A Tribute to Tanith Lee

I don't think I've ever even mentioned Tanith Lee on the blog before.  This isn't because I don't read her or because I haven't been in awe of her writing since I was probably 10 when my mom put The Claidi Journals in my hands. Simply put, it's rather hard these days to get copies of her books.  None of the libraries I lived near had more than a few of her books (and usually they were The Claidi Journals which I've read more than a few times at this point), and considering she wrote well over 90 novels, that's saying something.  She does have some ebooks, but those are mostly collections of her short stories...and I digress.  It's hard to find her books, and I've slowly been snatching up any copy of her books I can find. (The last time I looked online for used books since that's usually what I buy, her used books were selling from $20-$40, which should tell you something.)  It's saddening to me that such a prolific writer, an author who won many awards, who has pushed the limits of science fiction and horror since she first started writing, was no longer having her works published (not her choice).  It's surprising to me that so many of her books are out of print (my assumption since they're so costly used, so I could be wrong about that).  It's surprising to me that someone who I would consider to be one of the most important authors of the twentieth century is so overlooked.

Despite the fact they are usually quite slim (a great many of her books are 200 pages or less), it takes some time to digest her stories.  She breaks all the expectations you have going in. Her worlds don't work in the way we expect them to work, and neither do her characters.  And her fantasy often feels like sci-fi and her fantasy like horror, and it's just this wonderful blend of scifi-fantasy-horror that I promise you is a completely weirder and cooler atmosphere than you're imagining right now. I have a complicated relationship with her writing. I've never exactly loved any of her books, and I don't often exactly enjoy them either. And yet I would be happy to devour her entire collection of writing because no matter how little I'm enjoying them, they're thought provoking and feminist and well...weird.  I guess the best way I can describe her writing is uncomfortable.  And no one really likes being uncomfortable do they?  Her "heroines" more often than not rather evil, and really few of her characters are likeable at all.  But she's one of the few authors whose books are filled with women.  Filled with unapologetically powerful women.  You honestly don't find that often...it's not even that it's hard to find unapologetic powerful women, because I can name more than a few YA heroines who fit that, it's that her heroines are so...unconstrained by the constructs of society or fear of consequences for just being so powerful.  Honestly her writing is rather difficult to describe, and I'm leery of recommending a place to start both because I've read so little of her extensive catalogue, and because the book I remember enjoying the most involves quite a bit of rape. (I'm fuzzy on the details, but I usually have a very difficult time when authors choose to have characters raped.  With Tanith Lee...it's a bit different. Again, hard to explain why exactly).  Add in the fact, that simply put Tanith Lee is not for everyone.  Or maybe even most people.  Hence the no mention on the blog before. But I DO think her books are an experience well worth having if you're willing to approach them with an open mind.  If I had to pick a book that I think would go over well with people who are YA oriented and I remember enjoying (remember that I use this term loosely with Tanith Lee, but I do think this one features one of her more likeable heroines) I'd say Black Unicorn is a good way to ease your way into Tanith Lee's writing.

It's funny that an author I've read so little of has inspired such a powerful reaction in me over the years (and with books I don't love the way I normally love books, to say the least!), but I'm grateful I still have so many more books of hers to read.  I'm incredibly sad that she is no longer around to give us more stories.

Rest in peace, Tanith Lee.

A Day in the Life #35 + April Wrap Up

Well, it has been a whirlwind of a month, that's for sure.  It's ironic that my decision to only read books by PoC ended up being well timed.  If I can call anything about the past week well timed haha. In fact at this moment I couldn't even tell you if anything of note happened earlier this month.

I don't want to spend too much time talking about everything that's gone down here in Baltimore, because I've already talked a great deal about it.  And honestly, this has literally been all I've been thinking about every conscious moment for the past entire week.  Even when I've not been glued to live streams of what's been happening.  I want my brain to be occupied by ANYTHING else. (Scratch that - anything else good. My only other distraction has been the earthquake in Nepal.)  In my links I leave at the bottom of the post, I'm going to post a bunch of the best articles I read about Baltimore and protests this week.  My twitter profile has loads of other links to look at as well.  Here's a summary of things I've learned and experienced this week.

1. Monday was terrible. I absolutely don't want to downplay the destruction that happened.  Here's a map of what took place.   Baltimore already has food deserts, and I'm afraid because of what happened and because of how the media has been reporting on this that it's only going to get worse.

2. OTHER than Monday, there was a small group of people who acted out on Saturday. But the destruction was significantly less, and the media totally blew it out of proportion.  After Monday there have been an extremely small number of destructive actions.  This city made a complete 180 and what I witnessed this past week was incredibly inspiring and heartwarming.  From the powerful, peaceful protests and marches that took place to the honest conversations that are taking place about race and poverty in this city to the entire communities who came together to clean the city up to rival gangs making a truce to put the well being of this city first, it has been just an overwhelmingly positive week.

3. That being said, this city has felt...scary.  And not because of the protesters.  You know in all those dystopias (or in many other countries around the world) where there are helicopters and armored trucks driving around and men with giant guns on every corner?  Well now I know what that feels like.  And it's terrifying.  I am thankful for how the police have reacted since Monday (the fact that there weren't any protest related deaths - to my knowledge - speaks volumes on how the police handled Monday), and I appreciate the support the national guard and state police have given.  So I applaud them and don't want to take away from the great work they've done this week. That doesn't change the fact that it lends the whole city an air of danger. (Or change the fact that while I support ALL of these groups, there are some significant legislative and departmental changes that need to be happening.)

4. I'm not sure if it's the large groups of men, large groups of officials signifying danger, or the HUGE GUNS they are all carrying that scares me, but having to walk past them every day makes my mouth go dry and my heart race.  I mean there's groups of like twenty or thirty of them.

5. I considered going to the protests but didn't for a few reasons.
     A. I worked during all but two of them.
     B. The media last time I was watching made it seem like the the protests that were peaceful were only peaceful because of the large number of white people in the crowd, completely ignoring the almost entirely black protests that happened the week before.  I didn't want to contribute to that.
     C. The protests I COULD go to were being led by people who have been known to be openly anti-semitic or had ties to groups who are openly anti-white, and while I totally support the protesters, I don't want to be part of a rally that promotes either of those sentiments.
     D. I'm hoping to be able to help in the communities once the media coverage and protests have died down...and communities are still hurting.  In interest of that here are some places you can donate if you are at all interested.

6. You can't trust the media. Not even a little bit.  My waning trust in the mainstream media has been completely severed this week.  It sounds like many of you have also been gleaning your news from local bloggers, so I think a lot of you have been seeing more than the destruction.  And since I stopped watching the main news stations, maybe they changed and stopped focusing on the destruction and everyone saw more to this city than the looting, I don't know. (Actually please tell me, I'm very curious what the news stations have been showing.)  But I applaud the local news stations for doing a great job covering what was really happening - the good and the ugly.  I won't be watching any big news stations anymore. I can't trust any of the news I'm getting from them. It makes me wonder what else I'm completely misinformed on because of their coverage.  It's funny - if any of you have read the Newflesh Trilogy (which I'm thinking of rereading and reviewing because of the media situation this week) it's weird feeling like that set up is already here. And probably has been for a while - I don't know how long it's been this skewed.

I basically had these songs on repeat while I was driving through the city on Tuesday.  (Reasons why should be pretty apparent if you listen to the lyrics)

So that was longer than I meant to make it, but since when have I NOT been long winded haha!  On to the bookish part of my month:

Best Book

Guys, I don't care what genres/audiences you think you don't read, you ALL NEED TO READ THIS.  I'm planning to do a review of this series (and maybe a separate review of this book so there's no spoilers).  It's an important book, and it just completely soul crushed me. In a good way. (But totally traumatic way).  There's this scene and it is hands down the most viscerally horrifying thing I have EVER read. Or even thought about. (But not in a Stephen King-I-cried-myself-to-sleep-in-terror sort of way).  Or as Kirsty described it, "You're in for a treat in the last 100 pages. And by treat I mean scarred for life."  

It's a fast paced, action packed book for sure, but it's not fluffy fun times.  I think it's a crime against humanity that a HUGE portion of my goodreads friends have it marked - but only like 1/3 of them have read this book.  GO READ THIS.  NOW. DO IT.  I literally am going to buy any copy of this I ever see in a used bookstore and then am going to mail it to people.  I am that insistent that the whole world needs to read this.  And with everything that went down this week in Baltimore, it was particularly pertinent.  If you've read it you'll know what I mean - particularly the part where the media talked about the young teens who got caught up in the mess as "violent thugs".

Biggest Disappointment

This. I just. NOOOOO. HOW.  This is a bigger blow to everything I believe in ever than Mansfield Park was! Tamora Pierce is my hero! She's a GODDESS.  ....actually apparently she's human and the fact that's written like 30 other books that I LOVE does not mean I've lost faith in her. But dear god this book hurt me. I felt betrayed and just....NO. I'M SORRY BUT IT DIDN'T GO DOWN THIS WAY.  This went from being a series that was probably my favourite ever of hers to...I'm not sure I'm going to buy it. Because I don't think I will ever read this book again. Maybe I'll just buy the first two and pretend this book never happened. Because it didn't. DO YOU HEAR ME? This book NEVER. HAPPENED.  (But seriously have any of you read it? Because I need people to cry with. Or if they didn't cry about THE THINGS in this book, please, please convince me I'm wrong to hate it)

Here's what else I read this month.  You may notice that the thing that happens once in a blue moon - the wretched DNF happened for me this month.  I only got maybe 50 pages into The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich. It wasn't bad writing or anything - it just clearly involves an unhappy relationship. I have to say after reading the adult fiction I've read this month, my theory that 99% of adult contemporary fiction is about unhappy marriages and adultery (or at least it happens) has not been disproved. Not even a little.  And I just DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT IT. So I didn't even try getting further because I'd just read The Interpreter of Maladies and was at my absolute max of being able to swallow another story about unhappy marriages.  This is why I don't read adult contemporary fiction.  

I did really well on my Authors of color challenge!  I'm actually in the middle of like three more books that I didn't put here because I haven't finished yet. I'll talk about them in my Tell Me Tuesday post :)  I felt like I didn't read as many books as I read, but I think that's because half of the books I read belonged to two series, so it made it feel like I read less. But I don't usually make it through challenges (or I read like half the amount I usually do).   I was hoping that what with having a city wide curfew for the past week that I'd get more reading done, but I mostly stayed glued to live streaming of what was happening. And watching Warehouse 13 haha.  Speaking of...

What I Watched

The Last Cinderella was a fun J-Drama. It had a lot of potential to be more than it was that it totally squandered, but even though it didn't do nearly what it could have it's still a good, standard J-Drama.  As per usual, I loved the totally tomboyish leading lady!








I have a friend who just started watching this and was going to watch seasons 4 and 5 with me (which I still haven't watched because I was CONVINCED they would appear on Netflix. But season 5 came and went, and season 4 never went on Netflix. So it's just never going to happen, I'll have to find it elsewhere *grumbles*).  Unfortunately he watched all three seasons in like a day and a half and burnt himself out haha. But it made me want to rekindle my love for the show (which I think Kirsty got me on to begin with?) and I needed something fun that I'd already seen to put on while I was stuck inside my house this week.

I FINALLY watched the season finale!  I had been really upset with what they chose to do with a female character they could have treated WAY differently, but I'm appeased that with the season finale there will be no more of that. Plus I'm pretty sure they switched out the lead writer. So. Hopefully I will NOT be breaking up with both of my favourite shows (OUaT) in the next year.








 I am SO GLAD I stuck with this show, because this season has been hitting it out of the park!  I am a few episodes behind and haven't seen the newest Avengers film yet...I haven't decided whether I'll just go ahead with the show or try and watch the Avengers film first. (I never watched the latest Captain America and was fine with the show)










I am...conflicted by the ending to this series.  I both like it and HATE it?  I dunno. I'm glad I wasn't hugely invested in it is all I can say.

Bookish Discussions

Tonyalee discusses how real life affects what she reads.

Nafiza on fictional female friendship.

Yash talks about rocky relationships and internalized sexism.

Rosamund Hodge gives an obligatory strong heroine post.

Garth Nix on Aboriginal Stories. (Thanks to Glaiza for the link!)

Lyn talks about why she reads the brutal fiction she does.

Rashika asks why fantasy is so white and straight?

Blogging and Reading

Mitchii discusses the reader's bill of rights.

Sunny gives a tutorial on how to make a personalized gif.

Erin Bowman tells us how we can support an author beyond buying their book.

Calum asks can you really make a living by selling used books on Amazon for a penny?

Kelley talks about how reading sometimes triggers her cataplexy.

Jamie wants to read the books that aren't being hyped.

Anne of Green Gables‘ Jonathan Crombie Passes Away at 48 - *sobs*

Asheley had a bookish a-ha moment that legit made me cry at work.

Bookish Fun Stuff

Fahima describes the art of subterfuge while reading.

Alex gives us a list of race and gender bent Shakespeare adaptations.

Ellis and Judith had me in tears I was laughing so hard at their Coblogger Burn, Rewrite, Reread Challenge.

Ardelia asks what your books would say if they could talk.

Cee has some more book fonts for us!

Miscellaneous Non-bookish stuff

Alice Smeets teams up with Haitian artists to transform Tarot cards into real scenes.

Zack is in search of the female Gus Fring (aka lady villains).

The Baltimore Protests

Karen writes an article as if the Western media was covering Baltimore if it was occurring elsewhere.

Steve tells us Baltimore is not Ferguson, covering the issues here that are more class related than solely race related.

Puja talked to a Baltimore officer about what things are like for them during all of this. (Hint: it involves the city not feeding them and no overtime.)

Willie defends looting. - This is one of those articles to definitely read. Very thought provoking.

Tom on Mahatma Gandhi, Baltimore, and the Myth of Nonviolence.

Michael is a reporter who's lived in Baltimore for 30 years. He tells us what we really need to know about Baltimore.

Baltimore libraries stayed open this whole week - even when everything else was shut down (including schools), because they knew the community needed them.  This is why I LOVE libraries and librarians - it's more than just the books. Libraries are a haven for the homeless and at-risk youth.

Natasha gives us 10 images of Baltimore you won't see on TV.

*As always a thank you to Christina, Asti, and Kelley for their weekly bookish round ups, many of the links on these lists I never would have found without those weekly round ups!

 

And THAT is the end of my very long monthly/bi-weekly round up :)  Anything good in you past few weeks? Do share I need some good news in my life!

On Priviledge: The Baltimore Riots

Let me start with this: I do not condone rioting or looting or the giant madhouse that this has turned into here.  But just because I don't condone it doesn't mean I don't understand why it is happening.  When you have felt your entire life like your life is in danger from the people who are supposed to be your protectors, it greatly limits your ability to express yourself peacefully. When you are a majority in a city, but are statistically less likely to be able to even get any stable source of income, it greatly limits your ability to express yourself peacefully.  When yet another black man has died in police custody, a black man who had committed no crime, who was pursued by police simply because he was a black man and he ran, it greatly limits your ability to express yourself peacefully.  When you feel like you have spent your whole life trying to fight against a system that is stacked against you, when you have spent your whole life trying to explain this injustice and you see it dismissed over and over and over again, all you are left with despair and anger.  Or to put it more succinctly: as Martin Luther King* said, "Riot is the language of the unheard."

For those of you who are (understandably) upset about the looting and are asking - Why would you do this to your own city? Your own cause? Why are you damaging everything you are fighting for?  I simply point out Martin Luther King's above statement.  These people are angry. They feel like there is literally not another way for their pain and anger to be heard.  They aren't methodically targeting individual people and places, they are lashing out.  So yes, you're right - they are damaging everything the last week of peaceful protests were working towards, but the rioters are beyond believing that any of that will make even a modicum of difference in their lives.  It won't change the decades of oppression they have been fighting against, and so they are instead lashing out. (There are also people who are taking advantage of this chaos for their own means and motives. I do not include them in this conversation.)  Have you ever been angry enough to hit a wall? (Personally I haven't, but that is because my great fear of pain largely outweighs my frustration or anger at any point).  The point here is that everyone knows punching a wall is only going to at best hurt a lot and at worst break your hand.  It's not something you do because you think it's going to make anything better. And yet people do it pretty frequently (or maybe I just hang out with a strange number of wall punchers) despite knowing this. They do it because they are completely overwhelmed by their anger and frustration, and it translates into a need to punch that wall. Now compact all of that rage and helplessness and put a lifetime's worth of it into your body. Now multiply it by all the friends and family who are also black, who have also spent their entire lifetime feeling this.  Top all of this off by putting people into angry mobs, and you have baked the perfect recipe for a riot.

This issue has so many layers it would simply be impossible to address them all because I couldn't fit it all in one post, am simply not knowledgeable enough on a lot of points, and quite simply because I have lived my entire life with the privilege of being white and financially stable.  There's a lot at play here that I simply could not begin to understand, but have tried to make a point to inform myself on (and am thankful for everyone who has helped and will help me on that path along the way). So I am going to do my best to keep from going off on the millions of different points I could lay out here and lay things out straightforwardly simply as it applies to my city (but 99% of these points apply to our whole country):


Racial discrimination in Baltimore is real.  Police brutality in Baltimore is real.  For those of you who ask - well, why did Freddie Gray run if he hadn't done anything wrong?  First - if you're asking this, you aren't asking the right questions, and secondly you likely can't even imagine what it is like to get frisked/pulled over/hassled for no reason - other than that you are black.  (You know what else that sounds like?  Well if she got raped, why didn't she scream?)  Let me ask YOU this:  Does his running somehow justify his death? Does it make it ok that 80% of his spine was severed and that his voice box was crushed?  Does it make it ok that he was arrested - despite the fact that he had no illegal drugs or weapons - that knife he was carrying? It was of legal size.  But more important than whether or not Freddie Gray's arrest was warranted - that is still missing the point:  Just because some of the people the police arrest are in fact criminals, doesn't justify police brutality - even if the person being apprehended is a criminal.

That being said, I fully believe in the police force as a whole.  I think they are a necessary and important part of our community, and when I heard that the major gangs in Baltimore have made a ceasefire in the interest of killing cops my heart went into my throat.**I am just as worried for every cop out there who is just trying to keep Baltimore and her citizens safe as I am for every child and protestor who is caught out there in the middle of this violence.  Not every police man is bad.  I don't want to derail the message here, but again as a white woman I relate to this.  Not every man harrasses, molests, or rapes.  But as a woman, I have to worry about every man.  Not every police officer uses excessive force and is motivated to use said force/make arrests because of race.  But from what I can understand, it is something every black person has to worry about.  Because for either one of us - that one time we miscalculate?  It very literally could mean death.

There needs to be a complete overhaul in police oversight.  I am a big supporter of body cams, but there also need to be the punishments that are followed through.  If the city is paying out money to victims in lawsuits - how can they also exonerate the officers involved?  Despite the fact that is one of the biggest main issue that comes up in forums, despite the fact that barrage of incidents like those of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, and most recently Freddie Gray (And those are only the most high profile cases. This is far from new and far from rare.) - it doesn't feel like anything has been enforced to change this from happening.



So instead of disparaging what you see happening in Baltimore, think about why it's happening.



*For those who have been waving MLK as a response to the riots, saying he wouldn't want this happening in Baltimore and that he would condemn what was happening, you are taking his messages out of context. No, he wouldn't want this happening - he would want a city  (or really country) that wouldn't have set things up so they would escalate this way. But more importantly he specifically says this in March of 1968 - "It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard."  In fact, I recommend you go read that entire speech that is now almost 50 years old.  And then look at the economic and social issues we have today and you tell me if we've made progress in the past 50 years

**Edit 4/28: Gang members have spoken up and have denied claims they set up hits on cops. But they have united to help keep the protests peaceful and keep the focus on what these protests are all about. Guys, I hope you are seeing the amazing change in Baltimore today. I hope that the news getting to you is of how the communities are coming together to help clean after the protests, how peaceful all of the protests have been today, how people are using dance and music in the protests, how many races are joining together in these protests. This is the beautiful, vibrant Baltimore that I know and love and wish the rest of the world could see. So if you aren't seeing this side of things - here's a good place to start.

Top Ten ALL TIME Favorite Authors

Hosted by The Broke and Bookish

 

 

This is like an impossible task, so I've set myself some rules:

1. I have to have loved (or pretty damn close to) everything I read by this author.
2. I have to have read more than one series (or book if they don't have series) and at least half of their published novels or series. (So not counting essays, short stories, or novellas.)

This has knocked out some serious contenders that I would have otherwise listed like Jane Austen (I love two of her books, thought the third was ok, HATED the fourth, can't bring myself to finish the fifth, and just need to dive into the sixth!) and both J.K. Rowling and Sarah J. Maas (who I've only read one series from as of yet).

Tamora Pierce

What She's Written: She's probably best known for her first books, The Song of the Lioness Quartet

Why I Love Her:  She's the most dedicated author I know of who consistently includes EVERY sort of diversity throughout her books. (Seriously - race, LGBTQA, body shape - she's got it all).  She also has such a wide variety of heroines (and heroes), is sex positive, has got some wicked world-building after spending 30 books exploring her realms.  Technically she should be disqualified since I finished Mastiff yesterday, and I super crazy hated the ending, but she could do anything at this point and I would still love her books to the ends of the earth.  After all, one in thirty books is pretty damn good!

 

Robin McKinley

 

What She's Written: She's probably best known for her award winning book, The Hero and the Crown. 

Why I Love Her: She has pretty much my favourite fairy tale retellings. She also has gorgeous prose and imaginative characters and worlds - she's written in very different styles and genres too. She's the only other author on this list that I will forgive pretty much anything as well.  (If I can get over that cliffhanger in Pegasus, I can survive anything she throws my way). She also has a highly entertaining blog.

Roald Dahl

 

What He's Written: Puhlease. Like you don't know who this is. My personal favourite is The BFG!

Why I Love Him:  Roald Dahl's books are the perfect mix of ridiculousness and truth.  He also never speaks down to his audience - his writing always treats kids as if they are equal, and trust me - kids KNOW when you're talking down to them, and they don't like it.

Libba Bray

What She's Written: She's probably best known for her Gemma Doyle trilogy.

Why I Love Her:  I actually hadn't thought of her as a favourite author til I was making this list.  I've consistently loved every book I've read by her (although I still have Beauty Queens to read, but by all accounts that's probably her most loved books) and Going Bovine would make my Top 10 ranking of most important books I've ever read. It was powerful and really shook me up - I still think about it all the time.

 Natsuki Takaya

 

What She's Written: If you read manga at all, you've at least heard of Fruits Basket.

Why I Love Her:  It's funny - both of my all time favourite mangas are written by mangakas who wrote another manga that I hated!  Fruits Basket is definitely in my Top 10 mangas though, so I'm glad I've had the opportunity to read Takaya's other works!  Takaya's stories are really quiet - yes there's a plot to it all, but it's kind of like a slice of life/magic realism sort of thing (the magic realism is more Fruits Basket than her other work) and the focus is on relationships - familial and platonic as well as romantic (probably even more so than romantic).   I have yet to read Tsubasa, but Hoshi wa Utau has probably my favourite artwork - it's kind of wistful.

Gabrielle Zevin

What She's Written: Her newest book, The Storied Life of A.J.  Fikry, (which I haven't read yet) has been a huge hit!

Why I Love Her: With the exception of the last author on this list, I think she's written in the most varied genres. And without fail every book has been absolutely amazing.  She also has some of the most realistic characters - in fact her characters inspired me to do a series of posts just on them instead of writing a book review!

Madeline L'Engle

What She's Written: Definitely best known for her A Wrinkle in Time Quintet.

Why I Love Her: Of all the authors on this list, this is the author I most come back to when I'm questioning my beliefs or am dealing with abstract things that are just more than I can handle at the moment.  A Ring of Endless Light was a huge staple in my reading when I was dealing with some really heavy life stuff. It's always both extremely enlightening and comforting - I don't usually find being enlightened about things comfortable, but Madeleine L'Engle has always been able to gently lead me places I need to go, even in stories I've read thousands of times.  I think of all the well known authors I read, she's the most undiscovered. Most everyone has read A Wrinkle in Time, a lot of people finished the series, and I very rarely find anyone who has read anything else of hers. She barely even qualified for this list - I think I've read exactly half of her books.  She writes for all audiences and she's just so insightful with family relationships, and does this amazing and respectful melding science and religion.

Sarah Rees Brennan

What She's Written: Best known for her The Lynburn Legacy.

Why I Love Her: The Lynburn Legacy is one of the cleverest twists on paranormal fiction I've read. It sets up everything the way you expect, and proceeds to twist it into something entirely new.  It's also LGBT positive, has some of my favourite female friendships AND family relationships.  The characters basically range from OH MY GOD. THIS IS ME. IN A BOOK. (Holly) To OH MY GOD I WISH THIS WAS ME. IN REAL LIFE. (Angela and Kami).  SRB also writes some really complex, manipulative, unlikeable characters - particularly in The Demon's Lexicon.

Deb Caletti

 

What She's Written: If you're going to read a Caletti book, I highly recommend The Nature of Jade as a good starting place!

Why I Love Her:  First let me just say this: If you are a Sarah Dessen fan, I can almost guarantee you will love these books.  Deb Caletti is my favourite contemporary author (aka the only one I regularly read), and like Dessen she focuses a LOT of female friendships and family relationships.  Romantic interests aren't the main focal point in the story, and that's really important to me. She also has a lot of characters dealing with STUFF (mental illness, abuse, pregnant friends, etc.)  - but it never feels too dark or heavy (I am notorious for avoiding said things, so the fact that I can still devour says something).  And it always feels like said issues feel real, well researched, and dealt in a respectful manner.  I prefer her writing to Sarah Dessen's (who I do enjoy, but she's no Caletti) and Deb Caletti is SUPER unappreciated, so if I can get at least ONE person to read one of her books, I will feel like I've accomplished something in life.

Jacqueline Carey

 

What She's Written:  She's best known for Kushiel's Legacy. (Which I've mentioned several times. Because it's amazing.)

Why I Love Her: Holy COW this woman can write anything. I just read a paranormal series by her and it was fantastic (Multi-racial! A bi main character! Magic fun times!  Funny! Just a ton of fun to read) - and so, so, SO different from her Kushiel series, which I would basically describe as a better Game of Thrones.  YES I SAID THAT.  I mean...it's incredible.  Like Tamora Pierce, she's got loads of LGBTQA characters of many different races - most importantly? Both of her main characters are bi.  YOU JUST DON'T FIND THAT.  And the world building in Kushiel is...sooooo amazing. And it doesn't feel like it gets bogged down like it does in AGoT because the plot is intense and there's sex positivity (...so...much...)  and *FLAILS* it's basically one of my favourite discoveries of the past couple years.

So who made your list? Any of my authors?

Monday Musings: In which Elizabeth discovers she has some not very feminist ideas about love

I have recently come to (yet another) very startling and uncomfortable realization about myself:  I value what the male love interests want/need/think more than what the female love interest wants/needs/thinks.  Yeah. I said that.  And it goes against EVERYTHING I BELIEVE IN.  And I think I've always been this way, I just hadn't noticed it.  This is usually how love interest ranking goes in my head:

1. What boy wants/needs her more
2. What boy I think is best for her
3. What boy the girl thinks is best for her.

What kind of screwed up priority is that? 

It's most obvious to me when I am reading/watching a story where the girl is the one chasing the boy. I love it when the boy is pining after the girl - I can get super swoony over it (assuming it's not stalkerish. I'm talking Ren from Skip Beat sort of situation)  But I've realized something.  In K-Dramas more often than not, the girl is the one who is pining after the boy.  And a lot of the time I hate it. I spend the whole time asking my tv WHY? Why do you love this jerk?? This other dude is SO much better for you!!  (Ok, admittedly a lot of the relationships with the main love interests can be kind of abusive on the male end of things, so there are other things at play here).  If a girl is going after a guy who is clearly not into her, it makes me uncomfortable.

Why is that?

Why is it ok when I'm reading all these books with alpha males going after women who are resistant to the attention (at first)?  Admittedly, I'm not a big alpha male reader, but when it comes down to it...it doesn't bother me as much as the girl chasing the guy.

It suddenly put a conversation I had a long time ago with Christina in a whole new light for me.  I had mentioned that I shipped the other guy in Goong, not the main one.  And she had said that she totally didn't get that because my guy didn't care about making her happy, he cared about wanting her to be with him - which wasn't the same thing at all.  At the time I didn't get it and just brushed it off as a difference of opinion.  And who knows? Maybe on a rewatch I'd still agree with my original assessment - but in light of everything I've just realized about myself, it makes me think she more than likely has a really excellent point.  Because I do distinctly remember one thing: At no point does the MC ever show interest in my guy.  I just wanted her to be with him because HE wanted her to be with him. How is that any different from when the girl wants a guy who is totally not into her? (As was the case with the MC and her love interest at this point in the story)

So...how do I go about fixing this? It's a definite preference choice, I just happen to think that while it is totally ok for me to love men pursuing women, I need to be less critical of women pursuing men.  I think watching a ton of K-Dramas has helped that a little (it's definitely made me more aware).  But...do I just immerse myself in stories where the woman is doing the chasing? How does one actively change their opinion on something?