Many random thoughts
Sun, Jun. 22nd, 2003 04:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterWoohoo! I'm home! I'm in the Taipei apartment right now sweating profusely. I always forget how hot and humid Taiwan is. It feels like one is actually wading through the air. Personally, I think air should be one of those things people don't really think about. When I have to think about air, it's almost always a bad thing: asthma attacks, coughing, itchy throats, or profoundly humid air. Yuck.
I've had a great deal of fun with books lately. I finally read parts of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series (Tomb of Atuan and Farthest Shores) and now must get my hands on Tehanu and Wizard of Earthsea. I loved them very much, although they scared me deeply, especially The Farthest Shores' pondering on death and immortality. And the utter darkness in Tomb of Atuan. I have no idea how I managed to pick up Wizard of Earthsea numerous times back in high school and never finish it!
I also read Douglas Adams' Long Dark Teatime of the Soul because I saw Sarah reading it a while back. And Douglas Adams. Nuff said. And it made me rather sad and vaguely nostalgic, not because of the book, but because I remember giggling with Sarah on the steps of Charter about large orange monsters that hide behind molecules. And I wanted to read certain lines out loud to Sarah or Todd or the boy or Timmy and make them laugh. Sigh.
Then I bought Juliet Marillier's Child of the Prophecy and Diana Wynne Jones' Tales of the Chrestomanci part one, because hey, it's two books in one! How can you go wrong? I got them at Books Inc., a very cute little independent bookstore in Stanford Mall. And while I was sitting there reading League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen (Mina Murray is awesome), I watched these two clerks try to advise this very well-read girl on what fantasy novels she should buy to hold her through her weeklong trip. And I just kept craning my neck over and desperately tried to overhear the conversation to get a load of new book recs. I also desperately wanted to just casually walk over and recommend some things to the girl, but I felt so awkward, like I might have been intruding or something. But I also really just wanted to talk good fantasy. In the end, I wimped out and didn't for fear that everyone would think I was weird for being some complete stranger and wandering in on the conversation. But now I also desperately want to work at that bookstore. Hrm.
Spoilers ahead for the above two books:
Read all of Charmed Life and the Lives of Christopher Chant, the books in Tales of the Chrestomanci and absolutely adored them. So now I'm beating myself over the head for not getting the next two books in the series, because now I have to wait for an entire three weeks!! I liked Christopher Chant much better than Charmed Life. I'm not quite sure why. I think maybe Christopher is a much more dynamic character than Cat, who mostly gets acted upon in the book. And there's Christopher's Anywheres and the Goddess. And it was lovely reading it after Charmed Life, because there were very many Aha! moments. My favorite was finding out that Chrestomanci's wife Millie was in fact the Goddess, because that was so absolutely perfect. And I also wanted to run around and make people who like Harry Potter to read these books, because they're awesome.
I reread Child of the Prophecy yesterday, which caused me to promptly get over jet lag and stay up to my usual bedtime of 2 in the morning. Reading books before bed is a horrible idea, especially for me, because I always tell myself that I'll read "just one more chapter," which naturally turns out to be half the book. Then it's, Oh, look, only one more hour and I can finish! And I sleep at another ungodly hour of the morning. Anyway, Child of the Prophecy is the third book in Marillier's Sevenwaters Trilogy (Daughter of the Forest and Son of the Shadows), and I love them all. But I especially love this one, even though the first two were very very good as well. The first one is an Irish retelling of the Seven Swans fairy tale that brings in the Sidhe/Tuatha de Danan and druids. And the romantic elements are quite strong in all three books, which satisfies the romance reader in me. I love the growing relationship between Sorcha and Hugh in the first book and most of all Darragh and Fainne in the third one. For some reason, Liadan and Bran didn't quite do it for me. I think it was because it felt almost too stereotypically romantic, the good girl rebelling and falling for the misunderstood bad boy and bringing him to the light despite strong family pressure. Hugh and Darragh's quietness worked much better for me, especially Hugh's inability to express emotion well and Marillier's beautiful telling of Hugh and Sorcha's day at the beach and the story of Tobie and the selkie wife. Come to think of it, that story is also echoed in Child of the Prophecy. Anyhow, I seem to be doing very poorly in writing about how these books make me feel. Probably because the romance is blended into the overall plot, I find them much more effective and touching than romances in romance novels. I also love Fainne because unlike Sorcha, who's pretty much good in and out, Fainne has no idea what she's doing, she's horribly misguided at times, and as such, speaks more to me. And Darragh's friendship and the very quiet, very steady nature of how he loves her always gets to me, especially at the very last bits. The ends of Child of the Prophecy and Daughter of the Forest always make me cry actual tears, instead of just tearing up, as I usually do.
Then I found that my sister's friend had borrowed my copy of Rose Daughter (now I have two!) and returned it and a book of Patricia C. Wrede's short stories. And I always seem to forget how much I used to love Patricia C. Wrede. Still do. The Enchanted Forest series is just so much fun, with its mockery of fairy tales. I remember back in high school I kind of got sick of them for a bit because Cimorene is occasionally too Mary Sue-ish -- she always knows what to do, she's eminently practical, beautiful, brave and collected. But after the first book Wrede introduces Mendanbar, who I very much adore. Then Cimorene can't save the day in the third book, and we all wait for Daystar and the fourth book. And I truly love that book. Daystar is so incredibly clueless and absolutely polite. He's not quite as self-conscious as Cimorene and Mendanbar can be, which makes him a great deal more fun to be around. And there's a small exchange between Morwen and Telemain regarding the pointy end of a sword that never fails to crack me up. I was suddently reminded of this because the final story in the anthology is an Enchanted Forest one with these set of characters and the Frying Pan of Doom.
*giggles*
Sorry, just the name Frying Pan of Doom always gets me going. Anyway, everyone should read that story ("Utensile Strengths") because Frying Pan of Doom! How could it not be good?
Now I have to hunt up the Enchanted Forest series and read them all again. I love rereading books. It's like finding old friends again and having a nice, long heart to heart.
I'm also contemplating with great joy how many of my books in Taiwan I can finally transport to California, where hopefully I will not move every year and can thus finally really start building my book collection again. It really sucks having half of them here and half of them in the States. Maybe I will just buy some new copies over Amazon too, since many have not been treated very well by Taiwan humidity. And on that happy thought, I will go catch up more on LJ business. I miss you LJ people so much!
I've had a great deal of fun with books lately. I finally read parts of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series (Tomb of Atuan and Farthest Shores) and now must get my hands on Tehanu and Wizard of Earthsea. I loved them very much, although they scared me deeply, especially The Farthest Shores' pondering on death and immortality. And the utter darkness in Tomb of Atuan. I have no idea how I managed to pick up Wizard of Earthsea numerous times back in high school and never finish it!
I also read Douglas Adams' Long Dark Teatime of the Soul because I saw Sarah reading it a while back. And Douglas Adams. Nuff said. And it made me rather sad and vaguely nostalgic, not because of the book, but because I remember giggling with Sarah on the steps of Charter about large orange monsters that hide behind molecules. And I wanted to read certain lines out loud to Sarah or Todd or the boy or Timmy and make them laugh. Sigh.
Then I bought Juliet Marillier's Child of the Prophecy and Diana Wynne Jones' Tales of the Chrestomanci part one, because hey, it's two books in one! How can you go wrong? I got them at Books Inc., a very cute little independent bookstore in Stanford Mall. And while I was sitting there reading League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen (Mina Murray is awesome), I watched these two clerks try to advise this very well-read girl on what fantasy novels she should buy to hold her through her weeklong trip. And I just kept craning my neck over and desperately tried to overhear the conversation to get a load of new book recs. I also desperately wanted to just casually walk over and recommend some things to the girl, but I felt so awkward, like I might have been intruding or something. But I also really just wanted to talk good fantasy. In the end, I wimped out and didn't for fear that everyone would think I was weird for being some complete stranger and wandering in on the conversation. But now I also desperately want to work at that bookstore. Hrm.
Spoilers ahead for the above two books:
Read all of Charmed Life and the Lives of Christopher Chant, the books in Tales of the Chrestomanci and absolutely adored them. So now I'm beating myself over the head for not getting the next two books in the series, because now I have to wait for an entire three weeks!! I liked Christopher Chant much better than Charmed Life. I'm not quite sure why. I think maybe Christopher is a much more dynamic character than Cat, who mostly gets acted upon in the book. And there's Christopher's Anywheres and the Goddess. And it was lovely reading it after Charmed Life, because there were very many Aha! moments. My favorite was finding out that Chrestomanci's wife Millie was in fact the Goddess, because that was so absolutely perfect. And I also wanted to run around and make people who like Harry Potter to read these books, because they're awesome.
I reread Child of the Prophecy yesterday, which caused me to promptly get over jet lag and stay up to my usual bedtime of 2 in the morning. Reading books before bed is a horrible idea, especially for me, because I always tell myself that I'll read "just one more chapter," which naturally turns out to be half the book. Then it's, Oh, look, only one more hour and I can finish! And I sleep at another ungodly hour of the morning. Anyway, Child of the Prophecy is the third book in Marillier's Sevenwaters Trilogy (Daughter of the Forest and Son of the Shadows), and I love them all. But I especially love this one, even though the first two were very very good as well. The first one is an Irish retelling of the Seven Swans fairy tale that brings in the Sidhe/Tuatha de Danan and druids. And the romantic elements are quite strong in all three books, which satisfies the romance reader in me. I love the growing relationship between Sorcha and Hugh in the first book and most of all Darragh and Fainne in the third one. For some reason, Liadan and Bran didn't quite do it for me. I think it was because it felt almost too stereotypically romantic, the good girl rebelling and falling for the misunderstood bad boy and bringing him to the light despite strong family pressure. Hugh and Darragh's quietness worked much better for me, especially Hugh's inability to express emotion well and Marillier's beautiful telling of Hugh and Sorcha's day at the beach and the story of Tobie and the selkie wife. Come to think of it, that story is also echoed in Child of the Prophecy. Anyhow, I seem to be doing very poorly in writing about how these books make me feel. Probably because the romance is blended into the overall plot, I find them much more effective and touching than romances in romance novels. I also love Fainne because unlike Sorcha, who's pretty much good in and out, Fainne has no idea what she's doing, she's horribly misguided at times, and as such, speaks more to me. And Darragh's friendship and the very quiet, very steady nature of how he loves her always gets to me, especially at the very last bits. The ends of Child of the Prophecy and Daughter of the Forest always make me cry actual tears, instead of just tearing up, as I usually do.
Then I found that my sister's friend had borrowed my copy of Rose Daughter (now I have two!) and returned it and a book of Patricia C. Wrede's short stories. And I always seem to forget how much I used to love Patricia C. Wrede. Still do. The Enchanted Forest series is just so much fun, with its mockery of fairy tales. I remember back in high school I kind of got sick of them for a bit because Cimorene is occasionally too Mary Sue-ish -- she always knows what to do, she's eminently practical, beautiful, brave and collected. But after the first book Wrede introduces Mendanbar, who I very much adore. Then Cimorene can't save the day in the third book, and we all wait for Daystar and the fourth book. And I truly love that book. Daystar is so incredibly clueless and absolutely polite. He's not quite as self-conscious as Cimorene and Mendanbar can be, which makes him a great deal more fun to be around. And there's a small exchange between Morwen and Telemain regarding the pointy end of a sword that never fails to crack me up. I was suddently reminded of this because the final story in the anthology is an Enchanted Forest one with these set of characters and the Frying Pan of Doom.
*giggles*
Sorry, just the name Frying Pan of Doom always gets me going. Anyway, everyone should read that story ("Utensile Strengths") because Frying Pan of Doom! How could it not be good?
Now I have to hunt up the Enchanted Forest series and read them all again. I love rereading books. It's like finding old friends again and having a nice, long heart to heart.
I'm also contemplating with great joy how many of my books in Taiwan I can finally transport to California, where hopefully I will not move every year and can thus finally really start building my book collection again. It really sucks having half of them here and half of them in the States. Maybe I will just buy some new copies over Amazon too, since many have not been treated very well by Taiwan humidity. And on that happy thought, I will go catch up more on LJ business. I miss you LJ people so much!
Re: wow...
Sun, Jun. 22nd, 2003 07:06 am (UTC)You have a garden? That's wonderful! I desperately want to learn how to garden so I can have a glorious rose garden (I read Rose Daughter one too many times). They're also so cheerful... What do you grow?
I'm pretty bad at all nighters myself. Sometimes my reading before bed habit results in a completely screwed up circadian cycle, in which I sleep at 5 in the morning and wake up around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. That's when I tell myself I'm sleeping normally -- for another time zone -_-;;.
Right now my schedule is about three weeks in Taiwan doing absolutely nothing. Then I fly back to California, hopefully with a job offer in hand. If not... keep looking, I guess.
Re: wow...
Sun, Jun. 22nd, 2003 07:33 am (UTC)I've been recently up on the roofs of the house and garage (this is a bit of an adventure in the rain) trimming back the trees to add a little more light to certain areas, although I have a section that shaded and mysterious because I like that too! If you end up with a door step or balcony in your place there are quite a few that grow well in pots too! pics at: http://www.heirloomroses.com/
The late nighters or allnighters is what prompted me more towards non-fiction, although I'm finding some things like Gutenberg are just as enthralling!
That sounds like a good time frame for visiting. I was surprised about the need to hunt much. I guess I was assumed that you'd get so much through the placement office that it would be easy? I moved to iceland for a year after graduating, and it was a bit of starting from scratch to job hunt after a year but eventually it worked out OK. Is the location choice because you have family in CA too? It's one of the places I've never been but sounds great.
Re: wow...
Sun, Jun. 22nd, 2003 09:24 pm (UTC)Sigh.. the job search is pretty nasty right now. No one seems to be hiring, plus, most people aren't looking for recent graduates who study East Asia for some reason. And I've heard statistics that say that only 30% of the graduating class this year have come out of college with job offers. Yikes.
In California right now mostly because of the weather! After four years of the east coast, I've decided that the entire cold snow thing is very not for me. Plus, my family's been vacationing in California for a while now, so we know the area, and there are quite a few family friends there that moved there from Taiwan.
Re: wow...
Mon, Jun. 23rd, 2003 04:44 pm (UTC)BTW re: your other thread, I stuck w/ it and I'm now on p393 of OotP. Glad I did. The question about Brit authors...I don't know about if there's a connection or just certain trends (like for example a number of my fave fantasy authors seem to live in Minneapolis for some reason) but I do remember one of the authors commenting that a lot of good fantasy seems to have been written by British authors who remember WWII, either as adults or children. I wonder to about ease of publication? Would Garth Nix have gotten published over here before we were such a global community? And readership... I know certain cultures had a respect for reading and books.
In Iceland, where my ex is from this was the case and they leaned heavily towards the British. I actually met Ben in Tulsa OK and there was a small but notable community of Icelanders there. Now Iceland as country is only about 350,000 (or was at least). But I thought of it when you mentioned CA. Icelanders come out of their highschool levels trilingual and English is mandatory. My husband was very fluent but still it helped to know people.
Actually, relates to job hunting too. My brother had the worst grades but ended up with by far the most lucrative job which he got through a friend. I won't say best job because I think my sister Kris has the best job as a music therapist, and she took a degree in musical theatre, so see there lots of hope for us!
Thanks for the notes... I love hearing about other places... one of the best parts of the Net!
Re: wow...
Tue, Jun. 24th, 2003 03:33 am (UTC)Glad you're enjoying OotP. Do you usually read the Harry Potters? I enjoy them, but definitely not on the same level that most other people seem too -- I think they're interesting, and I love the fact that they have people everywhere excited about a book, but when it comes down to it, I would much rather read the next books in the Chrestomanci Chronicles of DWJ or reread His Dark Materials or something. But I may eat my words when I read this one... I do love how the series has been getting progressively darker. I read the first book in freshman year and I hated it. I thought Harry was snobby and Snape was right, Harry was too unmindful of rules and thought he could do everything his own way. But then, out of sheer boredom, I read the third book some other time, and something about the past coming into the present and Harry's longing for parents really got to me.
Iceland sounds very interesting.. I've never been there really, but it sounds much more European. Well, at least more global. I think America is one of the few countries in the world where you can get by knowing only one language.
I was looking at the backs of some Steve Brust books thanks to your recs, but I couldn't get my hand on the first book of the series, so I decided to try for it later. And all of them seemed to comment on his connections with Emma Bull, Pamela Dean, and some other writers I can't quite recall. Reminded me a great deal of Endicott Studios (which I adore) and also a great deal of the reading/writing circles in Britain and America -- Bloomsbury, Dorothy Parker's circle, etc. I rather enjoy thinking that this has carried on.
Re: wow...
Wed, Jun. 25th, 2003 07:04 am (UTC)I was so excited to find OotP that I'm glad I'm enjoying it too! It wasn't a Connor sit w/ the book. I have quite a bit of experience w/ teen angst by this point both my own and Ben's friends one of whom put his hand through my front window over a tiff about a game last summer. And harry and Ben are the same age. Harry was annoying
me for some reason, I think it's just a timing thing. Sometimes a book just doesn't click with where you're at at the moment… but I got OK after p91… about half way through now and I'm enjoying it just fine. :-)
I came to HP quite late. I only read the other books a few months ago when I was out of stuff and raiding Ben's shelves. I have this resistance thing with popular stuff since I don't like most of it and the first book just seemed to dwell in misery at the beginning but Ben kept bugging me and I did eventually press on with the first one, then of course the rest were history! All the crits are quite fair. Harry does have bad traits and Dumbly does favor him in a way that almost makes me symp w/ Malfoy. But there's a familiarity to the POV, that quite takes me back to the feel of growing up and I think I agree with rah on this. Of course I can't be twelve again to be sure so it might just be that JKR and I "remember" the same way.
Re: Brust... I quite despair of recommending things to others since the connection with a book can be so subjective. Like I loved Cooper and Garner and Lewis some others,but didn't get into Pullman? I might try him again since so many like him. If you do read Brust, I think you'll want the first one though. After that the chronology doesn't always follow the year he wrote... his very best book (IMHO) is The Sun, the Moon and the Stars which isn't in this series and Gyspy is quite good also which he wrote with Megan Lindholm.
Re: wow...
Wed, Jun. 25th, 2003 08:19 am (UTC)I'm quite irked now because my mother forgot to give me the receipt for Harry Potter... now I can't go pick it up tomorrow and must wait an extra day! Gr. Actually the wait wouldn't be so bad since I'm used to waiting for books to come out in paperback, but I'm very sick of skipping over all the LJ entries discussing OotP.
Re: wow...
Wed, Jun. 25th, 2003 01:14 pm (UTC)Greg, the narrator, is an artist who has joined with four other artists -- Dan, David, Robert and Karen -- in a studio, where they have been struggling to make names for themselves in the art world. They have all been largely unsuccessful, and they have come to a crisis point; should they call it quits and break up the studio or should they try to come up with the money for an art show? The stress takes its toll, and communications break down severely.
This is only one of the stories Steven Brust tells. Another storyline follows Greg through the process of creating a painting on a huge canvas he calls The Monster. As Greg works his way through the painting, he reflects on art and painting and what it means to him personally. Interspersed through the novel is a Hungarian folk tale, "The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars," which tells of three gypsy brothers who go on a quest to bring light to the world. Actually, only one brother does all the work, Csucskari, who is a kind of trickster-hero, but he's willing to share with his brothers.
The different narrative threads are broken into numbered sections within each chapter, and each chapter is headed with the title of a famous painting. It is not obvious whether the painting has a bearing on the text of the section, although some readers might enjoy looking them up. Greg is an engaging narrator, and his ruminations on art are fascinating. This "inner" narrative enriches the outer story, restoring balance and providing insight to the conflicts among the artists.
Brust's writing is evocative and luminous, and he paints a vivid picture with his words. His respect for the reader is clear. Cultural references date it somewhat, but that can be overlooked. This is an unusually thoughtful and thought-provoking novel which should find a home on any bookshelf.
http://www.rambles.net/brust_sun.html
Good luck finding the Potter... I may wait for you to catch me up; I have afew other things pulling at me anyway and it be fun to read along with someone. Ben's out and about these days trying to cram 2 months of fun into a two week summer vac before starting his first job! Between that and a new girl he's trying to talk around; he's a bit distracted. ;-)
Re: wow...
Wed, Jun. 25th, 2003 11:03 pm (UTC)