avrelia

We went to Hawaii for a week this last June. It was lovely, even if not an ideal vacation (yes, those exist, I had several).

I wanted the whole family vacation for years, and for a long time if was either me and one or two kids, or just me. Now I finally managed to get all four us together, flying away from home somewhere and then coming back. The dog went to the dog hotel, the bunny went to the friends’ house, the budgies stayed to man the house.

Hawaii to me is a strange place. Yes, stolen by the USA. Militarized (the US military installations are a bit less in your face, but very much there). Devoted to its royalty. Proud to have finished off Captain Cook.

Bringing their language from the dead. Rich in tourists. Locals… well, not so. Endlessly welcoming. Infinitely beautiful. Ideal weather. Active volcano, tsunamis, fires, earthquakes. Expensive. Poor. Strict. Funny. Easy-going. American. Pacific. In the middle of an ocean. Closer than many more familiar places. Full of chicken running around and plumeria blossoms raining down on sidewalks.

Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about is the book I read during the vacation. A perfect beach read if you were, since I could focus on reading and not on whatever else I have to be doing instead.

It’s 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline

I liked this book quite a lot. Of course, I expected it to be slightly easier to read, judging blurbs and reviews I read, but really, after slogging through the introduction, it was a smooth and entertain ride through several centuries of Late Bronze Age and lots of names and dates. The conclusion was not surprising either – “it’s complicated” is pretty much all we could say with all the information available to us now, but the author gave a lot of nuance and details to the “complicated” part.

I hardly knew much about the Bronze Age civilizations before this book – a bunch of disparate facts about one place or another. Now I know many more facts, and more importantly, they settled into a system in my head, firmly placed in relation to each other geographically and chronologically.

So I guess, I am exactly the right audience for this book. Yay! Now I shall go and try to remember all the names of the Hittite kings. They are so cool.

And I keep forgetting about the Mittani kingdom. I didn’t know about its existence before this book, and now I keep forgetting about it. Sic transit gloria mundi…

As usually I started put the book I read on Goodreads, then forgot about it, then in December tried to remember what I read.
Overall, there were several trends in my reading.
First – me scrambling to read books chosen in my bookclub(s), even chosen by me. And I haven’t finished half of them.
Second – me scrambling to find books in Russian I really wanted to read. Well, I found one amazing online bookstore that sells newly published Russian books. The Russian online bookstores stopped delivering to USA and accepting Visa, for obvious reasons, but there are now new bookstores. And there were some really cool books published. And, yeah, it is insane to scramble to find a paper book, when I could buy (or not-buy) an e-book. Well. Here I am.
Third – me actually reading whatever caught my fancy. Last year my fancy caught a lot of books about dead people and fairies. What a year!

So, the most memorable books of year 2023 (non-Russian ones)

1) Holly Black’s Fairy books. Cruel Prince trilogy, The Stolen Heir, Tithe.
2) Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
My favorite of the fairy books. I loved Emily, and I love Wendell, and I loved the tone of the book
3) T. Kingfisher. Various books, some re-reads, some not.
Those are my comfort read, even the horror and the children’s ones.
4) T.L Huchu Edinburgh Nights novels (all three published so far)
5) Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson
6) Alexandra Horowitz The year of the Puppy an Inside of a Dog.
7) Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood by Maureen Ryan
8) Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
9) Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
10) Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

I finally finished Odyssey in Emily Wilson’s translation. It was actually the first time I read the Odyssey from start to finish.

1) the structure is weird. I knew that, and yet knowing that and reading it strike very differently. The time moves in strange squiggles - The book starts after ten years passed, and most of that time Odysseus was stuck on one place or another. In fact during the time of the novel, Telemachus does as much actual travel as Odysseus, going to Sparta and back.

2) Telemachus seems a whiny annoying shit without much redeeming qualities. Odysseus for all his faults, is smart and engaging, and you just can’t help but want him succeed at everything.

3) the world of the Odyssey is breathtakingly beautiful and bright and rich, even the horrors are breathtaking and awesome. The heroes are “godlike” in appearance, there is gold and silver everywhere, the huge herds of cows, goats and pigs fill the spaces, and you are supposed marvel at the amazing world that existed just before, when gods walked among mortals.

4) gods do have to work hard to make mortals so what they need them to do. Mortals might be gods’ toys, but they do have their free will to mess up.

5) Athena has to resort to micromanaging Odysseus to bring him home safely. She is here, and she is there, she talks to all kinds of people, moving them into positions to help Odysseus. She usually appears as someone else, only letting know who is to Odysseus after he guessed.
6) Athena is the one who stops the story dead at the end. At some point all the fighting, all the mutual avenging back and forth must stop. And yes, it must stop when her favorite has avenged himself.
7) Penelope seems to be suffering from depression.
8) She is the one who suggested the archery contest to Odysseus when he pretended to be a beggar.

There are so many books that I want to read, and damn how badly I fare these days. I stopped doing reading challenges on Goodreads (or even add the books I finished). Nevertheless, there are two books since January that gave me joy.

The first one is Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. It is difficult to say anything about this book, it is so dreamlike and careful and very much like ocean. I dived in on January 1st, and then I dived out, full of fish and wonder.

A little bit of that wonder is still with me and I hope it will stay.

The second one is the Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia. Which is exactly what it says in the title – a gothic horror novel, the kind that were written by Ann Radcliffe, but it happens in Mexico, in 1950.

We have a young plucky heroine, her sick cousin, cousin's suspicious husband, husband’s weird family, family’s rotting British mansion and forlorn silver mine, deep fog, etc…

It is all rather on the nose – post colonialism, racism, women’s question, allusions on all British literature from Radcliffe to Bronte sisters, to Bram Stoker, to others, but it all works. It is all weaved into one good story where historical facts and legends, and imagination and literature all feed into each other. The horror worked for me, for weird personal reasons, very well. The gothic part – I thought the replanting the story in Mexico was a great move, and allowed it to work on several more levels. And I have seen the complains that it wasn’t very Mexican. Well, there are no sombreros and other “exotic symbols” we associate with Mexico, and I think it was exactly what was needed here – it is not Mexico for tourists, it is Mexico for people who lived there in 1950.

AKA the best month of the year (for me)

It doesn't have the same feel here in Silicon Valley, and I miss autumny feel of sunlight, and all the yellow-red leaves, and coolness... But I guess, being warm is nice, too.

New schedules for me and kids are still up in the air, trying to arrange after school activities for them, and during school ones for me.

My reading has slowed again to several pages a day, if I am lucky. And it's not even the lask of time, it's lack of mood.

The last finished book was A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas - basically Beauty and the Beast + Tam Lin with a lot of elf horror and sex. Which was fun. Started the next one - A Court of Mist and Fury - and got bored. Even though I loved some details and new developments a lot, in the middle of the story my interest just died.

Now reading Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward by Gemma Hartley, and I Am also bored. I know this all already from more succinct sources.

Simultaneously trying to re-read (25 years after the first time) Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber. It's not horrible, but it feels dated very much. Some moments are still fine, but I used to have such a crush on Corwin when I was 16, and now he is just some guy. Sic transit...

also still trying to puzzle out why some of fics are more popular and some are less...

Out of all the news from SDCC 2019 I am mostly excited about The Witcher.

I was worried and excited about their Netfilx adaption from the beginning, but now I am mostly excited – and only a little bit worried, because I want this story to play till its logical end.

I fell in love with more than 20 years ago. The books, of course, only the books. The first two books – collections of short stories loosely connected by the main character Geralt were published in Russian in 1996, three years after the original Polish edition.

I was in love with all the characters and stories. It was dark and twisted fairy tale retellings – now a tired genre, then new and wonderful. Some stories were familiar to most of Western public – Snowhite, Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, some were more familiar to those read more fairytales than Brothers Grimm and Charles Pierrot. There were shades of Arthurian myth, and Tolkien, and Eastern European history – old and modern both, and a lot more. It felt both new and familiar and was perfect in every way for twenty-year old me.

The last books felt more heavy and tired and I liked them less, but I still loved all the characters and cared about them, so I loved the books.

The only problem, when I left Russia, I had almost nobody to be fannish about them together -safe for my Polish friend who loved them even more.

The books were eventually translated in English, but I suspect that hardly anyone read them. The games though became popular (I haven’t played them myself).

I was delighted when I learned that Netflix is doing the Witcher tv series, but I got immediately tired from screams from all the people who haven’t read the books, but hated Henry Cavill as Superman.

Henry Cavill is fine.

And the trailer is promising.

And the books are cool (though they do need adapting to world audience of now from Polish audience of 25 years ago.)

The order of books:
The Last Wish.
Sword of Destiny,

These two are short story collections, loosely connected, but important for the novels that follow them. Also, they are pretty good dark fun.

The novels tell the main story of a big war.

Blood of Elves,
Time of Contempt,
Baptism of Fire,
The Tower of the Swallow
The Lady of the Lake.

So. I finished Ancillary Mercy (By Ann Leckie) , and it was very good. I mean I feel all warm and fuzzy and want to hug the book and keep it close by always. I guess I want an entire novel full of sentient ships and weird alien being drinking tea (and/or fish sauce), playing board games and being snarky. Intergalactic politics, crazy desperate plans, what makes one a person, all kinds of sentience – possible and not, imperialism and people, and the glorious feeling of infinity of mind – and infinity of mind-boggling stuff.

Not much of a review, just sharing of joy. ;)

The fresh news of the week is that Amazon bought Goodreads. It's a logical move for both sides, of course, but I am upset as a reader, since I really don't want Amazon to own everything book-related. There have to be good independent hangouts for readers of books. And Goodreads was a good one, even though I never got to be a very active user.

of course, they promise that nothing will change, but...

LibraryThing in the wake of Goodreads news announced that they waiver one year's fee for anyone who joins right now:

http://www.librarything.com/blogs/librarything/2013/03/free-accounts-through-sunday/

so, yes, I joined. just because.

in more reading news, I've finished A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan. It was very enjoyable, and not at all what I expected, based on her previous books. Must think up a proper review.

1) people are doing reading Wednesday posts. I - not only don't read enough to justify posting about it every week, I again started to question the purpose of reading. No, not in general, but any particular book, in any particular time. I do read a lot of books - five a day or so. But they are children's books, and while I enjoy reading them, it is a vicarious joy - seeing my son loving the books I used to love as a little girl.

2) I do read a book for my own fun right now. It is "The Natural history of Dragons" by Marie Brennan. First thing that caught my attention after the dragons - Tam River Valley. Still giggling.

3) Found this promotional portraits http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/03/catching-fire-capitol-portraits-roundup, and suddenly I am very excited about watching Catching Fire. And it is only out in November...

4) OUaT continues fascinate me without being too emotionally engaging, and I am grateful for it. I am looking forward to whatever comes next. Cora does need some killing. I do enjoy her being some evil and manipulative, but what kind of a future does she have in the narrative?

5) I need to do something important, but for some reason I am terrified of it. Please kick me friendly...

1) Reading The Wild Ways by Tanya Huff I love how she always leaves me longing for her Canada - Way before I even thought about Canada (or knew about it more that "that large country north of USA where they like to drink hockey, play maple syrup, and make cool TV series Degrassi and such"), when I lived in Canada and looked for things and places she describes, now and ever... A very happy reading, indeed. Gale women are brilliant.

2) Studying Human Computer Interaction at www.coursera.org. I loved Model Thinking more, but that one is fun, too.

3) Making a website for P.'s project.

4) Growing tomatoes in the backyard.

Перепост из другого моего дневника, поэтому под катом

( Read more... )

http://io9.com/5916175/rip-ray-bradbury-author-of-fahrenheit-451-and-the-martian-chronicles

Ray Bradbury died this morning in Los Angeles, at the age of 91.

I guess, I was hoping he'll just keep living forever...

91 is a very respectable age, let us all get there, and frankly, most people I guess, didn't even realize he was still alive till now, so firmly he was in the past, classical age of science fiction. But he was also our tie between the past and the future. Between our childhood optimism and sad middle age, the warm bright flame in the dark thoughts about humans' future.

HE was one of the first science fiction authors I read as a child - along with Robert Sheckley, Clifford D. Simak, Henry Kuttner. He was translated and published and very beloved in USSR.

And when I think about him, I still feel the warmth, the magic, the wonder that I felt when I first read his stories.

Rest in peace, Ray Bradbury.

Thank you for your books.

1.Leave a comment to this post!
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Post the names of five fictional characters whose names begin with that letter, and your thoughts on each. The characters can be from books, movies, or TV shows

molly_may gave me K, which made me think for quite some time. Somehow I couldn't remember enough characters started with K that I wanted to write about.

But here is my final selection:

1)Korben Dallas. It is, just another shade of the same character played by Bruce Willis since before time, and I have some issues with him, just like with the whole movie Fifth Element, but I still love him and find him one of the best iterations. It probably comes from the fact that we watched that movie so many times that he is somewhat an old friend, who is occasionally cool, and occasionally ridiculous, but fun to have around.
2)Kara Thrace. I haven't watched much of BSG, but one cannot miss the awesomeness of Starbuck or the trace she left on our civilization.
3)Kate Sutton, the heroine of The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope. I love that girl. She is stubborn, proud, fair and intelligent in the best way. She reasons very believably for her age and time. She wins by refusing to take the seemingly easy way instead of the right way.
4)Kenzi of the Lost Girl. She is smart, loyal, brave and fun. She is a great friend. She is also Russian, and it matters somewhat, but not a huge deal and it doesn't make her a ridiculous stereotype. I didn't even realized how much I needed such character on TV.
5)Kaylee Frye. I almost didn't include her, since she is a bit too good to be true, with endless cheerfulness and magical rapport with engines. Maybe she is the luckiest with the early cancellation – she didn't have time to break. Still it is difficult not to like her – I love watching competence and optimism.

I finished reading Mindy Kaling's book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). I don't watch The Office and I didn't really know anything about her. But I liked the cover and some excerpts, and I picked it up from the library and read in three days. It is a very enjoyable book even if you don't care at all about the author. The easy style, the right type of sarcastic humor, the unapologetically strong opinions on everything from pea-coats to romantic comedies. I loved it.

The most unexpected result of my reading was that I decided to write a memoir myself. Yes, I know it sounds very silly – I am not accomplished in anything, but I had some interesting times doing it, that I might as well share.

I know I won't have much of an audience, but that's not important. I want to right it for myself – to channel my hoarding tendencies into something useful, and for my son, or any other descendants I might have someday. I'd love them to pretend their matriarch was not a complete loser, and my stories might help them in it.

I also want to write it for my ancestors, because how else can I express my love for my family except by telling their stories.

And deep in my heart, I think, I've always wanted to write a memoir. From the early age that I remember I had a second voice in my head (not, not that kind of voice) describing everything I do in a dispassionate tone of an academic biographer. Of course, as I child, I thought, I shall become famous first, but now I realize that there is nothing to wait for any longer. And no point in losing more time. I am not doing anything useful anyway.

1)I had a dream. Probably because I was on painkillers – ear stuff, very annoying. But. The dream was amazing: I was reading the most gorgeous, smart and witty graphic novel based on Wilkie Collins' novel Moonstone. With some science fiction/steampunk elements in it. And now I really want to read it in real life. And the adventures of Marian Halcombe (from Collins' Woman in White). Why didn't anyone written them?

2)I and P. finally watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, both parts. I liked the first part better than the book (nicely suspenseful), and the second part less than the book (the awe and the heartbreak in the book were more immediate, and there was more of Harry-unrelated Hogwarts Resistance). Now I feel the need to re-read the book immediately, and P. went and bought all eight movies (we didn't have them before).

3)I started to watch second season of the Lost Girl, and I am enjoying it very much. Now I finished episode 2.04, and... I am happy. I didn't know I needed it that much – weird Russian stuff that is not Random Weird Evil Russian Stuff, but character-related Weird Russian Stuff. Kenzi summons Baba Yaga – because she used to be terrified of her, and because she knows how (and because she is drunk and angry at Dyson, for Bo's sake). Of course, she ends up in Baba Yaga's hut, and has to defeat her herself, even though Bo and Dyson both are trying to help. We heard Kenzi speaking perfect Russian in the first episode, but while she doesn't hide it particularly, she doesn't advertize it, either. It's not a big deal. We can assume that she was born and learned to talk outside Canada, somewhere in former USSR – hence the normal Russian, but attended school in Canada – hence the perfect English. She grew up with Russian fairytales and silly kids' games. Summoning Baba Yaga this way was invented for the show, but we, at school at about 10-12 years did like to summon some scary stuff. Like the Queen of Spades and such. Using mirrors is also a good traditional way to stir some mystical shit. It is recommended to do only in twelve days after Christmas, though. But if you look in the mirror in the candlelight long enough, you could see your future husband or the devil (or your husband, the devil). So the fantasy stuff, while invented, felt organic to me. It also was genuinely creepy. But Kenzi dealt with it the best way possible.

4)Finished N.K. Jemisin's The Kingdom of Gods, the last book of the Inheritance trilogy. Liked it a lot, but I still think the second one, The Broken Kingdoms is my favorite of the three. I need to do a proper review, but when did I manage it the last time? If any of my friends want it, btw, it can be arranged. ;)

5)Watched Captain America. Was underwhelmed. I liked it – Steve, Old New York, Tommy Lee Jones, Fantastic Low-Tech, Peggy Carter... Except Peggy Carter was there just to be Steve's love interest, the only woman with more that one line of text. Other women were nurses or dancers. No female soldiers? Pilots? Whomever? Besides, I do always get a weird feeling watching movies about WWII where it seems that the war was fought by USA with their little helpers. I don't really expect anything from Captain America movie, of course, but it still feels weird – given the world domination plans of Agent Smith, to completely disregard the existence of the Eastern front. But the main underwhelming moment for me was that in the second half of the movie all the action became boring and perfunctory. It's like all the cool stuff was done, and they just had to fill up the time.

6)Looking forward to the new Sherlock Holmes movie. I don't care whether it's going to be good or just silly, I want to see Robert Downy Jr. And Jude Law enjoying themselves as Holmes and Watson.

There is a meme going around about 100 science fiction books, as selected by some people somewhere (NPR, I know). I am not going to do it. There are lots of of lists of 10, 50 or 100 THE BEST Books ever, and they all look very random to me. I don't dispute them – all the books in them are good and they must be special to the people who compiled those lists, but I feel no connection to them. I cannot judge my reading history and my reading plans by some random people's moods and ideas. The big part of this disconnect is, of course, that all those lists are English-language centric. Which is natural, since I read them in English-language media, but they are always presented as “world-wide”, and even have occasional non-English author brought in. Again, fine for those who only read in English, but it doesn't reflect my reading habits. I read some of the books, and I haven't read many more, but I read other great books instead, that people who made those lists have never heard about.

I did jumped on the eruthros' suggestion to make our own, fandom list of speculative fiction works, and nominated ten Russian-language books. Just so they would be there.

And if you want to nominate anything - run, the nominations are open until August 19th.

Moving on somewhat – I have the most ridiculous problem ever. I need to stop reading library books. Because there are too many book out there, and I want them, but I have entirely too many books at home that I have been planning to read forever and never got around to. I mean, I bought them, I carry them around - some for eleven years and across the globe, but I haven't read all of them yet. Or I bought them a year ago and planning to read them any day, but there is always a book from a library that I have to return, so I read it instead, and then I get another book from the library. It has to stop. And I read way too slowly these days. I mean, ok, I cannot spend a night finishing a book any longer, but a month for a regular... it is way too much.

I am reading Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men" by Mara Hvistendahl.

Way scarier than Zombie Apocalypse. Mostly because it is already here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8518755/E-books-drive-older-women-to-digital-piracy.html

I have made my first e-book purchase. Yay?

I've had e-books before, of course – from free sources and giveaways, but I couldn't bring myself to actually buy one. I hardly ever buy books at all these days – library yay! - and when I buy, it is the old-fashioned paperback or trade market. Yet I keep thinking that I should start buying e-books, and then I think what do I want from them. I've always dreamed of having a real library at home (and possibly getting lost there and staying in it forever.) But with our current nomadic lifestyle it is impossible – I have to cull my books regularly and leave only those I couldn't be without, or find people who would love a certain book as much as I did and giving my books to them. So e-books are an attractive option to keep my library with me in my travels.

The two problems are that I don't find them convenient to read – currently, on my iPod or desktop, and don't fully trust them. The first problem can be solved by purchasing a decent e-book reader. But: the cost of it and the books that I'll have to buy to justify the purchase is way more that I want to spend. If I read that many books and that fast – might be. But as now I can manage a book in two weeks, and I have a huge “to read pile” at home already plus a luge list of books I can get for free from the library... If somehow I acquire an ebook reader, than occasional purchase of a e-book would make sense to me. Which I think will happen eventually, just not soon. The second problem... has a lot to do with the pricing and the formats. I understand that from the point of view of the seller, it is basically the same product: the license to read a copyrighted object – a story. But when I buy it I am getting one bunch of rights or another. And I need to weight how much is each bunch is worth to me. In one case I am getting a paper book that I have to carry around to read and keep, that adds weight to my backpack and takes space on the shelf and in the box, but the one I can read anywhere and anyway I like (starting from the end, jumping back and forth). And after I am finished with it, I can re-sell it, or give it away, or just lend it to as many people as I like. With the e-book bunch I get a file that doesn't take much space, and I can store it easily and not think whether I have to get rid of it during our next move. There is also the factor of immediate gratification – I can desire for a book, buy on the spot and start reading it immediately. It doesn't really matter for me at the moment, but it is there. What are the limitations – I can read only in the specific way and using the specific device. I can keep it, but it is always under control of the seller whether I keep it on the server or download to my computer or other reading device. I cannot re-sell it or give away. There are some opportunities to lending e-books – but only some. Which is all a fine bundle of rights – except I don't want it. And I certainly don't want to pay the same price, since I am getting less rights valuable to me. So we are back to the “library yay” paean.

What price am I willing to pay, then? Well, as I wrote before, I've just paid $2.99 for “Ten Thousand Kingdoms” - the promotional sale price only good for May (http://www.orbitebooks.com/). I've read it, and I wanted to have it with me for the future. We'll see how it goes. I bought it here: www.ebooks.com, because they sell in multiple formats, but alas, all of them proprietary, bound on specific devices or software. Still, $3 is the price I can easily pay to risk the inconvenience, even though I understand it is not the price I can find a lot of books for.

There also was an interesting discussion at Jennifer Crusie's blog about the pricing of e-books: http://www.arghink.com/2011/04/22/apparent-value-whats-the-right-price-for-an-e-book/

I was happy to read this book. From the first page to the last page, even if there were happening horrible, scary things, even if occasionally I slowed down, something had kept me happy, something had made me run to the library to grab and devour the next book (just as happily), and now that something is making me jump in my chair waiting for the autumn release of the third book in the Inheritance trilogy. (The stories are self-contained, all right, they have different heroes and heroines, but they are all a part of the larger story). What was that something, then? The first heroine – Yeine, the short, dark-skinned warrior princess, the impossible odds she is playing, the emo gods she is dealing with (beside the humans with different degrees of meanness, ambitions and conceit. The wonderful world-building – the creation myth that feels both fresh and familiar, true. The language, not too fanciful and poetic, but rich and delicious just enough for my taste, the kind of language that does not obstruct the story, but makes it deeper. You just want more and more of it – and you get it, in the second book, The Broke Kingdoms: Another awesome heroine, Oree, a blind painter who can see magic, more emo gods, more horrors and heartbreaks and misery and beauty for everyone.

http://io9.com/#!5782000/io9-book-club-reminder-weve-got-free-epub-copies-of-gods-war-this-months-selection

The io9 Book Club meets once per month to discuss a book, then chat with the author. In March, we're meeting on the 29th to discuss God's War by Kameron Hurley. We also have free epub copies of the book for you!

Watch for a post on the 29th announcing the book club, and jump into comments for discussion! There's still time to read the book, too. It's a fast read, and our pals at Night Shade Books are offering a free epub version of the book to anyone who would like to participate in this month's io9 Book Club.

it's available till March 29th, and all you have to do is to write to the publisher on the email provided in the io9 post.

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Entries tagged with books

Hawaiian vacation and the Bronze Age Collapse

The books of yesteryear

The Odyssey

Piranesi and Mexican Gothic

October

The witcher

Ancillary Mercy

on books

Wednesday

Things I Started

My Pushkin

Oh, no... Ray Bradbury's gone...

Character meme and memoirs

Some mass culture stuff, in bullet points.

Reading Woes and

Unnatural Selection

Older women we are, but our spirit is eternally youthful

on e-books

The Ten Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

io9 book club: free e-book copy of God's War