You know when it gets to Thursday and you're like "DAMN all I've updated about this week is a 1980s stunning tv drama about a lion man"? Yeah, so, welcome to another edition of I Review the First 50 Pages of Books Because I Can't Seem to Finish Any.
Valencia, Michelle Tea. I saw this when I was making a list for people of important lesbian lit and doin' some research, 'cause really I'm just all up in Sarah Waters and Emma Donoghue. But this was on a bunch of other people's lists, so when I was at the library, I picked it up. And immediately almost put it down, because it seemed so very Not My Sort of Book. The main character (who is Michelle Tea) lives in San Francisco in the '90s and is very...does drugs/gives herself tattoos/doesn't hold a job/becomes a prostitute for a while/etc. I don't do that kind of book. Except THIS IS SO GOOD. She's a poet, and you can tell from her prose style, which has delightful sentences such as:
I'm going to read all her other books.
Ruby Red, Kerstin Gier. Did you know the Germans are really good at children's lit? I base this entirely on this book and Inkheart (which I LOVE). So Tika recommended this and it's all fun and time travely. And not in the shitty way that Time Traveler's Wife was time travely. Instead of "She pops randomly back in time and doesn't know where she is and it's really boring" it's "She pops randomly back in time and look! People wearing fun wigs! Hurrah!" THAT'S the time traveling I want. I will read the second of this series.
The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens, Claire Tomalin. This book is awesome. Sure, we know not a ton about Nell Ternan because NO WRITING FROM HER EXISTS for a good period while she was involved with Dickens (that's what we in the words business call "suspicious"), but there's a lot known about her parents and environment and stuff that can be inferred from silence. And Claire Tomalin's just a talented biographer lady. I'm disliking Nell Ternan less through this book.
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss. Sometimes I think I just don't have the temperament for fantasy lit. I couldn't do Game of Thrones because there's a sentence in the first chapter about a sword and it says "It was a splendid weapon, castle-forged, and new-made from the look of it." NOPE. DONE. I'm not dealing with that shit. Fucking "castle-forged." So Name of the Wind has some of that, but I have decided to skim over it, because Pat Rothfuss's blog got me through some rough days of temping, and I feel like I owe it to him to actually read his book. It's not bad so far.
I also picked up the next Vampire Academy book from the library. You thought that saga was over, but you were wrong.
Valencia, Michelle Tea. I saw this when I was making a list for people of important lesbian lit and doin' some research, 'cause really I'm just all up in Sarah Waters and Emma Donoghue. But this was on a bunch of other people's lists, so when I was at the library, I picked it up. And immediately almost put it down, because it seemed so very Not My Sort of Book. The main character (who is Michelle Tea) lives in San Francisco in the '90s and is very...does drugs/gives herself tattoos/doesn't hold a job/becomes a prostitute for a while/etc. I don't do that kind of book. Except THIS IS SO GOOD. She's a poet, and you can tell from her prose style, which has delightful sentences such as:
We were two stoned girls peeping clumsily at each other around racks of shrimp-flavored chips and squat tins of nacho cheese.
I'm going to read all her other books.
Ruby Red, Kerstin Gier. Did you know the Germans are really good at children's lit? I base this entirely on this book and Inkheart (which I LOVE). So Tika recommended this and it's all fun and time travely. And not in the shitty way that Time Traveler's Wife was time travely. Instead of "She pops randomly back in time and doesn't know where she is and it's really boring" it's "She pops randomly back in time and look! People wearing fun wigs! Hurrah!" THAT'S the time traveling I want. I will read the second of this series.
The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens, Claire Tomalin. This book is awesome. Sure, we know not a ton about Nell Ternan because NO WRITING FROM HER EXISTS for a good period while she was involved with Dickens (that's what we in the words business call "suspicious"), but there's a lot known about her parents and environment and stuff that can be inferred from silence. And Claire Tomalin's just a talented biographer lady. I'm disliking Nell Ternan less through this book.
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss. Sometimes I think I just don't have the temperament for fantasy lit. I couldn't do Game of Thrones because there's a sentence in the first chapter about a sword and it says "It was a splendid weapon, castle-forged, and new-made from the look of it." NOPE. DONE. I'm not dealing with that shit. Fucking "castle-forged." So Name of the Wind has some of that, but I have decided to skim over it, because Pat Rothfuss's blog got me through some rough days of temping, and I feel like I owe it to him to actually read his book. It's not bad so far.
I also picked up the next Vampire Academy book from the library. You thought that saga was over, but you were wrong.
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| TICKLED BABY POLAR BEAR |
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