Ruth Sadelle Alderson

I read about M+O 4EVR in a 50books_poc review that made a point not to spoil it. I went and read the summary at Amazon so I would be spoiled, and then put off reading it because I thought it was likely to be the kind of YA novel that would make me cry. ( I didn't cry and other spoilers. )

I had high hopes for Malinda Lo's Adaptation. Ash and Huntress were very good with the potential to be great, and I was hoping Lo would be one of those writers who really learns to write by the third book. I did read Adaptation in one quick sitting, but I was disappointed in it, and more so the more I think about it.

( Summary )

The basic structural problem with the book is the same as the problem with Ash and Huntress: the story Lo seems to be setting up and the story she tells at the end are not the same story. ( Spoilers/Review )

I will probably read the sequel when it's published because this was such a fast read, and because the aliens, at least, won't be an unwelcome surprise. I might even like it better because I won't go into it with such high hopes.

I do have a copy of the book, so if anyone wants to read it for themselves, let me know and I will send it to you.

I like long, in-depth book reviews. I like reading them. I like writing them. I think they're helpful. That said, I don't have a lot to say about Cast in Ruin. I adore the Elantra series, and this book didn't disappoint. Also, at this point, if you're not reading the series, a review of the seventh book probably isn't going to entice you to pick it up and read it from the beginning.

I will say that one of the things I've found interesting about Sagara's plots for the last two books is that each book dramatically ups the stakes. ( Spoilers ) I have read books where this leaves you excited for the next book only to have the next book do nothing with the change to the world. To Sagara's credit, this hasn't happened with the Elantra series. I'm excited to see what happens with the world in the next book, and I expect Sagara to provide me with an interesting answer.

The joke I kept making as I read Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac was that while I couldn't remember having read it before, it all seemed vaguely familiar. I'm not sure if that means I did read it once before, if it's because I'd read bits and pieces before when I was deciding if I wanted to read it, or if it's because the book is so well constructed that it all fits perfectly together.

( Spoilers )

Cast In Chaos is the sixth book in the Chronicles of Elantra series. I don't have much to say about it. I still love this series. I love Kaylin. I do not love that they're still using a font without appropriate ligatures, although at least there were fewer fieflords in this book.

( Spoilers )

Cast in Silence is the fourth book in the Elantra series. I've been reading them one by one as they come out, and I completely love them. This one was no exception.

I ended up staying up late one night to read part of this, and considering how committed I am to my usual sleep schedule, that says a lot. ( Spoilery Notes )

I do have to make one complaint about the book design. The designer either chose a font with only one ligature (of the typographic variety) or chose to turn off all but the ff one. Neither option makes any sense, and it's particularly troublesome in a book with multiple fiefs and fieflords and a lot of discussion thereof.

If you need a refresher, I did make a 2009 Projects post. I've stuck the projects I added as time went on where they seem to logically fit.

Dewey Decimal Project
I did continue this, mostly. I did not read anything in October, much less a nonfiction book, but I did well with this project the rest of the year (in November and December, the nonfiction book was the only book I read), and I read a couple of books I really liked.

Music
One of the nonfiction books I read totally changed my life in a completely unexpected way. When I read Jonah Lehrer's Proust Was a Neuroscientist, I said, "This makes me think I need to start listening to new music. I know I've noticed my own tendency to not bother with music I don't already know." As a result of that, I started downloading every mix I came across and making a conscious effort to listen to new-to-me music. I found a lot of music I really like, a few things I hate, and some things I didn't like at first but that grew on me over time. I actually started listening to music more than watching TV as my background noise.

PoC Authors
In April, I added reading at least one book by a PoC author every month to my list of goals. I did really well with this all the way through September. I didn't manage to read anything for this in October, November, or December.

What happened with my reading is that in about September or October, I got very, very anxious about not having a job. If I was at my computer, even if I was just reading fan fic, there was a chance I would do work (either writing or job hunting), whereas if I sat on the couch and read, then I really wasn't doing any work, so I read almost nothing for the last three months. (I'll post my book list later today or later this weekend, and you can see how true that is.)

Food
I continue to eat vegan and gluten-free. This is not an issue for me, but it does make me difficult for other people to feed. I kind of forgot that I was giving up refined sugar at the beginning of 2009; that didn't last. I did give up chocolate, though, and that's working well for me.

Exercise
I did really, really well with most of this. I continue to walk three miles every morning and do at least some yoga every day. Weights are getting a little iffy with the change that I have a job and therefore less time at home. I think I'm going to try to do Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, and that way I can do them while I watch How I Met Your Mother on Monday, Mercy on Wednesday, and whatever I'm catching up with on Saturday. Dance continues to be a challenge for me, especially since I had to temporarily drop ballet because I couldn't afford it. (I didn't drop belly dance only because my teacher told me to just keep coming to class and I could pay her when I could.) I've been noticing my posture has gotten worse since then. I keep thinking I'm going to start doing pliés in the kitchen at least once a week, but then I don't do it. I do occasionally get up and kitchen dance party when I'm listening to music that I can't resist dancing to. (Note: I dance in the kitchen because it and the bathroom are the only non-carpeted areas of my house. Dancing on carpet is hard.) I'm going to have to think about how to approach this better.

Writing
Ugh. This is the one I don't want to look back on! I did submit a story to an anthology. It was rejected, so now I'm a real writer with a rejection notice. I didn't finish the third draft of football.txt or the paranormal mystery novel, nor did I start the lesbian romance novel. I did start an erotic novel and write a lot of fan fiction. My struggle with writing is that I write a lot, but I have a hard time being okay with what I'm writing. I keep thinking I should be writing other things, and then trying to remind myself that writing something is better than not writing at all. (I thought about doing the fan fic wrap-up meme, but I was kind of overwhelmed by how much I wrote this year. I'm still thinking about doing just the questions part.)

While I definitely think of myself as a writer, I found myself really discouraged this year about my ability to be the kind of writer who makes a living at it, so I've been startled when other people have put it in those terms. When I was looking for a job, my mom said I just need a job for now because eventually I'm going to live off of my writing. Then schuyler said in my holiday card that this is the year we get my writing career off the ground.

Something I started doing just in November or so around writing is being up front and honest, with myself, my writing group, and selected friends and family, about the fact that as much as I'd like to think I'm going to write a sci fi/fantasy or mainstream novel, I really only write erotica.

I don't have a lot to say about Climbing the Stairs. I did start reading it with the intention of reading for twenty minutes before bed and had to finally force myself to put it down and go to sleep an hour after my bedtime, so it was a pretty compelling read. Um. That's pretty much all I have to say about it.

Even though I just read it this week, The Arrival is my PoC author book for June. (I had another one, but I didn't start it until almost the end of the month and then discovered I hated it and couldn't finish it.)

I have to admit that I chose this because I figured it would be a fast read, which is true. I'm not much of a visual art person, so the fact that The Arrival is all picture and no words means it's not quite my kind of book, but there were things I really liked. First of all, I loved all the little creatures. They're totally awesome. Secondly, I like the way that every time he meets someone, it takes us into their stories. It was a neat bit of interweaving of stories. Thirdly, there's a panel I absolutely love, where he opens his suitcase and his family is sitting at a table inside it.

As you probably know, I like sci fi. Octavia Butler is pretty much the classic PoC sci fi author. Aside from this, all I knew about her was that she writes vampire books and she wrote Kindred. I did not read anything about Kindred before I requested it from the library. I kept waiting for the vampires to show up, and only realized 35 pages in that it was not, in fact, a vampire book. D'oh!

Kindred is instead the story of Dana, a black woman married to a white man in 1976, who keeps traveling back to the nineteenth century at moments that allow her to save the life of her white, slave-owning ancestor Rufus.

I read the first thirty-some pages on Monday, another forty-some pages on Tuesday, and the rest of the book in one sitting yesterday, a sitting where I kept thinking, "At the next section break, I'll get up and do my weight lifting," but didn't. That's a pretty good sign that it's an engrossing, compelling story.

I have this idea in my head that Octavia Butler is a Serious Writer who deals with Serious Issues, which she does. The book clearly tackles both the issue of white slave owners fathering children with their black slaves via rape and the issue of how easily people adapt to their circumstances, even if those circumstances mean they become slaves. The Serious Issue that seemed hinted at but not directly addressed is how their time in the past changes Dana and Kevin's relationship in the present of 1976.

Some of the dialogue is a little stilted, and not the nineteenth-century dialogue, either, but the 1976 dialogue. I suspect most of that is simply the formula of writing in the 70s (I can't remember the last time I read a non-children's book written before 1990, so I don't really have anything to compare it to), but there's at least one spot where the message is showing a little too clearly.

In terms of broadening my experience of the world, I have to admit that I had a hard time really accepting how easily Dana adapted to being a slave. I'm not sure how much of this is the writing not pulling me far enough into her head and how much of it is my white privilege that means I've never had to think about what it would be like to be a slave, which is clearly something Dana lives with even before her time travel experiences. I was skimming Racialicious earlier today (is anyone talking about last night's ep of Better Off Ted?), and in recounting a discussion about BDSM race play, Andrea Plaid says, "Personally, I think of race play and, yeah, I feel the body memories of slavery, too," which makes me more convinced it's my white privilege showing.