[book post] December books
Jan. 4th, 2022 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
queenluasome fun stuff this past month!
On My Honor: Lesbians Reflect on Their Scouting Experience, editied by Nancy Manahan
If you're interested in Girl Scout or lesbian history you should just read this; it's a blast.
The tl;dr is that this is a collection of essays collected from all over, after a call was put out for lesbian Girl Scouts (former, present, whoever) to share their experiences. As such, these essays represent a really wonderful variety of perspectives and focuses. Some scouts mostly want to talk about how fucking cool camping is, and only incidentally about their sexuality; some scouts only want to talk about their sexual awakening, and only incidentally about scouting. Some scouts have nothing but glowing praise for the organization; some had really awful experiences that left them bitter about the whole thing.
I love that the editor gave space for all these voices to be heard—so, you get to hear from an older lesbian who's grumpy over all this weird "monogamy" trend that's popped up in the community lately, and also a lady who's like "I tried S&M once and idk it's just not as edgy as long backpacking trips", and a bummer story where two ladies get fired from their summer camp jobs for being lesbians (even though one of them has literally never heard the word lesbian before) (but then the two of them end up as partners for the next twenty-something years so, happy ending I guess lol), and also a really lovely story about a couple who worked in Our Chalet for several years...
Some of the essays have the stiff, awkward quality of amateur writing, but—that's only because some of these writers are indeed amateurs, and I'm glad they're included too, warts and all. And the book was first published in 1998, so it's fascinating as a historic artifact in all the ways you'd expect.
Also I was just so charmed that I recognized each and every of the beloved camp songs they mentioned :)
Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class by Ross Gregory Douthat
This is Douthat's first book, and it's pretty different from his later stuff—it's a straightforward memoir of his college years at Harvard.
As a Pile Of Quirky College Anecdotes, this is a perfectly fun read. You get some lurid insider details about two hot-mess students flagrantly embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from a student club; you get an amusing story of That Time The Dudes Across The Hall Let A Homeless Guy Live In Their Dorm For A Year (a story which must be some kind of college universal, because when I mentioned it to my fiancé he was like "oh yeah lmao I remember some dudes doing that freshman year," and I was like "wait I also had this happen at my college," and also it definitely happened in my brother's college frat—turns out college students are universally easygoing and willing to let randos crash on their couch for indeterminate amounts of time so long as they'll buy them some liquor!); you get a run-down of the various shenanigans students use to turn their homework in late and bullshit essays effectively enough to get dat B+, and so on and so forth.
Also—while I'm pretty sure this wasn't the author's goal—there’s also something vaguely intriguing here in its portrait of a disaffected guy who can never quite place the source of his disaffection. He mentions vaguely that he's disappointed to learn many Harvard students are clever-lazy rather than studious intellectuals; yet he freely admits to his own clever-lazy habits. Which is charmingly honest, but also a bit of a naive thing to bang on about—if he earnestly wanted to go find the studious intellectuals on campus, I'm quite certain he could've found them, and the fact that he never really tries merely speaks to incompatible priorities—but instead he gestures vaguely at The Campus As An Institution as being the root of this problem. Similarly, he's disappointed with the lack of risk and "real" romance in the college dating scene, but he can only gesture vaguely at something something hookup culture something, rather than putting his finger on any compelling root explanation or alternative. His "conservatism" ends up feeling like an affectation rather than anything meaningfully felt; he's annoyed with the status quo and annoyed that he fits so well into the status quo, so he adopts a milquetoast outsidery position to try and make himself Different From The Other Girls.
That's interesting in a kind of individual-psychology-way, but I'm pretty sure that's not the point he's angling toward, haha.
so tl;dr, this book is sort of dull/flat when it tries for cultural commentary, but the anecdotes themselves are perfectly fun if you want a peek at Elite College Student Antics In The 90s
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Weird, short, and delightful. Keiko Furukura simply does not understand people, or social interaction, and so on, until she takes a part-time job at a convenience store in college... and is delighted by the scripted greetings, the rote formulas for interacting with customers, the rules for how to restock and tidy and place orders and so on... she's like, finally! I understand how to be human! She loves this shit so much that she's still working there nearly 20 years later, which suits her just fine, but her family and friends all worry and sigh and fret over why she won't get a "real" job or a boyfriend or anything like that. Enter her latest coworker, an obnoxious incel weirdo, and a goofy plan she hatches with him to Appear Normal...
It all flames out disastrously, as you might expect, but in a way that leaves you cheering, and lets Keiko keep being her own weird self. You go, Keiko.
Super-fun; if it sounds like your kind of thing, it probably is.
Straight by Dick Francis
There's something in my brain that fundamentally doesn't "get" mystery novels. It wouldn't be true to say I've given the genre a fair shake, because I only pick up one every couple years, which only totals up to a few over the course of my entire lifetime, but I've never particularly felt the need to go out of my way and try more, yaknow?
But, I never really "got" procedural shows, either, until this pandemic, and wound up hopelessly entranced while my fiancé powered through Elementary and House, and then I pulled him into Miss Sherlock of my own accord, and so when I found this novel in one of those little free library things, I was like, hey, I like horses, maybe I will like a mystery novel that involves horses, let's go.
This book is fine. Things I liked: learning about the gemstone industry/business was fun; all the horse-racing-related stuff was fun; and there's a scene that's like "hey is it okay if I have sex with you even if I'm clearly in love with someone else," which I was NOT expecting but totally ruled. That being said, while it all hung together perfectly competently, no single element of it really rose above "fine" for me. I wanted to finish the book, I guess, but not in a page-turn-y-thriller-y way; just because the plot was good enough for a plane. While I wasn't sure precisely whodunnit, I felt like the "broad strokes" of what had happened were obvious enough, and didn't really care too much about puzzling out the details. But, then, it's not clear to me if trying to "solve" the mystery in advance is supposed to be the appeal of mystery novels? but if the appeal lies in the fun of finding out about cool stuff (horse racing, the gemstone industry), then I'd kind of rather be reading nonfiction; what I learned was neat but not in-depth enough to really make me feel like I was learning dope shit.
If this all sounds like I fundamentally do not understand the appeal of mystery novels, well, I did warn you upfront, lol.
The Player of Games by Ian M. Banks
Short summary: the biggest board game nerd in all of of Fully-Automated Gay Luxury Space Communismland is sent to go play The Biggest, Baddest Board Game against the Capitalist Hellscapeland, in a tournament that ostensibly determines rulership of the entire Capitalist Hellscape.
As a bit of a board game nerd, I loved how Banks handled this central plot—he describes the central board game, Azad, in just enough detail to where you can reliably follow the ebb-and-flow of the game, appreciate what beautiful play involves, and so on, without describing it in so much detail that you start trying to outthink the players or "wait a minute" moments over particular moves. It novel drags on a bit too long toward the end (just one or two too many "and then he thought really hard and won the game" iterations), but for well over half of the tournament, I was totally entranced by this huge thing in the middle of everything, just as much as the main character was.
I also liked the bigger stuff that the author's gesturing at in the bankground. Banks seems to want to ask, "if we achieve Fully-Automated Gay Luxury Space Communism, and live in a totally post-scarcity society, what sorts of problems will we still have?" And he shows us the bare shades of some answers: the protagonist is weirdly "square," relative to his society, and it's interesting to ponder why that might be. The morality/ethics around Communismland engaging with Hellscape in this particular way is... complicated. The way that various types of disaffection, depression, etc, manifest in this society are unique and odd. (There's an ambassador from Communismland who lives in Hellscapeland, and the little ways he's gone native are fascinating.)
I do wish Banks pushed a little harder with his worldbuilding overall. This is a society where people switch their gender as regularly as people in our society switch their hair color; where everyone does every type of drug all the time and it's totally fine because they have special implants that give them very precise control over the drugs they're doing; where even accidental death is basically a solved problem because their biology/medical tech is just that good... and yet the default mode of Hanging Out TM in Communismland still seems to be Making Polite Small Talk At A Dinner Party And Drinking Cocktails. I just don't buy that! That's the default mode of hanging out in, like, contemporary-upper-middle-class-households, certainly, but surely Communismland would be weirder? And Capitalist Hellscapeland feels slightly caricatured in its awfulness, which makes some of the aforementioned ethical tensions feel a bit flattened.
But then, fixing these errors may detract from some of the aspects of the book that I really liked—specifically, the clean, sparse prose, and the weirdly blinkered focus on Azad, seemed quite fitting for the novel's overall arc. Our protag, after all, certainly isn't thinking about greater questions of justice and duty and civilization. Man just wants a really, really good board game, and by God does he get it.
On My Honor: Lesbians Reflect on Their Scouting Experience, editied by Nancy Manahan
If you're interested in Girl Scout or lesbian history you should just read this; it's a blast.
The tl;dr is that this is a collection of essays collected from all over, after a call was put out for lesbian Girl Scouts (former, present, whoever) to share their experiences. As such, these essays represent a really wonderful variety of perspectives and focuses. Some scouts mostly want to talk about how fucking cool camping is, and only incidentally about their sexuality; some scouts only want to talk about their sexual awakening, and only incidentally about scouting. Some scouts have nothing but glowing praise for the organization; some had really awful experiences that left them bitter about the whole thing.
I love that the editor gave space for all these voices to be heard—so, you get to hear from an older lesbian who's grumpy over all this weird "monogamy" trend that's popped up in the community lately, and also a lady who's like "I tried S&M once and idk it's just not as edgy as long backpacking trips", and a bummer story where two ladies get fired from their summer camp jobs for being lesbians (even though one of them has literally never heard the word lesbian before) (but then the two of them end up as partners for the next twenty-something years so, happy ending I guess lol), and also a really lovely story about a couple who worked in Our Chalet for several years...
Some of the essays have the stiff, awkward quality of amateur writing, but—that's only because some of these writers are indeed amateurs, and I'm glad they're included too, warts and all. And the book was first published in 1998, so it's fascinating as a historic artifact in all the ways you'd expect.
Also I was just so charmed that I recognized each and every of the beloved camp songs they mentioned :)
Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class by Ross Gregory Douthat
This is Douthat's first book, and it's pretty different from his later stuff—it's a straightforward memoir of his college years at Harvard.
As a Pile Of Quirky College Anecdotes, this is a perfectly fun read. You get some lurid insider details about two hot-mess students flagrantly embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from a student club; you get an amusing story of That Time The Dudes Across The Hall Let A Homeless Guy Live In Their Dorm For A Year (a story which must be some kind of college universal, because when I mentioned it to my fiancé he was like "oh yeah lmao I remember some dudes doing that freshman year," and I was like "wait I also had this happen at my college," and also it definitely happened in my brother's college frat—turns out college students are universally easygoing and willing to let randos crash on their couch for indeterminate amounts of time so long as they'll buy them some liquor!); you get a run-down of the various shenanigans students use to turn their homework in late and bullshit essays effectively enough to get dat B+, and so on and so forth.
Also—while I'm pretty sure this wasn't the author's goal—there’s also something vaguely intriguing here in its portrait of a disaffected guy who can never quite place the source of his disaffection. He mentions vaguely that he's disappointed to learn many Harvard students are clever-lazy rather than studious intellectuals; yet he freely admits to his own clever-lazy habits. Which is charmingly honest, but also a bit of a naive thing to bang on about—if he earnestly wanted to go find the studious intellectuals on campus, I'm quite certain he could've found them, and the fact that he never really tries merely speaks to incompatible priorities—but instead he gestures vaguely at The Campus As An Institution as being the root of this problem. Similarly, he's disappointed with the lack of risk and "real" romance in the college dating scene, but he can only gesture vaguely at something something hookup culture something, rather than putting his finger on any compelling root explanation or alternative. His "conservatism" ends up feeling like an affectation rather than anything meaningfully felt; he's annoyed with the status quo and annoyed that he fits so well into the status quo, so he adopts a milquetoast outsidery position to try and make himself Different From The Other Girls.
That's interesting in a kind of individual-psychology-way, but I'm pretty sure that's not the point he's angling toward, haha.
so tl;dr, this book is sort of dull/flat when it tries for cultural commentary, but the anecdotes themselves are perfectly fun if you want a peek at Elite College Student Antics In The 90s
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Weird, short, and delightful. Keiko Furukura simply does not understand people, or social interaction, and so on, until she takes a part-time job at a convenience store in college... and is delighted by the scripted greetings, the rote formulas for interacting with customers, the rules for how to restock and tidy and place orders and so on... she's like, finally! I understand how to be human! She loves this shit so much that she's still working there nearly 20 years later, which suits her just fine, but her family and friends all worry and sigh and fret over why she won't get a "real" job or a boyfriend or anything like that. Enter her latest coworker, an obnoxious incel weirdo, and a goofy plan she hatches with him to Appear Normal...
It all flames out disastrously, as you might expect, but in a way that leaves you cheering, and lets Keiko keep being her own weird self. You go, Keiko.
Super-fun; if it sounds like your kind of thing, it probably is.
Straight by Dick Francis
There's something in my brain that fundamentally doesn't "get" mystery novels. It wouldn't be true to say I've given the genre a fair shake, because I only pick up one every couple years, which only totals up to a few over the course of my entire lifetime, but I've never particularly felt the need to go out of my way and try more, yaknow?
But, I never really "got" procedural shows, either, until this pandemic, and wound up hopelessly entranced while my fiancé powered through Elementary and House, and then I pulled him into Miss Sherlock of my own accord, and so when I found this novel in one of those little free library things, I was like, hey, I like horses, maybe I will like a mystery novel that involves horses, let's go.
This book is fine. Things I liked: learning about the gemstone industry/business was fun; all the horse-racing-related stuff was fun; and there's a scene that's like "hey is it okay if I have sex with you even if I'm clearly in love with someone else," which I was NOT expecting but totally ruled. That being said, while it all hung together perfectly competently, no single element of it really rose above "fine" for me. I wanted to finish the book, I guess, but not in a page-turn-y-thriller-y way; just because the plot was good enough for a plane. While I wasn't sure precisely whodunnit, I felt like the "broad strokes" of what had happened were obvious enough, and didn't really care too much about puzzling out the details. But, then, it's not clear to me if trying to "solve" the mystery in advance is supposed to be the appeal of mystery novels? but if the appeal lies in the fun of finding out about cool stuff (horse racing, the gemstone industry), then I'd kind of rather be reading nonfiction; what I learned was neat but not in-depth enough to really make me feel like I was learning dope shit.
If this all sounds like I fundamentally do not understand the appeal of mystery novels, well, I did warn you upfront, lol.
The Player of Games by Ian M. Banks
Short summary: the biggest board game nerd in all of of Fully-Automated Gay Luxury Space Communismland is sent to go play The Biggest, Baddest Board Game against the Capitalist Hellscapeland, in a tournament that ostensibly determines rulership of the entire Capitalist Hellscape.
As a bit of a board game nerd, I loved how Banks handled this central plot—he describes the central board game, Azad, in just enough detail to where you can reliably follow the ebb-and-flow of the game, appreciate what beautiful play involves, and so on, without describing it in so much detail that you start trying to outthink the players or "wait a minute" moments over particular moves. It novel drags on a bit too long toward the end (just one or two too many "and then he thought really hard and won the game" iterations), but for well over half of the tournament, I was totally entranced by this huge thing in the middle of everything, just as much as the main character was.
I also liked the bigger stuff that the author's gesturing at in the bankground. Banks seems to want to ask, "if we achieve Fully-Automated Gay Luxury Space Communism, and live in a totally post-scarcity society, what sorts of problems will we still have?" And he shows us the bare shades of some answers: the protagonist is weirdly "square," relative to his society, and it's interesting to ponder why that might be. The morality/ethics around Communismland engaging with Hellscape in this particular way is... complicated. The way that various types of disaffection, depression, etc, manifest in this society are unique and odd. (There's an ambassador from Communismland who lives in Hellscapeland, and the little ways he's gone native are fascinating.)
I do wish Banks pushed a little harder with his worldbuilding overall. This is a society where people switch their gender as regularly as people in our society switch their hair color; where everyone does every type of drug all the time and it's totally fine because they have special implants that give them very precise control over the drugs they're doing; where even accidental death is basically a solved problem because their biology/medical tech is just that good... and yet the default mode of Hanging Out TM in Communismland still seems to be Making Polite Small Talk At A Dinner Party And Drinking Cocktails. I just don't buy that! That's the default mode of hanging out in, like, contemporary-upper-middle-class-households, certainly, but surely Communismland would be weirder? And Capitalist Hellscapeland feels slightly caricatured in its awfulness, which makes some of the aforementioned ethical tensions feel a bit flattened.
But then, fixing these errors may detract from some of the aspects of the book that I really liked—specifically, the clean, sparse prose, and the weirdly blinkered focus on Azad, seemed quite fitting for the novel's overall arc. Our protag, after all, certainly isn't thinking about greater questions of justice and duty and civilization. Man just wants a really, really good board game, and by God does he get it.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-05 02:57 pm (UTC)I've had Convenience Store Woman on my list for a while. It looked so cute! Glad you enjoyed it!
no subject
Date: 2022-01-05 06:29 pm (UTC)