Mumble Herder

Books 1-10.
11. The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron.
12. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith writing as Claire Morgan.
13. Surviving the Siege of Beirut: A Personal Account by Lina Mikdadi.
14. Mammoths of the Great Plains by Eleanor Arnason.
15. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin.

16. The Robotics Primer by Maja J. Matarić. Last year when I was reading The Challengers of the Unknown, I was for some reason particularly intrigued by the "honorary" female Challenger June Robbins/Walker, who is initially introduced as a robotics expert. I mused over the idea of writing some kind of Challengers proposal that would spotlight her, but I realized that I don't actually know much about robots. Anyway, that proposal may or may not happen, but this book--by the co-director of USC's Robotics Research Lab--strikes me a pretty great intro to the subject for just about anybody. It's written for anyone from elementary school to university students, and people like me who just want a grasp of the fundamentals. Matarić covers the basic challenges and common approaches to them well, and provides some illustrative examples, although there are times, when she discusses more conceptual problems, that the examples were lacking and I missed them badly. Overall, though, I'd recommend this to anyone interested in the topic, and probably particularly to youngish kids who are scientifically inclined; I'm planning to loan my copy to one such kid.

Books 1-10.
11. The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron.
12. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith writing as Claire Morgan.
13. Surviving the Siege of Beirut: A Personal Account by Lina Mikdadi.

14. Mammoths of the Great Plains by Eleanor Arnason. This is the sort of book that I hesitate to describe much at all, because part of the pleasure of it is the way it opens and you're not sure, at first, whether it's fiction or memoir, set in present day or some alternate future. So I think that I will not say much more than that, except that there's a particular enjoyment in reading it that comes from being an upper Midwesterner and knowing something of the history of Minnesota and the Great Plains--an enjoyment apart from the simple fact of this being Arnason, who can be simultaneously laconic and evocative. Witness this paragraph:

She sat silent for a while, her bony hands folded in her lap and her bright blue eyes gazing right through the living room wall, it seemed to me, into the west river distance. There was no one in my life like her then, and I have never found a replacement for her.

The title work is technically a novella, I think, so just in case anyone was thinking about award nominations and that sort of thing. It's accompanied by an essay based on Arnason's Guest-of-Honor speech from WisCon 28, and an interview with her conducted by Terry Bisson.

Books 1-10.
11. The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron.

12. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith writing as Claire Morgan. Highsmith's lone pseudonymous novel (though she worked uncredited as a comic book writer for a while before her career as a novelist took off) just happens to be the first lesbian love story to be published with a happy ending. This is surprising only because where the Ripley books and Strangers On a Train (all I've read so far of her stuff) are extremely dark and often quite cynical about love relationships; and yet this is one of the better romance novels I've read. (Admittedly, I haven't read that many.) The relationship between Therese and Carol is awkward, euphoric, tentative, and utterly believable; it's not so much about surrendering to passion--although Therese, certainly, is at first overwhelmed--as it is about negotiating the realities of an adult relationship. In part this is because the people in that relationship happen to be two women in the 1950s, and the social and especially legal consequences of them being together are very real; what's most upsetting about the novel is how little has actually changed in the 60 years since it was written. Another excellent book; this has been a good year of reading so far, knock wood.

1. Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution In Music by Marisa Meltzer.
2. The Patriot Witch (Book One of the Traitor to the Crown trilogy) by C.C. Finlay.
3. Power Girl: A New Beginning and Power Girl: Aliens and Apes by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Amanda Conner.
4. Strangers On a Train by Patricia Highsmith.
5 and 6. Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost.
7. Cap Wigington: An Architectural Legacy in Ice and Stone by David Vassar Taylor and Paul Clifford Larson.
8. The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss.
9. The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin.

10. Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf. Because I am ignorant of Woolf, I thought this was going to be fiction; it is, instead, a polemic on feminism and education. I hasten to add that it is a witty (at times scathing), clear-headed, and well-reasoned polemic, and it has the immediate effect of making me want to read more Woolf.

1. Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution In Music by Marisa Meltzer.
2. The Patriot Witch (Book One of the Traitor to the Crown trilogy) by C.C. Finlay.
3. Power Girl: A New Beginning and Power Girl: Aliens and Apes by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Amanda Conner.
4. Strangers On a Train by Patricia Highsmith.
5 and 6. Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost.
7. Cap Wigington: An Architectural Legacy in Ice and Stone by David Vassar Taylor and Paul Clifford Larson.

8. The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss. You guys, you have to read this. This is my first Molly Gloss book, though I've been hearing her name for several years and had the pleasure of workshopping with her a couple of years ago. And this book--I often see it said of books that the reader didn't want it to end, but that's rarely my experience; it was here. I have to believe that anyone would love this book, but in particular I would think that it would immediately become a favorite of any woman who loves or has loved horses. Even if you're not much into horses, though, the landscape and characters here are drawn with such intelligence, compassion, and humor that I can't imagine anyone not connecting with them, especially Martha Lessen, the tall, shy horsewoman/horse-whisperer at the center of it. Oh, I loved it.

1. Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution In Music by Marisa Meltzer.
2. The Patriot Witch (Book One of the Traitor to the Crown trilogy) by C.C. Finlay.
3. Power Girl: A New Beginning and Power Girl: Aliens and Apes by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Amanda Conner.
4. Strangers On a Train by Patricia Highsmith.

5 and 6. Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost. As soon as I finished Shadowbridge about a week ago I knew I couldn't talk about it until I'd read Lord Tophet; I don't know if the two were originally intended to be one book or not, but to me the story feels like one literary entity. It's an impressive one, too; this is a story about stories and storytellers, and as Frost's characters travel through the world-spanning bridges of the title, they are constantly telling, hearing, stepping into, spilling, and tracking story everywhere. Some of this may seem at first peripheral to the main action, but the profusion of tales point towards an ending--not "the" ending, because Frost wisely leaves some things unresolved. The books that tend to linger with me, I've found, are those that end by satisfying some possibilities while leaving others unexplored. Shadowbridge is that sort of a creation, one that celebrates story by inviting the reader to finish--or better, continue--the story themselves. These books deserve to be classics.

1. Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution In Music by Marisa Meltzer.
2. The Patriot Witch (Book One of the Traitor to the Crown trilogy) by C.C. Finlay.

3. Power Girl: A New Beginning and Power Girl: Aliens and Apes by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Amanda Conner. I got a Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas, and this is what I spent it on. The reason for that is Amanda Conner, pure and simple. Her art is dynamic and expressive, with elements of pinup art, but Frank Cho she's not; the emphasis is on expression more than poses, and at times the words don't need to be there at all to bring across what the characters are thinking and saying. One of the artists Conner reminds me of most is Kevin Maguire, which is appropriate, since he put his own stamp on Power Girl during the Giffen/DeMatteis run on the Justice League titles. PG herself (I like the nickname Peej, myself) strikes me as one of DC's most challenging characters; she's a female analog of Superman who's best known to many comics readers (and non-comics readers) for the size of her chest. Conner embraces that part of the character without exploiting it (much), and the team takes every opportunity to ding the male characters who can't keep their eyes on her face. Personally, I don't think the problem is that Peej has big boobs; it's that sometimes it seems like every woman in comics has big boobs, even those who were originally written explicitly to be less endowed (Jubilee springs to mind--during the New Warriors reboot her chest inexplicably ballooned). Conner herself talks about trying to show the variety of female body types in this interview. Anyway, enough about boobs. Conner's art is really the highlight of this run; the story is enjoyable enough, but it's crowded and scattered, and Peej's secret identity subplot doesn't really go anywhere--mostly it leaves me wondering why she has a secret identity at all. I guess the Ultra-Humanite doesn't do much for me as a villain, either. On the whole, though, this is light, fun stuff, and presents a very likable and believable (if that word applies, here) version of a character that's still a bit undefined after 35 years.

1. Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution In Music by Marisa Meltzer. This book is perhaps more sociology than music criticism, a series of snapshots of feminism from the early nineties to present day; as such it touches on the tension between second- and third-wave feminists, the shifting terminologies/identities and mainstream appropriations thereof (e.g. grrrl to grrl to princess to lady), wardrobe as signifier, etc.--primarily from the context of the riot grrrl movement and the female-centered artists and trends that latched onto that energy. That sounds like a lot because it is, and it's covered in a pretty short book; I think I would have liked a bit more depth on some of the artists (like Bikini Kill, Liz Phair, Sleater-Kinney). But it's a smart, thought-provoking book with a lot of passion behind it.