reading list, etc

[rivendellrose]

Damned cramps, making me oversleep and screwing up all my plans for my day off. *Growls* Hopefully I'll still manage to make it out during the day today... I had such grand ideas, but now that I'm not feeling all that great, it's kind of hard to convince myself to go through with them, and I already have to be in Wallingford at 6pm, so that kind of constrains what else I can do with the day. Ah well. It will all be good... and perhaps I can bother the girls at the Clinique counter at the store for an "employee makeover" tomorrow, instead. I'm less interested in seeing what they do with me (other than try to sell me on tons of skincare products) than I am pleased with the thought of the free sample kit. Those things can last me for quite a while, usually. ;)




Finished since March 13, 2006
1 Equal Rites, Terry Pratchett
2 The Telling, Ursula K. Le Guin
3 Going Postal, Terry Pratchett
4 Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
5 Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett
6 Daily Life in Civil War America
7 Joys of Motherhood, Buchi Emecheta
8 Stiff, Mary Roach
9 Just Add Hormones
10 Second-Class Citizen, Buchi Emecheta
11 Culture as Given, Culture as Choice, Dirk Van Der Elst
12 The Swamp Thing: Saga of the Swamp Thing, Alan Moore etc.
13 The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria, Victor C. Uchendu
14 And a Time to Die, Kaufman
15 Carried to the Wall
16 Jingo, Terry Pratchett
17 The Middle Man (vol. 1)
18 Fast Food Nation
19 Fantasy Girls, Elyce Rae Helford
20 League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, vol 2, Alan Moore
21 Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kelley Armstrong
22 Spook, Mary Roach
23 Autobiography of a Fat Bride, Laurie Nataro
24 The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
25 Rules for the Unruly
26 Guests of the Sheik, Elizabeth Warnock Fernea
27 Smoke and Ashes, Tanya Huff
28 Fast Girls, Emily White
29 Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
30 Pledged, Alexandra Robbins
31 Somewhere to be Flying, Charles de Lint
32 A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
33 Smoke and Mirrors, Tanya Huff
34 Consuming Kids, Linn
35 Dancing at Armageddon, Mitchell
36 Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
37 The Birthday of the World, Ursula K. LeGuin
38 The Last Days of Dogtown, Anita Diamant
39 Club Dead, Charlaine Harris
40 Blood Price, Tanya Huff
41 Animals in Translation, Temple Grandin
42 Blood Trail, Tanya Huff
43 The Thief-Taker, ?
44 Expendable, James Alan Gardner
45 Trapped, James Alan Gardner
46 Hunted, James Alan Gardner
47 Ascending, James Alan Gardner
48 Radiant, James Alan Gardner
49 Vigilant, James Alan Gardner
50 The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. LeGuin
51 The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist, Mary H. Manheim
52 Gravity Wells, James Alan Gardner
53 Mirabile, Janet Kagan
54 Bitchfest (10 Years of Bitch Magazine)
55 Mort, Terry Pratchett
56 Maskerade, Terry Pratchett
57 Spiderman: Until the Stars Go Cold, J. M. Straczynski
58 Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, Joss Whedon
59 Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous, Joss Whedon
60 Gypsy Demons and Divinities, Elwood B. Trigg
61 Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
62 Familiar Strangers: Gypsy Life in America, Marlene Sway
63 A Book of Pagan Prayer, Ceisiwr Smith (nom de plume much?)
64 The Science of Aliens, Clifford Pickover
65 Thud, Terry Pratchett (yes, again)
66 The Mummy Congress
67 The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
68 Elf Defense, Esther Friesner
69 Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
70 Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
71 Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett
72 Fables: Legends in Exile, trade #1
73 Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett
74 The Ape and the Sushi Master, Frans de Waal
75 Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, James Boswell
76 Goblin Quest, Jim C. Hines
77 Dealing with Dragons, Patricia C. Wrede
78 Astonishing X-Men: Torn, Joss Whedon
79 Calling on Dragons, Patricia C. Wrede
80 One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding, Rebecca Mead


And because that last is the first of the pre-reading copies from work that I've actually managed to finish... why not do a review? That's what I'm meant to do with pre-reading copies, right?



This is a trim little volume, so I shouldn't have been quite as surprised as I was to find that it was more anecdote than anthropology - there are interviews with a lot of people in the wedding industry, as well as explorations of a lot of current trends in weddings, but I still felt like it was just scratching the surface of any one of the phenomena she explored. Hopefully that will be remedied by the final draft - this is an "advance uncorrected proof" after all. So if you're interested in reading a little of the inside story on how wedding planners, videographers, gown sellers and such react to the bridal industry (always "bridal" - it's not about the guy), this is an interesting book. If you're looking for depth, you'll be left, as I was, wanting more material.

It did leave me doing more than a little of the wondering "damn... how would I want to set up my wedding?" Not that I've never thought this before (yes, I'm one of those crazy girls who really does like thinking about this kind of stuff), but I've always been turned off by the industry, and now more so than ever. How do you find a person to conduct the ceremony who isn't either a total fruit-loop (the first example interviewed by the author) or someone constantly inserting Christianity into the picture (the other two)? How do you have a wedding that's pretty and interesting and fun, but won't run off into the obscene numbers of dollars described for women in this country? And why on god's green earth do some people actually feel the need to have a Disney Cinderella wedding... and where are they finding the men that put up with this?

Anyway. Just my two cents, and less a review than a random collection of blather, I suppose. The book is set to be released for real in May of this year, for $24.95. Unless you have a truly abiding interest in the wedding industry (which, I'll admit, I do) and a lot of spare cash to spend on an exploration of it (which I don't) I'd recommend the library as your best bet for this one. Good book. But, for me, it's more of a "hey, it's free!" kind of good.

Comments

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

I hope you had a great day. I think I can skip the wedding book, what else did you get?
See you Sunday.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

This was a group of books from a little bit ago, but I got a book on feminine economic dependence (umm... not quite as boring as it sounds) at the same time. Almost finished with that one.

See you tomorrow!