Don't Be Afraid of the Dork

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

TOP TEN TUESDAY | Unpopular Character Feelings

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme for bloggers who like books and lists. It's awesome and is graciously hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

So I do know this is not ten books that will make you laugh but I did that topic as a freebie a few weeks ago. Please check it out if you want to stay within the regularly scheduled programming!
Instead I'm going to do a post on a topic that I was disappointed to miss a few weeks ago. That would be:

Ten Characters Everyone Loves But I Just Don't Get or Ten Characters I LOVE But Others Seem To Dislike

I will of course be focusing on my negative feelings because that's just fun. Here Goes.

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1) Celaena Sardothien from the Throne of Glass Series by Sara J. Maas

I've only read the first book in this series and I understand that Celaena may improve on further acquaintance, but in book one she didn't feel like a real person to me and there was far too much tell vs. show in her characterization.

Impulsive/Reckless Characters stress me out and the next two fall into that category:

2) Prunella from Sorceror to the Crown by Zen Cho

I don't hate Prunella but she was definitely a black spot for me on an otherwise fantastic book!

3) Agnieszka from Uprooted by Naomi Novik

I liked neither Agnieszka nor The Dragon so this book didn't work as well for me as it did for most.

Ron asks: Why does ANYONE like me?

4) Ron Weasley From Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

My dislike for Ron was realized during my re-read of the entire HP series last year. He's really kind of an ass and I hate that he and Hermione end together.

5) Molly Carpenter from The Dresden Files Series by Jim Butcher

Molly becomes Harry's apprentice, his student when she's a teen - she's like a teen boys fantasy of a woman. She has grown up a bit in recent books but I still get skeeved out by the idea of her and Harry becoming romantically involved and I hate that Butcher always describes her, from Harry's perspective, with an almost lecherous eye.

Source

6) Karou And Akiva from Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

I think I am the only person on the planet that really didn't like this book and it was mostly because of Karou and Akiva. Neither felt real and Karou is a serious Mary Sue.

7) Paksenarrion from Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon

Paks feels like a barren husk just meant to be a storytelling vehicle. She is one of the least interesting and most personality-less main characters I've ever encountered.

8) Vin and Kelsier from Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

I want to love Brandon Sanderson but I feel like his strengths (based on only the two books I've read) are in deep world-building and developing interesting premises. Characters? Not so much. I think Kelsier is meant to be a charming rogue with a heart of gold but I found him dull.

9) Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont from A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Once again, Diana suffers the fate of being a Mary Sue - too perfect and too boring to be real - and Matthew's an overbearing, controlling ass. Blech. I refuse to post a picture of these folks because apparently there is a HUGE push on the internet for "casting" Richard Armitage as Matthew. Just...No. You will not sully my Armitage.

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Okay, I think I've insulted enough fictional characters for one day. What character makes you scratch your head wondering why everyone loves them?

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Saturday in the Garden | Butterflies in April!

OUTSIDE

It's a gray Sunday morning (the photo above was from yesterday) which is actually kind of nice. It seems more peaceful than a normal morning. The dog park in our town is ridiculously scenic and I was noticing that the trees are finally starting to leaf out after they had become kind of frozen in time by the recent cold snap.

This last week brought a surprise with a good number of butterfly sightings. In April! The only butterflies we usually see this early on are those that overwinter as adults like Mourning Cloaks and Question Marks. This year I've already seen quite a few sulphurs, cabbage whites and red admirals. No pictures of any of them of course:(.

I've been super duper lazy about the garden this year. I haven't really done anything to clean up the yard, prepare beds or plant much of anything. I've got kale, chard and green onion seedlings that could go in and lettuce and carrot seeds that should really be sowed. I usually do most of my garden work on the weekends and I've had to work a lot and had social things going on each weekend so whenever I get a weekend totally free I just want to nest. #weekendgardenerproblems

LIFE

TWOP! TWOP is coming back! What the hell is TWOP? Television Without Pity was my absolute favorite place on the web when I was feeling particularly obsessive about a TV show. It featured hilarious, snarky, well-written recaps of episodes and well moderated forums for discussion (on which I mostly just lurked). It was closed down by its corporate owner a couple of years ago but I got a note in my facebook feed this week that it is coming back!! Very excited to see what they do with it!

So I get really frustrated with myself when I don't post regularly on the blog especially since I compose at least 5 posts a week. The problem is that most of this composing happens in the car. I have to be on the road a fair amount for my job and this week I had 7 hours in the car during which I wrote several blog posts in my head. I want the technology that translates this into digital written words which I know exists at least at some level. Okay I know there is nothing that could turn my thoughts into text but there are talk-to-text programs. Do any of you all use anything like this? I need to get my multi-tasking on!

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching

Oh man. I have descended into quite the obsession this week. It all started with a review of Cress (by Marissa Meyer) on the Story and Somnomancy blog. The review compares Cress with Felicity Smoak from Arrow, the superhero show on the CW based on the Green Arrow comic books. I had actually tried watching the show once and only got through the first episode and a half before turning it off in boredom. However, I was intrigued by the comparison of this character on the show to Cress because I love Cress and became even more intrigued when I read up on the show and found out that this goof ball computer geek, actually becomes the main love interest on the show :o! So that's where I've been this week :/. I will likely finish all three seasons that were on Netflix today because I have been sucking down episodes like nobody's business. It's a lot of fun and I would go so far as to say that Oliver (the Green Arrow) has more than a few characteristics in common with our delightful Captain Thorne. So live action Cress romance? I'm way into it!

Reading

I was making progress on catching up with my Goodreads Challenge and then Arrow happened. I got very little reading done this week, sigh....

Finished Last Week:

A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab: I've been wanting to read this for ages. Yay me! It totally met my expectations!

Currently Reading:

One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein: A gardening book about maximizing food production in a small space. An ARC from Netgalley (though I think it's an older title).
The Round House by Louise Erdrich: I started this in D.C. on my kindle and it pretty immediately sucked me in despite the brutality of the subject matter (violent rape against a minority).
The Wicked and the Divine, Volume 1 by Kieron Gillen, Jame McKelvie, Matt Wilson, and Clayton Cowles
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches (Flavia DeLuce #6) by Alan Bradley: This is a fun historical mystery series that I thought had a planned end but looking and there are two more books listed. I wouldn't mind but I'd actually like Flavia DeLuce to move forward and grow up a bit. I'd rather she not be a perpetual 11 year old.
Timeless (Parasol Protectorate #5) by Gail Carriger: The final book in the parasol protectorate.
The Colonel's Lady by Laura Frantz: This is a Christian romance novel - quite a bit out of my comfort zone but I have my reasons and I am enjoying it, mostly. BOTH this and the next book are on hold because I was too slow and I had to return them to the library. I love the library but this aspect of it really sucks!
A Fatal Grace (Inspector Armand Gamache #2) by Louise Penny: This was a mystery series I discovered last year and loved. ON HOLD

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week. It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

Sawbones by Melissa Lenhardt: I actually bought this one immediately after reading Mogsy's review on The Bibliosanctum because it sounds really freakin' fantastic. Historical fiction about a lady doctor in the the late 1800s in America who heads west.

Blogging

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

SUNDAY: TV | Glee - Season 4. Some thoughts on Glee's fourth season.
TUESDAY: Top Ten Tuesday | Ten Books Every Anglophile Should Read.
THURSDAY: REVIEW | Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho. Great book! 4 out of 5 stars.

Well I am frightfully behind on my demanding Arrow Binge Watching schedule so I'm going to sign off. May you find entertainment to delight you today:).

Thursday, April 14, 2016

REVIEW | Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Publication Year: 2015

Genre: Fantasy, Alternate History

Series: Sorcerer Royal #1

Awards: None

Format: Hardback from Library

Narrator: NA

WHY?: It seemed like a book written expressly for me - alternate British history with magic and a Jane Austen-esque style. Pretty much everything I've ever wanted in life. Plus it has gotten lots of love from book bloggers.

Synopsis: Regency Era England. Zacharias Wythe is a young man and magician, freed from slavery as a child by the Sorcerer Royal of England who adopted and taught him the art of magic. He's a very dutiful and honor-bound gentleman and so when his mentor dies suddenly and the mantle of the Sorcerer Royal is passed to him, he accepts it with reluctance but also with a powerful drive to do his duty well. Also reluctant to accept Zacharias as the Sorcerer Royal is the Society of Magicians who don't like a black man yielding magic nor being a leader in their very snooty community. Despite much opposition, Zacharias does his best at his new job, including traveling to the border of Faery to try and figure out why England no longer has much magic at its disposal. Along the way he stops at a girls boarding school meant to suppress the abilities of magical females who may be even more disliked by the magical community than Zacharias. He immediately sees that his assumption that women had only weak magic is wrong and takes on one of the strongest students as his apprentice in order to reform magical practice in England. Hijinks ensue.

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I'm not going to be coy - I adored this book! I have a particular affection - being an Austenite and a Regency romance junkie - for this particular era of English history during the Napoleonic war. I've heard others say that this is what they wish Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell had been and I endorse that feeling as well. This book captures the societal quirks and formality of the time while also telling a page-turning story (something JS and MN lacked). It is a perfect balance of historical fiction and fantasy.

As you can probably tell from the synopsis, this book also tackles a few hefty social issues; racism, slavery and sexism. It once again does a great job of balancing this weightier material with plot. As with Austen, which was undoubtedly one of the book's influences, it casts a critical eye on society while also being slyly funny. Also while the issues are dealt with, sometimes quite affectingly, the book never stops being a good story. Sir Stephen is Zacharias' mentor and someone he looks on as a father with affection but his feelings for his adopted family and country are far from simple.

" ...'She foresaw what would occur if Europe were to discover her people's wealth: the interference in their affairs; the miserable increase of bloodshed and oppression.'
Sir Stephen went white, then red.
'Need I remind you that you are England's Sorcerer Royal?' he said 'Your title will on occasion demand the exercise of power - even, where necessary, what you are pleased to call oppression and bloodshed. But that is the nature of your office. You are called upon to advance the good of this nation, and none other. Your allegiance is not to magic alone, nor to all humanity, but to your own portion of humanity, to the country that nurtured you - '
'And enslaved my parents?' said Zacharias."

And Zacharias? I really really loved him. He is smart and sensitive, a thinker, and he has this strong sense of duty and a moral fortitude to do the right thing even when it is hard. He is a little too respectful of society's conventions, but he thinks he can be most effective working within those conventions to bring about real change to the things that really matter. He's reserved and formal and also a fearless magician. I think one of the main things that attracts me to him is that he is a true blue introvert. True introverts are one in a million as fantasy novel protagonists so I just really connected with him.

"But Zacharias knew himself to be unfitted for public life by both disposition and inclination. The role of secretary to Sir Stephen fitted him perfectly, for it comprised what was, in his judgment, the most interesting parts of the work of Sorceror Royal: research, the invention of new formulae , and the working out of technical problems presented by the government an society, all carried out with a minimum of intercourse with the outside world."

Despite being forced to operate outside of his comfort zone, he does his job so he can work towards true change and justice. Sigh.... He's awesome and pretty dreamy.

Sadly I did not find it all puppies and rainbows but most of my niggles, but one, were small like the fact that the prose at times seemed a little forced as if the author was trying a little too hard to capture the Regency era language.

The big niggle for me was that as much as I loved Zacharias, I did not connect with the female protagonist, Prunella. I'm a big a fan of a strong female character and Prunella is definitely that. However, she is also impulsive, reckless, mercenary almost to the edge of sociopathy, rude and thoughtless. I think the two characteristics that rubbed me the wrong way is the reckless and impulsive. I tend towards the other end of the spectrum of these traits and when a character displays them and in a way that hurts other characters, I am completely turned off. Prunella is not completely sans feelings and she does in the end make things right but I spent the majority of the book wanting to slap her. As a result I also really didn't buy into the romance between she and Zacharias. Not connecting with Prunella was a pretty personal thing for me so I don't think it will be a problem for most readers AND it didn't ruin the book for me, not by a longshot.

FINAL VERDICT: If you like fantasy and stories set in England during the Napoleonic wars, this book is a must read. Even if you aren't a fan of those things, this book has a lot to offer with an active story, a fantastic and complex protagonist and a unique handling of race and gender politics. 4 out of 5 Stars.

Other Opinions Are Available: NPR | The Bibliosanctum | Sarah Felkar

Monday, April 11, 2016

TOP TEN TUESDAY | Ten Books Every Anglophile Should Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme for bloggers who like books and lists. It's awesome and is graciously hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

I don't know if this is a solely American phenomenon, but there is a contingent of us that are a mite obsessed with everything British - British History, British Literature, British TV. Oh, British TV. So I thought I would take the opportunity of this week's Top Ten Tuesday topic to list a few recent favorite books that feed my interest in British culture. The specific topic is:

Ten Books Every X Should Read (up to you! Examples: every history nerd, memoir lover, ballet lover, feminist, college student, etc etc.)

Here's the list:

1) Lord Peter Wimsey Series by Dorothy L. Sayers

Lord Peter is the epitome of the idle, rich younger son of a Duke who likes carousing, collecting rare books and along with his trusty valet, solving crimes. As one does. Peter is an awesome character, seemingly shallow without feeling, but his flippant facade hides a clever mind. This is an insanely fun and very British series.

2) Chronicles of Brother Cadfael Series by Ellis Peters

Another mystery series, which is not surprising, because if there is one thing that the Brits excel at, it is writing a good mystery. This is a brilliant historical series set in the middle ages with a monk as the prime sleuth. This series makes me want to be a medieval monk which is...um... pretty weird but also a testament to how good it is.

3) Flavia DeLuce Series by Alan Bradley

You guessed it! Another mystery, this one written by a Canadian but it takes place in a big old rambling manor house in a small English town just after World War II. The protagonist is an 11 year old girl obsessed with chemistry, poisons and everything gruesome. She's hilarious, kind of annoying and most of the way to charming.

4) The Peter Grant Series by Ben Aaronovitch

Okay, I'll switch it up and list something other than a mystery. Although the Peter Grant books probably could be counted as mysteries BUT it also involves magic! It's an urban fantasy series which features present day London as one of its major characters. Also, the author Aaronovitch was a writer on Doctor Who and it doesn't get more British than that.

5) Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

Barbara Pym wrote mostly in the 1950s and 1960s and her books are quietly insightful about the mundane life of women. They're also incredibly funny. This is probably my favorite about a spinster living in 1950s London, who starts to question whether there is more to life than just being the reliable woman for everyone.

6) The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

Nancy Mitford grew up as the daughter of one of the landed gentry and was a rather famous English socialite between WWI and WWII. These two semi-autobiographical novels draw on her childhood in her eccentric family, and they're droll and charming. I like Love in a Cold Climate quite a bit more than The Pursuit of Love.

7) The Hamish MacBeth Series by M.C. Beaton

I find this series a tad frustrating but also a lot of fun and I LOVE the BBC show based on the books. It follows the adventures of the police constable of a small Scottish village called Loch Dubh. And yes we are kind of back to the mysteries again.

8) Longbourn by Jo Baker

I just read this and loved, loved, loved it! Ever wondered about the lives of all those servants that surround Austen's hero and heroines? This book does a great job of speculating on just that, following the lives of the Bennett's household help.

9) Atonement by Ian McEwen

This and the next author on the list are two of the authors that I think of as exemplifying modern British literature. This is a fantastic historical fiction, family drama, wartime, unreliable narrator novel.

10) Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

So Remains of the Day would perhaps be a better choice as being quintessentially British but I wanted to mix things up a little bit and include a science fiction pick and it still has very British sensibilities. It's set in a future Britain at a boarding school and I really don't want to say too much more than that.

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That's it for me. I avoided a lot of obvious choices - the Aubrey/Maturin series, Dorothy Dunnett, Dickens, Wilkie Collins etc.... Honestly this list could have been 100 books long.

So do you have any books that you find particularly evocative of Great Britain? I'd love to add some new books to my TBR!

Sunday, April 10, 2016

TV | Glee - Season 4

The Season of Too Many Characters. Seriously. This isn't even all the main characters.

As silly as it may sound, I owe Glee a lot. This blog was started in part because of my obsession with the first three seasons of the show. If you look back to some of my earlier posts, they are incoherent ravings about Glee. There was a period where I watched all three seasons from start to finish, three times in a row. There are pop songs for which I have only heard the Glee version (I don't listen to the radio much anymore). I LOVE this show. Or I did. Or I do. I don't know.

It had been roughly four years since I had watched an episode of the show and a lot had happened. There were three new seasons, one of the main characters/actors died, the show was cancelled and the actors and actresses had moved on. If I'm honest I was wary of watching season 4. Shows based in a High School rarely transition well once characters graduate but I thought that perhaps Glee with all it's melodramatic, campy glory could make it work. It had music and dancing after all and that makes everything better. I finally got motivated to give it a shot but first re-watched...again...the first three seasons and I want to say a few words about that first.

Seasons 1-3 were once again spectacular and totally made me fall in love with the show all over again but there were some key differences this go round.

Finn Hudson/Cory Monteith: His untimely death hovered over everything and it also made me take a closer look at that character which I had never really cared too much about. I found I developed a new appreciation for him and there were so many scenes that made me so sad. Monteith did a very good job portraying/crafting this rather typical goofy teen boy and maturing him through graduation.
I also engaged much more with Finchel (Finn and Rachel) and was really rooting for them (which has dire repercussions for my feelings about season 4). That pairing eclipsed my earlier fandom of Klaine (Kurt and Blaine) though I still really like Kurt and Blaine's story a lot.
Rachel is still my favorite character and I maybe even grew to love her more which also impacted my season 4 feelings.
Who's the best singer/performer?: I thought about this a LOT this time around. Mercedes/Amber Riley really does get the shaft in many ways and most of what I looked up online regarding this question put her at the top as "best singer". The thing is I agree with the world of the show and could listen to Rachel/Lea Michele sing all day long and not get tired of it. I think what it comes down to is preferences. I am a total fangirl of Broadway and musical theater which is the aesthetic Rachel represents. She's a performer. It's also why I love watching Blaine/Darren Criss perform despite the fact that his voice is only so-so.

Now on to season 4.

I think the above is a good litmus test of how much tolerance you will have for season 4 of Glee. Does the picture above make you want to punch her in her sweet smiling face or want to be her best friend? If you went for friendship you may do well with season 4. Unfortunately Marley, who is pictured above and who became the fresh new lead for the New Directions inspired only violence in my heart. The show tried to sell her as Rachel's successor and I'm not sure how they could even do that with any kind of seriousness. She doesn't compare with Rachel in singing/performance ability and her milk toast, sweet, goody two shoes personality could literally not have been more boring. And that's the problem. All of the new actors/characters they brought in were terribly uninteresting and the show spent a lot of increasingly precious show time focused on them, trying to convince the audience to like them. I liked Jake okay, eventually, and that's mostly because I read online that the actor is a classically trained, pro dancer. That's about it for my appreciation of the new cast members.

And what do I mean by increasingly precious show time? Glee creators were faced with a challenge. They had to "graduate" some of their biggest stars while the rest of the cast stayed in high school along with the adult characters of the show. They didn't want to leave McKinley High but they didn't want to lose Rachel, Kurt, Finn, Mercedes, and Santana. What to do? Have a split narrative, following Rachel and Kurt in New York and have all the other former stars show up more frequently than is healthy at McKinley while also trying to sell a whole new cast of boring characters as the main attraction. It's a valiant try but in my mind it did not work. There were too many characters and too much story to shove in. In the end none of it really worked and I just ended up being resentful at each Marley solo we got in place of a Rachel or Santana or Kurt or Finn or anyone but her.

The adult story lines also really suffered and took a back seat with some of the actors completely disappearing for episodes at a time. As a result all the adults do become a bit insufferable. Not everyone would agree but I really liked the adult characters and their story lines in the first three seasons. I really enjoyed rooting for Emma and Will and snorfling (snort/laughing) at all of Sue's antics. It had started to become a little tired in season 3 but it completely implodes in season 4.

The solution to all of this is to have done what they did in season 4 - have each season represent only half a year at McKinley instead of a full year. Unfortunately, TV doesn't let you lay out such long-term plans. Even had they done this, other problems may have arisen in trying to keep the show fresh.

I had other issues as well that were not related to the bigger changes that took place, the biggest one being that the music was horrendous. Glee had apparently run through all the good show tunes and older songs that they could get permission for, on top of contemporary music going down the crap hole or something? They did Gangnam Style for sectionals for goodness sake. A good 90% of the songs featured in season 4, I either didn't know and/or found them bland as plain oatmeal.

There were some bright spots of course though they were pretty few and far between. Will and Emma's disastrous wedding episode had some great stuff in it, all old cast focused, mind you. Rachel and Kurt's performances at NYADA's winter showcase were stunning as were Rachel's audition performances for Funny Girl. I liked where they were headed with Finn's arc but sadly real life issues took over (Monteith disappears in the last few episodes because he went into rehab and then he died a month or two later).

Overall, this season was painful for me to watch. I decided half way in that I will not even continue with seasons five and six, especially with the loss of Finn. I may at some point get up the emotional fortitude to watch the Finn/Cory Monteith tribute episode (The Quarterback) that took place early in season five, but as far as I'm concerned, in my world Glee only has three seasons. And that's okay because it was a brilliant three seasons. A show that celebrated diversity, quirky humor, melodrama and great music.

And as far as a tribute to Cory Monteith and his character Finn, I don't know that I need to watch anything more than this:

Are you a fan of Glee? What most attracts you about the show? Did you make it to season 4 and if so what did you think? I'd love to hear others thoughts especially if they are more positive then mine!

Saturday, April 9, 2016

SATURDAY IN THE GARDEN | Dead Trees

OUTSIDE

It's a lovely if cold day today. I had to cover up the garlic last night because of a freeze warning. Then, This morning I was contemplating dead trees.

They are pretty cool to contemplate and look at really and they are a paradise for many species of wildlife. This tree at the dog park had several impressive holes drilled by woodpeckers and some lovely looking cavities for nests. It was also likely hosting a horde of insects, protected from the colder temperatures by it's cellulosic embrace. If you've got a dead tree and it's not a danger to anyone, leave it standing to rot naturally. It's one of the best and easiest things you can do to support wild critters! Yay dead trees!

LIFE

I had a couple of very early mornings this week; up at 4 am, driving by 5. This does not come naturally to me but I actually, once I'm awake, really appreciate being up that early. It's a great time to watch wildlife (which was why I was up that early in fact) and it's also peaceful and beautiful, watching the horizon lighten, the sun come up and the world wake up. It's made me really wish I was a morning person! Or really someone who didn't love to sleep as much as I do. I'm a must-have-7-8-hours-a-night-pretty-consistently sort of person and even that doesn't lead to me leaping out of bed with a song in my heart at the first tones of the alarm. I always wonder if this is a genetics thing or if I could change my sleep habits with a special routine of habits. Or something. I know people who sleep 4-5 hours a night and are productive as all get out, bless 'em. And kind of hate 'em.

What kind of a sleeper are you? You got any thoughts on waking up at the crack of crack?