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Sorry for the hiatus folks! I read stuff. And moved house.
Currently reading: Rosenwein's 'Emotional Communities'; an anthology called 'Tales Before Narnia'; a non-fiction collection called "Getting Bi"
Recently finished: Or finished since last update, anyway...
Ann Brashares, The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, Girls in Pants and Forever in Blue: all re-reads for the first time in about five years. I found them surprisingly repetitive when read back-to-back. I found I got very, very annoyed with the cumulative effect where no one is happy about or after sex. Except for when Lena sleeps with the cute guy she's not romantically attracted to. I thought it was particularly crap to throw Tibby into a pregancy scare on the *first time* - particularly when that just adds her to the growing list of Sisterhood protags who have total traumatised meltdowns after major "first times" (not all intercourse - see Lena and her early shennanigans with Kostos). I think the series as a whole would've gained if Tibby's crisis had been after her second or third sexual encouter, really. Give the girl some chance to enjoy it, geez.
As I think I said in the review of Travelling Pants: women in these books are emotionally wrecked by sexual forays. Why... didn't I notice this before? How much of a contributor was this to the fact that I thought that was, yanno, just what happens when you start having sex, you go through the emotional wringer?
Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Eh. This was not a great book. I liked Bee-as-parent, but her early characterisation felt stilted. I am so very, very sick of Lena's one-true-love complex. Carmen was a well-rounded character, that was a nice change. I wish Brian had been fleshed out better.
I was REALLY INFURIATED with the 'no one contacts Brian when his partner dies' thing. That's NOT HOW IT WORKS. De-facto relationships are a thing in most American states, they certainly are in Australia (where Brian and Tibby were living). If they called the American embassy in Aus, someone would've got in touch with him. It's THAT EASY.
Also: Ann Brashares knows nothing about Australia. You don't eat Lucky Charms in Australia, and you don't get junebugs in summer.
Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon by Matt Fraction
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this very much! I found the art style very easy to read (I'm not great with visual information - the Young Avengers episode included as a bonus, while good as a story, I found more difficult to read), and Clint's characterisation as hilariously doofus-adorable as promised. I love the use of second-person address to the reader from Clint's internal monologue, that works very well.
I really, really love Clint's total adoration of Kate. I appreciate that Fraction et al made it clear early on that he wasn't interested in sleeping with her, and that's a *bonus* for both of them. There's just this total "oh my god she's perfect" mentor-friend thing, it's glorious and I want to read five thousand episodes of it (I gather the relationship goes sour later, and just hope they *tell* that story well).
Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. This took me a long time to finish. It's a very... demanding book. It's beautiful, of exquisite literary quality, but very demanding. It doesn't make the plot easy to follow; it doesn't even go out of its way to make any of the characters "identify-with-able", although most of them are finely drawn, right on the edge of realism and myth. I was very fond of Elias who came from the sea; I found I didn't actually like Will Phantom much, he was hard to get a grip on; I felt bereft by the story's dropping Angel Day in her unsatisfying ending; and it took me a long time to warm to Norm Phantom but in the end I did. I was sorry Hope was such a marginal character.
It's odd, I don't want to claim this too strongly because we're white people, but Norm Phantom in particular ended up reminding me of my grandfather. This is not the first time North QLD indigenous men have reminded me of my grandfather: location, class, lack of formal education must add up to something not exactly identical (because race) but similar.
Other recent reads to be filled in later: Halberstam, Ewing, Horniman
To read next: I've another Halberstam on my shelf; I'm looking for the right fiction at the moment, and haven't found it.
Currently reading: Rosenwein's 'Emotional Communities'; an anthology called 'Tales Before Narnia'; a non-fiction collection called "Getting Bi"
Recently finished: Or finished since last update, anyway...
Ann Brashares, The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, Girls in Pants and Forever in Blue: all re-reads for the first time in about five years. I found them surprisingly repetitive when read back-to-back. I found I got very, very annoyed with the cumulative effect where no one is happy about or after sex. Except for when Lena sleeps with the cute guy she's not romantically attracted to. I thought it was particularly crap to throw Tibby into a pregancy scare on the *first time* - particularly when that just adds her to the growing list of Sisterhood protags who have total traumatised meltdowns after major "first times" (not all intercourse - see Lena and her early shennanigans with Kostos). I think the series as a whole would've gained if Tibby's crisis had been after her second or third sexual encouter, really. Give the girl some chance to enjoy it, geez.
As I think I said in the review of Travelling Pants: women in these books are emotionally wrecked by sexual forays. Why... didn't I notice this before? How much of a contributor was this to the fact that I thought that was, yanno, just what happens when you start having sex, you go through the emotional wringer?
Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann BrasharesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Eh. This was not a great book. I liked Bee-as-parent, but her early characterisation felt stilted. I am so very, very sick of Lena's one-true-love complex. Carmen was a well-rounded character, that was a nice change. I wish Brian had been fleshed out better.
I was REALLY INFURIATED with the 'no one contacts Brian when his partner dies' thing. That's NOT HOW IT WORKS. De-facto relationships are a thing in most American states, they certainly are in Australia (where Brian and Tibby were living). If they called the American embassy in Aus, someone would've got in touch with him. It's THAT EASY.
Also: Ann Brashares knows nothing about Australia. You don't eat Lucky Charms in Australia, and you don't get junebugs in summer.
Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon by Matt FractionMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this very much! I found the art style very easy to read (I'm not great with visual information - the Young Avengers episode included as a bonus, while good as a story, I found more difficult to read), and Clint's characterisation as hilariously doofus-adorable as promised. I love the use of second-person address to the reader from Clint's internal monologue, that works very well.
I really, really love Clint's total adoration of Kate. I appreciate that Fraction et al made it clear early on that he wasn't interested in sleeping with her, and that's a *bonus* for both of them. There's just this total "oh my god she's perfect" mentor-friend thing, it's glorious and I want to read five thousand episodes of it (I gather the relationship goes sour later, and just hope they *tell* that story well).
Carpentaria by Alexis WrightMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. This took me a long time to finish. It's a very... demanding book. It's beautiful, of exquisite literary quality, but very demanding. It doesn't make the plot easy to follow; it doesn't even go out of its way to make any of the characters "identify-with-able", although most of them are finely drawn, right on the edge of realism and myth. I was very fond of Elias who came from the sea; I found I didn't actually like Will Phantom much, he was hard to get a grip on; I felt bereft by the story's dropping Angel Day in her unsatisfying ending; and it took me a long time to warm to Norm Phantom but in the end I did. I was sorry Hope was such a marginal character.
It's odd, I don't want to claim this too strongly because we're white people, but Norm Phantom in particular ended up reminding me of my grandfather. This is not the first time North QLD indigenous men have reminded me of my grandfather: location, class, lack of formal education must add up to something not exactly identical (because race) but similar.
Other recent reads to be filled in later: Halberstam, Ewing, Horniman
To read next: I've another Halberstam on my shelf; I'm looking for the right fiction at the moment, and haven't found it.