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So, between recovering from my illness and doing stuff on wednesdays - it's been a few weeks.
I'm keeping up with the news a fair bit these days, following the union-public sector negotiations. It's looking more and more like we'll be striking this spring. Well, maybe we. I have no clue if my job will be picked. We'll see.
What I've recently finished reading
Peter Ackroyd: Queer City
Nicely written, though it felt mostly anecdotal.
Joshua Williams: The Flash: Lightning Strikes Twice
Great. More speedster villains.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame bog 1.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame bog 6.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame bog 8.
Yes, I had a craving for good duck stories. The one with the Kalevala and the gigantic monster getting traumatized by modern day Helsinki is especially delightful.
Xavier Dorison: Long John Silver: Lady Vivian Hastings
Promising.
Chris Miskiewicz: Thomas Alsop vol. 2.
Yevgeny Zamyatin: We
I seem to be in a mood for classic dystopias. After I finished this, I ordered Kallocain from the library.
Yoshitoki Oima: A Silent Voice vol. 1.
I'm not sure this is for me, but I'm giving it one more volume to convince me. But to be honest, a series with a bully as the main character, a bully trying to make amends, but apparently he's only sorry for his behaviour because it ended with himself getting bullied as badly as he did it to another - yeah, no.
Sylvain Runberg: Darwin's Diaries: Death of a Beast
Oh, look - a werewolf!
John Arcudi: BPRD: King of Fear
Martin Jensen: Overleveren
( Cut for length )
Ann Leckie: Provenance
Sad to say I didn't like this one half as much as her Imperial Radch trilogy. It felt a lot flatter, and the e/em/eir gender neutral terms felt far more jarring to me than the previous books' consistent she. I mean, it was an interesting glimpse into another corner of the universe, but it felt like we kept getting told the main character was brilliant instead of being shown it, and most of the plot wasn't that engaging.
Leonora Christina Skov: Den, der lever stille
This is the sort of book that reminds me how lucky I am to have my parents and makes we want to catch a train going north just to give them a hug.
What I've recently watched
6. Altered Carbon season 1.
I read the book before watching the show and perhaps I shouldn't have. There were so many changes, and while some were purely cosmetic (like turning the Hendrix into the Raven and the changes to the torture scene) and others were the sort of expansion turning a first person pov into a tv show requires, I felt that the changes to Takeshi's story were pretty huge, and to me, it felt like the show spun off to tell an entirely different story, just using a framework from the novel when it felt like it. Oh well...
7. Black Panther
It's a gorgeous movie - I might have mentioned that before? But I must admit, it also feels like an incredible American movie in its worldview.
8. The Purge: Election Year
I find the Purge movies far more unsettling than most other dystopias out there. Maybe because they aren't really - their universe doesn't require huge societal changes to the same extent. It's just one night a year. Mind you, I'm wondering how there's still a population this many years in...
9. The Shape of Water
It's a very del Toro movie. It's gorgeous all the way. The story is a bit predictable, but then, it's not like del Toro usually makes movies with huge twist endings. He tells a story with as many tropes and as much aesthetic as he can, that's all. (And now that I've watched it, I can go watch the old BBC version of the play that it has been accused of plagiarizing. I noticed it floating around on youtube.)
What I'm reading now
Lightless by C.A. Higgins, which has been disappointing, and The Other Paris by Luc Sante.
What I'm reading next
Probably Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief and the second Monstress comic.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 33
I'm keeping up with the news a fair bit these days, following the union-public sector negotiations. It's looking more and more like we'll be striking this spring. Well, maybe we. I have no clue if my job will be picked. We'll see.
What I've recently finished reading
Peter Ackroyd: Queer City
Nicely written, though it felt mostly anecdotal.
Joshua Williams: The Flash: Lightning Strikes Twice
Great. More speedster villains.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame bog 1.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame bog 6.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame bog 8.
Yes, I had a craving for good duck stories. The one with the Kalevala and the gigantic monster getting traumatized by modern day Helsinki is especially delightful.
Xavier Dorison: Long John Silver: Lady Vivian Hastings
Promising.
Chris Miskiewicz: Thomas Alsop vol. 2.
Yevgeny Zamyatin: We
I seem to be in a mood for classic dystopias. After I finished this, I ordered Kallocain from the library.
Yoshitoki Oima: A Silent Voice vol. 1.
I'm not sure this is for me, but I'm giving it one more volume to convince me. But to be honest, a series with a bully as the main character, a bully trying to make amends, but apparently he's only sorry for his behaviour because it ended with himself getting bullied as badly as he did it to another - yeah, no.
Sylvain Runberg: Darwin's Diaries: Death of a Beast
Oh, look - a werewolf!
John Arcudi: BPRD: King of Fear
Martin Jensen: Overleveren
( Cut for length )
Ann Leckie: Provenance
Sad to say I didn't like this one half as much as her Imperial Radch trilogy. It felt a lot flatter, and the e/em/eir gender neutral terms felt far more jarring to me than the previous books' consistent she. I mean, it was an interesting glimpse into another corner of the universe, but it felt like we kept getting told the main character was brilliant instead of being shown it, and most of the plot wasn't that engaging.
Leonora Christina Skov: Den, der lever stille
This is the sort of book that reminds me how lucky I am to have my parents and makes we want to catch a train going north just to give them a hug.
What I've recently watched
6. Altered Carbon season 1.
I read the book before watching the show and perhaps I shouldn't have. There were so many changes, and while some were purely cosmetic (like turning the Hendrix into the Raven and the changes to the torture scene) and others were the sort of expansion turning a first person pov into a tv show requires, I felt that the changes to Takeshi's story were pretty huge, and to me, it felt like the show spun off to tell an entirely different story, just using a framework from the novel when it felt like it. Oh well...
7. Black Panther
It's a gorgeous movie - I might have mentioned that before? But I must admit, it also feels like an incredible American movie in its worldview.
8. The Purge: Election Year
I find the Purge movies far more unsettling than most other dystopias out there. Maybe because they aren't really - their universe doesn't require huge societal changes to the same extent. It's just one night a year. Mind you, I'm wondering how there's still a population this many years in...
9. The Shape of Water
It's a very del Toro movie. It's gorgeous all the way. The story is a bit predictable, but then, it's not like del Toro usually makes movies with huge twist endings. He tells a story with as many tropes and as much aesthetic as he can, that's all. (And now that I've watched it, I can go watch the old BBC version of the play that it has been accused of plagiarizing. I noticed it floating around on youtube.)
What I'm reading now
Lightless by C.A. Higgins, which has been disappointing, and The Other Paris by Luc Sante.
What I'm reading next
Probably Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief and the second Monstress comic.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 33