While She Knits

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Gosh, it's been quiet around here!

What great things have you read recently that are totally obscure?  Something other people are unlikely to ever find on their own?

I'll go first:

Boris by Cynthia Rylant - if you've ever loved a pet, you'll like this one.  So sweet!  And, it's told in verse.

A teen sci-fi series that you'll like if you're a Star Trek nerd * - the Galahad series by Dom Testa.  A comet has infected the earth with a disease that is killing off all the adults.  As a last-ditch effort to save the human race, scientists build a spaceship to travel to another planet, and choose 251 disease-free teens who must learn how to get the ship there, and colonize the planet.  Lots of fun.  The first book is The Comet's Curse.



* No, not me.  Not a bit.

Comments

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

I'm debating whether I should respond to this... it might take a five paged essay to fully analyze something like this! Haha. Sounis always inspires the thinker in me; when I'm working on real life essays, I'm always drawing blanks.

I agree with Josef's actions speaking louder than words. He's not much of a talkative guy anyway.

Now that I think about it, it's kind of hard to describe the damages they both incur. Your second point about blame made me think of something that worried me in Spirit Eater. Do you think that the whole "Master of Myself" approach is potentially suggestive of victim-blaming? I understand that it's actually a way to unlock the full potential of a wizard, and maybe I shouldn't be over and psycho analyzing things, but even though I thought that technique was really cool on one hand, I thought it had some pretty sad implications for the way Nico has been handling things. Because if she is the "master of herself" then it implies that her whole suffering is her fault, because she let it happen. Tesset always tells her that nothing she doesn't want to happen to her would if she's got enough control and understanding, and so when bad things do happen to her, she blames herself. That's also one of the things the demon manipulates her to do; every time she couldn't save Josef, the demon tells her it's her fault. I mean, I understand that as readers we blame the demon for all the suffering Nico had to go through, but I'm not so sure if she believes she's as blame-free as she should be. Maybe it's just the phrasing of "letting things happen to her" that gets me uncomfortable, because it really undermines the violation she experiences under the demon's hands.

And with Irene, the lines are blurry as well. While I also think that Irene made the decision to take up queenship all by herself, did she really have much choice? I used to blame her for that as well, and I couldn't understand why she was so jealous of Helen when she was the one who decided to be queen of a country such as Attolia. I think this was one of my questions from a post earlier this year (ugh that horrible post... still feel bad about what happened there, sorry guys), and people enlightened me by saying that she didn't really have much choice in the matter. She would have probably been assassinated as soon as she was married off, or she would have lived a very bad life watching others screw her country over.

And would you look at that? Two ginormous paragraphs. This is quickly turning into an analysis... not a book recs post. Hmm, mods, just give me a warning if I'm stepping over the line!

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

I've got some thoughts - I'll send you a PM so we don't totally take over this WSK and also so we don't spoil anyone who is or os going to read the series.

But this is good - Now everyone sees how much we need people to discuss this sereis with XD

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

No way, Leng, I'm glad we are talkingggggg about boooooookssss!

Going to Amazon right now to order The Spirit War.

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

Yaay!

And The Spirit War was great, though The Spirit Eater was still my favourite. Last third if SW is definitely intense, but I spent most of the book heartsick for Nico. =P I've already pre-ordered the last book!