We Want It! January 2012

[helloladies]

Because we haven't quite managed to work out a way for us to consume ALL the entertainment yet: to keep us from emerging haggard and zombie like after regular all night box set marathons, book splurges and music overload we've set up this monthly space where we can express our pure fannish glee at the fact that so many projects of awesome potential are continually being made. All of our past wants and desires can be found in the We Want It! tag.

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Books

Avatar The Last Airbender: The Lost Adventures by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino — I knew about the Gene Luen Yang trilogy of sequels, but only found out about this book a few days ago. It's a collection of short stories that take place at the same time as the TV series, and my goal is to get my hands on it as soon as possible to ease the terrible pain of parting from these characters. Renay, what have you done to me? ;)



There but for the by Ali Smith — Plenty of authors I like, including Patrick Ness, listed it as their top read of the year. This got me curious, as stalking favourite authors for their reading preference is a strategy that has worked out very well for me so far. Not to mention that it's Ali Smith — I love her writing and it's a mystery why I've only read three of her books to date.



Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai — A novel in verse that's getting a lot of accolades in the kidlit world. It's the story of a girl who moves from Saigon to the US during the Vietnam war. Having just finished an excellent novel in verse (May B), I'm thinking I should seek out the format more.

DVDs

I've been hearing about My So-Called Life for ages, but I've never actually watched it. I was reminded of it again recently when a Lady Business reader recommended it and plan to get it with one of my birthday gift cards.

Music

It made me happy to see PJ Harvey's Let England Shake top so many best albums of the year lists. I enjoy her music but haven't listened to her last few releases. It sounds like this is one I really shouldn't miss, though.



So excited about the new Allo Darlin' single, Capricornia, as well as their second album later this year. I love this band so much — they often make me think of a more girl-centric Belle & Sebastian. And no, these words were not carefully selected to entice Jodie ;).

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Books

I'm not quite sure whether I want to read emotional set-pieces, adventure stories, or crazy experiments in form this month. What I do know is that I don't want to read another half hearted story, that has been cynically built out of parts harvested from the slush pile. This is my grumpy face, world. Please stop publishing books without real heart. I fully expect that these books below contain real feeling and aren't about some confused white person dealing with 'problems' in 'exotic' lands, while having a deadly dull midlife affair. Less of that please.



'Russian Winter' by Daphne Kalotay — I suspect this book contains both a present day narrative and a past narrative. *Big SIGH*. I would like this style of storytelling to stop being a trend. However, I am always hopeful that this dual narrative will be THE ONE, because when this technique works you get two casts of characters and two stories for the price of one. This one (if it is a novel with both past and present storylines) has ballet and jewellery, coupled with desperately sad Stalinist history and possible romance. Even though I'm not that interested in studying early twentieth century history, Russia is always tweaking at my attention (I want to visit).



'Split' by Sawati Avasthi — 'Split's' premise sounds simple, emotionally quiet, but powerful. It's the story of two brothers from an abusive home. The brother who stayed, arrives on the doorstep of the brother who left and the estranged siblings have to sort through the guilt and anger of such a hard situation. I am obsessed with stories about brothers. I think writing brotherly relationships give authors space to explore male feelings and the different ways that boys can grow up, which is (in case you didn't know) kind of a preoccupation of mine.



'In The Garden of Iden' by Kage Baker — Why am I always discovering classic female sci-fi authors just as they are sadly preparing to depart this world? I discovered Kage Baker through her posthumous steam punk work, 'The Women of Nell Gwynne's', about an agency of female spies who pose as high class prostitutes to unearth secrets of national importance. I loved seeing the historically logical way the author made this kind of organisation plausible and of course I wanted more ladies spying, but there are no more stories about this group. Happily Baker does have a huge back list of novels about a mysterious, time travelling organisation called The Company and I'm planning to start right at the beginning, with 'In The Garden of Iden' (assuming I've worked out the order correctly).



'White is for Witching' by Helen Oyeyemi — Creepy book about a creepy house and the odd children that live within, which sounds fitting for winter months full of rain and fog.



'Zoo City' by Lauren Beukes — Renay mentioned this one in her summer reading post. 'Zinzi December finds people' in a city where people have animal familiars. I can't get enough of sci-fi private eye genre cross over since I read 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' and 'The City and the City', so I'm excited at the prospect of more in 'Zoo City'.



'The Monstromologist' by Rick Yancey — The blog reviews for this series are so glowing you can see them from Mars. Angie called the books 'richly plotted, detailed historical pieces and, oh yeah, they're rip-roaringly-turn-on-the-lights scary and stomach-churningly gory.' Thea loves them and Nymeth was frightened by the first book. Most importantly, everyone has made them sound so smart, stuffed full of literary and scientific allusions that add to the plot. Yum, I'm imagining them as hearty book sandwiches full of my favourite things.



'Open City' by Teju Cole — I heard about this at 'White Readers Meet Black Authors' I think. I really should read their posts more often, as they offer up such interesting news about current releases. It sounds like a novel that's built more around the connections of spontaneous thought than plot, but the base story is of a man who walks around Nigeria ruminating, using the walking and thinking as a way of processing pain. I think I heard someone compare it to W J Sebald's novels, which are interesting (if incredibly mentally demanding, must try harder with his work). Perfect for office workers like me, whose brains are getting lazy.

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Television

Teen Wolf (Season 2) — After mainlining 12 episodes of this show over two days and inflicting 22k of Teen Wolf fanfic on the Internet, I am ready for more story. I have six months to write more fanfic with feelings until the next season premieres in June which feels super long, but maybe if I fill the time with enough epic fake boyfriends fic it will seem shorter. It's not a long wait, but I so rarely get attached to television shows these days. I don't consider myself someone who enjoys werewolves that much, but this show hits all my buttons and whatever it misses I can write myself. Possessiveness! Smelling! Cuddles! (Okay, only the smelling thing is canonical so far, whatever.) Character-wise, Stiles and Allison are my favorites and I'm ready to see what the next season does for them. I'm also super ready for Allison to shoot more things with flaming arrows and for Stiles to stop wearing so many shirts. STOP WEARING SO MANY SHIRTS, STILES.

Books

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater — Susan recommended this to me a few days ago. I've been seeing it around various bookstores and somehow thought it was about something different than it was; is it fantasy or otherwise? I still can't tell and am afraid to look up too much about it for fear of spoilers, but the premise sounds interesting. There's horses and racing and danger! Susan rated it really highly so I am curious to check it out.



Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi — Okay, I probably don't have to explain this one. I am bitter that it's definitely not the sequel to The Android's Dream that I want to feast my eyes on, but it's Scalzi riffing off popular culture in a way that's accessible to me. I do not know anything about Little Fuzzy, and am not sure I want to. I get Gremlins vibes and those films scarred me forever and I will to continue resist anything that even vaguely resembles cute furry creatures, because, as noted, cute fuzzy creatures can easily turn rabid and eat your face. Star Trek parodies I can handle and Scalzi's style lends itself well to loving mockery of pop culture touchstones.

Not that I've watched the show itself — reboot only girl here — because William Shatner's face. The only way I can stomach Shatner these days is when listening to Shatner of the Mount (he wants to make love to the mountain).



Railsea by China Miéville — Years ago I purchased a copy of Perdido Street Station and failed out in the first chapter because it was so dense and unwieldy and I couldn't get a good grasp on the text. I attributed this to my inexperience with science fiction/fantasy and decided to read easier works and build my way up to Miéville. What no one tells you is that there's no training wheels for Miéville. He doesn't get any easier and eventually you've just got to grab the mental lube and go for it and hope it gets easier once you've come out the other side. On Twitter, Jodie and Maree started chanting "KRAKEN KRAKEN KRAKEN!" at me back in December, Maree continuously pointed out that it was extremely slashy and I needed to read it and write fic for it, stat, and so since that day I've been reading Kraken, which is more accessible than Perdido Street Station but not by much and possibly less if you're unfamiliar with London slang, locations, history and pop culture references (which I am, being a conceited American). London is a character in that novel and its loathe to give up its secrets. But I love his style, the silky density of his narrative that's offset by the crispness of his dialogue, and so when I caught notice of Railsea and the premise which equals "Moby Dick? Let's write some post-apocalyptic AU fanfic of it!" I knew I wasn't going to be able to resist.



The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi — Oh, Bacigalupi. I have yet to put anything by this dude in my eyes without coming away from it doing the literary version of the Care Bare Stare at his face. From the short story I read of his, The People of Sand and Slag, to Ship Breaker so far he hasn't failed to be entertaining in all the ways I love. Please continue to imagine the end of the world in fascinating ways, Bacigalupi, and eventually I will stop being terrified of The Windup Girl. I've survived Miéville, after all.

Comments

[nymeth]

RE Gremlings: This is not the time to tell you about my ridiculous sentimental attachment to a plush Gizmo I've had since I was seven years old, is it? ;)

yay for Drowned Cities and the new China Miéville! And Jodie, I really want White is for Witching too. Jenny told me it was the best Oyeyemi and she gives me the best recs EVER.

[renay]

NIGHTMARES, ANA. NIGHTMARES.

There's something about the fact that I started a project about reading ladies and now everything I see that I want to read is by a dude. At least they're not coming out for awhile. *g*

(And for the record, what I've done is ENRICHED YOUR LIFE INCREDIBLY. You're welcome.)

[nymeth]

IT'S TRUE. If I haven't thanked you yet, I totally meant to :P

[renay]

Maybe by the time Korra releases I will be able to entice you toward Skype for an appropriate squeefest every time there's a new episode. DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT. IT COULD HAPPEN.

[chrisa511]

OMG Ladies /o\ Here I am trying to save money and SO MANY AWESOME THINGS IN ONE PLACE!!!! At least there is netflix and the library. Oh and Ana, the new PJ Harvey AND My So Called Life are AWESOME!!

[chrisa511]

Also....I DID preorder Railsea BEFORE I started trying to save money so WIN FOR THAT!

[renay]

Beware Miéville. ;_________; He is both clever and heartless.

[renay]

Didn't we talk about your inability to maintain a book buying ban? I feel like we did, I remember the words coming out of you mouth. *g*

[myfriendamy]

Aw, Ana you read May B already? I want to read that, I love Caroline. And yes you must watch MYSCL!!! I rewatched the pilot a few months ago and just wept, it was so heartfelt and felt so true and reminded me of my youth. Of course I cry easily.

I want to read Scorpio Races as well, it got such great reviews and I have really liked her previous books that I've read. I liked Teen Wolf but I feel like I need to watch it again before the next season, I'm already forgetting stuff.

and Jodie, I also love brotherly stories! (actually I really like any non romantic deep relationship stories) Stefan and Damon are my fave part of TVD and I used to love Dean and Sam on Supernatural until that show started pandering too much to the fans and made like every other episode meta.

[nymeth]

May B was one of my 4 NetGalley requests to date, based mostly on the gorgeous cover and intriguing concept. But hey, it totally paid :P

[myfriendamy]

oh LOL I always forget about netgalley. I mean when I wasn't reading I forgot all about it, and got out of the habit of going there. But yeah the cover is totally presh!

[bookgazing]

I just got Supernatural Season One for Christmas, because of the brother stories (and y'know the acors, plus the fact that Dean from Gilmore Girls is in a show with a character named Dean, which made strange lil me go 'I MUST see this'.). But I hear there is a point where Supernatural becomes too weird, like you said and I want to know which series you recommend I probably stop at to avoid heartbreak.

Stefan and Damon forever! I love all the sibling dynamics in that program, but the two brothers just have so many feelings.

[myfriendamy]

hmmm...well 1-3 are all GREAT IMO, and 4 is still kinda good but that's when they introduce something that changes up the dynamic of the show forever. But because of what happens at the end of 3 you'll probably really want to at least start watching 4.

[dastevens]

I just heard of Inside Out & Back Again when Max brought home his Scholastic order form on Friday--I immediately fell in love with that cover! And was happy to read that the description sounded pretty awesome too. And Ana, you might want to try Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse--another kidlit book in free verse (set in the Dust Bowl years in the US).

[nymeth]

I haven't forgotten about your reading list even though it's taking me a million years to actually read the books. I promise I WILL eventually get to Out of the Dust :P

[bookgazing]

Ana: I actually have a Allo Darlin' album now, just have to find time to give it a dedicated first listen.

Renay: Scorpio races is about fierce horses that come out of the sea, which I think is based on Irish myth (but also reminds me of Poseidon's horses), so I'm pretty sure it's fantasy.

[nymeth]

YAY. My work here is done ;)