book list, March 2008

[edenfalling]

It's time for the continuing adventures of Liz and her reading list! These are the books I read in March 2008. (Click on the cuts for summaries and reactions.)


New: 3
---The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, Barack Obama (nonfiction: in which Obama shills himself for the presidency and also tries to be thoughtful and talk about real issues. The two goals are not always compatible, but the man can write.)

---Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, Ariel Levy (nonfiction: in which Levy is disgusted by the way marketing and various other forces have narrowed all sexuality down to a certain crass exhibitionism, and talks about some of the less obvious ways in which this is a bad thing. I don't agree with all her points, but I think at least 80% of what she says is on the money.)

---The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power, Carole Levin (nonfiction: a discussion of how Elizabeth's gender affected her government and people's reactions to her. Each chapter deals with a slightly different subset of the topic, and the book is well written and well reasoned overall. I recommend this.)


Old: 1
---Making Money, Terry Pratchett (fantasy: in which Moist von Lipwig, having successfully reformed the Post Office of Ankh-Morpork, finds himself in charge of the royal bank and Mint with instructions to repeat the trick.)


Month Total: 4 books (plus several magazines, a few newspapers, and a lot of fanfiction)

Year to Date: 41 books (24 new, 17 old)

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*blinks*

Wow. I think that's the fewest books I've read in a single month, ever. I shall have to reverse this trend!

...

In other news, I'm having very little luck on my Remixredux assignment this year. Writing is just not happening for me lately -- at the moment, I'm inclined to blame the cold that's been kicking my ass for the past several days, but even before that, I just haven't been able to string more than a hundred words or so together before my brain goes on strike.

It will pass -- I've been here before, and it always passes -- but it's a very frustrating place to be in, because I have all these stories whirling around in my head and I can't get them out in any coherent fashion.

Comments

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

My. For you, that is small!

It's a shame Ariel Levy's no longer doing her column in the Sunday Times. I liked her and my flatmate (also a pessimist) thought she recognised a soulmate and would wistfully say every Sunday, "If men make her nervy, do you think she might want a girlfriend?"

[edenfalling]

I liked Levy's book because it articulated a lot of vague, half-formed discomfort I'd been having with various things I hear on the radio, see in magazine ads, or see on tv when I'm at the laundromat. It was, I suppose, validating to find someone else saying, "Hey, wait a minute, there's something wrong with this picture..."