laceblade

• What are you currently reading?
Ash: The Secret History by Mary Gentle - I got this from work's library! It's the all-in-one tome, so a little too big for me to lug back & forth from work :/ I'm almost halfway through, which I think means I've read most of Carthage Ascendant. I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH?!?!


• What did you recently finish reading?
the numbness or the pain (so intense to feel) by only_because3 - Glee fic set after Finn's upcoming death (which will happen in episode 3, as Cory Monteith died), trying to explain why Quinn wouldn't attend the funeral. (It was revealed that Dianna Agron who plays her won't be in the episode/wasn't asked to be in the episode.) This is the only fic I've read so far incorporating Finn's death, & it's because it was written by an author I trust. Short, pretty good. I miss reading Glee fic, & I should read more.

Gwen Ifill book on race in politics - I ended up liking this quite a bit, although I don't have anything more to say about it than I said last week.

Basara, volumes 22-24 - I'm circling toward the end and it's pretty good?! I think I'll probably be adding this to my list of all-time favorite manga. I just hope that I can find copies of the series eventually, & buy them for myself. I assume they're all out of print -_-
The plot/etc. is dropping off a little bit for me - the intense one-on-one battles that are all happening simultaneously can be a little ugh. BUT the artwork has really stepped up its game these past few volumes. So it's a wash.

Cross Game, volumes 4 & 5 (as released in the US) - This series is picking up a little bit for me. The baseball annoys me less, mostly because those scenes go really fast! And the relationships between the various characters are becoming more interesting, especially Aoba & Kitamura. Still, I feel like this series would be much more interesting to me if Aoba were the protagonist instead of Kitamura. The occasional pantyshots continue to telegraph to me, "This story is not meant for you!"
I love the background art in this series, & also the wordless panels and pages. Scenes change by showing the readers what life in this part of the city is like, by reminding characters of Wakaba, etc. I do really like the way the manga-ka tells the story. You can definitely tell he's been doing it for a long time.


• What do you think you’ll read next?
Not sure! I'm a little stressed out at the moment, so I could see myself turning to something for comfort. But probably mostly things I've still got checked out from the library. I'll also be rereading Saga for beer_marmalade.

• What are you currently reading?
Basara manga! (see below)

• What did you recently finish reading?
The Cuckoo's Calling - overall verdict is UGGHHHHHH THIS IS SO GOOD. I couldn't put it down - I was as engrossed with this book as I was with Harry Potter.
The protagonist, Strike, copes with residual pain from having his leg amputated in the military. He uses a prosthesis, but his stump can get sore & flare up when he walks too much, as happens when he's working a lot, interviewing witnesses, scoping out scenes, etc.
The narrative starts from his temporary assistant Robin's point of view, but the story is Strike's. Throughout the book, we see glimpses of Robin's thoughts, but usually just when they start to get interesting, we shift back to Strike.
Rowling's POV characters can be incredibly harsh in the way they observe other people, which at times can be a little uncomfortable. Rowling never ignores the effects of race & class on people, but her POV characters are white. So you'll have things that pop up, like describing an Asian background character as "Oriental."
It's also a mystery/crime novel, so typical warnings for like, violence/murders/things like that.
I'll be buying this when it comes out in paperback, best thing I've read in the last little while.
I prefer this to The Casual Vacancy, which was well-written but was an almost distasteful finger-shaking at society given how...overwrought it was?!

Immediately after finishing TCC, I realized that volume 21 of Basara was due back at the library on 7/22, & I'd only read through volume 9. THUS, BASARA BINGE.
Basara, volumes 10-17 - lots of development in volume 10, & I really loved it. ( Spoilers. )

In volume 13, Sarasa meets people resisting Suo City's latest tryant.
Sarasa reflects that Rinko doesn't "look like" a rebel leader because she's so feminine - she prints an underground newspaper and then makes her living by sewing clothing. It's hard for Sarasa to reconcile femininity with rebellion - in her own life, she has to adopt a masculine identity to be a leader (or so she thinks - her own friends/forces welcomed her when she revealed her true gender/identity).
I wonder whether there will be more exploration of Sarasa's relationship with gender before the end? I hope so.
Anyway, Rinko's boyfriend Hozumi is disgusted with volume, and shows a different way to resist - painting green swirls coming out from Rinko's pyre after she's been captured & is being publicly shamed/tortured. Hozumi says, "If I try to make a speech now, it can only sound naive. ...Why do they think killing is the only way to make change? Can't the world be made better through creation instead?"
LOTS OF FEELINGS.

Similarly, lots of feelings in volume 15, when Shuri & Sarasa have some further revelations. I'm still racing through to make it through volume 21 before the library closes tomorrow!

• What do you think you’ll read next?
MOAR BASARA so that I can return a pile of stuff to the library tomorrow. After that, idk. I still have lots of stuff checked out from the library, so probably more of that :D

• What are you currently reading?
Soul Eater, volume 5 - It's been a long time since I read 1-4! While I enjoy some of the character designs, I feel like I'm only here for Maka & Soul, and wholly uninterested in everything/everyone else :/

A Woman Wrapped in Silence - Basically a fanfiction about Mary (mother of Jesus) written in the 1940s, in verse. I've owned this since buying it at St Meinrad while on there on a retreat, in high school, but never got past the first 10 pages or so. I picked it up after attending a mass led by a woman priest. Progress is slow because I can be easily irritated by most poetry.


• What did you recently finish reading?
W.I.T.C.H. graphic novel, volumes 1 & 2 - I still feel about the same toward this as I did while I was in the middle of volume 1. I <3 the art, but feel the writing is a little sub-par? Still unconvinced I'll reread these later, but I'm reserving "putting it in the sell pile" judgment until I read all 8 volumes I've acquired (half from the library).

Shugo Chara-chan, volume 1 - This is a 4-panel comedy manga spun-off from Peach-Pit's Shugo Chara! Its about the guardian characters, mostly gags. It wasn't amusing enough to hold my attention, & I ended up skimming half the volume & returning volumes 2-4 to the library unread.

Basara, volume 8 - This series continues to be pretty great overall. Starting to feel some dread about how certain revelations are going to be handled. I do like its dealing with the realities of power/etc. - examining what characters are going to do once they get what they think they want, how different territories are governing themselves (or being governed) if the aftermath of the apocalypse, etc.

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene - What survives of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene is short, so this book has an introduction & a preface, and after the straight-up translation of the gospel, a line-by-line commentary.
The commentary discusses the idea of the "divine feminine" in the context of Mary revealing this super spiritual scripture, as opposed to the other way I've encountered it in the past ("feminine divinity means subjugating yourself to men").

This gets a little gender essentialist, which happens often when I read women in relation to the Bible.
Example is discussing the Marys hanging out at the Crucifixion - this gets brought up a lot! ONLY THE WOMEN STAYED, etc.

Are men less courageous than women? Perhaps they have less fear of death, but more fear of suffering? There are no simple answers to this. Yet it is worth noting that it is often mostly women who are present in great moments of life such as this, at deathbed and at birth. Husbands and fathers are more often absent. Surely this would not be seen as desertion (of which they are often accused), but rather as an indication of the great difficulty of the masculine mind (and some feminine minds as well) experiences when it feels powerless in the face of suffering that it can neither combat nor alleviate.

...OR it's because women are socialized to be caretakers?? jfc.

After MM has seen the risen Christ & spoken with Him, she goes back to the Apostles to a) tell them about it so that Christianity starts spreading afterward, and b) tells them about all kinds of other mystical stuff. Their immediately reaction is pretty predicable:

Having said all this, Mary became silent;
for it was in silence that the Teacher spoke to her.
Then Andrew began to speak, and said to his brothers:
"Tell me, what do you think of these things she has been telling us?
As for me, I do not believe
that the Teacher would speak like this.
These ideas are too different from what we have known."
And Peter added:
"How is it possible that the Teacher talked
in this manner with a woman
about secrets of which we ourselves are ignorant?
Must we change our customs,
and listen to this woman?"

& then LOL at leaving this gospel out of the Bible. :( :( :(

At some point, the author digresses into this own interpretation of the Ten Commandments, which is a little more expansive than their general interpretation. I'll use my favorite of his - Honor the Sabbath - as an example. The first part = common interpretation, second paragraph = more mind-blowing to me.

You may rest from all your doing, working, and producing. Human beings are not only made for work, but also for repose - that holy repose that is fully savored after good work, not only on the Sabbath, but every day.

On the day of the Sabbath, all human beings will become equal, for there are no more employers and employees. This law is intended to free us from the bounds of another law, that of dominator and dominated. On the Sabbath, there are no more professors and students, no more lords and serfs. There are only the children of God, sons and daughters of the One Light.

WHOA, right?!

The author's reinterpretation of the Beatitudes are a little similarly radical. The Beatitudes = well-loved by many people who ID as Christian & are also compassionate about social justice.

Yeshua is not saying, "Blessed are you, unhappy victims, be happy in your martyrdom." He is saying, "Do not let yourself be stopped by persecution, slander, and all sorts of violence. Use this as a challenge and opportunity for growing in consciousness and love."

While I'm not typically a fan of "hard times are there to make you stronger" interpretations of life, I do like interpretations of the Gospels that are about Jesus saying, "You're better than that, & if you really believe in me, then DO something about it."

Overall, I enjoyed reading this, although the latter half of the book got into philosophical stuff that I'll freely admit I didn't understand. I think I even skimmed some of it.
I have another commentary/analysis/etc. of the Gospel of Mary Magadalene waiting for me at the library, & I'm hoping that it will be a little more accessible to me.


• What do you think you’ll read next?
More manga, & I should starting reading Pantomime by Laura Lam. It's our next beer_marmalade book.

• What are you currently reading?
Nothing at this given moment. Was reading some Wherever You Go, There You Are by John Kabat-Zinn last night.
At one point I was encouraged to practice meditation to deal with chronic pain & other issues.
I'm still trying to suss out some routines between this & traditional Catholic prayer.
I have a hard time reading more than a few pages of this book at a time without rolling my eyes, although it doesn't usually make me angry like Pema Chodron did. My personality feels very much not pre-disposed to meditation, but I keep trying to find some techniques anyway, I guess.

• What did you recently finish reading?
Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. Just fantastic. I was expecting this to end a little more unfinished, as I know there was a 3rd book planned before she died, but it's still very satisfying.
I expect to reread this & Parable of the Sower many times.

Special A, vols. 1-2 - Ugh. Yet another series where a girl has a male rival in school, who will inevitably end up being her love interest. There's nothing special going on here, and my library doesn't have volume 3 (though it has later volumes!). Drop.

Basara, volume 1 - This came up in a discussion about a possible post-apocalyptic/dystopian anime/manga panel at WisCon 38. meganbmoore also mentioned this on Twitter and I was like, "UGH but the art is so 1990s and awful with ridiculous jaw lines and etc."
VOLUME ONE IS SO GOOD OMFGGGGGG.
In a post-apocalyptic Japan where everything's basically a desert, a pair of twins is born. Their tribe's prophet intones, "This is a child of destiny!" and Sarasa grows up believing the child of destiny is her brother Tatara - her tribe thinks so, too!
They suffer under a despotic king, waiting for the day that Tatara will lead a revolution to overthrow their corrupt society.
Then, Tatara's head gets chopped off.
So Sarasa cuts her hair, binds her chest, and becomes Tatara for her tribe.
UGH SO GOOD, SO EXCITED TO READ MORE.

• What do you think you’ll read next?
Bringing on a mini-vacation with me: Under the Banner of Heaven, The Summer Prince, a feminist Catholic book, Basara manga, & Shugo Chara! manga.

RANDOM: j00j & I were talking about how there's lots of depictions of comfort food in fantasy novels, but had trouble coming up with sci-fi examples. j00j made a post soliciting examples, which is here.
"[H]ow much science fiction is there with appealing food descriptions? It's not all Gagh and replicators and food pills/amyloid/protein gruel, right?"