What Are You Reading (not on a) Wednesday

[highlyeccentric]

Currently Reading: Harry Potter et la Coupe de Feu, lis par Bernard Giradeu. Nothing much else that's making any progress.

Recently Finished:

Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets: Character voices still annoying. Ron and Harry even stupider than I remembered. If Mr Weasley left his car outside, he was going to COME BACK FOR IT. Wait for him to do so, you idiots. Also, did it not occur to you that *a whole ton of people trapped on platform 9 3/4* is a problem you should alert someone to?

Harry Potter et le Prisonier d'Azkaban: Character voices less annoying this time! Rejoice!

Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I think I need to get used to the fact that I will never agree with SRB about what is a good ending to a disturbing dubiously-consensual telepathic love bonding plot, and just embrace the fact that I adore all the twists and turns along the way.

Also: family! Snark! Sarcastic lesbians! Yes good. These books are nowhere near as compelling as the Demon's Lexicon trilogy, IMHO, but they are delightful and I shall read them again.

Marvel Superhero Team-Up anthology: This was full of lulz, from the hilariously homoerotic (Cable and Deadpool visit Intercourse, PA, and lie to one another) to the almost-incomprehensible-without-backstory (something involving Black Panther, hot girls, a white guy, and aliens) and the utterly absurd (three vikings looking like they walked out of Asterix comics try to rescue a maiden's imperilled fiancé and get into several fights. The maiden finds her own fiancé. One of the Vikings, known as somethingorother the Vast, defeats people by virtue of superior body mass). I kinda liked a complex X-men episode which I didn't understand (Wolverine is angry at some guy for breaking some girl's heart and therefore gets him into a fight?), because two of its less-explored bits involved lady superheroes having angst and either comforting one another, or fighting robots. The manpain and bar fights were unnecessary, more ladies crying and smashing robots please.

Also, I am pleased to report that Wolverine informed us that standard NYC business insurance covers superhero damage.

For work, I just finished Silence, a delightful 13th c cross-dressing romance. It's great! The contrast between the prologue, a passionate romantic story involving a guy who killed a dragon and a girl who cured him, and the main plot, in terms of treatment of marriage, sexual and romantic attraction, and... well, women, basically, is fascinating and will go into thesis.

To Read Next: For work, a chunk of the Vulgate Estoire Merlin, which I spent several days trying to track down (ie, i knew it EXISTED, but not what title it had been published under or when), and finally succeeded thanks to archive.org. For funsies... perhaps Burial Rites, which Jo has loaned to me.

Comments

[realpestilence]

If I lived in comic world New York, I'd move the hell away. It's always getting attacked by mutants, aliens, and whatnot. When I saw Guardians of the Galaxy and a certain city was being bombarded, I got all excited 'cause, "Hey, at least it's not New York!!!"

The only other city I can think of that regularly took as much damage back in the day was Tokyo, from Godzilla, Mothra and that ilk.

[liseuse]

I am on the same page as you with the Rees Brennan "no, that is not romantic! but awwwwwwww, snarky lesbians and quipping! I AM HERE FOR THAT!"

[highlyeccentric]

I love tormented dubiously-consensual telepathic bonding! But I am not convinced that there is a healthy way to maintain that bond at the end of the novel, y'know?

[liseuse]

As a trope I don't necessarily mind it, and I do think in this trilogy that Brennan did a good job of having characters be conflicted about it, but I just don't find it staggeringly romantic. And yeah, I'm not seeing a good way for it to be maintained either.

[highlyeccentric]

I don't know that i find it 'romantic' either, although I used to as a kid. But *interesting* and, more than half the time, hot, yeah, i'm there for that. I just don't think it lends itself to happy romantic endings.

[liseuse]

I do find it fascinating because a lot of the time if I'm reading it (usually in fic) the Happy Ending (tm) is characters learning how to have their soulbonds open all the time and to be constantly connected, and to get to that they go through the emotional doldrums and typhoons of shutting down the bond, and idk, I kind of think that the reverse would be more romantic. You know, learning how to share and when to be open to each other but when you need your own space to have all of your own thoughts in isolation and then be able to share them with someone.

[sunflowerinrain]

My mother had some of the Harry Potter books, and I picked up Prisoner of Azkaban and thought it quite tolerable. I then read three of the others, with increasing dismay. I tried to read the final book, thinking that as the characters were older they might be deeper/better drawn. I really don't understand why Rowling made so many sales and Susan Cooper didn't.