Reading year in review

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I'm currently reading Inside Straight, but for study-related issues, I'm unlikely to finish it in 2010. So here's my reading year in review. Yeah, I know we did this a few months ago too. But now it's time for the final tally!

THE COMPLETE LIST OF FICTION

Kader Abdolah: Het huis van de moskee
Dan Abnett: First and Only
Dan Abnett: Ghostmaker
Ryunosuke Akutagawa: Rashomon
Keith Baker: The City of Towers
Keith Baker: The Shattered Land
Scott Bakker: Disciple of the Dog
Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou: Logicomix (graphic novel)
Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas: The Three Musketeers
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
Harlan Ellison (ed.): Dangerous Visions
David Gemmell: Hero in the Shadows
David Gemmell: White Wolf
Thomasine Gyllembourg: Two Ages
Kim Harrison: Dead Witch Walking
Robin Hobb: Dragon Haven
Robert E. Howard: Red Nails (novella)
David Langford: The Space Eater
George R. R. Martin: The Armageddon Rag
George R. R. Martin: Dreamsongs I
George R. R. Martin: Dreamsongs II
George R. R. Martin: Dying of the Light
George R. R. Martin: Fevre Dream
George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle: Windhaven
George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham: Hunter's Run
J. M. McDermott: Last Dragon
Richard Morgan: Altered Carbon
Garth Nix: Across the Wall
Kenneth Oppel: The Devil's Cure
Albert Sanchez Pinol: Pandora in the Congo
Ricardo Pinto: The Standing Dead
SFX: Pulp Idol 2007
SFX: Pulp Idol 2008
Charles den Tex: Onmacht (novella)
Peter Watts: Blindsight

BEST BOOK

1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. There is a reason this book is still read 160 years after its original release: it is just that good.

Runners-up:

2. Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb
3. Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

1. Those Warhammer 40k books by Dan Abnett. I like what I've seen of the 40k setting, and Abnett is supposedly the best writer in that universe, but I found his books to be pretty dull stuff.
2. Disciple of the Dog by Scott Bakker. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad book. It's just that my expectations were way too high.
3. Those books by Keith Baker. My expectations weren't very high and they still managed to fall short.

UNEXPECTED SURPRISE

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. I didn't expect it to be quite so much fun, but it was!

OBSERVATIONS

1. I really, really like GRRM.
2. There was more variation than in previous years. Mostly fantasy, it's true, but there was also SF, a smattering of historical novels and even a couple of thrillers. I want to keep this up.
3. Very few female authors, and even fewer if you look at the reasons for reading them. I read a book by Lisa Tuttle because she co-wrote it with GRRM and a book by Thomasine Gyllemborg because it came with a lengthy analysis by the male philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Only Hobb and Harrison were read on their own merits, and I was (obviously) already familiar with Hobb. I'm a little worried by this. I'm not a sexist, but why was nearly everything I've read this year written by men?

On to 2011!

[Nuytsia]

Interesting summaries and observations!
Sorry I still have no idea what I've read! I don't think I've read a single fiction book since my last post on this subject......

I think I read recently that GRRM is actually Robin Hobb's FAVOURITE author. That's pretty high praise in my book.

I guess I could probably write an essay on why there are so few female authors that you (or me, or anyone) are likely to have come across. But I'm probably way too lazy. It's almost certainly out there somewhere already!!!!

[Albertosaurus Rex]

It reminds me of discussions I've head about job applications and the bad position of minorities: should we engage in positive discrimination or anonymous application? I have always been in fabor of anonymous apllication. If you do positive discrimination, you're not treating the applications as persons, but of members of a social group. If the process is anonymous and you can't see if the person is, say, a woman, a muslim or black, you're at least judging them by their qualities.

Why are there so few women have have high positions within corporations? I don't think all bosses are sexist, but there might be something going on subconsciously. And it might be the same with books I think. I'm not consiously sexist. I wouldn't be posting on a Robin Hobb forum if I were. I detest sexism.

On another note: I do still have one book by Abnett and one by Baker lying around and I'm determined to read them! I paid my hard-earned money for them, dang it!

EDIT: Speaking of Martin, please do avoid Dying of the Light. It's the one book by him that I really don't like.

[Farseer]

should we engage in positive discrimination or anonymous application?

That's an interesting quandary, AR...I will have to think on that some, and have to admit I'd never have thought of it, simple strategy that it sounds! My knee-jerk reaction is that I would want to be chosen on who I was as a whole package, and not just what was on paper but...hmmm...

Why are there so few eomen have have high positions within corporations?

Every woman or culture is different but possibly one reason is that a significant number of women have simply tended to take a break for the purpose of raising children, and this interruption can later cause problems for climbing the corporate ladder to a true leadership position? This would no doubt be changing as many women are now, and more and more, choosing a career over a family, or stop for children only as long as maternity leave allows? Unlike myself, I have a number of friends who have chosen the latter path and they are now in very "high positions", and happy to be so with no regrets. This option for "choice" has changed in nature due to a variety of factors such as social acceptance, finanancial assistance in and out of the workplace, childcare infrastructure and support, increased commercialism etc.

As for female authors, I can't say...except that it's sad when they feel they have to disguise or smokescreen their gender until their works are accepted as 'good'. It took me a while to learn that Lian Hearn was, in fact, Australian children's author Gillian Rubinstein! I think this is possibly also one of the reason why I enjoy Robin's books...they deal with the whole gender issue very well, smearing genders where issues should be smeared/don't matter and keeping them separate when they should be separate, I guess, but still giving socially acceptable and unacceptable views (don't ask me to explain that last bit! ).

PS I will get to compiling my final list for the year...just have to find the original first!! It won't compare to your AMAZING year in review though, AR, and therein lies the solid proof that train rides are good for something other than getting you from one place to another!

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Every woman or culture is different but possibly one reason is that a significant number of women have simply tended to take a break for the purpose of raising children, and this interruption can later cause problems for climbing the corporate ladder to a true leadership position? This would no doubt be changing as many women are now, and more and more, choosing a career over a family, or stop for children only as long as maternity leave allows? Unlike myself, I have a number of friends who have chosen the latter path and they are now in very "high positions", and happy to be so with no regrets. This option for "choice" has changed in nature due to a variety of factors such as social acceptance, finanancial assistance in and out of the workplace, childcare infrastructure and support, increased commercialism etc.

I think this is a valid point. It came up during the aforementioned discussions: the simple fact that women can get pregnant. Even if the husband is a stay-at-home dad, maternity leave can cause a hassle.

One of the things I find very amusing is how pregnancies are handled when actresses in tv series get pregnant. You ever noticed in Star Trek TNG or Star Trek Voyager how Beverly Crusher and B'Lanna suddenly started wearing those long coats? That's because the actresses were pregnant. The coats, combined with clever camerawork, kept it concealed.

As for female authors, I can't say...except that it's sad when they feel they have to disguise or smokescreen their gender until their works are accepted as 'good'. It took me a while to learn that Lian Hearn was, in fact, Australian children's author Gillian Rubinstein! I think this is possibly also one of the reason why I enjoy Robin's books...they deal with the whole gender issue very well, smearing genders where issues should be smeared/don't matter and keeping them separate when they should be separate, I guess, but still giving socially acceptable and unacceptable views (don't ask me to explain that last bit! ).

I do want to note that I knew Robin Hobb is a woman before I started reading her books.

On another note, here's a category I should have included:

WEIRDEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Which would be a contest between Pandora in the Congo and Last Dragon.

['thul]

these beings care not about the gender of the author, so long as the book is good...

In the stargate series (Universe, Atlantis, SG-1) they have covered pregnant actors in different ways... One of the unborn children were actually an important character... and in SG-1 a child born to one of the actors became the leader of the "evil" faction... (through accelerated growth)
But these beings also recall seeing images from one of the actors being pregnant without it being made a point of...

[redchild]

Why are there so few women have have high positions within corporations? I don't think all bosses are sexist, but there might be something going on subconsciously.

Because sexism is still rampant.Generally speaking, a woman who demonstrates any combination of assertiveness, intelligence and/or leadership qualities is usually seen as a threat to a male ego. A woman with authority is generally seen as a bitch while a man is seen as a "man taking charge." The problem mainly lies in men trying to achieve a false sense of "manliness" (alpha, tough guy, etc.) and women who perpetuate derogatory female stereotypes (looks over brains, attempts to please their man, etc.)

I'm not saying that all women would make great bosses if assigned the position, nor are all male bosses chauvinists. Not all corporations are really great environments to work in, let alone to make any objective study of the social dynamics between men and women. In a corporate environment, you would already have to be well suited to the cutthroat, competitive environment. In the corporate world, it would be the ideal that people should be given positions best suited to their abilities and character and not their sex, but we don't live in a perfect world.

Sorry for hijacking the thread.

[Nuytsia]

Yeah I think it's a bit more complicated than 'women had to take time out to have kids' and in some cases I think that's used as a bit of an excuse for the whole problem of sexism in the workplace. It would be nice for starters if men could (and wanted to) take just as much time out from their career to raise their children!
When I was at school and uni I sort of thought well the world is all equality of the sexes these days, but when I went to work I was pretty well shocked at the subtle and not so subtle sexism that still exists.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I think I read recently that GRRM is actually Robin Hobb's FAVOURITE author. That's pretty high praise in my book.

I knew he was one of her favorite authors, but all the way at the top of the list? In all interviews that I have read, she refuses to name a single favorite and lists a handful of writers. GRRM does often happen to be on that list.

[joost]

Some female writers you may like:

- Mary Gentle. 'Ash: a secret history' is one of the best books I've ever read. An alternate history novel about Burgundy and Cathargo, where 95% is historically correct, but the other 5% are based on a few 'what ifs'. The chronicles of Orthe are very good too.
- Cecilia Dart-Thornton. I thoroughly enjoyed her Bitterbynde trilogy. Fantasy mixed with a lot of mythology
- Ellen Kushner. I only know 'Thomas the rhymer', but I really like that book
- Mickey Zucker Reichert. The Renshai books and the nightfall books are very good reads.
- Marion Zimmer Bradley. I like the Avalon books the most, but the few Darkover books I've read were good too.
- Mercedes Lackey. I've read Brightly burning, and quite enjoyed it
- Anne McCaffrey. Not just the Pern books, but the Brain&Brawn series is really good too.