u/AlfredsLoveSong

TLDR: I love Sci-fi, but hate the "sci-fi jargon/babble" that has always been a trope of the genre. A few new words/terms for things that don't really exist today are obviously fine, that's necessary, but it's easy to become overused and cross over into being too 'campy' for me. Unfortunately, just DNF'd Simmons' Hyperion about 180 pages in because of this. It just got to be too much. What are some great Sci-fi recs you have that avoid this trope? Been thinking about picking up Dune lately, does it fall into this trap too?

Books I've enjoyed that avoid this trope:

• Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun and Never Let me Go
• Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451
• Orwell's 1984
• Atwood's Oryx and Crake (though this one has a language entirely of its own, it's still grounded, realistic, and very easy to follow when she uses neologisms).
• Crouch's assorted sci-fi romps. I don't enjoy these as much as the aforementioned, but still worth a mention.

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I have a love/hate relationship with sci-fi as a genre. When it's good, it hits soooo good, but when it's bad, well....

>"In the name of Horuux, engage the quantum thrust ovulators and set the Spyro engines to Flurbii mode!" The Starfurx Fleet captain's unssailable voice beamed directly into the minds of the CabinRats that populated the lowest levels of the Excullio attack vessel.

>"Yes Captain," they thought in unison, their DumDumtron chips activated in harmony. Each with a role to play, thousands of CabinRats scurried along the Electraminium-lined serviceways to their SudSpots, waiting eagerly for the next FelatioSurge into their chips to know when to carry out their duties. The Rats lucky enough to have a porthole view to the floating cosmos outside would see Jarrhinxibar, the desert planet, lazily floating past the Starboard side of the vessel. It was on that planet that the Hixxiiiiiiiites worshipped the CharliD'Amelioistite...

TLDR: Books for a want-to-be beginning reader in her mid 20's who is going through treatment for severe mental health struggles related to grief, trauma, and depression. Suggested books should be easy reading with a relatively lower lexile level if possible. Books can be related to mental health or entirely unrelated fictional novels that would be good for someone in her position. I am looking to give her three books so that she can pick what she feels she needs:

1. Something "self help" ish or nonfiction related to her struggles. Maybe The Body Keeps the Score?

2. A fictional novel she could relate to.

3. A fictional novel she can escape through.

CONTEXT:

Important: she is not a reader.

However, she has been wanting to become more of a reader as of late and recently got herself a Kindle! Unfortunately, she was recently hospitalized for issues presented in the title. While she is on an involuntary hold right now, she will be in a much more... gentle residential treatment facility soon, and she'll be able to have books there.

She read and enjoyed a couple of BookTok books, but the only one I know by name is Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us.

Interests: She loves traveling, she is a nurse who loves children with every fiber of her soul, she is very sporty and active, and her favorite "couch hobby" is obsessively browsing the 'aspirational' side of Zillow lol. She has a dream of opening a coffee shop and taking a van and converting it into a camper.

Best to avoid: A lot of mental her struggles stem from the relatively sudden death of her Mom last year to whom she had a storied and very complex relationship with. While I am sure there may be books that deal with this issue with grace, I think mother/daughter type things are probably just best to avoid right now. Maybe in a few years.

Edit: Thanks in advance for your help. I will be deleting this thread within a day or so.

Oh, happy 4th, fellow Americans!

I am making a handbound custom anthology of writings from prominent Americans from throughout history for my father's birthday. He is patriotic, loves the founding fathers (especially Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington), and very very MAGA. (Ubfortunately a bit prone to conspiracy theories too. Fluoride is a fun topic.).

His house is dolled up with paintings and memorabilia from the "Great Americans", but I'm not actually sure he has read much of their originial, unedited words. I am pretty certain that many of the figures he idolizes would be disgusted by many of his views today, but my reading in this area is limited, so I ask for your help:

TLDR Please recommend me essays, letters, or writings from prominent American historical figures that I can rebind into a beautiful leather bound anthology that will lure him in with patriotism and history, but also has the potential to gently show him new perspectives that he would never listen to if said by a liberal c**k like his son. 👋

Thanks.

Edit 1: Thanks all. Lots of great suggestions here.

Edit 2: Edited for tone. I Re-read it and felt I was being overly harsh toward someone who I do deeply respect, regardless of our equally deep political differences.

Getting into this hobby, lots of fun so far. There are a number of common/typical supplies that the major e-commerce sites like Amazon don't have or what they do have is often overpriced and low quality.

What are your favorite book & paper craft online retailers that you give business to?

Not speaking from personal experience or anything rn.

I crave books with untraditional qualities to the narrator. I love the unreliable and repressed ones (Ishiguro) the roving ones (Woolf) the poignant ones (McCarthy) the deluded ones (Nabokov) and the...difficult to explain ones (Eugenides) alike.

Always looking to discover something new and flesh out this essential corner of my collection.

What do you recommend?

A bit niche for the type of suggestions that typically get posted here, but I want to see if I get any suggestions that I haven't found myself.

Looking for books that will help me grow as an educator this summer. Specifically looking for books aimed at any of the following topics:

• How to teach college-level writing effectively
• How to teach research skills
• How to teach collaboration skills

Thanks.

Edit: Title oopsie: Meant "young adults" ~15-16.

I have read Gatsby no fewer than 30 times (teacher) and I absolutely adore this book for so many reasons, but to name a few:

- The prose is masterful.

- I am obsessed with the Modernist period.

- It's blending of a unique perspective on a fascinating historical point in time with a deeply compelling plot that doesn't linger for even a second.

- The blending of its eternally powerful themes and symbols without sacrificing any of the above.

I'm looking for books that can capture a few of these things, but most importantly #3 above. Does not have to be 1920's America, but it wouldnt hurt tbh.

Cheers.

I'm a sucker for beautiful prose. But I've found that some authors write glittery gold while the narrative behind it is lacking, uninteresting, or tangential to the author stroking their ability to write beautifully (Examples: James Joyce's The Dead, basically everything written by Virginia Woolf, and Lolita).

What are your favorite novels that are able to fuse beautiful language and prose with compelling, gripping narratives? I'll bullet a few examples of my personal favorites that I feel capture both elements I'm looking for:

• Rebecca; Daphne Du Maurier.
• Cormac McCarthy's entire catalogue, but specifically No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses.
• I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman.
• The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

What are your suggestions and favorites that fit this bill?

Hey yall. Shamelessly asking you to uPvOtE fOr ViSiBiLItY even if this is niche and doesn't really apply to you.

I'm looking to get in touch with and chat with other AP Seminar and/or Capstone teachers (so Research too!) to ask a few questions and bounce some ideas around. Looking to share ideas and resources and tips for edification.

The conversations I want to have are not really "appropriate" for the AP Community page and I refuse to create a Facebook account lol

I'd love to chat and maybe form a little Reddit group chat if I hear from multiple people.

Reply or shoot me a DM!

Thanks.