In a similar vein to the question posted earlier today, I wanted to know what book reco would you see as a huge green flag when dating, and why?
My answer: Lonesome Dove
Why: It delves into themes of friendship, loyalty, and the complexities of human relationships. If they like the book it tells me they have an understanding of the nuanced dynamics that make human connections meaningful.
Brainship series by Anne Macaffrey (“Ship who Sang”, “Partnership”, “Ship who Searched”, etc), or heck anything by Anne Macaffrey (Powers that Be, Dragonriders of Pern). Anne writes romanticist science fantasy and I love the way she treats the topics of each story. It’s all very light reading that can be deep if you want to put the thought into it.
We’d have stuff to talk about for hours and probably connect on some level in terms of having similar alignments on the various political alignment axes (rugged individualism vs pure socialism or something).
Wizard of Earthsea and the rest of that series by Ursula Le Guin. Again it’s a ramonticist/fantasy setting and then main character is a bit of a dunderhead, which I associate with personally. I need to go and reread the series, I think the last time I read Tombs of Atuan was twenty or thirty years ago.
Ohhh can I ask you about your Anne McCaffrey choice? I stared listening to the Dragonriders of Pern audiobook and while I thought the premise was so interesting, I could not stand the misogyny and the abusiveness of the relationship. But now I’m doubting my own perception and I feel like the voice of the narrator in audiobooks can somehow distort how I experience the story.
Did the relationship and the way women are thought of and treated and treat themselves read healthy? I know so many people love McCaffrey and I’m wondering if I should give the books another try - but I also remember feeling awful while reading it…