Drew > Recent Status Updates

Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon ****

Interesting short story that reads like a fable.

Becky Chambers is such a great writer!

Okay, so this looks like a pretty dumb little book but Chelsea Handler has made me laugh before and the first chapter where [SPOILER ALERT], as a little girl, she busts in on her parents having sex made me laugh out loud in the bargain section of Half Price Books so here we go.

The elephant is enormous, but it is not as gigantic as the history of human exploitation.

…about what he had called, during other fights, Anthony’s need to perform “ritual murder.” About the hypocrisy of cloaking that need in some idea about conservation. … You are just a spectacularly rich man who gets his kicks killing animals.

She [Damira] had come back to get more support for the war against the poachers in Kenya. That is what it was—a war. She called it a war because that was the word she thought might get people’s attention. And she called it a war because, just like every war, it existed only for the people it was happening to. Like every war, it was particular to a place and time. Everywhere else, it could be ignored.

This is fun! I’d kind of forgotten how much I enjoy Becky Chambers.

Philip K. Dick is a master of dialogue.

”Their mother’s mind was a set of inviolable laws most of which had been forgotten or repealed by the rest of the world, including those nearest her.”

”Her (Brendan’s mother’s) tone implied, as it had always implied when things were contrary to her wishes, that his actions would lead him to the poorhouse or jail or the insane asylum.”

This is the kind of book I can really get excited about.

Very interesting so far. My background and interest in journalism makes me even more intrigued by this story but I think anyone who enjoys a good international thriller would love this story.

Very intriguing so far. I saved a couple excerpts (potential spoilers) which I’ll make public.

Liking What You See: A Documentary ***** Chiang redeemed himself to me with this final story, the finest one in the collection, in my opinion. The author explores what it would like for people to see everyone without the distraction and prejudices of their relative attractiveness. This new procedure “doesn’t interfere with one’s visual perception, only with the ability to recognize what one sees.”

Hell Is The Absence of God: Nonsensical and bleak. This book is really starting to annoy me. *

The Evolution of Human Science: What does the future hold for ordinary humans when metahumans have far surpassed our ability to understand their discoveries? ***

Seventy-Two Letters: Strange and esoteric, frustrating for me. **