Borrowed Book By: This was a purchase request* of mine from a few years ago – when we, stateside were having to wait extra long to read “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet”, I took a rather pro-active interest in obtaining a copy I could read! I checked in with readers online and even the author herself, Becky Chambers to get an arrival approximation for the novel. In the end, I submitted a purchase request which was accepted and I am now reading this novel for the first time!
Uniquely enough, it is a very beloved copy!! Many patrons and readers have definitely read this copy ahead of me which warms my heart! This is why I love to submit purchase requests at my local libraries! (yes, plural!) Secondly, there were handwritten notes tucked into this copy which mirrored my own curious musings and they will stay with me, as the last time I tried to leave in a reader’s note in a library book my librarians put it in the bin! (*le sigh*) When I am able to purchase my own copy for my personal library, I’ll add the notes as a reminder of how I met the story originally!
As this is my own personal choice to participate and co-host this readalong for “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet” by Becky Chambers I was not obliged to post a review (in full or in part) as I am sharing my readings of this novel (with chapter breaks per the Twitter chats schedule) for my own edification as much as I love to share my readerly life with my readers. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
(*) Originally requested and purchased September, 2016 ahead of the 2016 #RRSciFiMonth – however, for those of whom follow my blog you know why that particular November was impossible for me to focus on anything outside of family.
This year, I also wanted to have light duties officially as I love doing something behind the scenes to assist our lovely hostesses: Lisa (@deergeekplace) + Imyril (@imyril) who give us wicked good celebrations through the years as we all come together to champion the stories of Science Fiction (and their sub-genres/niches) which happily alight in our lives. We’re always reading similar stories – either together in tandem (such as we are this year with our RAL/readalong “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet”) or on opposite years.
As Lisa is taking the reins to offer a recap of the lovely convo we shared @ 3p NYC | 8p UK on the 11th of November to kick-off our book club style readalong chat – I wanted to offer a chance to give readers, bloggers & visitors on the #RRSciFiMonth feeds a chance to answer the Qs I pitched during our first convo for #smallangryplanet.
Please REMEMBER: add #smallangryplanet to your replies/responses in order for us to find your messages on Twitter. You can also respond directly to the Qs themselves for easy referencing *but!* without the tag itself your reply is LOST.
Q1: What are your takes on the Ohan: how they must remain isolated from the crew but take such an internal exploration of self, universe & deeper points of 'purpose'? Whilst having a rather interesting take on their end?
Q1, part 2: Did anyone notice the similarities between the Ohan and the "angry planet"? Specifically how they each see 'patterns' of the universe & have a unique perspective on how the universe is oriented? They are seeing it through mathematics & code? #smallangryplanet
Q2: Chambers presents a discourse of discussion about inter-planetary life and how all life is inter-connected even if not directly biologically similar. What were your thoughts as you read this passage? #smallangryplanet
Q3: The lesson Rosemary learnt from Jenks based on modders is something which is cross-relatable. Considering she was between a rock & hard place; seeking a new path and a break of freedom from her past What were your thoughts as her past was finally revealled? #smallangryplanet
Q4: When you reached the passages between Dr Chef & Rosemary – where the quote originates about making life & the universe what you choose it to be – what as your first takeaway about Dr Chef's story? #smallangryplanet
Q5: What world-specific tech or back-histories did you wish were more fleshed out in this novel? (ie. standard vs solar; algae & Black Hole ambi usages; species histories, Earthern connections, etc) #smallangryplanet
Borrowed Book By: This was a purchase request* of mine from a few years ago – when we, stateside were having to wait extra long to read “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet”, I took a rather pro-active interest in obtaining a copy I could read! I checked in with readers online and even the author herself, Becky Chambers to get an arrival approximation for the novel. In the end, I submitted a purchase request which was accepted and I am now reading this novel for the first time!
Uniquely enough, it is a very beloved copy!! Many patrons and readers have definitely read this copy ahead of me which warms my heart! This is why I love to submit purchase requests at my local libraries! (yes, plural!) Secondly, there were handwritten notes tucked into this copy which mirrored my own curious musings and they will stay with me, as the last time I tried to leave in a reader’s note in a library book my librarians put it in the bin! (*le sigh*) When I am able to purchase my own copy for my personal library, I’ll add the notes as a reminder of how I met the story originally!
As this is my own personal choice to participate and co-host this readalong for “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet” by Becky Chambers I was not obliged to post a review (in full or in part) as I am sharing my readings of this novel (with chapter breaks per the Twitter chats schedule) for my own edification as much as I love to share my readerly life with my readers. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
(*) Originally requested and purchased September, 2016 ahead of the 2016 #RRSciFiMonth – however, for those of whom follow my blog you know why that particular November was impossible for me to focus on anything outside of family.
This year, I also wanted to have light duties officially as I love doing something behind the scenes to assist our lovely hostesses: Lisa (@deergeekplace) + Imyril (@imyril) who give us wicked good celebrations through the years as we all come together to champion the stories of Science Fiction (and their sub-genres/niches) which happily alight in our lives. We’re always reading similar stories – either together in tandem (such as we are this year with our RAL/readalong “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet”) or on opposite years.
As Lisa is taking the reins to offer a recap of the lovely convo we shared @ 3p NYC | 8p UK on the 11th of November to kick-off our book club style readalong chat – I wanted to offer a chance to give readers, bloggers & visitors on the #RRSciFiMonth feeds a chance to answer the Qs I pitched during our first convo for #smallangryplanet.
Please REMEMBER: add #smallangryplanet to your replies/responses in order for us to find your messages on Twitter. You can also respond directly to the Qs themselves for easy referencing *but!* without the tag itself your reply is LOST.
What personally struck you about the contemplation and introspective musings about the vulnerability and the distances of spacer life vs living planetside? Would you adjust or would you prefer one over the other?
Q2: Before Jorie heads off into #smallangryplanet to catch up to you guys this Q really stood out to share
Do not judge species by preconceived social norms – is a great bit of advice and a forethought on forward motion towards tolerance and acceptance. What were your thoughts?
Did anyone notice when Lovelace and Jenks were talking about AI vs human dynamics, Lovelace mentioned souls were organic rather than divine? I thought it was an interesting sub-focus and diversion from main plot to discuss.
Share your thoughts on the FISHBOWL experience Rosemary loved her first day on Wayfarer and/or what your impressions of Port Coriol were as we follow along with the crew. We'll discuss wormholes, etc next week!😉🙌
Five years ago, in 2013 I created Jorie Loves A Story in March; launched my blog LIVE to the book blogosphere by August and took a leap of faith to join the twitterverse right before the year closed in November. And, guess what that meant? It meant my first Sci Fi November was in 2013 – the year it began!
All these years later, my admiration for this sci fi geekery community has grown to be one of my favourites which happily resides this year next to the community Lisa & Imyril and I are growing with #WyrdAndWonder.
When it comes to November, Jorie’s favourite bookish month out of the year (save May & July, since 2018) – the cosy comfort of returning back inside a devouring period of Science Fiction (esp Hard SciFi) is one of tremendous JOY & curates a lightness in my spirit. I truly love travelling through hyperspace seeking my next beloved #mustread selection! Brownie points to the extreme if a favourite hugs itself into the niche of #SpaceOpera!
Which is why for the month of NOVEMBER, I shall be treating my readers & visitors with a gush fest of love for #ScienceFiction & Speculative worlds which inter-knit themselves through a lens of Science. Predominately focused on Fiction with a few insertions of Non-Fiction to keep things interesting!
Each November, I attempt to right the short-comings of the prior year – I’ve had a few interesting Novembers celebrating #RRSciFiMonth (@SciFiMonth) but the hardest of all was not getting into the books I’m about to reference on this post. These are top priority this year as I would love to finally say, I not only read them but I could finally articulate my ruminations on their behalf! Giving me a clean slate for Sci Fi November, 2019!
It is part of my overall goal of removing my *backlogue* of reviews before I move into my sixth year as a book blogger in March, 2019.
This year, I also wanted to have light duties officially as I love doing something behind the scenes to assist our lovely hostesses: Lisa (@deergeekplace) + Imyril (@imyril) who give us wicked good celebrations through the years as we all come together to champion the stories of Science Fiction (and their sub-genres/niches) which happily alight in our lives. We’re always reading similar stories – either together in tandem (such as we are this year with our RAL/readalong “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet”) or on opposite years.
A lot of us DISCOVER new authors by browsing through the feeds on Twitter on our tag: #RRSciFiMonth (or jumping into convo on #smallangryplanet) – sometimes we host themed chats like last year’s #SpaceOpera discussion (one of two we had in 2017). I admit, I love hosting the Twitter chats as I do love being bubbly chatty and the joy of connecting with like-minded readers is true bliss.
I am also participating with a special round robin guest interview series Lisa is putting together this year. In the past, I have responded to essay questions by Sci Fi November hosts and this year, I equally will be overjoyed to see the results once I submit my responses.Read More
I wasn’t entirely sure what I expected I could accomplish my first full month back into book blogging but I found January a bit unsettling due to unexpected circumstances which sort of threw me for a bit of a loop, I must say! It started early-on in the month, when my dear cats (as I have two, out of the four original lovelies we adopted) started to struggle with their food. As they are each entering their ‘senior’ years – one is 13 on April Fool’s Day and the other follows ringing in her 12th year on the 4th of July – I had no idea cats can develop food intolerances and food allergies this late in life.
The irony is whilst this was happening, my Dad was starting to make his rounds to his follow-up appointments past his carotid artery surgery and TIA strokes – some days I say my Dad had a stroke (singular) and other days I refer directly to the fact he had a series of TIA’s. The discrepancy I blame on the doctors who seem to prefer to clump the ‘series’ into one ‘singular’ stroke episode, although anyone who was present in the ER that day, realises it was multiples. Irregardless, this was Dad’s first step ‘forward’ out of his hospitalisation and recovery period at home to see where he stood now a full month out of surgery. Blessedly, we were thrilled to bits to learn everything is going alright – even his levels of cholesterol are being maintained naturally; as this was one thing both he and my Mum and I were insistent upon: half conventional and half natural medicine on exit of the hospital. Dad takes a small dose of BP (blood pressure) medicine, a full aspirin (coated) as well as Red Rice Yeast and fish oil. To find his levels are maintaining a normal range when they were spiking over Thanksgiving weekend was welcome relief!
Concurrent to my Dad’s doctor’s visits – of which conclude in February, as he has a few more follow-ups before he can take an absence until the six month visit to his surgeon’s office to see if he needs secondary carotid artery surgery (on the other side). We are hoping he won’t need it – but if he does, we did remind him, you survived the worst of the worst when it comes to that procedure, surely the second time round won’t be so intense? – my Mum has been picking up extra shifts, by re-instating with an agency she worked with previously as she’s a Senior Caretaker/Companion for both special needs adults and those who are dealing with degenerative issues. She was growing more concerned about our family car as it’s a used car which might have seen better days even before it became ours. We prayed it would get us to the hospital all the days Dad was a patient, but one night, the mercy came in the form of a late night nurse and a cab company who helped ferret us back when Dad was struggling after his surgery; our car was as good as dead at that point. We did have a bit of a reprieve with the car shortly afterwards, but for the most part you could say it became the ‘unreliable’ necessity of our lives. Read More
Photo Credit: Unsplash Photographer Neil Austin. (Creative Commons Zero)
Sometimes life throws you more than a curveball – sometimes you wake up to find challenges as *big!* as boulders placed on your path. Yet there is always the hope of tomorrow lingering in the background – you just have to find the strength to live through the rocky bits first & then find your rhythm lateron.
Blessedly, we are not oft given foreshadows about our future paths – in this particular case, I am grateful I entered *November* thinking about all the lovelies (stories) I would be focusing on whilst blogging my heart out about Science Fiction & the Futuristic Fiction I love consuming on a yearly basis. I was so thankful to have a full month to hone in on the stories themselves whilst sorting out how to arrange the month-long Sci-Fi Fest here on Jorie Loves A Story. As you can see by the schedule I posted the very first days of November (view this post) everything was set to be a smashingly lovely month!
Until I faltered a bit the first week of November, losing my footing for a short bit in my readings as I found that particular week emotionally draining. I recaptured my readerly heart by reading two stories pertinent to Current Events I felt were beckoning me to read at that particular time before I could proceed forward into the Sci-Fi worlds I had earmarked to alight inside – those two stories were spilt between fiction (see this Review) and non-fiction (see this review). Everything I wanted to say are on those two posts, including the recapture of what I shared on Twitter, as I let others who posted tweets express what was weighing on my mind at the time, whilst tweeting out a simple note of my own, too.
It wasn’t until the 15th of November, I truly felt I was gaining traction again – which is why I started to release my posts starting with a beautiful guest post by Julie E. Czerneda (read about her Web Shifters series) and sharing my reviews of: Remnant in the Stars (see Review) and The Loudest Actions (see Review) as well as a guest feature (this interview) before I took ill. My migraines returnt for a short while as well, leaving me wrecked to proceed. I’ve been dealing with my migraines off/on since Spring, as they had left me for 10 months from May 2015 til March 2016 before resuming at the end of Summer; until this month, of course. I had been finding my headaches were reducing by off-setting my readings of print books with audiobooks – my own version of ‘art therapy’ as I colour (adult colouring books) whilst I listen to audiobooks (as disclosed on my first Audiobook Review); by the time the story concluded I did not even remember all the colours I selected and am quite amazed at the end results! It’s the third time between my late twenties and late thirties I’ve recaptured a bit of Zen for myself! The first was through Mixed Media Art Collages (small scale – think ATC (Artist Trading Cards), rubberstamp art, handmade cards & painting bisque pottery and the second was through learning how to knit a hybrid variant between the American and Continental (British) styles. Read More
