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Then I'll talk about BOOKS! How do you like that?
First, a meme:
I sorta cheated, because on the one question I picked the second group of books and hadn't read "Moby Dick", but the others didn't fit either ...
---
I've never read The Dark is Rising, but at Harry Potter I thought of you fans as I flipped off the trailer.
Also, quick lesson for you all:
Beowulf = Anglo-Saxon/Old English
The Canterbury Tales = Middle English
Shakespeare = MODERN ENGLISH, and so is everything after.
Drill that into your head. Lesson over.
---
Why is every critic who dislikes David Sedaris convinced that he made it up? Or obsessed with the fact that he was once a loser? To the second I say: Well, duh, that's the point.
---
I wish I could write a book making fun of how goth culture seems to have a need to make kids stuff all about blood and guts and farting darkness. I'm thinking of this when I say this. Now, I don't really have a problem with works that draw on a subtext of a work. Thus why I have no problem with, say, American McGee's Alice or Lost Girls but when morons who've never read the book say to me "Dorothy totally underwent electroshock therapy. I know because I read it on the Internet!" I tend to get testy. And pissed that subtext is mistaken for actual text.
And I guess this isn't so much about Marilyn Manson, because I'm pretty sure he read the Alice tales. I just wish I could go all Woody-Allen-pulling-out-Marshall-McLuhan on their butts sometimes.
---
Okay, here's some short reviews of the books without pictures I've been reading:
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
This is ALMOST the book I always wanted. One of the things I've always hated about S&M porn was it's bringing a sort of escapist fantasy to this utter dehumanizing and abusive place ... which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so freakin' hopeless half the time. I've also never liked how sometimes porn will set up a society where it seems like ALL the characters do is have sex. Or porn where the heroine is a freakin' moron (See below for an example) ... and, this book doesn't have that. YAY! YAY! YAYYAYYAYYAYYAY! The book also has exciting war adventure in the last couple hundred pages and some neat culture-building, so ... yay! Non-stupid S&M!
Unfortunately ... I didn't want it to be so, but the heroine is a Mary Sue. I mean, her being an anguissette and having the mote in her eye? Okay, I'm fine. Her being able to spy and speak a lot of languages? Well, the story wouldn't have been very plausible without it. Her having a beautiful singing voice that makes men weep and soothes the big scary water-monster? Okay, you lost me.
Still, I don't really count her beauty as a D'Angeline, because Jocselin gets it too, and can be excused as a culture thing. Also, she can't fight, she does actually do wrong and it has consequences (her trusting Melissande) or she gets called on it (early in the book with Delaunay). She also has negative characteristics like her impatience, her arrogance, her jealousy of Alcuin and her ethnocentrism. So ... yeah, I don't think she's that bad. (At least compared to a character like Merry Gentry or Cynara from The Wind Done Gone now THOSE were Sues.)
But ... yeah, I liked it a lot. It was REALLY LONG ... it was so long I was kind of whining before picking up the book and when I'd go read some again, I would be like, "But it's REALLY LONG. It's 900 pages!" But ... it took me a month or two, but I got through it. At the very least it was unputdownable when I picked it up again.
Oh and ... I didn't mind the prose. I know it bugged some people but ... I don't know, I read Dickens. That type of style doesn't bug me too much.
Anyone But You by Jennifer Cruise
Dear Smart Bitches Who Like Trashy Novels: I don't trust you anymore.
I didn't hate this book, but ... if this is the best Romance novels have to offer, I am not interested. This was very, painfully, predictable and despite references to MST3K, was not very funny. But ... nobody was stupid or anything like that, the older woman/younger man pairing was interesting and they had realistic concerns but ... I just profoundly didn't care. And I don't think I ever will.
P.S. Feeding dogs chocolate is bad.
Goodbye, romance novels! You had your chance, you blew it.
Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton
This was fun. Jean-Claude didn't annoy me as much as he did in the other books. I didn't like Richard too much, what with his bizarre hanging around naked and then going "I'm a nice guy!" The protege kid ... he was kind of cool. Villain was neat but ... I still think I like the zombies better. They're more interesting. Cool snake lady, though.
ReVisions: Seeing Torah Through a Feminist Lens by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein
I didn't agree with everything in the book ... and some of her biblical references didn't double-check for me, but she offered up some comfort and some interesting ideas (especially in regards to Eve and Lilith and the women of the Exodus story ... even if my feelings on Lilith are mixed). She also addressed the struggle between holding two ideologies which want to dismiss each other. I wasn't that fond of the "pagan roots of Judaism" but ... some interesting things did come of it. Overall, I felt it was pretty interesting.
Life is Not a Fairy Tale by Fantasia
This book made me kind of sad. I'm just shocked by in a way how ordinary Fantasia's situation was in the town that she lived in ... and kind of frustrated that an area can be seeped in religion and then still fall into the "full of deadbeat dads and poor, unwed mothers" trap. It just makes me wonder what goes wrong ... what the answers may be, because there are clearly not any easy ones.
But oddly enough, that wasn't the book. Mostly it was Fantasia talking about how much she loves God and her family and singing. Plus the tales of her pregnancy and bad relationship, as well as the American Idol experience. Then it's back to God/family/singing/don't be like me for about seven chapters.
Two questions I have:
- So, when Fantasia became pregnant, her mother, who had Fantasia when a teenager and was born when her mother was a teenager, cried and said she couldn't believe this was happening again. And yet ... Fantasia's brothers have both fathered kids of women who they aren't married to. I wonder what her reaction was then ... Fantasia never says.
- It's nice that she gives so much to her family but ... I don't know. My Dad's family is big, and there are a couple of members who can't seem to get ahead or who blow the money soon after it's given to them ... and I just wonder if she's gotten screwed over since writing the book.
But eh ... oh well.
Beauty's Punishment by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
This book sucks. Beauty's personality just randomly changed from the last book. Tristan is a whiner. Mistress Lockley has no character. Anne Rice's lesbian sex is so reserved in that look-at-me-I'm-so-open-minded-but-still-not-really-comfortable way. Nothing makes sense.
And yet ... some of it was hot. [sigh] On with #3 ...
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The best book I've read so far this year. It was a great portrait of a culture I knew little about. I loved Lahiri's use of detail to bring out a story and make everything real. I loved Ashoke's admiration for Russian authors, which made me sad that I hadn't read any. Some of Gogol's experiences, such as his need to find a new family and the section where he needed to go and clean up after a family member when the family member died. My Great-Aunt Bobbi hated it and thought it was predictable but ... I felt there was a lot of good here. I'm glad I read it.
The Girl's Guide to Absolutely Everything by Melissa Kirsch
Self-help book. The friendship and love sections weren't helpful. The spirituality and family sections were also stuff I already knew? The rest? Totally what I needed -- especially in the money section. I'm slowly trying to integrate the book's advice into my life ... with varying degrees of success. Even the fashion section was practical instead of painful. Thanks, Girl's Guide!
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
After reading all the crap from anti-feminist bloggers and hearing about all the nonsense from the comic industry, it's nice to just read something feminist AND fun. It's like a Reese's Cup. And I look forward to reading about Granny Weatherwax in future books. My only complaint was that the climax was a bit confusing, but other than that I enjoyed it.
Enter Jeeves: 15 Early Stories by P.G. Wodehouse
Book containing a bunch of early Jeeves and Wooster short stories, plus all of the Reggie Pepper short stories. The Jeeves stories are a lot funnier, and good in little moments. (Best part of the book was Wooster saying Jeeves was omniscient like a train ticket seller.) Reggie Pepper was kind of amusing with his bizarre matchmaking that never works out for him, though. So ... kinda fun. I'll probably read more Wodehouse eventually.
---
First, a meme:
| What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more. | |
| Literate Good Citizen | |
| Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm | |
| Book Snob | |
| Fad Reader | |
| Non-Reader | |
| What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz | |
I sorta cheated, because on the one question I picked the second group of books and hadn't read "Moby Dick", but the others didn't fit either ...
---
I've never read The Dark is Rising, but at Harry Potter I thought of you fans as I flipped off the trailer.
Also, quick lesson for you all:
Beowulf = Anglo-Saxon/Old English
The Canterbury Tales = Middle English
Shakespeare = MODERN ENGLISH, and so is everything after.
Drill that into your head. Lesson over.
---
Why is every critic who dislikes David Sedaris convinced that he made it up? Or obsessed with the fact that he was once a loser? To the second I say: Well, duh, that's the point.
---
I wish I could write a book making fun of how goth culture seems to have a need to make kids stuff all about blood and guts and farting darkness. I'm thinking of this when I say this. Now, I don't really have a problem with works that draw on a subtext of a work. Thus why I have no problem with, say, American McGee's Alice or Lost Girls but when morons who've never read the book say to me "Dorothy totally underwent electroshock therapy. I know because I read it on the Internet!" I tend to get testy. And pissed that subtext is mistaken for actual text.
And I guess this isn't so much about Marilyn Manson, because I'm pretty sure he read the Alice tales. I just wish I could go all Woody-Allen-pulling-out-Marshall-McLuhan on their butts sometimes.
---
Okay, here's some short reviews of the books without pictures I've been reading:
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
This is ALMOST the book I always wanted. One of the things I've always hated about S&M porn was it's bringing a sort of escapist fantasy to this utter dehumanizing and abusive place ... which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so freakin' hopeless half the time. I've also never liked how sometimes porn will set up a society where it seems like ALL the characters do is have sex. Or porn where the heroine is a freakin' moron (See below for an example) ... and, this book doesn't have that. YAY! YAY! YAYYAYYAYYAYYAY! The book also has exciting war adventure in the last couple hundred pages and some neat culture-building, so ... yay! Non-stupid S&M!
Unfortunately ... I didn't want it to be so, but the heroine is a Mary Sue. I mean, her being an anguissette and having the mote in her eye? Okay, I'm fine. Her being able to spy and speak a lot of languages? Well, the story wouldn't have been very plausible without it. Her having a beautiful singing voice that makes men weep and soothes the big scary water-monster? Okay, you lost me.
Still, I don't really count her beauty as a D'Angeline, because Jocselin gets it too, and can be excused as a culture thing. Also, she can't fight, she does actually do wrong and it has consequences (her trusting Melissande) or she gets called on it (early in the book with Delaunay). She also has negative characteristics like her impatience, her arrogance, her jealousy of Alcuin and her ethnocentrism. So ... yeah, I don't think she's that bad. (At least compared to a character like Merry Gentry or Cynara from The Wind Done Gone now THOSE were Sues.)
But ... yeah, I liked it a lot. It was REALLY LONG ... it was so long I was kind of whining before picking up the book and when I'd go read some again, I would be like, "But it's REALLY LONG. It's 900 pages!" But ... it took me a month or two, but I got through it. At the very least it was unputdownable when I picked it up again.
Oh and ... I didn't mind the prose. I know it bugged some people but ... I don't know, I read Dickens. That type of style doesn't bug me too much.
Anyone But You by Jennifer Cruise
Dear Smart Bitches Who Like Trashy Novels: I don't trust you anymore.
I didn't hate this book, but ... if this is the best Romance novels have to offer, I am not interested. This was very, painfully, predictable and despite references to MST3K, was not very funny. But ... nobody was stupid or anything like that, the older woman/younger man pairing was interesting and they had realistic concerns but ... I just profoundly didn't care. And I don't think I ever will.
P.S. Feeding dogs chocolate is bad.
Goodbye, romance novels! You had your chance, you blew it.
Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton
This was fun. Jean-Claude didn't annoy me as much as he did in the other books. I didn't like Richard too much, what with his bizarre hanging around naked and then going "I'm a nice guy!" The protege kid ... he was kind of cool. Villain was neat but ... I still think I like the zombies better. They're more interesting. Cool snake lady, though.
ReVisions: Seeing Torah Through a Feminist Lens by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein
I didn't agree with everything in the book ... and some of her biblical references didn't double-check for me, but she offered up some comfort and some interesting ideas (especially in regards to Eve and Lilith and the women of the Exodus story ... even if my feelings on Lilith are mixed). She also addressed the struggle between holding two ideologies which want to dismiss each other. I wasn't that fond of the "pagan roots of Judaism" but ... some interesting things did come of it. Overall, I felt it was pretty interesting.
Life is Not a Fairy Tale by Fantasia
This book made me kind of sad. I'm just shocked by in a way how ordinary Fantasia's situation was in the town that she lived in ... and kind of frustrated that an area can be seeped in religion and then still fall into the "full of deadbeat dads and poor, unwed mothers" trap. It just makes me wonder what goes wrong ... what the answers may be, because there are clearly not any easy ones.
But oddly enough, that wasn't the book. Mostly it was Fantasia talking about how much she loves God and her family and singing. Plus the tales of her pregnancy and bad relationship, as well as the American Idol experience. Then it's back to God/family/singing/don't be like me for about seven chapters.
Two questions I have:
- So, when Fantasia became pregnant, her mother, who had Fantasia when a teenager and was born when her mother was a teenager, cried and said she couldn't believe this was happening again. And yet ... Fantasia's brothers have both fathered kids of women who they aren't married to. I wonder what her reaction was then ... Fantasia never says.
- It's nice that she gives so much to her family but ... I don't know. My Dad's family is big, and there are a couple of members who can't seem to get ahead or who blow the money soon after it's given to them ... and I just wonder if she's gotten screwed over since writing the book.
But eh ... oh well.
Beauty's Punishment by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
This book sucks. Beauty's personality just randomly changed from the last book. Tristan is a whiner. Mistress Lockley has no character. Anne Rice's lesbian sex is so reserved in that look-at-me-I'm-so-open-minded-but-still-not-really-comfortable way. Nothing makes sense.
And yet ... some of it was hot. [sigh] On with #3 ...
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The best book I've read so far this year. It was a great portrait of a culture I knew little about. I loved Lahiri's use of detail to bring out a story and make everything real. I loved Ashoke's admiration for Russian authors, which made me sad that I hadn't read any. Some of Gogol's experiences, such as his need to find a new family and the section where he needed to go and clean up after a family member when the family member died. My Great-Aunt Bobbi hated it and thought it was predictable but ... I felt there was a lot of good here. I'm glad I read it.
The Girl's Guide to Absolutely Everything by Melissa Kirsch
Self-help book. The friendship and love sections weren't helpful. The spirituality and family sections were also stuff I already knew? The rest? Totally what I needed -- especially in the money section. I'm slowly trying to integrate the book's advice into my life ... with varying degrees of success. Even the fashion section was practical instead of painful. Thanks, Girl's Guide!
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
After reading all the crap from anti-feminist bloggers and hearing about all the nonsense from the comic industry, it's nice to just read something feminist AND fun. It's like a Reese's Cup. And I look forward to reading about Granny Weatherwax in future books. My only complaint was that the climax was a bit confusing, but other than that I enjoyed it.
Enter Jeeves: 15 Early Stories by P.G. Wodehouse
Book containing a bunch of early Jeeves and Wooster short stories, plus all of the Reggie Pepper short stories. The Jeeves stories are a lot funnier, and good in little moments. (Best part of the book was Wooster saying Jeeves was omniscient like a train ticket seller.) Reggie Pepper was kind of amusing with his bizarre matchmaking that never works out for him, though. So ... kinda fun. I'll probably read more Wodehouse eventually.
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I also think he didn't make up most of it-- or even much of it. Have you heard or seen him in interviews? It's no secret he's obsessive-compulsive and off-center. His sister, Amy, is much the same way. Creative people are generally eccentric people and make for good story-telling.
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