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psocopteraKicking off my Hugo-finalist reading with Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire, which I knew I would enjoy pretty much exactly to the degree I did. I think I've said this before, but I have a huge respect for Scalzi's mastery of his craft. His pacing never bogs down, he lands his beats, he has interesting story premises. (And, as a bonus, he has plot preferences very compatible with my own, like, "competent people try to deal with shit"... I get impatient with self-sabotage and passive protagonists.) Buuut... to me, this more like makes Scalzi one of the top authors whose new book I would want to have on my phone while stuck in some tedious/stressful situation allowing for occasional reading, than it makes this the top book I'm excited about this year and want to recommend to others/to The Future/etc. Collapsing Empire doesn't do anything particularly original or surprising or important or amazing, it's just a good read, and I definitely recommend it *as* a good read! But I want to see the big awards go to stuff I have to describe with more exclamation points (even if they're possibly not quite so professionally polished, even).
I read The Prince and the Dressmaker the day I bought it, but am finally reviewing it post-Junie getting it as a birthday present. (Yes, I read my kid's book before she got to open it, it was irresistible). I've been a fan of Jen Wang since the Pants Press/Strings of Fate days (okay, technically I can't confirm this is the same Jen Wang, but it's got to be, young webcomics Jen Wang connects to professionally published Jen Wang through Flight) and this is a terrific book that I definitely recommend if you like beautiful drawing or sweet romance or genderfuckery or coming of age stories or [SPOILERS] parents who make awesome gestures of love and support for their children. Junie liked it too.
Also a shoutout to Abigail the Whale, picture book by Davide Cali and Sonja Bougaeva, which was interesting-looking enough to my kids that both of them had already pulled it out of the library-book basket to read by the time I got around to reading it to them. (Junie of course mostly reads on her own and Q is starting to do more of that too, but I do like to sometimes read them things that are coming off my to-read list picture book category.) Nice messages both of positive thinking/visualization and appreciating your bigness (superwhale! yay), and there's some really cute, sweet art. I don't know if it's really possible to inoculate my kids against mainstream fatphobia (or, for that matter, gender rigidity), but these books that try make *me* happy *right now*, which definitely counts for something. (My mom maybe tried to start something about "Prince and the Dressmaker", all "that book you gave Junie looked... interesting" and I was just like "yeah, it's so good!! :) :)" and she didn't have anything else to say to that.)
I read The Prince and the Dressmaker the day I bought it, but am finally reviewing it post-Junie getting it as a birthday present. (Yes, I read my kid's book before she got to open it, it was irresistible). I've been a fan of Jen Wang since the Pants Press/Strings of Fate days (okay, technically I can't confirm this is the same Jen Wang, but it's got to be, young webcomics Jen Wang connects to professionally published Jen Wang through Flight) and this is a terrific book that I definitely recommend if you like beautiful drawing or sweet romance or genderfuckery or coming of age stories or [SPOILERS] parents who make awesome gestures of love and support for their children. Junie liked it too.
Also a shoutout to Abigail the Whale, picture book by Davide Cali and Sonja Bougaeva, which was interesting-looking enough to my kids that both of them had already pulled it out of the library-book basket to read by the time I got around to reading it to them. (Junie of course mostly reads on her own and Q is starting to do more of that too, but I do like to sometimes read them things that are coming off my to-read list picture book category.) Nice messages both of positive thinking/visualization and appreciating your bigness (superwhale! yay), and there's some really cute, sweet art. I don't know if it's really possible to inoculate my kids against mainstream fatphobia (or, for that matter, gender rigidity), but these books that try make *me* happy *right now*, which definitely counts for something. (My mom maybe tried to start something about "Prince and the Dressmaker", all "that book you gave Junie looked... interesting" and I was just like "yeah, it's so good!! :) :)" and she didn't have anything else to say to that.)
no subject
Date: 2018-04-05 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-05 06:25 pm (UTC)This is a great point.