June 2011

This June, I didn’t read as much as I did in June 2010 (16 books) or June 2009 (13 books).  I blame this on the 54,000 words of novel I’ve written and my new job finally picking up in the last couple of weeks.

Here’s what I’ve been reading:

1. The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin.  This marked the end of my Earthsea-reread; while I still and undyingly love Ged, this book isn’t really about him, making it my least favorite of the five books.
2. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.  Marina Singh travels to Brazil to figure out what happened to her coworker and check up on the progress of the development of a secret drug.  This almost doesn’t count as literary fiction because so many things keep happening.
3. McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon.  Here is a delightful collection of clever, bizarre genre fiction that pays homage to the magazine “slicks” and penny-dreadfuls from whence they came.  Some excellent authors contribute.
4. The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer.  Steampunk.  Metafiction.  The Tempest.  This is the story of how Harold came to be trapped inside a zeppelin with the voice of his childhood sweetheart and the frozen corpse of the world’s greatest inventor.
5. The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht.  Winner of the Orange Prize, this book is Natalia’s contemplative self-investigation of the character of her grandfather, who has died, by means of two stories that he occasionally told: the deathless man, and the tiger’s wife.
6. The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville.  I have read few novels set in Australia or written by Australians, but Kate Grenville is definitely on my radar.  During the settlement of Australia, an astronomer becomes acquainted with a native girl, but it doesn’t turn out how you might think.
7. A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer.  Faris goes to college to study magic because her uncle wants to keep her from inheriting, but she learns far more than magic in this charming Edwardian fantasy romance.
8. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks.  I needed a reread.  Banks was there for me.
9. A Scholar of Magics by Caroline Stevermer.  Samuel is an American sharpshooter, called in by a magic college to help with research, but when trespass turns to kidnapping, he and Jane must get to the bottom of the secret research to rescue his friend.
10. Psychology: A Very Short Introduction by Gillian Butler and Freda McManus.  The chapters on cognition, perception, and emotion were engrossing, but the second half of the book was too cursory even for a VSI.

Wisdom from Psychology: “People frequently make assumptions about what psychologists are able to do – for example, that they can tell what you are thinking from your body language, or read your mind. While such assumptions are understandable, they are not correct. … Nevertheless they cannot read people’s minds, or manipulate people against their will, and they have not yet drawn up a blueprint for happiness.”

Really?  People assume psychologists can read their minds?  And this assumption is understandable, because of – let me guess – the power and mystique of the psychologist?  At least I know that the blueprint for happiness is on the map, even if they haven’t perfected it yet.  Oy.