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Jul. 7th, 2013 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furyofvissarion... I always start these entries meekly. Gosh, it's been a long time since I updated, ugh.
I've spent a lot of the last few months rereading Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville books, serious comfort reads for me; you can check the tag for my previous thoughts, as I don't have the spoons to write up reread thoughts right now (& thinking I should is part of why I haven't updated in ages). Someday I will write a big post about why I love these books so much, & what Kitty says to me about power & activism & choices & family, but... this is not that day.
Kitty Rocks the House - Carrie Vaughn. This one is new since I last updated! Kitty hasn't spent a lot of time at home in Denver during the last few books; both her human family & her pack show some resentment of this here. In addition, she & Rick, the vampire Master of Denver, are trying to rally allies to their side against super-creepy vampire Roman, who's been marshalling his own forces for centuries. Unfortunately, when Kitty tried to sound the alarm about Roman in the last book, in her keynote speech at a conference about the supernatural, it got her branded as a conspiracy theorist, resulting in some market dropping her radio show & her boss watching her like a hawk to make sure she doesn't keep doing the same thing. Oh yeah, & there's a new wolf in town who wants to join Kitty's pack.
& a vampire who says he's a Catholic priest rocks up, to the amazement of Rick (who's spent hundreds of years as a quietly solitary Catholic vampire himself). This book got me to care about Rick enormously, where I didn't so much before; I was glad Kitty had a strong vampire friend -- a genuine friend -- but I wasn't hugely interested in Rick. But this book! His angst, so compelling.
The other thing I liked about this book was the reemphasis on pack as, well, a group thing. Kitty gets challenged for leadership of the pack, & the would-be usurper scorns her by saying she can't be strong without the rest of her pack -- that she's not strong on her own. & she says, "That's the whole point," & yes, reader, I cried. Anyway -- I continue to love this series (even though, like everything, it has its flaws) & I can't wait to read the next installment.
Shaping Europe: France, Germany, and Embedded Bilateralism from the Elysée Treaty to Twenty-First Century Politics - Ulrich Krotz & Joachim Schild. Okay, I read this first because there's a part of me that is sort of turning into this EU policy nerd (but only slowly because spoons/laziness/etc.). And also because it... may be background reading for a Projectwhich will almost certainly amount to nothing. Anyway! Certainly as a US American, I had no clue about the stuff in this book, which is about the special relationship between France & Germany & the v. extensive diplomatic ties between them & how this affects events in the EU as a whole.
Half World - Hiromi Goto. Another comfort re-read. This book says so many things that I need to hear over & over.
Darkest Light - Hiromi Goto. This is the sequel to Half World. I had to special-order this from Canada, but it was so worth it. Both books share a theme of breaking out of patterns, & the dread of change even if you long for it. Half World was most strongly, to me, about keeping going even when you feel overwhelmingly inadequate for whatever you're supposed to do (& have no idea what that is) & even when you're terrified & angry & want to curl up & hide from everything.
This sequel, on the other hand, is about dealing with your own capacity for evil, & feeling like the things that are inside you -- the things you are -- are going to destroy everyone around you (after making them reject you, natch). & it's about facing your own darkness & figuring out what you're going to do w/your flawed, infallible self & figuring out how to make choices.
Some parts absolutely tore at me -- when protagonist Gee, realizing he has to head into Half World, tries to dissuade his new human friend (named Cracker, lol) from coming along by telling her she doesn't know what kind of darkness & torment she would be letting herself into, she says basically, "I don't care! You don't know how I'm suffering now!" Which... hey. I've felt like that.
& oh yeah, trigger warning for suicide. There is one really harrowing scene -- it's not gratuitous, it's absolutely appropriate to the storyline & the nightmarish quality of Half World -- but holy moly, take care when you read. I stayed up late finishing this if only because I couldn't go to bed on that scene.
I've spent a lot of the last few months rereading Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville books, serious comfort reads for me; you can check the tag for my previous thoughts, as I don't have the spoons to write up reread thoughts right now (& thinking I should is part of why I haven't updated in ages). Someday I will write a big post about why I love these books so much, & what Kitty says to me about power & activism & choices & family, but... this is not that day.
Kitty Rocks the House - Carrie Vaughn. This one is new since I last updated! Kitty hasn't spent a lot of time at home in Denver during the last few books; both her human family & her pack show some resentment of this here. In addition, she & Rick, the vampire Master of Denver, are trying to rally allies to their side against super-creepy vampire Roman, who's been marshalling his own forces for centuries. Unfortunately, when Kitty tried to sound the alarm about Roman in the last book, in her keynote speech at a conference about the supernatural, it got her branded as a conspiracy theorist, resulting in some market dropping her radio show & her boss watching her like a hawk to make sure she doesn't keep doing the same thing. Oh yeah, & there's a new wolf in town who wants to join Kitty's pack.
& a vampire who says he's a Catholic priest rocks up, to the amazement of Rick (who's spent hundreds of years as a quietly solitary Catholic vampire himself). This book got me to care about Rick enormously, where I didn't so much before; I was glad Kitty had a strong vampire friend -- a genuine friend -- but I wasn't hugely interested in Rick. But this book! His angst, so compelling.
The other thing I liked about this book was the reemphasis on pack as, well, a group thing. Kitty gets challenged for leadership of the pack, & the would-be usurper scorns her by saying she can't be strong without the rest of her pack -- that she's not strong on her own. & she says, "That's the whole point," & yes, reader, I cried. Anyway -- I continue to love this series (even though, like everything, it has its flaws) & I can't wait to read the next installment.
Shaping Europe: France, Germany, and Embedded Bilateralism from the Elysée Treaty to Twenty-First Century Politics - Ulrich Krotz & Joachim Schild. Okay, I read this first because there's a part of me that is sort of turning into this EU policy nerd (but only slowly because spoons/laziness/etc.). And also because it... may be background reading for a Project
Half World - Hiromi Goto. Another comfort re-read. This book says so many things that I need to hear over & over.
Darkest Light - Hiromi Goto. This is the sequel to Half World. I had to special-order this from Canada, but it was so worth it. Both books share a theme of breaking out of patterns, & the dread of change even if you long for it. Half World was most strongly, to me, about keeping going even when you feel overwhelmingly inadequate for whatever you're supposed to do (& have no idea what that is) & even when you're terrified & angry & want to curl up & hide from everything.
This sequel, on the other hand, is about dealing with your own capacity for evil, & feeling like the things that are inside you -- the things you are -- are going to destroy everyone around you (after making them reject you, natch). & it's about facing your own darkness & figuring out what you're going to do w/your flawed, infallible self & figuring out how to make choices.
Some parts absolutely tore at me -- when protagonist Gee, realizing he has to head into Half World, tries to dissuade his new human friend (named Cracker, lol) from coming along by telling her she doesn't know what kind of darkness & torment she would be letting herself into, she says basically, "I don't care! You don't know how I'm suffering now!" Which... hey. I've felt like that.
& oh yeah, trigger warning for suicide. There is one really harrowing scene -- it's not gratuitous, it's absolutely appropriate to the storyline & the nightmarish quality of Half World -- but holy moly, take care when you read. I stayed up late finishing this if only because I couldn't go to bed on that scene.