Sunday, September 25, 2016
Sep. 25th, 2016 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bearshortyI finished commenting on all the rough drafts for Monday, so I had half a week free of grading. That was good since my RS Games story was due on Wednesday night. I finished writing it on Tuesday, staying up until 12:30am and sent it off to Bear for a quick proofreading. And I sent it in on time on Wednesday night! Yay. Of course, on Thursday, I just had to look at the prompts again and got another idea for a new story. I emailed the mods, and now I have a few weeks to write a pinch hit as well. I have all the grading to do now, but I really should just write more and deadlines are a wonderful thing.
On Thursday, I collected Final Paper 1, so I need to grade them by next Thursday. And as usual I'm procrastinating. I'm just got to my parents, since Bear has a weird schedule this week and can't watch Tanya his usual Monday. That means I will have more time at work since my commute is my Dad driving me to and from work and I can grade a bunch.
So on Thursday, I took a night off and actually watched some TV and read my book. I checked out the premiere of "This is Us." I really miss "Brothers and Sisters" and I'm hoping for the same type of feel. I liked the pilot enough to check out more. I'm going to give this show three to four episodes and see how it goes. I'm not really checking out any other new shows, other than "Luke Cage." "Flash" Season 2 is coming to Netflix on Oct 4th, so that will keep me busy. I did watch "The Good Place" today and while it was a little amusing, it's not for me right now.
I did finish a book and am almost done with another, so I'm really having a good reading month. My Dad was showing me his Goodreads a few weeks ago when I was here last and I saw that one of the books he read this year was Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. I've been meaning to read her for a while, so I connected my Kindle to his Calibre and downloaded so many books. And once I finished Uprooted , I knew I wanted to do Bujold next. I'm on the women writers in sci-fi and fantasy kick. (I'm reading Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones now and I put Jemisin's "The Fifth Season" on the waiting list in the library).
Shards of Honor by Bujold. Review with spoilers.
I noticed that I tend to be wary of new books lately, and it takes me a while to warm up to them. I don't know if the hype is worth it and tend to be cautious. I ended up liking the book enough to want to read more and I asked me Dad to email me Barrayar as soon as I finished, but I felt this book definitely suffers being the first in the series. It took me a while to warm up in the beginning - I found it mostly amusing and it really felt like a romance book with Cordelia's thoughts immediately going to Vorkosigan's physique. Then I grew to really like Cordelia. I rolled my eyes when Vorkosigan told her he wanted to marry her from the moment they met, and at their "love" after just five days - I tend not to buy love at first sight stories (even as a child my favorite fairy tale was Alyenkiy Tsvetochek - Beauty and the Beast, since the characters had to get to know each other. But again amused. Was definitely getting into it.
Where the book swung down for me was with the attempted rape scene - the writing was born direct and coy at the same time, which I found annoying (although I did perk up at the hint that Vorkosigan and Vorrutyer were lovers). And I just got a sour taste in my mouth from the whole situation and I just didn't want to be reading it. The book picked up again for me once Cordelia was in the prison camp, her "counseling" on the ship, and reception on her home planet. I'm not a big fan of politics, and all the machinations and schemes, so I didn't care as much about that, but I was happy that Cordelia figured it out herself. And got herself to Barrayar through talking herself off the planet. She was definitely my favorite part of the book. I also loved the recurring joke, "Well, I didn't vote for him." about the president of the Beta Colony.
Overall, it is not my favorite work of sci-fi but I do want to read more and I'm glad I picked it up. I can see how it sets up the whole saga.
On Thursday, I collected Final Paper 1, so I need to grade them by next Thursday. And as usual I'm procrastinating. I'm just got to my parents, since Bear has a weird schedule this week and can't watch Tanya his usual Monday. That means I will have more time at work since my commute is my Dad driving me to and from work and I can grade a bunch.
So on Thursday, I took a night off and actually watched some TV and read my book. I checked out the premiere of "This is Us." I really miss "Brothers and Sisters" and I'm hoping for the same type of feel. I liked the pilot enough to check out more. I'm going to give this show three to four episodes and see how it goes. I'm not really checking out any other new shows, other than "Luke Cage." "Flash" Season 2 is coming to Netflix on Oct 4th, so that will keep me busy. I did watch "The Good Place" today and while it was a little amusing, it's not for me right now.
I did finish a book and am almost done with another, so I'm really having a good reading month. My Dad was showing me his Goodreads a few weeks ago when I was here last and I saw that one of the books he read this year was Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. I've been meaning to read her for a while, so I connected my Kindle to his Calibre and downloaded so many books. And once I finished Uprooted , I knew I wanted to do Bujold next. I'm on the women writers in sci-fi and fantasy kick. (I'm reading Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones now and I put Jemisin's "The Fifth Season" on the waiting list in the library).
Shards of Honor by Bujold. Review with spoilers.
I noticed that I tend to be wary of new books lately, and it takes me a while to warm up to them. I don't know if the hype is worth it and tend to be cautious. I ended up liking the book enough to want to read more and I asked me Dad to email me Barrayar as soon as I finished, but I felt this book definitely suffers being the first in the series. It took me a while to warm up in the beginning - I found it mostly amusing and it really felt like a romance book with Cordelia's thoughts immediately going to Vorkosigan's physique. Then I grew to really like Cordelia. I rolled my eyes when Vorkosigan told her he wanted to marry her from the moment they met, and at their "love" after just five days - I tend not to buy love at first sight stories (even as a child my favorite fairy tale was Alyenkiy Tsvetochek - Beauty and the Beast, since the characters had to get to know each other. But again amused. Was definitely getting into it.
Where the book swung down for me was with the attempted rape scene - the writing was born direct and coy at the same time, which I found annoying (although I did perk up at the hint that Vorkosigan and Vorrutyer were lovers). And I just got a sour taste in my mouth from the whole situation and I just didn't want to be reading it. The book picked up again for me once Cordelia was in the prison camp, her "counseling" on the ship, and reception on her home planet. I'm not a big fan of politics, and all the machinations and schemes, so I didn't care as much about that, but I was happy that Cordelia figured it out herself. And got herself to Barrayar through talking herself off the planet. She was definitely my favorite part of the book. I also loved the recurring joke, "Well, I didn't vote for him." about the president of the Beta Colony.
Overall, it is not my favorite work of sci-fi but I do want to read more and I'm glad I picked it up. I can see how it sets up the whole saga.