Lissa’s resolution: Buy and Read More Print Books and Read Them Intentionally (Not in my Bed!) and Write in the Margins.
Marian’s resolution: Read More and Better Poetry. Join a Book Group.
Marian’s resolution FOR LISSA: You should read the Murderbot novellas. And listen to Lockwood and Co.
Lissa’s resolution FOR MARIAN: Reflect on what you read more. The learning is in the reflection. And I think you should try a John Scalzi novel. You can pick which one.
Cover blurbs are the print version of author twitter.
Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?
Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters
#NaNoWriMo2019 has concluded and it is now December. And here we are.
Doing is good, but the learning is in the reflection.
How did it go?
Did you write what you said you were going to write?
What did you learn? How was this year unique?
Plansting means I think I am writing one thing and then it turns into something else partway through the month. – Lissa
Marian wrote the first 50,000 words of a British historical mystery novel with Egyptology and various levels of success in the advanced plotting. Lissa wrote 51,000 words of a story that started out writing about a woman who creates “Book Club for One” and then another reader joins, 15 years later. And then I added the “Narrator” of both of their stories, as a social worker type of influence in their stories/lives, manipulating them from outside, and then their Narrator got harried with additional workload and sent an ancient copper dragon straight from the D&D 5e Monster Manual to Topeka and the story got….a little bit different and a little bit better. And in the end, most of my novel was about how being in a book club is very very good and also how we all deserve agency in our own lives and our own stories.
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.
And thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more.
Except discovery of their bond would be death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That’s how war works. Right?
goodreads.com
This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone in detail and our discussion in the podcast is filled with minor and major spoilers, so please read the book before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. We’ll be here for you when you finish!
Quotes and Discussion
“ There’s a kind of time travel in letters, isn’t there? I imagine you laughing at my small joke; I imagine you groaning; I imagine you throwing my words away. Do I have you still? Do I address empty air and the flies that will eat this carcass? You could leave me for five years, you could return never—and I have to write the rest of this not knowing.” ― from This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Marian perfectly captured why it was so hard for Lissa to talk about why she loves This is How You Lose the Time War when she shared the idea of “Meals and Snacks” from the Malcolm Gladwell MasterClass. People don’t talk about things (movies, books etc) the same way they think about them. In conversation we cling to the little “snack” moments that are easy to transmit to others, but that is different than the bits that we mull and savor over a longer period of time. As writers, we include both snacks and meals so that consumers can use what we write on multiple levels. Lissa wants to annotate a copy of the book with her friends so we can all share the jokes, but also mull over and savor the book on her own, for a long time.
When Lissa hear about this concept of Machinebrain and Gardenbrain from Brad Rourk last week, she thought — it’s Red! and Blue! And she was very glad to be at a training to learn how to be better at Forestbrain.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe—in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.
Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.
Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.
from goodreads.com
We agree that this book gives us SO MANY well developed characters:
What spinoff projects did we propose during this podcast?
The cookbook/craft book based on The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Marian will work on the recipe for smokey buns and Lissa will knit a hat for fix bots. Maybe.
Next episode: The Book Evangelists will discussing 2019 in reading and our plans, hopes, and dreams for 2020.
Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?
Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters
The Book Evangelists discuss The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders as part of reading and listening to the 5-star SF/FF audiobooks and books that we have recommended to each other recently. Lissa has been talking up this book constantly for six months and claims it is a climate change tidally-locked planet #hopepunk found family snuggling book.
Morning Chatter
We did all of our chattering before we started the podcast so let us tell you directly here in the Show Notes that school has started for our various children and that Lissa appreciates SO MUCH that Marian is just a little bit ahead on all of the parenting challenges and can share her wisdom and experience.
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders at Goodreads
“If you control our sleep, then you can own our dreams… And from there, it’s easy to control our entire lives.”
Set on a planet that has fully definitive, never-changing zones of day and night, with ensuing extreme climates of endless, frigid darkness and blinding, relentless light, humankind has somehow continued apace — though the perils outside the built cities are rife with danger as much as the streets below.
But in a world where time means only what the ruling government proclaims, and the levels of light available are artificially imposed to great consequence, lost souls and disappeared bodies are shadow-bound and savage, and as common as grains of sand. And one such pariah, sacrificed to the night, but borne up by time and a mysterious bond with an enigmatic beast, will rise to take on the entire planet–before it can crumble beneath the weight of human existence.
description from the publisher
This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders in detail and our discussion in the podcast is filled with minor and major spoilers, so please read the book before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. We’ll be here for you when you finish!
This is the quote Lissa used to celebrate her new job title “Community Connections Librarian”
Quotes
“I need to learn to belong to other people the way everyone else seems to, with one hand in the wind.” – from The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
“Every community has a need that is cannot meet in itself. The more they say they do not need us, the harder we must try to become what they need most.” – from The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
“A big thing in the Citizens was, we were all responsible for each other … Sometimes that meant that anybody who wasn’t us could eat shit. But we tried to be generous, and the interdependence was part of the teachings.” – from The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
“You might mistake understanding for forgiveness, but if you did, then the unforgiven wrong would catch you off guard, like a cramp, just as you reached for generosity.” – from The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
“I like that the quotes that you read — they’re all conflictual — this is not a book where you can rally around one particular quote. One particular quote is not going to be enough for us to rally around. We’re going to have to re-examine our thinking over and over and over.” – Lissa
Here’s the succinct wording Lissa couldn’t remember during the quotes discussion: “Nothing About Us Without Us!” is a slogan used to communicate the idea that no policy should be decided by any representative without the full and direct participation of members of the groups affected by that policy.
Characters and Places
Places
How does the world-building work? How are these places described?
January
Xiophante
Argelo
The City in the Middle of the Night
Characters
Which characters do we like? Who scares us? Who is our favorite character? Who are we shipping together? Who do we worry about? Who surprised us?
Sophie
Mouth
Bianca
Alyssa
Hernan
Barney
Crocodiles/Gelet
Oh, Bianca….we could talk about her all day.
Science Fiction as Self-Help
This is a good self-help book for learning more about: Friendships, Love, Betrayal, Boundaries, Trust, and people using each other for good or using each other for bad. This book illustrates all of those things really, truly.
“People don’t hurt each other enough in traditional romance novels to have the level of depth that this book has.” – Lissa’s endorsement for why reading The City in the Middle of the Night is better, post-divorce, than reading her typical stack of escapist romance novels
This was Lissa’s favorite quote on her first read-through. Because this is a self-help book about boundaries.
Subscribing to Their Newsletters
As all good readers know, when you really like the author’s book, sometimes you might check out their website, their twitter, their podcast, their agent…..because those are all source of additional book news and recommendations!
Lissa starting listening to Charlie Jane Anders podcast Our Opinions are Correct at least 10 days before it won the Hugo for Best Fancast and Marian had it queued up. #earlyadopters
Next episode: Marian is preparing to possibly write a cozy mystery. So, for next time, we will read an Agatha Christie novel, specifically Murder on the Orient Express and discuss what we can get from this book that will help Marian write a better novel in November.
Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?
Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters
The Book Evangelists discuss Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Morning Chatter
In which we briefly discuss the joys and potential perils of recommending books to friends or potential friends. How do you choose which books to recommend to others? What if they don’t like the recommendation? What if you don’t like someone else’s recommendation? What are Marian’s favorite books to recommend to others? What will Lissa say honestly if she doesn’t like your book recommendation?
When Marian asked Lissa how she gets great book recommendations….
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett at Goodreads
Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle.
But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic–the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience–have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine. But if they can unlock the artifact’s secrets, they will rewrite the world itself to suit their aims.
Now someone in those Houses wants Sancia dead, and the artifact for themselves. And in the city of Tevanne, there’s nobody with the power to stop them.
To have a chance at surviving—and at stopping the deadly transformation that’s under way—Sancia will have to marshal unlikely allies, learn to harness the artifact’s power for herself, and undergo her own transformation, one that will turn her into something she could never have imagined.
description from the publisher
This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett in detail and our discussion in the podcast is filled with minor and major spoilers, so please read the book before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. We’ll be here for you when you finish!
Characters
Which characters do we like? Who scares us? Who is our favorite character? Who are we shipping together? Who do we worry about? Who do we hope appears in the second book in this trilogy? You think you know what people’s motivations are, but then you find out more or it changes. Who surprised us?
Sancia Grado
Gregor Dandolo
Ofelia Dandolo
Orso
Berenice
Claudia and Giovanni
Estelle Candiano
Tomas Candiano
Clef!
World Building
What do we learn about the magic in this very scientific world? What do we learn about politics from a world without laws?
Themes
Unfettered capitalism
How marginalizing people causes the loss of talent
PTSD and the lasting effects of trauma
This is the first book in a trilogy. Will you read book 2? Book 3? Do you think authors owe readers the ending they are hoping for?
“Every innovation—technological, sociological, or otherwise—begins as a crusade, organizes itself into a practical business, and then, over time, degrades into common exploitation. This is simply the life cycle of how human ingenuity manifests in the material world. What goes forgotten, though, is that those who partake in this system undergo a similar transformation: people begin as comrades and fellow citizens, then become labor resources and assets, and then, as their utility shifts or degrades, transmute into liabilities, and thus must be appropriately managed.”
WHY aren’t more people talking about how great this book is? Where is the hidden corner of the Internet where people are fangirling over Foundryside and should we join those social media platforms so that we can connect with the other readers who loved this book? Would Lissa alter her body or her reality to create an electronic book reading communication tool to connect to others who are enjoying the same book at the same time? Can Lissa invent this? And will you still subscribe to our podcast if this invention becomes wildly successful and we buy an island to read on?
What are we learning from this book? How do I grow up to be that good of a writer? Could you write the middle of a book and then show the build up in flash backs to write a cape/heist novel that way?
Camp NaNoWriMo for July – listen in to hear how creatively we both failed!
Next episode: We are reading and listening to the 5-star SF/FF audiobooks and books that we have recommended to each other recently, possibly including the climate change tidally-locked planet #hopepunk found family snuggling book The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders.
Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?
Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters
The Book Evangelists 