laceblade

The Land of Stories was written by Chris Colfer, the actor who portrays Kurt Hummel on Glee.

Had the book not been written by Colfer, I probably wouldn't have read it. This kind of fantasy isn't really my thing, although I do read a lot of sf/f and a lot of YA.

( Discussion of the basic plot. )
The lesson that the kids end up learning is that every human being is complicated, and a product of their background. It's kind of a powerful and empathetic message from an author who grew up being bullied in school.

For fans of Glee/Colfer, my choice of revealing lines were:
Cinderella telling the kids, "Living a public life is a difficult thing to do, and even now I find it a bit overwhelming. No matter what you do, you can never please everyone."

The Evil Queen saying, "Every driven person comes from a mountain of pain they wish to keep hidden."

The dialogue was the strongest writing in the book, although I think a lot of it would have benefited from comedic timing & being spoken out loud. For that reason I'm very much looking forward to seeing his movie "Struck by Lightning," which recently debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival (the trailer is here at YouTube).

This book was not my fave, but if more books are published in the series, I would be interested in reading them. I could see this being very much an "intro" book. I'd love to read another book with these established characters and maybe one or two new ones, so that he could really sink his teeth into some characterization.

Between filming Glee and doing the live tours the last two years, I have no idea when Colfer found the time to write a novel and a film script. He is a BAMF. (HE ALSO TWIRLS KNIVES. CHRIS COLFER IS A BAMF.)

P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast are a mother-daughter writing duo from Oklahoma. Their House of Night series is about a girl named Zoey, who is marked by a vampire and must attend vampire finishing school (if not surrounded by adults, fledgling vampires will get sick and die).

The House of Night is a school in which fledglings learn about vampire history, powers, and attributes. They also take sweet classes, like fencing and horseback-riding. It's kind of like Hogwarts, except that these magical teens give each other blow-jobs in the hallways.

I had a strong reaction while reading the first book, but I devoured the second book in hours. It subtly fixed a lot of what bothered me in the first book, was better written, and the plot/characters were loads more interesting.

Here's an example of what I mean. In the first book, Marked, Zoey is talking to her grandmother, who is Cherokee.

"Thank you, Grandma."
"You're welcome, U-we-tsi a-ge-hu-tsa.".
I smiled, loving how the Cherokee word for daughter sounded - so magical and special, like it was a Goddess-given title.

Conversely, a similar scene in the second book, Betrayed:

"Oh, Zoeybird!" She held tight to me. "I have missed you, u-we-tsi a-ge-hutsa."
I smiled through my tears, loving the sound of the familiar Cherokee word for daughter - it meant security and love and unconditional acceptance....

There were a lot of WTF moments like that for me in the first book - Zoey's friend Damien is gay, but at one point the first-person narrative refers to him as the "gay scholar of the group." Her friend Shaunee is black, and gets described as looking like an "African princess" more than once.

At one point, after allowing the first-person narrative to dwell on her Cherokee heritage, Zoey notices that she has left a "trail of blood tears" on the ground. I'm not sure whether this reference is intentional or not, but it definitely made me exclaim, "Are they fucking serious with this shit?"

Thankfully, this stuff all but disappears in Betrayed - maybe they received some complaints from Marked.

---

I read somewhere on the Internet P.C. Cast's daughter and co-author, Kristin, is responsible for "make sure the teenagers sound like teenagers," and that Zoey is based on Kristin at that age. I'm not sure why Kristin Cast would admit that in public, because in Marked, Zoey Redbird is the most stuck-up snot I have ever encountered in fiction, and she is the fucking protagonist.

Her first-person perspective is also....excruciating, at times.

Feeling like someone had punched me in the gut I realized that this girl - Aphrodite - had been the one I'd just watched with the guy in the hall!
Aphrodite's laugh, followed by her perky, "Of course I'd be happy to show her around! You know I'm always glad to help you, Neferet," was as fake and cold as Pamela Anderson's humongously huge boobs...

Like the disappearance of references to people of color as magical, the teenagers sound more like teenagers in the second book as well.

There are still a few clunkers, though. Quotes from book two:
"Damien sniffed, looking offended and superior and gayer than he usually looked."

Also in Book 2, Zoey reveals that she has a penchant for chivalry, liking a boy who carries books and opens doors for her, stating that "his daddy had raised him right." She also implies that it's okay for Southern people to be homophobic simply because they are from the South and don't know any better.

The Cast duo (or their editor) would also do well to learn how to use a comma, especially when writing dialogue.

There's a few cringe-worthy misuse of words going on, too: "Why don't I introduce you to Shaunee and Erin, who, I'm sure, will collaborate her alibi."

Obviously, there are some huge issues in these novels, and I really don't think I would recommend them.

---

BUT.

In this version of Vampire!History, movie stars and famous writers are vampires. I'm sorry, I mean vampyres. Vampyre society is matriarchal, and part of the House of Night curriculum teaches fledglings about the mistreatment of women throughout history.

ALSO WIKIPEDIA TELLS ME THAT IN FUTURE BOOKS, ZOEY & CO WILL TEAM UP WITH CATHOLIC NUNS TO KICK SOME ASS, LOL WHAT.

I will continue to read them. They are more readable than Twilight, but like the Twilight saga, there seems to be some kind of teenage vampire dust contained within the pages that compels me to KEEP READING.

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
If you read The Knife of Never Letting Go, then you know it's literally impossible to share any details of this book without giving hardcore spoilers.

I will only say: WOW! I liked this more than the first book; it hit lots of my bits. My prediction would be that not as many people would like this book as the first one.

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Preparedness Now! by Aton Edwards

This book was intense. The man has prepared kits in his office, his house, and his car containing everything from collapsible bicycles to dust masks. This book explains how to dig latrines, and how to safely and odorlessly take care of business in your own home if your toilet isn't working. He recommends keeping an emergency food pantry, but also recommends not telling your neighbors about it, so they don't kill you or your children. He's a little overzealous, but I can't deny the fact that if shit went down, this dude would be alive, and I would want him on my team.

The first chapter is spent outlining all of the terrible things that could happen for which most people never prepare in advance: terrorist attacks, natural disasters, power shut-downs, etc. The author focused on 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

Now, my father is a pretty paranoid man. Since birth, I have almost constantly been warned of imminent death, and told to figure stuff out for myself. Despite this aspect of my upbringing, I was kind of blown away by the intensity of the author, who is also pretty arrogant. In his chapter on fitness, he tosses in a random aside, that he used to run to school, and all the kids on the bus would look at him excitedly out the window.

His chapter on physical fitness was pretty messed up as well. He feels that people who are predisposed to weight gain simply need to work harder - everyone can be the "right size" if they just work HARD ENOUGH! He also says that if anyone tells you the reader that you have an eating disorder, then that person is just being mean, and eating disorders don't exist. WAY TO BE, BUDDY.

The chapter on weaponry would probably freak most people out, but considering the arsenal amassed in our basement by my father, which contains everything from guns to crossbows to blowguns, I wasn't too perturbed.

While the author is a tool, reading the book got me thinking about how prepared I would be for the unexpected. I'll be proud for a moment and say that I'm pretty good at keeping my head in a crisis, and I know a lot of smart people within walking distance of my apartment, so I'm not too worried. Still, there is a collection of objects that could be going on.
I live in an efficiency apartment, so I'm giving myself a pass on not having gallons of water stored away just in case. Still, there are other things I could do. I don't think that I would even last very long in a power outage - all I have are scented candles. I also don't have a very well-stocked First Aid kit. All that's in it are a package of Band-Aids and some Tums.

I'd like to stock both my car and my apartment with a few things I might need, in the event of an emergency. I keep a spare tire, spare oil, spare windshield fluid, hand sanitizer, and a snow shovel in the trunk of my car. But despite the fact that I frequently travel in my car alone, I never store any extra food in it. If my car broke down in the middle of the woods on my way Up North where I get no cell phone reception, I would be totally screwed!

Stuff I gathered from around the apartment so far, to put in an easy-to-find place:
Knife
Swiss-Army knife
Hand sanitizer
mini-flashlight on a keychain
paper [in case you need to write down directions or locations, etc.]
pencil [The dude in the book recommends pens, but ink freezes in cold weather! Apparently he doesn't think of everything after all.]


Things I Could Look into Acquiring
Misc. hygiene items - toothbrush, etc. in travel size
flashlight [Does not need to be ultra!flashlight that costs more than $100, as described in the book]
energy bars/foods
Whistle [Voices fail in inclement weather/exhaustion]
A lighter, perhaps some matches in a water-proof container
Some long-burning candles
Moist towelettes
A watch that actually works
Hand-crank lamp
Hand-crank radio
Tablets for drinking water
Bandages/more substantial stuff for First Aid kit

My relationship with Roger Lea MacBride's Rose books is almost as old as my relationship with Laura's books about herself. They started coming out in the early 90's, and out of all of the books about Laura's family written for children, I would probably give these the most credit for being accurate.

Roger Lea MacBride actually knew Laura's daughter Rose Wilder Lane quite well. He was her "adopted grandson," and he heard all kinds of stories about her life straight from her mouth. She also apparently groomed him into be a Libertarian candidate for president. The author Roger MacBride has his own Wikipedia page.

Of course, Rose does, too. If you're interested in Laura Ingalls Wilder and have never read about the doings of her daughter Rose, the Wikipedia page is pretty comprehensive.

Of course, when I did my previous write-up of the little books by William T. Anderson, I forgot to mention that I own a fourth one called Laura's Rose. While reading it, I was delighted to learn that so much of MacBride's description of Rose's childhood in his fictionalized books were actually accurate, down to the name of her stubborn donkey, Spookendyke. Additionally, it's my goal to read some of the books written by Rose, and to see if I can't find some of the newspaper articles she wrote. As an old lady, she even covered the War in Viet Nam in the field!

Rose had a 10,000-volume library! Somebody has owned more books than me!

As I've since figured out, a lot of these books borrow on other source material. The first book, Little House on Rocky Ridge, takes nearly all of Laura's observations from On the Way Home and fictionalizes them to be from Rose's point of view.

Throughout the books, Rose grows up in Missouri, where she's a little bit haughty, because she likes to read and regularly quits school because she thinks her teachers are stupid (I wanted to do that so many times in my school career!). She has different kinds of friends to show different aspects of Missouri: a rich girl named Blanche who lives in town, a Catholic girl whose family speaks French, a boy who originally steals eggs from her family's farm and ends up showing her about all the rural traditions and tall tales.

Roger Lea MacBride died before finishing writing these books, so his notes were used to fill in the last three or four.

On the Banks of the Bayou details the year Rose spent living with her aunt, Eliza Jane Wilder, in Louisiana. Despite having promised herself to her childhood friend Paul Cooley (whose family journeyed with Rose's from De Smet, South Dakota), Rose has no problems going out with another dude throughout this novel - he takes her riding and out for food, and apparently this is okay with Rose, although she must know something's not cool with it, as she never mentions it to Paul or her parents.

Bachelor Girl is the last book in the series. I later discovered that this book was lifted entirely from a book that Rose had already written....I'm not sure why they didn't re-publish that instead, because it was much better written.

As Rose grows up, she develops an increasing disgust for farm life, quite unlike her parents. She wants to be by more educated people, and desires a fast-paced life. Still, considering her disastrous marriage with Gillette Lane, it's pretty creepy for Bachelor Girl to end with Rose gushing about how much she likes him and how great her life will be. MERP-MERRRR.

These books, especially in the later volumes, become increasingly preachy. And they do include passages with overtones of "white people conquering the untamed lands of the west" that never appeared so outright in Laura's Little House books.

For example, from the end of the last book:

She was happy to be going somewhere new, and she couldn't help thinking that she was following a family tradition. How often she had heard Mama and Papa and Eliza Jane talk about the settling of Dakota Territory when they were all young.

Man's thirst for fertile land was eternal, Rose thought. It was in the blood, and especially in the blood of her family. They had settled the prairie all those years before, seeking a dream of self-reliance and prosperity. Now it was Rose's turn.

I couldn't believe the way Rose lived her life in Bachelor Girl, and found her relationship with Gillette Lane (who became her husband after this book ends) pretty much awful - he sounded like a swindling jack-ass to me. When I read the book that Rose herself wrote, that Bachelor Girl is based on, I found it much-better written, but still despised him throughout. But I'll write more extensively about that when I write about Rose's book!

If you're interested in the titles of these books, there are 8 of them, and they are listed here. I liked the early ones well enough as a kid, but they don't hold up as well to re-reading as the original Little House books.

I think probably my favorite part in the entire series takes place in New Dawn on Rocky Ridge. Most of the book details Rose acting like a spoiled brat. The narrative is literally interrupted when Rose's mother, Laura, receives a letter telling her that her Pa is dying, and to come home quickly to De Smet. I think that one of the things I find most sad about Laura's life is that she only saw her entire family once more after moving to Missouri with Almanzo. She clearly loved her family very much, so I found it pretty depressing.

The story about Laura taking the train home to visit her dying Pa takes up two entire chapters, and is told from Laura's perspective. She even reflects on Rose's actions that had happened just previously in the book. She describes the weeks spent in De Smet, and I think perhaps I took a liking to it just because it was refreshing to read about familiar characters (Mary, Carrie) after most of the book (New Dawn on Rocky Ridge) had been spent describing Rose acting like a brat with a spoiled town girl.

---

I keep finding these Laura/Rose-related books. I have already read three more that I have not yet blogged about, but I'll do my best to not write about all of them in the same week.

So, I've actually only gotten 150 pages into this book, which is a little less than half. I don't know whether or not I can finish it, though.

Why didn't Cory Doctorow just write a blog post about how he felt about the Patriot Act? Because having it broken down and explained to me by an entitled high school boy is pretty annoying, and would probably not change my mind if I cracked the book open from a view point of disagreement.

And this was nominated for a Hugo! I didn't really think it was particularly well-written. Am I missing something? Convince me, Internet!

I read this book a few weeks ago and I would still like to reread it in a day or something. SO AMAZING.

Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games is a cross between the TV reality show "Survivor," the Theseus/Minotaur myth, and a dystopian future. In a future North America where the land is divided into districts and controlled by "the Capitol," Katniss lives in the poorest district with her mother and sister. Because there is no other choice, Katniss hunts illegally to provide for her family.

Every year, a boy and a girl from each of North America's 12 districts must compete in a televised death match. In richer districts, children train for this "honor" their entire lives. In districts like Katniss's, families can sign up to get more food from the government in return for increasing the likelihood that their children's names will get chosen.

When Katniss's sister is chosen despite the odds, Katniss volunteers to go in her 12-year-old sister's place. She has spent years hunting animals in the woods of her district, but now she will have to hunt people in a climate-simulated arena, where everyone is playing to the cameras, and she's not sure who's lying and who's not.


I really feel like a good chunk of this book is a deconstruction of the TV show "Survivor" and the people who watch it. In the book, it's disturbing that Katniss has spent her life hungry, and those well-off watch players suffer, die, and fight for their own titillation. This is similar to real life: there are real people in the world are dying and fighting to survive, and on TV, survival is simulated, made into a game, and recorded.

I loved Katniss, and I wish I could have read this book when I was younger. She's so smart! So bad-ass! Whoa. I also liked Gale and Rue.

Fanart! Katniss volunteering to take her sister's place. Also by Faith, Katniss, with her knife.


( Spoilers! )

Although it's not indicated anywhere in the book, really, The Hunger Games is the first in a trilogy of books. Catching Fire is due out on September 1, 2009.

So, as some of you might be aware, were_duck and I both work at A Room of One's Own, an independent feminist bookstore in Madison.

were_duck was sad about the fact that DC Comics got rid of its Minx line, which was Western comics for young adults, mostly aiming at girls. After a grand total of TWO YEARS, they canceled it because major bookstores put it in the graphic novel sections instead of YA sections.

SO HOW ABOUT A YA COMIC SECTION? That's what we're doing at Room. Gretchen knows lots about Western comics, so we're cool in that department. But I am supposed to help with manga!

( Help needed! Manga readers can go ahead! )

I found this by way of a Revolutionary Girl Utena (anime) LiveJournal community, and thought that I would spread the link. It is a fanmix, called "Apocalypse, Please." The page contains links to the songs, screencaps of the series, and quotes from both the series and the songs. IT WORKS SO WELL FOR UTENA, my favorite anime series of all time! Please, though, do not click the link if you wish to avoid spoilers. And believe me, Utena is one of those series best viewed without knowing spoilers, even if you are the type who usually doesn't mind. I've been listening to the songs for about a day straight now.

Yesterday, I began reading Stephanie Meyer's Twilight. Before cracking the book open, I assured my co-workers that I was only reading it so that I could take notes and make fun of it in my blog. And I did exactly that for the first 50 pages. But suddenly, I was 100 pages in, and I couldn't stop reading. This book is SO TERRIBLE, but I couldn't tear myself away! Or at least, I was engrossed. Now, I'm about 100 pages from the end, and constantly rolling my eyes. How do I describe the heinousness that makes up this book? The protagonist's name is Isabella Swan. She has literally fainted after being kissed. The voice of her love interest is described as "velvety" EVERY OTHER PAGE. This books has vampires in it. VAMPIRES THAT SPARKLE IN SUNLIGHT. I shit you not, Internet. Also? Isabella Swan (aka, BELLA) is a total bitch! I refer you to something like page 29, where she laughs at the poor boys who are so nice to her, and obviously have crushes on her.

I couldn't put the book down because I knew it was absurd, but once the vampires became integrated with the plot, the book became too heinous to bear. I might finish this first one, and read plot summaries for the rest.

Also? The treatment of the protagonist as a female was AWFUL.

This book is the second in Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy (I talked about the first, Westmark, here).

I don't really want to take the time to discuss spoilers, so I'll try not to be too detailed. It took me a little while to get into the plot of this novel, but by the time I got to the middle, I found it very difficult to put this book down. The old themes from the first novel are still present, although politics and war are even more prominent in this book.

Unlike many fantasy authors (especially YA), Lloyd Alexander does not glorify violence. The hero is not fearlessly killing people with a magic sword for the sake of all that is glorious and true. The violence is not glossed over as a necessity to making a great story. The violence is shocking, gruesome, and affects every character in a profound and different way. The hero, Theo, especially struggles with witnessing and committing acts of violence, and by the end of the book, many characters are so mentally broken by the war that I'm not sure they will ever recover.

I like that in addition to violence never being an easy concept to cope with, political questions are not easily solved either. The "good guys" (grey) are fighting the "bad guys," but should they continue all the way, and abolish the monarchy they live under? It's an interesting question for the reader, considering the fact that the queen is a sympathetic main character.

Also! Florian is totally Enjolras, from Les Miserables.

While the first novel wasn't bad, I wasn't thrilled with it, either. The Kestrel, however makes me eager to read the last volume of the trilogy, The Beggar Queen. This is unfortunate, because I probably won't have time to do so until I am finished with school.

Today was pretty sweet. As difficult as it may be to believe, I never read Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet when I was young. I think that I randomly read the third book, but that was it. I read Alanna: The First Adventure a few weeks ago, and loved it. This morning, In the Hand of the Goddess was waiting for me at the library. The premise of the books is that Alanna and her brother Thom switch places so that Alanna can learn to be a knight in a world that only allows boys to do so by pretending to be "Alan," and Thom can learn to be a sorcerer by pretending to be her. Anyway, the books are adventurous and fun, and the heroine actually works to become a good fighter. I do think that her way of naming things is lame, though. Seriously - a horse named Moonlight, a sword named Lightning, and a cat named Faithful. Could be a little more lame, Alanna??

I've also read the first volume of Bryan Lee O'Malley's "Scott Pilgrim" comics, and holy shit, are they awesome and hilarious. Everyone should read Scott Pilgrim! I recommend it especially to Dave, Steph, and Antoine. DO IT.

Anyway, the Senate was in session today. Unfortunately, Wisconsin Eye is getting really good at cutting us pages out of their camera shots. BUT! If you go here, scroll down to "01.15.08 | State Senate Part 2" and click "Watch," you can see me at 18:12 - 18:24. On the left side of the screen, someone comes to get me, and I leave to do an errand. You can tell it's me by the brown curly hair!

Then, Antoine and I went out for dinner! And it was really good.

I also managed to be productive today by setting up appointments with career advisor people, and got my prescription filled. AND, a random Anime Club member sent me some amazing art to use on a flier. And I tried to make a flier, although my Photoshop skills suck. Still. Flier. Now, if only I could clean my room..... :(