Reading roundup (Toby Daye, Gromyko, Ulysses pact) and Into the Woods movie

[hamsterwoman]

Ulysses pact: 45% (p.290/563, so, halfway in terms of pagecount), in the second half of "Cyclops". Line marker: "Virag from Hungary! Ahasuerus I call him. Cursed by God."

Comments

[_profiterole_]

I'm not reading your Toby Daye spoilers in case I decide to go back to this series one day. It's unlikely, though. It's the kind of thing I tell myself a short while after stopping reading, when I'm still in the groove, but now that it's been a while, I kinda know for sure that I don't want to read any more of it.

Like we said last time we talked about this, it's a pity that these books have all these things we like, we should enjoy them, we want to enjoy them, but they just don't work. (Also, the many character deaths are a pet peeve of mine.)

[hamsterwoman]

Not that I'm trying to change your mind (as you know, I have a difficult relationship with these books myself), but I feel like the last bunch of books, post-Connor, have been very light on character death. Hell, one of my spoilery complaints it that even antagonists never seem to die -- they just slink off, or fall asleep for a while.

You quit after book 6, right? I liked book 8 pretty well, and it's the "end of Act I" according to Seanan_mcguire, so it might be worth reading 7/8 to see if that changes how you feel -- book 8 did make me more excited for the next book than I've been in a while... (I'd normally say, get them out of the library, but assume that's probably quite a bit harder for you? :P)

[_profiterole_]

Act I as opposed to what? Is Toby going to stop having a really shitty life in Act II? (If you know what makes the story change Acts and it's spoilery, maybe don't tell me.)

I don't really go to the library. I used to as a kid, and I read tons of books there, but now there's a "media centre" instead, and the book selection is reduced, at least in terms of SF/F. They do have Temeraire, though, so at least there's that, but it's in French and I've got them on my shelves in English.

[hamsterwoman]

Is Toby going to stop having a really shitty life in Act II?

Not entirely, I assume. Without getting into spoilers, book 7 changes something background but major that's been contributing to the shittiness of Toby's life from the start, and book 8 ends on a different happy note. Some new angst comes up, of course, to keep things interesting, but I do feel like Toby is in a more positive place personally now than she's been for the duration of the first act. Which probably means Act II is going to be about grander scale stuff, but less personal misery. Let's just say she picks up/discovers/reconnects with some powerful allies.

Yeah, I figured the library, even if you used it, would be unlikely to have Toby in English, and I'm not sure they've been translated into French even?

[spaciireth]

I haven't actually managed to see the Into the Woods movie yet, but yes, Agony is supposed to be as hilarious as possible. The casting of Little Red Riding Hood was pretty contentious, because she's usually played by an young-looking 18-20yo, and in some cases, even older, so the audience can comfort itself with the fact that it's not actually a child singing that stuff. What was Meryl Streep's singing like? I thought she was okay in Mamma Mia, but I'm so used to Bernadette Peters as the witch, so I was skeptical...

[hamsterwoman]

but yes, Agony is supposed to be as hilarious as possible

Heh, then it works!

I didn't know that about Little Red Riding Hood... I thought it was really effective that she was clearly a little girl, but, you know, major D: DO NOT WANT.

I'm a really bad person to ask about singing quality, but I liked her first song (the one where she tells the Baker and his wife about the curse) but found the finale one ("The Last Midnight", I guess?) shrill and really hard to make out the words.

[weaselett]

I still need to read books 7 & 8 of Toby Daye - they have been sitting on the pile, and I did start chimes at midnight given the bookmark - I've read the first two of seanan mcguire's other series (InCrytid) - and I think that's a big issue with her writing - so many interesting characters, too much of skimming the surface Yet I keep reading....it's odd.

I shall have a read before reading the spoilers though ;)

Into the Woods is an odd movie? Neither me nor ma had seen, or knew the stage version so went in for the musical - it had it's moments I guess

[hamsterwoman]

I started Chimes a long time ago, then set it aside, and even when I came back to it, it was kind of slow going for me -- not one of my favorites, and I had high hopes for it after enjoying "Ashes of Honor". "The Winter Long" was a good, fast read though.

I tried InCryptid, too -- the idea of the singing mice made me try it even though my friend who introduced me to the Toby books (lodessa) told me they weren't really worth it -- and walked away in the middle of the first book. Ideas with a lot of potential! ...acted out by characters I end up totally not caring about, described in prose that doesn't work for me.

Yet I keep reading....it's odd. This is where I am with Seanan McGuire, yep :P

[bearshorty]

I watched the musical Into the Woods on Netflix - I think it was an original cast recording of the musical. I knew very little about it but enjoyed it greatly. I rewound Agony several times; it was hysterical. As is 'charming, not sincere' line. I'm not sure if Netflix still has it.  I really want to see the movie version and will get to it eventually.

I only read the Newsflesh trilogy by McGuire but I have the same impression of her writing - I read for plot but I didn't feel like her characters were very three dimensional.

[hamsterwoman]

"Agony" was pretty great! I listed to it several more times in various YouTube versions, and it hasn't failed to crack me up yet. (In the movie, Cinderella's prince is played by Chris Pine, and I just kept thinking of him as Kirk, which actually wasn't that much of a problem :P)

I keep meaning to check out the Mira Grant books at some point, even though zombies are really not my thing. It's interesting -- McGuire clearly has a lot of dedicated fans who genuinely adore her work, to whom it speaks on some very personal and deep level (apparently?), but it seems that everyone I've talked to on my flist feels more like it's compelling enough to keep reading but has the same ambivalent/flat/odd feelings towards it that I do. What are we missing? how does that work? O.o

[mauvais_pli]

I am wasay behind on Ulysses, and I might catch up during the trip as well as not, but I mostly feel like a lot of it goes over my head and I only get snippets of clarity/rhythm.

Into the Woods was not as good as I expected-- and I didn't even know it was Stephen Sondheim. And the only reason I know Sondheim is I listened to a bootleg by an british actor from History Boys who did a sort of show case of his songs, and when I heard Agony I knew something was up. I can say with confidence most of that was supposed to be very hilarious and tongue-in-cheek, at least, it seems to me based on what I understood of Sondheim, but not everyhing worked for me as well as Agony -- which actually can work even better when delivered with less posing. I recommend looking up any kind of video of Getting Married Today.

[hamsterwoman]

Having listened to a couple more versions, I've concluded that "Agony" is in fact my favorite, and indeed hilarious in all sorts of ways. (There's apparently also a reprise of it (mostly totally different lyrics) in Act II in the musical that didn't make it into the movie, and that one's also great.)

And thank you for the tip re: Getting Married Today -- that was delightful! :D

Ulysses, not sure which bits you're on exactly right now, but it sounds like probably the part that I found really tedious too, and mostly over my head. It seems to alternate those with Bloom's POV, which I find a lot cozier, and the part I'm on now, which I'm also enjoying. I just hope the respites won't be becoming rarer as we go on...