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fiveforsilver30. Fifty Short Science Fiction Tales ed. by Isaac Asimov and Groff Conklin (285)
I'm not reviewing 50 stories. They're all short-short stories (their definition of short-short, anyway), between 500 and 3,000 words. I really like some of them (e.g., The Haunted Space Suit by Arthur C. Clarke, Stair Trick by Mildred Clingerman) and I don't like some others at all (e.g., Hilda by HB Hickey, The Rag Thing by David Grinnell).
31. Lythande by Marion Zimmer Bradley (237)
Anthology of short stories about Lythande, a woman who must stay disguised as a man or lose her sorcery and her life.
The Secret of the Blue Star
Not my favorite story, but a poignant look at how difficult it can be for Lythande to have to hide the truth from everyone.
The Incompetant Magician
Lythande performs a task for a fellow magician in exchange for a remnant of her past. The story itself isn't that interesting, but I like the end.
Somebody Else's Magic
Lythande's secret is threatened when she helps a dying woman and is bound by somebody else's magic. A frustrating story with a weird ending.
Sea Wrack
Lythande decides to help a fishing village rid itself of a murderous mermaid. I really quite like this one, and it brings to mind several old fairy tales I've heard.
The Wandering Lute
Lythande attempts to disenchant a lute and has several amusing adventures on the way. There is a sequel story, "The Gratitude of Kings", that isn't in this book. I like both stories; there are several entertaining characters and situations.
Looking for Satan by Vonda McIntyre
This story isn't told from Lythande's perspective at all, but that of Wess, a girl from the North who has come south with her friends to find their kidnapped friend Satan. It is definitely the strongest story in the bunch and my favorite.
32. *Dune by Frank Herbert (510)
I'm counting this as a new read because while I did read it back in high school, I didn't understand any of it. It's very complex and quite an interesting book. It was hard for me to separate what was happening in the book from what I remember from the SciFi miniseries, though, which made things interesting when, for instance, the same line was spoken, but by a different character (which happened frequently). There were a number of characters that I liked better in the miniseries - almost all the women were much stronger there.
33. *It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh (230)
I originally bought this book because I'm a big fan of his (now cancelled) tv show Clean Sweep. On it, he would help a person, or a couple (usually a couple), or a family go through the clutter from two rooms of their home, while the rest of his team redesigned and redecorated those rooms to be more functional and more beautiful (well, usually more beautiful; I didn't always agree with their aesthetics, but that's to be expected).
This book is supposed to be how to do that (the decluttering part) for yourself.
Mostly I liked it. I got some sticky pagemarkers to keep track of things I wanted to look back at later, and I have a bunch of pages marked. The main problem I have with this - which is the problem I have with most declutter/get organized stuff I've looked at - is that it's for a family, in a house. Many of the suggestions involve getting the family involved, do stuff with the kids, etc, etc, and maybe it's supposed to be easier to convert things from "do it with the family" to "do it by yourself", but I found page after page of how to do stuff with the kids frustrating. And frankly, I skipped a lot of it, which means I may have missed advice and information, but that's the way it goes.
33 / 110 books. 30% done!
10 / 75 *new books. 13% done!
1 / 10 non-fiction. 10% done!
10532 / 33000 pages. 32% done!
I'm not reviewing 50 stories. They're all short-short stories (their definition of short-short, anyway), between 500 and 3,000 words. I really like some of them (e.g., The Haunted Space Suit by Arthur C. Clarke, Stair Trick by Mildred Clingerman) and I don't like some others at all (e.g., Hilda by HB Hickey, The Rag Thing by David Grinnell).
31. Lythande by Marion Zimmer Bradley (237)
Anthology of short stories about Lythande, a woman who must stay disguised as a man or lose her sorcery and her life.
The Secret of the Blue Star
Not my favorite story, but a poignant look at how difficult it can be for Lythande to have to hide the truth from everyone.
The Incompetant Magician
Lythande performs a task for a fellow magician in exchange for a remnant of her past. The story itself isn't that interesting, but I like the end.
Somebody Else's Magic
Lythande's secret is threatened when she helps a dying woman and is bound by somebody else's magic. A frustrating story with a weird ending.
Sea Wrack
Lythande decides to help a fishing village rid itself of a murderous mermaid. I really quite like this one, and it brings to mind several old fairy tales I've heard.
The Wandering Lute
Lythande attempts to disenchant a lute and has several amusing adventures on the way. There is a sequel story, "The Gratitude of Kings", that isn't in this book. I like both stories; there are several entertaining characters and situations.
Looking for Satan by Vonda McIntyre
This story isn't told from Lythande's perspective at all, but that of Wess, a girl from the North who has come south with her friends to find their kidnapped friend Satan. It is definitely the strongest story in the bunch and my favorite.
32. *Dune by Frank Herbert (510)
I'm counting this as a new read because while I did read it back in high school, I didn't understand any of it. It's very complex and quite an interesting book. It was hard for me to separate what was happening in the book from what I remember from the SciFi miniseries, though, which made things interesting when, for instance, the same line was spoken, but by a different character (which happened frequently). There were a number of characters that I liked better in the miniseries - almost all the women were much stronger there.
33. *It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh (230)
I originally bought this book because I'm a big fan of his (now cancelled) tv show Clean Sweep. On it, he would help a person, or a couple (usually a couple), or a family go through the clutter from two rooms of their home, while the rest of his team redesigned and redecorated those rooms to be more functional and more beautiful (well, usually more beautiful; I didn't always agree with their aesthetics, but that's to be expected).
This book is supposed to be how to do that (the decluttering part) for yourself.
Mostly I liked it. I got some sticky pagemarkers to keep track of things I wanted to look back at later, and I have a bunch of pages marked. The main problem I have with this - which is the problem I have with most declutter/get organized stuff I've looked at - is that it's for a family, in a house. Many of the suggestions involve getting the family involved, do stuff with the kids, etc, etc, and maybe it's supposed to be easier to convert things from "do it with the family" to "do it by yourself", but I found page after page of how to do stuff with the kids frustrating. And frankly, I skipped a lot of it, which means I may have missed advice and information, but that's the way it goes.
