Capital and Ideology was really good. Very different from Capital in the 21st Century. This book is way more opinion and way more political, so it perhaps targets a different crowd… though reading both in order of publication is probably best.
Now I’m on some modern monetary theory book and I’m only two chapters in… but it’s feeling way less promising. So far it sounds a lot like any other half-baked book where they will never quite land boots on the ground to establish that their conclusion follows from their argument… like a lot of college undergraduates papers…
I’ve been mildly interested in modern monetary theory, and have felt that same exact way about everything I’ve read on the topic. What I read makes sense and seems good, but I get this huge warning sign telling me that something very large has been omitted. I just don’t know enough about monetary theory in general to know what that thing is.
Ninefox Gambit is the book I’ve been pushing as the next Geeknights bookclub book since it came out. It gave me the “whoa” factor that I crave and only comes along once per year on average.
Given how Genji is going, and the insanity that is Nine Fox, I’d actually now be in favor of a Nine Fox book club, I think it would make for a great episode. I’ll admit I am not a huge fan of the book, but it is certainly unique and should give you several “wow” moments. It gets my vote for a quick book club, if just to hear what the boys think of it.
So much pestering to read this book makes my brain want to not read it. But now you’re approaching the part where there is so much encouragement that curiosity is starting to win.
The problem is that I’m not really reading books right now, and haven’t for the past many months. My brain just doesn’t want to. Maybe it will get in the mood again soon, though.
Just finished the sequel to A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet; A Closed and Hollow Orbit. It was absolutely fantastic. The book is from the point of view of four side characters on the first book, and having such a small cast that you’re already familiar with let’s Chambers tell a really emotional story right from the get go. The loose character stories centering around found family from the first book are honed and focused, sharpened into two interlocking tales that feed off each other’s emotional beats. Some of those emotional beats had me crying in happiness, like overwhelmed with emotion. Not many other books have given me that reaction.
I’m always a bit cautious with spinoffs, they always struggle with how far they should stray from their source material, fortunately A Closed and Hollow Orbit nailed it. It’s entirely different in story and style, but retains enough of the first book to feel like home. I recommend it greatly.
Also, robots with feelings will always get me, so there’s that.
I’ve read so many books by her, and each one is a delight in a different way. I also just bought her newest book, and look forward to being challenged in a new way.
Oh, I haven’t heard of this book. Going to start reading tonight! After Luke’s story of Gideon book 2, I think I’ll put Gideon on the wait list and try Small Angry Planet instead. Thanks for the recommendation!
To be clear, I also didn’t finish books two and three in the Wayfarers series.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet was fun enough, in a “probably better as a TV show” kinda way.
I got half way through A Closed and Common Orbit before stopping. I couldn’t cope with a plot point revolving around someone whose humanity was only SKIN DEEP deciding that she would GET A TATTOO. The stupid hurt so much I couldn’t go on.
I bailed on Record of a Spaceborn Few after two or three chapters. Something about spilled water and… nope. I recognize when a book isn’t for me.
So if you’re not reading on in a series yet because I bailed, Wayfarers is exactly that too.
Although quite a few books don’t make it onto goodreads if I don’t get past the sample chapter. Other books that I enjoy waaaay less than these also get finished, so I can review them on my podcast, but mostly if they are shorter.
I’ve been doing independent study and performance of early medieval northern European literature for a little while now (10 years), and I’ve dug into Beowulf quite a bit. Re-translated bits of the original on my own, compared at least 8 different translations to find different voices, and synthesized it all in ensemble immersed performance.
And in that time I’ve come around to a view of early Germanic poetry much like that which Headley expresses here. This was not forced archaic grandeur - it was the rollicking storytelling of everyday people recalling the stories that inspired them. So many translations of Beowulf put the poem on a pedestal, in a manner that reminds me of people treating Shakespeare like the word of god while ignoring the fact that it was also entertainment for the masses.
Headley’s translation came to my attention, as it did for many others, because she translated the famous opening word of the poem (hwaet) as “bro.” As in “bro bro listen, I got some shit to say.”
It’s perfect.
I was worried that it would be kitschy or forced, yet another academic thinking they understood how to speak to The Kids Today trying to be cool. And…she isn’t really doing that. It’s primarily a careful academic translation with conscious choices not to make the language archaic, but rather to make it sound alive to today’s audience. It’s contemporary in ornamentation and flow, but also respects the original language through the preservation and invention of kennings.
Headley makes some very solid, well-researched arguments to support her translation - and then throws it down the way this poem was probably meant to go. It rolls, it’s punchy, it’s uncompromising.
If you’ve never read any edition of Beowulf, read this one. Read it out loud. Feel it, get into it.
I had a similar reaction to Emily Wilson’s Odyssey translation. It was the first time I understood the genre of the story: a broad comedy. It’s normally described as “epic” but that isn’t a genre we understand today.
In our podcast we concluded people in Ancient Greece likely consumed the Odyssey more like the Rocky Horror Picture Show than listening to a sermon in church.
I finished Agency by William Gibson, the sequel to The Peripheral. It’s got similar shenanigans (being vague here), and I enjoyed it although I think I liked the first one better.
Currently reading Children of Dune (the third book), and it’s a lot more like the first book than the second book, that is, more excitement and intrigue. I will probably be reading all of the Frank Herbert Dune books.
Oh wow, I had to google this book. I thought she’d finished the Vampire Chronicles at like the 15th book. Seems they’re still going strong. Honestly I thought she was desperately in need of better editing back when she was writing interview. I still remember minor scenes from that book every now and then that have no bearing on the plot and are mostly focused on characters that only appear in said scene. I shudder to think what you read when she was able to more completely indulge her writing style.
You have avoided my mistake, I read them all. Memnoch is generally when people jump off, and honestly, it’s for the best, they only get worse and more florid over time, and Lestat just gets more and more powerful. At this point, he is all but literally vampire Jesus, who is smarter, faster, and more powerful than every other vampire, who is immune to not only entirely to everything that normally kills vampires(fire, the sun, etc), but also to literally any consequences, who just gathers up powers like pokemon cards. I’ve seen teenage self-insert OC fanfic with more restraint.
