50 Book Update

[valarltd]

9) The Instruments of Torture. Michael Kerrigan. A rather gruesome look at torture through the ages and the implements used in it. Nonfiction.

8) A Separate Peace. Herbert Knowles. Another one I'd never read. A New England Idyll that was a tonic after all the Lovecraft. Very intense. More than a little slashy.


7) The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. No, I'd never actually read this. Not bad at all, really.

6) Herbert West, Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft Yet another very slashy Lovecraft nightmare. Two men, devoted companions, living together, practicing medicine together, grave robbing together...

5) Getting into Character; Seven secrets a novelist can learn from Actors. Brandilyn Collins. Very good. had a couple of revelations about various characters already.

4) Writers of the Future (1989) The winners of the annual short story contest judged by some of the biggest names in SF.

3) Turn the other Chick. Ester Friesner, ed. More humorous stories of women in armor. Harry Turtledove's "Of Mice and Chicks" is a scream.

2) The Pirate and the Puritan. Cheryl Howe. Basic historical romance.

1) Neuromancer by William Gibson. Great grand-daddy of the whole cyberpunk genre.


Gave up on Pride and Prejudice after the first disc. Am working on Treasure Island instead. Am fudging on the "never read" idea to go back and read Stranger in a Strange Land I read it at 18, over 20 years ago. I think I'll understand it better now.

Comments

[reannon.livejournal.com]

I wanna borrow the torture book!

(What does that say about me?)

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

It says you're researching!
Yeah, that's it.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

I found that Stranger lost its luster as I got older.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I hated it at 18. I found it upsetting to my pretty little floral pastel fundamentalist world. It, like Interview with the vampire dredged up a lot of stuff I didn't want to deal with, didn't want to acknowledge. I was trying to be off in happy Jesus+DenialLand and be a Good Christian.

And that meant not being bisexual. Not questioning my beliefs. Not even thinking much about my beliefs. And Stranger made me think about all those things.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

You were coming from a very different place than I was, so maybe a reread now would be good.

(I found that later readings made the sexism and homophobia really jump out. Happened with all of Heinlein, really, which is why my stack of "give away" books contains nearly all of my Heinlein collection.)

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I pretty much expect it from him.
Yet, his easy acceptance of female bisexuality was one of the things I had real problems with in all his work until my 20s.