Reviews, book thoughts and opinions of one omnivorous reader.
Archive for February 2009
I don’t actually want to post any relevant or interesting content tonight, so I leave you with this all-too-imnportant question, the pondering of which could be essential to our very existance!
It’s the zombie apocalypse. Who will survive, the pirates or the ninjas? Why?
This is not a review post, but I thought maybe making a regular feature of random noodlings about what I’m reading as I’m inspired to do so would be fun. Especially because that way my initial thoughts can be compared to the final review.
I started Hope’s Folly by Linnea Sinclair, which, incidentally, released yesterday, and I’m loving it so far. Yes, I know I said the other day that the author’s voice wasn’t one I liked. But I’m allowed to be a flake, and this time, Ms. Sinclair is close to acquiring a new convert. I knew she could write a book I’d love. I just had to find it.
The Dock Five series, of which this is the third volume, is romantic space opera, and is much beloved by a lot of romance readers whose opinions I respect. Ms. Sinclair provides a lot of political intrigue as well as compelling romance. The first two books in the series were written in first person POV narrated by the heroine, a former fleet captain who finds her life intersecting quite often with a rogue of a space mercinary. (Mmm, space mercinaries.) The first two books were fun reads, with my major complaint being that I felt the hero was way more compelling than the heroine, which disappointed me because long-time readers know how much I loves me my strong female characters and kick-ass heroines in particular.
I’m not even a quarter of the way through Hope’s Folly, and I’m finding that my issues with the first two books aren’t present at all. The hero and heroine seem to be very complimentary. I knew I was going to love this chick when we are introduced to her as she’s leaving some guy’s bed. Usually it’s the hero in that situation, so the role reversal was wonderful. And she’s so *competent*, yet with a certain vulnerability that makes me want to give her a hug and take her out for ice cream.
The hero’s not bad, either. I like bad-boy alpha men as much as the next girl, but the honorable Boy Scout types have always appealed to me just that little bit more. Plus, I like that we actually see him being a leader, and he definitely seems like the kind of person who would be a good military leader.
I’m not entirely ready to become a fangirl of this particular author yet, but if the three quarters of the book I still have to read are as good as what’s kept me up way too late tonight, I may have to rethink that assessment.
Incidentally, you can read my TGTBTU reviews of the first books in this series here: Gabriel’s Ghost and Shades of Dark.
I was going to go all ranty McRant on the blog today about such diverse topics as:
Instead, I trolled my wordpress stats.
Someone wanted a review of “A Madness of Angels” by Kate Griffin.
Since I had heard neither of the book nor the author, I googled.
Here is the blurb about the book from her site.
When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford – Samuel Johnson
In fact, Dr Johnson was only half right. There is in London much more than life – there is power. It ebbs and flows with the rhythms of the city, makes runes from the alignments of ancient streets and hums with the rattle of trains and buses; it waxes and wanes with the patterns of the business day. It is a new kind of magic: urban magic.
Enter a London where magicians ride the Last Train, implore favours of The Beggar King and interpret the insane wisdom of The Bag Lady. Enter a London where beings of power soar with the pigeons and scrabble with the rats, and seek insight in the half-whispered madness of the blue electric angels.
Enter the London of Matthew Swift, where rival sorcerers, hidden in plain sight, do battle for the very soul of the city …
That actually sounds intriguing. I like the idea of reading an urban fantasy with such a well-defined sense of setting. Thanks to the random googler who probably did not find what they were looking for, I have yet another book to add to the TBR mountain. I e-mailed the author requesting an E-arc, which still seems like the most ballsy thing ever, so we’ll see if I can have one. And if I can, well… I’ll review it here!
I have not died. I’ve just been hit with the creeping crud from hell, and so no blog updates have been forthcoming.
I have been reading, though. Yestereday I read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for a class, and I’ll try to get a review up for it today. I’m reading a paranormal romance ebook at the moment, the review of which will be posted at TGTBTU. I also need to start Linnea Sinclair’s Hope’s Folly. I got the ARC before I realized that Sinclair’s writing voice, despite having many of the things I adore in any kind of speculative fiction writing, is just not one I particularly enjoy. Ah, well, third time’s the charm, I suppose.
Also, the list of half-started books I should finish one of these days perpetually mocks me, and yet, I have no desire to go back to any of them even though most of them seem like they’d be quite good if I got to the point where I got into them. Unfortunately, the sickness-related reading slump I’m having makes figuring out exactly what I want to read damn near impossible, as with the way my brain is functioning, books are either “too hard” or “sleepy-making”. Neither of which is condusive to my enjoyment.
Ah, well, enough whining from me. Life still moves on, and in my case, I have to collect laundry.
In which I review a romance classic.
Title: Flowers from the Storm
Author: Laura Kinsale
Genre: historical romance
Reason for Reading: This year I’m participating in the TBR challenge 2009 hosted by Avid Reader. This month we were to read a book that received a desert isle keeper designation from All About Romance. And no book has been more universally praised than this one. You can read the AAR review here.
Synopsis:
The Duke of Jervaulx was brilliant and dangerous. Considered dissolute, reckless, and extravagant, he was transparently referred to as the ‘D of J’ in scandal sheets, where he and his various exploits featured with frequency. But sometimes the most womanising rake can be irresistible, and even his most casual attentions fascinated the sheltered Maddy Timms, quiet daughter of a simple mathematician.
First Line: ” He liked radical politics and had a fondness for chocolate.”
My Thoughts: Maaan, does that synopsis ever suck hardcore. It’s true as far as it goes, but if that were really all there was to this book, I’d never have read it because I have so been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt. Relatively early on, Christian, Duke of Jervaulx, suffers what we would now think of as a stroke. He loses the ability to understand speech and to speak, so his grasping, money-grubbing family has him confined to a lunatic asylum. Archemedia Timms meets him there, but she’s seen him before. She finds his rakish character to be dissolute, and she hates it that her father is working with him on a mathematical paper. But seeing him in the asylum, Maddy experiences what Quakers call a Leading, and is moved to help Christian in his recovery, understanding that he’s not a lunatic, nor an idiot.
Given that the praise of this book has been effusive, I suppose the most immediate question is: did I like it? Yes, I absolutely did. Is it one of the best romance novels I’ve ever read? Up until about the last quarter of the book I’d have said yes. Would I recommend it? Possibly.
The premise is certainly unique. The characters are types that are all too common in historical romance, but the fact that we really get to know Christian as he deals with the aftermath of a stroke brings this story out of the realm of the ordinary into the realm of something really special. Christian is easily one of the most compelling romantic heroes I’ve read about in a long time. The growth he goes through in the course of the book, from cad to devout husband, is truly wonderful to watch, as is his recovery from the stroke. He totally had me from the beginning, and I cheered at his successes and wanted to cry for him at his setbacks.
Then… well… there’s Maddy. Maddy frustrated me, because I felt that there was a lot of potential there. She could have been a wonderful character. I wasn’t bothered by her Quaker convictions. Some of my very best friends in the world are Quakers, and I could tell Ms. Kinsale did her research. Even toward the second half of the book, I was interested in Maddy’s struggle as she finds herself living more in the world than she ever wanted to.
Except… There came a point where her stiff, prim “thee-thou” ways got on my nerves. Since I loved Christian, I hated that, toward the end of the book, in a lot of ways it’s Maddy that makes him suffer because she’s so unbending in her principles, and she doesn’t even try to understand where he’s coming from.
One of the complaints I’ve seen about this book is that Maddy is also not very proactive. That bothered me, too. Given the stick she had up her ass, I wasn’t surprised when she turned out to be one of those historical heroines who is always whining about what a slut they aren’t. I can live with that. But I wanted her to come to the realization that she needed Christian as much as he needed her. I wanted her to reach this conclusion on her own, instead of… what happened. That didn’t exactly convince me, and given Maddy’s nature, I half expect that she’ll eventually get another bee in her bonnet and flounce away again or something.
In the end, I found Maddy to be too much of a self-sacrificing martyr, and I found some of her actions to be extremely hypocritical. But to be fair, Christian, even toward the end, has a tendency to be a self-serving jerk, so I’m forced to conclude that I’ve got to give mad props for Ms. Kinsale’s ability to create three-demensional characters.
That all being said, I’m not normally someone who notices prose and style, but this book was gorgeous. I particularly loved the way she wrote Christian’s experiences with the world around him. His recovery is charted gradually in how well he understands and relates to those around him.
And while I don’t know anything about England of the day, I felt Ms. Kinsale definitely did her research. She obviously learned a lot about Quakers, which was the most fascinating bit for me. (I never would have thought that the Quaker practice of “plain speech” (using the now quaint “thee and thou”, not acknowledging titles, etc.) would really piss off, say, the aristocracy. (Note: For those interested in modern Quaker application of plain speech, Google reveals this fascinating blog entry.)
My Verdict: Whatever faults I may have found with the heroine, I can’t fault Ms. Kinsale as a storyteller. I was absolutely hooked on this book, and think it is one of the most moving romances I’ve read. A B+ for all of that alone.
I’m afraid there isn’t going to be much content today, and probably won’t be for most of tomorrow, because life has become… interestingly busy. So here, have a meme.
Grasping for the Wind has an interesting meme going on.
From his blog:
Here is how it works: Find a favorite book, movie, or videogame review (Science fiction and fantasy related) that you have written, no matter where it was posted, and add it to the following list. Make sure to repost the whole list, because in doing so, we accumulate what the reviewers themselves think is their best work, and give each other some linkages, increasing everyone’s rankings.
I wasn’t actually sure what to post as my best review, and I think I’ve grown quite a bit as a reviewer. Actually, as of this writing, I think my best review is one that’s pending approval at TGTBTU, but since I have no idea yet what that link will be, I think I’ll pick my recent review of American Gods.
I’d always heard that there was great fun to be had, as a blog owner, in looking up random statistics and finding out how people found your site. So I installed a plugin that does it for me right on my admin console page.
The major google hits so far have been people looking for “big, beautiful men”, which I still maintain will not be the next big thing in romancelandia. But that’s not my favorite google stat so far.
All I have to say to the poor hopeless schmuck looking up “reaction paper white privilege” who wound up here is… Honey, you have got the wrong blog. I have a hard enough time writing my own reaction papers without writing yours, too.
In which I review a seriously overhyped YA SF novel.
Title: Little Brother
Author: Cory Doctorow
Genre: science fiction
Excerpt: You can actually download the whole thing here
Reason for Reading: It had been on my radar for quite a while, but it wasn’t until Thea reviewed it that I decided to try it.
Synopsis:
Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.
When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
My Thoughts: If you go to the Amazon page linked above, you’ll see lots of critical acclaim for this book. That’s how it got to my attention, so I eventually knew I had to read it to see if the hype amounted to anything. To be fair, there’s a lot going for this book, not least of which is the fact that it can be downloaded for free from the author’s site. I also really like what Doctorow has to say, but the fact is, when I read, I want relatable characters, and Little Brother didn’t provide. Not only that, but I just felt like there was too much Doctorow in the story and not enough Marcus.
Little Brother is set in that famous science fiction construct, Twenty minutes into the future. It’s a future that is not unlike our present, and from what little googling I’ve done afterword, seems likely to happen. Unfortunately, this trope will probably make the book seem dated in a few years. At least, one hopes. When terrorists attack San Francisco, Marcus Yallow and his friends are at the wrong place at the wrong time and are picked up by Homeland Security and interrogated. They’re suspicious of Marcus because he doesn’t give the passwords he’s got on all his technology right away. After a humiliating interrogation, Marcus and his friends are released, minus one of their number, and Marcus is determined to fight against the injustices perpetrated by the DHS.
What really worked for me about this setup was the use of technology. It all seems so very plausible that I half want to find myself an XBox and see if I can use it to get online. If anything, I learned a lot about what technology can do, and Doctorow’s extrapolations about where it can go from here are fascinating.
Unfortunately, as I said, the characters leave something to be desired. Marcus is likeable enough, but he’s so encumbered by Doctorow’s message that he’s never quite allowed to escape and become a three-demensional character. The few moments of vulnerability he experiences are quite moving, but then he figures out how to solve his latest problem, and I was never left in any doubt that in the end he would prove victorious, since he was basically the author’s self-insert. His friends aren’t given much more depth, either, though I did quite like his love interest. And the less I say about the DHS goons, the better.
Speaking of self-inserts, there really are a lot of them in this book, and I mean that literally. Doctorow dedicates every chapter to a different bookstore. This brought me out of the book every time it happened, and while I’m sure that the information is excellent, it seems like highlighting his favorite bookstores is maybe something he should have done somewhere else. In addition to all that, Doctorow takes the opportunity to engage in massive amounts of fillibustering on everything from technology to politics and the threat to our rights to privacy. While I agree with most of his positions, this was seriously annoying after a while.
When the plot is allowed to happen, it is engaging, and there were moments where, despite massive eyerolling in the beginning, I enjoyed it. The climax, while rolling along about like I thought it would, had me glued to the edge of my seat, and I liked the end, which was positive without wrapping things up too neatly.
Final Verdict: Pauses in the action for the author to air his political views and characters who were flat and bland made this book’s interesting premise fizzle without ever getting a chance to work properly. My grade: A C-. Then again, I guess I get what I paid for.
Instead of doing anything productive today, I’ve been playing with my blog. You’ll notice that, instead of a list of links on the sidebar, there is now a page specifically devoted to links I love. I also updated the About me page, and there is now a handy contact form you can use if you ever decide you need to email me.
I really love all the stuff you can do with wordpress. Much of it is fairly useless to me, but it really is extremely customizable. I can even display my latest twitter posts.
Sadly, all this playing with my blog means I haven’t read anything at all today, so I think I may go rectify that situation.
The new text-to-speech feature on the Kindle is causing some concern for members of the Authors’ Guild. My reaction was and still is a resounding “WTF?” And, I find myself wondering what this could potentially mean for me as a blind consumer of ebooks.
I’ve long felt that New York publishing has done its damnedest to make sure that people like me never actually have a chance to be honest consumers. I guess my money as a blind consumer just isn’t good enough for New York. If it were, then books wouldn’t have the kind of DRM that actively prevents someone like me from reading whatever they want.
As it stands now, if I want to read a book around the time it is actually released, I have to either be in good enough with the author that they trust me with an ARC, or I have to hope that the book I want makes the New York Times bestseller list so that Bookshare will make it available quickly. (I’m not knocking Bookshare as a service, either! They do their best, and they provide a much-needed service for those of us with vision impairments. But they still don’t produce *every* book available. And that’s what I want as a blind consumer. I don’t want half-assed half-measures. I want to read anything available on ebook at anytime, anywhere. If a sighted reader has that ability, why the hell shouldn’t I? I’m even willing to pay exorbitant ebook prices to do it, for the sake of convenience.
The other thing about the Kindle issue is that some of the comments I’ve read seem to indicate that TTS software is this newfangled invention that has, up until the Kindle, never been a concern. Actually, this isn’t true. I have downloaded Text Aloud, which does essentially the same thing the Kindle TTS reader will do. It’s a shareware program that costs more depending on the kinds of voices you want to use, and it seems to me that the Kindle is just doing something similar. Incidentally, if you want to mess around with what TTS actually sounds like, you can go here and check them out.
Do I think there is room for improvement in text to speech software? Of course I do. Do I think the software will ever get to be so good that reading a book using it will be even remotely comparable to reading an audio book? No, I emphatically don’t. Machines just don’t have the human ability to express nuance and tone for one thing, and for another, no machine is going to be able to do such a simple thing as pronounce every word correctly.
I want the best for authors. I want to support them as much as I possibly can, and I want to make sure they can milk all the royalties they are capable of getting out of the publishing industry. But I think a solution needs to be found that will work for everyone, and especially the consumers. I want *more* access to the books I want to read, not less. Perhaps it’s latent paranoia, but what I don’t want to see happen as a result of this brouhaha is more restrictions placed on ebook formats that will make it even more impossible for me as a consumer to have access to them.
In which Amanda Feral herself is way cooler than I’ll ever be, and yet I found her charming rather than annoying.
Title: Happy Hour of the Damned
Author: Mark Henry
Genre: Urban fantasy
Excerpt: here
Reason for Reading: Mostly a lot of hype, and I was curious about a zombie heroine.
Synopsis:
Seattle. One minute you’re drinking a vanilla breve, the next, some creepy old dude is breathing on you, turning you into a zombie. And that’s just for starters. Now, the recently deceased Amanda Feral is trying to make her way through Seattle’s undead scene with style (mortuary-grade makeup, six-inch stilettos, Balenciaga handbag on sale) while satisfying her craving for human flesh (Don’t judge. And no, not like chicken.) and decent vodkatinis.Making her way through a dangerous world of cloud-doped bloodsuckers, reapers, horny and horned devils, werewolves, celebrities, and PR-obsessed shapeshifters–not to mention an extremely hot bartender named Ricardo–isn’t easy. And the minute one of Amanda’s undead friends disappears after texting the word, “help” (The undead–so dramatic!) she knows the afterlife is about to get really ugly.
Something sinister is at hand. Someone or something is hellbent on turning Seattle’s undead underworld into a place of true terror. And this time, Amanda may meet a fate a lot worse than death…
My Thoughts: I have a love/hate relationship with urban fantasy. That is, I feel like I should hate it, and yet, most of what I’ve read has been quite good. I think my prejudices about the genre stem from the backlash to Laurell K. Hamilton, and so I keep expecting to encounter books featuring heroines who save the world with their magic koochies and bitch constantly about how life is soooo freaking hard what with a harem of men. And, actually, most of what I’ve read hasn’t fit that trope at all.
This book really doesn’t, either. It’s got a first person heroine, and she’s beautiful, but for the most part, that’s where the similarities end. Because saving the world? Not part of Amanda Feral’s busy schedule. It would probably make her stop being so glamorous, and that would be awful.
This book isn’t for everyone. If you’re at all squeamish, or you find off-color humor offensive, you might not appreciate Amanda’s often blunt, often gory account. Actually, I’m kind of squeamish, and I don’t find off-color humor funny in real life, though, and I loved this book, so take my advice for whatever you can.
Amanda is just a lot of fun as a narrator. She’s shallow and self-absorbed, but the intimate feel of the prose made me warm up to her quickly. I felt like I was having a chat with this woman… er… zombie… and the chatty style was a big factor in my connecting with Amanda.
The secondary characters aren’t nearly so vibrant, but they’re fun in their own way. The reader comes to care about them because Amanda does. Some of them are pretty stereotypical (the eventual villain is kind of transparent), but some of them are just fun. (Gil, Amanda’s gay vampire best friend) is a great parody of the emo vampire trope.)
The plot takes a while to get going, and Amanda often pauses in the action to exchange random asides. But the story is full of surprising tension, once Henry gets around to the main point. And it’s all very original. (I liked how, for example, instead of having a harem, Amanda gets one lousy sex scene, and one relationship ends badly because she does what zombies do best.)
Final Verdict: This is an awesome start of a new series I will be following slavishly. A for this one as well. Pick it up if you haven’t already and enjoy. Especially enjoy the footnotes!
Put yourself in a Harlequin romance story
Here is mine:
Cowboy Jonathan grieved the loss of his wife and baby. Then he discovers his son is alive—and living with an adoptive mother—award-winning writer Shannon. Despite the secrets and lies, Jonathan can’t deny the truth: brainy Shannon loves the boy. Yet Jonathan grew up without a father and won’t do that to his own child.
When someone dangerous comes after them, cowboy Jonathan takes Shannon and his son into hiding in the unknown reaches of Mars. As he grows closer to them, he discovers much about family life. After his dark, troubled past, he’s finally found faith and family. And he’ll do anything to protect both.
Sadly, if I were reviewing this, I’d have to say that the heroine seems much less interesting than the hero. Which is a crime in my own damn book.
In which I discover another author I should be ashamed for not reading sooner. And I’m still not pasting book covers in with these reviews because (1) You are reading a site hosted by a blind person and thus (2) I can’t be bothered to figure out how to make them look nice.
Anyway, on we go.
Title: American Gods
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: urban fantasy
Publication Date: April 30, 2002
Publisher: Harper Torch
Excerpt: here
Reason for Reading: Gaiman’s one of those authors that people tell me I should read all the time. I finally did.
Synopsis:
The storm was coming … Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place. On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose accepts. But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday’s schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter-all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does. Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined. All around them a storm of epic proportions threatens to break. Soon Shadow and Wednesday will be swept up into a conflict as old as humanity itself. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought-and the prize is the very soul of America. As unsettling as it is exhilarating, American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. Magnificently told, this work of literary magic will haunt the reader far beyond the final page.
My Thoughts: I knew once I started this book that it was going to be the glorious kind of story that sucks me in and doesn’t let go until it’s played itself out. I absolutely love the opening lines.
Shadow had done three years in prison. He was big enough and looked don’t-fuck-with-me enough that his biggest problem was killing time. So he kept himself in shape, and taught himself coin tricks, and thought a lot about how much he loved his wife.
How can you not read that and find it awesome? And it just gets better from there, as Shadow realizes, once he’s been released, that his wife Laura is dead. And that’s just the beginning. Soon, desperate and with nothing to lose, he hooks up with the grizzled, lecherous and utterly delightful Mr. Wednesday.
Nothing in this book quite goes the way I expected it to, and yet there is something marvelously epic in Shadow’s journey. He’s a compelling everyman character who grows into an extremely noble, even heroic man, all quite without realizing he’s done it.
The rest of the characters are well-written, too, and again, every time I figured Mr. Gaiman was going to do something in particular with any one of them, he surprised me by not taking the expected route. I came to care for a lot of the people Shadow met along the way, from the fascinating Mr. Wednesday to Czernabog to Shadow’s wife, Laura.
I won’t say much more about the plot, because I think it’s definitely something that needs to be experienced, but I will say that it all worked for me, and in the end, I realized I’d read one of those books that would stay with me for weeks to come.
Final Grade: An A- for something extremely original and captivating. I’ll definitely not be wasting any more time putting off reading Gaiman.
Today I upgraded Wordpress. No idea if this makes the site look any different, but I like some of the new features.
Later today, after I finish a few other things, I hope to have a review posted. But for now, mostly to test my twitter feed, have some linkage.
“Killinger turned to face her. There was a definite interruption in the pattern of his white shorts.” (page 95)
and
“Killinger hung up quickly to cut off complaints and because Marja-Liisa had moved his hand to her golden grove and had begun quivering against his fingers and her sighs had become deep.”
I’d have posted the bit about prunes, but, y’know, some things you just have to discover on your own.
It’s 2 AM and I have spent the last half hour hand-washing clothes. As fun nighttime activities go, this is not one of my better thought out plans, but I figured that as long as I was lying in bed, contemplating the ceiling, I might as well put my energy to good use. The roommate who is here won’t say anything if she notices I’m awake, and the one I share a bathroom with is the subject of a multi-level campaign of hostility from the rest of us in the apartment, the reasons for which I may post about in some future blog, so I figure that the bit of laundry detergent I spilled in the bathtub will remain an inconvenience until the morning, whether she likes it or not.
Anyway, as I was hand-washing my delicates, I found myself thinking about style. I’ve actively avoided that topic for several years, because I figured that clothes were something you put on to cover up, and since I couldn’t see their various colors and styles, it didn’t matter what they looked like.
It’s only been the last few months that I’ve found my mind changing about that. It all started when a gaming friend of mine mentioned that she buys a lot of her clothing from Holy Clothing. They sell hand-made gypsy, Gothic and Renaissance-style clothing, at reasonably affordable prices. And, after some reassurances from the gaming friend that, no, I wouldn’t have to buy hoop skirts and bustles, I thought, ‘OK, I can do this.’ So I placed an order.
Let me tell you, shopping for clothes online when you can’t see what you’re doing is complicated. I had to call in reinforcements, because I figured that if I were going to do this, I wanted to do it right. So I texted my brother’s girlfriend K., and I emailed my sister, and I looked on the site.
I ordered a couple of skirts and tops, and immediately realized that I loved their clothes. I’ve never really worn long skirts before, outside of costumes, and they’re the most comfortable things ever. I love the way the material swishes against my legs as I walk. Now, putting on jeans in case I run into a random boy that might be over, I feel kind of constricted.
But the thing that those skirts really did well for me was give me a sense of control over something I’ve never had control over. Clothing was always something I let other people pick out for me, and it was freeing to decide, ‘OK, I’m getting this top. In burgundy. So there.”
I’ll probably still remain largely a jeans and t-shirt girl, since the other thing about my skirts is that they require a delicate wash cycle, which means I feel more comfortable hand-washing them, and, being a lazy girl, I’d prefer not to do that every week. But I like that they’re there. I like that they make me feel sexy, in a hippie, gypsy sort of way, and I like the freedom of knowing that clothes shopping is something I really can handle, for the most part, by myself after all.
Wow, so my last entry was June 12, 2008. Since that time, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do about this blog, since I also have a livejournal I don’t post on either, and I have a full-time review gig at The Good, the Bad, and the Unread.
I could very likely change my mind, but I think I’m going to start blogging over here on a more permanent basis. I will probably post the occasional book review–something that wouldn’t work quite so well for the audience of The Good, the Bad, and the Unread. I’ll also try to post links to things that interest me from around the blogosphere, and maybe post up some reviews of other media, namely music. I also want to post a few opinion pieces that have been percolating in my brain for some time.
I don’t promise greatness, but if anyone’s still paying attention, hi there. Look forward to more content soon.