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Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, 120pp
I got this one in the library when we went with the girls sometime in October. It was a beautifully illustrated edition and a quick read since it is a children's book. The girls were not interested so I read it myself. It was about a 12 year old boy named Odd and his interactions with Norse Gods, Odin, Thor and Loki who were stuck in the shape of the animals because of the Frost Giant and Odd helped them get Asgard back. I could tell which animal was which god pretty easily. It was a cute story and I liked the resolution of it. A nice break for my brain.
Metamorphoses by Ovid, [translated from Latin by Rolfe Humphries], 392pp
I bought a copy of Metamorphoses when I was in high school but I never actually read it. I read "Mythos" by Stephen Fry earlier in the year which recounts many of these stories and I finally tackled this this year. I was surprised how much I liked Ovid's style and language (in translation). The stories are familiar to me but is was great to read little details. Greek myths are really weird and strange in little details. I read Greek mythology since I was a kid but I really feel that I got a great refresher here on less familiar stories. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would since I like Ovid' humor as well. Overall a great classic.
Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 84pp
This was a short essay that was expanded into a very small book about the grief the Adichie feels after her father died. He father was in the 80s and was not that well but his death still came as a shock. He died in the summer of 2020, so the process of grief was also different because of Covid restrictions and inability to just fly in to be with family immediately. The planning of the funeral and all those details also had to conform to local customs. Grief is different for everyone and this felt like such a raw and honest look at how this affected the author and her family.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons, 552pp [Hugo book].
Hyperion is a Hugo winning sci-fi book, first book in the series of, I believe 4 books, where seven pilgrims make their way to the planet of Hyperion, Temple of a weird alien deadly creature called the Shrike, who seems to live in the place where time works backward, each with their own story and reason. The agree to tell their stories to each other on the way there, Canterbury tales style, so this book is really a collection of stories that all together reveal the bigger picture and human and AI conflict sometime in the future. It is really complex world building. But I wasn't a big fan of the characters. There was only one woman pilgrim out of seven. Simmons is a big fan of Keats, this book is sort of a homage to Keats' poem Hyperion and there is even a "resurected" AI based on Keats. So the woman character is named for Keats' real life love interest and that plays a role as well. Anyway I was not a big fan of most characters except for Sol and his story about his daughter Rachel - that was really fascinating and really interesting. This book also doesn't really have an ending since there are sequels so nothings gets resolved much. I can admire this book and the worldbuilding and everything it is trying to accomplish but I don't really want to read more. My Dad loved this book and kept pushing me to read it but it was just ok for me. It is not the kind of sci-fi that I gravitate to lately. But can totally see why it won the Hugo and I am still glad I read it and that I'm doing my 5 Hugo books a year project.
Космоолухи: Рядом Том 1 and 2 [Kosmoolukhi Nearby Volume 1 and Volume 2] by Olga Gromyko, 455pp and 461pp [In Russian]
These are two volumes of short stories set after the 4 books of main series and another book of short stories but before the "Let's meet on Cassandra" book and the one about Eugene and Jack that comes before Cassandra book. I missed this collection somehow so when I was reading "Let's meet on Cassandra" last year I realized that I was missing some details that the book alluded to. And this collection of short stories did include a lot: from Strelok and Kai to Trixie and how Trixie and Dan got together and how Kira inherited Cassandra in the first place for her organization and meeting several characters that we big players in Cassandra book. Reading this really put a lot of details of the last book I read into context. But it is also not a bad place to leave this series in. The series is funny and so comfortable like a cushy pillow. It was nice to spend time with the characters but I think I'm also done with it as two books of stories was a little too long. I'm glad to move on to something else.
I got this one in the library when we went with the girls sometime in October. It was a beautifully illustrated edition and a quick read since it is a children's book. The girls were not interested so I read it myself. It was about a 12 year old boy named Odd and his interactions with Norse Gods, Odin, Thor and Loki who were stuck in the shape of the animals because of the Frost Giant and Odd helped them get Asgard back. I could tell which animal was which god pretty easily. It was a cute story and I liked the resolution of it. A nice break for my brain.
Metamorphoses by Ovid, [translated from Latin by Rolfe Humphries], 392pp
I bought a copy of Metamorphoses when I was in high school but I never actually read it. I read "Mythos" by Stephen Fry earlier in the year which recounts many of these stories and I finally tackled this this year. I was surprised how much I liked Ovid's style and language (in translation). The stories are familiar to me but is was great to read little details. Greek myths are really weird and strange in little details. I read Greek mythology since I was a kid but I really feel that I got a great refresher here on less familiar stories. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would since I like Ovid' humor as well. Overall a great classic.
Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 84pp
This was a short essay that was expanded into a very small book about the grief the Adichie feels after her father died. He father was in the 80s and was not that well but his death still came as a shock. He died in the summer of 2020, so the process of grief was also different because of Covid restrictions and inability to just fly in to be with family immediately. The planning of the funeral and all those details also had to conform to local customs. Grief is different for everyone and this felt like such a raw and honest look at how this affected the author and her family.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons, 552pp [Hugo book].
Hyperion is a Hugo winning sci-fi book, first book in the series of, I believe 4 books, where seven pilgrims make their way to the planet of Hyperion, Temple of a weird alien deadly creature called the Shrike, who seems to live in the place where time works backward, each with their own story and reason. The agree to tell their stories to each other on the way there, Canterbury tales style, so this book is really a collection of stories that all together reveal the bigger picture and human and AI conflict sometime in the future. It is really complex world building. But I wasn't a big fan of the characters. There was only one woman pilgrim out of seven. Simmons is a big fan of Keats, this book is sort of a homage to Keats' poem Hyperion and there is even a "resurected" AI based on Keats. So the woman character is named for Keats' real life love interest and that plays a role as well. Anyway I was not a big fan of most characters except for Sol and his story about his daughter Rachel - that was really fascinating and really interesting. This book also doesn't really have an ending since there are sequels so nothings gets resolved much. I can admire this book and the worldbuilding and everything it is trying to accomplish but I don't really want to read more. My Dad loved this book and kept pushing me to read it but it was just ok for me. It is not the kind of sci-fi that I gravitate to lately. But can totally see why it won the Hugo and I am still glad I read it and that I'm doing my 5 Hugo books a year project.
Космоолухи: Рядом Том 1 and 2 [Kosmoolukhi Nearby Volume 1 and Volume 2] by Olga Gromyko, 455pp and 461pp [In Russian]
These are two volumes of short stories set after the 4 books of main series and another book of short stories but before the "Let's meet on Cassandra" book and the one about Eugene and Jack that comes before Cassandra book. I missed this collection somehow so when I was reading "Let's meet on Cassandra" last year I realized that I was missing some details that the book alluded to. And this collection of short stories did include a lot: from Strelok and Kai to Trixie and how Trixie and Dan got together and how Kira inherited Cassandra in the first place for her organization and meeting several characters that we big players in Cassandra book. Reading this really put a lot of details of the last book I read into context. But it is also not a bad place to leave this series in. The series is funny and so comfortable like a cushy pillow. It was nice to spend time with the characters but I think I'm also done with it as two books of stories was a little too long. I'm glad to move on to something else.