Weekly Wednesday Reading meme
Apr. 17th, 2013 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreWhat are you currently reading
The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan. A fictional memoir of a schizophrenic queer woman named Imp. Not really my usual cup of tea, but I'm enjoying it, especially the unreliable narrator aspect, and how she uses allusions to fairy tales to express herself. It's the kind of book where, once I finish it, I imagine I'll sit down intending to say a lot and then not come up with anything more than "it was good."
What did you recently finish reading?
Didn't finish:
I read about 1/4 of the first volume of The Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, the graphic novel series that the movie Les Aventures d'Adele Blanc-Sec is based on. It was ok, I suppose, but I didn't care for the art, and Adele herself was in about 3 pages of what I read. I may have liked it more if I'd stuck with it throughout, but I couldn't work up the interest. Pity, because I really liked the movie.
I also bounced off of the anthology Queen Victoria's Book of Spells. I'll likely revisit it, but it very much started off on the wrong foot for me.
The first story is by Delia Sherman (whose stuff I've like in the past) and it has a historian discovering that Queen Victoria used magic to rape Albert.
The introduction also rubbed me the wrong way, very much describing gaslamp fantasy in a "white people only" way and stressing that if it wasn't set in England, it would only be set in former colonies heavily influenced by British culture (so any stories set elsewhere would be about proper white people facing exotic cultures, or whatever.) I mean, I'm rather of the opinion that one of the key things to keep in mind about historical fantasy is that it's FANTASY. You've already left actual history behind by the time you sit down to write the genre, and it's not like only white people existed in 19th century England to start with.
There was also a bit in the intro that mentioned Lewis Carroll and J.M.Barrie in the same sentence when talking about children's literature, with a nice little footnote about how they weren't saying Charles Dodgson was a pedophile, but he almost had to be, don't you think? I mean, look, I'm not saying Barrie was a serial rapist of little boys or there's no way Dodgson ever had an impure thought about a child (All rumors and allegations came up years and years later, there's no proof with either, and both lived in times where relationships between adults and children and how children were depicted in art operated under very different social mores than they do now. I admit, based on what I've read, Barrie comes across as the more iffy of the two, but again, different social mores, and I feel part of the reason so many cling to the idea that Dodgson may have been a closet pedophile are actually reacting to the idea of a little girl going off and having adventures on her own, and remaining subconscious hangups about that.)
Finished:
Peony Pavilion by Xia Da, a single-volume, full color manhua adapting various mythological Chinese poems and short stories. Some are illustrated prose and some are full adaptations. The artwork is stunning and I enjoyed reading it a lot, but i have to admit that the individual stories themselves didn't necessarily stick with me.
Melody Drifting in the Rain by Cang Yue and Lu Jing, another single volume manhua, this time about a prince who enters into a political marriage to gain her familiy's support for his brother during a civil war. Surprisingly enough, this isn't about a romance between the two, but instead focuses on the war and the machinations of their families. Entertaining, but it felt like it should have been longer. Though, like with Fantastic Tales, I suspect a lot of that feeling comes from the fact that I'm used to seeing the stories spread out over 30-40 42 minute TV episodes. (Though I don't get that same feeling from movies as often. Ah well.)
Last in the graphic novels is volumes 13-16 of Karuho Shiina's Kimi ni Todoke, a series that I've been enjoying a lot the last few months, despite having little to say about it. I'm glad that the conflict isn't relying as heavily on misunderstandings that are fairly easy to clear up, though I still sometimes want to reach in and shake people and tell them to just sit down at talk already. I'm also rather frustrated that that my favorite character is apparently being paired off with the only character in the series who I actually dislike.
(Ok, Kento isn't the only character I dislike. I'm also really not enamored of Sawako's dad.)
Kento has really rubbed me the wrong way since he first showed up, with the way he seems to view Sawako as being broken and in need of being "fixed," and his tendency to talk about how she and Kazehaya aren't suited for each other because they're different.
I mean, sure, there's no chance of Ayano/Kurumizawa or Ayano/Chizu being canon, but surely the mangaka can do better for her than Kento. I think I'd even accept their teacher over Kento. (I actually did wonder a few times if it was going to go there.)
Wide Open by Deborah Crombie, a gothic novel about Hallie, a soldier serving in Afhanistan who is on a 10 day compassionate leave after her sister's (Dell) death. Arriving home in South Dakota, she learns that while her sister's death was officially ruled an accident, most people in town believe it was a suicide. Hallie, however, believes that her sister was murdered, and is resolved to find the truth in the limited time she has. Thanks to being technically dead at one point in Afghanistan, Hallie also sees ghosts, and her ghosts lead her to believe that Dell's death is connected to the disappearances of several other women over the last few years, and that the disappearances are supernatural in origin. Hallie appears to have PTSD, but it isn't directly dealt with within the narrative. With the exception of one scene, I enjoyed the book a lot.
Relatively early in the book, Hallie confronts the person she thinks may have killed Dell. He retaliates by spreading word to some drunks that rape is Hallie's kink, and one of them decides to give it a go at a bar. There's no actual rape, and after establishing that "No, you have been misinformed and I do not want to have sex with you" wasn't going to work, Hallie essentially squashes the guy like a bug (causing a bar brawl in the process) but it was icky and, IMO, unnecessary and didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book at all, aside from showing us how Hallie reacts to physical threats.
Knowing that authors are sometimes told by the people with the contracts to have their heroines confronted with sexual assault to make things more "realistic," I'm willing to chalk it up to that, but UGH.
There's a sequel, apparently, though my library doesn't seem to have it yet, sadly.
What do you think you'll read next?
I have no idea. Really, I consider this question to be very cruel. HOW CAN I KNOW WHAT READING MOOD I'LL BE IN IN FIVE DAYS IF I'M NOT JUST CONTINUING WITH WHAT I WAS READING?
Uhm...I don't feel up to anything heavy or that might spring things on me, so probably a romance novel or two, and maybe one of the Kelley Armstrong books I still have from the library.
The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan. A fictional memoir of a schizophrenic queer woman named Imp. Not really my usual cup of tea, but I'm enjoying it, especially the unreliable narrator aspect, and how she uses allusions to fairy tales to express herself. It's the kind of book where, once I finish it, I imagine I'll sit down intending to say a lot and then not come up with anything more than "it was good."
What did you recently finish reading?
Didn't finish:
I read about 1/4 of the first volume of The Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, the graphic novel series that the movie Les Aventures d'Adele Blanc-Sec is based on. It was ok, I suppose, but I didn't care for the art, and Adele herself was in about 3 pages of what I read. I may have liked it more if I'd stuck with it throughout, but I couldn't work up the interest. Pity, because I really liked the movie.
I also bounced off of the anthology Queen Victoria's Book of Spells. I'll likely revisit it, but it very much started off on the wrong foot for me.
The first story is by Delia Sherman (whose stuff I've like in the past) and it has a historian discovering that Queen Victoria used magic to rape Albert.
The introduction also rubbed me the wrong way, very much describing gaslamp fantasy in a "white people only" way and stressing that if it wasn't set in England, it would only be set in former colonies heavily influenced by British culture (so any stories set elsewhere would be about proper white people facing exotic cultures, or whatever.) I mean, I'm rather of the opinion that one of the key things to keep in mind about historical fantasy is that it's FANTASY. You've already left actual history behind by the time you sit down to write the genre, and it's not like only white people existed in 19th century England to start with.
There was also a bit in the intro that mentioned Lewis Carroll and J.M.Barrie in the same sentence when talking about children's literature, with a nice little footnote about how they weren't saying Charles Dodgson was a pedophile, but he almost had to be, don't you think? I mean, look, I'm not saying Barrie was a serial rapist of little boys or there's no way Dodgson ever had an impure thought about a child (All rumors and allegations came up years and years later, there's no proof with either, and both lived in times where relationships between adults and children and how children were depicted in art operated under very different social mores than they do now. I admit, based on what I've read, Barrie comes across as the more iffy of the two, but again, different social mores, and I feel part of the reason so many cling to the idea that Dodgson may have been a closet pedophile are actually reacting to the idea of a little girl going off and having adventures on her own, and remaining subconscious hangups about that.)
Finished:
Peony Pavilion by Xia Da, a single-volume, full color manhua adapting various mythological Chinese poems and short stories. Some are illustrated prose and some are full adaptations. The artwork is stunning and I enjoyed reading it a lot, but i have to admit that the individual stories themselves didn't necessarily stick with me.
Melody Drifting in the Rain by Cang Yue and Lu Jing, another single volume manhua, this time about a prince who enters into a political marriage to gain her familiy's support for his brother during a civil war. Surprisingly enough, this isn't about a romance between the two, but instead focuses on the war and the machinations of their families. Entertaining, but it felt like it should have been longer. Though, like with Fantastic Tales, I suspect a lot of that feeling comes from the fact that I'm used to seeing the stories spread out over 30-40 42 minute TV episodes. (Though I don't get that same feeling from movies as often. Ah well.)
Last in the graphic novels is volumes 13-16 of Karuho Shiina's Kimi ni Todoke, a series that I've been enjoying a lot the last few months, despite having little to say about it. I'm glad that the conflict isn't relying as heavily on misunderstandings that are fairly easy to clear up, though I still sometimes want to reach in and shake people and tell them to just sit down at talk already. I'm also rather frustrated that that my favorite character is apparently being paired off with the only character in the series who I actually dislike.
(Ok, Kento isn't the only character I dislike. I'm also really not enamored of Sawako's dad.)
Kento has really rubbed me the wrong way since he first showed up, with the way he seems to view Sawako as being broken and in need of being "fixed," and his tendency to talk about how she and Kazehaya aren't suited for each other because they're different.
I mean, sure, there's no chance of Ayano/Kurumizawa or Ayano/Chizu being canon, but surely the mangaka can do better for her than Kento. I think I'd even accept their teacher over Kento. (I actually did wonder a few times if it was going to go there.)
Wide Open by Deborah Crombie, a gothic novel about Hallie, a soldier serving in Afhanistan who is on a 10 day compassionate leave after her sister's (Dell) death. Arriving home in South Dakota, she learns that while her sister's death was officially ruled an accident, most people in town believe it was a suicide. Hallie, however, believes that her sister was murdered, and is resolved to find the truth in the limited time she has. Thanks to being technically dead at one point in Afghanistan, Hallie also sees ghosts, and her ghosts lead her to believe that Dell's death is connected to the disappearances of several other women over the last few years, and that the disappearances are supernatural in origin. Hallie appears to have PTSD, but it isn't directly dealt with within the narrative. With the exception of one scene, I enjoyed the book a lot.
Relatively early in the book, Hallie confronts the person she thinks may have killed Dell. He retaliates by spreading word to some drunks that rape is Hallie's kink, and one of them decides to give it a go at a bar. There's no actual rape, and after establishing that "No, you have been misinformed and I do not want to have sex with you" wasn't going to work, Hallie essentially squashes the guy like a bug (causing a bar brawl in the process) but it was icky and, IMO, unnecessary and didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book at all, aside from showing us how Hallie reacts to physical threats.
Knowing that authors are sometimes told by the people with the contracts to have their heroines confronted with sexual assault to make things more "realistic," I'm willing to chalk it up to that, but UGH.
There's a sequel, apparently, though my library doesn't seem to have it yet, sadly.
What do you think you'll read next?
I have no idea. Really, I consider this question to be very cruel. HOW CAN I KNOW WHAT READING MOOD I'LL BE IN IN FIVE DAYS IF I'M NOT JUST CONTINUING WITH WHAT I WAS READING?
Uhm...I don't feel up to anything heavy or that might spring things on me, so probably a romance novel or two, and maybe one of the Kelley Armstrong books I still have from the library.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-18 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-18 02:50 am (UTC)I think Kento likes Ayane for the same reason he seemed to like Sawako a while back: he thinks she's broken and will fall into his arms he fixes her and she conforms to how he thinks a normal girl should act.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-18 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-19 12:44 am (UTC)Not familiar with The Basic Eight at all. (and haven't read the Lemony Snicket books, though I keep meaning to.)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-18 09:52 am (UTC)