Space Station Mir

Post-wedding, I've been on a reading roll. Finished The Scar and The Magician King from Bookmooch, took out a ton of library books, and made some purchases at the Gaithersburg Book Festival. I enjoyed The Magician King and look forward to finishing the trilogy with The Magician's Land . I better appreciate now Lev Grossman's  transmutation of fantasy tropes, not to mention his D&D references--he casually refers to characters using "cantrips" and "Magic Missile." The protagonist Quentin, a snarky teenager for most of the first book,  is truly becoming the hero he felt entitled to be. It was also interesting to see Julia's story, although the essence of it was given away in the first season of the TV show. There were some differences, and I wonder if the show will go where this book does with her story. We haven't finished the second season yet, so don't tell me! I found some longtime TBR books at the library and have finished two alr...

1. We got married! It was beautiful and perfect and it's over :-) 2. We went on our honeymoon to Colonial Williamsburg, which was also pretty perfect, and I picked up Everlasting Syllabub and the Art of Carving by Hannah Glasse, an 18th century cookbook intended to be for the servants and thus not written in the "high polite style." Although I don't think I'll be attempting any of her recipes, it is a fascinating read. 3. While I was gone, a pair of books arrived from Bookmooch, The Magician King by Lev Grossman and The Scar by Sergey and Marina Dyachenko. I gave up on the former at the library, so now I've got two handsome hardcovers to call my own. I read The Scar first, and enjoyed it immensely. It's a fleshed out fairytale about an arrogant man from a militaristic culture, who receives a scar that turns him into a coward. It has strains of Beauty and the Beast, now that I think about it, and I liked it much better than A Court of Thorns and Roses...

1. I finished reading A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, but I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. A fantasy fairytale retelling should be right up my alley, especially one of my favorites, Beauty and the Beast. But the power differential between Tamlin (the Beast) and Feyre (Beauty) rubbed me the wrong way, and I couldn't get past it. Maas creates a dark fantasy world where humans live apart from monstrous, bloodthirsty, and powerful faeries, including nearly omnipotent immortal High Lords like Tamlin. Worse, although Feyre is a huntress, she's a nearly physically powerless and illiterate mortal. That huge power discrepancy made their love story icky to me, and the book is at least as much romance as fantasy. I got through it, but I'm reevaluating whether to read any more of her books. 2. Next up, Fairest by Marissa Meyer, a fairytale background retelling I'm almost certain to like. 3. Both of these books are due back to the library AFTER my weddi...

If wedding planning loomed before, > three weeks out and it dominates my non-work life. I'm feeling accomplished at that moment though, as some looming wedding tasks are done or on their way there, and I just finished reading Get Your Sh*t Together by Sarah Knight. Although I enjoyed perusing it in the bookstore and Knight's irreverent tone is amusing in and of itself, my biggest takeaway from the book is that I'm perhaps better at adulting than I thought. For example, I can do my taxes all by myself (sorry Sarah Knight!). Small manageable chunks and converting to-do to must-do lists are my daily cup of tea, so even though my apartment isn't decorated and I haven't yet done my hair trial (tomorrow!), I'm feeling calmer. Contributing to my calm may be a recent spurt of feel-good reads. I finished The Winner's Kiss, the third in the Winner's Curse trilogy, and in my opinion, each book got richer and deeper. I thought the characters were bland at fir...

It's been a busy month, for many reasons. I'm yet again a couple of issues behind on The Economist; I think I'm going to try more skimming/speed reading. I definitely do feel much more aware of what's going in the world and world economy, so I feel like I'm getting some value. I'll see if the value is worth the price at the end of the year. I revived my ereader this past week and read  The Winner's Curse and The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski. The first book came up as a $2.99 deal on Amazon, and I recalled enjoying a free sample of the first chapter when it came out. It's a quick read with world-building elements I like, and the author hasn't met a metaphor she doesn't love (fortunately, I loved hers). The two main characters, general's daughter Kestrel and rebellious slave Arin, are a little bland, and their romance obvious from the first sentence. However, I was intrigued enough to continue to the second book, which was meatier i...

1. I'm on eye drops, ear drops, and nose drops ftw. Here's hoping I'm back up to full health soon. 2. Wedding planning looms. I hit the three-month out mark, and although I'm totally on checklist, wished I had more details completed. If you've got more time, you might want to think about how you'll feel at xyz points. The WIC (Wedding Industry Complex, recently learned acronym) pushes you to decide earlier and it's definitely not necessary...but it might make you feel better, which is an angle I hadn't considered when I decided to take it more item-by-item. 3. That said, I'm now two months out and don't feel any MORE stressed than I did three months out. 4. Choosing and sending the invitations has been my favorite task so far.  Choosing my own stationery felt so gloriously luxurious. Highly recommend Minted.com--gorgeous designs and excellent customer service. I'm looking forward to getting back all the RSVPs! 5. Books...I'm lovin...

So, I finished Revenge Wears Prada . My assertion that it doesn't measure up to the original stands, but also that it was interesting to peer further down the lane of the characters' lives. There was one brilliant bit of plot that I didn't quite see coming, and another that was obvious, but still satisfying. The focus on weddings, since Andy and Emily run a luxe wedding magazine, was obviously interesting to me right now, as I plan my own! I haven't been keeping up as well with The Economist or with The Case for G-d . I did this last time I read Karen Armstrong, where I got kind of slogged in the middle--even though it's fascinating, it requires a lot of in-depth thinking as you read along. I'm more than halfway through though, just need to keep going. For The Economist , I'm letting myself skip a couple of issues and start fresh. I'm still keeping up better than the last time I had a weekly magazine when piles of The New Yorker  buried my closet floo...

I'm still reading The Case for G-d by Karen Armstrong. It's enjoyable, but takes time to grok. I read A   History of G-d in similar fashion several years ago. Appropriately for the times, she's creating an "alternate" history of G-d, choosing to focus on traditions of mysticism and spirituality, and elucidating the original meanings of "faith" and "belief," which she claims had less to do with literal belief than trust in the disembodied divinity of within and without. It makes a lot of sense to me, but it is certainly not something one can understand without thinking about--or with thinking about :-P I finished The Magicians audiobook, just in time for season 2 of The Magicians . I love how the show plays with the events/characters of the book while managing to keep perfectly in tone. Lev Grossman is a creative consultant on the show, so that makes sense. The last episode...!!! I was flabbergasted by the last episode of season 1, since, des...