Tamara > Recent Status Updates

"it seems to me that where men are weak and dangerous is in their vanity. a woman has a center, is a center. but a man isn't, he's a reaching out. so he reaches out and grabs things and piles them up around him and says, 'I' m this, I'm that, this is me, that's me, I'll prove that I am me!' and he can wreck a lot of things, trying to prove it.

I loved the "house by the sea" also a journal, & this one I love even more, but once again, she's rarely actually alone! I guess when she's writing the entries in the book she's probably in solitude, but she seems to have constant guests, housekeeper, landscaper, friends, traveling on book tours, etc.
still, her reflections are so apt for my life and so telepathically what I need to read right now, I'll allow it :)

"someone at work said to me, 'where is god in all this tragedy following the earthquake?' I didn't rise to the bait. I can never understand why people ask that question. The real question for the bystanders of tragedy is 'where are WE in all of this?' I've always tried to come up with answers to that challenge" -Bea

"There was a red button on the wall labeled EMERGENCY, but no button labeled BEWILDERMENT."

guess i need to take a break from male-written sci-fi for a while.
written in 1959, set in the year 3000 and they aren't even describing women poorly there are just zero women characters -- but humanity seems to be surviving without ever hearing of women even giving birth. cool cool cool.

oooooof. the description of the lone woman, a DOCTOR who is a lab coworker with the main guy who's a biologist and priest, is so dehumanizing and he calls her "girl" constantly and other words i won't repeat to describe her body and mannerisms. UGH WHY ARE YOU RUINING THIS BEAUTIFUL RIVETING BOOK

"they're in the Stone Age...or more like the Pottery Age"
i would like to join this Age thx arts & crafts 4evr
SO GOOD AND RIVETING I CANNOT WAIT TO FINISH IT
also no women so far except one sexist mention of an Earth scientist. do better, old male sci-fi writers.

i vote Ship for Prez, and welcome our sentient philosophical robot overlord.

man, this is so great already - especially given all the AI debates going on, the construct of having an AI narrate parts of this (create a narrative) as the ship, and have the human controller give it input, try to teach it about metaphors, is super intriguing and interesting (only because the human author, Robinson, is creating all of it).

i love this novel so so much. also MOOD MUGS who will invent this - it's like a mood ring but it's yr coffee mug. someone please look up patents and do it for me ok byeee

the first two chapters had me almost giving up on it, i just didn't care, but then we got to the heart of the story, which is her grief, and her writing...so i'm back in.

this book on e-book says it's 1000 pages and that's upsetting me. the following updated rankings:
Cass POV/elaine/sarah, friend content: 100% cool fun exciting riveting - just now getting back to it, should've been the whole book
younger brother: hard pass
mom past: fairly riveting
mom present: zzzz
dad past: nope
dad present: even more nope

ok i've come around to imelda's POV except for the lack of sentence separation. she's like a faulkner character almost. this book is in heavy need of an editor

oh i see, we're gonna get the POV from every member of the family. noooo, Cass' is the only good one.

loved the first section, perfect. the switch to PJ's perspective (her younger brother) is...not great, weird.

i was kind of put off by the title but this is, so far, an existential study of religious belief. so not the beliefs themselves, but the why of acolytes and how it manifests in their life (and views of death). it's one of those books where every few pages i have to stop and digest and thus is enlightening

savoring these poems. every single one is perfect and exactly what I need right now.

super intriguing so far, one i wish i could stay awake to finish. for some reason the empty diaries made me very sad.

super intriguing so far, one i wish i could stay awake to finish. for some reason the empty diaries made me very sad.

incredibly riveting - reminds me of frank peretti novels in some way, but without the demon possessions :/

you know someone's an incredible writer when you're on page 10/330 and already like "ok i need to read slower so this book never ends". also HYPEREMPATHY good lord

"People were lingering on the lawn outside the ballroom, chatting amiably about travel hockey and hating vaccines and other white things"

this is a hilarious book and perfect for e-reading as each chapter is a different type of hilarity.

I really really love this sci fi look at living on other planets. and the interesting inventions humans have made to facilitate it. also...mixing bird DNA with your own so you can sing like a songbird. and cities that travel. wow. also I love the list chapters mixed in. ephemera is my fave!

preparing to be depressed by how little has changed in politics since 1988. (go read Insider Baseball, the first essay, if you haven't already)