Entertaining in a Disturbing Way

1. I am always wary of urban fantasy. Most of it has a set-up that usually includes paragraphs explaining how Awesome and Different and Hot and Rebellious and Hot and Leather-clad and Hot and Desirable the female lead is. And while a lot of people seem to like that, I pretty much stop reading within the first few pages. I don't care how hawt and desirable and pursued your heroine is. I don't care how many vampires/werewolves/zombies lust after her. There's always great detail given to clothing, as well. Leather pants or denim jeans, high-heels or combat boots. Everything is used to describe how New and Different and SO AWESOME the lead is.
( This got unexpectedly long. No spoilers that can't be read on the book jackets )

Out of curiosity, I picked up The Women Who Lived For Danger: The Agents of the Special Operations Executive. It's written by Marcus Binney, who had access to all sorts of documents and stuff. (ladyspies in WW2 are amazing, this book aside)

And while nominally about the women, it constantly, CONSTANTLY talks about the men, the men, the men. It's also framing these women as "delicate, gentle, sensitive creaturess" who are not "manly" or "horsey" or "tomboyish", and they look pretty in crinolines or whatever.

Because their ability to be pretty is all that REALLY counts, especially as they're not those ugly mannish types of women.

Also, there's a sense of "how dare she" in the bits about Christina Granville, as she had many lovers and was also married at the time--I just get this sense the author Highly Disapproves (and also keeps making comment on her many lovers. WE GET IT. SHE HAD SEX A LOT. MOVE ON AND TELL ME ABOUT HER COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS, godamn)

Then, worse, at the end of the chapter on Granville (who was brutally murdered in 1952 by a man who'd been stalking her--or what we'd consider stalking today, he basically was turned down by her and then decided if he couldn't have her, no one could), "Yet it will forever remain a puzzle as to why a woman who had lived with danger for so long, whose antennae were usually so finely tuned, allowed such a threatening situation to develop. She recognised the warning signs of course, but for once only when it was too late. Had life lost its edge for her after so many setbacks?"

(emphasis all me)

GETTING MURDERED WAS ALL HER FAULT. BECAUSE SHE WAS DEPRESSED AND SAD AND DIDN'T NOTICE HER STALKER IN THE SAME BUILDING WITH HER.

Actually, the last paragraph of the chapter is all about her (male) lover, who requested that his ashes be buried along with her. While I'm sure that's sweet, it's just as obnoxious. The chapter should have ended on Granville, who was the SUBJECT of it, not on the dude she had sex with.

(also, invading poland has never been so appropriate, before. Christina was, after all, Polish, and worked undercover in Poland)

Dragondrums was oddly endearing, once I'd got past some of the early bits. Mirrim's Impression is in this one, so I feel a little better (I do wonder if McCaffrey had something against officious young women, though). It does, however, suffer a bit from "stuff is going on in other books you should know about!" syndrome, which makes a few of the scenes make no sense. It also has more of the "Menolly looooves Robinton" stuff, and it's still eckth.

I don't recall ever liking Toric, and I like him even less than before. Self-serving obnoxious men. ugh.

Also, Robinton makes a really peculiar statement at one point. He says he doesn't approve of ambition and thinking for oneself! And here I would have thought he would be a high proponent of critical thought and the uses of ambition.

(the library lost Renegades of Pern, so I shall have to try for it again)

The Miser of Mayfair (yes, I know it was on the previous list) - the heroine is treated as a simple, stupid girl and manages to out-fox them all. I highly approved of her. (she is amazing, and sneaks into a house at one point.) It does suffer from the hero being an asshole a bit, but he's termed a 'misogynist' in the novel (which I found hilarious, given that he's one of the few males who treats women as people).

The Banishment - The first volume of the Daughters of Mannerling details the fall of the family that lives in Mannerling, and how the (six) daughters plan to scheme their way back into the house. It also has a reaaaalllly creepy under-current about the house (which is that it's evil), and one of the girls tries to kill herself because they'll never live in Mannerling again.

List:
The Banishment by Marion Chesney
Miss Tonks Turns to Crime by Marion Chesney
Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey

1. Scott and Bailey is back. I'm fairly certain my gleeful happiness could be heard all up and down the street. My thoughts basically boil down to: <3 <3 <3 OMG Gill's bff from the other syndicate <3 <3 Gill! <3 Janet! Janet's mum! Rachel! <3 etc, etc, etc.

2. Lost Girl is having its season finale next Sunday. What am I going to do while it's on hiatus? *angsts* (that said, 2x21 <3)

3. Mac was back in the latest Phryne Fisher installment (hurrah!). The show continues to be entertaining fluff. With dead bodies.

4. I plowed my way through Dragonsdawn last week (maybe plow is the wrong word, as I mostly enjoyed the re-read, though I disliked Sean Connell a lot more than I did the last time), and skimmed straight through Dragonsong and Dragonsinger last night (OMG THE TEEN ANGST OMG).

4a. This was because I'd managed Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern not that long ago, and didn't hate it. Which is possibly faint praise, as it hit many of my kinks like WORLDWIDE EPIDEMICS and people desperately running against the clock to saaaaave everyone and Moreta basically pwning everyone's balls.
( Read more... )

1. The Secret History of Moscow - I'm enjoying this, but taking my time, as I feel as though I'll be left with nothing else to read if I finish it.

2. Nextwave: Agents of HATE volume 2: I Kick Your Face HOLY GOD WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE? ahem. ok, so it's not that earth-shattering, but it is still terribly hilarious. And wrong at times. It also has a mental soundtrack composed of Venture Bros/Cowboy Bebop tunes. (I might also ship Elsa/Tabitha/Monica in a quasi-we-don't-do-relationships way

3. La Femme Nikita. I'm really hoping this show stops being uninteresting and, um, pointless soon. Also, I'm not sure I can suffer Nikita's horrible bangs for much longer. (I managed the pilot and the second episode, but the third episode was eye-rollingly meh and I stopped in the middle) It would help, I expect, if I liked any of the characters.

4. Defying Gravity. I was holding off until I had all of the discs. Smart move, on my part. I've ripped through nine episodes so far. I really, really like it. Women! They talk to each other and have impact on the plot! I love the shifting back and forth between training and the missions, and even some of the set design. And I'm such a sucker for team-bonding and silliness, and this pretty much hits all of those kinks at well. also, the femslash, it writes itself

5. Pretty Little Liars. You know, I keep seeing people complaining about how Glee treated the lesbian sub-plot, and here's PLL quietly meandering on with its own lesbians (bi-racial lesbians, one of whom could easily be bi as well) and no one's watching it. I find that hilarious, but unsurprising. Emily's family is painful, but well-written. If only Ezra would get hit by a bus. (this show fills me with such gleeeee. =D)

I think I need to re-watch it before I know what I think?

Meanwhile, here is that song towards the end (ripped from youtube, so, not the best version) Johnny Hollow's 'Nova Heart' - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RH4D56NL

2. REAL LIFE.

I couldn't get into the car this morning, I also bent my key something ridiculous. Did manage to get in with applications of a hot water bottle. So, I wasn't too late.

I also bent one of my nails back halfway down the length, and you can see where the fold was as my nail polish has a crack all the way across. Typing wasn't so fun (and isn't).

(and yes, it wasn't that cold, but it was still very dnw.)

3. LEVERAGE OMG. <3 I am not coherent about that at all. But it was awesome (if you consider this a spoiler, might I remind you that EVERYTHING LEVERAGE DOES EVER is awesome to me? Yes, even the 'bland' episodes). I also might have spent yesterday watching every Tara Cole episode. <3

4. dear CK, please cease stomping my heart into the floor (even if I wanted to loathe Daniel Sparks to hell and back, I still managed to get over it by the end, and, and, Mrs. McVinnie. *sniffles*). I can only hold out hope that some stupid publisher will manage to reprint some of her older stuff Reforming Lord Ragsdale, why did I not steal you from the library lo those many years ago?.

....I lost my train of thought back there. Mostly, it's Christmas season, so I've been re-reading Carla Kelly's body of work in order to crush my soul. (even if there's happy endings). I think the one about the Oxford Career is up next (I've got short story anthologies, too. *suddenly more cheerful*)

1. I have finally found some urban fantasy worth the paper it was printed on: Lyn Benedict's 'Sins & Shadows' and 'Ghosts & Echoes'. I actually managed to read the second one first, as it was the only one the library had, but it was a pretty swift read (though I doled it out over the week to keep myself happy), and I'm already five chapters into the first one and enjoying it intensely.

Reasons: a) not in first person. b) major character is a woman, her personal assistant is a woman, the book's very keen on her relationships with her sister and the PA (who is also her friend). c) NO GRATUITOUS SEX. There's an exceedingly hot kissing scene, and some other bits and pieces, but there are not pages of mindless rutting. d) plooooot. So much plot I was gleeful, even if I figured some bits out before Sylvie did. e) DOES NOT SPEND PAGES on telling the reader HOW HOT the lead is, or everyone around her is, or what she's wearing down to her panties (there's the sort of casual, passing "man, X is hot" type thing, but not the "I am SO irresistable, I am short and curvy with curly hair and I wear skin-tight leather!" crap that every other urban fantasy [outside of War for the Oaks] has)

I would appreciate it if Sylvie got more sleep, though.

2. I gave up on the audio book of 'Murder is Easy' a third of the way into the third disc and put the last disc in to see what changes there were in the killer and such. Shockingly, they kept the killer the same, but her original motive was GETTING JILTED. Also, madness runs in her family. WTF. I'm not hugely fond of the motives given the killer in the Marple version, but at least it actually feels like something that could happen in reality. And isn't insulting.

Also, book!Luke is such an asshole. The only redeeming feature is that Bridget Conway is still MILES smarter than him.

3. Which left me listening to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and seriously wanting to strangle Michael York for all the whiny voices he used. (well, and Lewis for the "girls are too pretty to do battle" crap, and the rather annoying WITCHES AND GIANTS ARE EVIL EVILEVIL)

Also, Edmund is really annoying.

And? I'm sorry, but the pronunciation of Aslan just makes me think everyone is calling him Ass-man. This is not really helpful when he's supposed to be, like, all majestic. (My mother always said it 'azz-lawn', which made more sense and wasn't stupid-sounding)

1.

Click it. Fill things. Make requests. Feedback.

2. I listened to Rumpole Misbehaves at work today, and discovered that a, Hilda <3s Johnny Depp and b, Philly has lost her taste in men (then again, she did marry Claude, so perhaps it was never there). And, most astounding was c, Liz Probert has gone insane. (she's dating Claude now. WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?)

3. Managed to make my way aurally through a Vicky Bliss novel. I'm somewhat enamored of her, especially the part where she saved her boyfriend's ass. I'm good with stuff like that. (the novels are in first person, so I never managed to read them)

4. Um. I think I've sort of broken up with In Plain Sight via phone or something. I haven't watched for three weeks, and I don't miss it. No, wait. I miss what it was. I don't miss it since it came back.

And I picked up this Regency romance, because nothing can rope me in better like an entirely nonsensical summary:

A battle over territories becomes a battle of the sexes--and of the heart--when a British colonel posing as a priest and an adventurous young lady masquerading as a prince make reluctant allies in wartime France.

Seriously, you guys. A priest and a prince.

It's by April Kihlstrom, who isn't as good at nonsensical hilarity as, say, Metzger or Jensen. But she's generally amusing, if a touch melodramatic.

I am so looking forward to this.

I'm glad I picked this one up. Cartmel seems to have a little difficulty in juggling Ace as a teen rather than Ace as a super cynical soldier bitch, but it's all good. She has yet to blow anything up, which is depressing though, given the plot, she could boom Earth.

But the plot is interesting enough to keep me reading, and the Doctor got all pissy and bitch-slapped the stupid Psychiatrist, so it is amusing. And I like Major Bulldog Butcher.

*goes back to reading*

(ps. Moya's tires are now rotated, and my horn was DISCONNECTED. wtf? It is now back.)