Kenneth’s Comments (group member since Sep 04, 2014)

Kenneth’s comments from the Discourse in a Digital Age group.

I should point out that Seven Brief Lessons in Physics and The Stars My Destination were both unavailable from our vendor, so I would not be able to acquire them. Other suggestions missed the boat largely due to my surprisingly stringent self-imposed genre requirements and a desire to reuse books that are already collected by the library. I could do book talks forever.

This list is still subject to change slightly depending on availability, but this is just about it. I give you our 2017 reading list. Drumroll, please!

January 11, 2017 – The Last Policeman by Ben Winters
February 8, 2017 – Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
March 8, 2017 – The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
April 12, 2017 – Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
May 10, 2017 – Ms. Marvel (1) by G. Willow Wilson
June 14, 2017 – I Hate the Internet by Jarett Kobek
July 12, 2017 – The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
August 9, 2017 – Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra
September 13, 2017 – Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
October 11, 2017 – The City and the City by China Mieville
November 8, 2017 – All my Darling Daughters by Fumi Yoshinaga
December 13, 2017 – Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

If you have any major reservations, questions, or last-minute requests, fire away!

Crawling the Hugo awards pages is fascinating. Check out 2016's winning short story, Cat Pictures Please.

Anyway, I will be posting my book club choices this week, hopefully in the next couple of days.

Fun link, Anne. Thanks for sharing!

Here's another one I like that seemed relevant to the group, if not F 451. Do you think this is dumbing down our country, Lucy, or contributing to the growth of culture, Anne? http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-wa...

Next month, we are discussing The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. Rather fortuitously, there is a movie of the book out now. I can't take credit for planning this, but I can take advantage of it. Would we like to form a group to go see it?

It looks like it's a pretty wide release for the moment, but there's never any telling how long it will stay out. Are people free this weekend?

A little late, but here's the conversation thread for our Wednesday discussion of Ray Bradbury's classic dystopian treatment about free will and censorship. What have you to say about the plight and perils of Guy Montag? Any fun links to share? I rather like the Thug Notes treatment of the book...

Elaine is on the list to bring refreshments. Let us know if you have suggestions!

Anybody want to borrow my copy of Thing Explainer? :)

Thing Explainer is the best. I got it when I went to Chicago to meet the author at a book signing. (My favorite is that the word nine is not on the list of the ten-hundred most common words in English, which led to some hilarious evasions.)

I probably won't declare it as a book club book. It doesn't quite have the aesthetic I'm looking for, and reading every detail of inherently boring things does wear on you a bit if you try to read it like a novel. Also, more practically, they won't buy it for me, since it's only in hardback.

Never heard of The Stars My Destination. Onto the list of potential formative SF it goes.

I actually had I Hate the Internet on a list to examine because I happened to notice you were reading it, Kimberly. It certainly sounds appropriate.

Good feedback so far! This is the second suggestion for Seven Brief Lessons on Physics - Lucy put in a request a few months back. It sounds interesting and might help with more weighty SF reads like The Three-Body Problem. That shows promise and hits a multicultural note, though it looks pretty dense.

China Mieville is a good suggestion. We haven't looked much at "weird fiction", and I wouldn't want to throw Lovecraft at you. The City and the City is one I have my eye on.

Other books currently on a shortlist for consideration:

The Book of Lost Things (Connolly)
Daytripper (Ba and Moon)

I'm looking for a good single-volume manga for one of the Graphic Novel slots. More female authors are needed, and a trans perspective too.

Hello Digital Discoursers! Don't forget to submit books, topics, genres, or general ideas for next year's discussion. A reminder of the general genres we discuss:

Graphic Novels
Contemporary Nonfiction (usually featuring interesting studies)
Contemporary Fiction (typically sci-fi tinged, or featuring an interesting use of technology)
Classic Science Fiction (featuring greats in the business)
Current popular novels (to try to rope in new people)

I will have a banned book for September's banned book month, and science fiction for Sci-Fi July. I'm always on the lookout for books and authors with perspectives from all genders, colors, or nationalities. We've been having bad luck getting authors to Skype with us recently, so if we can line somebody up for that, it would be great.

More or less officially, I have Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance on the calendar for February 2017. We're probably also going to read Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh, because I just love that book.

Let me know what you want to read!

Here is the discussion topic for Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson. Note the similiarity in name to Neal Stephenson. (No reason, I just like it.) Since this is rather a fast read, you might put your thoughts down here as you finish it. Sound off about the nature of good and evil, sub-texty relationships, and whether certain actions were justified.

I had hoped to finish this, but as Kim pointed out, the performance is complete. Here is my annotation up to page 68. I hope it is appreciated.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k...

Thanks Kim for the treats on short notice, and thanks to everybody for your input.

Full Annotation for this book is practically impossible! At least without help from the author and in the time I've allotted myself to do it. References every page, offhanded or nonsensical comments mean something, it's all nuts. Nevertheless, it's a lot of fun.

So no reading guide yesterday, obviously, but I've made progress on it. There's quite a lot to catalog. It will be up at or soon after the discussion tonight. :)

Now this is a fascinating one. I hope to be posting a reading guide today, but go ahead let us know what you thought about Gray Adams and his inner life.

I'll start with a commentary on the identity of the character. It's natural to assume that a first-person protagonist has a similar worldview of the author. You at least assume they are the same gender and ethnicity, unless told otherwise. Browning chose to go a different way with that, making Adams male, black, and one step further, gay. At the same time, she imbues him with other qualities she shares - a middle-aged academic, for example. She does not call attention to these traits, instead leaving you to infer them as the story goes. She uses this device with several other things in the novel as well, such as the implication that Sven is HIV Positive.

I think this is good, and well in line with how people think about their own lives. They don't call attention to things about themselves they take as obvious facts, and what does it matter anyway? It is also a device people use when they don't want to think about something (like Sven). What else do you think this choice adds to (or detracts from) the story?

Ooh, I like the author's take on social media. Similar to many other authors, really, but he puts it so well:

http://www.nealstephenson.com/social-...

True. I chose this one because it was rather the shortest of Stephenson's works. Nevertheless, it's not small, the opportunities for discussion are endless.

This session of the book club is rather sneaking up on me. I will see you folks tomorrow to discuss this massive work. Oh, it looks like I'm bringing the treats. How clever of me! Quick, any ideas?

I am really enjoying Stephenson's treatment of an America that doesn't seem too far away from where we are today. Any other thoughts, media to discuss, or interesting ideas?

I found the passages about harems and learning to see the world in gasps. Were you talking about the section where she's debating with the Commander about love versus arranged marriages?