SusannaG - Confessions of a Crazy Cat Lady
Just another GR refugee. Other than that, I had a stroke in 2004, and read almost anything I can get my hands on, though I have a particular weakness for history, mystery, and historical fiction.
Currently reading
The City and the Stars
This Arthur C. Clarke novel, The City and the Stars, dates to the mid-1950s, I believe, and is a strange little book. (Technically this is a reread, as I'm pretty sure I read this going on 35 years ago, but remembered little of it other than the title.)
It is the story of Alvin, who is turning twenty, and discovers that unlike the rest of humanity, he is not a reincarnation, but a Unique. There have been 14 other Uniques, who have all disappeared from the sole city (Diaspar) that is the known universe.
Then things get stranger, by turns filled with action, philosophy, exploration, and space opera.
There were two female characters of any importance - the spurned girlfriend, and a female political leader. (Alvin's mother is also mentioned in passing, as half of his "parents," but never seen or heard from.) For the 1950s, I guess that's something?
Amusingly, the most popular form of entertainment in Diaspar is the "Sagas," which look to be an ancestor of D&D and the holodeck on Star Trek.
It's not nearly as good as Clarke can be. From this period, I'd recommend Childhood's End instead. But if you stumble across a copy, it is interesting.
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