And so, as I go through the last prepacked booksale box...

...that hadn't been sorted yet because a quick glane before told me there was nothing interesting inside, I find a book titled Smart Women, Foolish Choices with the subtitle Finding the Right Men, Avoiding the Wrong Ones. Written by, of course, two men. The back of the book indicates it's all about teaching women how to tailor themselves to have relationships with the right kind of man, as do chapter titles and subtitles.

But you know, I realize I can be overly sensitive when it comes to such things, so I went to read Amazon reviews.

( Quotes from Amazon reviews. )

I...I really wish I could find anything that indicates it might be ok for a woman to not have a man, or for a man to adapt for a woman.

For that matter, are there any books out there that tell men how to tailor themselves to snag the "right kind of woman" and what women to avoid, and tell them that they're sabotaging themselves?

[Poll #1290566]

(no subject)

I think that, when a person participates in early voting, a media filter should automatically be created so that a person no longer has to listen to either side's propaganda. 

La La La La La!  Your ads and commercials and last minute phone calls would be meaningless to me even if they could influence my vote!

(You, f-list, are excluded from this whine, as you tend to be, you know, more thoughtful and intelligent than those getting paid to talk politics to me.)

manga: Suikoden III Vol 1-3

NOTE: There’s a 3-page introduction to the first volume of this manga. The first page yammers about how the Suikoden gaming franchise is superior and more complex than other, flashier games. It will annoy you. Ignore it. It will annoy you. Fandom elitism and superiority complexes are for blogs and forums, not publication. The second and third pages give an overview of the world and first two games. Read them, though you don’t need to to understand what’s going on.

After years of pointless fighting, the Six Clans of the Grasslands and the Zexen Commonwealth are both ready to stop fighting, each side sends an envoy to the other with a peace treaty, unaware of the other’s actions. The Karaya Clan sends their chief’s adolescent son, Hugo, and the Commonwealth sends Chris, a young captain who is the daughter of a knight who was lost in battle 15 years ago. An unknown third party, however, wants the two sides to stay at war, and frames Chris for the murder of an ally of the Karayans. To escape, Chris is forced to order her men to burn the Karayan village down, and kills a friend of Hugo’s in self-defense in the process.

Then there’s Geddoe, another third-fourth?-party who is a mercenary captain searching the Grasslands for the Flame Champion, a hero of the Grasslands from fifty years ago. Geddoe is in the service of the Harmonian Empire, whose 50-year truce with the Grasslands has just ended. Geddoe takes in Aila, a girl from Hugo’s village, but appears to be completely neutral in the conflict.

The series is already very complex three volumes in. Several roles have changed, various characters are off on personal missions, and there have already been a number of twists* and revelations, including a few secret identities. I am suppressing a lot of “ZOMG! Plot twist!” comments in an effort to avoid spoilers. I suspect that’s all future posts on the series will be, though. All sides in the conflict are portrayed sympathetically, and several people you would expect to be villified aren’t. With the exceptions of Hugo and Aila (who are noticably younger than the rest-13 or 14 would be my guess-and also have the issue of wanting vengeance), no one in the cast is portrayed as strictly “good” or “bad.” At this point, even Hugo has had to face the reality that there’s more going on than just being able to point at Chris as the destroyer of his home, and Chris herself has forced him to realize that killing someone is a burden.

There’s also a cranky, cigar smoking military duck, and a horde of ax-wielding bunnies. I love you, Japan. Not to mention Hugo’s pet gryphon, Fubar. It takes great effort to type that name without giggling. Fubar has amazing angst.

Also, while the male fighters outnumber the female fighters quite a bit, we have female characters in a variety of combat and leadership roles, not just Chris, and so far, they’ve all been treated as equal to their male counterparts. I’m particularly fond of Hugo’s whip-wielding mother, who is evolving into the leader of the Grassland armies.


*The twists haven’t been particularly unpredictable, but they have been fun.

The Serpent and the Scorpion by Clare Langley-Hawthorne

Set a year after Consequences of Sin, Ursula’s relationship with Wrotham is at a standstill, and she’s struggling to maintain both her father’s business and her active status in the suffragette movement. On vacation in Egypt, her friend, Katya, is killed in her presence. Before that can be resolved, she receives word that one of her factories has burned down, and that one of her workers died in the fire. Later, she not only learns that the girl, Arina, was Katya’s sister, but also that her former Bolshevik lover is involved.

I’ll give you a minute to get over facepalming at the sheer coincidence of Ursula’s friend who died in her presence having a sister who died in her factory.


Are you through yet? Nonono, don’t pause to think about how the sisters were apparently fairly close, but had such disparate social statuses.


So, thanks to the plot contrivance to have Ursula involved with both murders, the mystery plotline didn’t quite work for me. I did, however like the details with Ursula trying to be a rich heiress running her father’s business in 1911, and how it wasn’t easy, or encouraged, and I liked that Winifred’s role was expanded beyond just being the flaky lesbian BFF who partied too much, not to mention all the “war is coming” bits (I can’t help it, I have little interest in actual WWI and WWII stories, but I love stories surrounding them). I was liking the standoff between Ursula and Wrotham-his position demands a proper British wife, she demands her independence and crusades, and a compromise is not to be had-but didn’t care for how it turned out.

A couple spoilery complaints:

( in case anyone plans to read them )

Black Cat Vol 16

( spoilers )