flemmings | (no subject)

Wotta week. The kind where Tuesday feels like Thursday, and I've unplugged the bedroom phone so nobody else can call me at 8 am for a 9:30 shift-- or a 12 o'clock one either-- after I've gone to bed at 2.

Wotta month, come to that. Which went from snowy winter to early April and back to winter and back to March- and that was only the first two weeks. Week 3 was record cold, week 4 was April again, followed by December snow next day. Did not get to that Japanese film-- the 'snow flurries' turned the streets to glare ice, which was all gone today even though today was colder than yesterday. Global warming means you ask 'what month is it today?' when you wake up in the morning.

I have this fantasy that winter means sitting inside reading All The Things. Alas, I find it nearly impossible to sit-- especially when it isn't winter at all-- but I'm getting better.

Three popcorn bags:
Green- Nightingale's Lament
Green- Agents of Light and Darkness
Green- Paths Not Taken

Three gritty grotty urban fantasies:
Kittredge- Devil's Business
-- we all know LA is hell. You needn't tell us again.
Newman- Anno Dracula
-- I feel, perhaps unfairly, that writers shouldn't recycle their Mary Sues into different novels
Pinborough- A Matter of Blood

Two Buddhist self-helps:
Batchelor- Let Go
Lama Surya Das- Buddha Standard Time

One Turkish-set mystery:
Goodwin- An Evil Eye
and an English one, written in the 80s when feminism was depressingly new:
Smith- A Masculine Ending

One London reread:
Griffin- The Neon Court
--probably the best of the list so far, though the Goodwin was as ever a pleasure

And an Aussie YA fantasy:
Larbalestier- Magic or Madness
-- wherein the protag is confused at a New Yorker complaining about the 22 degree cold (22C= low 70s F) and I'm confused at a New Yorker finding 22F bone-chillingly deep freeze. That's a nice day in Toronto's winter.

Abandoned in progress:
Deception (Murder and Madness in T'ang China) because a Judge Dee who admires Indian erotic art is not my Judge Dee, and the disclaimer, 'I don't mean to diss anyone's Buddhism here, no really don't be offended' boded no good. I mean, either you do van Gulik's Dee or you don't, but you don't get to pick and choose which elements you like;
Kingdoms of Elfin, because there was no there there;
and a couple more Nightside novels, because even popcorn can be too much at times.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Thanks for the warning on the Deception (Murder and Madness in T'ang China) one. I'd been vaguely considering it, but I totally agree with you that a Dee who reacts/speaks like that is not my Judge Dee.

(I have similar reactions to Holmes when he is done "wrong".)

The grump point being that there's a vast amount of Holmes to choose from, largely done right, but very little Judge Dee.

ETA: to clarify: it's not Dee who has the 'no intention to offend' line but the authors warning for Buddhist-bashing in an introductory note. Which suggests it won't just be Dee disapproving of Buddhists (as van Gulik's did, and probably the original Dee as well) but the authors writing eeevol monks aiding the eeevol concubine to become Empress Wu, probably with the aid of lascivious Buddhist pictures imported from India except the lascivious pics to date are Hindu no I give up...

Edited 2013-02-02 20:33 (UTC)

The Goodwin sounds interesting, I may have to get my hands on it!

I was gifted with a copy of Magic or Madness but I never did read it. Would you recommend it?

Start with The Janissary Tree if you do start. Series has characters that continue through, some of whom (historically) die. Eunuch protagonist even if, as I complain every book I read, he isn't eunuch enough. (OTOH I believe this last one lacked the requisite love interest. And there's the food!)

Yes, definite recommend. Not sure how well it will play out through a trilogy, but the first is a strong start.

It is indeed reason to be irritated.

Let us draw a vayle over these proceedings, to quote Molesworth.