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More Equal Than Others, Rosanna Hertz
Peer Marriage/Love Between Equals, Pepper Schwartz
I wound up rereading these as part of an attempt to draw connections between several relationships books I read in November.
The Ganymede Club, Charles Sheffield
This prequel to Cold As Ice is at least as entertaining and in some ways more compellingly plotted. Most of my comments about that book apply equally well to this one, altho Bat is somewhat younger and not so completely in control of himself and the world(s) around him. A brother and sister pair are drawn without any sentimental silliness about sibling love -- while at the same time aptly portraying the genuine attachment between these orphans. They don't just scream at each other -- they do so for good reasons that also happen to advance the plot. Highly recommended -- you could read either this or the sequel first and you needn't read the other to fully appreciate either.
Feet of Clay, Terry Pratchett
Most recent of the Discworld police detective novels, this time around we find out a bit about those poor golems. Like all Discworld novels (like all Pratchett novels), this one works on a variety of levels, not excluding a modern parable on the (potential) (consequences of) conscious computers. The notion that golems ought not speak, because that would be blasphemy, an imitation of the creation of God (but it's okay to make and enslave golems and work them non-stop without pay) is a chilling one, used to good effect. The bad puns which are littered throughout this series get to play a part in the puzzle the police must solve to catch the bad guy before it's too late, a nice counterpoint to Vimes' running, vicious commentary on the subject of Clews.
Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
First of the Discworld police detective novels, in this outing Vimes is still a drunk and Carrot has only just started. The Patrician is his own snidely savvy self, as usual, but one gets the feeling here is where he starts to delude himself regarding how much control he has over the city post-Carrot. Sybil shows up with her swamp dragons in time to become implicated in and involved in solving the problem of the Ankh-Morpork Dragon. I particularly like the fact that the Patrician made himself an escape-proof dungeon to get thrown into when things went South. Even better than when Bujold's Illyan (a parallel figure in many ways) decides to renovate the Barrayaran dungeons after spending some time in them during Vordarian's Pretendership.
Wild Women in the White House, Autumn Stephens
Highly reminiscent of Uppity Women in Ancient Greece, this chronological look at women in and around the White House from before its existence makes a nicely accessible social history of mores, manners and class -- a bit gossipy, but that never hurt anyone. Loaded with anecdotes, it isn't as accurate as one might wish, but it's a lot better than it might be. The gallery of portraits of First Ladies is every bit as insipid as the presidential portraits which have been inflicted on all of us and the captions are a lot funnier. Reading it gives one a rather unique perspective on the position of women over the last two hundred years: political hostess, power behind the President, independent power who just happens to be married to the President, etc. Few, if any, of these women were wimps. The women who hostessed for the few bachelors and widowers in residence are also covered in some detail, which is quite nice. It's not like you could really do the job without at least a substitute wife, and FDR needed both a wife AND a surrogate.
Pyramids, Terry Pratchett
Eat
Fat, Richard Klein
Wacko typography is one of Klein's minor sins. This book aims not to teach or to convince, but to charm and at least the author is honest about it. He has several strings to his bow: fat has historically been beautiful, and probably will become so again; the evidence marshalled to demonstrate that fat is unhealthy is not as strong as many want us to believe; and the dangers of attempting (and especially failing) to become thin (whether via diet, smoking, drugs, drinking, etc.) are much greater than anyone's really saying very loudly. He's not necessarily in favor of fat acceptance -- he wants us to love our fat. What precisely this means wasn't clear to me. He has some good analysis of some of the more controversial studies (the subset of the nurses' study, in particular); he supplies a good historical perspective on the vagaries of diets over the decades and the collusion which is occurring (whether conscious or otherwise) between the diet industries, the medical profession and the food industry. I think he's got a point when he says our dieting is probably a major factor in why Americans are becoming fatter and fatter and fatter -- altho I think the increasing number of service sector and computer-related jobs (and the decresasing number of manufacturing and skilled labor jobs) has a lot to do with it. I wouldn't buy it in hardback (I borrowed it overnight from the catalog department at work), but reading it isn't a waste of time.
On Basilisk Station, David Weber
The Honor of the Queen, David Weber
A Short, Victorious War, David Weber
The Field of Dishonor, David Weber
Flag In Exile, David Weber
Honor Among Enemies, David Weber
Got snowed in in Seattle for three days straight -- we could walk places, but driving around in a CRX with no chains or snow tires seemed counter-indicated, to say the least. While Scott reread the entire Brust Draegaran series (including Phoenix Guards, Five Hundred Years After, Brokedown Palace and all the Taltos books), I reread the Honor Harrington books. Yum.
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This file recreated from The Internet Wayback Machine in January 2002. Copyright Rebecca Allen, 2002.
Created December 8, 1996 Modified: January 10, 2002