Clare-Dragonfly

To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

Go read the rest of the article. It's brilliant. But then, it is Gloria Steinem.

Crossroads and Other Tales of Valdemar, edited by Mercedes Lackey

I would have to say that this is my least favorite of the Valdemar short story anthologies. For one thing, I have a serious issue with the title--there is no story called "Crossroads" in the book! Then there's the fact that three of the stories had no reason to be set in the world of Valdemar at all They were interesting stories, but they didn't have to be in this anthology.

Other stories were really enjoyable, though. I think my favorite was the one set in Karse's distant past--right when the corruption was just beginning. And it was fun to revisit a beloved fantasy world. Actually, it's made me want to reread the books--I haven't touched some of them in years, despite owning most of them. In fact, I only read this one because I was on vacation. The Forest House was depressing me, and the only other books I'd brought were its sequels! Of the books my mom had brought, Crossroads was the most appealing.

The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Since The Mists of Avalon holds a special place in my Top 5 Favorite Books Ever, I had little doubt but that I would enjoy the first of its prequels, and I was not disappointed. This is another feminist novel, set many years in Avalon's past--so far back, in fact, that there are yet no priestesses on Avalon, and the women instead live in a place called Vernemeton, or the Forest House, established by the Romans to isolate and protect the priestesses after their sanctuary at Mona was cruelly invaded (by the Romans themselves, of course). The main character, Eilan, dreams of being a priestess one day, then falls in love. I really admire the way MZB made the men's control of the women, especially their sexuality, not just an inconvenience or a metaphor but a central part of the plot. The priestesses of the Forest House are only permitted sexual contact with a man if that man is the chosen Year-King, symbolic sacrifice for his people. Eilan must struggle with her choices and few around her believe that she has made the right ones.

Unlike Mists, The Forest House has a male POV character. At the beginning he is rather heroic and quite likable. However, as the novel progresses, he is shown to be more and more flawed and toward the end he really becomes a big jerk. He is redeemed somewhat, and manages to remain sympathetic for a time, but it would be nice to see a more relatable male character. (I do think we get that in the next book.) Besides that and some repetitiveness, though, I have nothing to complain about in this book.

My favorite character is Caillean, the Assistant to the High Priestess who is later sent to establish a house of priestesses on Avalon. I see in her Raven, Morgaine, Niniane, and especially Viviane--it's easy to find the beginning of a long legacy of manipulative High Priestesses of Avalon. The Merlin also makes an appearance, though not in the guise you might expect, and I'm intrigued to see how the perception of that role changes.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who didn't like The Mists of Avalon, and probably not to anyone who hasn't read it--it's a decent stand-alone novel, I think, but gains more depth if you know its future. To anyone who loved Mists as much as I did, though, I definitely recommend The Forest House!

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

I read this book because I saw the movie because I read part of the screenplay. Naturally, the book was my favorite of the three, but I sitll find it difficult to evaluate. While I've heard there is now a version available that has the last chapter included, that's not the version I have! So I still don't actually know how it ends. Hopefully I'll find out someday. The book, despite having been written in the seventies, has a distinct Victorian feel to it. The characters, to my surprise, are all quite fleshed out and compelling. There were a few great scenes that had been left out of the movie, but that I think would have been fantastic additions. My favorite character turned out to be the French governess.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting from this book. Whatever it was, I didn't get it--but I did get something wonderful. According to the introduction, it is a reconstruction (from notes) of a forged translation of a 14th-century manuscript by a Benedictine monk. Of course, it is actually a novel written by the talented Umberto Eco, and a mystery along the lines of Arthur Conan Doyle or Edgar Allan Poe--that is to say, the detective is a logician along the lines of Sherlock Holmes or C. Auguste Dupin. It is narrated by the supposed author of the manuscript, Adso of Melk, a German novice who is traveling with the detective, William of Baskerville, to learn from and assist him. It took me until about halfway through the book to accept that the novel was probably not fantasy--fantastical elements were certainly hinted at, but the style of such a logician does not lend itself to that genre!

William has been asked to an Italian abbey to help mediate a discussion between two opposing Catholic sects, but when he arrives, he has another task: solve a series of unlikely and possibly mystical murders. This task is made more complicated by the fact that the one place that seems to hold the most answers, the abbey's famous library, is the one place he is not permitted. Like any good detective, he gets his answers anyway. The main mystery plot is intertwined with monastic politics, political intrigues, and intriguing personal relationships. Sometimes the discourses on logic or heresy, which can get quite long, distract from the plot, but they are interesting and the only thing I have to complain about, with the exception of Adso's sometimes irritating lack of judgment, which can easily be excused by his youth. The novel is even, as far as I can tell, quite historically accurate. The monastery itself and most of the characters are fictional, but the politics and the heresies are real, which is quite impressive.

Unfortunately, I never figured out the import of the title. The last line of the book has the words "name" and "rose" in it, but as it's Latin (which is peppered throughout the monks' speech) I couldn't understand the rest. I naturally think of Shakespeare, but as he writes several centuries after The Name of the Rose is set and the only meaning I can think of is fairly weak, such a connection seems unlikely.

Restoring the Goddess: Equal Rites for Modern Women by Barbara G. Walker

I'll be honest: I did not read this entire book. I couldn't stand it. I tried to read as much as I could manage, but eventually had to give up.

This book is pretty much entirely a polemic against Christianity. I think it mentions the patriarchy of Judaism and also Buddhism a little, but it's mostly about how the Christian Church has been, and still is, keeping women down. Every chapter, from "What's Wrong with Patriarchy?" to "The New Age," focuses on that. There's also a strong veneration of science, which Walker seems to believe is never biased, and always prepared to change. Further, there is a great emphasis on how illogical Christianity is, with no satisfactory explanation as to why believing in the Goddess is any more logical. Such belief may certainly be beneficial, but you should be fair: apply logic equally or don't apply it at all.

Each chapter is comprised of several pages written by Walker, mostly poorly researched history, and then a number of pages containing anecdotes from women loosely relating to the chapter's topic. I didn't read too many of those. I'm not sure why one would need a book to showcase these things. It doesn't seem to include any women with slightly different perspectives, either.

If you want to read something by Barbara G. Walker, go for her knitting books. If you want to read about the Goddess, go for The Spiral Dance. However, if you are a woman who has been knocked about by patriarchal Christianity all her life and want reassurance that you're not alone and there is more out there, I would recommend this book.

(Oh, and there were no "equal rites" listed. I feel cheated.)

Walk Score is urging Congress to improve the new Transportation Bill, moving funds away from building more highways and toward improving accessibility for walkers and bicycles as well as public transport. To that end, there's a petition here. I know there are a few people on my friends list who don't or who rarely drive, and I hope you and everyone else will sign the petition. Whether you want safer roads, energy independence for the US, cheaper gas, or just, you know, to save the earth, this is really important. I just got back from driving my sister to the train station, and couldn't help noticing with disappointment that the main road I drove on, as well as most of the cross-streets, had no bike lanes. I'm trying to get better at riding my bike, and hope eventually to be able to bike regularly to the library, which is just down the street from the train station... but since there is only one street that goes the whole way from my house to that intersection, it's not going to be easy with non bike lane.

While you're at the site, check out your city's and neighborhood's Walk Scores (if you're in the US). I was very pleased to see that I live in the 5th most walkable city in the US, but disappointed, if not surprised, to see that within the city, my neighborhood ranks 50th (out of 56)...

The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas

Exhibit A: My love of all things Welsh.

Exhibit B: My obsession with faeries, fairy tales, and folklore in general.

Exhibit C: The title of this book.

The defense rests.

More seriously, this is a fantastic collection. There's a wide variety of fairy tales in it--mostly featuring actual faeries--and I felt that it gave me a really good feeling for Welsh folklore in 1907 (when the book was first compiled). One can't really judge on the literary merit of folktales, but they're well-told, and most are entertaining and intriguing. A few had unexpected similarities to folktales of other cultures that I've encountered, and I would be interested to find out where these tropes originated (if it can be pinned down) and how they passed from one to the other.

The Spiral Dance by Starhawk

( This one's pretty long. )

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

This short story collection is mainly retold fairy tales, which is a genre I adore, so I was naturally excited to read this book. Some of the author's takes on fairy tales were quite intriguing. I especially enjoyed the title story, Bluebeard with a quite a twist, and "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon," a sweet Beauty and the Beast. From there, though, it seemed to go straight downhill. The author's overwrought style, peppered with extremely obscure words, was enjoyable at first, but grating on the nerves after several stories. It never seemed to change, and a number of the stories, I felt, would benefit from a different style. Some of the stories had twist endings that made no sense, and some, particularly "The Lady of the House of Love," were just not interesting. (The last may have been more fun when it was first written, when the trope of the reluctant vampire wasn't quite so done.) I do recommend many of the stories if you enjoy the genre, but perhaps one at a time would be better.

( Prince Caspian: spoilers )

The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson

It's hard to articulate why, but this struck me as a very unusual fantasy book almost from the beginning. The story is about Tilja, the elder daughter on a farm where the country's magical defenses are kept up. But the magic is starting to fail, and someone has to venture into the evil Empire to find the man who can refresh them. The characters are tons of fun--Tilja's grandmother, Meena, and two people from the other magic place, Alnor and his grandson Tahl--and the magic is unusual. I wouldn't call the novel a work of genius, but it was a fun read. The one thing that really bothered me--almost throughout the book--was that the characters seemed to take too much for granted. I was very suspicious of certain characters, and it was all explained away too easily. However, I'm utterly fascinated by Tilja's strange ability and wish there were sequels to this. Actually, looking on Amazon, it looks like there is, but it's not about the same characters and frankly I'm confused--it sounds as though it's set in the future and the past. However, I have also discovered that this author also wrote a book I read many times as a kid, Eva, about a girl who gets her brain transplanted into the body of a chimp. It's actually really good. Also he's married to Robin McKinley!

Don't worry, these are more interesting to the non-knitters!

I feel guilty about the Calmer. I feel guilty for buying--and so far, loving--a yarn that is part conventionally grown cotton (one of the most resource-intensive crops that exists) and part synthetic. I want to be environmentally friendly. I want to buy and use yarn that is good for the environment. Like bamboo! Yay, renewable resource! Yay, plant fiber!

But as I learn more about yarn I find that it's not all so good. Bamboo is not as natural a fiber as I thought it was; instead of pulling long fibers from the stalks and spinning them together, it's actually made in much the same way as rayon, broken down and made into yarn with harsh chemical processes. And most of it comes from China, where the regulations are much less strict than in the US, so who knows what kinds of dyes are used. In fact, it seems like the only good ways to be sure of getting environmentally friendly yarn is to get organic colorgrown cotton (not very nice colors and not very versatile), wildcrafted silk (way expensive), or humanely raised wool (I'm allergic). These are not good options! I want to knit stuff I like and can afford!

Now, fast forward... after more thought and more reading, I've come to another realization. Really... I'm already doing my part. I do try to get more environmentally-friendly yarns, even if everything isn't. And it's already significant that I'm mindful of my purchases. And the biggest thing? I'm making my own clothing, and therefore offering less and less support to mass-manufactured clothing probably put together by underpaid children in sweatshops. So really, I'm doing pretty well.

I was going to be good. I was all "yay me, I'm going to knit up my stash. See me buy needles so I can knit things. See me knit stash!" And I have been knitting up my stash to some extent. I started to make a hat with yarn I had (though I need some smaller DPNs for that). I made socks. I'm making a mesh bag with the cheap cotton/acrylic that I really just want to use up.

But I have been done in by deals. I ordered two skeins of way discounted Rowan Calmer from eBay. I ordered a skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk from Little Knits. I just now ordered five skeins of an anniversary sale yarn (I don't even remember what it's called...) from WEBS.

However! I am still being relatively good. The first skein of Calmer is dedicated to swatching--ordinary "see what gauge I get" swatch is going now, then I'll do a swatch-in-the-round, then a cabled Morrigan (sweater I will make someday) swatch. The second skein? Finally, Knucks. The Sea Silk goes toward the Hanami stole--and since I already have the first skein for that, it is technically helping knit up my stash! And the other yarn will be for the Ballet Camisole from MagKnits, which I will totally wear. So, yay. And it's not like my stash is that huge, really... it's just a little inconvenient to transfer around with me between school and home. I guess that will be moot soon anyway. Ah well. I still want to shrink it.

(Also, we just got a huge raise at the Writing Center, so I can totally afford all this!)

Why I Let My Hair Grow Out by Maryrose Wood

I stopped reading this book (featuring an incredibly obnoxious sixteen-year-old narrator) after a talking horse named Samhain was referred to as "Sam."

...yeah.

That's an error I can forgive in ordinary people or new pagans, but not in authors, especially ones who have theoretically researched ancient Ireland fairly extensively in order to write the book.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Well, I was right about there not being another book like American Gods; still, this book was pretty delightful. I liked that it was about characters barely mentioned in the prequel--Anansi's sons. Fat Charlie is a memorable and sympathetic character, while Spider is the fascinating sort I'd never want to meet in real life. Rosie, Fat Charlie's fiancee, is also a great character, even if the way their relationship changes over the course of the book is fairly predictable from the beginning. The plot moves by increments that seem implausible from just a chapter away, but, by the time you reach them, are inevitable. Even the villains are fantastic, especially the wonderfully weaselly Grahame Coats. All in all, an excellent, satisfying book, told as only Gaiman can.

1. Reply to this post, and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon squee. Whoo!

( Read more... )

All right, I'm sure no one here needs to be convinced to leave LJ, but if you have friends who do, here's a great post with lots of explanation as to why exactly LJ is full of suckitude: http://asylums.insanejournal.com/refugees_of_lj/1458.html

The Whispering Mountain by Joan Aiken

This was an interesting little fantasy novel. I enjoyed it, and somehow it had the feel of a classic, but I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It was set, I believe, in the early 19th century--the date was never made quite clear, and as one review described it, it is "unhistorical," so a sot of it doesn't make sense for 19th-century Wales anyway. I suppose I should say I quite liked the plot, the stolen harp and the strange groups of characters running about and meeting up in new configurations trying to find it, but the peripheral aspects seemed a bit off. It was quite silly, but didn't always seem to be aware of its own silliness. And then the ending, which I won't reveal but is decidedly not silly, rather threw me off. Oh, and the villain reminded me quite strongly of Voldemort. I wonder if J. K. Rowling's read this.

The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

Ah, Shakespeare. What could there possibly be to complain about? I have just one thing: it would be so much better on stage. This is a hilariously funny play, full of sex and deception, but text is not an ideal way to consume it. While some of the jokes wouldn't make sense were it not for the glosses, that sort of thing is easier to pass quickly by on stage, and it's such a physical play that it would be vastly improved by being able to see the characters. I'm glad I read it, but now I know that I should absolutely snatch any chance I get to see it performed.