reading and whatnot

[lunabee34]

1. I got the most excellent package of books from executrix. More poetry! *swoons*

2. I got the EOB for my surgery and for Emma's lumbar puncture. My surgery cost 25K and Emma's procedure 6K. WTF, yall? Our health care system is so fucking gross. I mean, we're only paying 1400 for my surgery and 500 for Emma's procedure, but damn. 6K to stick a needle in her back and pull it out again? And that's not the price for the pathology shit of either. I already paid the pathology bills which were like 185 for mine and like 35 or something like that for her. This is why poor people in our country just die. I am so grateful we have good insurance.

3.

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This reminds me a great deal of Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad--very meta-textual, very fourth wall-breaky. I am always so pleased when the women who get to say very little (Or nothing in Lavinia's case) are given a story. Highly, highly recommended. I could drown in UKLG's words no matter the subject, so perhaps I am a bit biased.

2022 reread: still as wonderful as the first time I read it, possibly more so as I have read The Aeneid many more times in the interim and my appreciation only grown. Also, I really appreciate that Aeneas is a genuinely good guy and that Lavinia loves him truly and is loved by him truly in return.



View all my reviews

The Little Book of Perfumes: The Hundred Classics by Luca Turin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


As always, Turin and Sanchez's reviews are as interesting as the perfumes themselves, like poems or paragraphs lifted from the best kinds of personal essays or sometimes like incredibly interesting snippets from chemistry papers. I enjoyed seeing their top 96 perfumes (the last four are "museum" perfumes that are not available for general consumption), and I really enjoyed seeing how many of them I had smelled. The answer: lots! Of course, tons of their favorites are Guerlain, so a lot of the time I was not on board. But my all time favorite, Chanel Sycomore, made the cut, so all is forgiven.



View all my reviews

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


My husband is a huge Scalzi fan; I think we have just about everything he's written, but I hadn't read any of his fiction until this book. I fell in love with Scalzi's writing through his blog. I stumbled on it somehow a couple of years ago and became fond of his public persona: his love for his wife (the man is seriously gone for this woman, and it is so endearing to behold) and daughter (who also makes interesting posts to his blog), his love for his animals (if you need to cry, go read his eulogy for his cat posted in 2022, I think; it is one of the most beautiful tributes to a beloved pet I've read), his liberal politics, the way he uses his clout as an established writer to help up and coming writers (for example, several times a week, he hosts other writers on his blog who post about their new books), his lack of patience with a subset of sci-fi and fantasy writers who do not want women and people of color and LGBTQ+ sullying their pristine nerdosphere. I don't know John Scalzi, and all I will ever know of him is the public persona he cultivates, but he strikes me as a very decent, earnest guy--the kind of guy we need more of in the public landscape.

I'm glad this book was my entry into Scalzi's fiction. It's just plain fun. It's a quick read, and it's a good time from start to finish. I don't want to spoil what happens, but it's full of characters you root for, genuine laugh out loud moments, excellent pop culture references, and despite the fun some moments of genuine tension and peril and also good introspection. I hope Scalzi comes back to this world because I would happily read hundreds more pages of the KPS.



View all my reviews

Comments

[amejisuto]

I don't even look at what my costs would be without insurance. It's freaking crazy!

[lunabee34]

It really is. Also what my medicine costs. I took these eyedrops one time that were like 2000 dollars. I paid nothing for them.

*boggles*

[princessofgeeks]

Yes, USA health care is a hot mess.

I enjoy Scalzi's blog very much as well. I bounced off hard from Kaiju Preservation Society, but I can unreservedly recommend his book Lock In and the sequel. I have read a lot of his books and those two are by far my favorites.

Also I loved Lavinia THIS MUCH. For all the reasons you say. I am a HUGE LeGuin fan.

[lunabee34]

*takes notes*

I think I am going to devote December to settling down with a bunch of his fiction. Josh really wants me to read Redshirts and the Old Man's War stuff.

[princessofgeeks]

Old Man's War and its sequels were much better than his new trilogy, I thought.

I couldn't read Redshirts because it was metafiction. It made me feel incredibly manipulated. But that is a quirk I have. You might like it. It got a ton of praise at the time.

[lunabee34]

I probably will like it. I love metafiction and breaking the fourth wall and the knowing wink. LOL

[princessofgeeks]

Then it may very well turn out to be your favorite book of his!

[oracne]

I confess I have not read Lavinia; I am hoarding it for...I am not sure when. I just want to have an unread LeGuin book for a little while longer. That is why I have also not yet read Octavia Butler's last book.

[lunabee34]

I totally understand. Emma has been doing that with Pratchett. She's read every single Discworld book bar one; she just didn't want it to be over. But she just bought the final one and is reading it.

[minoanmiss]

I love your reviews and I remember adoring _Lavinia_ though I oddly can't remember much of it now. Guess I need to reread her!

[lunabee34]

Awww. Thank you.

You should reread. I am an avid rereader, but it is one of those books that lends itself to rereading.

[spikedluv]

Health care is a hot mess in this country.

[lunabee34]

You are not wrong, my friend.

[anagrrl]

I'm glad that you have insurance that covered most of the cost!

Also, fun mail packages are the best :)

[lunabee34]

Me, too! Being a state employee has some perks. LOL

I love getting and receiving mail. It is truly one of my favorite things. And I love sending it just as much as getting it.

[anagrrl]

I'm glad you have the insurance perks!

I also love to send mail. I get a ridiculous amount of pleasure out of putting packages together and sending them off. I don't do it as much these days, but it's definitely fun. And writing letters to people. This is something that I used to do more of, but then eventually I was only regularly writing letters to my grandmother. I miss doing that (she passed away a couple of years ago). Email is great, but there's something lovely about nice stationary and hand-writing a letter.

[lunabee34]

If you ever want to be on the list of fandom people who get Christmas cards and random postcards, PM your address.

I have a friend from grad school who I correspond with regularly. He has the most precise and tiny handwriting. I don't know how he does it. LOL

[anagrrl]

Thank you :)

I know what you mean about tiny and precise writing - I am sometimes amazed by people's readable and sensible penmanship. My handwriting, on the other hand, is a travesty!

[lunabee34]

When I take my time, my handwriting is nice. And it's improved a lot since I started using fountain pens. But when I'm just taking notes or writing quickly, not good. LOL

[anagrrl]

Nice! And wow, fountain pens! I'm impressed. Fountain pens and me are like some kind of disaster situation, I'm envious of people who can write with them.

[lunabee34]

Fountain pens and just stationery in general were my pandemic hobby. I have a real life friend who has been into them for decades, so I had an easy way to try them out to see if I liked them. And I started reading stationery blogs online during lockdown. And now I'm hooked.

[anagrrl]

Nice! A great pandemic hobby!

I love stationary. Also, notebooks.

[lyr]

The costs associate with healthcare are insane. My mother's chemo pills were $8k per pill, and she was supposed to take 4 a day. For lots of people, that's just not possible. For most of my life, it wouldn't have been.

[lunabee34]

Oh I hear you. My dad's IVIG infusions that he gets every 3 months are something like 20k each. In the first year of his cancer treatment, he'd already reached a million dollars worth of care before the year was up. Thank goodness for their insurance.

[archersangel]

Our health care system is so fucking gross.

what the joke? the american healthcare plan is don't get sick.

[lunabee34]

INORITE?

Appropriate icon is appropriate.

[torachan]

Oof. Glad you don't have to pay anywhere near the full amount but that is still a lot. :-/

[lunabee34]

INORITE?

And the prices are all jacked up because they know they can make the insurance companies pay it. So fucked up.