fahye | (no subject)

So the November writing thing has fallen in a heap, as I fully expected :( All I want to do in my leisure time at the moment is sleep. My body has decided that heartburn is no longer the funnest of all the fun ways it could somatise my stress, and has instead moved back to the aching exhaustion that strikes in the middle of the afternoon no matter how much sleep I've had the night before. YAY.

However: my toenails are a cheerful shade of blue, and tonight I made uber-delicious cannellini bean & chorizo soup for dinner, and one of my housemates made caramel popcorn with spices in it so our kitchen smells delicious <3

I keep pointlessly refreshing my local library login page as though the three books I've reserved will magically leap into the 'items awaiting collection' column. I like to think that they are rushing towards me from all across the Central Western NSW area AS WE SPEAK:
1) Malinda Lo, Ash (HOW can this book still be in physical processing, it has been months, JUST WHACK ON SOME CONTACT AND A BARCODE AND GIMME THE BOOK)
2) Carrie Ryan, The Forest of Hands and Teeth (zombie kick continues)
3) Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (FINALLY)

I am mad with the power of online reservations, guys, REC ME SOME BOOKS. The collection's pretty extensive, although they do not have Karen Healey's Guardian of the Dead, which I have been wanting to read for months. Grr.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I've been listening to David Mirchell's latest on audiobook on the way to work. It's pretty good.

As Meat Loves Salt!

The Bloody Chamber.

Library has neither :( Curses! Tell me more about them, though! I will keep an eye out in secondhand stores.

Well, they are both quite disturbing, on reflection. The Bloody Chamber is quite cool, if you are interested in feminist subversions of fairy tales. In its defense, I remember one or two as genuinely charming.

As Meat Loves Salt is kind of like a Derek Jarman movie ... It's about this man who is basically a horrible person (a violent criminal), and he falls in love with another man during the English Civil War, which leads him to try to overcome his true nature (um, although I don't think he sees it that way) and so they get sort of start a commune. I'm sure you can guess for yourself about how well things work out. I found it emotionally devastating and incredibly erotic, and it pushed all my 17th century buttons.

I'd recommend Catherynne Valente's The Night Garden.(for an odd recommendation) It's a book of fairy tales with a frame narrative. It's gorgeous. It's almost like prose poetry, she uses metaphors and similes like bread and butter. It's like a Russian nesting doll with stories within stories.

For a less crazy recommendation: Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King.

(I can't seem to think of more mainstream fantasy books at the moment)

Online reservations are THE BEST thing. I am an online reservation addict. This is why I inevitably have twenty library books on my shelf and fifteen dollars owed to multiple libraries at any one time.

I second the recommendation for Catherynne Valente's In the Night Garden (it's the first book of a two-book duology; together they are The Orphan's Tales, and if you request the first you will probably also want to request the second immediately after, In the Cities of Coin and Spice.)

Also you should read Caroline Stevermer's A College of Magics, which is the other book this year that hit me as Pamela-Dean's-Tam-Lin-ish. And while I'm talking about Pamela Dean, read her The Dubious Hills. Also you should read Joan Aiken's adult gothics, which are about as lulzy as the Dido Twite books - A Cluster of Separate Sparks is an excellent example. The Intuitionist, by Colson Whitehead, which is a gorgeous extended metaphor of a book; Kamikaze Girls, by Novalo Takemoto, which has my favorite fictional ruffles-wearing sociopath as the protagonist; and you should try Dorothy Dunnett's The Game of Kings to find out if you are a Dunnett person, which I think you may very well be. (The general rule is to get past the first 100 pages and see if you like the rest from there.)

Am I done? I'm probably done. (FOR NOW.)

No Catherynne Valente in the library at all :((( Now I really want to read it, it sounds lovely.

Actually very few of the ones you mentioned are in there, though they DO have epic amounts of Dunnett, including the Macbeth one \o/ And a lot of Aiken, too, though not the one you named.

Alas! :( I do think you will really like Dunnett, though. She is a great author for people who enjoy a.) ridiculous levels of multilingual erudition combined with layers and layers of historical politics as well as b.) very pretty, witty people in massively complicated and unhealthy (and often slashy) relationships having enormous amounts of angst, as well as c.) swordfights, hijinks, and the occasional ostrich chase through the city etc. So basically she is a perfect author for fandom.

I have read two of those books. WHAT IS THIS STRANGE FEELING OF HAVING READ SOMETHING FAHYE HASN'T?? Also, I rec thee Feed by Mira Grant!

Feed is on my floor AS WE SPEAK; I am saving it for my plane ride to London, as it looks like excellent plane-trip-fodder.