See, the last post was not just a one off! Onwards into shitposting February! Here's a bit of what I've been up to media wise.

Reading

I'm currently reading a ton of 2018 SFF so I can nominate for the Hugo awards, and right now I'm paying particular attention to the YA category (the Lodestar Award). So, I finished The Belles by Dhionelle Clayton, which wasn't so much my cup of tea. I just have to remember that I'm not a huge fan of concept SFF. Also, this book really was weird about lesbian relationships as willowcabins mentioned. The most prominent lesbian character dies horribly, and Amber and Camelia should obviously have been together. I know they call each other Sisters but they're not, as far as I can see, actually blood related...

I also finished Dread Nation by Justina Ireland which was way more my thing; African American women trained to fight zombies in an America where slavery has been outlawed but similar systems are still kept in place. I'd just watched Lucy Worsley's new three part series America's Greatest Fibs so I had a reasonable handle on the American history that Ireland was working with, which added to the book's interest for me. I really recommend this one; Jane's voice is just the kind of practical snark I enjoy, and I loved seeing the enemies to friends story line between her and Kate develop. Sidenote - Kate, it transpires, is asexual, and Jane is bisexual.

Right now I'm close to the end of A Blade so Black by L. L. McKinley, which is an urban fantasy YA adventure set in a re-imagined Wonderland. I'm enjoying lots of things about it, but I also keep getting distracted. I can't decide if it's because the book is so full of action and my mind glosses over action scenes, or if it's because my brain is just running a little distracted at the moment. *shrugs* Anyway it's worth picking up, and I'll have more to say about it when I finish up.


Watching

I finally started watching Friends From College, which is about Ethan and Lisa; a couple moving back to New York to start a family, who spend perhaps too much time reconnecting with their college friend group. Keegan Michael-Kay plays Ethan, a literary writer reluctantly moving into the YA world in order to sell his next book. I love how fast his character goes from 'YA is trash, and I will game this genre to make money' to 'Oh yeah, Bella and Edward! YA is the most exciting thing in literature right now,' although I really wish the series had some more up to date YA references >.> Ethan is also in the middle of a 20 year long-distance affair with Sam, one of the couple's "close" married friends (played by Annie Parisee) and it is not going to end well because they are both disaster human beings. Cobie Smulders plays Ethan's wife, and is obvs brilliant, particularly in the episode Mission Impossible where she deals with taking on IVF with a partner who seems less than enthusiastic. I also love seeing grown up Fred Savage in this, especially as the actor playing his partner is Billy Eichner (who played Craig in Parks and Rec) and I like when TV shows collide. My fav episodes so far have been All-Nighter, Mission Impossible and Party Bus, and I can't wait for the emotional pay off at the end of the series when surely the affair will be revealed to all?!

This is the first comedy I've watched since I started Love, and it kind of reminded me why I found that show so dissatisfying. I just like jokes, OK? I need to stop forgetting that when I'm picking out comedies to watch.

I'm also SO CLOSE to the end of the new Les Miserables TV drama - just one ep moooooorrrre. Urgh, idk, there is nothing really wrong with this series. In fact, its expansion of Fantine's back story was much appreciated. Dominic West makes a perfectly good Jean Valjean, and the same goes for David Oyelowo's Javert. It's just this adaptation feels very by the numbers with little stylistic innovation. I guess the team thought just making it not a musical, and adding in some of stuff from the book that the musical skates over, would be enough, but it's kind of... flat?

The same can be said for the film adaptation of The Little Stranger which I watched last week. I always knew a film would struggle to translate the book's class politics, and deliberately obscured ideas about what caused the happenings at Hundreds, to the screen without picking a more definite line about what actually happened. And, yeah, everyone in the film is good, and the atmosphere is spot on, but a lot of the book's brilliance lies in unsettling the reader with uncertainty whereas the film spells out what's happened. Also, the film lets Dr Faraday off the hook somewhat, which I should really be in favour of as I felt Waters almost linked the emerging middle class with malicious destruction in the book, but in the end I wasn't so much a fan of the treatment he got in the film.

What media has anyone else been getting into?

For anyone who I haven't told yet I'm now a Waterstones bookseller and will be working for the company up until around January sales. After that it's all a bit uncertain, but for now there's an interesting job and money :D I've been at our store for just over a month now and it's very interesting so far.

I am still not really over that charity shoplifting incident. I want to be able to go 'Well if you have to steal from a charity shop then you must be desperate and I feel for you, but please never come back and steal from my shop'. However, the reality is that this time it was a group of organised guys who targeted a charity shop because we don't have the security measures that are in place (or at least look like they're in place) at major retail stores. And the guy I spotted leaving our shop with stolen goods was so brazen - he went against everything in the training manual about stealing; he wasn't extremely shifty or extremely in my space, but I now recognise that he was probably trying to distract me while his buddies had a look around. I'm pretty paranoid at the moment, and making huge use of the devices in place to keep a check on people in particular sections of the shop while compensating by being extra pleasant to customers. It brought me down though, because - as a lot of you have asked via e-mail - who steals from the charity? I mean I knew people did (there's a shop in the same town that had all its cash taken four times in one year) but it wasn't quite a reality until I saw this guy walk off with something.

Hey ho, what do we do when life tries to crush our optimism? I chose to go shopping for books because I still have money. I had a small book spree this week, picking up:

"Take Back the Skies" - Lucy Saxon (because sky ships and, I assume, sky pirates)
"The Last Wild" - Piers Torday (lovely cover that I have been eyeing for a while)
"Why We Took the Car" - Wolfgang Herrndorf (because sometimes you want a book that sounds like pure fun)
"Daughter of Smoke and Bone" - Laini Taylor (finally, finally caved)

And I made some library plans, because they have "Broken Monsters", "The Haunting of Hill House", "The Promise of Blood" and some Patricia Highsmith books in. The library is amazing. I'm having a great library book run at the moment - just finished The Complete Stories of Alice Walker, which was a fabulous collection, and I'm now half way through "The Flamethrowers" by Rachel Kushner, a book which I am sure to be evangelising about soon.

Read this month:

The Best of All Possible Worlds - Karen Lord
Spirit Gate - Kate Elliot
Under the Tripoli Sky - Kamal Ben Hameda
Lagoon - Nnedi Okorafor (Huge rec to all my Mieville loving friends - the writing is a different style, but this book has just as much weird and sea creatures)
Mr Fox - Helen Oyeyemi

Currently Reading: The Chaos - Nalo Hopkinson

Purchased:

Too many. Among them:

Lagoon - Nnedi Okorafor
The Chaos - Nalo Hopkinson
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler
The Winner's Curse - Marie Rutko
Boy, Bird, Snow - Helen Oyeyemi
Gossip From the Forest - Sarah Maitland
Starbreak - Phoebe North
Valour's Choice - Tanya Huff
All the Bird's Singing - Evie Wyld
Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
Dirty Wings - Sarah McCarry

I should be writing big ol' reviews or something, but I wanted to say HI and I just saw this post on Tumblr about personal posts so here's a quick update.

Films

I re-watched "Catching Fire" for a podcast I'm doing with Renay and it was even better than I remembered. There are so many little moments that catch and hold. Can't wait for the final film now.

I went to see "X-Men Days of Future Past" this week and that story line is still as weird as anything :D It's one of my top three favourite stories from the X-Men cartoons, because I'm me and it's hard for me not to love something that just discards story continuity because time travel.

Still, I wasn't a huge fan of this film. I like the main cast from the first three films more than the cast from the films set in the past. So, a film which concentrates on young Charles and Magneto isn't going to be totally my flavour no matter how much Wolverine you shove in I'm afraid. And as always with this franchise the focus is on guys, although Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique was still much more prominent than I expected. Yay for Jennifer Lawrence trying to push her wonderful acting into this franchise. But, come on, we should absolutely have had more Blink.

However, I did love the bits of fan service that turned up. The ending was just the creators getting that everyone wants to see Jean again even if there's no real reason to bring her back. And I adore that this franchise is still on it with naked Wolverine. There were some uncomfortable dudebros in my screening during that scene which made me exceptionally happy - like OMG, this action film explicitly caters to the female gaze once. How squicky for you >.> And Fassbender was great as Magneto - I wish we could have a past and present film all about Magneto.

Today I'm off to see "Malificent" and I have big dreams and hopes for this film. Cross your fingers.

Books

"The Shadowed Sun" was fantastic. It's on my list to review.

I'm in the middle of "Sister's Red" for a project and I have a lot of feelings about it. I am mostly annoyed at the potential this story had and how it appears to be throwing that away.

I'm also re-reading "The City & The City". Crime + SFF = love.

And this is the weekend I'll be starting "Monsters of Men". It's finally happening!

TV

"Orphan Black" continues to be my main TV pre-occupation. I think it's the strongest program on TV at the moment, bar "Hannibal", despite a bit of a bumpy series two set up. Last week's episode with Helena appearing in the bloody wedding dress was just incredibly messed up and amazing. I'm also glad to see they appear to have figured out how to fit Rachel into the series because the first few episodes left her so marginal. And Art and Angie continue to be favs of mine so I hope there will be more of them.

I still await Paul's death eagerly.

I also saw the season finale of "The Mentalist" and I would really like it if this terrible series could be the last one we ever see. There was a lot I enjoyed about this series as a fan of the show's goofy side and the minor characters, but the concept for it was just terrible. And, while I believed Jane's emotion faces at other times in the series, the sequence on the plane felt so overdone I couldn't deal with it. By the way, did anyone think the idea of the plane scene was very tasteless considering recent history?

Is anyone watching "Happy Valley" the new crime show from the writer of "Scott & Bailey"? It started out shaky, but it's picked up and I love the family drama element.

Creative Stuff

So, I worked out which piece of fan-fic I want to do next and it is something almost no one I know will want - POI white guy shipping. The working title is "Five Ways to Communicate with Your Partner". We'll see how it goes.

I made a playlist for Wiscon 38's Vid Party called <http://wiscon-vidparty.dreamwidth.org/10922.html#cutid10">What Women Want: Agency, Control and Desire". I highly recommend all the vids I put on there - so many talented vidders. And you should go check out the other playlists too because they're great!

And I wrote a short review of a Hugo nominated short story over at LB. Hopefully short reviews of short fic will become a regular thing from me, in a series called "Short Business" (if you think too hard about names you never get anything done). I've already read another Hugo nominated short story and hope to review it soon.

Still got those top notch post titling skills ;P

I finished a book! Magic. I read "Grasshopper Jungle" by Andrew Smith. If you have teens who like books that talk about relationships and weird SFF creations without sparing the squishy, fluidy bits of the story then I recommend it. As Ana from The Booksmugglers said when I started reading it, warning for weirdness about ladies in places. There's also a lot of good stuff in there though.

I started "The Shadowed Sun" which is the second book in N.K. Jemisin's duology. It's great but I have to concentrate on the world building quite a lot so it's not an ideal bus book and as a consequence my reading progresses slowly. Reading it reminded me how much I liked the story and characters in "The Killing Moon" even though I thought it had quite a bit of awkward explaining shoved in places (which makes so much more sense now that I know this was written before her trilogy). I'm kind of holding my breath until the end of this book because Jemisin does kill central characters and I'm worried about a couple of my favs.

I bought a shit ton of books. Like, possibly too many all at once considering how little I've managed to read so far this year.

I wrote and posted a piece of fan-fic for a challenge and then wrote about how this wasn't as terrible an experience as I expected it to be.

I went to see the Vikings exhibition at the British Museum and it was amazing, but really busy. If you're thinking of seeing it I advise going when you think the whole place will be quieter because the larger sections of the exhibit (the boat) are doable with people around but the first part clog up super quickly due to the way the timed entry system is set up.

I also went to The London Aquarium, which was kind of disappointing. Pretty sure my city's aquarium is better... I expected it to be more like the Monaco museum and aquarium I suppose, but it was more windy and small inside apart from the shark and ray tanks - more like the kind of aquarium you get tacked on to a zoo. I did learn lots of interesting things about sharks though.

I saw "Pompeii". Hahahaha. It actually was a pretty good B-movie until the last half an hour where it got dull-stupid instead of hilarious-stupid and killed my favourite character. I also watched "The Love Punch" which was exactly what I wanted from this film (this cast all talking to each other - I am easily pleased), except it could have done with more jokes. "Locke" predictably came out for a week here and then disappeared so I'll have to catch it on DVD.

I watched "Orphan Black" and I'm so happy it's back.

Tomorrow is Read-A-Thon :D I've made very hermit like plans this year and will mostly be reading rather than checking in online. So, I'm just leaving a post now for any cheerleaders who might want to come and say hi. Thanks so much for dropping by anyone - cheerleaders are so valuable and I always love getting their comments of encouragement.

In other reading news I feel like making reading plans for next month aside from the couple of projects I am working on with people. I just can't decide which set of plans to fix on so I thought I'd see if anyone had any opinions. There are two choices:

Plan One - Books Recommended By Friends

Mission: Spend May reading some of the many book recommended to me by friends.

"Twilight Robbery" - Francis Hardinge
"Rosemary and Rue" - Seanan McGuire
"Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight" - Kelly Sue DeConnick
"The Disreputable History of Frankie Landeau Banks" - E. Lockhart

Plan Two - Complete the Series

Mission: Complete some of the many, many series I've started but haven't finished (mostly because the end of a series is weirdly sad even when you really want to know what happens).

Books 3 & 4 of the Queen's Thief Series - Meghan Whalen Turner
"The Shadowed Sun" - N K Jemisin
"Rapture" - Kameron Hurley
"Monsters of Men" - Patrick Ness
Breaking Dawn" - Stephanie Myer
"Cold Steel" - Kate Elliott
"Half a Crown" - Jo Walton

Want to help me make hard choices? Then leave a comment below. And if you think there's anything I should add to either list let me know :)

As I am doing some work development stuff right now there will be no more work chat here for a while (still terrible though). I'm actually wondering whether to go back and friends lock past posts about this job but then I think this place is so small and mostly disassociated from my real name it is hard to find. Idk, opinions?

This year has been a huge bust for media totals so far. I have read seven books, including one super fast to read comic book collection and one graphic novel. I have obsessively listened to one album ("Bad Blood") for two months, ignoring several other tasty new treats. And I haven't made any progress on my SFF classics film watch. TV - if it's not on live I'm not making much progress even though I really want to mainline episodes of POI. I just need a few more hours!

When I have been getting round to new media I've mostly been sticking with comfort watching and reading. I watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" which I thought was adorable - cartoon "Jurassic Park" with puns. It's a full on kids film instead of a "there's something for everyone" animation, which made a change. I saw standard but cool SFF dystopia "Divergent" which was rocking in some places but also had a very generic male lead (and didn't punch me in the heart nearly as hard as "The Hunger Games"). I still think the actor playing Eric should be the love interest *pouts*. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" was charming and pretty, despite being full of odd artistic decisions regarding women. "The Book Thief" just wasn't as interesting in film format even though I so wanted it to be.

Books: I'm currently reading the new John Le Carre novel, because when in doubt I tend to hit up experimental female novelists who glory in prose or old school male novelists whose rapid prose sweeps you along. This book is silly and dramatic and focused on the small details - all the things I liked about Le Carre's Smiley novels in a modern setting.

And I'm watching a mixed bag on TV. "The Musketeers" is over and this is a constant source of distress to me. How did this happen when I hated it to start? "Mr Selfridge" is over and my favourite pairing came off against all odds. "The Mentalist" is weird now, but hurray no one important is dead and Cho is in the FBI! I've been introduced to "Rev" which is kind of charming. The first episode of "Crimson Fields", the big WWI drama from female perspectives was OK and maybe it will get even better as the women get to know each other? Suranne Jones is in it so I have high hopes. And I'm sort of watching the last series of "How I Met Your Mother" if I happen to catch the episodes on repeat.

So, yes, that's what I've been spending my time on. April is a little dull - less social things to go to. But lots of plans are getting made for later in the year which is exciting. Roll on Easter and two days free holiday I say!

the literary omnivore wanted to know about my songs of the moment.

First an apology – I was convinced this was for 24th not 21st! Sorry it’s late!

You’ve caught me at a good time for musical obsession because I am currently tied up in a few songs. Can’t promise quality, but I like them (I’m pretty well known for my love of mainstream pop-folk):

"Daniel in the Den" – Bastille

"Bastille - "Daniel in the Den" lyrics" (Watch on YouTube)

I am in love with this whole messy album (how many folk trends you gonna put in one project, son?).

"A Certain Romance" – The Arctic Monkeys

"Arctic Monkeys - A Certain Romance" (Watch on YouTube)

I’m kind of collecting critiques of British small town living done by insiders.

"Candy" – Robbie Williams

"Robbie Williams - Candy" (Watch on YouTube)

In my head this plays alongside a vid detailing Caroline Forbes’ character evolution.

"Riverside" – Agenes Obel

"Riverside - Obél [ + Lyrics ]" (Watch on YouTube)

Still stuck on this – it’s been about a year now. There's just so much delicacy in here, but it's matched with firm chords that give it a real spine.

"Hey Brother" – Aviccii

"Avicii - Hey Brother" (Watch on YouTube)

Someone could use this to make a really great Firefly fanvid…

"Counting Stars" – One Republic

"OneRepublic - Counting Stars" (Watch on YouTube)

And to finish, an adorable of the moment pop-folk deal which reminds me of a million YA books.

Nymeth said: ‘Tell us about something you're super into right now! It can be a song, a sport, a TV series, a website, you name it. Just something you really like and why it's important to you.’

OMG LET’S TALK ABOUT PEAKY BLINDERS!

This is Peaky Blinders:

"Peaky Blinders: Series launch trailer - BBC Two" (Watch on YouTube)

So now you’re like well how is this program different from any other historical gangster program full of white dudes?

This program is set in Birmingham. Almost no one sets TV dramas in the West Midlands.

Five things I love about it:

1.) Peaky Blinders is set just after WWII and it’s very frank about the psychological damage done to men by war. Tommy Selby, the leader of the Peaky Blinders gang, uses opium to block out memories of his time in the mining crews; his big brother Arthur has regular bouts of depression and in the first episode Tommy’s friend Danny ‘Whizzbang’ displays serious shell shock. This may be a common theme in WWI and WWII programs but this particular program is special to me because it’s about West Midlands men. Our region’s history is pretty absent from mainstream media.

2.) While full of social history, Peaky Blinders is also a solid crime drama. It’s plots are constructed around a "Hustle" style format – the plot sends you one way and everything looks bleak, but there’s a reveal which changes everything. Some critics felt that the constructed drama of these plots are a detriment to the show and that it would have been better if it were solely a social piece. I disagree. Peaky Blinders kind of amazes me because it combines a number of genres into a wholely satisfying piece – it’s running a little technical challenge inside itself. Can it be a crime thriller, a social history piece, a quirky artistic project and a family drama all at the same time without collapsing under these competing elements?

Programs don’t have to be the same as "The Village" or Call the Midwife in order to be a successful piece of historical drama is what I’m saying. There are other ways.

3.) A small thing, but there’s this scene where a character is trying to bring music back to the local pub (there hasn’t been music since the war because Tommy doesn’t want any) and she sing “The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery” to this pub full of burly West Midlands men. And at the chorus they all sing along. It’s this lovely soft moment that shows how much they’ve missed music and the way they look at Grace is all tenderness as if her voice makes her an angel.

One of the things I like about this program is how much compassion there is mixed in with the violence. It takes the time to show people being human and loyal even as they struggle to maintain dominance and control.

4.) Grace is fantastic and I can’t say more without spoiling, but take it from me she is a surprise package. Her romantic story is reasonably easy to predict, but that doesn’t make it any less electric.

5.) You know I have a thing for people inhabiting their characters and turning out these physical performances. So many people are killing that in this program. Cillian Murphy, who plays Tommy Shelby, is especially impressive (even if his accent is variable) and you get this real sense of menace coming off him every time her enters a room. Even when he’s being gentle he’s a bomb waiting to go off. The actors playing his brothers and his Aunt Pol also have that whole ‘caged lions’ vibe running through them.

The first series of Peaky Blinders just finished, but I’m excited for the second especially because it’s been announced that Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley will be joining the cast! Hopefully the ending of series one will turn out to have a massive trick-reveal behind it and the internet will explode all over this show.