Haunted Mirror

Draft of Seditious Intent done! Though it's a really crappy one, I've decided that's okay. I've got Story, we're good for the moment.

Two books I think everyone who ever drops through here should read:

The Face in the Frost (John Bellairs)
one line press? I just finished reading this and am now insanely eager to OWN a copy. Munnies must come first, munnies must come first...

Women Who Run With the Wolves (Clarissa Pinkola Estes)
a book about love, life, and stories from all over that teach us (especially women) about it.

I'll add reasons here once I'm done reading the chillens more Skulduggery Pleasant.
ETA~ I's back! So, without any further ado,

So today's rather-than-writing programme included LotR behind the scenes snippets, The Cat Returns (Ghibli anime--not as wonderful as Miyazaki but I love that Baron), and a few stories out of the Wizards anthology.

I also am behind by about a week getting my thoughts on The White Darkness together here. So.

Geraldine MacCaughrean's YA The White Darkness again tackles a whole different sort of story than she's written before with close attention to how this particular story needs to be told. This one is about a girl who loves Antartica, and especially "Titus" Oates, of Scott's doomed party of explorers. And the story here MacCaughrean decided to match to that historic background. I'd describe it as--



I've enjoyed all the stories in Wizards a lot, so now I know how to look for short stories I want to read. ^_^ Magazines are harder for me to get into.

"AND HE'S THE GOOD GUY."

    So, I read this book in the last couple of hours. It was so. blinking. good.

I'd review it, but I'm incoherently happy with it. "There is too much. I will sum-up."
    ~   I read a lot of books I think are funny. I rarely laugh aloud. This kept me laughing consistently in a few different veins of humor. And Skulduggery himself was funnier than he's even made out to be.
    ~   It gets to the action-adventure movie kind of fights blocking...but not belaboured.
    ~   Stephanie, the heroine, has very unusually realistic ways of thinking.

If you can bear YA, try it. If it's not for you, I'll understand--or, not really. But I'm not so cool as to kill you.
Remember this now:

I am really having trouble being productive on my days off. I think it's because I don't have a novel centering them, which is the usual arrangement. I finished the last novel project I'd been concentrating on months ago. I've been focusing on editing since then, and short stories, but it's just not the same.

And still, I'm not to the place I should be on research. Yet because my days aren't centered I find it hard to get around to the reading that I should be doing--it's what I pad the crevices of my days with.

I find vicious circles rather fascinating. They fall in the same category as paradoxes--the conundrum, I guess. Tautology.

I may have something fascinating to say about Alaska, or the Wild Woman, or quilting in a bit, but for now I pulled this quote from "Women Who Run With the Wolves" and think it's rather a gem:

She cannot develop by standing around being everyone's bootjack.

This is in a discussion of the psyche insights of the story about Vasalisa & Baba Yaga & the Doll her mother gave her. It's so far the most fascinating chapter, but I love the way this book lionizes the feminine intuition at large.

Right. Just what I needed: a new, demanding story idea and opener!

Well, I wrote more of it than this, but for the Tuesday that is coming to a close I give you:
Jamie Duluth was considered to be in the world's top tier of Spirituals. He was also going to be a legacy student at Friedenheimer Institute of Higher Attainment. He wanted to be a normal kid. Honest.
...Oh, just leave me alone!

I'm actually in one of my idea-spurts, so this is not totally unexpected.
It is also totally explicable in terms of my reading:

The great question in life of today is--if a book's bad, do you go on reading it?

I've got Maximum Ride here. I have it for a friend's recommendation (though that was a bit of a warning, actually) and a study. At least I thought a study.

Turns out, the Avatars books by Tui T. Sutherland are actually thought provoking in the way I need to put perspective on my lame little supers book. And this...well it's got that way of writing, which is crutch-ridden, overspoken so I can't enjoy a sentence of it. Not a one. Especially since the 14 year old girl sounds like what in a random pass I'd figure was a 17 year old boy.
Sexist? I still will claim there's a difference.
Even a precocious tomboy girl with a lot of stress on and violence to deal with I'm not sure would sound like so bit-off sentence male.

The problem is not that it couldn't work. But because J Patterson is a guy, it makes me suspect he doesn't have the chops to imitate how a girl talks.
I think this is a problem unique to me, but I'm just not that impressed.


I think I'm going to use my time reading something I like better. Or watching the Fullmetal Alchemist mini-series volume this same friend loaned me. Because while I'm agonizing about how to read all the stuff I'd rather not that she's excited about, I don't have any reservations about borrowing some of the anime.
I know I'm going to come off as picky to her. Which I am.
I don't put up with stuff I don't like.
I do like lots of things, though! I mean, is it a crime to avoid that sort of lazy writing you dislike most?

Mini-review for posterity
All-American Girl (Meg Cabot): kudos for a red-head goth girl heroine who blushes as easily and immaterially as we all do--I *heart* voice--though there's no significant difference in underpinning plot from her other books.

So, this is not books that came out this year, but ones I've read this year. Last year I just journalled this for myself, but making up categories to award books I want to talk about is really fun. Tell me about yours, too!

( Haven't heard enough about my reading this year? )

[BTW: eBear's laudable lyric-quoting post titles got it started, but mine are mostly quotes from the day's writing, as a sort of earmarker for me.]

Uq, it's nice to not have to type everything after writing it. At the same time, my pacing's off. I bummed around today.

Well, except for a Hospice Care Volunteering Training hour. We'll finish in  few weeks, but meantime, I've scored major information on death and people dealing with dying.

Which is a pretty big deal; fantasy deals with deaths all the time, and I'm going to milk this for all it's worth.



Here, a One Sentence Review on Neverending Story:

The script-writers picked a good cut-off point, but Ende reminded me of his Momo-self in the Other Half; and PS I love Atreyu.

Last time I asked about comfort books, and this is almost more a specified version of that question.

What are your favorite childrens' books? I mean picture book/early reader style children's books, not middle grade.
What were your favorites?

And, of course, WHY?

Have you given up picture books? Or do you still occasionally pick up a Berenstein Bears if it's one you never saw before?

*guilty!*

~ETA~

This was meant for a fan community I'm in, where I lead the OT book discussions. I still am happy to talk about it with everyone. Just letting you know because...
It's happened before.
It will happen again.

I'm sorry about it every time. For myself, that is, because I get to post it where it belongs late.