Seven Day Meme, Day 3
day 01 | a song
day 02 | a picture
day 03 | a book
day 04 | a site
day 05 | a youtube clip
day 06 | a quote
day 07 | whatever tickles your fancy
I thought since I’m actually reading again for the first time since finishing my degree back in May, I’d rec my favorite book as well as the book I just finished reading, with a bandom fic rec thrown in at the end. Okay?
*****
First of all, my favorite book ever, and one that I will recommend to anyone and everyone, is Pat Conroy’s Beach Music. (I should state for the record that I am not actually a huge fan of Conroy’s other books such as The Prince of Tides and The Lords of Discipline, etc., though my mother assures me that his latest, South of Broad, is quite excellent, but she’s got that on her Kindle, ensuring that no one else in the family will ever read it. Anyway.)
The blurb on the back cover of my well-worn paperback (seriously, I’ve read this novel more than a dozen times now) says: “Pat Conroy, America’s preeminent storyteller, delivers a sweeping new novel of lyric intensity and searing truth-the story of Jack McCall, an American expatriate in Rome, scarred by tragedy and betrayal. His desperate desire to find peace after his wife’s suicide draws him into a painful, intimate search for the one haunting secret in his family’s past that can heal his anguished heart. Spanning three generations and two continents, from the contemporary ruins of the American South to the ancient ruins of Rome, from the unutterable horrors of the Holocaust to the lingering trauma of Vietnam, Beach Music sings with life’s pain and glory. It is another masterpiece in Pat Conroy’s legendary list of beloved novels.”
Okay, so the description of the book itself is a bit…flowery, but the quality of writing in the novel is so precise and beautiful and detailed that it’s the first thing I think about when I rec this book. Too often great stories are ruined for me by sub-par writing, but this prose is heartbreaking, hilarious, and truthful, and the story is all the more engaging for it. I particularly like Jack’s relationship with his young daughter, whom he is raising on his own, and the way he revels in his relationships with his four younger brothers. I won’t lie-some parts of this book are utterly hard to get through because of the subject matter. His dead wife’s lifelong struggle with severe depression and her subsequent suicide, and the stories told by her parents of their experiences during World War II and the Holocaust are as heart-wrenching as they are vivid, but the book balances that with descriptions of the South Carolina Lowcountry that are really gorgeous and remind me of home, since that’s where I’ve spent almost all of my life. And did I mention hilarious? Because this book is also really, really funny. I’m serious, if you haven’t read it, please do, and if you have, read it again.
*****
And now, the book I just finished reading this morning: Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. Basically, the description on the back cover of my edition sums it up pretty well: “Beginning with its sharply satiric opening sentence, Mansfield Park deals with money and marriage, and how strongly they affect each other. Shy, fragile Fanny Price is the consummate “poor relation.” Sent to live with her wealthy uncle Thomas, she clashes with his spoiled, selfish daughters and falls in love with his son. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a pair of witty, sophisticated Londoners, whose flair for flirtation collides with the quiet, conservative country ways of Mansfield Park.”
Okay, I just want to say up front that I love Jane Austen, and if you don’t, or can’t read her, please, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT TELL ME. If you are an Austen hater, skip right on by this rec, seriously. So, the first thing that makes me laugh about this book is that the Bertram family (heavily influenced by horrible aunt Norris, sister to Lady Bertram and Mrs. Price) decides to take their niece Fanny in and raise her partly to avoid the (shock, horror!) possibility of her forming an attachment to one of her male cousins later in life, should they ever meet. I kind of have to give this a big LOL WHAT, except for the fact that Fanny does indeed fall in love with her cousin Edmund! Oops?
That out of the way, I really love this book, as I love all Austen. It’s the time period, and her writing, and the different ways you can interpret her characters. I don’t find Henry and Mary Crawford all that witty or sophisticated, and by the end of the book, I’d have liked to slap them both, particularly Mary. At the same time, I didn’t actually care for Fanny Price one way or the other until almost the end of the book, which, by the way, was slightly pastede on, yay. (Four hundred pages of plot and exposition and a bit of excitement at the end, and twelve pages of a last chapter to wrap things up and talk about what happened to all of the characters? Yeah, I’m going to need more of a satisfying ending, sorry.) Also, I feel that family and its various forms and incarnations is much more a theme here than money or marriage, and that the notion of home, and what and where it is, is more important than issues of social class and wealth.
I think this is probably Austen’s least likeable book and the most difficult to get through, but for all that, really I enjoy it. I like the complexity of the characters, who might not necessarily be what they seem at first, and who are allowed to grow and change and improve (or not), which is a nice parallel to the book’s concern with houses and appearance and change/improvement. Seriously, A+ and I am totes reading Northanger Abbey again next! PS-If any of you has actually read this book and liked Fanny, from beginning to end, please tell me why, as I am having a hard time dealing with her absolute and unwavering views of morality.
*****
Now for a fic rec! This is the most recent fic I’ve read: Grey Crimson Skies by turps33, which is in the same verse as and follows Tints of Rainbow Hue. Please note that if you or someone close to you suffers from severe depression and/or has attempted suicide, this may not be the fic for you, and please carefully read all header and warning information before reading.
So, I was pretty excited to see this yesterday and spent a good portion of the evening reading it. I enjoyed Tints of Rainbow Hue and the Frank/Mikey relationship, and Grey Crimson Skies details the Bob/Gerard that was somewhat implied in Tints, while still exploring the friendship of all the guys and the way in which they become each others’ family. The details of Gerard’s depression are really sad and quite accurate, but for all that, it was interesting to get some of the story from his point of view, as well as that of Bob. I liked the addition of Brian here, but I’d have liked a bit more Ray, since I loved his character in the first story. The Gerard/Mikey sibling relationship here is great, though, and I love any fic where they just take care of each other, even if sometimes they fail a little while doing so.
Unfortunately, I have two tiny little criticisms. First, Frank felt a bit less quirky/wacky/fun and a bit more, to use a bandom expression usually reserved for Brendon Urie characterization, “retarded manchild” than in Tints of Rainbow Hue, but that might be a misconception on my part, as I’m not used to seeing any Frank character so, well, OOC. I can totally believe it and get behind it because it’s an AU, but he just feels a bit too naïve and young here, even though in the AU he is significantly younger than his actual twenty-eight years. Secondly, despite the fic having been beta’d by two people, there are consistent punctuation mistakes and missing or misplaced quotation marks throughout that should have been caught by a thorough beta reader, and many instances of British-isms that take me right out of a fic about an American band in an American fandom that having a thorough American beta would normally prevent.
That said, I really like this fic, and I’ll definitely read it again because there is never enough Bob/Gerard (or Frank/Mikey, though the focus is less on them here) and the quality of the writing is generally pretty excellent. I love the premise of this AU ‘verse, and I would happily read another 43K words in it.
Aaaaaand that’s my babbling done for today. Christ, but I’m long-winded and not very coherent!
day 02 | a picture
day 03 | a book
day 04 | a site
day 05 | a youtube clip
day 06 | a quote
day 07 | whatever tickles your fancy
I thought since I’m actually reading again for the first time since finishing my degree back in May, I’d rec my favorite book as well as the book I just finished reading, with a bandom fic rec thrown in at the end. Okay?
*****
First of all, my favorite book ever, and one that I will recommend to anyone and everyone, is Pat Conroy’s Beach Music. (I should state for the record that I am not actually a huge fan of Conroy’s other books such as The Prince of Tides and The Lords of Discipline, etc., though my mother assures me that his latest, South of Broad, is quite excellent, but she’s got that on her Kindle, ensuring that no one else in the family will ever read it. Anyway.)
The blurb on the back cover of my well-worn paperback (seriously, I’ve read this novel more than a dozen times now) says: “Pat Conroy, America’s preeminent storyteller, delivers a sweeping new novel of lyric intensity and searing truth-the story of Jack McCall, an American expatriate in Rome, scarred by tragedy and betrayal. His desperate desire to find peace after his wife’s suicide draws him into a painful, intimate search for the one haunting secret in his family’s past that can heal his anguished heart. Spanning three generations and two continents, from the contemporary ruins of the American South to the ancient ruins of Rome, from the unutterable horrors of the Holocaust to the lingering trauma of Vietnam, Beach Music sings with life’s pain and glory. It is another masterpiece in Pat Conroy’s legendary list of beloved novels.”
Okay, so the description of the book itself is a bit…flowery, but the quality of writing in the novel is so precise and beautiful and detailed that it’s the first thing I think about when I rec this book. Too often great stories are ruined for me by sub-par writing, but this prose is heartbreaking, hilarious, and truthful, and the story is all the more engaging for it. I particularly like Jack’s relationship with his young daughter, whom he is raising on his own, and the way he revels in his relationships with his four younger brothers. I won’t lie-some parts of this book are utterly hard to get through because of the subject matter. His dead wife’s lifelong struggle with severe depression and her subsequent suicide, and the stories told by her parents of their experiences during World War II and the Holocaust are as heart-wrenching as they are vivid, but the book balances that with descriptions of the South Carolina Lowcountry that are really gorgeous and remind me of home, since that’s where I’ve spent almost all of my life. And did I mention hilarious? Because this book is also really, really funny. I’m serious, if you haven’t read it, please do, and if you have, read it again.
*****
And now, the book I just finished reading this morning: Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. Basically, the description on the back cover of my edition sums it up pretty well: “Beginning with its sharply satiric opening sentence, Mansfield Park deals with money and marriage, and how strongly they affect each other. Shy, fragile Fanny Price is the consummate “poor relation.” Sent to live with her wealthy uncle Thomas, she clashes with his spoiled, selfish daughters and falls in love with his son. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a pair of witty, sophisticated Londoners, whose flair for flirtation collides with the quiet, conservative country ways of Mansfield Park.”
Okay, I just want to say up front that I love Jane Austen, and if you don’t, or can’t read her, please, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT TELL ME. If you are an Austen hater, skip right on by this rec, seriously. So, the first thing that makes me laugh about this book is that the Bertram family (heavily influenced by horrible aunt Norris, sister to Lady Bertram and Mrs. Price) decides to take their niece Fanny in and raise her partly to avoid the (shock, horror!) possibility of her forming an attachment to one of her male cousins later in life, should they ever meet. I kind of have to give this a big LOL WHAT, except for the fact that Fanny does indeed fall in love with her cousin Edmund! Oops?
That out of the way, I really love this book, as I love all Austen. It’s the time period, and her writing, and the different ways you can interpret her characters. I don’t find Henry and Mary Crawford all that witty or sophisticated, and by the end of the book, I’d have liked to slap them both, particularly Mary. At the same time, I didn’t actually care for Fanny Price one way or the other until almost the end of the book, which, by the way, was slightly pastede on, yay. (Four hundred pages of plot and exposition and a bit of excitement at the end, and twelve pages of a last chapter to wrap things up and talk about what happened to all of the characters? Yeah, I’m going to need more of a satisfying ending, sorry.) Also, I feel that family and its various forms and incarnations is much more a theme here than money or marriage, and that the notion of home, and what and where it is, is more important than issues of social class and wealth.
I think this is probably Austen’s least likeable book and the most difficult to get through, but for all that, really I enjoy it. I like the complexity of the characters, who might not necessarily be what they seem at first, and who are allowed to grow and change and improve (or not), which is a nice parallel to the book’s concern with houses and appearance and change/improvement. Seriously, A+ and I am totes reading Northanger Abbey again next! PS-If any of you has actually read this book and liked Fanny, from beginning to end, please tell me why, as I am having a hard time dealing with her absolute and unwavering views of morality.
*****
Now for a fic rec! This is the most recent fic I’ve read: Grey Crimson Skies by turps33, which is in the same verse as and follows Tints of Rainbow Hue. Please note that if you or someone close to you suffers from severe depression and/or has attempted suicide, this may not be the fic for you, and please carefully read all header and warning information before reading.
So, I was pretty excited to see this yesterday and spent a good portion of the evening reading it. I enjoyed Tints of Rainbow Hue and the Frank/Mikey relationship, and Grey Crimson Skies details the Bob/Gerard that was somewhat implied in Tints, while still exploring the friendship of all the guys and the way in which they become each others’ family. The details of Gerard’s depression are really sad and quite accurate, but for all that, it was interesting to get some of the story from his point of view, as well as that of Bob. I liked the addition of Brian here, but I’d have liked a bit more Ray, since I loved his character in the first story. The Gerard/Mikey sibling relationship here is great, though, and I love any fic where they just take care of each other, even if sometimes they fail a little while doing so.
Unfortunately, I have two tiny little criticisms. First, Frank felt a bit less quirky/wacky/fun and a bit more, to use a bandom expression usually reserved for Brendon Urie characterization, “retarded manchild” than in Tints of Rainbow Hue, but that might be a misconception on my part, as I’m not used to seeing any Frank character so, well, OOC. I can totally believe it and get behind it because it’s an AU, but he just feels a bit too naïve and young here, even though in the AU he is significantly younger than his actual twenty-eight years. Secondly, despite the fic having been beta’d by two people, there are consistent punctuation mistakes and missing or misplaced quotation marks throughout that should have been caught by a thorough beta reader, and many instances of British-isms that take me right out of a fic about an American band in an American fandom that having a thorough American beta would normally prevent.
That said, I really like this fic, and I’ll definitely read it again because there is never enough Bob/Gerard (or Frank/Mikey, though the focus is less on them here) and the quality of the writing is generally pretty excellent. I love the premise of this AU ‘verse, and I would happily read another 43K words in it.
Aaaaaand that’s my babbling done for today. Christ, but I’m long-winded and not very coherent!