So...I have this incredibly unlucky talent. Anytime there is a parade in the city I'm currently living in, I don't know about it. So I literally walk out the door and am MOBBED by people and it's like I've just stepped into a Disney World line or something. It's super disorienting. (And also I ALWAYS work on said days. I made it on time today somehow though!) So...happy early St. Patrick's Day everyone!
On the other hand there's a reason I try to avoid parades (particularly the St. Paddy's day ones) - here's a look at a typical St. Patrick's in Chicago. In fact, that's only a small part of Chicago. (The 10:45 PM report miiiight be the best thing I've ever read on one of these.) I LOVE reading the posts on St. Patrick's Day! This blog does a report every year and it's always hilarious. And now I can doubly enjoy it since I am in no danger of having to wander out in that mess! I do feel really, really bad for the cops though. It's a rough time for them.
Otherwise..not much has been happening on my end. A lot of grunt work in getting things together for some job applications/auditions, the cats are still fighting, and it's finally sort of warm! So you know...mostly good stuff?
Also I saw the cutest thing EVER:
Bookish Things
Discussions
LITERARY REFLECTIONS: WHERE MY GIRLS AT (PART I) - I had never actually noticed this before - I mean I definitely noticed that bisexuals are very rarely depicted in any media I've come across, but I hadn't noticed that there are significantly more gay men than lesbians.
Fixed by Camel: On Gender, Books, and Children - This is something I'm thinking a lot about as I have created this picture book reading monster, and I'm trying to pick up at least one book that he might not have picked up because it looks girly. Not sure about the success so far though...
No Boys Allowed: School visits as a woman writer - I can't remember the last time I was so infuriated by something. It's just...SERIOUSLY PEOPLE.
Specific Books/Authors
Book Event—Marie Rutkoski and Sara Rees Brennan - I would have KILLED to go to this!
QUEEN OF SHADOWS COVER REVEAL, TOUR DATES, (MINI) QOS EXCERPT, & MORE! - I'm not even going to say anything. This is my reaction: :-D !!!!!!!!!!!
The Winner’s Crime‘s Marie Rutkoski On YA Heroines, Romance, and That Next Book - Such a good interview! And I waaaant this book!!!
Read Two Never-Before-Seen Fairy Tales by the Grimms’ Favorite Folklorist - Because I will always post all things fairy tale.
Brian Jacques’ Spirit Lives on, Here is a Weasel Riding a Woodpecker - YES!!! I seriously squeed when I saw this.
“Are they going to say this is fantasy?” (Ursula K. Le Guin) - So this doesn't make me feel any fonder for Kasuo Iziguro..
Terry Pratchett
Revisiting Terry Pratchett’s Discworld taught me why I love reading
Blogging
Why Books and Cats are the Perfect Companions - This is so cute! ...and so true. You try reading when an 18 pound cat decides that he needs to be closer to you and decides to lay on top of your arms! Lily is usually content to just curl up in my near vicinity though, so she's a bit better with the reading.
Nonbookish Things
Is Ladyhawke the Best Fairy Tale of Them All? - This is a REALLY interesting look at how LadyHawke is constructed (trope wise) and how it throws them all out the window.
Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk Raising Funds for New Series: “It’s the Quickest Way to See Us Back on a Spaceship” - OH MY GOD GUYS!!! It sounds like in a lot of ways it'll be like The Guild (As far as seeing famous geeky people in a geeky show). I am SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!
It’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s 18th Anniversary! Share Your Favorite Episode Here - Yup this pretty much covers all my favourite episodes - Once More With Feeling, The Body, and Hush.
Marvel Movies Need to Step Up Their Soundtrack Game - Yes, yes SO MUCH YES. Soundtracks are absolutely imperative for me to really, really love a movie.
Blogging
Why Books and Cats are the Perfect Companions - This is so cute! ...and so true. You try reading when an 18 pound cat decides that he needs to be closer to you and decides to lay on top of your arms! Lily is usually content to just curl up in my near vicinity though, so she's a bit better with the reading.
A POETIC BREAK - I just cannot express to you how gorgeous Nafiza's writing is. Go read this.
How a book club is helping to keep ex-offenders from going back to jail -
Authors Who Need To Collaborate Their Fantastic Braincells And Cowrite Books - I thought I was just going to nod like "yeah that would be pretty cool"...and I was SO WRONG. I NEED these to happen. ALL OF THEM. (Rick Riordan and Lemony Snicket? Veronica Roth and Pierce Brown?? I'd read the hell out of those books!)
The 8 Essential Kinds of Books That Every Kid Should Own - I couldn't agree more! (And it's nice having a list without specific books)
15 YAs That Get It Right - Books on difficult topics that just really nail the experience.
How a book club is helping to keep ex-offenders from going back to jail - Incredible.
Writing Women Characters as Human Beings - A really great post! One of the best ones I've seen on the topic.
PSA: BOOK DRIVE FOR CHILDREN WITH AN INCARCERATED PARENT - This is really, really awesome!
Authors Who Need To Collaborate Their Fantastic Braincells And Cowrite Books - I thought I was just going to nod like "yeah that would be pretty cool"...and I was SO WRONG. I NEED these to happen. ALL OF THEM. (Rick Riordan and Lemony Snicket? Veronica Roth and Pierce Brown?? I'd read the hell out of those books!)
The 8 Essential Kinds of Books That Every Kid Should Own - I couldn't agree more! (And it's nice having a list without specific books)
15 YAs That Get It Right - Books on difficult topics that just really nail the experience.
How a book club is helping to keep ex-offenders from going back to jail - Incredible.
Writing Women Characters as Human Beings - A really great post! One of the best ones I've seen on the topic.
PSA: BOOK DRIVE FOR CHILDREN WITH AN INCARCERATED PARENT - This is really, really awesome!
Nonbookish Things
Is Ladyhawke the Best Fairy Tale of Them All? - This is a REALLY interesting look at how LadyHawke is constructed (trope wise) and how it throws them all out the window.
Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk Raising Funds for New Series: “It’s the Quickest Way to See Us Back on a Spaceship” - OH MY GOD GUYS!!! It sounds like in a lot of ways it'll be like The Guild (As far as seeing famous geeky people in a geeky show). I am SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!
It’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s 18th Anniversary! Share Your Favorite Episode Here - Yup this pretty much covers all my favourite episodes - Once More With Feeling, The Body, and Hush.
Marvel Movies Need to Step Up Their Soundtrack Game - Yes, yes SO MUCH YES. Soundtracks are absolutely imperative for me to really, really love a movie.
Lots to comment on here, dang you with the interesting links. First of all I really love Kazuo Ishiguro's books so I'm not going to read that link. This is a good example about why I have a strong antipathy to "connecting" with authors - it's like breaking the 4th wall or something. I don't like listening to or reading author interviews, I don't want to go to signings, I don't want to have them on my blog - the less I know about the author on a personal level, the better. Sometimes, like with Orson Scott Card, you can't avoid hearing things and it causes me so much angst. I really enjoy his books but knowing what I know about him, ugh.....
ReplyDeleteSecond I LOVE Ladyhawke so will be checking out that article. Also VERY excited to see anything pairing Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion!!!
Finally those are exactly my three fave BtVS episodes and I hear that a lot from folks. It's obvious that Joss really did something special with all three of those episodes and in a confluence you rarely see, EVERYBODY recognizes it. It's very cool.
Also, I was laughing about your parade talent. I have the same talent but being in a small town in Iowa instead of a large metropolitan area makes it a tad less exciting then your experiences:).
I feel your parade pain! My city has its St. Patrick's parade on the first Saturday of March so that we can get the best NYC pipe bands for it. Because we have a large Irish ancestry population, and we are a college town, it has turned into the biggest event of the year. It is known simply as Parade Day. I live two blocks from a popular college bar. Nuff said. Lol. I definitely want to read the gender thing because I got jumped on by a stay at home (author) dad, a radical lesbian, a pregnant woman who planned to home school, and some random teeanage girl who thought she knew more than me as mother of a boy, for using the term "boy friendly" when talking about a book. They all said that if you raise a boy right they will read everything. Well, in my experience that is not true. Many boys aversion to "girly" things is biological and it happens sometime between six and seven. My son had a doll, a kitchen set, and a dollhouse (although a family of toy mice lived in it) and his dad was a floral arranger until he was almost four (so he remembers), but there was a pivotal point around six that anything that smacked of pink, ballerinas, princesses, glitter, or tea parties was not for him. It wasn't peer pressure either because he had male friend who loved pink and one of his best school friends was a girl. He would read about girls, no problem, so it wasn't that, but they had to be doing "non-girly" things like Harriet the Spy. The stay at home author dad said that I must have done something wrong because his boys weren't like that. I tried to explain to him it was because they were only two and four. To me it is funny how there is a developing double standard where people are fighting to make it socially acceptable for a boy to be a princess for Halloween (which I am all for), but some of those same people are shaming boys who like "boyish" things. And the woodpecker pic is priceless. I am glad it got away alive.
ReplyDeleteYeah I definitely struggle when it comes to authors, especially if it's like Orson Scott Card - I want to read his books, and I found out about his beliefs before having read them, so I'm not sure I'll ever read them. I haven't made an absolute decision on that. It can really ruin an experience when you find out something bad about an author, so I try and stay out of a lot of twitter drama because of it haha! It's important to remember that authors are human too, so they stick their foot in it and unfortunately have thousands of people paying attention. So I try to remember that when I come across things like that.
ReplyDeleteI know right?! It's seriously going to be like the entire cast of Firefly (minus Alan Baldwin), plus a lot of other Whedon actors. SO. FREAKING. EXCITED. And I think LadyHawke was one of the first nonkid movies my parents introduced me to, so yay for them!
Yeah I'm not surprised - there was a lot of artistry paired with great story telling and character arcs here.
I swear...EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! It's not all bad, just...shocking haha
Yeah Chicago St. Patrick's is like...out of control. So at least I didn't accidentally walk into the middle of that haha! I can't imagine what yours is like though, especially since you're right next to a college bar haha!
ReplyDeleteYeah there definitely needs to be tolerance both ways. The five-year old is really interested in how things work so he is big into cars, trucks, etc. And the seven year old mostly just reads about dinosaurs haha! Saying that boys being traditionally "boy" is bad is just as pigheaded as saying boys liking traditionally "girl" things. I think it's important to let kids guide what they want to read for the most part - it's supposed to be fun, so for me that's most important. The learning involved is an added bonus, and if the five-year old is checking out 15 books at the library, I usually just slip in one that I am interested in/think might be a good thing for him to come across, and it's not a big deal. Kids pick up on the weirdest things on a story, so there's really no telling what lessons they're going to get haha.
It really was like a scene out of The Outcast of Redwall! I would have been pretty upset if the woodpecker got eaten though haha
Lesbian Characters: Very interesting. I feel like gay men are more accepted because their characters are written more "fun". However, with lesbians, I feel like they aren't taken as seriously. Or that it is "just a phase". That is what my sister in law runs up against a lot. When she came out, people didn't take her seriously because she is still very girly and not what a "stereotypical" lesbian looks like. (Not that I think lesbians fall into one particular category, but I think you know what I mean)
ReplyDeleteThe Winner's Curse: That was an awesome interview! The Winner's Crime was very very good.
Queen of Shadows: Oh god. I'm not sure I'm ready to read the last book. I may throw up a little.
Terry Pratchett: :( So so so sad
Essential kid books: I loved that they including generalities too. And I think we've hit the mark on all of these! I'm pretty excited to be reading chapter books to Kaylee. I've always had this vision of reading a chapter a night to her and it is the only vision I've had that's actually come to fruition. These also just shows that you can't plan on anything when you have kids. Accept the chaos. LOL.
15 YA books that get it right: Color me intrigued! And so the TBR list grows....have you read Far From You? It was really really good. Better than I expected.
I think it's funny because I've always thought of lesbians more easily accepted than gay men. (To be honest a lot of that has to do with people thinking it's a phase/woman on woman action being seen as hot). So it surprised to me to realize that media wise...it isn't true.
ReplyDeleteSo there's good news or bad news depending how you see this: Queen of Shadows isn't the last book. I think she's planning on making it a seven book series! But dear god what she's going to do with another four books left to do things...
Lol! Yeah kids have a lot more willpower/set interests than I think a lot of people realize. You might be able to guide the interests a little....but you can't force them haha. But definitely the chaos. And fighting over the weirdest things haha
I actually haven't read ANY of the books except The Raven Boys and The Summer I Turned Pretty! But I usually have trouble making myself read things I know are going to make me upset, so I'm pretty behind. That being said, lists like this at least let me know that the book I'm going into is...I dunno...legit? In any case, it's bumped all of these up my list or onto my radar!
Oh, I agree that sexual contact between women is viewed more favorably than between men. But I think the "gay man" is more "out" than a "lesbian woman". I am also terrible at articulating my thoughts. I personally think there are two separate issues: the issue of sexuality and the issue of how they are perceived by society and this is just my perception. But I also have lived and grown up in Seattle. I feel like it would be quite a rude awakening for me if I were to live somewhere less progressive.
ReplyDeleteWe started Bunnicula last night. It may be a little over her head, but she knows the rabbit may or may not be a vampire...so that's the main point, right?
And I am totally with you on issue books. I usually avoid them like the plague. Part of it is I have a hard time relating to someone dealing with addiction, eating disorders, depression, etc. I am very lucky to not have been personally affected by those things, but I've been around it. I just have a hard time being in the head of someone dealing with those things. It weirds me out a little. Especially since I think addiction and depression hit a little too close to home. But! That being said, if the book is good enough, I will read any genre. I actually just read All the Light We Cannot See, which takes place in Brittany during the Nazi occupation. This book gave me severe anxiety. I think now that I am a mom I have to be even more careful what I choose because anything dealing with war or some kind of apocalyptic event gives me anxiety (and I would argue that WWII was apocalyptic for Europe). All that chaos, that loss of life and innocence...children dying. I can't deal very well. I think that's why I also stay away from zombie books. Anyways, All the Light We Cannot See reminded me a bit of The Book Thief. Both left me with a heavy feeling in my heart.