Books: Girls, Women, Nobody, Shock, And Others

[woodwardiocom]

Girls Will Be Girls by JoAnn Deak, PhD.

This advice book is subtitled "Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters", and delivers nicely on that promise. My major concern is that she talks a lot about how the female brain is biologically different from the male brain, but doesn't quote any sources. It leaves me slightly dubious. Still, lots of good advice, recommended.

Too Many Women by Rex Stout

A Nero Wolfe novel, one that's been out of print for a long time, probably because the somewhat sexist title highlights the sexism within. It's not awful sexism, by 1947 standards, but it doesn't travel well. Not particularly recommended; I mostly bought it to complete my set.

Women And Other Constructs by Carrie Cuinn

Someone or other recommended this slim volume of SF &c. The stories and poems within are about women, robots, the dead, and children, treated as "other", and I enjoyed it. I'd buy more by her. Recommended.

How To Do Nothing With Nobody All Alone By Yourself by Robert Paul Smith

A short collection of advice on how to be a kid, written in the 1950s. Paper airplanes, mumbly-peg, and spool-tanks feature. I remembered it fondly from my 1970s childhood, though it, also, has not traveled well. (The assumption that mom sews enough to have empty spools lying around, or that dad smokes, are a bit dated.) Still, fun.

Present Shock by Douglas Rushkoff

A non-fiction text on how future shock has been replaced by present shock: the recognition that we can't keep up with what's going on now, let alone what's coming up. Reacting rather than thinking, winding too much time and space into here and now, and the fantasy of a zombie apocalypse (because then things would have an ending, finally) are all touched upon. I found the ideas within useful to apply to my superhero comic book habit, where there is never a proper ending, where everything takes place in a perpetual now, and where things careen from event to event without ever settling into a status quo. Recommended.

Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton

This near-future novel of murder, aliens, and the super-rich is a page-turner. A member of the great North clone family turns up dead, but none of their clones are missing. The only clue is the murder weapon, which appears to belong to an impossible alien. A massive investigation ensues, leading to the most horrible road trip of all time. Gripping, recommended.

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

Man, European SF is really concerned with the future of authentication, privacy, and money, isn't it? This very mannered, stylized novel is about a caper, wrapped around a revolution, adjacent to a Ren Faire, inside a space opera. The author explains little, so try to keep your head above water. Recommended.

I also read parts of The Illegal Rebirth of Billy The Kid by Rebecca Ore (meh) and Transgalactic by Van Vogt (good, but of its time), but don't have time to say more.

Comments

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

I loved The Quantum Thief and its sequel, and I can't wait for the third book to come out (although I totally agree with you on the keeping your head above water).

Edit: Ooo, the third book is out for pre-order! *pounce*

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me to put the sequels on my wish list...

[drwex]

The problem isn't that that womens' (girls') brains are different from mens' (boys'). They are, and you can see that on MRIs, fMRIs, autopsies, and so on. The problem is that womens' (girls') brains are also different from OTHER womens' (girls') brains and nobody can explain why there are differences and whether or not they make a damned bit of difference in behavior, attitude, aptitude, etc.

Statements of the form "women/men are inherently better/worse at XYZ because brain-difference" are just not supported by any science, afaik. So if we can't explain why brains are different, and we're not even sure that the difference is meaningful, then bringing it up treads dangerously close to sexism. That's one of the things that got Summers (rightly, imo) pilloried - what he said wasn't factually wrong, but his conclusions were unsupported by science and therefore insensitive and sexist.

[carrie cuinn (from livejournal.com)]

I'm glad you enjoyed Women and Other Constructs. You can find more of my fiction -- free to read online -- here http://carriecuinn.com/free-fiction/ (http://carriecuinn.com/free-fiction/).

Thank you for recommending my work.