Reading roundup and meme

[hamsterwoman]

I was going to wait to post until I'd finished Natural History of Dragons #2, but I'm stalled on the last 50 pages, it appears, since I got my Kindle back, and a neat fannish meme came along on Tumblr, so:

10. H.P.Mallory, To Kill a Warlock (Dulcie O'Neil book 1 -- not that I'm planning to read any more of them) -- Oh my god, this book was so bad

Comments

[thegirlonfire]

Avatar: the Last Airbender! (For the meme! :D)

[hamsterwoman]

My favorite parent-child relationship
Hmm... there are actually not a lot of those to choose from, are there? I mean, there's Ursa and Zuko, but actually it bugs me because (at least in Zuko and Azula's memories) it seems to exclude Azula in a way that may have been unhealthy for her. Sokka and Katara's dad seems really nice, but he isn't there much. Iroh was probably a very cool father, but, well, *sniff*. And then, of course, there are outright problematic parent-child relationships, like Toph's and Mai's, not to mention everything to do with Ozai.

I guess the Mechanist and Teo are my favorite, maybe? They seem to have a really nice relationship, what we saw of them.

My favorite sibling relationshipIf I can use "favorite" to mean "most fascinating", it's definitely Zuko and Azula. I really, really want to see if the comics will ever come to some sort of satisfactory resolution with these two

[aome]

In general, I prefer the "home" books (odd #s) to the "away" books (evens), and Threshold is probably my least favorite of the aways. Stormhaven (book 3) has "horrors" more of a psychological nature - the madhouse, and patients' treatment therein - and the relationship issues stem from the fact that Griffin's parents come to visit. The paranormal aspect in book 3 will have significant bearing on later books, although it may not be obvious at the time. Do you want to continue the series?

Btw, with the Amazon lending - how long do you have to read the books before they revert back to the original owner?

[hamsterwoman]

Totally want to continue, thank you! :) I'm reading the next SPECTR book, but was finding myself missing Whyborne and Griffin specifically, so I guess I didn't mind the misunderstandings as much as I thought. And it's good to know that the rest will probably be stronger (I think book #2 in a series being a slump is a pretty common thing, actually, so it makes sense).

I think Amazon gives the book for 14 days. (Realistically, if I don't turn on the WiFi, I suspect that the borrowed copy will just keep hanging out on my Kindle indefinitely -- or at least that's what happens with borrowed library books.)

I also don't know if there's a way to return them to you earlier... It doesn't seem to give me that option from the Kindle, but possibly it would from "Managing Your Content and Devices" page on Amazon...

[aome]

Let me know when you're done with SPECTR #2 and would like Stormhaven. :)

Btw, speaking of reading - in my post about Uprooted, I meant to pose a shout-out question to you, but forgot: since my Russian has obviously degraded significantly, I couldn't tell - do the spells make use of slavic-based words, or are they just completely made up?

[hamsterwoman]

I'm actually done with SPECTR #2 as of this morning, so ready for Stormhaven whenever you have a chance to lend it :) (thank you again for feeding me these! It would be so awesome if more books came with lending options on Amazon...)

And, nope, the Uprooted spells are totally made up, as far as I could tell. (I need to respond to your entry with the review in full; wasn't able to get to it over the weekend unfortunately)

[ladymercury_10]

Avengers for the meme?

[hamsterwoman]

My favorite parent-child relationship
There are not a lot of healthy choices, are there... The family relationship portion of this meme would be easier to answer if I liked Asgardians more :P So, IDK, Tony and JARVIS/robots? Clint and his wife an dthe kids seemed to have a cute relationship too, except for how he probably can't be spending THAT much time with them.

And I did like the uneasy relationship between Hope and Hank Pym in the Ant-Man movie, which was not something I'd expected at all.

My favorite sibling relationship
I guess Thor and Loki would be the obvious one? But I actually don't think they're my favorite -- I prefer Loki's interaction with, like, Tony for instance. So I'm going to say Wanda and Pietro in AoU (and am hoping he's not dead so we'll see more of it later, too).

My favorite family relationship (other)
I found the blended family thing reached at the end of Ant-Man really cute -- Scott and his daughter and his ex-wife and her new husband, it was all very nice. (Especially the dog-sized ant, admittedly

[ladymercury_10]

Rocket and Tony should have a snark-off! :D Actually, just having the GotG guys mingle with the Avengers would be fun
Iron Man was on the Guardians of the Galaxy for a couple issues of the comics! And I think there's a comic called Guardians Team-Up where they team up with...presumably Avengers, but could be other people I guess?

[aravishermione]

One of the things I'm going to do next weekend (after finals) is compile a "book to read" list. Someone on my flist suggested a Goodreads account to keep track but I haven't checked it out yet.

Harry Potter (for the meme) ♥

[hamsterwoman]

HP is a great fandom for this meme!

My favorite parent-child relationship
OK, actually, it's the Malfoys and Draco. I'm not suggesting they're model parents or anything, but when it comes to nuclear family, they're probably my favorite one, and Narcissa, at least, has her priorities straight.

My favorite sibling relationship
All the Weasley sibs, but especially Fred and George!

My favorite family relationship (other)
I like the glimpse we have of the various Weasley cousins in the epilogue (and hope there's lots more in The Cursed Child).

Also, if godfather counts as "family relationship", I really loved the brief time Harry and Sirius had together.

My favorite friendship between two people
Harry and Ron.

My favorite friendship between a group
The Marauders! (I love the Trio, too, but I'm not sure three people qualifies as a "group".

My favorite mentorshipI'm not really sure if Dumbledore can be really said to mentor Harry -- mostly he leaves Harry to figure out stuff on his own -- but it still kind of works. Also, in a

[aravishermione]

I think Narcissa has her priorities straight, as you say, and I always loved her love for her son. Lucius I think was an extremely domineering father though, and I think Draco did a lot of the "bad" things he did only because he was so terrified. I have a soft spot for Draco, what can I say.

lol I bet fic about wee!Albus Potter being mentored by the two portraits would be extremely entertaining!

And yes, I'm going to try mousing around Goodreads this weekend and see how it goes.

[hamsterwoman]

I definitely don't think Lucius was a good parental role model, but I see him less ass domineering (and so Draco less scared of him) and more like someone very concerned with projecting the right impression and nothing except appearance matters -- not unlike the Dursleys, I guess, though not nearly as coddling of the child, and rather making it clear he's disappointed when Draco doesn't live up to totally arbitrary expectations. Which is really damaging, too, but in a different mode.

(I guess I just don't see Narcissa letting Lucius get away with actually browbeating Draco. She seems to get her way in the relationship more than he does...)

But there's so little Lucius (especially pre-Azkaban Lucius) in the actual books, that's really all conjecture either way.

[bearshorty]

Dresden Files for the meme

[hamsterwoman]

Ooh, good one! :D

My favorite parent-child relationship
There are not a lot of functional and ALIVE parent/child relationships in this series (though a lot of messed up ones -- Mab and Maeve, Lord Raith, Nicodemus. So I guess the Carpenters and their kids by default?

My favorite sibling relationship
Thomas and Harry for sure! But I also like Thomas and Lara's relationship.

My favorite family relationship (other)
Ebenezer and Harry. Especially once Harry got over his hissyfit about McCoy being the Blackstaff.

My favorite friendship between two people
Harry and Murphy, although I do ship them too. But also Harry and Michael and Harry and Butters and Harry and Carlos. Harry has a lot of great friendships. Oh, and also Harry and Bob.

My favorite friendship between a group
I feel like the only real "group" there is is the Alphas, and I actually don't really like them... Am I overlooking someone?

My favorite mentorshipHarry and Molly! If only Butcher would let go of the stupid thing with her crush already... I do really love the

[bearshorty]

Ebenezer did meet Thomas in Changes. He doesn't know Thomas is his grandson, so he just distrusted him, called him 'vampire', at least to my recollection. It wasn't friendly. It would be fun when Ebenezer finds out.

[hamsterwoman]

It would be fun when Ebenezer finds out.

I'm definitely looking forward to that revelation! :)