Nameless: A Feature in Development

[helloladies]

At the end of every week, we gather at Lady Business HQ to share media thoughts and chat about the recent happenings in our tiny spheres of human experience. Puns welcome.

In theory, eventually this feature will have a name once we all agree on one. In the meantime, to open the festivities, a gif to sum up 2016 so far:

Comments

[justira]

I have been rereading the Vorkosigan saga! I finally got through rereading the first billion books and have started on new-to-me ones. From that latter category the only one I've read so far was Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, which I read before Cryoburn because chronology, dammit. It was... interesting. Very different from a Miles novel. I enjoyed Ivan and Tej a lot, but in the end the novel didn't really quite gel for me. The climax was just not very exciting for me, and it was missing that Milesian sense of tension and chaos. I liked hearing from Ivan a lot in A Civil Campaign, and seeing more of him was good. The wedding scene, at least, had all the Milesian chaos I could want, and was one of the highlights of the book for me.

And I'm just gonna say this once, but I was holding out for Ivan/Byerly, dammit. I like Tej and Rish fine, and seeing so much of Byerly was great, but I still thought they had great chemistry.

I've also just finished Sleeping Giants today, which had a lot of potential but sort of just fizzled out. I'm probably going to do a full review of it, so for now this is just an invitation to chat with me about the book if anyone else has read it.

On the nonfiction side of things, I've been reading Game Change, which is about the 2008 election. It's been pretty fascinating, especially comparing my memories of the election with what was going on behind the scenes and what moments ended up being historically notable. The "Yes We Can" speech barely got a mention, for example, even though I remember it being a phenomenon. I'm only about halfway through the book so far, and not even done with the Democratic primary between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I'm pretty excited to see more about the general election!

On that topic, I have been obsessively refreshing the Five Thirty Eight 2016 election forecast. It's so terrifying!

Finally, I've been watching Adventure Time with my partner. So many people love the show, but I bounced off it in my initial attempt to watch it all in order. But my partner has found a clever way of watching it that actually works for me: following the plotlines of individual characters. This makes the series feel a lot more coherent for me, and I've been really enjoying it. The first arc we watched was Marceline's, and it was as gay as I wanted (without actually coming out and saying it in canon). But come on, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum. The next arc we're doing, which we've already started on, is the Flame Princess story, which has some really legit relationship dynamics, very real for a kids' show.

[renay]

One day I will read the whole Vorkosigan series! Technically I should at at least read Cordelia's Honor because I read so little of it before bouncing off that I could count Bujold as a new author for this year.

(I'm still bitter about Sleeping Giants. HOW DO YOU MAKE GIANT ROBOTS BORING?)

Is Game Change pretty accessible to people who don't have a lot of political knowledge/language in their toolkit? That's largely why I bounce off a lot of political nonfiction; having to stop and look up terminology is time consuming and draining.

[justira]

You should totally read Cordelia's Honor! Just get through the shorter first novel in the omnibus and settle in for the Hugo-winning awesomeness that is the second one.

Sleeping Giants was weird for me. It came out of the gate very strong, but then slowed down and down and down. I liked the format? =\

I think Game Change is pretty accessible? I mean there are a LOT of names of people in the political sphere that it might help if I knew, but the book does provide brief summaries of all the key players at least.

[renay]

I sometimes wonder if I tried reading Bujold too early, before I got used to reading SF again and refamiliarized myself with some of the common tropes. I should be BETTER PREPARED now.

[dira]

Speaking as a huge, huge Bujold fan--there is also an element of "author's first novel, written c.1984" to Shards of Honor (the first half of Cordelia's Honor. If you're particular about going in order, be assured she gets better. If not, I've seen Komarr suggested as an alternate entry point--it makes a lot of the most intense drama of the series backstory, but I don't think actually spoils it. (I personally came in at The Vor Game, which was bewildering, but I was twelve and it was on my brother's bookshelf.)

[renay]

Right! justira has talked about this and suggested other starting points and I do have the whole series in hardcopy and ebook. I figure if I bounce off Barrayar again I'll choose a different starting point. :D

[owlmoose]

I enjoyed the Ivan book, but I agree it wasn't as strong as it could have been.

My favorite book about the 2008 election is Big Girls Don't Cry by Rebecca Traister, which is about the effects of gender politics, especially the Clinton campaign but it also discusses Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama. Really interesting.

[spindizzy]

I'm kinda intrigued that the "Yes We Can" speech wasn't made a lot of, because I remember that and I was eighteen and on the wrong side of an ocean for that election to affect me.

Marceline! I know literally nothing about Adventure Time except that I want Marceline and Princess Bubblegum to go off and have gay adventures everywhere. (I... Also bounced off it quite hard the first time I watched it, but that could have been because I was suspicious of EVERYTHING that friend-of-a-friend showed me. Maybe I should try it again!)

[renay]

Maybe because they made a music video about it?

[spindizzy]

Did they?

[renay]

LOL yes they did! It's on youtube and features lots of celebrities.