You gotta let it on by, let me go
Yesterday morning, as I was wrangling my tights for another single digit degree day, I realized that someone must sell lady pants that are lined with flannel or fleece, and some googling turned up that indeed, LL Bean has them in plus sizes, so I ordered a couple of pairs. Of course, today was 37, which seemed practically balmy after yesterday, but I figure no matter what happens, the investment is worth it. Either we won't have any more frigid single digit degree days in March (since I spent some money to prepare for them), or I'll finally be more prepared for them if we do. I guess we'll see. (as an aside, I find it hilarious that the shipping email they send includes the locations of places I could go fishing near my shipping address. Oh, LL Bean, you are so silly.)
I'm home sick today, which allowed me to devour Smek for President, the new sequel to The True Meaning of Smekday (aka, one of the funniest, most awesome books I've ever read), in one sitting. So let's do the book meme straightaway:
What I've just finished
In chronological order:
Twilight Robbery (aka Fly Trap) by Frances Hardinge. Last week, when I was right at the beginning of the book, I mentioned being tense because of the way Mosca and Clent never seem to trust each other - personal betrayal is a huge DNW for me (I would go so far as to say it's a huge squick when it involves friends/partners/siblings/significant others) and for most of Fly By Night and the beginning of this book, it feels like Clent is going to sell Mosca out at the earliest opportunity (I care less about Mosca selling Clent out, because he's the adult/one with the most power in the relationhip), but about halfway through that seemed less and less likely, and I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the book. I mean, they still don't trust each other, but they know they need each other to survive Toll. Which is another brilliant invention by Hardinge. (I don't think anything will top Caverna for me in terms of sheer ingenuity of stuff, but Toll is pretty ingenious. Horrifying, but ingenious.) I definitely recommend it, and would be interested in reading more of Mosca's (and Clent's) adventures over the years.
Trade Me by Courtney Milan. I haven't yet read any of her historicals, because I generally only read Regencies and hers are a few decades too late for my taste, and I don't read a lot of contemporary romances because I find them not to be fantastical enough (I mean, let's be real - I like Regencies because it is a completely foreign world to me) and also the obstacles between the couple and their happily ever after are frequently terrible and contrived and unbelievable (see also my issues with 98% of modern rom coms). But
rachelmanija reviewed this and it sounded more interesting than the typical contemporary category romance, so I picked it up when it was like $2.99 on Amazon.
I enjoyed it. It's a quick read, and it does just enough work for me to believe the impossible premise - that billionaire software heir Blake (why? WHY BLAKE? IT IS A TERRIBLE NAME. Sorry if it is your real life name. I just think of Blake Carrington and ugh.) would want to trade lives with actually poor college student Tina Chen for three months, and also enough work to make me believe that they'd fall for each other. I think what makes it mostly work is that it inverts the usual teen romance paradigm - well, it's not a teen romance, but the fact that Blake has an eating disorder is different enough from the usual teen girl who has one in these kinds of books - that it really worked. I mean, I thought it was mostly handled well, though it kind of disappears underneath the truly contrived last quarter of the book.
I mean, I knew Blake's dad Adam was going to have some sort of health issue that made him so determined to make Blake take over the company, but the drugs thing felt totally ridiculous, like I could see Milan sitting at her keyboard going, "So how do I get them back together after Tina dumps him at the worst moment in his life? Ah, yes, she's caught with a truckload of coke and he proves his love by outing his dad as a drug addict and bailing her out of jail!" It's a completely fanficcy premise, but Milan sells it pretty well, and I really liked Tina's parents, so anything to get more Mrs. Chen was okay by me. I would have liked more of her dad, too, though I loved the small glimpses that we got.
I mean, it's not Trading Places, which is still one of my all-time favorite movies, but it's fun.
And as I said, today I read Smek for President, which I highly, highly recommend. As I said on goodreads, it's not The True Meaning of Smekday, but nothing else could be, you know? And if Rex was going to return to that world, and give us more time with Tip and J.Lo, he picked an awesome and hilarious way to do it, which also included some pretty fun, if easy, political satire. It's like really excellent fanfic - it gives you more of what you loved without adding stuff that would make you love it less.
Anyway, the story is that J.Lo wants to go to New Boovworld to clear his name, and Tip agrees to go with him, and they end up entangled in the first ever election for High Boov. Hijinks, as they say, ensue. I laughed out loud and clutched my chest frequently, both for laughter and for feelings. Needless to say, I loved it. And if you haven't read The True Meaning of Smekday, go do yourself a favor and read it.
What I'm reading now
I literally just opened Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor so I have nothing to say about it yet but that it's a time travel novel.
What I'm reading next
I do not know! Probably one of the dozens of things I already have on my iPad. Why do I even keep this question on here?
*
Agent Carter: Valediction
While I agree with the criticism that there was too much Howard Stark in this - I feel like there is always too much Stark in the MCU, which I guess is kind of the Stark ethos - push right over the line from charming to obnoxious as often as possible - the fact that it gave Peggy closure on Steve's death - that she relived those final moments with him on the radio, except this time she was able to save Howard, and then she was able to dispose of that vial of his blood 'safely' (anything that could survive in the East River doesn't need super soldier serum pumping it up!) - really worked for me.
I guess the fact that Fennhoff gave up whatever master plan Leviathan had for his revenge on Howard Stark made everything seem a lot smaller than it had in the earlier episodes, when Leviathan seemed really big and scary. Though maybe now they will be after Fennhoff for not bringing home some of Howard's bad babies for them to use. Or it could be that they would have used the destruction of 100,000 civilians in Times Square to destabilize the current Soviet government if Fennhoff's involvement became public and it wasn't just pinned on Howard. I don't know.
I do know that I loved that Dottie escaped to fight another day! I thought the fight was...not as awesome as it could have been? But I did like that Peggy had to use her smarts - kicking Dottie out a window - rather than standing toe to toe with someone who could easily have taken her apart if the fight had gone on much longer. I mean, Peggy took a couple of hits from a baseball bat and kept going, but that's not something a non-super-powered person can do for very long.
But if there is a new season, I wouldn't mind seeing Dottie again, perhaps infiltrating another SSR office or something. I don't imagine her going rogue, so when she gets back to Russia, I'm sure Fennhoff is going to be in a lot of trouble.
And speaking of Fennhoff, that stinger! Jesus, I was not expecting Zola! I thought it was going to be Reed Diamond's character, but it wasn't! Ugh, I knew they were going to tie Faustus to the Winter Soldier project somehow, but I still don't understand how the timeline works. Here is what we know:
Early in 1945, Bucky falls off a train and Zola is captured by the US. Bucky is found by the Russians. Zola is in US jail. At some point, Zola gets Operation Paperclipped, and he makes Bucky over into the Winter Soldier/the new fist of HYDRA. But where is Bucky between the fall and the makeover? Did the legit Russians try to repatriate him/his body, and he just fell off a truck conveniently being driven by Leviathan agents before it reached the US Army? And then Fennhoff gives him to Zola as part of a deal to get himself free from jail? And they do the brainwashing? Or was he just on ice the whole time and then Fennhoff is like, "Hey we have this mostly dead American soldier, wanna experiment?" and Zola's like, "Hell yes!"?
ANYWAY.
All that makes it sound like I didn't find it both emotionally and narratively satisfying (they brought back the radio show! Howard doesn't own Jarvis's dignity! Sousa was wearing earplugs! Peggy invited Angie to live with her rentfree in Stark's lovenest! ♥♥♥♥♥♥), and I really, really did. I am just a lot better at nitpicking than I am about talking up things positively. (Though that is NOT what City Hall looks like! Arrgh! It's been there since like 1812, so it's not like it wasn't there in the 40s!)
I'm thrilled with the 8 episodes we got, but MARVEL/DISNEY/ABC PLEASE GIVE US MORE AGENT CARTER.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/729655.html.
people have commented there.
I'm home sick today, which allowed me to devour Smek for President, the new sequel to The True Meaning of Smekday (aka, one of the funniest, most awesome books I've ever read), in one sitting. So let's do the book meme straightaway:
What I've just finished
In chronological order:
Twilight Robbery (aka Fly Trap) by Frances Hardinge. Last week, when I was right at the beginning of the book, I mentioned being tense because of the way Mosca and Clent never seem to trust each other - personal betrayal is a huge DNW for me (I would go so far as to say it's a huge squick when it involves friends/partners/siblings/significant others) and for most of Fly By Night and the beginning of this book, it feels like Clent is going to sell Mosca out at the earliest opportunity (I care less about Mosca selling Clent out, because he's the adult/one with the most power in the relationhip), but about halfway through that seemed less and less likely, and I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the book. I mean, they still don't trust each other, but they know they need each other to survive Toll. Which is another brilliant invention by Hardinge. (I don't think anything will top Caverna for me in terms of sheer ingenuity of stuff, but Toll is pretty ingenious. Horrifying, but ingenious.) I definitely recommend it, and would be interested in reading more of Mosca's (and Clent's) adventures over the years.
Trade Me by Courtney Milan. I haven't yet read any of her historicals, because I generally only read Regencies and hers are a few decades too late for my taste, and I don't read a lot of contemporary romances because I find them not to be fantastical enough (I mean, let's be real - I like Regencies because it is a completely foreign world to me) and also the obstacles between the couple and their happily ever after are frequently terrible and contrived and unbelievable (see also my issues with 98% of modern rom coms). But
rachelmanija reviewed this and it sounded more interesting than the typical contemporary category romance, so I picked it up when it was like $2.99 on Amazon.
I enjoyed it. It's a quick read, and it does just enough work for me to believe the impossible premise - that billionaire software heir Blake (why? WHY BLAKE? IT IS A TERRIBLE NAME. Sorry if it is your real life name. I just think of Blake Carrington and ugh.) would want to trade lives with actually poor college student Tina Chen for three months, and also enough work to make me believe that they'd fall for each other. I think what makes it mostly work is that it inverts the usual teen romance paradigm - well, it's not a teen romance, but the fact that Blake has an eating disorder is different enough from the usual teen girl who has one in these kinds of books - that it really worked. I mean, I thought it was mostly handled well, though it kind of disappears underneath the truly contrived last quarter of the book.
I mean, I knew Blake's dad Adam was going to have some sort of health issue that made him so determined to make Blake take over the company, but the drugs thing felt totally ridiculous, like I could see Milan sitting at her keyboard going, "So how do I get them back together after Tina dumps him at the worst moment in his life? Ah, yes, she's caught with a truckload of coke and he proves his love by outing his dad as a drug addict and bailing her out of jail!" It's a completely fanficcy premise, but Milan sells it pretty well, and I really liked Tina's parents, so anything to get more Mrs. Chen was okay by me. I would have liked more of her dad, too, though I loved the small glimpses that we got.
I mean, it's not Trading Places, which is still one of my all-time favorite movies, but it's fun.
And as I said, today I read Smek for President, which I highly, highly recommend. As I said on goodreads, it's not The True Meaning of Smekday, but nothing else could be, you know? And if Rex was going to return to that world, and give us more time with Tip and J.Lo, he picked an awesome and hilarious way to do it, which also included some pretty fun, if easy, political satire. It's like really excellent fanfic - it gives you more of what you loved without adding stuff that would make you love it less.
Anyway, the story is that J.Lo wants to go to New Boovworld to clear his name, and Tip agrees to go with him, and they end up entangled in the first ever election for High Boov. Hijinks, as they say, ensue. I laughed out loud and clutched my chest frequently, both for laughter and for feelings. Needless to say, I loved it. And if you haven't read The True Meaning of Smekday, go do yourself a favor and read it.
What I'm reading now
I literally just opened Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor so I have nothing to say about it yet but that it's a time travel novel.
What I'm reading next
I do not know! Probably one of the dozens of things I already have on my iPad. Why do I even keep this question on here?
*
Agent Carter: Valediction
While I agree with the criticism that there was too much Howard Stark in this - I feel like there is always too much Stark in the MCU, which I guess is kind of the Stark ethos - push right over the line from charming to obnoxious as often as possible - the fact that it gave Peggy closure on Steve's death - that she relived those final moments with him on the radio, except this time she was able to save Howard, and then she was able to dispose of that vial of his blood 'safely' (anything that could survive in the East River doesn't need super soldier serum pumping it up!) - really worked for me.
I guess the fact that Fennhoff gave up whatever master plan Leviathan had for his revenge on Howard Stark made everything seem a lot smaller than it had in the earlier episodes, when Leviathan seemed really big and scary. Though maybe now they will be after Fennhoff for not bringing home some of Howard's bad babies for them to use. Or it could be that they would have used the destruction of 100,000 civilians in Times Square to destabilize the current Soviet government if Fennhoff's involvement became public and it wasn't just pinned on Howard. I don't know.
I do know that I loved that Dottie escaped to fight another day! I thought the fight was...not as awesome as it could have been? But I did like that Peggy had to use her smarts - kicking Dottie out a window - rather than standing toe to toe with someone who could easily have taken her apart if the fight had gone on much longer. I mean, Peggy took a couple of hits from a baseball bat and kept going, but that's not something a non-super-powered person can do for very long.
But if there is a new season, I wouldn't mind seeing Dottie again, perhaps infiltrating another SSR office or something. I don't imagine her going rogue, so when she gets back to Russia, I'm sure Fennhoff is going to be in a lot of trouble.
And speaking of Fennhoff, that stinger! Jesus, I was not expecting Zola! I thought it was going to be Reed Diamond's character, but it wasn't! Ugh, I knew they were going to tie Faustus to the Winter Soldier project somehow, but I still don't understand how the timeline works. Here is what we know:
Early in 1945, Bucky falls off a train and Zola is captured by the US. Bucky is found by the Russians. Zola is in US jail. At some point, Zola gets Operation Paperclipped, and he makes Bucky over into the Winter Soldier/the new fist of HYDRA. But where is Bucky between the fall and the makeover? Did the legit Russians try to repatriate him/his body, and he just fell off a truck conveniently being driven by Leviathan agents before it reached the US Army? And then Fennhoff gives him to Zola as part of a deal to get himself free from jail? And they do the brainwashing? Or was he just on ice the whole time and then Fennhoff is like, "Hey we have this mostly dead American soldier, wanna experiment?" and Zola's like, "Hell yes!"?
ANYWAY.
All that makes it sound like I didn't find it both emotionally and narratively satisfying (they brought back the radio show! Howard doesn't own Jarvis's dignity! Sousa was wearing earplugs! Peggy invited Angie to live with her rentfree in Stark's lovenest! ♥♥♥♥♥♥), and I really, really did. I am just a lot better at nitpicking than I am about talking up things positively. (Though that is NOT what City Hall looks like! Arrgh! It's been there since like 1812, so it's not like it wasn't there in the 40s!)
I'm thrilled with the 8 episodes we got, but MARVEL/DISNEY/ABC PLEASE GIVE US MORE AGENT CARTER.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/729655.html.
people have commented there.