We Want It! - June 2013

[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. Unless otherwise stated any blurbs for books have come from GoodReads.

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Books

What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton: Subtitled "Re-Reading the Classics of Science Fiction & Fantasy", this book will collect the best of Walton's criticism for Tor.com. Yes please :D



Just Between Us edited by Maya Linden

Empathetic, supportive and respectful...
Or competitive, manipulative and downright bitchy?
Or somewhere in between?

In Just Between Us, a host of Australia's best-loved female writers bare all on this age-old quandary: Are female friendships all-natural and nurturing? Or are some more damaging than delightful? And most of all, what happens when female relationships go off the rails? And who is to blame? While falling in and out of romantic love is a well-documented experience, losing a friend rarely gets discussed. Which doesn't mean the pain is less — quite the opposite, as we discover in this extraordinary collection of heartfelt fiction and non-fiction works that put female friendship in the spotlight.

First of all, I kind of hate this blurb with a fiery passion: how about "female friendships are every bit as complex and multilayered as every other form of human interaction, and I can't take anyone who even tries to have a debate about this seriously"? I'm going to assume this is just terrible marketing, though, and that the anthology doesn't try to pretend there's a single "truth" about female friendship. I'm always interested in reading about how people manage their friendships, especially in personal essays, and I love that there's a new anthology out there that addresses what I agree is a peculiar cultural blind spot.



Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

Finnikin of the Rock and his guardian, Sir Topher, have not been home to their beloved Lumatere for ten years. Not since the dark days when the royal family was murdered and the kingdom put under a terrible curse. But then Finnikin is summoned to meet Evanjalin, a young woman with an incredible claim: the heir to the throne of Lumatere, Prince Balthazar, is alive.

Evanjalin is determined to return home and she is the only one who can lead them to the heir. As they journey together, Finnikin is affected by her arrogance . . . and her hope. He begins to believe he will see his childhood friend, Prince Balthazar, again. And that their cursed people will be able to enter Lumatere and be reunited with those trapped inside. He even believes he will find his imprisoned father.

But Evanjalin is not what she seems. And the truth will test not only Finnikin's faith in her . . . but in himself.

I actually already own this book, so what I really want is to get the rest of the Lumatere Chronicles and them make time to read them all "in one glorious binge" as per Jenny's instructions. It also doesn't hurt that I recently came across this quote on tumblr where Marchetta admits to having drawn inspiration from Megan Whalen Turner.



She Rises by Kate Worsley:

It is 1740 and Louise Fletcher, a young dairy maid on an Essex farm, has been warned of the lure of the sea for as long as she can remember--after all, it stole away her father and brother. But when she is offered work in the bustling naval port of Harwich, as a lady's maid to a wealthy captain's daughter, she leaps at the chance to see more of the world. There she meets Rebecca, her haughty young mistress, who is unlike anyone Louise has encountered before: as unexpected as she is fascinating.

Intertwined with her story is fifteen-year-old Luke's: He is drinking in a Harwich tavern when it is raided by Her Majesty's Navy. Unable to escape, Luke is beaten and press ganged and sent to sea on board the warship Essex. He must learn fast and choose his friends well if he is to survive the brutal hardships of a sailor's life and its many dangers, both up high in the rigging and in the dark below decks.

Louise navigates her new life among the streets and crooked alleys of Harwich, where groaning houses riddled with smugglers' tunnels are flooded by the spring tides, and love burns brightly in the shadows. Luke, aching for the girl he left behind and determined to one day find his way back to her, embarks on a long and perilous journey across the ocean.

The worlds they find are more dangerous and more exciting than they could ever have imagined, and when they collide the consequences are astonishing and irrevocable.

First of all, gorgeous cover. Secondly, I keep seeing this compared to Sarah Waters, which is pretty much Ana-nip. It's also potentially setting myself up for disappointment, but oh well.



No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood edited by Henriette Mantel: Moar personal essays, and on another subject I'm always interested in reading about.

Film

Before Midnight: Be still my heart. I can't even begin to explain how much these movies mean to me, or how excited I am to see this later this month.

Other

And now for something a bit different: recently I decided that I have a shortage (read: zero) of long summer dresses, and that I need one sort of like this, preferably in red and white. If anyone knows where I'd be able to find one feel free to let me know :D

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Books

"Infidel" – Kameron Hurley

'Nyx is a bodyguard in Mustallah, the capital city of Nasheen. The centuries-long holy war between Nasheen and Chenja is taking its toll, with shortages and rationing causing the Queen to lose power and popularity. While protecting the daughter of a Ras Tiegan Diplomat, Nyx is attacked by a group of assassins. Nyx survives, but begins to suffer from a strange, debilitating condition that nobody can identify. Caught up in a whirl-wind of intrigue involving Bel Dam Assassins plotting against the Queen, Nyx must learn who the rouge Bel Dam is, and find a cure for her illness, while avoiding the wrath of the queen she is trying to protect. The danger that swirls around her may have finally become to much, and Nyx's colleagues and friends began to die. Will Nyx be next?'

Can no longer restrain self — must have this now. I want to see what's going to happen to Nyx soon.



"The People of Forever are Not Afraid" - Shani Boianjiu

'Yael, Avishag, and Lea grow up together in a tiny, dusty Israeli village, attending a high school made up of caravan classrooms, passing notes to each other to alleviate the universal boredom of teenage life. When they are conscripted into the army, their lives change in unpredictable ways, influencing the women they become and the friendship that they struggle to sustain.'

Bojanjiu's novel is the book I'm most looking forward to reading off The Women's Prize long list. I feel, while there's quite a bit of SF where women , contemporary stories about female soldiers are rare (perhaps you have some recommendations for me she asks greedily) which I think is interesting considering that "We Have Always Fought" and modern armies around the world recruit women soldiers. I wonder if as women go into front line fighting in the US army we'll see more contemporary novels about female soldiers published? Also one of the characters is called Yael, like one of the women in 'Prisoners of War' — small things add up to purchases.



"The Different Girl" – Gordon Dahlquist

'Four nearly identical girls on a desert island. An unexpected new arrival. A gently warped near future where nothing is quite as it seems.

'Veronika. Caroline. Isobel. Eleanor. One blond, one brunette, one redhead, one with hair black as tar. Four otherwise identical girls who spend their days in sync, tasked to learn. But when May, a very different kind of girl—the lone survivor of a recent shipwreck—suddenly and mysteriously arrives on the island, an unsettling mirror is about to be held up to the life the girls have never before questioned.'

I found this courtesy of an enthusiastic review at The Book Smugglers. Is it weird to be fascinated by that popping hair/earring combination?



"The Crane Wife" – Patrick Ness

'One night, George Duncan — decent man, a good man — is woken by a noise in his garden. Impossibly, a great white crane has tumbled to earth, shot through its wing by an arrow. Unexpectedly moved, George helps the bird, and from the moment he watches it fly off, his life is transformed.

The next day, a kind but enigmatic woman walks into George's shop. Suddenly a new world opens up for George, and one night she starts to tell him the most extraordinary story.'

Obviously I want this — it's Ness.



"Skellig" – David Almond

'Michael was looking forward to moving into a new house. But now his baby sister is ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he steps into the crumbling garage and encounters a strange being who changes his world forever.'

After seeing Almond at the recent Cambridge Wordfest I kind of want to read everything he's ever written, especially 'My Name is Mina' which is the sequel to 'Skellig'. I read 'Skellig' a long time ago (primary school set text) but I remember almost nothing about it so I should probably start by re-visiting this book.