It usually takes me a little while to warm up to Ursula K. LeGuin's writing, but once I do it's always enjoyable. I'm entirely sure why, maybe it has something to do with her characters or her tone, but I remember that I made it through the first two books of the Earthsea sequence with somewhat lukewarm reception before the third book really caught my interest. It may be that she spends quite a bit of her stories building up to an emotional climax which feels empty and cold as it's developing, but totally remakes the story once you reach it. I dunno :-p I should read more of her stuff, I'm basing this off of about five of her novels. (Turns out I haven't actually finished Earthsea yet, I'd better get on that!)
But anyway, Changing Planes was my first encounter with her short stories, and they were amazing. I'd hate to give away the pun in the title with too much description, but what the book amounts to is a collection of world-building stories that blend scifi and fantasy. (And in the finest traditions of each, there's a healthy and amusing dose of social commentary in there too.) Each one is a window into a new civilization, new species, new world, all told in a clever travelogue style. Because of the structure, I didn't run into any of the emotional delay I've noticed in her other stuff, and overall it was a really fun book.
Labels: fantasy, scifi, short stories
What to Expect When You're Expecting, 4th edition by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel
Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy by Roger W. Harms, MD (ed)
Yep! It's finally time for a family that includes more than canine children ^_^ Due date is Oct 30th, and we're super-excited!
So, as soon as we found out and the first rush of excitement turned to "oh wow, we have no idea what we're doing here", it was time for the bookstore. These are the two titles that top the list for pregnancy books, and although I haven't shopped around much more, that popularity seems to be deserved.
What to Expect is the quintessential pregnancy book. My mom had a copy of What to Expect, your mom probably had a copy, and at my first appointment, my OB specifically asked if I had a copy. It covers all the basics: what to eat, what not to eat, baby's development, pregnancy symptoms, possible complications, a section for dads, and more. I've poked around on the internet a bit, since that's a default for me, but none of the pregnancy sites I've found have any new information, or at least not new information I'm willing to trust. It's well-organized and I've never had any problems using it. One thing I discovered after buying the book is that there's also a free iPhone app that includes most, if not all, of the text, and the book's website also has a lot of information. I still prefer having the physical book, but it might be a helpful alternative option.
Mayo Clinic Guide is all that and more. It's significantly bigger, and goes into more detail on a lot of the medical aspects, complications and post-birth tips. It's more clinical than What to Expect, with a slightly more formal tone and no funny business (WtE has fun sidebars now and then). One feature that I really like, in addition to the extra information, is charts for every month showing possible worrying symptoms and when to tell your doctor: wait til the next visit, call the next day or get on the phone ASAP.
Overall, either book is excellent and both cover all the basics. If you're expecting a normal pregnancy and don't have many risk factors, What to Expect is probably all you'll need, but if you're interested in the medicine and details, Mayo Clinic may be a better choice. I will say that because it has a more colloquial tone, What to Expect asked and answered a few questions that I'd never quite put words to, but Mayo Clinic didn't really address.
Labels: nonfiction
Finished!
That's not quite the same relief I felt on finishing the Tales of the Otori series, which was a release from a tale that had become somewhat tedious and slogging. Finishing the Twilight series was more like getting to the end of a particularly terrifying zip line--it was exhilarating, crazy, and impossible to escape, but in the end, great to have your feet on the ground again.
This massive final volume is actually broken into three books, a change of format from the other three, which were one book each. It's a little discordant, and I wonder if Meyer was caught unaware by her success and ran overboard, trying to up the ante to something more epic. One example of this is when she used a quote from Empire, a recent military thriller by Orson Scott Card, to open a new section. I can't fault her taste in literature, OSC is one of my favorite authors, but for me the quote was not only jarring (I'd just finished reading Empire), but inappropriate. The conflicts in the two books are of different scales and different focus, and it feels like Meyer is trying to borrow gravitas. On the other hand, the three-book format gives us a nice long escape from Bella's head when the second book is narrated by Jacob. This is very welcome, so I'm not going to complain too much.
Meyer reminds me a bit of the fantasy author R.A. Salvatore. They both tell engaging stories that capture the imagination and create memorable, fun characters. And they both have serious failings in the prose and dialogue department.
One more rant, and then I'll let it rest: I heard a rumor that for Meyer's next book, she was working on a point-of-view switch, where she told her original story from another character's point of view. Okay, so she's an Orson Scott Card fan, and that worked really well for him in Ender's Shadow. So I was thinking, what would be a good character for a retelling of this series? It should be someone who can give us angles we've never seen, and expand the universe and the complexity of the story, so probably not a main character. I decided that Leah, the only female werewolf, would be a perfect fit. The werewolves are an enigmatic group, there's a lot going on in the background that we don't see. Plus, as traditional opposites, they're every bit as cool as the vampires are lame. And Leah's got a personal tragedy that's only halfway resolved by the end of the series. She's also one of the few characters that isn't happily paired up with someone by the end of the series, and she's deliciously nasty to everyone--she'd be perfect. I was quite looking forward to another take on the series from her point of view, and then I found out who the second point of view character actually was.
Edward. The guy who's been there throughout the entire series? The guy who's gone to painful lengths to tell us exactly how he feels about everything, especially Bella? Yeah, that guy :-p And that's probably a good way to sum up the series.
