![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Oct. 11th, 2010 03:46 pmI spent my last Amazon gift certificate on books that I'd hoped would come before this weekend. I traveled a lot this weekend, and wanted to read them on the train. Instead, I lugged around Diane Duane's Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages
and read about Romulans.
(My dad and I had a conversation the other day about why I prefer Romulans, and I had a difficult time explaining it. It is an instinctual gravitating! My dad was like, "Why not Vulcans?" but I have a total aversion to most Vulcans. I think it has to do with the fact that Vulcans are, you know, written by humans -- so there's simply no way to make them more logical than the humans who write them. Which, in the end, just means that they come off as smug and irritating, like the people who still insist the earth is flat even though it clearly is not. Romulans do not think the Earth is flat, and also they have better clothes.)
(Also, I told my dad, we don't even know that what we see about Romulans is even real. I mean, from a meta perspective, the entire Star Trek franchise could just be Federation propaganda! That's when he changed the subject. Weird, right? ;))
The books came today, though! I have a lot of freelance work for the next few weeks, so I'm only going to be able to read one this month. The question is this: which one should I read?
Poll!!! I'm not going to put an actual poll in the entry, but feel free to leave a comment with your choice and no further details. But, you know, if you have further details? Feel free to leave those, too! No spoilers, though, okay?
Book A: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin
-- keywords for this book are apparently racism, politics, and assassins. What's not to be fascinated by here?
Book B: Dust by Joan Frances Turner
-- keywords for this one are zombies, bleak, and post-apocalypse. Also all things that fascinate me!
Do you see my dilemma here? Which book should I read first?! Help me, internet... you're my only hope!
(Actually, that's totally not true. If you guys don't come through by Wednesday or so, I'll just put them both on the floor and read first the one the cats prefer to sleep on.)
...While we're on the subject of your opinions, my mother has a question. One of her students is at a reading level of the Bobbsey Twins and the Boxcar Children -- so lower middle-grade chapter books, like first or second grade. Are there any books that are contemporary and non-magical that are suitable for that reading level with protagonists who are characters of color? (Preferably the protagonist would identify as Black.) I was able to find some books for teenagers, but not any middle-grade chapter books. Suggestions welcome.
and read about Romulans.(My dad and I had a conversation the other day about why I prefer Romulans, and I had a difficult time explaining it. It is an instinctual gravitating! My dad was like, "Why not Vulcans?" but I have a total aversion to most Vulcans. I think it has to do with the fact that Vulcans are, you know, written by humans -- so there's simply no way to make them more logical than the humans who write them. Which, in the end, just means that they come off as smug and irritating, like the people who still insist the earth is flat even though it clearly is not. Romulans do not think the Earth is flat, and also they have better clothes.)
(Also, I told my dad, we don't even know that what we see about Romulans is even real. I mean, from a meta perspective, the entire Star Trek franchise could just be Federation propaganda! That's when he changed the subject. Weird, right? ;))
The books came today, though! I have a lot of freelance work for the next few weeks, so I'm only going to be able to read one this month. The question is this: which one should I read?
Poll!!! I'm not going to put an actual poll in the entry, but feel free to leave a comment with your choice and no further details. But, you know, if you have further details? Feel free to leave those, too! No spoilers, though, okay?
Book A: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin
-- keywords for this book are apparently racism, politics, and assassins. What's not to be fascinated by here? Book B: Dust by Joan Frances Turner
-- keywords for this one are zombies, bleak, and post-apocalypse. Also all things that fascinate me!Do you see my dilemma here? Which book should I read first?! Help me, internet... you're my only hope!
(Actually, that's totally not true. If you guys don't come through by Wednesday or so, I'll just put them both on the floor and read first the one the cats prefer to sleep on.)
...While we're on the subject of your opinions, my mother has a question. One of her students is at a reading level of the Bobbsey Twins and the Boxcar Children -- so lower middle-grade chapter books, like first or second grade. Are there any books that are contemporary and non-magical that are suitable for that reading level with protagonists who are characters of color? (Preferably the protagonist would identify as Black.) I was able to find some books for teenagers, but not any middle-grade chapter books. Suggestions welcome.