies-to-Lovers trope gremlin brain, but it was not to be in this story). He dies off-screen.
M and I argued back and forth on whether the character Jenks has dwarfism or not. It was a weird mistep on Chambers' part because while she describes him exactly like you would an adult dwarf, she never worldbuilds enough to mention what navigating the world like is for him. Does he get treatments for his medical symptoms of dwarfism, or as an adult did he search out medical cures (so treatments are needed)? What parts of the ship were modified to match his physical needs? Things like this is what convinced M that he is actually just an extremely short man. I argued that he is a dwarf but that Chambers either failed to research too much for dwarfism or she felt such details weren't necessary. Chambers is so detailed in other worldbuilding regards, so it's surprising that with Jenks she just...didn't. M hypothesized that Chambers was too focused on the Lovey/Jenks plotline and wanted to focus on the trans-allegory. It's a "yikes" situation either way.
The world building was the best part, after the set-up of the whole plot. A space worm-hole tunneling ship lands a big gig that's far away that has political consequences. Cool! A perfect set-up for a road trip tale. And all the characters had fascinating backstories too. I just wish the author had dug her heels in more with our fake main character (this is an ensemble book, but it starts by tricking you into thinking the newbie team member is the main character). When the newbie's secret is revealed, which had been set-up like it mattered greatly, it was over like a balloon deflating. We get hints of her struggle before the reveal, her initial introduction, but after that, we just glide around the ship with other characters and their plots. There was one scene where two of the crew are talking about how dodgy Rosemary is about her past, but we never are with her during these mentioned scenes, and I wasn't convinced she was having a hard time because I never saw it! Then when it's revealed to the crew, no one cares, which is fair, except for the fact that apparently the captain was disappointed or "not happy" about Rosemary faking her identity. Do we get treated to this scene? No. Instead, we get Jenks telling Rosemary "You should talk to Dr. Chef", and then cue Dr. Chef info-dumping about his own home planet to Rosemary and going "see, Rosemary, learn from my story and please don't blame yourself about X". I very much wanted to learn about Dr. Chef's past, but not in this way.
But anyway. I enjoyed the different species and the obvious LGBTQA+ analogies, as well as the outright queer representation. Sissix's species was cool and I loved seeing her home planet and family! Ohan's was my favorite, and I would definitely pick up a sequel book if it centered on him or someone of his species. Chambers writing style is also incredibly easy to read. I never noticed how many pages I turned, and getting through 100 pages at a time (there are 400 total) was a breeze. Her prose is lovely too.
This book was recommended to me before M asked me to read it, and a lot of people love it! So I'm sure all of the above won't bother everyone. It did for me though, so that's why I wouldn't think to recommend it.
In another form of "please, mornings, focus on something", I have decided to ignore my Top Priority list--since apparently I'm only capable of thinking about the books but my hands refuse to pick them up--and have instead checked out two books from my library. Actually my library didn't have the books, but I hopped on our interloan library portal and got them through that. I *cries* love libraries. What a beautiful service.
I've checked out Love and Rage by Lama Rod Owens, mainly because of an excerpt I read on tumblr from it a few weeks back. My second book is Communion: the Female Search for Love by bell hooks. I had never heard of bell hooks until her death this year, and I was interested in reading something by her. I've already read the premise and am excited to get to the rest of the essays. I'm trying to take notes or write out passages from each book as I go, since I can't highlight in these books like I normally would want to do.
These books are nonfiction, so although reading them from start to finish is the best practice, I don't actually have to do that and won't be so easily lost.
Two days ago, my area had a tornado watch and warning. Having lived in north-central Texas my whole life, this is not a surprise. I have been through plenty of school drills and home drills. I even went to school in the midwest, where tornadoes are also common. I've never been hit by a tornado, or come close to one.
Despite all this, tornadoes terrify me.
My midwestern friends all joke that tornadoes are nothing, that they just go about their day as normal, it's no skin off their back. Meanwhile, I shelter immediately and lock my pets in the safest portion of my house with me. I don't cry or have outbursts, but I can't ever feel casual about tornadoes like them.
Thankfully, my town was on the outer edge of the predicted counties affected, and though we did go under warning, it was only for an hour or two. The heavy storm weather was gone by 10pm.
I distracted myself by reading a long review by a trans writer about the book "The Men" (hot garbage, that situation, all around; even just screenshots from the book were upsetting), and then reading the first chapter of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. Fight tornado fear with book fear.
I've had Hendrix's book sitting on my shelf for a few months now, so technically I am tackling my TBR currently, HA. It's funny so far, and I think I'll have a good time. The romantic in me is hoping for some vampire romance in this, but honestly, with what I've read so far, I'll be pleased if the vampire is the villain or a general menace either way.
I've also at last downloaded the Webtoon app. I'll hunker down and (slowly) read the ORV webtoon. Finally the Disaster of Floods is here and I don't want to miss out. It's such a good arc, Shin Yoosung my daughter OTL
Alright, back to some LinkedIn scrambling.
Last week I finished a book not on my Top Priority sub-section of my TBR book list, which is just predictable of me. But I finished a book, so it's still a win! To be fair all around, my friend M had read the book in January and was mad over it, wanted someone to talk about it with, to see if she was being too harsh--and coincidentally it was already on my e-book hold list with one of my libraries. I had to see if I agreed with her. Finally it was my turn with the e-book and I read it all last week.
It was A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.
Turns out M was not being too harsh.
I enjoyed reading the book, and it was fun. I would not truly recommend it to others.
It's not bad, it's just...a road-trip book that never stuck with a character long enough for me to get attached.
My biggest gripe was that it was a book of monologues. The dialogue was tiresome. Info-dump after info-dump. Some of the characters had matching voices. Literally in one scene, I mixed up one of the speaking characters with another and didn't notice until the end of the scene. I myself have a terrible time with character voices, so I get it, but it still was terrible to read. I never disagreed exactly with the characters' moral harping, but boy. You're making your dialogue do too much heavy lifting. Characters would give so much backstory or talk about moral discussions at great lengths. The conversations didn't lead to plot and were mainly just an explanation of the universe. There wasn't much of characters butting heads, so it was like listening to hallway gossip or someone retelling the news.
There are obviously exceptions to this claim of mine. Corbin is an outlier and can't be counted, the dude disagrees with everyone. The Ohan plotline (my favorite) had two tension-filled scenes, though we knew how each would end. There was one argument between the captain, Ashby, and the pilot, Sissix, and it was amazing, crackling like fire, right up until they switched the conversation to a different plotline that didn't need resolving. Frustrating all around.
Even worse, the character arcs were either given cop-outs or easily solved after being built up for so long. We really don't stick with some of these characters enough, or see enough conflict-centered scenes for it to hit readers hard like it's obviously supposed to. There are mentions of tough and tension-filled scenes, but we don't see them by ourselves, not for the main crew at least. The only moment I felt alive while reading this book was in the last 50 pages of this book when we first meet the Toremi and our Toremi POV character is having a terrible time. He nearly kills a fellow clan member, and WOOF what tension! (also it sparked my Enemies-to-Lovers trope gremlin brain, but it was not to be in this story). He dies off-screen.
M and I argued back and forth on whether the character Jenks has dwarfism or not. It was a weird mistep on Chambers' part because while she describes him exactly like you would an adult dwarf, she never worldbuilds enough to mention what navigating the world like is for him. Does he get treatments for his medical symptoms of dwarfism, or as an adult did he search out medical cures (so treatments are needed)? What parts of the ship were modified to match his physical needs? Things like this is what convinced M that he is actually just an extremely short man. I argued that he is a dwarf but that Chambers either failed to research too much for dwarfism or she felt such details weren't necessary. Chambers is so detailed in other worldbuilding regards, so it's surprising that with Jenks she just...didn't. M hypothesized that Chambers was too focused on the Lovey/Jenks plotline and wanted to focus on the trans-allegory. It's a "yikes" situation either way.
The world building was the best part, after the set-up of the whole plot. A space worm-hole tunneling ship lands a big gig that's far away that has political consequences. Cool! A perfect set-up for a road trip tale. And all the characters had fascinating backstories too. I just wish the author had dug her heels in more with our fake main character (this is an ensemble book, but it starts by tricking you into thinking the newbie team member is the main character). When the newbie's secret is revealed, which had been set-up like it mattered greatly, it was over like a balloon deflating. We get hints of her struggle before the reveal, her initial introduction, but after that, we just glide around the ship with other characters and their plots. There was one scene where two of the crew are talking about how dodgy Rosemary is about her past, but we never are with her during these mentioned scenes, and I wasn't convinced she was having a hard time because I never saw it! Then when it's revealed to the crew, no one cares, which is fair, except for the fact that apparently the captain was disappointed or "not happy" about Rosemary faking her identity. Do we get treated to this scene? No. Instead, we get Jenks telling Rosemary "You should talk to Dr. Chef", and then cue Dr. Chef info-dumping about his own home planet to Rosemary and going "see, Rosemary, learn from my story and please don't blame yourself about X". I very much wanted to learn about Dr. Chef's past, but not in this way.
But anyway. I enjoyed the different species and the obvious LGBTQA+ analogies, as well as the outright queer representation. Sissix's species was cool and I loved seeing her home planet and family! Ohan's was my favorite, and I would definitely pick up a sequel book if it centered on him or someone of his species. Chambers writing style is also incredibly easy to read. I never noticed how many pages I turned, and getting through 100 pages at a time (there are 400 total) was a breeze. Her prose is lovely too.
This book was recommended to me before M asked me to read it, and a lot of people love it! So I'm sure all of the above won't bother everyone. It did for me though, so that's why I wouldn't think to recommend it.
In another form of "please, mornings, focus on something", I have decided to ignore my Top Priority list--since apparently I'm only capable of thinking about the books but my hands refuse to pick them up--and have instead checked out two books from my library. Actually my library didn't have the books, but I hopped on our interloan library portal and got them through that. I *cries* love libraries. What a beautiful service.
I've checked out Love and Rage by Lama Rod Owens, mainly because of an excerpt I read on tumblr from it a few weeks back. My second book is Communion: the Female Search for Love by bell hooks. I had never heard of bell hooks until her death this year, and I was interested in reading something by her. I've already read the premise and am excited to get to the rest of the essays. I'm trying to take notes or write out passages from each book as I go, since I can't highlight in these books like I normally would want to do.
These books are nonfiction, so although reading them from start to finish is the best practice, I don't actually have to do that and won't be so easily lost.
Two days ago, my area had a tornado watch and warning. Having lived in north-central Texas my whole life, this is not a surprise. I have been through plenty of school drills and home drills. I even went to school in the midwest, where tornadoes are also common. I've never been hit by a tornado, or come close to one.
Despite all this, tornadoes terrify me.
My midwestern friends all joke that tornadoes are nothing, that they just go about their day as normal, it's no skin off their back. Meanwhile, I shelter immediately and lock my pets in the safest portion of my house with me. I don't cry or have outbursts, but I can't ever feel casual about tornadoes like them.
Thankfully, my town was on the outer edge of the predicted counties affected, and though we did go under warning, it was only for an hour or two. The heavy storm weather was gone by 10pm.
I distracted myself by reading a long review by a trans writer about the book "The Men" (hot garbage, that situation, all around; even just screenshots from the book were upsetting), and then reading the first chapter of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. Fight tornado fear with book fear.
I've had Hendrix's book sitting on my shelf for a few months now, so technically I am tackling my TBR currently, HA. It's funny so far, and I think I'll have a good time. The romantic in me is hoping for some vampire romance in this, but honestly, with what I've read so far, I'll be pleased if the vampire is the villain or a general menace either way.
I've also at last downloaded the Webtoon app. I'll hunker down and (slowly) read the ORV webtoon. Finally the Disaster of Floods is here and I don't want to miss out. It's such a good arc, Shin Yoosung my daughter OTL
Alright, back to some LinkedIn scrambling.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-23 10:46 pm (UTC)I think I read the same review of "The Men" (Ana Mardoll?) right before bed last night, which was definitely a poor choice when trying to fall asleep. What an awful book :/
no subject
Date: 2022-03-24 12:19 am (UTC)Yes, it was the Ana Mardoll twitter reviews! I read all 4 threads and it was a doozy. I probably wouldn't have ever picked it up, but now I know really not to.
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Date: 2022-03-24 04:04 pm (UTC)It sounds funny just from the title! It'll go onto my TBR too :D
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Date: 2022-03-27 04:56 am (UTC)And the book is funny so far! But it's gotten kinda...gross gorey? I poked around on Goodreads because I was getting some weird vibes (and also to see if the dog dies, since it is a horror book, and I need to know pet death up front), and apparently the book kinda gets...worse. So I'm cautious as I read it.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-01 05:40 am (UTC)I'll peace out... XD my kinda horror is Ira Levine-esque psychological horror, never anything approaching gore.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-25 08:10 pm (UTC)Yikes, tornadoes, please stay safe! Do you have an emergency kit/measures in place just in case? I say that while having not much myself even though California is susceptible to earthquakes haha!
I need to get on Webtoon myself! I have so many recommendations! Also good luck with LinkedIn scrambling!
no subject
Date: 2022-03-27 05:02 am (UTC)We actually...do not have a kit. But we shelter in the hallway, which is right next to the bathroom, so the first aid is close by, I guess.. I should look into this, thank you! That definitely would make me feel more safe whenever watch/warnings happen.