"We don't use the word 'strange' in this household." "Differently normal?"
The semester is finally over, all of my grad school applications have been sent, I am DONE! WHOOO! I missed you, my beloved livejournal.
Sunday was Jane Austen's 232nd birthday! Happy Birthday, Jane!
In her honor, I am going to catch up on those 50 Book Challenge entries!
The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye is by A.S. Byatt. Of the two books of fractured fairytales we got for Women in Fiction class, this one was my favorite. I liked it even better than The Bloody Chamber. It contains four takes on common fairytale motifs, including the dilemma of being the first daughter in a series of three, and therefore predestined to screw up. The longest chapter is the story from which the book takes its title, which is about a woman who discovers a djinn and falls in love with him. I loved these stories-- while The Bloody Chamber focused on being dark and twisted, Djinn has a lot of heart to it, and at moments is actually very moving. Along the way, it manages to say some great things about the art of writing and storytelling. Have I mentioned that I loved it? Because just writing about it makes me wish that I hadn't apparently left it at school so that I could read parts of it again right now.
Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris is one of the innumerable unofficial sequels to Pride and Prejudice right now. You may remember me blogging about these sequels before, and begging not to be given any more to read. But this one is a little bit... different. Even, I dare say, special. Oh, if only in the other sequels Mr. and Mrs. Darcy spent a little less time sexing and a little more time solving supernatural crime.
You can tell that this is something that started out as a private joke between friends, and just sort of expanded from there into a whole book. The opening is actually surprisingly well-written, probably the best I've read. Knowing the premise, I expected it to be funny in a ridiculous way, but it was also actually funny in a funny way. Immediately after Elizabeth's marriage to Darcy, Caroline Bitchley announces her engagement to a guy whose good looks, charisma, and immense wealth mostly make up for the fact that he's American. Then she starts acting strangely. Then... there is voodoo. I kid you not. But it's a really fun book, and I enjoyed reading it immensely. If nothing else, it was worth the price of admission just to read Elizabeth Bennet Darcy saying, "I sense things sometimes."
I laughed for about five straight minutes.
Bethany and I think there should be a crossover with Supernatural, in which Lizzy can solve supernatural mysteries together and Darcy can scoff and be skeptical.
Thanks to Whitney for telling me about this series and Erin2 for giving me this book.
Uh... I'm not really sure what to say about Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. I can see why it's one of the problem plays. It's like Shakespeare either wasn't sure what the wanted it to be about, or else he kept forgetting. There was a lot of time spent in the Greek camp. Cressida doesn't even show up until Act II. It's like he was going, "Okay... love story... I'm bored... drunken revelry! Oh, wait? What was this supposed to be about? Can we have some more drunken revelry now?" The best part was that Achilles and Patroclus? "Cousins." Totally "cousins." Despite the fact that Achilles had a girlfriend as well. I think she was just a cover story.
Making Money is the latest in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, which you all know I love. This one was no exception; as far as I'm concerned, the guy can do no wrong. Unfortunately, due to school, it took me about two months to get through the first half, but then I read the second half in two days, with that "don't-want-to-put-it-down" feeling I always get when I'm reading Discworld. This is another book about Moist von Lipwig, the hero of Going Postal. Here Lord Vetinari asks Moist to reform the national bank of Ankh-Morpork, and Moist comes up with paper currency. Don't worry, that doesn't nearly give away the whole plot. The rest of this review is basically going to be a list of things I loved. I loved Mr. Fusspot. I loved Mr. Bent and Miss Drapes. I loved how we found out the fates of some characters from long ago, such as Wuffles and Ludmilla Cake. I loved the Watch cameos. I loved the Department of Postmortem Communications. I loved Cosmo's Vetinari fascination.
What I think I loved most was where the Moist and Adora Belle relationship has gone. We all know that Terry Pratchett doesn't do sappiness, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he doesn't do romance. When his characters are in relationships, the romance is the way they act around each other, what they do for each other, and what they do when the other person isn't there. It's a sort of "God only knows what I'd be without you" approach. Without the other, the one isn't complete. For the one, the other would risk life and limb. You can see this in the way Magrat goes to rescue Verence from the fairy queen and Verence goes to rescue Magrat from the vampires. You can see it in the way that Angua fights her brother for Carrot and Carrot leaves Ankh-Morpork for Angua. You can see it in the way Sybil will follow Vimes anywhere to make sure he's not overexerting himself, and Vimes will unleash his inner Beast on anyone who threatens Sybil. And you can see it in the way Moist and Adora Belle behave around one another, how they're so much more at ease in each other's company, how Moist has to find danger when she's not around, how Adora Belle worries when she finds out about that and how she will scream and stomp her heels or anything required to defend Moist. "Tell me or I'll never promise to marry you again!" That's love, babe. I'll bet my bottom dollar on it.