Should I be worried that boosette hasn't checked in yet? She should be back in Cali by now, right? Does it take more than five days to drive clean across the country? *has no idea* I've never been west of Birmingham, actually.

I also read a book! A fictional one! Shocking, I know. It was even a fantasy book! Nowadays I mostly shun fantasy, but Runemarks was a gift from Little Miss Ten Whole Years, so I didn't really have choice. And it really surprised me how much I actually kind of loved it! It's a kid's book (I'm not really sure what it says about me that all my favorite fantasy novels are children's books?), and it stars a very resourceful heroine. The world building is based heavily on Norse mythology, which might be one reason I liked it so much. I know very few Norse myths, so the idea of the World Tree, the pantheon of gods, and the system of runes were all entirely new and fresh to me. It's set after Ragnarök (which is the armageddon prophecy of Norse mythology), and the main conflict is about the old guard versus a new Order that is very Orwellian and also kind of Christian? It's interesting! It's written irreverently, which is how I like my fantasy, and it's got this fantastic character -- Loki, the trickster god -- who reminds me so much of Captain Jack Sparrow. He's charming and witty, but he's also an unbelievable coward with an innate sense of self-preservation.

It's by Joanne Harris, who wrote Chocolat. I've never actually read Chocolat, but I've seen the movie (which stars Johnny Depp, coincidentally), and while it was mostly forgettable, I do remember that it was a friendly sort of movie, in that even the provincial townspeople were an important part of the story, and that definitely carried over into Runemarks, which pleased me. I'm looking forward to the next one!

Also, rock on California!

This took positively FOREVER to put together, but I don't care because this entry makes me happy!

Image-heavy picspam! You have been warned!

My Top 10 Favorite Children's Books

( snip )

I read Cornelia Funke's new(ish) book this afternoon -- the one about the girl knight. It was not fantastic or anything, but I thought it was funny that said girl knight had a talking pet cat and a debilitating fear of spiders. Sort of like another girl knight we all know and love! The thing I liked best about it was that the Girl Power that is inherent in these sorts of books was so practical and matter-of-fact. It was very post-feminist, compared to the books I read as a kid. So I thought that was pretty neat.

Manga really brings out the crotchety eighty-three year old woman in me. My sister has started following this series called Tokyo Something or Another. My mom asked me to vet them to make sure they're appropriate, but I could not do it! Because they open the wrong way. The binding is on the right side! What. The. Hell. I literally found myself bitching to my mother that they're published in English for Americans and how this is America where we bind our books on the left side. Amazingly, Little Miss Ten Whole Years doesn't seem to have a problem adjusting to the change. And they are published in black and white and cost ten dollars an issue! Even used, they are something like $7.50. Ridiculous much? You could buy a real book for that much money! (See? Crotchety old lady!)

( complaining about annoyingly bloated network bugs... )

Probably rendered more annoying by the fact that I am kind of sick and therefore easily annoyed. In fact, many many many people on my f'list seem to also be sick. So I hope we all feel better soon.

And, heeey, the strike is OVAH. Which is cool, I guess. The deal seems sort of crappy to me, but as long as the writers are happy... Looking at the chart of strike-affected shows, I weirdly found myself not caring about all that much. I'm not caught up on FNL, and the news of its possible cancellation leaves me pretty cold. I'm still not caught up on Pushing Daisies. Don't care about Addison's Anatomy. I haven't been watching The Wire since I stopped HBO. I mean, I pretty much dropped everything but Chuck, Ugly Betty and Gossip Girl. Speaking of which, we were supposed to get 9 new episodes of Gossip Girl, but the CW seems to have trimmed its order to 5 or 6. Bummer, but I'll take what I can get.

Why is Psych suddenly out of nowhere shipping Juliet/Lassiter? I thought it was just my imagination last week, but it was SO blatant in the newest episode. And not just in a partnersy way! He knows what her hair smells like, and he doesn't (as in totally does) think she's hot? That is canonical shipping! I thought this show shipped Shawn/Juliet? Stop confusing me, show!

Also, PBS is airing the new Northanger Abbey tonight! It's fluffier and less eventful than Austen's other books -- it's basically about a young woman whose penchant for imagining that her life is like the gothic romances she loves to read gets her into a bit of trouble -- but it's still interesting to think about. I actually think the JABC movie had the best take on the book. It was Austen's first, so it makes perfect sense that she chose to write about novels -- about what makes a heroine a heroine, about what makes a story good or bad, about whether or not novels are worthwhile. She was working out her issues, her questions, and even her fears -- was writing novels really what she should be doing? See, this is why all that crap about how The Author Is Dead is no fun at all. Context rules! And so does this movie! I totally recommend it.

YOU GUYS. After over a year of multiple attempts and failures and delays, I have finally finished Tamora Pierce's Terrier. Honestly, I liked it better than I expected to, but since my expectations wavered between rock-bottom and nonexistent, a lot of what I have to say is kinda mean, so consider yourself warned.

( NEEDS MOAR BOYS )

Anyway, if you wrote your own response to Terrier, let me know. I'd love to read it. You don't have to link me directly; I have no qualms about stalking you via your tags. (Except for you, Candice. I already looked for yours, and it evaded me!)

P.S. YAY, AUSTRALIA. May this be a sign of things to come.

( So I'm reading those Stephanie Meyer books... )

I wanted to talk about Avatar, but I don't have much to say.

( Spoilers for The Awakening )

I really hate it when I get a good ways into a book and then I put the book down and forget about it for several months. And when I go to pick it up again, I sorta maybe kinda remember where I left off and what was going on, but I've mostly forgotten everything that came before. So I always vacillate over whether I ought to just pick up where I left off or start the whole book over again. In fact, I vacillate SO MUCH that most of the time I just never bother to finish the book! I hate that.

( cut because I get all stream of conscious stupid )

Anyway, I was looking over Kierra's first school project today, and it completely warmed my heart. There was a section where she had to write about her favorite book, and she choose The Penderwicks! Which was my Christmas gift to her two years ago! And the last book we read together! We both had the flu around New Years, and I read it to her while were were sick, and I did the voices and everything!

But she has good taste, because of all the books I've read over the last two years, it's definitely one of my favorites. It originally caught my eye because it was about four sisters, but I had no idea how satisfying a read it would turn out to be. The four sisters were all great, fully-formed characters with distinct personalities, but they weren't pigeon-holed by their individual quirks. The plot follows the sisters while they spend their summer vacation at a cottage on the estate of an old, New England mansion. They befriend the lonely son of the owner and have little, moderately eventful adventures and mishaps. Even though it's set in current times (it startled me when a laptop appeared toward the end of the book!), it has a very old-fashioned feel to it. And I liked all of the cute subplots, like the oldest sister's crush on the gardener or how one of the middle sisters is constantly making-up silly Mary Sue stories in her head. I just really, really liked it. It's aimed at younger kids than the kid lit I usually read, and the story is more subdued than what's popular right now (fantasy and flashiness), but it wasn't trendy (like Spiderwick is, sigh), and the characters have really stayed with me, which is unusual nowadays. I'll definitely be picking up anything else Jeanne Birdsall writes. Consider it recommended!

1. I just got a Borders Rewards e-mail, subject: "IS THIS BOOK THE NEXT HARRY POTTER?"

The book was Stephanie Meyer's Eclipse. You know, the sexay vampire books?

Yeah, I LOL'd.

2. I'm watching the recap of AFL-CIO debate, and MAN. Hillary Clinton gave a really terrible sound-bite. ( The audience actually booed her. )

ETA: Well, this wins for weirdest comment ever.

HAPPY STEPHANIE PLUM DAY! Not that I have the new book or anything. But the point is that I COULD have it if I wanted it! Which I do. Maybe I will go pick it up tomorrow.

This reminds me! I am thinking that maybe I should attend the Harry Potter party at Borders this year instead of B&N. I prefer B&N for book shopping, no question, but their HP party is kind of lacking. What with Borders sponsoring PotterCast and publishing the book of essays about Snape and their Snape: Friend or Foe? marketing campaign, I'm thinking that they might have a better party. Where are you guys going?

And even though the new Princess Diaries book is not nearly out, my sister and I are still already fighting about it. Or more specifically, we are fighting about J.P.'s motivations and intentions. I really wanted Mia and Michael to break up because I am bored of Michael, plus he is too old. But everything about their break up was so stupid, and EVERYONE told Mia she was stupid. Except J.P. who reinforced her stupidness because he has a crush on her. And he did a variety of other things that can be interpreted as a.) sketch or b.) understandably unfortunate behavior by a boy who has a crush on a girl who is dating someone else or (if you are my sister) c.) totally nice.
Poll #1006268
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

James P. Abernathy III (or something) aka J.P. is ________

Do you think it ever bothers Meg Cabot that the vast majority of her work will be rendered completely irrelevant in a very short amount of time thanks to her dependence on pop culture references for humor?

1. A couple weeks ago, I heard that Hollywood is making a Teen Titans movie. I was all like WOOHOO, because I have pure, unadulterated love for Cartoon Network's Teen Titans. I have desperately missed Cyborg and Beast Boy and Raven and Robin/Starfire (OTP OF MY SOUL!) since it went off the air. But today I found out that someone from Smallville and Battlestar Galactica is writing/producing. And Superman Returns is the tone he is going for.

Smallville + Battlestar Galactica + Superman Returns = OBVIOUSLY GOING TO SUCK!

OH, LIFE. YOU ARE SO UNFAIR.

ETA: I checked this dude's IMDB profile hoping that maybe he was from first season BSG. No dice! He motherfrakking wrote "Black Market," I SHIT YOU NOT.

2. Also of the suck? The WB sold the publishing rights for Veronica Mars to DC Comics, meaning that there will be comics instead of books. Sigh.

3. Not quite so of the suck? Nancy Drew. (Disclaimer: I own the entire yellow and blue Nancy Drew series. I read all of the Nancy Drew Files, many of the Nancy Drew Notebooks and nearly all of the Nancy Drew On Campus books. I totally ship Nancy/Frank Hardy.) It is definitely not fabulous or anything, ( but I still enjoyed it. )

4. Remember how last summer I bitched about that S.O.S. song, because it would come on the radio and I would get all excited thinking "Tainted Love" was going to play, but it was actually just Rihanna? Sampling is one thing, but she basically sang a new song over the old song! It was weird.

Anyway, I freaking love her "Umbrella" song, so I was listening to her whole CD, and there's this one song on there, and I was like I KNOW THIS SONG, but I couldn't think of what it was with Rihanna's lyrics in the way. Anyway, I finally placed it, and she did it again! She's going to work her way through all of the awesome 80s songs! But I'll let you see if recognize it on your own.

+ I went through my userpics today and deleted the vast majority of my Veronica Mars icons. STILL NOTHING. I'm not sure when it's going to finally hit me that my show is not coming back. I wish it was.

+ I wish that I could find a good copy of Beverly Cleary's Fifteen. I know it's super dated nowadays -- it was dated when I read it back in gradeschool. But I still love it, and my flea-market copy is destroyed.

+ I wish I could kick everyone involved with POTC3 in the shin. That stupid thing I've been bitching about? THE PLOT THICKENS. It sounds as if the director/producers purposefully cut out the pertinent lines and scenes. It could have been for time, but it might have been creative. So I'm not sure if I should go with the writers' special clarification or Verbinski's final cut. Even if we got confirmation that the writers' intentions were ignored, fans will never be able to settle on what's what. Honestly. Please allow me to offer a sincere FUCK YOU to everyone involved in this abject stupidity.

+ I like the new Nine Inch Nails CD. I just don't know if I want to buy it; I like some of the songs on it a lot, but I deleted several of them from my library after my first listen. I wish I wanted to buy it, because Trent Reznor is kind of awesome. And also, it changes colors!

+ The air is so smokey. I had to shower twice this evening because of it. It's because of the forest fires in South Georgia, and the forest fires are because of the drought, and the drought is courtesy of global warming. I so wish Al would run.

+ When the hell does Avatar come back? Is it coming back? WTF.

+ I still don't have a Wii.

Dear Steven Weber,

Get thee to another show. Get thee to another show immediately.

( Wildfire )

I finished the new Pants book, and I enjoyed it. The series ended well. I have more to say about it, but it would require a spoiler cut, and I need to do a book post anyway. I also finished the new Princess Diaries book, and I want to know what everyone thinks about J.P.'s motivations. (Good, nefarious, or just typical boy stuff?)

(Wow, I get so rageful everytime I browse past my Smallville icon.)

So I understand there's a controversy in the Grey's Anatomy fandom over what exactly Addison/Alex ought to be called. In the interest of pretending the Internets is a democracy, have a poll!

Poll #906965
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Addison/Alex shall forthwith be known as...

( The most excited you'll ever see anyone over shelving! )

Theoretically, my littlest sister has pet fish. In actuality, they're my mom's fish, since she does all the cleany/filtery stuff. Theoretically, I hate all domesticated animals. But I get attached to things pretty easily, so being at home I've sort of become attached to the fish. And I have learned that they are often pretty short-lived. We bought the cutest little spotted-koris (sp?) today, and one of them died tonight, and it is much with the sad-making. One of our other new fish seems ill. A flame tetra died the other day, too. Fish are sad. :(

Also, our stupid neighbors with the evil cats moved so we've been able to put out bird feeders again, and we have masses of songbirds, including a bunch of bluebirds. It's lovely.

I watched That Thing You Do today and ended up reluctantly defending Jimmy from the rest of my family, even though I think he is a total jerk in all of the ways that really count. But fact of the matter is that he never intended "That Thing You Do" to be such a snappy, bubblegum pop hit; he meant it to be a ballad. It did sound better as a pop song, but it was an inadvertent happy-accident. Jimmy certainly wasn't gung-ho to sign the contracts. I think it's fair to say that Mr. White handled Jimmy several times over the course of the movie. "Never trust a label" isn't paranoia or ingratitude -- Jimmy was right to take that advice to heart. In the end, Play Tone was a machine looking to capitalize on the Wonder's teen-appeal, which they'd carefully modelled and marketed. They weren't interested in the music Jimmy wanted to record -- they wanted to make a quick buck by having the Wonders do endless promotion, covers and crossover records of their single. And as much of an ass as Jimmy was to Fay, why on earth would Mr. White have told the media that he was enaged? And his reaction, as assy as it was, could easily have been influenced by the fact that he was ill at the time.

So I can't really hate Jimmy. And I don't think it's his fault or even mostly his fault that the Wonders ended up being One-Hit-Wonders. Although at the end of the movie, they do say that Jimmy went on to record three records for the Play Tone label in another band, so he clearly turns out to be a huge(er) hypocrite, so whatever. Why am I even worrying about this? SIGH.

I found my long-missing copy of Rebecca while I was cleaning my room today, which is A+! I looove that book. I will have to apologize to Kelly, since I accused her several times of stealing it/lending it out.

I would do anything -- literally ANYTHING -- to keep from having to go to Florida tomorrow. Seriously. SAVE ME.

I got a new iPod for Christmas which was totally unexpected since I did not ask for one and have not said anything about needing a new one at all. My third-generation iPod is four years old now, (it has buttons and a black and white display), but it still works really well. I'm still getting 4+ hours of battery life on the original battery, which is plenty enough for me. The hold button is broken because I dropped it on its top a year ago, and it only syncs to my computer properly about half of the time, but for all intents and purposes it is still a working iPod.

And we've been through a lot together! College, boys, bad times, good times, Imogen Heap... IN CASE YOU CANNOT TELL, I AM KIND OF ATTACHED TO MY iPOD! So I can't decide whether or not I should return the new one or what. I sort of feel like I owe it to my third-gen to use it until it goes to the big Apple Store in the sky. Dilemma!

Oh! I also want to highly recommend The Perfect Thing by Steven Levy. It's a book all about the iPod, and it's fabulous and addictive and really, really fascinating if you're at all interested in iPods, technology, the music industry or Apple. It covers every aspect of the iPod phenomenon that you could think of: the history of personal music players, the conception of first MP3 player by COMPAQ developers, the peer-to-peer downloading wave, the mind-boggling stupidity of the music industry, the iPod's cool cache, the way Shuffle has changed how people think about music and content. And one of the best things about the book is that Steven Levy is Newsweek's tech writer and a long-time friend of Apple (he wrote a history of Apple several years ago) so he had an unprecedented amount of access to the Apple Campus and Steve Jobs. So, really, I just loved this book. I cannot recommend it enough. And you can read the first chapter here!

Elizabeth George has some mighty big cajones.

In her last Inspector Lynley novel, she killed off one of her five main characters. I can't really explain the relationships between her characters without making it all sound terribly sordid (which it's not), but they are all very much tied to one another through various circumstances. In her last novel, she offed Helen Lynley. We (the readers) thought it was related to a case Thomas Lynley was working, but it wasn't at all. At the end Lynley confronts the murderer, and he's just a fourteen year-old kid. Helen interrupted a gang-related robbery, and the startled child shot her. Lynley resigns and there is a ton of upheaval, in and out of the book.

So it's all very sad, and a lot of the fans are angry, and there is a ton of controversy. I've been looking so forward to the follow up because I desperately want to know what happens to Lynley (he can't really quit, can he?). The book is finally coming out in October. But it's not about Lynley or Havers. It's a prequel written about the kid who murdered her and how he came to be in a gang, etc. Basically, it's a social commentary.

On the one hand, absolutely Elizabeth George has the right to kill off any character she wants to. And absolutely it might even be good for the story. I happen to be a bleeding-heart who obviously feels sympathy for all involved, child included. But I don't really want to read a book about the person who murdered Helen and has left the dynamic of one of my favorite long-running series in serious limbo, child or not. And I certainly don't want to read it while I'm wondering what's going on with Lynley, etc.

And If I feel that way, I shudder to think what a lot of other fans are going to think. This entire novel is going to be completely bereft of any of our favorite characters except for a cameo from Lynley at the end. (In the last book, Lynley goes to the jail to see his wife's killer, but he ultimately turns away once he sees the child because he realizes that there's no point. Presumably the same thing will happen from the kid's perspective.)

And that's just not the book I want to read. But I'm sort of impressed with Elizabeth George for doing it, anyway. People are going to be pissed off.

I finished Oh the Glory of It All, which was very good and so well-written! The prose was snappy and engaging, and the story was very funny, very honest and very, very sad. I can't express in words how terribly the author was failed by his parents. It's almost like a playbook on bad parenting: How Not To Get A Divorce And Scar Your Child For Life In the Process.

And I wish I knew a worse word to call his stepmother than I've already called her, but I don't. However, I did hear that she tried to sue the publishing company. I read a couple of the review excerpts in the front, and one reviewer remarked that "writing well is the best revenge." Indeed!

It's funny... I picked this book out randomly, and that almost never works out for me. I only even picked it up because it looked like someone had gone a bit crazy with Photoshop brushes on the cover, and I flipped it over and when I read the summary it sounded like the sort of thing I would like. And I was right!

( Thoughts on Ned Lamont vs. Joe Lieberman and the DNC )

Can you read tihs? Only 27 people on livejournal can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I wuas rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

Thhe rset can be a taotl mses and yhou can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huuamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs rpsoet it.

ONLY REPOST IF YOU COULD READ THE ABOVE. Please update the number at the header to include yourself.

( I have finally become a true Atlantan because I finally hate the King children )

I am not enjoying Oh the Glory of It All as much as I wanted to, mostly because I haven't wanted to jump into the pages of a book and save someone as much as I want to save Sean Wilsey since Grover in The Nanny Diaries. His stepmother is an unspeakable cunt. AND I NEVER SAY THAT.

delwarean/msscribe's "husband" threatens to take legal action against Journal Fen.

I just finished the new Stephanie Plum book. Pretty funny. Ranger continues to receive more character development than Morelli, so I stand by my prediction that Evanovich is planning Ranger/Stephanie for her end game. (I'd go with neither, but Evanovich has said that Stephanie will eventually choose. Just not anytime soon.) But just for a lark...

Poll #754245
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Is Stephanie destined to be a Cupcake or a Babe?

I'm sitting in the Athens library, and I ought to be studying, but instead I'm trying to decide which books on Iran to check out. And I'm looking for Azadeh Moaveni's memoir, Lipstick Jihad, and I'm not finding it so I'm typing in "Iran", "Iran + America", "lipstick jihad", "jihad" etc. And it occured to me I am probably now on some official terrorist watchlist, no? Awesome.

I think I'm going to get Funny In Farsi, Reading Lolita In Tehran and The Persian Puzzle. I really really wanted Lipstick Jihad, but I guess I will have to wait. Sigh.

When I will have time to read these, I honestly do not know what with finals breathing down my neck. Plus I have the new Princess Diaries book in my bookbag right now. But I should be able to knock that out in like an hour.

Also, if you like Jane Austen at all, I highly recommend The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. It's a great book about some kick ass ladies. And it's currently on sale at Target for something like 11 bucks.