still here

[mamajoan]

Still here, just too busy to post much lately.

Despite my best efforts, *still* have not had the massage for which my mom gave me a gift certificate almost a year ago. :( I was scheduled to have it last Saturday but the therapist called in sick and I didn't get the message because they left it on my office VM, so I showed up all chipper and "yay, massage," but noooo. I was super-bummin'. I actually kind of threw a tantrum, which I'm not proud of, but it got the guy to agree to reschedule me for next Saturday and give me it for free, which was nice of him. So I'll have it on Saturday while my mom watches Isaac, and then we'll have my birthday dinner, and I'll still have the gift certificate for another massage sometime later.

But I'm still kinda bummin' that I didn't get it on Saturday. Wah.

In other news, Girl Scout cookies continue to be evil. Eeeeevil, I tell you. Especially when coworkers go and put them out in the public cafeteria with a little envelope to put your money in. Augh!

Random thought of the day: Have you ever looked at your tongue in the mirror? I mean really, really looked at it? It is extremely disgusting. I can't believe anyone would ever voluntarily eat tongue (of any animal) unless they were literally starving. Eww.

A bit belated, but Happy International Women's Day! And also a bit belatedly, I am taking the whileaway International Women's Day Challenge. On this occasion, I am recommending a woman's work of science-fiction and/or fantasy that I have read.

Title: To Say Nothing of the Dog

Author: Connie Willis

Year of publication: 1997

Comments: This is a wonderful book for those who like their SF light on the science and heavy on the literary humor. It involves time travel, so there's a certain degree of comedy-of-errors, but not in the hackneyed boring old ways you've seen done a million times. It's hilarious, fascinating, and just plain old entertaining. By the time you get to the final denouement, you may well have figured out the big plot twist that the main character is too befuddled to have realized, but that won't matter, because you'll just be happy to watch it all play out.

Anyway, in short: the book is great, go read it.

Do you have any SF/F by women to recommend?

Comments

[boiwondering.livejournal.com]

Bone Dance by Emma Bull. A bizarre quasi-post-apocalyptic fantasy set in Minneapolis which is one of the most interesting examinations of gender, identity, and their relation I've ever read, fiction or non-. Also, it's a damn good read. :)

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Ooh, good one. I haven't reread that in a while.

[mishaslair.livejournal.com]

Do you have any SF/F by women to recommend?

Dawn by Octavia Butler. I read this in a science fiction lit class about 10 years ago and thought it was wonderful and very original. I've always meant to read the rest of the books in the series, but never got around to it. Hmmn, maybe I'll stop at the bookstore on the way home. :-)

[frightened.livejournal.com]

Random thought of the day: Have you ever looked at your tongue in the mirror? I mean really, really looked at it? It is extremely disgusting. I can't believe anyone would ever voluntarily eat tongue (of any animal) unless they were literally starving. Eww.

Well, we're both vegetarian, aren't we? But so very agreed. Even when I ate meat, I drew the line at the offal-y bits: kidneys are bad enough, but when people start eating tongue and liver and tripe, that's just horrible. People! Leave the squidgy inside bits alone!

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I like to think that I'd still find eating tongue deeply icky even if I weren't a vegetarian. Ewwwww.

I mean, it's one thing if you're in famine conditions, then yes, you want to make use of the entire animal and not waste anything. But if you can afford to be picky, and you still choose to eat tongue and liver and so forth? No. That's just wrong.

[kenboy.livejournal.com]

I really like Kage Baker's "Company" series, Julia Osborne-McKnight's

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I really like Kage Baker's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380731797/qid=1078866659//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i5_xgl14/104-6557080-7775936?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">"Company" series</a>, Julia Osborne-McKnight's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312875673/qid=1078866727//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-6557080-7775936?v=glance&s=books&n=507846>"<i>I Am Of Irelaunde</i></a>, and Sharon Shinn's "Samaria" series, especially <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441004326/qid=1078866813//ref=pd_ka_4/104-6557080-7775936?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">the first one</a>.

And I'd kill for a Girl Scout cookie right now.

SF/F by women

[xochiquetzl]

Racoona Sheldon (pseudonym of Alice B. Sheldon), "The Screwfly Solution," available online here.

James Tiptree, Jr. (pseudonym of Alice B. Sheldon), "The Women Men Don't See," available online here.

Re: SF/F by women

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks for the links!

Absolutely anything in the Miles Vorkosigan series...

[lightningrose.livejournal.com]

...by Lois McMaster Bujold. She continues to awe me with each new well-written fast-paced space opera that she pens. The series wasn't published in chronicological order, but it may help to read it that way: _Cordelia's Honor_ has both the books focused on Miles' mom, _The Vor Game_ is his first entry into the series, but you can start out of order.

Re: Absolutely anything in the Miles Vorkosigan series...

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Oh, are we going to do the "which order to read the Bujold books in" holy war again? Hang on while cynthia1960 and I get out our asbestos pajamas.... ;)

For the record, I'm in favor of reading them in publish order, whereas Cynthia is on the chronological-order side. But, you know, as long as we get people reading them, that's the main thing, right? :)

Re: Absolutely anything in the Miles Vorkosigan series...

[lightningrose.livejournal.com]

I agree. :) My personal style -- as I read _Shards of Honor_ most recently, despite the fact that it was the first published and chrono, is "read them in whatever order you can get your greedy little hands on them."