Feeling like I'm always playing catch-up

[next_to_normal]

Ugh. Woke up yesterday with a sharp, stabbing pain in my stomach (not to be confused with the sharp, stabbing pain in my intestines that I used to have), which didn't go away all day, so I called the doctor and made an appointment for today. And woke up feeling much better. *sigh* I hate when that happens; it makes me feel stupid. So the doctor wasn't really sure what caused it (random inexplicable pain = story of my life), but just for good measure, gave me another new pill to take (for those who are counting, that makes 14 pills a day), and we will see what happens.

I feel like I am super behind... there are a lot of things I've been meaning to talk about but haven't gotten around to. How about a couple quick and dirty reviews?

To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis

Somebody recced this book at one point, but it was so long ago that I don't remember who. I had it on hold for a while, and then I've had to renew it at least twice once it was available. This is what my class reading schedule does to me. :(

Anyway, once I got my hands on it, it was a pretty quick read. It's a time traveling historical detective novel, which makes for a somewhat odd combination, but it's amusing. It's about Ned Henry, an Oxford historian (aka time traveler) in the future, who has been shanghaied into the restoration of Coventry Cathedral, a crazy endeavor that has sucked in just about everyone as the indomitable Lady Schrapnell sends people back all over history, tracking down the most intricate details about the cathedral, and searching for the elusive bishop's bird stump.

Suffering from extreme time-lag, Ned is sent to the Victorian era to recuperate, but he's also been tasked with correcting an incongruity in the timeline - the only problem is, he's so exhausted and disoriented that he doesn't quite remember what it is, and may have accidentally caused the collapse of all of human history. Now he and Verity Watson, another time traveler, are caught in a bumbling experiment in cause and effect as they desperately attempt to set things back to rights.

snickfic commented that the characters were somewhat thin, and I do agree. Some of the Victorian characters, in particular, seem like little more than caricatures (and dreadfully annoying ones, at that), but I was sucked in by the time travel and wondering how Ned and Verity would fix the apparent disaster they'd set in motion. I'd recommend it as a light and fluffy read.

Nine Lives

I think I stumbled onto this movie because Amanda Seyfried was in it (it also stars Robin Wright Penn, Holly Hunter, Amy Brenneman, Sissy Spacek, and Glenn Close), but I was most intrigued by the fact that it's a series of vignettes about nine different women (lots of complex female characters!), whose lives intersect in small ways. Their stories focus on women as wives and mothers, sisters and daughters, coping with death and abuse and ex-lovers and all the other things life throws at them. I liked the six-degrees-of-separationness of it - it's fun to try to spot all the connections between the characters. Another cool stylistic touch is that each vignette is filmed in one continuous shot, which is impressive on the actors' parts. Some of the stories definitely work better than others, though, which makes it somewhat uneven.

Comments

[snickfic]

To Say Nothing of the Dogic is definitely Willis at her lightest and fluffiest. She wrote another book in the same universe, Doomsday Book, which was one of her grimmest - a time traveler gets stuck in England during the Plague. And she has two more coming out this year.

[next_to_normal]

Well, I definitely liked this one enough to read more, so I may check that one out.

[shipperx]

I wrote up some squee on To Say Nothing of the Dog when I read it a few months ago. I may need to re-read it. Having recently finished Willis's novel Doomsday Book (which is neither light nor fluffy) and followed it up with Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games series (I'm through Book I and Book II and they have caused me to cry a ridiculous amount), I think I need something light and fluffy (First I have to finish Book III of the Hunger Games though. Hope I'm not sobbing as it the end)

[next_to_normal]

Haha, then maybe it was YOU who I got the idea from, lol. It was definitely a while ago.

Everyone on my flist seems to be reading The Hunger Games!

[rogin]

Your doctor gave you new pills though he isn't sure what the problem was and you're already taking 13 other pills?

I'd not take them and change the doctor. Has he ever heard of crossover effects?

[next_to_normal]

No, I'm not taking 13 different pills. I'm on 5 medications (now 6), some of which require multiple pills a day.

And since the same doctor prescribed 4 of them, I'm sure he knows what I'm taking and is aware of any possible crossover effects. I rather like this doctor (it took me three tries to find one I liked), and he's the ONLY one who's actually made me feel better, so I have no desire to change at this point.

[rogin]

If you trust him than he's probably the right choice, still I find it a little odd to prescribe something if you can't really tell what the problem is (and there is no acute pain or so to alleviate).

[next_to_normal]

Well, the alternative is to put me through a battery of tests to figure out what it is, and since it's not bothering me that badly anymore, I'd rather not. The doctor specializes in Crohn's disease, so he has a pretty good idea of what can cause various symptoms and prescribed the most likely treatment. If it makes the pain go away, brilliant; if it gets worse again, I'll go back and they'll do the tests.