this feeling calls for everything that i am not
Wednesday book meme!
What I've just finished
I did finish off The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway, and I totally recommend it, though I definitely liked Angelmaker better. When looked at in context, the surprise twist - that our unnamed narrator was really a bifurcate of Gonzo, split off during the mission - shouldn't have been that surprising, but I still felt like the rug had just been pulled out from under me, and I feel like the book never quite recovered, even though I was most pleased at the return of Elisabeth Soames (I was right about her secret identity, and also about Ike Thermite and the mimes). I feel like things started to get away from Harkaway at the end, though. And also, I think I liked Angelmaker better because it had more ladies in it who got to do things and we got stuff from their POV. I feel like most of the women in this book were ciphers, never quite fleshed out enough to be real, unlike the men, who were pretty vibrant from the word go.
I also read The Westing Game, which I had somehow never read as a kid (I hadn't even heard of it until I was an adult, which is weird, since it was published right when I was the right age to read it). I thought it was charming, but I didn't love it the way I probably would have when I was 8 or 9.
What I'm reading now
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe, which is about all the backstage shenanigans over the years at Marvel, including Stan Lee/Marvel screwing over Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Actually, most of them don't come off very well. It's interesting, but I do have trouble keeping track of all the names, even when they're familiar. (and also every time Jim Starlin and Denny O'Neil get mentioned, I think of them as "those assholes who killed Jason Todd;" otoh, I think nice things about Marv Wolfman and George Perez because of Teen Titans. *hands* I think the funniest part of this aside is how I would not actually say I'm a DC fan over a Marvel fan [certainly not now in particular not but overall/in general either, though I do agree with the generality that DC has the better villains and Marvel the more interesting heroes; on the third hand, the Batfam has its own gravitational pull that is really hard to escape once it's captured you, despite whatever might be happening in the actual comics atm] though it was a DC story that got me reading superhero comics in the first place, when even three years in X-Men movieverse fandom hadn't done it. ROBINS. *shakes fist* Also I guess it illustrates how incestuous the comics industry was, and still is. Also, also, one day I will write that essay about why I love legacy heroes, but today is not that day.)
What I'm reading next
I don't know? Maybe that published romance novel that sounds like a Georgian Batman AU. We'll see what I feel like when the time comes.
***
There was fic yesterday evening:
The doorway to a thousand churches (@ AO3)
Avengers; Steve/Bucky; adult; 2,765 words
Steve is going to remember who Bucky is, even when Bucky can't remember himself. Especially when he can't remember himself.
Basically,
angelgazing wanted a story where Steve gets Bucky back via LOVE and/or magical healing cock. I thought for a moment and said, I can do that. And then I did. *hands*
***
Lastly,
laurificus sent me this link: George Clooney's Rules for Living. I did not know that he lived in Clark Gable's old house, and yet I am not at all surprised.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/615277.html.
people have commented there.
What I've just finished
I did finish off The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway, and I totally recommend it, though I definitely liked Angelmaker better. When looked at in context, the surprise twist - that our unnamed narrator was really a bifurcate of Gonzo, split off during the mission - shouldn't have been that surprising, but I still felt like the rug had just been pulled out from under me, and I feel like the book never quite recovered, even though I was most pleased at the return of Elisabeth Soames (I was right about her secret identity, and also about Ike Thermite and the mimes). I feel like things started to get away from Harkaway at the end, though. And also, I think I liked Angelmaker better because it had more ladies in it who got to do things and we got stuff from their POV. I feel like most of the women in this book were ciphers, never quite fleshed out enough to be real, unlike the men, who were pretty vibrant from the word go.
I also read The Westing Game, which I had somehow never read as a kid (I hadn't even heard of it until I was an adult, which is weird, since it was published right when I was the right age to read it). I thought it was charming, but I didn't love it the way I probably would have when I was 8 or 9.
What I'm reading now
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe, which is about all the backstage shenanigans over the years at Marvel, including Stan Lee/Marvel screwing over Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Actually, most of them don't come off very well. It's interesting, but I do have trouble keeping track of all the names, even when they're familiar. (and also every time Jim Starlin and Denny O'Neil get mentioned, I think of them as "those assholes who killed Jason Todd;" otoh, I think nice things about Marv Wolfman and George Perez because of Teen Titans. *hands* I think the funniest part of this aside is how I would not actually say I'm a DC fan over a Marvel fan [certainly not now in particular not but overall/in general either, though I do agree with the generality that DC has the better villains and Marvel the more interesting heroes; on the third hand, the Batfam has its own gravitational pull that is really hard to escape once it's captured you, despite whatever might be happening in the actual comics atm] though it was a DC story that got me reading superhero comics in the first place, when even three years in X-Men movieverse fandom hadn't done it. ROBINS. *shakes fist* Also I guess it illustrates how incestuous the comics industry was, and still is. Also, also, one day I will write that essay about why I love legacy heroes, but today is not that day.)
What I'm reading next
I don't know? Maybe that published romance novel that sounds like a Georgian Batman AU. We'll see what I feel like when the time comes.
***
There was fic yesterday evening:
The doorway to a thousand churches (@ AO3)
Avengers; Steve/Bucky; adult; 2,765 words
Steve is going to remember who Bucky is, even when Bucky can't remember himself. Especially when he can't remember himself.
Basically,
angelgazing wanted a story where Steve gets Bucky back via LOVE and/or magical healing cock. I thought for a moment and said, I can do that. And then I did. *hands*
***
Lastly,
laurificus sent me this link: George Clooney's Rules for Living. I did not know that he lived in Clark Gable's old house, and yet I am not at all surprised.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/615277.html.
people have commented there.