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( A Few of My Favorite Things )
These days I lock most things, but there's a bunch of fanfic and fandom rants from years past that is unlocked.
Comment if you want to be added.
Note: if a post is public, it's fine to link to it elsewhere.
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Sticky: (Mostly) Friends Only
( A Few of My Favorite Things )
These days I lock most things, but there's a bunch of fanfic and fandom rants from years past that is unlocked.
Comment if you want to be added.
Note: if a post is public, it's fine to link to it elsewhere.
Entry tags:
Entry tags:
what i'm reading wednesday 2/7/2025
Catching up for two weeks! I've read a lot of fanfic lately, so I've been reading fewer books than usual.
What I finished:
+ The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. My Narnia reread is complete!
I'd been dreading this one and kind of putting it off, but on reread it's not actually all that bad? To me anyway--I totally get why other people hate it. I am not saying that it's good, but it's also not unreadable.
The problem is that Lewis has created this story entirely to serve the needs of his theological assertions, which makes for bad storytelling and worse worldbuilding. Preaching through fiction is always a bad idea because a story that exists to moralize is not going to be a good story. When, in previous books, Lewis sprinkled his theology throughout the stories, it was more or less fine--the story of a king who dies for the good of his people is a universal story, etc. You could always read the books literally as well as as analogy. Here, though, the theology takes over the narrative completely--there is no way to read this book on a literal level because just about every choice is made from the perspective not of a storyteller but of a preacher.
Plus, if you disagree with his theology, you're just going to be pissed off. I disagree with some of his theology myself, but I am much less pissed off than most because of my background. His particular brand of Christianity is very different than the white American evangelical kind I was raised in, for all those people have co-opted him. You have to understand how much gentler this view of soteriology is than the one I was surrounded with--Lewis embraces the idea of the virtuous pagan, for one thing, which is NOT a given in evangelical world. And perhaps more important, those who don't make it to heaven just cease to exist instead of being tortured for eternity. I realize this is probably hard for people who didn't grow up like I did to understand, but these ideas are significantly gentler than the evangelical view of hell. So when I encountered them as a kid, they felt freeing in a way I can't articulate. Between Lewis and Madeleine L'Engle, I had two Anglican fiction and nonfiction writers who had a more expansive view of God and life than I had been presented with, and they were lifelines to me.
So yeah, I don't hate this book, I just find it annoying and Not Good. I do like that we get more Eustace and Jill since they are my favorite of the characters from our world. I think it's kind of cool that we get to see Narnia from its first day to its last. Shift is a really good villain--not as good as Uncle Andrew, maybe, but Lewis knows how to write someone who is inherently selfish, and the early chapters with Shift and Puzzle are actually a fantastic depiction of an abusive friend dynamic. Lewis is really good at human foibles, the narratives we use to justify ourselves, etc.
I do not feel the need to ever read this one again but I'm glad I reacquainted myself with it as an adult so that I could decide how I feel about it.
+ Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water by Peter H. Gleick. This book is quite dated in statistics and things--I think it came out in 2010--but the central problem is, of course, still with us. This is a book that confirmed my belief that bottled water is problem: it is, of course, a lifeline for people in areas that don't have potable public water, and I am glad it exists. But it's ubiquity is indefensible in places that do, particularly in the US (places like Flint aside).
You can probably imagine the contents of this book: bottled water in the US is much less regulated than public water, therefore we don't know whether it's safe or not; it is not necessary in places that have clean public water; bottled water companies steal water from communities, destroying ecosystems; they prey on our fears; there's an industry (which I am 1000% confident has grown substantially since the time the book was published) of woo-y health grifters who sell special super waters, and these people are almost never stopped by authorities; and then there's the plastic. It's nice to see it all laid out clearly, though. And I also appreciate a book that is, really, a reminder that regulations are Good Actually.
So yeah, a worthwhile read.
+ Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert.
YIKES!!!!!! Gilbert deep-dives in pop culture depictions of and messages to and about women from, roughly, the late 90s to the mid-2010s, visiting topics like the way the powerful female musical artists of the 1990s were replaced by girls who couldn't stand up for themselves; the way the same thing happened in fashion with the powerful supermodels of the 1980s and early 1990s being replaced by, again, girls who couldn't stand up for themselves; depictions of women and femininity in reality TV; the way movies shifted from romcoms that centered female stories to bro comedies that hated and/or erased women; the era of Us Weekly, TMZ, and Perez Hilton and the way it ate female celebrities alive; and the #girlboss and Lean In eras. She keeps a Susan Faludi "backlash comes in waves" perspective on the whole thing.
There's also a lot about the pornification of culture--I really appreciated the nuance with which Gilbert handled this topic because I agree with her. Pornography, in the sense of art that exists to titillate and turn-on, is not a bad thing in itself and there are plenty of people who are out there creating and enjoying it in completely unobjectionable ways. But they're a minority: porn culture is hugely misogynistic, and the vast majority of porn that exists (often free of charge and disturbingly easy for children to stumble on) is hateful, violent, cruel, and racist. Gilbert worries, as do I, about how boys (and some girls) are getting their entire sexual education from these sources; porn provides a narrative of how to relate to sex and to women that is frankly terrifying. I think this is a huge problem that is very difficult to talk about, because most people who are talking about porn in negative ways are doing it from an anti-sex pov, often religious, and I think their criticisms are wrong. Again, I really appreciated how Gilbert talked all of this.
Overall, Gilbert is insightful, compassionate, clear-eyed, and accessible. This is a very well-written book by a very good writer, and I recommend it, whether as a book or, as I read it, an audiobook read by the author. It depressed the hell out of me, but it also reminded me of how resilient and strong and creative women are.
What I'm reading now:
A Lonely Death, the next Ian Rutledge mystery by Charles Todd.
What I finished:
+ The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. My Narnia reread is complete!
I'd been dreading this one and kind of putting it off, but on reread it's not actually all that bad? To me anyway--I totally get why other people hate it. I am not saying that it's good, but it's also not unreadable.
The problem is that Lewis has created this story entirely to serve the needs of his theological assertions, which makes for bad storytelling and worse worldbuilding. Preaching through fiction is always a bad idea because a story that exists to moralize is not going to be a good story. When, in previous books, Lewis sprinkled his theology throughout the stories, it was more or less fine--the story of a king who dies for the good of his people is a universal story, etc. You could always read the books literally as well as as analogy. Here, though, the theology takes over the narrative completely--there is no way to read this book on a literal level because just about every choice is made from the perspective not of a storyteller but of a preacher.
Plus, if you disagree with his theology, you're just going to be pissed off. I disagree with some of his theology myself, but I am much less pissed off than most because of my background. His particular brand of Christianity is very different than the white American evangelical kind I was raised in, for all those people have co-opted him. You have to understand how much gentler this view of soteriology is than the one I was surrounded with--Lewis embraces the idea of the virtuous pagan, for one thing, which is NOT a given in evangelical world. And perhaps more important, those who don't make it to heaven just cease to exist instead of being tortured for eternity. I realize this is probably hard for people who didn't grow up like I did to understand, but these ideas are significantly gentler than the evangelical view of hell. So when I encountered them as a kid, they felt freeing in a way I can't articulate. Between Lewis and Madeleine L'Engle, I had two Anglican fiction and nonfiction writers who had a more expansive view of God and life than I had been presented with, and they were lifelines to me.
So yeah, I don't hate this book, I just find it annoying and Not Good. I do like that we get more Eustace and Jill since they are my favorite of the characters from our world. I think it's kind of cool that we get to see Narnia from its first day to its last. Shift is a really good villain--not as good as Uncle Andrew, maybe, but Lewis knows how to write someone who is inherently selfish, and the early chapters with Shift and Puzzle are actually a fantastic depiction of an abusive friend dynamic. Lewis is really good at human foibles, the narratives we use to justify ourselves, etc.
I do not feel the need to ever read this one again but I'm glad I reacquainted myself with it as an adult so that I could decide how I feel about it.
+ Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water by Peter H. Gleick. This book is quite dated in statistics and things--I think it came out in 2010--but the central problem is, of course, still with us. This is a book that confirmed my belief that bottled water is problem: it is, of course, a lifeline for people in areas that don't have potable public water, and I am glad it exists. But it's ubiquity is indefensible in places that do, particularly in the US (places like Flint aside).
You can probably imagine the contents of this book: bottled water in the US is much less regulated than public water, therefore we don't know whether it's safe or not; it is not necessary in places that have clean public water; bottled water companies steal water from communities, destroying ecosystems; they prey on our fears; there's an industry (which I am 1000% confident has grown substantially since the time the book was published) of woo-y health grifters who sell special super waters, and these people are almost never stopped by authorities; and then there's the plastic. It's nice to see it all laid out clearly, though. And I also appreciate a book that is, really, a reminder that regulations are Good Actually.
So yeah, a worthwhile read.
+ Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert.
YIKES!!!!!! Gilbert deep-dives in pop culture depictions of and messages to and about women from, roughly, the late 90s to the mid-2010s, visiting topics like the way the powerful female musical artists of the 1990s were replaced by girls who couldn't stand up for themselves; the way the same thing happened in fashion with the powerful supermodels of the 1980s and early 1990s being replaced by, again, girls who couldn't stand up for themselves; depictions of women and femininity in reality TV; the way movies shifted from romcoms that centered female stories to bro comedies that hated and/or erased women; the era of Us Weekly, TMZ, and Perez Hilton and the way it ate female celebrities alive; and the #girlboss and Lean In eras. She keeps a Susan Faludi "backlash comes in waves" perspective on the whole thing.
There's also a lot about the pornification of culture--I really appreciated the nuance with which Gilbert handled this topic because I agree with her. Pornography, in the sense of art that exists to titillate and turn-on, is not a bad thing in itself and there are plenty of people who are out there creating and enjoying it in completely unobjectionable ways. But they're a minority: porn culture is hugely misogynistic, and the vast majority of porn that exists (often free of charge and disturbingly easy for children to stumble on) is hateful, violent, cruel, and racist. Gilbert worries, as do I, about how boys (and some girls) are getting their entire sexual education from these sources; porn provides a narrative of how to relate to sex and to women that is frankly terrifying. I think this is a huge problem that is very difficult to talk about, because most people who are talking about porn in negative ways are doing it from an anti-sex pov, often religious, and I think their criticisms are wrong. Again, I really appreciated how Gilbert talked all of this.
Overall, Gilbert is insightful, compassionate, clear-eyed, and accessible. This is a very well-written book by a very good writer, and I recommend it, whether as a book or, as I read it, an audiobook read by the author. It depressed the hell out of me, but it also reminded me of how resilient and strong and creative women are.
What I'm reading now:
A Lonely Death, the next Ian Rutledge mystery by Charles Todd.
Entry tags:
(no subject)
I am once again asking for audiobook recs! I'm looking for nonfiction, read by the author, preferably not too dense. Audiobooks are not my normal medium, so I'm picky. As for what kind of nonfiction, I like history, cultural criticism, psychology, etc.
Audiobooks I've actually enjoyed listening to:
The Anthropocene Reviewed and Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
Girl On Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur
Unruly by David Mitchell
Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs by Mo Rocca
I think all of these people except Gilbert have experience on TV/podcasts, which probably contributes to them being good at reading their own stuff.
Audiobooks I've actually enjoyed listening to:
The Anthropocene Reviewed and Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
Girl On Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur
Unruly by David Mitchell
Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs by Mo Rocca
I think all of these people except Gilbert have experience on TV/podcasts, which probably contributes to them being good at reading their own stuff.
Entry tags:
fic: please don't bury my soul
Y'all! I finally finished my Sinners fic! Now I can write my other Sinners fic!
Thank you to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dollsome for looking it over for me!
Title: please don't bury my soul (4646 words) by Lirazel
Fandom: Sinners (2025)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Lisa Chow & Sammie Moore, Bo Chow & Lisa Chow, Grace Chow & Lisa Chow
Characters: Lisa Chow, Sammie Moore
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, the blues as emotional articulation, warnings for references to period- and canon-typical racial violence against black people, Grief/Mourning, started having a lot of 'who's going to tell lisa what happened to her parents???' feelings
Summary:
Thank you to
dollsome for looking it over for me!Title: please don't bury my soul (4646 words) by Lirazel
Fandom: Sinners (2025)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Lisa Chow & Sammie Moore, Bo Chow & Lisa Chow, Grace Chow & Lisa Chow
Characters: Lisa Chow, Sammie Moore
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, the blues as emotional articulation, warnings for references to period- and canon-typical racial violence against black people, Grief/Mourning, started having a lot of 'who's going to tell lisa what happened to her parents???' feelings
Summary:
On a street in Oakland in 1956, Lisa Chow hears the sound of the Delta.
ST AOS thoughts
So as some of you know, elperian is watching ST TOS for the first time, and her reactions are making me giddy with love for my characters. So I started reading some fic (always up for recommendations!) and then read one of those crossovers between TOS and AOS and the writer was good, so I started reading all their AOS fic and then their bookmarks and before you know it I'm having an AOS moment?
So I decided to rewatch the three films and here are my thoughts in Tumblr-style no-capitals writing:
( Stark Trek (2009) )
( Into Darkness )
( Beyond )
( random relationship thoughts )
tl;dr
2009 film: delightful
Into Darkness: infuriates me and I will die mad about it
Beyond: delightful again
elperian is watching ST TOS for the first time, and her reactions are making me giddy with love for my characters. So I started reading some fic (always up for recommendations!) and then read one of those crossovers between TOS and AOS and the writer was good, so I started reading all their AOS fic and then their bookmarks and before you know it I'm having an AOS moment?So I decided to rewatch the three films and here are my thoughts in Tumblr-style no-capitals writing:
( Stark Trek (2009) )
( Into Darkness )
( Beyond )
( random relationship thoughts )
tl;dr
2009 film: delightful
Into Darkness: infuriates me and I will die mad about it
Beyond: delightful again
Entry tags:
what i'm reading (not) wednesday 19/6/2025
What I finished:
+ Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie. Recced byscripsi, this is a very solid Christie with an interesting exploration of emotional abuse. There's no particular reason it needs to be set in the Levant and feature people visiting Petra--it could have been set literally anywhere outside the US--but it adds some nice color. The downside is the egregious amount of fatphobia and the weirdness of Christie writing about a pre-1948 Palestinian character as being antisemitic (I can't even BEGIN to unpack this), but otherwise a good Christie!
+ Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester. This is an Erik Larson-style account of the largest volcanic explosion of modern times, which took place on a tiny volcanic island in between Sumatra and Java and killed tens of thousands of people. It was also one of the first major disasters that took place after the whole world was connected via underwater telegraph tables, so it became a worldwide phenomenon in a way that previous disasters had not.
The reason I say it's Larson-style is that it's cultural history, natural history, history of natural history, etc. all interwoven together. The major differences are that a) Larson tends to go back and forth between the different strands on a chapter-by-chapter basis, essentially creating a braid, and you never spend too much time on the "these are the mechanics of how this natural disaster happened" before getting back to people you care about, whereas Winchester divides his into chunks so you're kind of stuck with one topic until it's over and then you get to move onto a new one, and b) Larson is just a more engaging writer. Which is not to say that Winchester isn't an engaging writer, but the immediacy of Larson's writing that makes something like Isaac's Storm so suspenseful isn't nearly as strong with Winchester.
I've seen some people complaining on GoodReads that it focuses too much on the context and not enough on the explosion itself, but that doesn't particularly bother me.
My actual complaints are three-fold:
a) the GoodReads people are right in that there should have been more about the actual explosion and its aftermath. I like having all that context, but it shouldn't cut into the actual meat of the story. The aftermath in particular gets short-shrift, other than a chapter about how the explosion possibly contributed to an up-swelling of Islam-inspired nationalism in the decades afterwards. But Winchester is not the person I want to read that particular account from!
b) everything is super white-people-centric. I realize that the majority of the sources he had access to are in European-languages. But presumably he doesn't speak Dutch, and yet he drew on a number of Dutch sources, so he clearly knows how to get information from sources in languages he doesn't speak. Which makes the lack of it in non-European languages really egregious. Frankly, if you refuse to do the same for other languages, perhaps you are not the right person to write this particular book? I simply do not believe that an event of this magnitude that happened in the late 19th century wasn't written about in languages other than English and Dutch. There might not have been nearly as much out there in various Indonesian languages, for instance, but surely some of it had to exist! I really feel like it's incumbent upon someone telling this particular story to find those sources and make much of them.
c) Winchester seems to think that colonialism was not that bad, actually? He's really clear that certain parts of the Dutch colonial project were that bad, but he seems to think that once those were changed, then the Indonesians didn't have much to complain about. He doesn't ever say this, it's just a vibe I got. I could be wrong about it, but I kind of doubt it.
But the story itself was interesting, and I particularly appreciated the chapters about how all the amateur meteorologists all over the world gathered data that showed the effects the explosion had--that was so cool! I knew nothing about Krakatoa, so I actually did learn a lot, but I wish someone else had written this book.
+ The Red Door by Charles Todd. The premise of the Ian Rutledge series is that it's 1919/1920, he's back from the Somme with major PTSD and even more major survivor's guilt, fresh out of a mental institution, and trying to lose himself in his work at Scotland Yard. We travel around the UK with him as he investigates various things while trying to keep his grip on his sanity. I like this series because it's well-written and not fluffy; so many historical mystery series are just so cozy, and I do not want cozy in my mysteries. It definitely has that heavy sense of "we just watched an entire generation of young men be destroyed for absolutely nothing and now we are living in a death-haunted world" that I want in my post-WWI stories.
This particular offering had a very unique premise: a well-respected man just...disappears in London. Nobody knows where he's gone, but his family is definitely lying to Rutledge about something. Meanwhile in the north, there's a seemingly-unrelated murder, and Rutledge finds himself bouncing back and forth between these places, trying to prove that they're related.
Somebody complained in a GoodReads review that there's too much of him driving back and forth, and I am like, "Friend, have you read any of the books in this series so far?" That's like complaining that Ben January isn't getting enough rest. It's just part of the setup of the series.
But yeah, this was a good one.
What I'm reading now: I shockingly haven't started anything new yet! Yesterday was Juneteenth so I was off work and I basically lay around napping and reading fanfic all day. Probably I'll start something new tonight, and we will see what I am in the mood for then.
+ Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie. Recced by
scripsi, this is a very solid Christie with an interesting exploration of emotional abuse. There's no particular reason it needs to be set in the Levant and feature people visiting Petra--it could have been set literally anywhere outside the US--but it adds some nice color. The downside is the egregious amount of fatphobia and the weirdness of Christie writing about a pre-1948 Palestinian character as being antisemitic (I can't even BEGIN to unpack this), but otherwise a good Christie!+ Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester. This is an Erik Larson-style account of the largest volcanic explosion of modern times, which took place on a tiny volcanic island in between Sumatra and Java and killed tens of thousands of people. It was also one of the first major disasters that took place after the whole world was connected via underwater telegraph tables, so it became a worldwide phenomenon in a way that previous disasters had not.
The reason I say it's Larson-style is that it's cultural history, natural history, history of natural history, etc. all interwoven together. The major differences are that a) Larson tends to go back and forth between the different strands on a chapter-by-chapter basis, essentially creating a braid, and you never spend too much time on the "these are the mechanics of how this natural disaster happened" before getting back to people you care about, whereas Winchester divides his into chunks so you're kind of stuck with one topic until it's over and then you get to move onto a new one, and b) Larson is just a more engaging writer. Which is not to say that Winchester isn't an engaging writer, but the immediacy of Larson's writing that makes something like Isaac's Storm so suspenseful isn't nearly as strong with Winchester.
I've seen some people complaining on GoodReads that it focuses too much on the context and not enough on the explosion itself, but that doesn't particularly bother me.
My actual complaints are three-fold:
a) the GoodReads people are right in that there should have been more about the actual explosion and its aftermath. I like having all that context, but it shouldn't cut into the actual meat of the story. The aftermath in particular gets short-shrift, other than a chapter about how the explosion possibly contributed to an up-swelling of Islam-inspired nationalism in the decades afterwards. But Winchester is not the person I want to read that particular account from!
b) everything is super white-people-centric. I realize that the majority of the sources he had access to are in European-languages. But presumably he doesn't speak Dutch, and yet he drew on a number of Dutch sources, so he clearly knows how to get information from sources in languages he doesn't speak. Which makes the lack of it in non-European languages really egregious. Frankly, if you refuse to do the same for other languages, perhaps you are not the right person to write this particular book? I simply do not believe that an event of this magnitude that happened in the late 19th century wasn't written about in languages other than English and Dutch. There might not have been nearly as much out there in various Indonesian languages, for instance, but surely some of it had to exist! I really feel like it's incumbent upon someone telling this particular story to find those sources and make much of them.
c) Winchester seems to think that colonialism was not that bad, actually? He's really clear that certain parts of the Dutch colonial project were that bad, but he seems to think that once those were changed, then the Indonesians didn't have much to complain about. He doesn't ever say this, it's just a vibe I got. I could be wrong about it, but I kind of doubt it.
But the story itself was interesting, and I particularly appreciated the chapters about how all the amateur meteorologists all over the world gathered data that showed the effects the explosion had--that was so cool! I knew nothing about Krakatoa, so I actually did learn a lot, but I wish someone else had written this book.
+ The Red Door by Charles Todd. The premise of the Ian Rutledge series is that it's 1919/1920, he's back from the Somme with major PTSD and even more major survivor's guilt, fresh out of a mental institution, and trying to lose himself in his work at Scotland Yard. We travel around the UK with him as he investigates various things while trying to keep his grip on his sanity. I like this series because it's well-written and not fluffy; so many historical mystery series are just so cozy, and I do not want cozy in my mysteries. It definitely has that heavy sense of "we just watched an entire generation of young men be destroyed for absolutely nothing and now we are living in a death-haunted world" that I want in my post-WWI stories.
This particular offering had a very unique premise: a well-respected man just...disappears in London. Nobody knows where he's gone, but his family is definitely lying to Rutledge about something. Meanwhile in the north, there's a seemingly-unrelated murder, and Rutledge finds himself bouncing back and forth between these places, trying to prove that they're related.
Somebody complained in a GoodReads review that there's too much of him driving back and forth, and I am like, "Friend, have you read any of the books in this series so far?" That's like complaining that Ben January isn't getting enough rest. It's just part of the setup of the series.
But yeah, this was a good one.
What I'm reading now: I shockingly haven't started anything new yet! Yesterday was Juneteenth so I was off work and I basically lay around napping and reading fanfic all day. Probably I'll start something new tonight, and we will see what I am in the mood for then.
Entry tags:
Y'ALL!
My friend yutaan makes amazing paper art and also does commissions a few times a year. In the past, I've been lucky enough to buy some The Untamed minis of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian and also of Jiang Cheng and they bring me great joy.
And when she opened up this round of commissions I was like, "Wait. What if I got more minis of favorite characters?"
Well, I asked, and she made! And they are as delightful as I thought they would be!
( Jane Eyre )
( Spock )
And best of all:
( Gen and Attolia )
They are in the mail on their way to me and I am very happy!
And when she opened up this round of commissions I was like, "Wait. What if I got more minis of favorite characters?"
Well, I asked, and she made! And they are as delightful as I thought they would be!
( Jane Eyre )
( Spock )
And best of all:
( Gen and Attolia )
They are in the mail on their way to me and I am very happy!
Entry tags:
Just Married Dear Author Letter
Dear Author,
It's been a few years since I've been able to participate in this exchange and I've missed it! I am generally quite easy to please so long as you avoid my DNWs, so I hope you enjoy writing a fic for me!
I've got a bunch of different pairings/OT3s with different preferences for each. The one thing that I most want for all of them is that the requested pairing/OT3 fall in love by the end of the story (if they aren't in love already) and a reasonably happy ending. By "reasonably" happy, I mean, the situation around them can be kind of dark, but they're together and that's what matters.
The first most important DNW is: infidelity. I am just not here for that.
I'm totally fine with people having pasts in which they loved/were with/were married to other people but by the time the characters get together, I want them both to be single. Or, in the case of an OT3 where two thirds of the characters are married to each other, they both need to be enthusiastic about inviting a third member into the relationship.
Some other DNWS:
+ PWP. Porn is fine, I just don't want the porn to be all the fic is. And porn is in no way necessary--you can write the most rated G fic ever if you like. I love all ratings equally.
+ Instalove/love at first sight (for anyone other Wangxian--infatuation at first site is okay for them--or Peter falling in love with Harriet because canon). As an ace person, it's super important to me that characters actually know each other before they fall in love.
+ Modern AUs of historical/fantasy fandoms. Canon divergence/what ifs are amazing, though, and if you want to twist the setting a little bit (giving Hodel magical powers or making Lan Wangji emperor or something), go for it. I just do not want to read about any of these historical/fantasy characters working in a coffee shop.
+ Major character deaths (unless someone comes back to life à la Wei Wuxian)
+ Character bashing
+ Unmitigated fluff (some fluff is fine! But I'd like some deeper feelings to dig into.)
+ Onscreen noncon
+ Focus on babies/children
+ Watersports/scat
+ BDSM outside the bedroom
General likes: angst, especially if it ends happily; getting together; hurt/comfort; mutual pining; in character characters; complicated relationships between women; good worldbuilding; longfic; outsider povs; location/setting as character; political intrigue; forced proximity; good people trying to do the right thing; bad people trying to do the right thing; found families; siblings; porn with feelings; character A having to rescue/defend character B; total devotion/us against the world dynamics. I also love the other characters in these canons, so bringing them into the fic in large supporting roles is great!
Now onto the requests.
( The Queen's Thief )
( Six of Crows )
( Fiddler on the Roof film )
( The Untamed )
( Shadow of the Moon )
( Spinning Silver )
( Life with Derek )
( Lord Peter Wimsey series )
It's been a few years since I've been able to participate in this exchange and I've missed it! I am generally quite easy to please so long as you avoid my DNWs, so I hope you enjoy writing a fic for me!
I've got a bunch of different pairings/OT3s with different preferences for each. The one thing that I most want for all of them is that the requested pairing/OT3 fall in love by the end of the story (if they aren't in love already) and a reasonably happy ending. By "reasonably" happy, I mean, the situation around them can be kind of dark, but they're together and that's what matters.
The first most important DNW is: infidelity. I am just not here for that.
I'm totally fine with people having pasts in which they loved/were with/were married to other people but by the time the characters get together, I want them both to be single. Or, in the case of an OT3 where two thirds of the characters are married to each other, they both need to be enthusiastic about inviting a third member into the relationship.
Some other DNWS:
+ PWP. Porn is fine, I just don't want the porn to be all the fic is. And porn is in no way necessary--you can write the most rated G fic ever if you like. I love all ratings equally.
+ Instalove/love at first sight (for anyone other Wangxian--infatuation at first site is okay for them--or Peter falling in love with Harriet because canon). As an ace person, it's super important to me that characters actually know each other before they fall in love.
+ Modern AUs of historical/fantasy fandoms. Canon divergence/what ifs are amazing, though, and if you want to twist the setting a little bit (giving Hodel magical powers or making Lan Wangji emperor or something), go for it. I just do not want to read about any of these historical/fantasy characters working in a coffee shop.
+ Major character deaths (unless someone comes back to life à la Wei Wuxian)
+ Character bashing
+ Unmitigated fluff (some fluff is fine! But I'd like some deeper feelings to dig into.)
+ Onscreen noncon
+ Focus on babies/children
+ Watersports/scat
+ BDSM outside the bedroom
General likes: angst, especially if it ends happily; getting together; hurt/comfort; mutual pining; in character characters; complicated relationships between women; good worldbuilding; longfic; outsider povs; location/setting as character; political intrigue; forced proximity; good people trying to do the right thing; bad people trying to do the right thing; found families; siblings; porn with feelings; character A having to rescue/defend character B; total devotion/us against the world dynamics. I also love the other characters in these canons, so bringing them into the fic in large supporting roles is great!
Now onto the requests.
( The Queen's Thief )
( Six of Crows )
( Fiddler on the Roof film )
( The Untamed )
( Shadow of the Moon )
( Spinning Silver )
( Life with Derek )
( Lord Peter Wimsey series )
Entry tags:
Scratching Itches
I have made many a post about how no other writer scratches the same itch that Robin McKinley does, but here is another one, expanded out to talk about other writers who scratch very specific itches.
I am skeptical of the BookTok/GoodReads "readalikes" conversation, because I don't think there are any writers who actually readalike--every writer is distinct--and also I hate the tendency of book copy to compare books to other books/writers ("for readers of...") mostly because the comparisons are usually bad comparisons! Book B is nothing like Book A actually! Why did you even say that it was? Have you, person who wrote the copy, actually read both books? Etc.
However, I do think that thoughtful comparisons of writers can be helpful is the conversation is very specific about what you're actually comparing. For instance: if you ask for writers like Austen and someone suggests Heyer, that could work really well if what you're looking for is "romance set in Regency England written by someone who isn't just writing about Regency England via osmosis of reading a thousand other Regency novels" but it would simply be frustrating if what you're looking for is "gorgeous early 19th century prose and keen-eyed commentary on human foibles and social expectations." See?
So I'd like to have a discussion about what itches particular writers scratch that are difficult to find in other writers' works. That's not elegantly phrased, but maybe examples will help.
I'll probably make several posts about this featuring a handful of favorite writers or perhaps favorite books and I would be VERY interested to hear what itch-scratchers you're always looking for, whether in the comments or in your own posts. And if you can think of any writers or specific books that hit any one of the points I'm looking for below, please, please share recs! Recommendations are my love language!
When I say that I want more books like Eva Ibbotson's (adult) books (and Star of Kazan), what I mean is one or some combination of the following:
+ golden descriptions of pre-WWII Europe (particularly Hapsburg territory, particularly Vienna) with its sense of how diverse Europe was with dozens of different cultures all jostling with each other
+ colorful, eccentric, specific characters (mostly these are supporting characters in her books, not the leads, but I am happy whenever they arise) evoked through amazing details
+ beautiful writing about love for the arts, including moments of transcendence and grace in the midst of sorrow
What I'm not talking about:
+ the romances, which I find only partially convincing most of the time
When I say that I want more books like Robin McKinley's, what I am saying:
+ close attention to the domestic details of life from baking to raising newborn puppies to creating fire-proof dragon-fighting gear
+ an atmosphere that is warm without being saccharine--there's sorrow, pain, loss, etc. alongside the coziness
+ wonderful evocations of magic
+ wonderfully realized female characters (Beagle's Tamsin did this for me, if you want another example)
What I'm not talking about:
+ any particular one of her settings--I like them all but I don't go searching for them
+ fairytale retellings--these can be good! but often are not
When I say I want more books like Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series, what I mean is:
+ vividly evoked specific historical settings, a strong sense of place, settings that are rare and not over-visited (look, I love Victorian London as much as anyone, but sometimes I'd rather have a story set in Central Asia or the Incan Empire or something)
+ close attention to how power affects how people move through the world (without getting preachy)
+ focus on how marginalized people find agency and build lives despite the limits enforced on them by those forces of power
+ depictions of people trying (sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing) to build relationships across those societally-enforced lines
What I'm not talking about:
+ historical mysteries, necessarily (I love historical mysteries when done well but SO many of them just do not work for me)
When I say I want more books like Susanna Clarke's, what I mean is:
+ magic that is beautiful but untamable, wild and fey
+ delightful footnotes or digressions
+ love for scholarship, history, books, etc.
+ a sense of wonder
+ a sense of the writer's deep understanding of the literature and history of the era she's writing about
What I'm not talking about:
+ conflicts between men wielding magic in different ways
+ Regency-era fantasy, necessarily (again, most of this does not hit for me)
I am skeptical of the BookTok/GoodReads "readalikes" conversation, because I don't think there are any writers who actually readalike--every writer is distinct--and also I hate the tendency of book copy to compare books to other books/writers ("for readers of...") mostly because the comparisons are usually bad comparisons! Book B is nothing like Book A actually! Why did you even say that it was? Have you, person who wrote the copy, actually read both books? Etc.
However, I do think that thoughtful comparisons of writers can be helpful is the conversation is very specific about what you're actually comparing. For instance: if you ask for writers like Austen and someone suggests Heyer, that could work really well if what you're looking for is "romance set in Regency England written by someone who isn't just writing about Regency England via osmosis of reading a thousand other Regency novels" but it would simply be frustrating if what you're looking for is "gorgeous early 19th century prose and keen-eyed commentary on human foibles and social expectations." See?
So I'd like to have a discussion about what itches particular writers scratch that are difficult to find in other writers' works. That's not elegantly phrased, but maybe examples will help.
I'll probably make several posts about this featuring a handful of favorite writers or perhaps favorite books and I would be VERY interested to hear what itch-scratchers you're always looking for, whether in the comments or in your own posts. And if you can think of any writers or specific books that hit any one of the points I'm looking for below, please, please share recs! Recommendations are my love language!
When I say that I want more books like Eva Ibbotson's (adult) books (and Star of Kazan), what I mean is one or some combination of the following:
+ golden descriptions of pre-WWII Europe (particularly Hapsburg territory, particularly Vienna) with its sense of how diverse Europe was with dozens of different cultures all jostling with each other
+ colorful, eccentric, specific characters (mostly these are supporting characters in her books, not the leads, but I am happy whenever they arise) evoked through amazing details
+ beautiful writing about love for the arts, including moments of transcendence and grace in the midst of sorrow
What I'm not talking about:
+ the romances, which I find only partially convincing most of the time
When I say that I want more books like Robin McKinley's, what I am saying:
+ close attention to the domestic details of life from baking to raising newborn puppies to creating fire-proof dragon-fighting gear
+ an atmosphere that is warm without being saccharine--there's sorrow, pain, loss, etc. alongside the coziness
+ wonderful evocations of magic
+ wonderfully realized female characters (Beagle's Tamsin did this for me, if you want another example)
What I'm not talking about:
+ any particular one of her settings--I like them all but I don't go searching for them
+ fairytale retellings--these can be good! but often are not
When I say I want more books like Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series, what I mean is:
+ vividly evoked specific historical settings, a strong sense of place, settings that are rare and not over-visited (look, I love Victorian London as much as anyone, but sometimes I'd rather have a story set in Central Asia or the Incan Empire or something)
+ close attention to how power affects how people move through the world (without getting preachy)
+ focus on how marginalized people find agency and build lives despite the limits enforced on them by those forces of power
+ depictions of people trying (sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing) to build relationships across those societally-enforced lines
What I'm not talking about:
+ historical mysteries, necessarily (I love historical mysteries when done well but SO many of them just do not work for me)
When I say I want more books like Susanna Clarke's, what I mean is:
+ magic that is beautiful but untamable, wild and fey
+ delightful footnotes or digressions
+ love for scholarship, history, books, etc.
+ a sense of wonder
+ a sense of the writer's deep understanding of the literature and history of the era she's writing about
What I'm not talking about:
+ conflicts between men wielding magic in different ways
+ Regency-era fantasy, necessarily (again, most of this does not hit for me)
Entry tags:
what i'm reading wednesday 4/6/2025
And we're back with book updates!
What I finished:
+ Lady of Perdition, the 17th (!) Benjamin January book by Barbara Hambly. This is one of the field trip books that's set outside New Orleans, this time in the Republic of Texas, which sounds like it was hell for anyone who wasn't a white dude, even more so than the rest of what would become the southern US later. The inciting incident of the book is so harrowing in concept (though not in actual description) I don't even want to speak of it but is very much a reality of being Black in the antebellum US.
It's also one of the ones where we meet up with a character from an earlier book, and those always make me wish I weren't reading the series so very slowly. The last time we met said character, it was back in book 7! Which I read several years ago! So I had vague memories of her and much stronger memories of the vibes of that book. But Hambly does a good job of reminding us of what we need to know without being heavy-handed.
Lots of good Ben-and-Hannibal stuff in this book, though, as always when we're away from New Orleans, I miss Rose and everyone back home. And as always with every single book in the series, I spend the whole time going, "When will Ben get a bath and a good meal and a full night's sleep?????" Poor guy is in his 40s, won't someone let him rest? If you're into whump, you don't get much better than Ben. I want to wrap him up in blankets (actually, no blankets, since all the places he goes are so very hot) and let him sleep for a thousand years.
All in all a good but not standout entry in the series. A thousand bonus points for a plotline involving stolen archives, apparently based on a real occurrence! THE TEXAS ARCHIVE WAR WAS A REAL THING.
+ The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, which I appreciated a lot but did not love. Tesh is a great writer, and this book has a fantastic premise--one of those dangerous magical schools books, but told from the perspective of one of the instructors. What makes this work so well is that Tesh clearly has a background in education and the book is, in many ways, an exploration of what it's like to be a teacher, both in the basic dealing with administrative tasks and finding time to grade papers and also in the struggle to connect with and inspire students. The book is suffused with real details of what teaching in a British school is actually like, and I always enjoy a take-your-job-to-ficbook take.
Our main character is, as in Tesh's last book, another strength. Tesh writes fantastic flawed characters--Walden isn't as immediately off-putting as Kyr from Some Desperate Glory, but her besetting sin is pride and it's a doozy. She's so well-intentioned and trying so hard and she's way more likeable than Kyr starts out, but also, like, LADY. So realistic in the depiction of an academic with a PhD and a certainty that her understanding of her field (in this case magic) is superior to everyone else's. The book is about her learning her limitations and to appreciate other people's insights and I liked that a lot.
We get a fun outsider pov of the four students who would, if this book was written by anyone else, be the main characters, and I must say that I would absolutely read a fic bout Will pining for Nikki. The magical system is quite fun and distinctive and lends itself well to formal study.
So yeah, I think this is a very strong book, I really liked it, but it didn't scratch any particular itches for me that would bump it up into the tier of books I love. Still, I like Tesh's writing so very much and can't wait to see what she does next.
+ Miss Silver Comes to Stay, the 15th(!) Miss Silver book by Patricia Wentworth. As usual, I don't have a great deal to say; I always enjoy a Wentworth book, but they're always doing loosely the same thing. I do appreciate her commitment to having the victim be someone we really hate.
+ The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I haven't read this one since my British Gothic Fiction class in undergrad. (This was a summer semester class and there were only four other people in the class, and I think I was the only one who really wanted to be there. But I really wanted to be there, so hopefully I made up for the others' lack of enthusiasm.)
I remembered this as more of a horror story, but I think that's me confusing it with the film adaptation The Innocents, which is a banger of a movie and highly recommended. The book is also a banger, but it feels much more like a psychological thriller than a horror story imo. The fun of it is the perspective of our main character, an example of the gothic governess type, whose mind we're immersed in. Is she crazy? Is she evil and lying to us? Is everything she's describing really happening?
This is a book about suggestion and subtext, and I love that about it. More is not stated than is, which is always really effective in a ghost story. In this case, though, the things that aren't stated aren't related to the actions or appearance of the ghost/monster/killer but instead to the nature of the damage the bad guys are doing to the alleged victims. The book is more chilling than scary, which I'm into.
This was apparently James's selling out book, and I, for one, wish he sold out more often. There can never be enough gothic novels in the world as far as I'm concerned.
What I'm reading now:
+ Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie. I read most if not all of the Poirot books in middle school, but that was...over twenty years ago, so I remember nothing about this particular one. Shoutout toscripsi for mentioning it as one of her favorite Christies!
What I finished:
+ Lady of Perdition, the 17th (!) Benjamin January book by Barbara Hambly. This is one of the field trip books that's set outside New Orleans, this time in the Republic of Texas, which sounds like it was hell for anyone who wasn't a white dude, even more so than the rest of what would become the southern US later. The inciting incident of the book is so harrowing in concept (though not in actual description) I don't even want to speak of it but is very much a reality of being Black in the antebellum US.
It's also one of the ones where we meet up with a character from an earlier book, and those always make me wish I weren't reading the series so very slowly. The last time we met said character, it was back in book 7! Which I read several years ago! So I had vague memories of her and much stronger memories of the vibes of that book. But Hambly does a good job of reminding us of what we need to know without being heavy-handed.
Lots of good Ben-and-Hannibal stuff in this book, though, as always when we're away from New Orleans, I miss Rose and everyone back home. And as always with every single book in the series, I spend the whole time going, "When will Ben get a bath and a good meal and a full night's sleep?????" Poor guy is in his 40s, won't someone let him rest? If you're into whump, you don't get much better than Ben. I want to wrap him up in blankets (actually, no blankets, since all the places he goes are so very hot) and let him sleep for a thousand years.
All in all a good but not standout entry in the series. A thousand bonus points for a plotline involving stolen archives, apparently based on a real occurrence! THE TEXAS ARCHIVE WAR WAS A REAL THING.
+ The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, which I appreciated a lot but did not love. Tesh is a great writer, and this book has a fantastic premise--one of those dangerous magical schools books, but told from the perspective of one of the instructors. What makes this work so well is that Tesh clearly has a background in education and the book is, in many ways, an exploration of what it's like to be a teacher, both in the basic dealing with administrative tasks and finding time to grade papers and also in the struggle to connect with and inspire students. The book is suffused with real details of what teaching in a British school is actually like, and I always enjoy a take-your-job-to-
Our main character is, as in Tesh's last book, another strength. Tesh writes fantastic flawed characters--Walden isn't as immediately off-putting as Kyr from Some Desperate Glory, but her besetting sin is pride and it's a doozy. She's so well-intentioned and trying so hard and she's way more likeable than Kyr starts out, but also, like, LADY. So realistic in the depiction of an academic with a PhD and a certainty that her understanding of her field (in this case magic) is superior to everyone else's. The book is about her learning her limitations and to appreciate other people's insights and I liked that a lot.
We get a fun outsider pov of the four students who would, if this book was written by anyone else, be the main characters, and I must say that I would absolutely read a fic bout Will pining for Nikki. The magical system is quite fun and distinctive and lends itself well to formal study.
So yeah, I think this is a very strong book, I really liked it, but it didn't scratch any particular itches for me that would bump it up into the tier of books I love. Still, I like Tesh's writing so very much and can't wait to see what she does next.
+ Miss Silver Comes to Stay, the 15th(!) Miss Silver book by Patricia Wentworth. As usual, I don't have a great deal to say; I always enjoy a Wentworth book, but they're always doing loosely the same thing. I do appreciate her commitment to having the victim be someone we really hate.
+ The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I haven't read this one since my British Gothic Fiction class in undergrad. (This was a summer semester class and there were only four other people in the class, and I think I was the only one who really wanted to be there. But I really wanted to be there, so hopefully I made up for the others' lack of enthusiasm.)
I remembered this as more of a horror story, but I think that's me confusing it with the film adaptation The Innocents, which is a banger of a movie and highly recommended. The book is also a banger, but it feels much more like a psychological thriller than a horror story imo. The fun of it is the perspective of our main character, an example of the gothic governess type, whose mind we're immersed in. Is she crazy? Is she evil and lying to us? Is everything she's describing really happening?
This is a book about suggestion and subtext, and I love that about it. More is not stated than is, which is always really effective in a ghost story. In this case, though, the things that aren't stated aren't related to the actions or appearance of the ghost/monster/killer but instead to the nature of the damage the bad guys are doing to the alleged victims. The book is more chilling than scary, which I'm into.
This was apparently James's selling out book, and I, for one, wish he sold out more often. There can never be enough gothic novels in the world as far as I'm concerned.
What I'm reading now:
+ Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie. I read most if not all of the Poirot books in middle school, but that was...over twenty years ago, so I remember nothing about this particular one. Shoutout to
scripsi for mentioning it as one of her favorite Christies!Entry tags:
what i'm reading wednesday 21/5/2025
What I finished:
+ The Horse and His Boy. What a mixed-bag of a book! Honestly this is the strongest book in the series plot-wise imo. Aravis and Bree and Hwin are such fantastic characters! Shasta is a little less so in that common way that protagonists are often less interesting than the surrounding characters, but he has a lovely moment of growth towards the end that I really appreciate. We've again got a lot of really great images--the two horses riding side by side with the lions on either side, the tombs like beehives, the walk in the fog, etc. The pace is great, and it's enjoyable from start to finish.
But holy Orientalism, Batman! I would give big money to know what Edward Said would have thought of this book! The racism is of the kind that doesn't seem malicious but is no less potent for that. I can't even start talking about it because I would end up writing a dissertation or something. In Lewis's defense, we have in Aravis a Calormene who is relatable and admirable but flawed--a real person. That mitigates some of the nastiness, but obviously it's not enough. All the other Calormene are either actively terrible people or ridiculous (or both), and don't even get me started on the "Narnia and the North!" stuff.
I don't blame people for loving this book as it is, as I said, a thoroughly enjoyable one. But I also am appalled by it. Sometimes it is VERY clear that this book was written by a white British guy born in the Victorian era.
+ The Magician's Nephew. Speaking of the Victorian era.... This book is such a prequel. Let's explain where everything the other books came from! Here's the whole backstory! I don't think this is a bad thing, but on rereading it, it solidified my opinion that it's best to read these books in publication order. Reading this one right before the finale (which I am not looking forward to) is the right call, imo, because it gives the book an oomph it simply would not have if read earlier in the series. Frankly, I enjoyed this one more than I remember doing as a kid.
The images I remembered from this one were the yellow and green rings, the Wood between the Worlds, Jadis riding Boadicea-style on top of a hack, Aslan singing the world into existence, and flying on the Pegasus up to the mountains. To this I will add a few things that I hadn't remembered--Polly and Digory navigating the attic, the way the Lantern grows, etc.
I love that this book is about power and the arrogance of those who think they can wield it because they're ~special~. Should this book make me think of Nietzsche? Who knows. But it sure does--this is a book about how those who think they are an Übermensch suck actually. We've got both Uncle Andrew and Jadis who have no regard for anyone else, view people as (almost literal) guinea pigs, and think that might makes right. Contrasted with that we have the humility of Frank and Nellie, and in the middle, Digory who is tempted and first makes the wrong decision (with the bell) but ultimately makes the right decision (with the fruit).
An aside--one theme of the series I absolutely did not pick up on as a kid is all the ways in which we justify our own flaws, vices, and bad decisions to ourselves. Edmund, Eustace, and Digory all justify their bad behavior and decisions, and each have important moments where they admit not only that they were wrong and hurt people, but also that they told themselves a story about why they did things that they knew was a lie. This is not something I see a lot of in books for kids, and I think it's great.
The stuff about Digory's mother is very moving knowing that Lewis's mother died when he was a child--he doesn't linger on that pain in the book but it's there, lending some real pathos to the story.
+ A Study in Scarlet. After I read TMN, I was in the mood for some Victoriana, and who's more Victorian than Sherlock Holmes? I hadn't read this one before--I've read quite a few of the short stories and The House of the Baskervilles, but I think that's all. I've also seen quite a bit of Granada Holmes, so I'm very familiar with a lot of the stories, but I don't think I ever watched this particular episode? Honestly, Holmes and Watson are so familiar that it's interesting all on its own to try to put yourself in the headspace of meeting them for the first time, no matter how impossible that is.
Holmes is, of course, an instantly iconic character, even in this first book where he's not fleshed out quite as much. I enjoy how he simply will not use brain space for things he doesn't think are important (politics, literature, the fact that the earth orbits the sun) even if I disagree strongly with him about the importance of those things!
I had not realized this book was a hit piece on Mormons! I mean, I get it! Mormons are easy to write hit pieces about! But I simply did not expect it! Nor did I expect that we would take a whole 1/3 of the book telling the backstory as its own story without Holmes or Watson or London anywhere in sight!
My biggest takeaway from the book was, wow, Steven Moffat really took this story and made it so much worse, didn't he?
What I'm currently reading:
+ After seeing Sinners, I was like, "I need a book that makes me feel the humidity on my skin and fills my ears with the sound of cicadas," so I dipped back into the Benjamin January books, this time with Lady of Perdition. I have been intentionally reading the series verrrrrry slooooowly so that it won't be over too soon; I've gotten to the point where I only read it when I'm in a very particular mood.
This is one of the not-set-in-New-Orleans books, which I never like quite as much as the books that are set in New Orleans or the bayous around it. I always like the field trip books! But just not quite as much. This time we're in the Republic of Texas and Hannibal and Shaw have accompanied Ben to try to track down a free girl of color who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. One thing I deeply appreciate about this series is the way that it makes it very clear that even those Black people who are "free" as in not-enslaved are always in a precarious position--that freedom can be revoked at any time if a white person is violent enough, and the law will always be on the white person's side.
Anyway, more on this book after I finish reading it.
Up next:
City of Stairs had to go back to the library before I finished it, but I will certainly finish it later. I haven't read any more of Tendencies yet, but I need to get back into after my trip.
I will make myself read The Last Battle and I look forward to continuing the Westmark books with The Kestrel as well as checking out Emily Tesh's new offering, The Incandescent.
+ The Horse and His Boy. What a mixed-bag of a book! Honestly this is the strongest book in the series plot-wise imo. Aravis and Bree and Hwin are such fantastic characters! Shasta is a little less so in that common way that protagonists are often less interesting than the surrounding characters, but he has a lovely moment of growth towards the end that I really appreciate. We've again got a lot of really great images--the two horses riding side by side with the lions on either side, the tombs like beehives, the walk in the fog, etc. The pace is great, and it's enjoyable from start to finish.
But holy Orientalism, Batman! I would give big money to know what Edward Said would have thought of this book! The racism is of the kind that doesn't seem malicious but is no less potent for that. I can't even start talking about it because I would end up writing a dissertation or something. In Lewis's defense, we have in Aravis a Calormene who is relatable and admirable but flawed--a real person. That mitigates some of the nastiness, but obviously it's not enough. All the other Calormene are either actively terrible people or ridiculous (or both), and don't even get me started on the "Narnia and the North!" stuff.
I don't blame people for loving this book as it is, as I said, a thoroughly enjoyable one. But I also am appalled by it. Sometimes it is VERY clear that this book was written by a white British guy born in the Victorian era.
+ The Magician's Nephew. Speaking of the Victorian era.... This book is such a prequel. Let's explain where everything the other books came from! Here's the whole backstory! I don't think this is a bad thing, but on rereading it, it solidified my opinion that it's best to read these books in publication order. Reading this one right before the finale (which I am not looking forward to) is the right call, imo, because it gives the book an oomph it simply would not have if read earlier in the series. Frankly, I enjoyed this one more than I remember doing as a kid.
The images I remembered from this one were the yellow and green rings, the Wood between the Worlds, Jadis riding Boadicea-style on top of a hack, Aslan singing the world into existence, and flying on the Pegasus up to the mountains. To this I will add a few things that I hadn't remembered--Polly and Digory navigating the attic, the way the Lantern grows, etc.
I love that this book is about power and the arrogance of those who think they can wield it because they're ~special~. Should this book make me think of Nietzsche? Who knows. But it sure does--this is a book about how those who think they are an Übermensch suck actually. We've got both Uncle Andrew and Jadis who have no regard for anyone else, view people as (almost literal) guinea pigs, and think that might makes right. Contrasted with that we have the humility of Frank and Nellie, and in the middle, Digory who is tempted and first makes the wrong decision (with the bell) but ultimately makes the right decision (with the fruit).
An aside--one theme of the series I absolutely did not pick up on as a kid is all the ways in which we justify our own flaws, vices, and bad decisions to ourselves. Edmund, Eustace, and Digory all justify their bad behavior and decisions, and each have important moments where they admit not only that they were wrong and hurt people, but also that they told themselves a story about why they did things that they knew was a lie. This is not something I see a lot of in books for kids, and I think it's great.
The stuff about Digory's mother is very moving knowing that Lewis's mother died when he was a child--he doesn't linger on that pain in the book but it's there, lending some real pathos to the story.
+ A Study in Scarlet. After I read TMN, I was in the mood for some Victoriana, and who's more Victorian than Sherlock Holmes? I hadn't read this one before--I've read quite a few of the short stories and The House of the Baskervilles, but I think that's all. I've also seen quite a bit of Granada Holmes, so I'm very familiar with a lot of the stories, but I don't think I ever watched this particular episode? Honestly, Holmes and Watson are so familiar that it's interesting all on its own to try to put yourself in the headspace of meeting them for the first time, no matter how impossible that is.
Holmes is, of course, an instantly iconic character, even in this first book where he's not fleshed out quite as much. I enjoy how he simply will not use brain space for things he doesn't think are important (politics, literature, the fact that the earth orbits the sun) even if I disagree strongly with him about the importance of those things!
I had not realized this book was a hit piece on Mormons! I mean, I get it! Mormons are easy to write hit pieces about! But I simply did not expect it! Nor did I expect that we would take a whole 1/3 of the book telling the backstory as its own story without Holmes or Watson or London anywhere in sight!
My biggest takeaway from the book was, wow, Steven Moffat really took this story and made it so much worse, didn't he?
What I'm currently reading:
+ After seeing Sinners, I was like, "I need a book that makes me feel the humidity on my skin and fills my ears with the sound of cicadas," so I dipped back into the Benjamin January books, this time with Lady of Perdition. I have been intentionally reading the series verrrrrry slooooowly so that it won't be over too soon; I've gotten to the point where I only read it when I'm in a very particular mood.
This is one of the not-set-in-New-Orleans books, which I never like quite as much as the books that are set in New Orleans or the bayous around it. I always like the field trip books! But just not quite as much. This time we're in the Republic of Texas and Hannibal and Shaw have accompanied Ben to try to track down a free girl of color who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. One thing I deeply appreciate about this series is the way that it makes it very clear that even those Black people who are "free" as in not-enslaved are always in a precarious position--that freedom can be revoked at any time if a white person is violent enough, and the law will always be on the white person's side.
Anyway, more on this book after I finish reading it.
Up next:
City of Stairs had to go back to the library before I finished it, but I will certainly finish it later. I haven't read any more of Tendencies yet, but I need to get back into after my trip.
I will make myself read The Last Battle and I look forward to continuing the Westmark books with The Kestrel as well as checking out Emily Tesh's new offering, The Incandescent.
Entry tags:
If you liked the music from Sinners...
may I recommend one of my favorite musicians, Rhiannon Giddens? She was featured on the soundtrack playing "Old Corn Liquor" on her banjo alongside former bandmate Justin Robinson on the fiddle.
But the real reason I'm recommending her is because she does what the movie does: celebrates southern American music in all its forms. On her first solo album she did covers of Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton alongside covers of Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Elizabeth Cotten and Geeshie Wiley (also of the Sinners soundtrack).
My favorites from the album (though every song is wonderful) are:
"Waterboy" (by an immigrant Jewish songwriter who wrote for vaudeville and collaborated with Langston Hughes)
"Black Is the Color" (we love an Appalachian folk song with a beatbox!)
"Round About the Mountain (The Lord Loves a Sinner)" which would make for an INCREDIBLE Sinners fanvid....
Her second album is more explicitly political and explores many different moments in Black American history.
On this one she covers songs by Mississippi John Hurt, Richard Fariña, and Roebuck Staples, but she wrote most of the songs herself. Several of the songs are about the dangers of being a black man in contemporary America and she's got an excellent New Orleans-tinged cut or two, but my favorites are:
"At the Purchaser's Option," a title taken from an ad for an enslaved woman that said the baby could be sold with the mom or left behind "at the purchaser's option"
"Come Love Come," which sounds like it belongs on the Sinners soundtrack
And after you've listened to her solo stuff, check out her early work with Carolina Chocolate Drops for some old-time covers of R&B hits and Tom Waits songs and traditional bluegrass songs.
And the incredible project Songs of Our Native Daughters for banger after banger after banger after banger.
Oh and she was also a MacArthur genius and won a Pulitzer Prize for writing an opera about Omar ibn Said. So. You know. Rockstar.
But the real reason I'm recommending her is because she does what the movie does: celebrates southern American music in all its forms. On her first solo album she did covers of Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton alongside covers of Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Elizabeth Cotten and Geeshie Wiley (also of the Sinners soundtrack).
My favorites from the album (though every song is wonderful) are:
"Waterboy" (by an immigrant Jewish songwriter who wrote for vaudeville and collaborated with Langston Hughes)
"Black Is the Color" (we love an Appalachian folk song with a beatbox!)
"Round About the Mountain (The Lord Loves a Sinner)" which would make for an INCREDIBLE Sinners fanvid....
Her second album is more explicitly political and explores many different moments in Black American history.
On this one she covers songs by Mississippi John Hurt, Richard Fariña, and Roebuck Staples, but she wrote most of the songs herself. Several of the songs are about the dangers of being a black man in contemporary America and she's got an excellent New Orleans-tinged cut or two, but my favorites are:
"At the Purchaser's Option," a title taken from an ad for an enslaved woman that said the baby could be sold with the mom or left behind "at the purchaser's option"
"Come Love Come," which sounds like it belongs on the Sinners soundtrack
And after you've listened to her solo stuff, check out her early work with Carolina Chocolate Drops for some old-time covers of R&B hits and Tom Waits songs and traditional bluegrass songs.
And the incredible project Songs of Our Native Daughters for banger after banger after banger after banger.
Oh and she was also a MacArthur genius and won a Pulitzer Prize for writing an opera about Omar ibn Said. So. You know. Rockstar.
Entry tags:
(no subject)
random sinners thoughts:
+ love letter to southern american music. we love to see it.
+ finally some recognition that the southern us has always been culturally and racially diverse--the black/white binary dominated and still dominates most thinking about race, but there have always been people who don't fit into either category. having chinese, choctaw and mixed-race people more accurately reflects the time and place than most stories with similar settings.
+ the dobro is one of my favorite instruments ever and i hope this movie inspires a million people to start playing it
+ finally a movie that's filmed in Real Locations and knows to use cgi for necessary effects and not for the whole world. the production designer should win every oscar. as should the costume designer.
+ The Scene was one of the best scenes i've seen in cinema. like. wow. yes. that's what movies are for.
+ wtf was up with using "wild mountain thyme" though that song is from the '50s????
+ honestly the irish picks were pretty low-hanging fruit and something more obscure would have been more interesting but “rocky road to dublin” is a banger of a song so i’ll let it pass
+ having the white trio play the world’s whitest version of a geeshie whiley song was a genius move (and that one! with those lyrics!)
+ so proud of michael b. jordan in my heart he'll always be vince all grown up
+ michael b. jordan and hailee steinfeld got top billing, but this was sammie's story. miles caton, i'm excited to see what you'll do!
+ lovely to see wunmi mosaku, who i have liked since in the flesh, getting such a great role. she's otherworldly beautiful.
+ i am always happy to see hailee steinfeld
+ delroy lindo!!!
+ i thought it was pretty cool how jack o'connell kept going in and out of that irish accent--added texture to the character
+ can chris eyre or somebody make a movie about the choctaw characters? it's tragic we lost jeff barnaby a few years back--he would have been awesome at that.
+ a bunch of people left when the credits started, and i feel sorry for them
+ rhiannon giddens on the soundtrack! honestly i would have side-eyed them if she hadn't been
+ i always think that i don't like horror movies but i think i need to admit to myself that i do like them, i just prefer them to be period pieces
+ the amount of time we had for set-up before the revelations of what kind of world we're actually operating in was excellent and not something i expect to see in 2025
+ the dialogue was layered enough that i feel like i'm going to keep picking up new little details on subsequent rewatches
+ in short: that was a Movie and i love a Movie
+ love letter to southern american music. we love to see it.
+ finally some recognition that the southern us has always been culturally and racially diverse--the black/white binary dominated and still dominates most thinking about race, but there have always been people who don't fit into either category. having chinese, choctaw and mixed-race people more accurately reflects the time and place than most stories with similar settings.
+ the dobro is one of my favorite instruments ever and i hope this movie inspires a million people to start playing it
+ finally a movie that's filmed in Real Locations and knows to use cgi for necessary effects and not for the whole world. the production designer should win every oscar. as should the costume designer.
+ The Scene was one of the best scenes i've seen in cinema. like. wow. yes. that's what movies are for.
+ wtf was up with using "wild mountain thyme" though that song is from the '50s????
+ honestly the irish picks were pretty low-hanging fruit and something more obscure would have been more interesting but “rocky road to dublin” is a banger of a song so i’ll let it pass
+ having the white trio play the world’s whitest version of a geeshie whiley song was a genius move (and that one! with those lyrics!)
+ so proud of michael b. jordan in my heart he'll always be vince all grown up
+ michael b. jordan and hailee steinfeld got top billing, but this was sammie's story. miles caton, i'm excited to see what you'll do!
+ lovely to see wunmi mosaku, who i have liked since in the flesh, getting such a great role. she's otherworldly beautiful.
+ i am always happy to see hailee steinfeld
+ delroy lindo!!!
+ i thought it was pretty cool how jack o'connell kept going in and out of that irish accent--added texture to the character
+ can chris eyre or somebody make a movie about the choctaw characters? it's tragic we lost jeff barnaby a few years back--he would have been awesome at that.
+ a bunch of people left when the credits started, and i feel sorry for them
+ rhiannon giddens on the soundtrack! honestly i would have side-eyed them if she hadn't been
+ i always think that i don't like horror movies but i think i need to admit to myself that i do like them, i just prefer them to be period pieces
+ the amount of time we had for set-up before the revelations of what kind of world we're actually operating in was excellent and not something i expect to see in 2025
+ the dialogue was layered enough that i feel like i'm going to keep picking up new little details on subsequent rewatches
+ in short: that was a Movie and i love a Movie
Entry tags:
What's your superpower?
I am very good at name and voice recognition. If I see an actor in one project, I can tell you everything else I've ever seen them in. If I'm listening to Podcast A, I may think, "That voice sounds familiar," and I go look up the person and find that they were once on a single episode of Podcast B that I listened to last year. When I was watching Arcane, obviously I recognized Shohreh Aghdashloo's voice, but she has a VERY distinctive voice so that isn't a surprise. What is a surprise is that I recognized Even Lindley's voice from the handful of You Are Good episodes she's been on, even though her part in Arcane is definitely a bit part.
I'm so good with faces that if I see you at one event and didn't even get introduced or learn your name, I'm still probably going to recognize you when I see you at another event. I'm so good with faces that I don't understand the whole "these white guys all look alike!" memes that go around the internet often. I'm so good with faces that I was truly and deeply shocked the other day when I finally put it together that Vanozza from The Borgias is Sorsha from Willow. (In my defense, the two projects were made more than 20 years apart and I hadn't seen Joanne Whalley in anything in the interim, so I didn't know how she aged.)
elperian assures me that this is my superpower, and I think that is probably correct.
So what is your superpower? What's the thing you're really good at that most people aren't?
I'm so good with faces that if I see you at one event and didn't even get introduced or learn your name, I'm still probably going to recognize you when I see you at another event. I'm so good with faces that I don't understand the whole "these white guys all look alike!" memes that go around the internet often. I'm so good with faces that I was truly and deeply shocked the other day when I finally put it together that Vanozza from The Borgias is Sorsha from Willow. (In my defense, the two projects were made more than 20 years apart and I hadn't seen Joanne Whalley in anything in the interim, so I didn't know how she aged.)
elperian assures me that this is my superpower, and I think that is probably correct. So what is your superpower? What's the thing you're really good at that most people aren't?
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what i'm reading wednesday 14/5/2025
What I finished:
+ Westmark by Lloyd Alexander. I read the Chronicles of Pyrdain a couple of times when I was a kid and also The Iron Ring, but I completely missed this series. Several people with good (read: my) taste had it on their 100 books list, so I ordered it through interlibrary loan.
I see why people imprinted on it! I did not imprint on it, being not the right age for it, but it went directly to my "wish I'd discovered it as a kid" shelf on GoodReads. Alexander is better at the prose level than I realized as a kid, and it was a joy to read his writing. I liked our main character Theo, who is a person who always tries to do the right thing but is not always sure what that is (relatable) and is surrounded by people with different ethical frameworks than he has. I hate to be all "the publishing industry has gone downhill!" but honestly, very few authors (Hardinge, as always, is a big exception) are doing this level of nuanced morality and prose on even the YA level, much less the MG one. It's a joy to read "old school" YA/MG books and be so totally trusted by the writer. That said, it is very much a book for kids, so every time I wanted the writing to really dig into a particular idea or feeling, it didn't, but, like, that's a me problem. It's perfect for a MG reader!
I also think it's interesting how his worldbuilding looks at a glance like Generic Medieval European Fantasy, but it's clearly not--this is actually Reformation-era fantasy with the importance of printing presses and a Cromwell-esque villain, and it reminded me that your worldbuilding doesn't have to be complex to be good and distinctive. Just a few details make things feel realistic.
Also, this is an aside, but I was looking at Alexander's GoodReads page, I do not think I'd ever seen a picture of him before, and I am so taken by his face, especially his nose. He looks like a Froud illustration! Exactly what a children's fantasy author should look like! What a wonderful face!!!
+ Also, Everything Is Tuberculosis again. I had long ago put both the book and the audiobook on hold at the library and then ended up buying a copy of the book instead, so I read it right after it came out, but the audiobook hold finally arrived last week so I listened to it again. I still think it's great; I still wish it was longer; I still understand why it isn't.
What I'm currently reading:
+ Still working on City of Stairs. I might not finish it before it's due back at the library and then I will probably have to wait for it to come around again!
+ I also finally started Tendencies by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. This is my first time reading more than short excerpts of queer studies icon Sedgwick and damn, that woman could construct a sentence. This book is a collection of essays and I am reading one essay at a time. It'll take me a while to get through it but she is not a writer that you rush through! Many of her insights seem even more relevant now than they did in the early 90s when she was writing.
+ Westmark by Lloyd Alexander. I read the Chronicles of Pyrdain a couple of times when I was a kid and also The Iron Ring, but I completely missed this series. Several people with good (read: my) taste had it on their 100 books list, so I ordered it through interlibrary loan.
I see why people imprinted on it! I did not imprint on it, being not the right age for it, but it went directly to my "wish I'd discovered it as a kid" shelf on GoodReads. Alexander is better at the prose level than I realized as a kid, and it was a joy to read his writing. I liked our main character Theo, who is a person who always tries to do the right thing but is not always sure what that is (relatable) and is surrounded by people with different ethical frameworks than he has. I hate to be all "the publishing industry has gone downhill!" but honestly, very few authors (Hardinge, as always, is a big exception) are doing this level of nuanced morality and prose on even the YA level, much less the MG one. It's a joy to read "old school" YA/MG books and be so totally trusted by the writer. That said, it is very much a book for kids, so every time I wanted the writing to really dig into a particular idea or feeling, it didn't, but, like, that's a me problem. It's perfect for a MG reader!
I also think it's interesting how his worldbuilding looks at a glance like Generic Medieval European Fantasy, but it's clearly not--this is actually Reformation-era fantasy with the importance of printing presses and a Cromwell-esque villain, and it reminded me that your worldbuilding doesn't have to be complex to be good and distinctive. Just a few details make things feel realistic.
Also, this is an aside, but I was looking at Alexander's GoodReads page, I do not think I'd ever seen a picture of him before, and I am so taken by his face, especially his nose. He looks like a Froud illustration! Exactly what a children's fantasy author should look like! What a wonderful face!!!
+ Also, Everything Is Tuberculosis again. I had long ago put both the book and the audiobook on hold at the library and then ended up buying a copy of the book instead, so I read it right after it came out, but the audiobook hold finally arrived last week so I listened to it again. I still think it's great; I still wish it was longer; I still understand why it isn't.
What I'm currently reading:
+ Still working on City of Stairs. I might not finish it before it's due back at the library and then I will probably have to wait for it to come around again!
+ I also finally started Tendencies by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. This is my first time reading more than short excerpts of queer studies icon Sedgwick and damn, that woman could construct a sentence. This book is a collection of essays and I am reading one essay at a time. It'll take me a while to get through it but she is not a writer that you rush through! Many of her insights seem even more relevant now than they did in the early 90s when she was writing.
Entry tags:
(no subject)
My flist is full of smart people. Can someone explain to me in very small words what Straussianism actually is and what constitutes the divide between East Coast Straussians and West Coast Straussians?
Entry tags:
what i'm reading wednesday 7/5/2025
What I finished:
+ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is definitely the Narnia book that I had the strongest memories of. I can't decide if it's because I reread it the most or whether the particular imagery in this book just hooked into my brain.
But again: so many delightful images! It's just chock full of them! Everything from the painting coming to life to pushing the serpent over the end of the boat to dragon!Eustace to the magician's book to the birds eating the feast to the mermaid girl to the lily sea...I love it!
The book is very episodic, which suits a voyage book. It's a parallel to LWW because it's a story about the transforming power of Narnia and Aslan, but it feels different because, as Edmund says, Eustace was just an ass; Edmund was a traitor. I really like Eustace's arc and think he's a great character. He and Reepicheep are the stand-outs in this particular book.
Anyway, I think this one is rollicking good fun, though I understand why someone might not like it if they find the episodic stuff annoying.
+ The Silver Chair, which was the one I was most looking forward to revisiting. I have a theory that this was Tolkien's favorite because it has the atmosphere of what he would call "true Northernness." This is the book which has the most ties to Lewis's background as a medievalist--even for someone like me who's not super familiar with medieval lit, that much is obvious.
I really enjoyed revisiting this one. As I mentioned, I think Eustace is a great character and I love Jill too--I love that she's allowed to be the type whose reaction to things is to cry (same) but is still very brave. But in this one, Puddleglum is the character stand-out in the way that Reepicheep had been in previous books. I love Puddleglum.
If there's one thing I have learned from reading soooo much British kidlit, it's that boarding schools are hotbeds of bullying. Apparently this was a universal thing, so it makes sense to start there. The idea of wanting to escape a place like that so badly that you open a portal to another world must have been something a ton of kids fantasized about.
I also like that this book opens with Jill basically screwing things up and then has her and Eustace continue to screw things up and yet they get back to where they need to be.
Favorite bits: being blown on Aslan's breath, the Parliament of Owls (which I had such a strong memory of! best chapter title ever!), the Arthurian energy of the Lady of the Green Kirtle, Jill looking in the cookbook and figuring out what's going on, the imagery of eating living rubies and diamonds, climbing out of the underground into a typical Narnia revelry (Lewis loves his Narnia revelries).
+ Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik. As with most short story collections, this was hit and miss. I didn't much care about the Teremaire stories, and having not read the Scholomance books, that one hit less hard than it's probably intended to. Some of them were fine--the pirate lady, the fairy godmothers one. I wasn't crazy about the Irene Adler one, and I think I missed some of what "Lord Dunsany's Teapot" was trying to do (though it had a perfect title).
"Seven Years from Home" was her trying to do Le Guin and not quite succeeding--it was worth reading, but didn't quite do what I think it wanted to, perhaps because it was better-suited for a longer format. The final story was not my favorite, but it did introduce the world in which her next novel will presumably be set, and the worldbuilding was intriguing enough that I'm looking forward to it. It was fun visiting the "Spinning Silver" story and seeing where the novel originated. "Castle Coeurlieu" had great atmosphere.
But my favorites were "Seven" and "Buried Deep." The latter was a very atmospheric retelling of Ariadne's story, which I dug--I don't think the world necessarily needs more novel retellings of Greek myths right now, but if Novik wrote such a novel, I would certainly read it. And the worldbuilding details in "Seven" were just SO GOOD. I was delighted all the way through that one.
I did enjoy going to read some GoodReads reviews and finding that the stories that some people loved, others hated and vice versa. TASTES!
Basically: please, Ms. Novik, write me another novel I want to read! Because when we're on the same wavelength, I love your writing so so much! It's just unfortunate that we spend so much time on different wavelengths!
What I'm reading now:
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett, which has some very wild worldbuilding and truly feels like nothing I've read before. Love that his Shadow of the Leviathan books are fantasy mystery novels and this one is a fantasy spy novel. We could use more of both in the world.
+ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is definitely the Narnia book that I had the strongest memories of. I can't decide if it's because I reread it the most or whether the particular imagery in this book just hooked into my brain.
But again: so many delightful images! It's just chock full of them! Everything from the painting coming to life to pushing the serpent over the end of the boat to dragon!Eustace to the magician's book to the birds eating the feast to the mermaid girl to the lily sea...I love it!
The book is very episodic, which suits a voyage book. It's a parallel to LWW because it's a story about the transforming power of Narnia and Aslan, but it feels different because, as Edmund says, Eustace was just an ass; Edmund was a traitor. I really like Eustace's arc and think he's a great character. He and Reepicheep are the stand-outs in this particular book.
Anyway, I think this one is rollicking good fun, though I understand why someone might not like it if they find the episodic stuff annoying.
+ The Silver Chair, which was the one I was most looking forward to revisiting. I have a theory that this was Tolkien's favorite because it has the atmosphere of what he would call "true Northernness." This is the book which has the most ties to Lewis's background as a medievalist--even for someone like me who's not super familiar with medieval lit, that much is obvious.
I really enjoyed revisiting this one. As I mentioned, I think Eustace is a great character and I love Jill too--I love that she's allowed to be the type whose reaction to things is to cry (same) but is still very brave. But in this one, Puddleglum is the character stand-out in the way that Reepicheep had been in previous books. I love Puddleglum.
If there's one thing I have learned from reading soooo much British kidlit, it's that boarding schools are hotbeds of bullying. Apparently this was a universal thing, so it makes sense to start there. The idea of wanting to escape a place like that so badly that you open a portal to another world must have been something a ton of kids fantasized about.
I also like that this book opens with Jill basically screwing things up and then has her and Eustace continue to screw things up and yet they get back to where they need to be.
Favorite bits: being blown on Aslan's breath, the Parliament of Owls (which I had such a strong memory of! best chapter title ever!), the Arthurian energy of the Lady of the Green Kirtle, Jill looking in the cookbook and figuring out what's going on, the imagery of eating living rubies and diamonds, climbing out of the underground into a typical Narnia revelry (Lewis loves his Narnia revelries).
+ Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik. As with most short story collections, this was hit and miss. I didn't much care about the Teremaire stories, and having not read the Scholomance books, that one hit less hard than it's probably intended to. Some of them were fine--the pirate lady, the fairy godmothers one. I wasn't crazy about the Irene Adler one, and I think I missed some of what "Lord Dunsany's Teapot" was trying to do (though it had a perfect title).
"Seven Years from Home" was her trying to do Le Guin and not quite succeeding--it was worth reading, but didn't quite do what I think it wanted to, perhaps because it was better-suited for a longer format. The final story was not my favorite, but it did introduce the world in which her next novel will presumably be set, and the worldbuilding was intriguing enough that I'm looking forward to it. It was fun visiting the "Spinning Silver" story and seeing where the novel originated. "Castle Coeurlieu" had great atmosphere.
But my favorites were "Seven" and "Buried Deep." The latter was a very atmospheric retelling of Ariadne's story, which I dug--I don't think the world necessarily needs more novel retellings of Greek myths right now, but if Novik wrote such a novel, I would certainly read it. And the worldbuilding details in "Seven" were just SO GOOD. I was delighted all the way through that one.
I did enjoy going to read some GoodReads reviews and finding that the stories that some people loved, others hated and vice versa. TASTES!
Basically: please, Ms. Novik, write me another novel I want to read! Because when we're on the same wavelength, I love your writing so so much! It's just unfortunate that we spend so much time on different wavelengths!
What I'm reading now:
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett, which has some very wild worldbuilding and truly feels like nothing I've read before. Love that his Shadow of the Leviathan books are fantasy mystery novels and this one is a fantasy spy novel. We could use more of both in the world.
Entry tags:
fic: Folie à deux
I haven't written anything in months or posted any fic since January, but the ghost of dollsome (don't worry, she's not dead) briefly overtook me for like thirty minutes this morning and I posted a thing:
Folie à deux (1557 words) by Lirazel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Étoile (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cheyenne Toussaint, Tobias Bell, Jack McMillan
Summary:
I know nothing about ballet, I don't know why I thought this was a good idea.
dollsome (don't worry, she's not dead) briefly overtook me for like thirty minutes this morning and I posted a thing:Folie à deux (1557 words) by Lirazel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Étoile (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cheyenne Toussaint, Tobias Bell, Jack McMillan
Summary:
Who decided that letting Cheyenne and Tobias in the same room was a good idea?
I know nothing about ballet, I don't know why I thought this was a good idea.
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Lol there’s an entire section of the Chronicle of Narnia wiki page about the reading order question!!!