Sigyn

I wish I could help you, Guess, but I only made it a few chapters into Lies of Locke Lamora before giving up because of the language. My tolerance for that sort of thing is pretty low. Right now I'm reading Switched by Amanda Hocking because I won a free copy. It seems like decent YA so far.

I've been playing lots of boardgames and cardgames lately: Smallworld, Ticket to Ride, Citadels, and Guillotine. I found the last one pretty funny--you get points for which nobles you've sent to the guillotine while trying to keep your opponent getting high-point people. There's also the Martyr and Hero of the People which are worth negative points if you get them.

I finished The Sun Sword by Michelle West. I really enjoyed this series, and I'm excited to start the next one. Right now I'm reading All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen. It's a mix of Twelfth Night and The Importance of Being Earnest. I'm really liking it so far.

I thought about doing a little NaNoWriMo---30K instead of 50K. Instead of starting today, though, I am taking care of my sick five-year-old.

I saw the Halloween episode of Suburgatory last night, and I actually found it pretty funny.

This past week I dreamed that an evil bad guy had stolen Papa Smurf's magical powers and was making everyone do a big song and dance number. Then I dreamed I was a vampire who was trying to kill another vampire (played by a girl I knew in high school) while we were both living in Paris, but it turned out we were really both in a musical and we could fly because of the harness sets. She was trying to steal all the applause at the end. A strange number of my dreams involve musicals.

We're watching Rah Xephon which slews back and forth between being enjoyable and pretentious but seems to be getting better the more episodes we watch. I wish Haruka would stop screaming Ayato's name whenever he's fighting, but I have little hope for that actually happening.

I watched the first episode of Once Upon a Time. It seemed okay with potential to be good or terrible.

I read Give up the Ghost by Megan Crewe, which was thoughtful, and now I'm reading Nova by Samuel Delany.

I forgot to mention The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. It's a fun movie.

I'm reading Sung in Blood by Glen Cook. It's a fun story, and the characters have almost no back story. No angst. It's different.

I'm listening to The Weepies.

A lot of people don't believe books should be used to educate, as in to expand a child's understandings or beliefs. They think that books are there to convey information, develop reading skills, or teach morals. That's the way it seems to me when people talk about banning books, though they may not phrase it like this. They don't want their children reading anything that describes alternative behavior unless it is obviously portrayed as bad. They don't want other people's children reading these books either, because they think it will lead to negative behaviors in their communities. They don't understand that children are going to be exposed to alternative ideas eventually and that the better choice, at least in my mind, is to prepare children for these exposures.

I have no idea. I thought they usually promo-ed newer books.

Has anyone read Deus Irae by Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny? I tried reading it and only made it in thirty pages before deciding that I didn't care about anyone in the world or anything they were doing. Does it get better or am I better off leaving it alone?

I'm more of a manga fan than an anime fan. I'm picky about my art, and it is usually so much better in the manga. Still, I like pretty much everything from Miyazaki, The Big O, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Neon Genesis Evangelion (especially the update), parts of Read or Die and Read or Dream, Cowboy Bebop, Hikaru no Go, and Last Exile. Does Avatar: the Last Airbender count as anime? I thought it was made in the US. I have two little boys and right now they love Dragonball Z, Knights of the Zodiac, Dragon Drive, Voltron, Pokemon, and Blue Dragon.

What book was it? I had this happen with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, which I loved when I was younger. I haven't reread any books though for a long time.

I'm reading Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier. So far it's one of my favorite retellings of Beauty and the Beast that I've read in a long time.

I'm reading Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara. This series is a lot of fun, kind of manga-like. The main girl goes through lots of experiences, there are a few guys in love with her, and she doesn't have a ton of change in her character.

I finished The White Rose by Glen Cook and absolutely loved it. It wasn't at all what I was expected and much better than I had hoped. I read two young adult fantasies, Entwined and Paranormalcy. Both were fun reads, but I liked Entwined better of the two. It was such an interesting look at grieving while also being a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Paranormalcy had a few plot holes that bothered me, but I'm pretty sure I'll still give the sequel a try. Right now I'm almost finished with And Only to Deceive which is fun for its Victorian-ness but weak on the mystery. I get annoyed when I figure out the mystery halfway through the book and the main character is still blindly puttering around.

Have you tried The Black Company by Glen Cook? The main characters in that are ordinary mercenaries who do what they do because they get paid. They do have to interact with the big evil guys, but this still might work for you. There's also The Company by K.J. Parker which is about a group of men who were soldiers when they were young but have ostensibly moved on with their lives and get back together to colonize an island.

I would also say not to do HDM or The Hobbit right now. Seventh Tower and Rick Riordan are good suggestions. I would also suggest Beauty by Robin McKinley and Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.

My husband taught me how to play Memoir '44 last night. We both really like boardgames, but I don't usually play the wargames. This one was fun, helped along by the fact that I played the side that was easier to win and we didn't have time to switch and play the opposite way.

Has anyone recommended P.C. Hodgell? If not, I'm doing it now. The first two books have been republished together as The God Stalker Chronicles, and it has a terrible, terrible cover, but don't let that put you off. It tells the story of Jame, a young woman who can't quite remember the last ten years of her life. She ends up in Taitastigon, a city of gods both forgotten and not. She ends up being trained as a thief (much less cliche than it sounds) and trying to figure out if the local gods are real or not by sort of killing one. It's weird and different and a lot of fun.

I seem to be at 61 read (going by Peter's standard) and another 13 that I know of and have purposely chosen to not read.