laceblade | Entries tagged with a: vaughn carrie

Vampire Knight, vol. 5 - Uhhh, I finished this right before going out of town for a week & have no memory of it. VAMPIRES COVERED IN BLOOD.

Kitty's Big Trouble - I still like this well enough, but this one I liked less than others. Can't remember too many specifics >__<

Dealing With Dragons - Yes, it's true; I've never read these. Recced to me by

were_duck when we were wandering Half-Price Books with

wild_irises. I liked this a lot. Would read Cimorene hanging out w/dragons forever. Loved how this fucked with so many tropes. If anything, this book was too short, which is why I'm glad the second one is already in my basket of books checked out from the library.

Unnatural Death - Was this book about lesbians, or did I make that up?

Sister Light, Sister Dark - This is the book that

wild_irises recced to me in Half-Price Books after I brought up the fact that I'd never read anything by Jane Yolen. Enclaves of women live separately from other sections of society. Each (well, most) is able to call up their own "dark sister" through mirrors. These dark sisters are then forever bonded to them, although they can only appear where there's darkness - shadows, etc.
Jenna is an heroic figure who might be the fulfillment of a prophecy - but mostly she's trying to do what she feels like she has to.
Yolen mixes the narrative with ballads, songs (with actual music), academic analyses of Jenna's culture.
I'm glad there are more books, and also eager to read more by Yolen. (Feel free to tell me your faves.)

City of Illusions - Continuing my tour of the Hainish cycle. I really did not care for this one. Like, at all. And have struggled to get myself to return to LeGuin since reading it.

Whiteout - Borrowed this at comics club. Via

jesse_the_k, I've been reading/watching

antarctic_sue for a few years; thus, the concept of isolated bases where a substantial portion of the population leaves annually & supplies are scarce wasn't new to me. The ongoing murder mystery wasn't very interesting to me; however, the relationship between U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko and Lilly was.
I liked this, & the art, well enough to put volume 2 on hold, anyway.

The Goblin Emperor - LOVE. Written under Sarah Monette's new pseudonym. The airships made me think of Final Fantasy IX.
Basically the protagonist, Maia, has always lived banished with his abusive relative. Despite being the son of the Emperor, his mother has been dead for years after having been cast off, and nobody else really cares about his fate. Until his father, the Emperor, and all his half-brothers in line for the throne ahead of him die when an airship blows up. So Maia has to go to court and learn how to rule. Not only does Maia have no friends at court, he's never had any friends period. He doesn't know how to have friends. Happily, the compassion that his goblin mother taught him to have for others leads him to make choices that better the realm.
I loved that Maia's spirituality was so important to his staying grounded. Time spent meditating was always restorative to him. I think it's rare to read a fantasy series where a character's faith feels authentic. It probably helps that most of the background characters were not down with the religion, so it was a conscious choice made by the protagonist.
Another thing this novel did that I don't think I've ever seen in a fantasy before ( was a spoiler )
I loved the politics, loved how Maia chose to solve problems.
Definite content warning for an abuse survivor, who gets triggered and stuck in flashbacks.
People who have read both: Is this similar to the Doctrine of Labyrinths quartet? I own 3 of the 4 and while one time I almost finished the first one, I could use some motivation to get these read.

Anne of Windy Poplars - Probably my least favorite of these books so far, tbh. Everything feels like a retread of things that have already happened.

Margaret Fuller: A New American Life - Abandoning this on page 180, partly due to time constraints & this being due back at the library before I could finish it, but also because it started losing steam after the beginning. I liked reading about Fuller's childhood a lot. Once she gets older, things sort of read like a who's who of American Transcendentalism, and good Lord, Ralph Waldo Emerson sounds like a brat.

Please Save My Earth, volume 2. This series is SO nineties shoujo manga. AND THAT IS WHY I LOVE IT. I continue to slowly obtain this series through the library's outerlibrary loan system.

King's Dragon - LOVED IT. I was really craving a brick of a fantasy novel, and am so glad that I read this. I've already gushed about Elliott's Spiritwalker trilogy [Cold Magic/etc.], and I feel similarly gush-y about this one. This is the first in a series of seven bricks.
Elliott's fantasy world, which is sort of an alternate Europe with magic, feels real. The gender-equal world was so naturally described that I caught myself being tricked by my own socialized assumptions - assuming that warriors and biscops were only men & getting myself confused, etc. The religion felt SO real to me. Like people's beliefs actually shaped their thoughts and actions throughout the entire novel, and not just when it was convenient to the plot. I should have a disclaimer that at least some of my affection for the religion is probably due to the fact that it's so similar to Catholicism.
I have a lot of love for both protagonists, Liath and Alain. Loved the epic battle at the end.
Has anyone else read these? Just. UGH. LOVE. Very excited to read more. Really don't understand why this book has so many haters on Goodreads.
Definite content warning for domestic violence/abuse, as well as rape.

The Magicians and Mrs. Quent - This book grabbed me from page one, in which the protagonist is described as being one to read while she walks so as not to waste a moment - which is a habit I share. Ivy Lockwell and her two sisters live in a house due to be inherited by their repulsive male cousin upon their mother's death. While their mother hopes one or two of them will marry well to avoid destitution, the girls are pretty happy in the meantime.
Of her sisters & mother, only Ivy is still able to maintain a relationship with their father, who stays in the attic tossing books about magick around after having gone mad a few years ago.

I loved the writing - the author is clever and has a better grasp of language than many other fantasy authors, especially those trying for the Regency era.

I had to give this a three because Beckett relies too much on the sources he's drawing from - Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and what I think is Dickens, although I'm not 100% sure on Eldyn's plot.
While Beckett's third-person prose is great, approximately 100 pages in the middle of the book are written in the first-person, when the protagonist leaves her family briefly to become a governess for a few months, & then marry her employer - aka the Jane Eyre plot. I don't know why Beckett made this choice, but I think it was a poor one.
This middle section feels like an entirely different book. Not only does the narration change, but the POVs of Mr. Rafferdy & Eldyn are dropped completely.

While Ivy and her two sisters - Lily and Rose - are actually pretty interesting to me, I was really disappointed that Eldyn's sister Sashie is a prop for his entire story. I don't know if Beckett was trying to make a commentary on Charles Dickens's useless female characters, but I'll assume this was not deliberate.

The defects are unfortunate, because the writing is very high quality (Jane Eyre episode excepted), and world-building is very intriguing, and I'm not usually one to give a crap about world-building [because lots of authors focus on it instead of the quality of their writing]. Days (lumenals) and nights (umbrals) are variable, and characters must consult almanacs to know what kind of day it's going to be.

While Ivy is unable to perform magic herself, due to being a woman, her role in the main plot is far from passive.

This book's failings knocked it from a four to a three for me. Still, it was good enough that I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the trilogy's second installment. The review on Book Smugglers is probably more useful than my own.

The Diviners - Another book for my "abandoned" shelf on Goodreads. I made it to page 72.
I think I just can't stand Bray's writing. The characters don't talk like people, but rather historical caricatures.
It seems like there might be an interesting plot, but I can't force myself to keep going in order to find out what it is.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/729080.html

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift, part 2 - I'm still really digging this story arc. I love the focus on "what happens after the end" - in this volume, Sokka and Katara run into old members of the Southern Water Tribe who have moved north to work in unsafe conditions because they don't have another choice. The team also meets up with past soldiers from the Fire Nation Army who need work now that their steady source of income is gone. These are the kinds of details that I always WANT to read about, & would love in say, Harry Potter and dozens of other world. I'm glad to read about them here.

Toph and Aang having to deal with their pasts is also compelling, particularly Aang, the sole survivor of an entire race, who's trying to figure out how the Air Nation traditions he knows can live on, when it seems like the entire world has moved on without them. I'm eager to see how this trilogy will end.

Ms. Marvel, #3-6 - Finishing up the first arc & starting the second. I just really love this series. I love Kamala. I loved her conversation with Sheikh Abdullah in #6. Kamala is a hero I need. Reading the series is a delight.

Brunette Ambition - It's impossible for me to be objective this one, as Lea Michele is one of my most-admired & most-adored celebrities. It was a treat for me to hear her voice so strongly, unedited by Hollywood Reporter or other gossip sites.

I enjoyed the insights into her routines & how she keeps herself centered. I don't think I'll be able to take much of the advice, as a lot of the self-care tactics are costly.

Still waiting for a behind the scenes Glee cast tell-all, ;)

Gertrude and Claudius - Hamlet's always been one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, if not my most favorite.

This is my first Updike novel. While the prose is good & the writing technically great, the book as a whole is...kind of boring? A little disappointing. What I liked most were the glimpses at Hamlet and Ophelia. Mostly, I now want to reread Hamlet.
Maybe I need to create a "books: fanfiction" tag for books like these?!

Kitty Goes to War - I kind of had a hard time rating this one.

I dug Kitty trying to rehabilitate two army-created/trained werewolves. This entire series' comparison of lycanthropy to mental illness is why I stick around. Her encouragement of the guys to focus on one day at a time, one hour, one minute, then the next one, etc., is just spot on.

That said, I felt pretty dubious about this entire plot, as I work in human research administration professionally. I get that someone went rogue to create the werewolves, but the fact that all of this stayed somehow secret, *especially* in the VA, is ludicrous to me.

The Speedy Mart/wizard subplot was intriguing, although I could use a little more worldbuilding there.
& speaking of worldbuilding, Cormac's plot got laughably little screentime for how important his development was. I really hope that's further explored in future books.

I keep picking these books up when I'm feeling low, & Kitty is always inspiring to me. I hope I reread these many times in the future, but for now they're great on the first time through.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/705209.html

Pioneer Girl - I had to keep reminding myself that this was a novel, & not a memoir, which is a credit to the writing.
In These Happy Golden Years, Almanzo Wilder gives Laura Ingalls a golden pin with a house on it. In the 1960s in Vietnam, Lee's grandfather encounters a customer in his restaurant named Rose. Rose leaves behind a gold pin with a house on it. It's unclear whether she forgot it, or intended it as a gift for their many conversations.
Decades later, Lee has graduated from UW-Madison with a PhD in English Literature, but cannot find a post-doc anywhere, so she's temporarily living with her distant mother & grandfather again. She starts investigating whether the Rose her grandfather met could be Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who was in Vietnam in the sixties, three years before she died, covering the war for Time magazine.
In ways, this book reminded me of Hiromi Goto's The Kappa Child, how the Little House series is used as a touchstone for the children of Asian immigrants to North America. In this novel, the Manifest Destiny tug that Laura, her Pa, & her daughter Rose all feel is compared to Lee & her brother's desire to escape their mother's way of life, constantly opening Asian buffets in strip malls in different Midwest cities.
Lee's reading of the Little House books felt really familiar to me. The title is named after the first version Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about her childhood - a single-volume autobiography called Pioneer Girl. Her story was broken up into multiple books, and reshaped (or ghost-written?) by her daughter Rose through a lot of epistolary editing.
The above is a little fragmented, but I really loved this book. I think I finished it in less than a day.

Buffy s10, #2 - I felt like this was a more solid intro to the season than #1 was. I often feel bad about shipping Buffy/Spike, but it just never goes away.
Nicholas Brendan is going to be authoring at least one issue focusing on Xander (and Dracula), & James Masters is going to be authoring a mini-arc on Spike that takes place during season 7. I'm...not really excited about either? Xander only became more atrocious to me in season 9 of Buffy, & I already didn't care for him on the show.
I was pleased by the appearance of [spoiler].

Kaze Hikaru, volumes 20 & 21 - It was nice to see Sei use her femininity as a tool in this little arc. I think volume 21 has been my favorite so far. I really liked the fleshing out of Sei's past, & the choices she makes. I find her love for Okita Souji much more compelling than Okita himself. I'm now caught up with Viz's release of this series in the US. To read more, I'll need to turn to fan-translations...

One Piece, volumes 1-3 - This is one of the most popular series in Japan, & I've never read it! Monkey D. Luffy wants to be a pirate so badly that he stabs himself in the face to impress the other pirates. Unfortunately, he can't swim & can never learn how, so the pirates are uninterested in making him part of the crew. So, Luffy decides to become THE BEST PIRATE IN THE WORLD. To do so, by the end of this omnibus, he's acquired THE BEST SWORDSMAN IN THE WORLD and THE BEST THIEF/NAVIGATOR as the beginnings of his tiny crew.
This is a fun series, & so far Nami, the thief/navigator who hates pirates, is my favorite.

Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand - Kitty and Ben go to Vegas. I didn't care for this one too much? But it ended up being setup for the next book, Kitty Raises Hell, which I liked A LOT. I like Kitty & her pack & her radio show & Ben & her family. I wanna see what happens when Cormac rejoins them in Denver, tho. I WISH KITTY WERE REAL AND WE COULD BE FRIENDS.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/697510.html

Read
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - I've never liked this book as much as many others have. I find the Triwizard Tournament irritating, as well as all the fighting that Ron & Hermione do.
It's lolarious to me that Harry/Hermione shippers could read this book & not see Ron/Hermione coming miles away.

Reading
Twelfth Night - I actually started this some time last week, & read the first act & a half. It's one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I got sick reading it on the bus (queasy-making sharp turns!), and although it's not the play's fault, I've sort of set it aside.

Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand - Kitty's hanging out in Vegas! I'm interested in this book because

meganbmoore said something happens that turned her off from the series for now, &

littlebutfierce said something happens they were afraid about but it ended up being okay. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT IS?! I turn to this when I get Harry Potter'ed out.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - This has always been my favorite Harry Potter book, & I get really defensive when people make fun of it.

idk. I love the idea of Dumbledore's Army - a group of students banding together to teach one another Defense Against the Dark Arts because their teacher is a mole from the government who only teaches them theory, & refuses to allow them to actually perform spells in her classroom.
Risking expulsion, they meet regularly to do it anyway.

I loved learning that Sirius came from a family of dark wizards, and he was an outcast.

I really like Rowling using The Daily Prophet to show how much the media affects people's perceptions of reality, how it can be used to manipulate a populace. I love the Ministry of Magic refusing to accept the reality that Voldemort has returned, and that the Order of the Phoenix exists to counter-act Voldemort - and having to do work against the Ministry while doing so. I LOVE the pompous self-righteousness of Cornelius Fudge and Percy Weasley.

Dolores Umbridge has long been my favorite villain because she's the most realistic.

Much like how the dementors, which appear earlier in the series, are Rowling's representation of depression (they suck out happy feelings & leave you cold), I find the loathed occlumency that Harry has to endure reminiscent of therapy. Being told to empty his mind of emotions/thoughts is like meditation used to fix anxiety, & it feels impossible to him. Having his mind attacked over & over & having him feel like it's doing more harm than good is like talk-therapy, IMO. Reliving his worst moments.

I like the grownups refusing to tell Harry what was going on, and how angry he felt about it. It really captures what it feels like to be 15 & have adults treat you like a child.

It's the first book where Ginny can really speak in front of Harry, & I love the revelations that she's a good witch, that she's sarcastic, that she fights with her mom to be treated like her older brothers when they get to hear info & she doesn't. I love her telling Harry off for sulking because he thought he was being possessed by Voldemort instead of just coming & fucking talking to her.

It's the first book where Ron & Hermione are really with Harry for the end-of-the-book battle, and what's better is that Neville, Luna, & Ginny are there, too. And there's able to contribute because of the spells & confidence Harry gave them during their clandestine DA meetings.

ANYWAY. I'm about 2/3 of the way through this one, & will continue to haul it through my Harry Potter reread before joining 3 of my high school friends to fly down to Harry Potter World next week.

Thanks to everyone who's been reccing me HP fanfiction. I expect that once I'm done with my reread, I'll be loading up my e-reader with a bunch of fic, :) In the meantime, if you have more to rec, or haven't recced yet but would like to, please feel free.

Book-shaped space - via

wrdnrd, There is a zine called Sonorous, which focuses on "feminist perspectives of Harry Potter." Here's their call for contributions for their second issue. I've just ordered a copy of their first issue, ;)

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/688508.html

Finished Reading
Kaze Hikaru, volume 13 - Still very much enjoying this series, although it does bug me how much Miki's weight is used for comic relief.

Kitty and the Silver Bullet (#4) - I liked this volume. It wraps up a lot of loose ends that have been hanging around since the first book, but it's all pretty intense. I really like where everyone ends up at the end of this volume, and I'm excited to see how things evolve.

Inheritance by Malinda Lo - This is the sequel to Adaptation. Like the first book, it's very fast-paced and hard to put down, which was good for me since I needed to read it in a day in order to get it back to the library!
I love the way this ends up bucking typical-YA-love-triangles. It seems like the series is done, but I would read more.
A lot of people on Goodreads were complaining about the protagonist's bisexuality, which is a pretty stupid complaint.
I loved these because the characters felt like people, which is a thing that is sort of rare in SF-for-adults, IMO.
These are my favorite books by Malinda Lo so far.
I did freak out a little about the kids giving no more than verbal assent to have their entire DNA sequenced at an academic research institution - it would take a written consent form with lots of warnings about future insurability!!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - I'm traveling to Harry Potter World in Florida mid-month with three of my high school friends, so I'm trying to see whether I can get through the series before then! Going back to work is slowing me down for sure, ^^;;
Still surprised by how quickly the first book goes by - it's pretty much a constant, "Wow, we're at the troll ALREADY?!"/etc.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - I used to dislike this book when I was younger, but I don't really remember why. Reading it now, it's easy to see why I liked Ginny quite a bit, even before she became a more prominent character in the later books.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Easily my favorite of the first three books. Not only is the Sirius Black plot frightening & interesting, I love the Marauders back story. My iPhone case is the Marauders' map!
I like the kids starting to be sarcastic with one another in this book, as well as talking back to their teachers a little bit. I always wish Lupin would have been a little closer with Harry in later books, like Sirius.
Rowling's use of adverbs began to bug me in this book, though. I get annoyed & disappointed by her using descriptors like "piggy eyes" and "piggy face" to describe fat people. Hopefully I can get through the rest without going nuts!

Currently Reading
Nothing, as I went to draft this post immediately after finishing POA!
Previously, my favorite book has always been Order of the Phoenix. We'll see if that holds true this time.

OTHER
Although I've been on the periphery of HP "fandom" (almost everyone I know loves these books; I'm speaking specifically of fandom in the "creation of fanworks" sense) for years, I've never really read much fanfic.
If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. (Epic-length stuff appreciated!) Even the stuff where you're like, "Oh, everybody's read THAT."
I have the suspicion I've asked this question before, so I'll be searching my own tag, too, ^^;;

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/688259.html

Finished Reading
Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn - This one is my favorite of the 3 I've read so far! ( Cut for discussion of suicidal character, which was a main plot in this book )
UGH I LOVE IT. ty again to

littlebutfierce for talking these books up <3 <3 <3

Kaze Hikaru 11 & 12 - Wow, ( so spoilers )
It was all very dramatic & makes me excited for how this series will continue the intense events yet to come!!
I love every character and UGH JUST SO GOOD, I really did not expect to like this series as much as I do. I've been aware of it for some time but I'm glad I finally picked it up.

Shinjū by Laura Joh Rowland - Christ there's a lot of suicide in the books I read this week! ANYWAY, the novel begins with a double-murder that was arranged to look like a shinjū, or "lovers' suicide," in which two people are bound together & throw themselves in the water to drown because they're unable to marry - in this case, due to familial class differences. Sano Ichiro is a new yoriki working for the shogunate, & he ends up violating bushido to keep investigating this weird case, even after repeatedly told not to.
The writing doesn't do much for me, & the characters are pretty rote BUT there were a number of plot progressions that came totally out of left field for me, & I couldn't put the second half of the book down.
This is the first in a long series, so I'm willing to stay with it & see if the writing improves. I've got the next book on hold at the library.

Unico by Osamu Tezuka - I don't know why I keep Tezuka manga, as I always hate it. It had such an adorable cover!!! But I think I'm finally done for good.

A View From the Interior: Policing the Protests at the Wisconsin State Capitol by Sue Riseling - There have been a number of books published about the Wisconsin union protests. I doubt I'll ever read John Nichols', as I find him pompous & stupid. The ones written by the protestors don't really interest me either. HOWEVER, I have two checked out & this is the first one I've managed to read, written by Sue Riseling, Chief of UW-Madison Police.
The book is entirely focused on how the protests were policed, & why certain decisions were made. Riseling's style is pretty straightforward, but I found the book fascinating. The breakdown of clusterfucky project management was very intriguing, & it didn't hurt to have a book filled with characters who are super familiar to me.

Her insights into policing are great. When it's first suggested to clear out the entire building with no warning, here's her thought process:

The thought of abruptly switching gears and having uniformed police clear people out for no particular reason except "today is the day" struck me as fundamentally wrong. It is a lesson I learned a long time ago and try to continually teach to new police officers: "Can I?" and if yes, "Should I?"
Can I muster enough police officers to empty this building by 6:00 tonight? You bet. The mass arrest plans were in place, the civil disobedience plans were in place, the hard (riot) gear for police was on-site and ready for use, and the University Police force's Police Extraction Response Unit was here, along with the EOD canines. Unlike last Friday or Sunday, today I had everything I needed to make this happen.
Should I? No. It would be a ridiculous tactic, bad philosophy, and constitute an egregious use of power. The Assembly was still meeting and the building had to remain open. There was nothing to be gained from the spark that would ignite or the firestorm that would follow if we forced people out of the Capitol today. If we thought the crowds were big now, imagine how large they would be if we proceeded to shatter the trust and evict protesters without warning. Just to achieve the goal of clearing the building because we can made no sense.

Once the Assembly session was over, of course, then there WAS a reason to clear the building (the building had hours - staffing it with police was costing tens of thousands of dollars - cleaning crews couldn't do their jobs & the whole building smelled like BO & human waste - capacity hazards, etc.

She makes clear things that those within the building understand, but people tweeting to #wiunion usually did not & lots of people usually don't - that things that look like dramatic progressions have actually been agreed upon by both sides ahead of time to make more political theater.
One example is the part where Ted (full confession: my former boss & friend) is asking for troopers to accompany his staff to visit the houses of a few senators after they'd skipped town (preventing the Senate from voting on the "budget repair bill" due to a lack of quorum). Ted relays to Riseling that "conversations were occurring between various leaders and a few of the missing senators. Some of the senators had intimated that if they were found in the state, they would return to the Capitol."
Purposely concocted political theater, & yet I remember people totally losing their shit when the pages & troopers went to knock on doors.

Riseling steps into a power vacuum of controlling various police agencies (excluding the city & county cops, who refused to enter the fucking building, jackholes). The daily meetings are almost painful to read, especially the actions of Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs. The power structure and decision-making authorities are unclear, which is never good.
Once they decide to close the Capitol at 4pm on a particular Sunday, Tubbs pushes for voluntary compliance, meaning that while most of the protestors leave the building when asked, everyone's aware that a few of them will stay behind & refuse to leave.
DOA & Tubbs & others basically state that once this happens, they will refuse to open the building on Monday as usual, until those people leave.
Of course, this is never explained to protestors, & since Tubbs & the majority of the committee refuse to allow Riseling & her officers to simply arrest these protestors and physically remove them from the building (a process with which they're really familiar!!), Tubbs allows the actions of a hundred or so people to close access to the building for thousands of others, pissing everyone off.
Riseling asks lots of questions related to this - if we don't arrest the protestors who refuse to leave the building & they stay over night, then what happens Friday morning? If we only allow 354 people into the building, are these protestors counted in the 354 figure? At what point will they actually cut off people from sleeping inside the Capitol? Nobody answers her questions - always a sign of shitty management & a totally dysfunctional workplace, in my experience.

It's semi-hilarious to read about protestors sitting in the Rotunda with messages they wanted to give to the media upon their arrest, & having already discussed their techniques/etc., while unknown to them, no arrests were going to occur.

Riseling is frustrated with this, realizing that the overall goal is a political desire to limit overall access to the building, rather than to keep the peace (p. 249). Riseling's goals are safety balanced with facilitating people's rights to exercise their First Amendment rights.

It's hilarious later on, when the overall goal is to close the building, & Chief Tubbs suggests an exchange of people, allowing protestors inside to go home & shower/change, while allowing someone outside the building to come in & take their place. Riseling says that their repeated goal is to return the Capitol to regular business hours, with nobody spending the night inside the building. Given that goal, exchanging people one-to-one runs right contrary to that - the total # of protestors in the building would never decrease!

15 days into the protests, Riseling figures out that the Capitol Police's secretary has solely been in charge of logistics, which was why logistics had been failing. tbh, Capitol Police in general came off as a complete shitshow in this book.

UW Police was way more open to logical suggestions & rolling with the surroundings of reality, & also accepting leadership & pointed questions from a woman. It's clear that a lot of dudebros are not down with this.

Several times, it's clear that Republicans put themselves into dangerous positions by not being open with the police about their plans. They'd pull surprises & erode the trust with the public, & every time the police would have to come running.

Her reflections on how policing can help facilitate people exercising their rights is pretty enjoyable to read, although it's clear it's something an officer & manager must actively think about & work toward.
Passively having ideas like "let's get this shit & lockdown" & then executing plans that don't actually facilitate your overall goals ruins the settings for everyone. Overall, I liked this book quite a bit.

Tears of a Lamb, vol. 1 - I randomly picked this up from the library while home for the holidays at my home!library.
It starts off with Hasumi inexplicably having a strong desire to enter the apartment of her classmate, Kanzaki. She never explains why, so they just have nonsensical & epic arguments in front of their classmates. I almost stopped reading it after a chapter two, but I'm so glad I continued!
It turns out that Hasumi is trying to locate a ring that she thinks is in the apartment from the person who lived their two-tenants ago, who was her friend. Hasumi's also dealing with an eating disorder caused by stress, & I guess I just imprinted on her pretty strongly. I'm interested in seeing where this goes, although I think I'll need to use our library's outer-loan system to obtain future volumes.

Currently Reading
I'm kind of skimming through Brian Jacques's Loamhedge. Later Redwall books don't really do it for me, even though the earlier ones were pretty formative! I've always been a little interested in Loamhedge, though. It's the original abbey from which Abbess Germain & the other mice came, running from a plague, back in the days of Martin the Warrior.
I wanted to learn more about it, but the plot of the hare who uses a wheelchair & is seeking a magical cure to be able to walk again is making me really uneasy.
I'm heading back to Madison in a few hours, so I'll likely just skim this to see wtf happens.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/687072.html

(it's been 84 years.gif)

Finished Reading
The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono - I mostly wrote about this last time, but ended up loving it! I really think that having the insight into Yuko's thoughts helps a lot. I love her growth throughout the book, and the entire constructed fantasy world is just really awesome. I have the second book checked out from the library now, & maybe some day I'll try the anime again, too.

Kaze Hikaru, volumes 6-10 - I'm really enjoying this series a lot more than I thought I would. The art style has grown on me - I really like the faces for Okita Souji & Hijikata & etc., and the backgrounds are great, too. I like reading about the daily inner-workings of the Shinsengumi, & I do like how the volumes are dealing with the populace's perception of the Shinsengumi as blood-thirsty wolves, even though the members of the troop view themselves as noble protectors. This conflicting view of oppressor vs. protector is interesting, and I hope the manga-ka keeps picking it apart.
Taeko Watanabe's end-of-volume reviews of historical fact are nice, too.

Reading this series leads me to look up a lot of historical figures on Wikipedia, & now that I've started watching Rurouni Kenshin on Crunchyroll, I feel pretty conflicted about who to root for in the Bakumatsu!!

All that said, Sei's love for Souji is really compelling. I love her rejection of simply becoming his wife, & continuing to dress as a man so that she can protect his life in battle as her way of expressing her love.

Learning the World by Ken MacLeod - This is a sci-fi novel about a generation ship in which the POV switches back and forth between the people on a ship approaching a world with intelligent life, & the people living on the world which they're approaching. There are politics & governments & inventions & lots of discussions over tea. Sadly, I think this is an author where I like the ideas and concepts much more than the writing.
I find that with many sci-fi enthusiasts, they can rave about the ideas or world-building, but I don't really give a fuck unless the characters & the writing really reach me.
AND YET, it was decent enough that I might try his revolution series that

jesse_the_k told me about.

On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf - Picked this up on a whim at the library. Woolf's questions about why don't more narratives take on the concept of illness - something which could be compelling and with which everyone can relate - were super intriguing!
It was followed by "notes" from her mother, Julia Stephens, about how to care for sick people. While probably unusual at the time, most of her advice comes down to giving sick people autonomy - don't just fluff up their pillows without asking; don't enter the house and mutter about their illness instead of speaking so they can hear you, etc. Lots of advice also on how best to pin the sheets, how best to prepare beef broth, etc.
I wouldn't mind having Woolf's mom care for me, ;)
Quick read.

Dawn of the Arcana, volumes 9 & 10 - I loathed volume 9 because NOTHING ever happens, the volumes are pretty easy to blow through because there's very few words per page, blah-blah. But volume 10 involves a few-months time-jump & a seizure of agency by the protagonist, who's spent a lot of time whining before. I'll probably continue with this! Too bad I'm almost caught up with the English release - I've been waiting for volume 11 for months, & it'll probably be a while before I get it.

K-ON! High School by kakifly - After finishing watching season 2 of the anime, I was happy to be able to immediately pick this up & read about Azusa's last year of high school. I really love K-ON! all around, although I think it's a series in which I prefer the anime to the manga. I have the K-ON! college tome somewhere around my apartment (or at least, I think I do), & I'm kind of dying to read it.

Black Dogs by Ian McEwan - Since reading Atonement a couple years ago, I seem to read one of his per year. I love McEwan's writing, I think I would read almost anything he's written. It's a story about a complicated marriage, told by a son-in-law. It's also about post-WWII Europe, & evil, & love.

Currently Reading
Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn - do to the content I've been warned about, I put this on hold for a couple months but I think I can handle it now. Only one chapter in so far - following the high levels of excitement in the previous volume, Kitty's hanging out in the middle of nowhere to find some peace. I'm pretty sure she won't quite find it. I'm happy to return to her life.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/686744.html

• What are you currently reading?
Kaze Hikaru, volume 2. I read volume 1 a while ago, & I think I totally forgot to mention it. Anyway, a shoujo romance about the Shinsengumi. The protagonist is a girl who disguises herself as a boy to avenge the deaths of her father & brother.
My previous exposure to the Shinsengumi is the anime “Peacemaker Kurogane,” which I loathed b/c I thought was horribly paced, & also hated the protagonist.
So I know the Okita Souji is a bamf. Souji is the protag’s love interest in this series.
I’m not really digging this thus far, but I have a bunch of volumes checked out, so I’ll be reading at least a bit more, unless I get too frustrated!

• What did you recently finish reading?
Kitty Goes to Washington - So, in addition to the inclusion of congressional hearings & NIH research, I also feel like I’m just settling into this series’ ‘verse.
I really appreciate that the protagonist compares lycanthropy to a non-fatal chronic illness, & when being questioned by a confrontational senator, she talks about how depression is more likely, but it’s hard to know whether the depression is caused by the illness itself or by all of the life modifications one must make to to keep living with a non-fatal chronic illness.
And uh, as a person who’s gone through some heavy depression due to hugely anxious-making life modifications that were necessitated by a non-fatal chronic illness, HELLO, OVER-IDENTIFICATION WITH THE PROTAGONIST!

Especially after the events of the first book, I really love Kitty encountering other communities of vampires/were-animals, other ways of coping with her changed life, other possibilities.

I also like that she’s referred to non-werewolves more than once as “her pack.”
This is a thought I’d first encountered in Teen Wolf, one of the things that I like about that often-heinous TV show.

Very, Very, Sweet!, volume 2 - I don’t have much to say about this volume except that I still like it. It portrays the frustrations of trying to communicate in another language quite well, imo.

Revival, volume 1 - aka, zombie comic set in Wausau, WI. This series is pretty violent, BUT I appreciate its commitment to diversity & its locale, so I’ll probably keep up with it, although I think I don’t like it well enough to buy the comics in trade.

Kokoro - This is a classic of Japanese literature, set at the end of the Meiji era. It’s pretty dark, focusing heavily on death & suicide, with insights into human nature/etc. It’s difficult to discuss without spoiling the whole thing!
Anyway, this was part of a collection of Japanese literature I won in a Con or Bust auction, so I’m excited to read more of them in the future.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/677277.html

• What are you currently reading?

Kitty Goes to Washington - WOW BOOK OF MY ID?! It's a continuation after the first Kitty book, obvs, EXCEPT NOW WITH CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS AND NIH RESEARCH AHAHAHA!!!! I cackle with glee when I read this :*)

• What did you recently finish reading?

Very! Very! Sweet, volume 1 - I bought volumes 5-8 of this manhwa back when Borders was going out of business, & they’ve sat on my shelf ever since. UNTIL NOW, when I finally figured out how to obtain books through my library’s outerlibrary loan system. I really, really enjoyed the first volume of this series, & I hope it only gets better.
Tsuyoshi is a spoiled brat from a Japanese family who’s always gotten whatever he wants. In volume one, his grandfather reveals that their rich/powerful family actually comes from a Korean ancestor who moved to Japan hundreds of years ago.
Tsuyoshi is unimpressed with this - reflecting on whether pouring a bottle of Coke into a swimming pool makes the liquid no matter water? - but his insolence gets his grandfather to spend the rest of his school years in Korea, where he’d like Tsuyoshi to meet a stubborn & badass Korean woman to be his wife.
Enter Be-Ri, the awesome girl who lives next door to Tsuyoshi’s newly built house.
Be-Ri likes to collect junk (aka: people’s garbage) & make things like cat trees or whatever else she can with it. I LOVE BE-RI AND HER GIVE-NO-FUCKS-ATTITUDE AND ALSO HER ENTIRE WARDROBE!!
Be-Ri and Tsuyoshi loathe one another upon first sight, so they clearly must be the series’ OTP!
Another wrench in this love story is that Be-Ri’s in love with the high school tenant who lives with Be-Ri & her family…& is also dating Be-Ri’s sister ;_____;
POOR BE-RI, ILU AND HOW AWESOME YOU ARE! So yeah, I'm excited to read more, even though 2-4 are going to take forever to arrive via outerlibrary loan system -_-

Polite Lies: On Being a Woman Caught Between Two Cultures - This was written by Kyoko Mori. idk if other people read Shizuko’s Daughter multiple times in adolescence, but I did. I’m not sure if it’s because her YA is ubiquitous in the US, or because she taught creative writing at St. Norbert’s, which is basically in Green Bay (where I grew up).
I loved this collection of essays, which makes up the memoir. For those who don’t know her story, Mori’s mother committed suicide when Mori was 12 years old. Her dad was abusive also, so there are several trigger warnings that come with this book :/
Her writing about the differences between US Midwestern & Japanese cultures is very well-done & sometimes amusing. I should probably note that as someone who relocated to the US because she never really felt like she belonged in Japan, or could ever express herself there, Mori holds pretty negative views of Japanese culture.
She lived/grew up there, so it’s not like I can fault her perceptions, although some things seem like they could happen in any culture (choosing to hide an illness from your family members) or are actually just wrong (referring to all manga as violent pornography).
Mori’s prose makes it worth it, though. I’d kind of like to reread Shizuko’s Daughter now since it’s been a while, and track down some of her other things, too. Looking back, I know she’s always been one of my favorite writers.

some songs that aren’t about love by

jan - This was a Chihayafuru fic that I think

littlebutfierce linked me to? Short & great - perfect snapshots of the characters, & I think it really captures the mood of the show, as well.

Revival #1 - Read this because

were_duck kept talking it up. Zombie series that’s taking place in/around Wausau, WI. If not for the local bits, I might not be as interested, but for now I am. I’ve gotten the first trade from the library since reading issue 1, but haven’t read it yet.

Trillium #2 & 3 - Just as good as the first issue, not much else to say.

Saga #14 - This was a great issue. The scene with Lying Cat & Sophie was touching. I’m always excited for more Saga!

Dawn of the Arcana, volumes 4-8 - I’m getting a little bored with this series, but not enough to stop reading? The lack of detailed backgrounds feels lazy to me, and the political intrigue that first attracted me to the book forever seems like a carrot dangled in front of me instead of something I actually get to see :/ I also really don’t care for any of the characters, so that’s a pretty big :(

Kitty and the Midnight Hour - I ended up liking this a fair amount?! Or at least enough to continue with it. Kitty is a bamf, & I’m glad she’s able to upset some of the power structures in her life. Excited to see where things go.

Of Love and Other Demons - This was something I’d started a long time ago & finally finished by plowing through the second half. I love Marquez’s prose, but the premise here (priest commissioned to exorcise a 12-year-old girl with(out) rabies but falls in love with her instead) was pretty uncomfortable. I need to read Love in the Time of Cholera & also 100 Years of Solitude.

Alphonse Mucha - collection or art by Mucha. Last year at the end of the Laura Ingalls Wilder road trip I took with my mom & my sister, we stopped at the Czech Museum in Iowa. 30 minutes before closing, we only had time for their main exhibit, which was all Mucha. LOVE. I'm 50% Czech & am woefully uninformed about this part of my cultural history. I'd love to read more about the politics & history of Czechoslovakia (which I know is now two countries, but that's how it's always been referred to in my family).

• What do you think you’ll read next?
I have now given up predicting! Likely lots of training materials/etc. as I start a new job on Monday!! Maybe something for comfort since starting new jobs always = scary.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/675457.html

• What are you currently reading?

Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn -

littlebutfierce has talked this series up, and I'm about 1/5 through the first one. It's a quick read, like many romance novels (although I'm not sure yet whether this will be romance?!). Kitty is a werewolf who accidentally starts a supernatural talk radio show. She gives a lot of life advice to vampires/werewolves/humans. I do find it really comforting to read the advice she gives to other people. It's like having a pocket therapist. Her relationship with her pack's alpha, specifically him forcing sex when in wolf form, makes me uncomfortable. But this seems to make Kitty uncomfortable too, so I'm willing to keep reading to see how things develop in terms of pack-dynamic.

• What did you recently finish reading?

A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer - I really, really loved this. I've already checked out the sequel from the library. I think this will become a favorite for me, & I expect to return to it many times.

Trillium #1 - I picked up this series at the comic book store based on the cover. It's a split comic, with the first half being from the perspective of Nika, a scientist in the year 3797. She wears space suits and is trying to diplomatically harvest some specific flowers to save humanity from a disease that's already cut it down to 4,000 people. Flip the comic over, and the other half is about an ex-WWI soldier in 1921 who joins an expedition to Peru. After his party is attacked and killed, he climbs to the top of an Inca Temple, where he inexplicably meets Nika at the summit. I'm pretty excited to read more of this.

Dawn of the Arcana, volumes 1-3 = This is a new manga series I started. The protagonist, Nakaba, enters into a political marriage that nobody expects to last. The kingdoms of Balquat and Senan are constantly warring, and have political marriages to institute a false peace, which typically last about two years. There's also a race of oppressed people called the Ajin, who are part-animal and slowly starting a rebellion.
Nakaba has red hair, which brings shame to to her and the families she's been in her entire life.
The English translation is by Alexander O. Smith, whose work I enjoy (especially the Vagrant Story video game). There are very few words per page, which makes these volumes quick reads. The interpersonal developments (love triangle) can be a little dramatic, and I'm not wild about the art, but the politics and translation make this a pretty enjoyable read.

Cross Game manga - I read the final volume, which was poignant & great. Overall this was a nice series and I'm glad I tried something new.

Last issue of Buffy season 9: Was pretty good! I still liked Angel & Faith more, but Buffy season 9 was a pretty big improvement over season 8. The editor's notes at the end said there won't be any details about season 10 until New York Comic-Con, so for now there's a wait -_-

• Abandoned
Soul Eater manga. I was trying to get through volume 10 & just DID. NOT. CARE. about what anyone was talking about. It's this thing that plagues me in a lot of shounen manga - people standing around talking forever about the intricacies of how the ENEMY'S POWER works, & blah-blah. I started reading this b/c I liked the art & feel super drawn to Maka. There's not enough Maka to hold me in, unfortunately. I'm dropping this for good! Maybe I'd try the anime again some day. The action sequences are way more interesting that way.

• What do you think you’ll read next?
Who the eff knows, lol. I guess I got more Dawn of the Arcana from the library! I've also organized my Turtles comics. I'm over a year behind on those & really need to catch up & decide whether to keep buying, so (like I've been saying for months), I'd like to catch up on those & just decide. TURTLES IN A HALF SHELL...TURTLE POWER!