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entamewitchlulu · 5 years

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so i did a reading challenge this year and i wanna talk about what i read

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i did Popsugar 2019 and wanna talk about what i read: Book Reccs and Anti-Reccs

1.) Becoming a Movie in 2019: Umbrella Academy (vol 1) by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

4/5. A fascinating take on superpowers, dysfunctional families, and the apocalypse. Can get pretty gory, confusing here and there and you have to pay close attention to panels for lore, but overall an entertaining romp.

2.) Makes you Feel Nostalgic: Circles in the Stream by Rachel Roberts

4/5. Middle grade novel about the magic of music, belief, and of course, friendship. Definitely written for kids, and has some unfortunately clumsy Native rep, but overall an absolute joy to dive into once again.

3.) Written by a Musician: Umbrella Academy (vol 2) by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

4/5. Ramps up the confusion to ridiculous degrees with some absolutely bonkers, unexplained arcs, but still fun to watch this dysfunctional family do its dysfunctional thing.

4.) You Think Should be Turned into a movie: All That Glitters by Rachel Roberts

4/5. Continuation of Circles in the Stream, but with more unicorns, more rainbows, and more fae, which makes it automatically even better than the first.

5.) With At Least 1 Mil. Ratings on Goodreads: 1984 by George Orwell

1/5. I understand why it's important and all but wasn't prepared for some of the more graphic scenes and the overall hopelessness of the message. Would not recommend or read again.

6.) W/ a Plant in the title or cover: The secret of Dreadwillow carse by Brian farrey

5/5. A fantasy world where everyone is always happy, save for one girl and the princess, who set out to solve the mystery of their kingdom. Poignant and great for kids and adults.

7.) Reread of a favorite: Cry of the Wolf by Rachel Roberts

4/5. Yet another installment in the Avalon: Web of Magic series, which clearly I am obsessed with. Please just read them.

8.) About a Hobby: Welcome to the Writer's Life by Paulette Perhach

5/5. A welcome kick in the pants, chock full of great advice told without condescension, and full of hope and inspiration for writers both new and old.

9.) Meant to read in 2018: The Poet x by Elizabeth Acevedo

4/5. Absolutely beautiful coming of age novel told in verse. Do yourself a favor and listen to the audiobook version.

10.) w/ "pop," "sugar," or "challenge" in the title: Black Sugar by Miguel Bonnefoy

2/5. I think maybe I just don't understand this genre. Or maybe the translation was weird. I was confused.

11.) w/ An Item of Clothing or Accessory on the cover: Our dreams at Dusk by Yuhki Kamatani

4/5. It had a lot more slurs/homophobia than I was prepared for, but otherwise is a very touching, relatable collection of queer characters living in a heteronormative world.

12.) Inspired by Mythology or Folklore: Ravenous by MarcyKate Connolly

3/5. A girl goes on an impossible quest to save her brother from a child-eating witch. Really wanted to like it more because I loved the first one, Monstrous, but it dragged a little.

13.) Published Posthumously: The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones

3/5. I adore Diana Wynne Jones, but this one was missing some of the magic of her other books. Not sure if it was because it had to be finished by someone else, or if I just grew out of her stories.

14.) Set in Space: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

4/5. Powerfully written story of a girl straddling tradition and innovation, who wields power through mathematical magic, surviving on a spaceship alone with a dangerous alien occupation after everyone else has been killed.

15.) By 2 Female Authors: Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

2/5. Ostensibly a story about a revenge pact in a small island town, but leaves far too many dangling threads to attempt alluring you to the sequel.

16.) W/ A Title containing "salty," "bitter," "Sweet," or "Spicy": The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

3/5. It's okay but I literally just never know what anyone means at any time. Are they being reticent on purpose or do i just not understand communication

17.) Set in scandinavia: Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura

2/5. Technically and historically accurate and well made, but the story itself is not my cup of tea. Very gory.

18.) Takes Place in a Single Day: Long WAy Down by Jason Reynolds

4/5. A boy goes to avenge his murdered brother, but ghostly passengers join him on the elevator ride down. Stunning and powerful character-driven analysis.

19.) Debut Novel: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

4/5. Charming and then surprisingly heart-breaking comic about Nimona, a shapeshifter who wants to become a villain's minion. Really love the villain/hero dynamic going on in the background, along with the dysfunctional found family.

20.) Published in 2019: The Book of Pride by Mason Funk

4/5. A collection of interviews with the movers, shakers, and pioneers of the queer and LGBTQ+ community. An absolutely essential work for community members and allies alike.

21.) Featuring an extinct/imaginary creature: Phoebe and her Unicorn by Dana Simpson

4/5. Incredibly charming, Calvin and Hobbes-esque collection of comics featuring the adventures of Phoebe and her unicorn best friend.

22.) Recced by a celebrity you admire: The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen

2/5. Recced by my fave author Brandon Sanderson. An unfortunately disappointing anthology proving that any story can be made uninteresting by telling the wrong section of it.

23.) With "Love" in the Title: Book Love by Debbie Tung

4/5. One of those relatable webcomics, only this one I felt super hard almost the entire time. Books are awesome and libraries rule.

24.) Featuring an amateur detective: Nancy Drew: Palace of Wisdom by Kelly Thompson

4/5. REALLY love this modern take on Nancy Drew, coming back home to her roots to solve a brand new mystery. Diverse cast and lovely artwork, though definitely more adult.

25.) About a family: Amulet by Kabu Kibuishi

4/5. Excellent, top tier graphic novel about a sister and brother who have to go rescue their mother with a mysterious magic stone. LOVE that the mom gets to be involved in the adventure for once.

26.) by an author from asia, Africa, or s. America: Girls' Last tour by Tsukumizu

4/5. Somehow both light-hearted and melancholy. Two girls travel about an empty, post-apocalyptic world, and muse about life and their next meal.

27.) w/ a Zodiac or astrology term in title: Drawing down the moon by margot adler

3/5. A good starting place for anyone interested in the Neo Pagan movement, but didn't really give me what I was personally looking for.

28.) you see someone reading in a tv show or movie: The Promised NEverland by Kaiu Shirai

4/5. I don't watch TV or movies where people read books so i think reading an adaptation of a TV series after watching the series counts. Anyway it was good but beware racist caricatures

29.) A retelling of a classic: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Rey Terciero

5/5. We can stop the Little Women reboots and retellings now, this is the only one we need. In fact, we can toss out the original too, this is the only one necessary.

30.) w/ a question in the title: So I'm a spider, so what? by Asahiro Kakashi

4/5. Cute art despite the subject matter, and a surprisingly enthralling take on the isekai genre. Love the doubling down on the video game skills.

31.) Set in a college or university campus: Moonstruck (vol 2) by Grace Ellis

2/5. An incredibly cute, beautiful, and fascinating world of modern magic and creatures, but unfortunately falls apart at the plot and pacing.

32.) About someone with a superpower: Moonstruck (vol 1) by Grace Ellis

4/5. Though nearly as messy plot-wise as its sequel, the first volume is overwhelmingly charming in a way that overpowers the more confusing plot elements.

33.) told from multiple povs: The Long way to a Small, Angry Planet by becky Chambers

4/5. Told almost in a serial format, like watching a miniseries, a group of found-family spaceship crew members make the long journey to their biggest job ever.

34.) Includes a wedding: We Set the dark on fire by Tehlor kay mejia

4/5. Timely and poignant, a girl tumbles into both love and resistance after becoming one of two wives to one of the most powerful men in the country.

35.) by an author w/ alliterative name: The only harmless great Thing by brooke bolander

3/5. Much deeper than I can currently comprehend. Beautifully written, but difficult to parse.

36.) A ghost story: Her body and other parties by Carmen Maria Machado

4/5. It counts because one of the stories in it has ghosts. A sometimes difficult collection of surrealist, feminist, queer short stories.

37.) W/ a 2 word title: Good omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

4/5. Charming, touching, and comical, probably the best take on the apocalypse to date. Also excellent ruminations on religion and purpose.

38.) based on a true story: The faithful Spy by John Hendrix

4/5. Brilliantly crafted graphic biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and his assistance in fighting back against Nazi Germany.

39.) Revolving around a puzzle or game: the Crossover by Kwame alexander

4/5. The verse didn't always hit right with me, but the story is a sweet, melancholy one about family, loss, and moving on.

40.) previous popsugar prompt (animal in title): The last unicorn by peter s. Beagle

5/5. Absolutely one of my all-time favorite books, it manages to perfectly combine anachronism and comedy with lyricism, melancholy, and ethereal beauty.

41.) Cli-fi: Tokyo Mew Mew by Mia ikumi and Reiko Yoshida

4/5. Shut up it counts

42.) Choose-your-own-adventure: My Lady's choosing by Kitty curran

3/5. Cute in concept, a bit underwhelming in execution. Honestly, just play an otome.

43.) "Own Voices": Home by Nnedi Okorafor

3/5. The storytelling style was definitely not my style; while the first book was slow, too, it felt more purposeful. I found my attention wandering during this installment.

44.) During the season it's set in: Pumpkinheads by rainbow rowell

3/5. Cute art, but precious little substance. The concept simply wasn't for me in the first place.

45.) LITRPG: My next life as a villainess: All routes lead to doom! by Hidaka nami

5/5. An absolute insta-fave! Charming art, endearing characters, an incredible premise, and so much sweet wholesome fluff it'll give you cavities.

46.) No chapters: The field guide to dumb birds of north america by matt kracht

3/5. It started out super strong, but the joke started to wear thin at a little past the halfway point.

47.) 2 books with the same title: Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roger

4/5. A brave and enduring personal story of growing up in and eventually leaving the Westboro Baptist Church. Really called to me to act with grace and kindness even more in the future.

48.) 2 books with the same title: unfollow by rob williams and michael dowling

1/5. How many times do you think we can make Battle Royale again before someone notices

49.) That has inspired a common phrase or idiom: THe Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

4/5. Definitely good and deserves it's praise as something that pretty much revolutionized and created an entire demographic of literature.

50.) Set in an abbey, cloister, Monastery, convent, or vicarage: Murder at the vicarage by agatha christie

3/5. I just cannot. physically keep up with all of these characters or find the energy to read between the lines.

ok that's all i got, what did y'all read and like this year? (oh god it’s gonna be 2020)

#book reccs #lulu booktalks

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logh-icebergs · 7 years

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Episode 1: In the Eternal Night

Early 796/487; the Battle of Astate. The Free Planets Alliance idiotically splits their 40,000 ships into three fleets far apart from each other, leaving Reinhard and his 20,000 Empire ships free to take advantage of them despite being outnumbered. Yang sees this coming, but his proposal gets steamrolled by his shortsighted commanding officer, Paeta. Reinhard wipes out the Alliance’s fourth fleet, and when Paeta again refuses to take Yang’s advice, the sixth fleet as well—which included Yang’s former classmate, Lapp. Meanwhile, Reinhard and Kircheis make moon-eyes at each other, Annerose gazes sadly into a bouquet of flowers, and Reuental and Mittermeyer go on a date. Yang and Dusty talk a lot of well-justified shit about their superiors.

Reinhard and Kircheis

A lot has changed between Reinhard and Kircheis since the events of “My Conquest,” but we won’t learn about that until Episodes 9-12 of LoGH: Gaiden, so just keep it in the back of your mind for now and we’ll return to it later. Extensively.

A lot has also changed for Reinhard and Kircheis—which we won’t hear about directly for some time, either, but at the very least: No, you’re not losing your mind; Reinhard’s last name has changed from Musel to Lohengramm. It’s a whole aristocracy thing, and the anime team deemed it Not Important Enough To Get Super Into At The Moment, so I’m going to take my cue from them. (For now, again.)

More importantly, episode 1 gives us our first substantive glimpse into the Reinhard/Kircheis dynamic beyond just how they look at each other (though we get that too—based on this episode, I’m honestly not sure Kircheis is capable of looking anywhere but at Reinhard).

Anyway, above, where Kircheis reminds Reinhard that the soldiers under his command might benefit from taking a short rest, is our first example of something that we’re going to see a great deal: Kircheis gently nudging Reinhard to be a bit more empathetic than comes naturally to him. But don’t let that aspect of their relationship fool you into thinking they are on opposite ends of the archetypical warmth-coolness spectrum. There’s very little Reinhard can’t persuade (or, less charitably, order) Kircheis to do, as we’ll see later, and the fact that they are both susceptible to one another’s influence indicates that neither is too far to one side.

And speaking of topics that would be a lot easier to parse if only they were as black-and-white as they first appeared...

Annerose

When given the choice between shying away from something difficult and facing it head on, LoGH tends aggressively towards the latter. Its unwillingness to simplify situations for the sake of straightforward storytelling, or black-and-white solutions, is a big part of what makes LoGH better than, uh, everything else. And occupying a particularly difficult space in the LoGH landscape is Annerose, Reinhard’s older sister and the favored concubine of Kaiser Friedrich IV.

Annerose is a tragic figure, and on the surface she’s characterized as a pretty one-dimensional martyr-type, which can be frustrating and confusing in a show where even the most minor character contains multitudes. But Annerose does contain multitudes—they’re just hidden under a series of facades, erected by a woman who has been subjected to a decade of sexual slavery, and by a creative team that was trying, in 1988, to tell a story about two boys falling in love.

Our first glimpse of Annerose in the OVA (you might remember her as the hologram those rude soldiers were leering at in an Iserlohn bar during “My Conquest”) is not actually of her, but rather of her reflection, upside-down and backwards in a lake. She’s looking at herself when the camera pans up to where she’s sitting placidly on a balcony above the water.

I’ll wait till we get further on before I start throwing around Narcissus comparisons, but they’re coming.

That first warped image of Annerose is this season’s biggest hint that we shouldn’t be taking anything about Annerose—how other characters see her, how she sees herself, even her ostensible role in the story—at face value. But on the other hand, the creators were counting on some viewers to take her at face value, because Annerose’s presence is a huge part of the heteronormative surface reading that allows LoGH to “pass” as something other than a collection of politically-themed queer love stories. More about that when we get to episode 4; for now, let’s talk about Annerose herself.

You will see versions of this scene a goddamn LOT, so get used to it.

Annerose presents as a traditional, heteronormative romantic heroine, mostly insofar as she appears to be terminally bland. There is nothing immediately interesting or appealing about Annerose, but it is signalled to us that she is Good: She is beautiful, docile, and a victim, the quintessential damsel in perpetual distress. She feels like a symbol, in a world richly populated by humans; her identity is presented to us as revolving entirely around men. There’s no way around it: As our first named female character, Annerose is irritating as hell.

But literally everything I just said is on the surface. Or, several surfaces, all stacked up on top of each other between Annerose and the people around her, and between Annerose and us, the viewer. There’s a reason she seems so much more archetypical and, frankly, poorly written than any other character in this show, and it’s that what we see is not Annerose herself, but how the world reflects her. As we spend more time with Annerose, we’ll dig deeper into the specifics of her whole situation, and get to the bottom of what she’s doing in LoGH. Hopefully by the time we’re done, she’ll look more like a person and less like an upside-down-and-backwards version of the same person.

Oh, and one more thing: Adding to the many layers of obscurity between Annerose and us, is the fact that in the LoGH novels and short stories, Annerose is heavily implied to be Kircheis’s love interest, whereas in the anime, Kircheis’s love interest is Reinhard. There are a few ways we know for sure that this was an intentional divergence, which we’ll definitely bring up when we get to them (primarily not until the first Gaiden series though, so please be patient!), but for now it’s just important to keep this in mind for understanding yet another reason why Annerose’s very presence can at times feel unsettling or out of place: She’s a character who has been completely repurposed but only minimally changed from her source material.

Power

We’ll have a bit more to say about the actual battle that’s going on when it continues in episode two, but I want to point out one contrast that’s deftly drawn here between Reinhard and Yang.

The parallel here is not especially subtle, but it’s a key one: Reinhard and Yang are (rather comically) the only people who seem to realize that if the Alliance forces are split into three small groups, the Empire can pick them off one by one; but Reinhard is in a position to demand that the doubtful and resentful admirals under his command execute his strategy, while Yang is stuck making proposals to stubborn commanding officers. These two scenes coming back-to-back serve as a quick way to establish this dynamic, which becomes a theme that evolves throughout the show.

Stray Tidbits

Hey it’s some of that matter-of-fact worldbuilding I talked about in our first post!! And also an important opportunity to remark on how much I personally would love to have a tank bed of my very own:

The back-and-forth about philosophy of war is very first-episode-y, establishing a basic framework of Yang’s pragmatism against the more ideal-driven decisions of the commanders. (“We must never abandon our allies! We must never consider defeat a real option!”) It feels a bit trite for sure, but it’s setting up for the future.

Oh yeah, also Yang’s best friend from school is introduced and then immediately killed off. Pretty bold move really. More on this later.

An astonishingly high percentage of the time we see Reuental and Mittermeyer, they’re on a date, and their appearance in this episode is no exception. Get it, you two!

#Legend of Galactic Heroes #Legend of the Galactic Heroes #author: co-authored #author: Rebecca #author: Elizabeth #Reinhard #Kircheis #Annerose #power

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gendersexualityinfilm-blog · 7 years

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Reading Analysis 6- The “Cool” Girl

Erika M. Thomas’ article “Punishing Unfaithful Wives and Working Mothers: Messages of post-feminism in Contemporary Film” explores common themes in film regarding women during the post-feminism era. Thomas points to several reoccurring themes including the notion that the feminist movement left women with the belief that they cannot raise a family AND have a successful career. This theme is seen in many films in which a strong work-minded female character realizes that happiness is found in a family-orientated life. Is more expected of the woman today than ever before? Women throughout history have generally been seen as one dimensional. Our sole purpose was to be a wife and mother. Other characteristics were rarely represented in film. Is the expectation of women today more complex? I believe so. Many women are expected to work the “double shift” which includes a paid job on top of the emotionally demanding job of being a mother. The recent thriller film Gone Girl documents the frustration women feel trying to compete to be the well-rounded “cool girl”.

“Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl.

Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they’re fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men – friends, coworkers, strangers – giddy over these awful pretender women, and I’d want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who’d like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them. I’d want to grab the poor guy by his lapels or messenger bag and say: The bitch doesn’t really love chili dogs that much – no one loves chili dogs that much! And the Cool Girls are even more pathetic: They’re not even pretending to be the woman they want to be, they’re pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be. Oh, and if you’re not a Cool Girl, I beg you not to believe that your man doesn’t want the Cool Girl. It may be a slightly different version – maybe he’s a vegetarian, so Cool Girl loves seitan and is great with dogs; or maybe he’s a hipster artist, so Cool Girl is a tattooed, bespectacled nerd who loves comics. There are variations to the window dressing, but believe me, he wants Cool Girl, who is basically the girl who likes every fucking thing he likes and doesn’t ever complain. (How do you know you’re not Cool Girl? Because he says things like: “I like strong women.” If he says that to you, he will at some point fuck someone else. Because “I like strong women” is code for “I hate strong women.”)” 

This quote demonstrates how women living in the post-feminism era struggle to demonstrate their self-confidence, freedom, sexual expression without expressing TOO much or being TOO dominant. As a woman, you can be sexual..but only in certain situations. You can be career-driven…but your family life will suffer if you focus too much on work. Women are expected to be the perfect amount of all desirable qualities in order to be happy and ultimately have successful romantic relationships.

References:

Thomas, Erika M. “Punishing Unfaithful Wives and Working Mothers: Messages of Postfeminism in Contemporary Film” Media Depictions of Brides, Wives, and Mothers. 2014.

Gone Girl Quote: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/13306276-gone-girl

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