I can't wait to hear Melissa Marr speak at TLA.

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

rating: 5 of 5 stars

While I have read several good books recently, this was the first page-turner I've read in a while. Every time I had to stop reading Wicked Lovely and return to the real world, I was frustrated by the interruption.

Whenever I like a book this much, I kind of just have a visceral reaction to it and it's hard for me to put my finger on what it was that I liked in order to write about it.

First of all, and somewhat surprisingly to me, I really enjoyed the setting. I had always been a little hesitant about urban fantasy, but there's something kind of great about reading about magic happening in a world you can actually relate to, not some distant world of princesses and knights and corsets and bows and arrows. It just makes the world seem like a place of possibilities.

I also enjoyed the characters, especially, I admit, the sexy, tattoed and pierced love interest. Marr takes a very pragmatic approach in describing relationships and sexuality, which I enjoy. The realism, set against the fantastical elements in the story, contributes even further to the whole "world of possibilities" effect. Marr's basically saying, "yep, this is the same world you live in, where people get tattoos, have sex, sometimes with people they don't care about, go to clubs, maybe drink or do more, etc. And it's magical."

I most enjoyed that there were a couple of times that this book could really have been trite, but instead Marr took the road less traveled. There could have been a love triangle complete with lots o' drama, but there wasn't. Seth could have doubted Ash's ability to see fairies, leading to a major falling out between them and a redemptive story arc in which his failure to believe her leads to near tragedy averted just in the nick of time when he finds evidence and swoops in to save her. But, he didn't. He believed her and they moved on with the plot.

In Which I Condone the Objectification of Men...or at least one man...

Jamie Bamber is yummy.

China Beach

I can never get enough of pop culture countdowns, but this one was pretty mundane: best tv shows of the '90s, Seinfeld, Friends, yada yada yada. Then, it surprised me by including China Beach, a show I thought nobody but me even remembered! I loved that show and am really looking forward to the day it comes out on DVD.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

American Wife: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book was a really interesting read. It was a challenge, knowing that the book is Sittenfeld's imagining of the life of Laura Bush, to separate fact from fiction. I had to remind myself often that the words were Sittenfeld's, the thoughts were Alice and Charlie's, and that neither the words nor the thoughts were Laura's or George's. This was especially challenging in light of the fact that so much of it was clearly thinly-veiled fact. Charlie buys the Milwaukee Brewers, George bought the Texas Rangers; Charlie went to Princeton, George went to Yale; Charlie has a drug and alcohol problem, George had a drug and alcohol problem.

American Wife has two ingredients I really enjoy in a novel: exploration of familial relationships and long-term storytelling. I love when a novel follows a character throughout his or her lifetime (or even one that follows several generations of a family). I enjoy watching the character grow and seeing how all of the episodes of a person's life shape them and effect each successive episode. I liked that when Alice mentions she has her Giving Tree sculpture on her desk in the White House I felt invested in that, as a reader, because I'd also read about how Alice had made that sculpture.

This novel also grapples with the idea of identity and celebrity, which is fascinating to me. I really liked when Alice was describing her celebrity and how occasionally people would say to her, "wow, it must be weird to be famous," not realizing that just by making that statement, they too are contributing to the weirdness.

The greatest strength of this novel, however, is in its portrayal of Alice Blackwell as neither sympathetic nor hateful. She just is. Sometimes you sympathize with her and think "losing a loved one is so awful; having the public act as if they know you must again be awful," other times you think "ugh, how can she stay married to him?? What is wrong with her?" But you never fully swing one way or the other, you just accept that Alice has made her decisions for better or for worse and that she feels the same way about them. She's not asking for your sympathy or your condemnation when she shares the details of her life; she's just sharing.


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Siftables

We interrupt our regularly-scheduled pop culture programming to bring you this video. I don't know when I became so drooly over technology, but I'm really getting into it and I find this idea extremely exciting.

He's Just Not That Into You

Saw it yesterday at Alamo. Sorry, haters, it was awe-some. Sometimes, I really wished I was wearing my awkward pants, but it made me laugh, it made me tear up, and it had lots of people in it that I rather enjoy: Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly ("Sarah friend?"), Mac ("Hello, I'm a Mac."), and Ben Affleck. Mac and I were on the outs there for a little while after he downgraded from Drew Barrymore to Kirsten Dunst, but we are so back on after this. He was hot. He and Jennifer Aniston/Ben Affleck had the best storylines, although Drew's was really cute at the end. I kind of wish Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck would get together in real life, now. I digress. Yes, it's a schmaltzy rom-com. No, I don't care. I really really enjoyed it and I highly recommend it. The Ben/Jen ending alone totally did it for me, but the rest is well worth it, too.

Scrubs is funny again! and other TV musings

I'd been kind of unsure about Scrubs since it's premiere on ABC a few weeks ago, but with this week's episodes, I think I can safely say, "it's back!" I actually lol'd twice, both thanks to Kelso. I'm so glad they've kept him on the show even though he retired from the hospital. Scrubs has also earned points with me by reuniting JD and Elliot and by paying homage to Boston Legal the other night with a scene between Perry and Bob. Now, I stopped watching Boston Legal a long time ago, but even after I stopped enjoying the rest of the show I still enjoyed the relationship between Spader and Shatner. That's so much scenery-chewing in one place you'd think only bad things could come from it. Instead, Brilliant! (Imagine the Guinness mascots saying that, folks.) They've also been using Jordan and they gave Ted a cute storyline in which he got to sing a capella (love it) and get it on with a ukulele player. Thank you, Scrubs. I was nervous for a while there.

I'm making my way through the first season of Buffy. I don't have much to say about it analytically, yet (don't worry, if you're just dying to see me wax philosophical about tv, I'm about to write about the third season of BSG), but I am really enjoying it. I knew I would like this show if I could just get over the mental block that "I'm not really into vampire, monster, demon-y stuff." It didn't help that everyone kept telling me the first season wasn't that great! Having the ladies over to watch a few introductory episodes from other seasons was definitely the way to go. I'm enjoying the first season, but I do agree that it's not as good as the episodes I've seen from later seasons. I have to say, even the episode named for him didn't bring me over to the Angel side. I'm also sticking to my guns about the attractiveness of Giles. And seriously, how much do I love Alyson Hannigan? I'm looking forward to watching the show, the characters, the relationships, and the mythology evolve. Thinking about Buffy and thinking ahead to how I want to blog about BSG has me thinking about Joss and Helo and holy cow I can't wait for Dollhouse this weekend. Although, I am no-longer-secretly-as-of-this-moment a little worried I'll be disappointed. I always worry when there's a lot of build-up, y'know?

Whoa, we interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post to discuss the recently-announced cast of Dancing with the Stars. They've only announced 2/3 of the cast so far, but so far L'il Kim, Steve-O, and Denise Richards are all in the lineup. Is it even safe to have that much crazy in one place? And, on the subject of Denise Richards, I have to point out how creative the producers are in declaring each star's claim to fame when what they are really famous for can't be said in the intros. For example, Heather Mills was announced as a philanthropist and formal model...um, right, she's famous for being married to a Beatle, people. And Denise Richards? Former Bond Girl. Oo-Kay.

I guess more on BSG later; it's getting time for me to get to bed!

Help me friends, you're my only hope!

Does anyone know how to do the Blogger version of an LJ cut who can tell me in a way I understand? Because I definitely do not understand the Blogger help page. I used to have several posts cut with the "read more" link and when I went back to see how they'd been done (Pat did them, that's why I didn't already know how they'd been done; he did them because, as I said, I definitely do not understand the Blogger help page.), I saw that those posts were all now expanded with a useless "read more" link at the bottom. Ugh. Help me! Please!

BSG Season 2 Finale

Another day, another bulleted Battlestar Galactica list. Spoilers for the season 2 finale ahead!

• I'll just get this one out of the way now: Anders is my boyfriend.
• Al!
• Al is a cylon?! No, say it ain't so!
• Wait, so how many cylons do we know so far? Six, Sharon, Short Guy, Vest Guy, Dr-from-the-Farm Guy, Xena, Al...I think that's it? 5 to go!
  
• I hate Sharon 2.
• I actually got a little choked up when Raptor 612 jumped into the mountain.
  
• I also got choked up when Cally forgave Tyrol, although I didn't love his storyline overall. It was clearly just meant to open the door for the Al-as-cylon reveal.
  
• Sorry, Roslin, but in the case of democracy, the end does not justify the means for me.
• Oh wow, POW Six knew what she was doing when she set off that nuke. I just thought she was suicidal...
  
• After I just expressed so much sympathy for Sharon 1, she appears to have gone completely bad. Of course, things are not always what they seem, but a cylon-occupied New Caprica certainly seems bad.
• Does anyone else watch Eureka? Jo as Maya is just a little weird for me (not distractingly weird as in the case of Xander "Could I be any more Chandler Bing?" Harris); Jo's not exactly the maternal teacher-y type.
  

Overall, I loved it, of course, but I'm still undecided as to how I feel about the time warp (oh, man, yesterday "motley crew," today "time warp;" I honestly cannot help the cheese). On the one hand, it was a great plot advancement. The "I told you so" of how hard the living is on New Caprica, of Gaius' seemingly hedonistic lifestyle (seemingly, because one assumes he isn't actually feeling that much pleasure having lost POW Six, sentenced them all to life on this horrid planet, and basically just sucking at leading the people), of the return of the cylons, was really poignant. But, it was difficult to adjust to other things, the relationships in particular: Cally is pregnant? Starbuck and Anders are married (sweet! But, I wish I knew more!)? Lee and Dee appear to be married (she was playing with a wedding band, he wasn't wearing one)? Lee and Starbuck aren't speaking? Haven't spoken in a year? Tell me more!

Ooh, I'm excited for season 3!

Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan

Runaways, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I always knew I'd like comic books (I really enjoy serialized entertainment; it's why I prefer TV to movies: the long story arcs, the fully developed characters, etc), but I have been hesitant to try them because comic book communities seem so daunting and insular. X-Men has always been a comic series that intrigued me, but at this point there are like six million issues. How do I know where to start? But, with this comic book being so recent and so handily packaged in bound volumes and being available to me without necessitating a visit to a comic book store (also daunting and insular) and so well-loved by and then written by Joss Whedon, I had to try it. And I loved it.

Runaways is the story of six kids who find out that their parents are super-villains (although, as is always the case with truly interesting villains, you might decide they aren't so evil after all; my opinion? Oh, yeah, they're definitely villains.). After witnessing their parents committing a pretty heinous act, Alex, Nico, Gertrude, Molly, Chase, and Karolina decide to run away from their parents and then take them down. Along the way, they discover various super powers of their own and action, adventure, comedy, and romance ensue.

Runaways, however, is more than a superhero story and it's more than a good versus evil story. It's a story about being a teenager, about family, about loyalty, about friendship. It just happens to be set against a fantastical backdrop. Karolina, for example, on discovering a secret about her own identity has a very normal reaction: let's not tell anyone I'm a freak, okay? Molly, the youngest of the group, struggles with the idea that the people who love and care for her can at the same time be hateful and uncaring toward so many others. And her parents do sincerely love her. All of the parents love their children and like all parents they are just "trying to do what's best for them." Only the Pride (as the evildoing parents call themselves) aren't trying to get their kids to eat their vegetables. And this motley crew of teens (oh, come on, motley crew? I couldn't resist it!) has to defy authority in a way most teens don't even have to contemplate. This isn't staying out after curfew; this is ruining or maybe even ending your own parents' lives.

As you will probably see time and time again in my reviews, I'm a sucker for a good examination of parent-child relationships and this is a good one.


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The Evolution of Language

I've always been interested by uses of words, like Band-Aid, Kleenex, and Xerox, where the brand name has come to represent the thing, regardless of the actual brand being used. If this kind of thing interests you, then it's especially fascinating to live in our times, where Googling not only exists, but the world "Googling" also exists. So, imagine my delight in coming across this Web site on the wiki for my social software class. When I was born, blogs didn't exist (nor did wikis or online grad school programs, either) and now, here we are 27 years later with an entire language used to discuss them. Crazy.

Welcome to the 21st Century (or 2.0th Century)

I've finally signed up for Delicious and Goodreads. I've added a Delicious linkroll and a Goodreads shelf to my blog, so that's fun. I'm still exploring the functionalities of both, but in the meantime, what's 2.0 technology without networking? So, you can find me on Delicious at becca130. Goodreads is a little trickier since they didn't give me the option of choosing an account name and you can't search for me by name without getting a thousand hits, so just let me know in the comments if you use it and I'll friend you!

Poor Showing

As in, I've made a poor showing when it comes to reading this month. It's the 29th of January (best day e-ver) and I've read a whopping two books. Yep, just two. I'm well into two others and I've read nearly the equivalent of a full book for school, but still...I've only finished two books. (ETA: It's now actually February 1st an I did manage to finish a third book last month. w00t.)

I pretty much agreed with a bunch of friends who read Hero by Perry Moore: the superheroes are all painfully exact ripoffs of the most well-known comic book heroes (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, you get the idea); the superhero storyline (the central plot, I suppose) is predictable and not terribly interesting; the romantic storyline seems forced; and, yet, despite all that, this is a great father-son story. And I'm a sucker for a great father-son story. Their relationship is so authentic (and relatable) to me, a depiction of familial love that really captures how complicated it can be. Hal loves Thom, so he makes a lot of sacrifices; Thom loves Hal, so he feels incredibly guilty about those sacrifices; Hal and Thom love each other so much and recognize that, at the time the book starts, they really only have each other, so they both fear rejection from the other if their deepest secrets are revealed; etc. The fact that they love each other is not forced on you, but is evident in such real ways, most especially in how that very positive emotion can actually be the source of strife between them. Hal Creed is a really gut-wrenching character and his own son recognizes it and reacts with myriad feelings you might expect: gratitude, embarrassment, guilt, sadness, anger, confusion.

By the way, if you're looking for more great fathers in fiction (and by great, I mean the characters are multi-dimensional and interesting, not necessarily that the men themselves are people you'll admire and enjoy), try Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee (one of my favorite books of all time, it explores concepts of language, family, and identity and the interplay between the three) and You Must Remember This by Joyce Carol Oates.

The second book I read this year was Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I'll start with the concession that the plot was just a little weak, in a way that I attribute to the fact that Graceling is Cashore's first novel. There are occasional holes, jumps, and tenuous links, but I think that style will be ironed out and strengthened in her next novel. My other objection to the plot was the late entrance of the villain; it was as though the climax of the book happened at the wrong time. Like most fantasy novels I've read, Graceling has an action-adventure plot and it definitely plays second-fiddle to the characters. Who I love. I tend to prefer character-driven novels to plot-driven ones (as you might imagine if you are familiar with my love of romance novels, since the plots of those are often pretty darn similar).

There are many things I enjoyed about Graceling, but I'll just go ahead and tell you a little about Katsa, the main character, and I think you'll see why I enjoyed this book so much. Katsa does not want to get married or have children. Cashore makes this pretty clear early on, so I of course thought, "oh, well she must hate children." Nope, she likes them well enough. "Oh, well, then she must be troubled. Women in novels only ever don't want to have children because they were abused or because they have low self-esteem and don't want their kids to be like them. Considering Katsa's a killer, I guess that's mildly understandable." Nope, her childhood wasn't perfect, but nobody's is. "Oh, oh no...Cashore didn't use any of the other conventions to make Katsa change her mind and start popping them out, so she's going to go...there...to the place where Katsa falls in love and then, oh my gosh, just can't wait to start reproducing because that's what women do when they fall in love. No. No. No!" Nope, Katsa falls in love. They don't get married. They don't have kids. They're cool. Can there please be more female leads like this? Please?