Beth > Recent Status Updates

I hope it's just this first story that's kind of boring, too 101 level on-the-nose.

"Lucifugous": I appreciated the vibes early on, but a little more than halfway through this first story, I'm ready for it to be over with. I care very little about these throwaway characters and their sexual and/or vampiric tensions with each other.

There's something deeply moving about a mangaka who doesn't 100% know what they're up to with their first chapter, and who figures it out as they go along. Halfway through this anthology, I'm confident putting myself in Urushibara's hands.

Got this used for $7.50. It was even signed by the author, "To John and Judy."

Going to see if I can get this read for the SFFBC discussion. That's been a lost cause for most (or all?) of 2025, so there's no reason to be hopeful, but we'll see...

I have no recollection of anyone from the first book except the handful of central characters, so seeing a pair of second-stringers starting a relationship gets a "good for you, whoever you are" from me.

For fun, I gave my partner a choice of three books for me to read next. He decided on this one because "the characters on the cover look happy." If nothing else, this will be quite a contrast with current audiobook Best Served Cold. ^^;

So much blood and over-the-top emotion! But as usual for a light novel, it's easy going, quick reading, just right for my current situation.

I've tried and stalled out on this and _The Blade Itself_ I dunno how many times by now. And I have to say, I think I finally kind of get what's going on here. A book starts with "The sunrise was the colour of bad blood. It leaked out of the east," etc., there's no way it's meant to be taken entirely seriously.

It was foolish to start a 500-page book after finishing a 600-page one, and I knew it. This is the shortest book in my travel box, so here's to a quick win while I gather strength for another chonker.

As was also true of the Gaskell I finished recently, I've read two different introductions to this one: B&N in paper, OWC in ebook. On the whole I appreciated the B&N one more, though the OWC had at least one element I intend to keep an eye out for as I read this for the second time (first was about thirty years ago).

Having listened to a volume of the "Anita Blake" series right before this, Jean-Claude's inspiration is painfully obvious, from the hair color, to the blue or green eyes, to the French accent. Rice is a much better writer, though, and I have a far better idea of what our MC here is like in about 20 pages or so than I've gotten from J-C in two books.

I'm in a 19th century mood, for some reason? I'll roll with it for now.

I have this as an audiobook narrated by the incredibly talented Simon Vance, but this is one that I'll likely want to primarily read in "black and white" and refer to footnotes about Anglican politics, and so on.

Listening to this volume's very visceral descriptions of crime scenes--including Anita and a cop whimsically playing gross-out games with a corpse--over thirty years after I first read it, I thought about squeamishness. It's come and gone over the course of my life, for (I think) specific reasons. I'm not sure if that "arc" will make it into my review, so I'll put a marker on the thought for now.

As far as I can tell from gathering this in at a snail's pace (1 to 40 minutes at a time, depending on how sleepy I am when I hit the "play" button), this second book's structure, themes and descriptions are a bit stronger than the first's. There's still an uncomfortable current of catcalling and SA in too many of the scenes. Hiya, early 90s.

I hadn't realized how quickly Charlotte's remaining siblings fell. Three within nine months.

It's funny that "write what you know," or its equivalent, was being bandied about even 150-plus years ago. Charlotte, in her guise of "Currer Bell," makes a good counterargument against that thinking around here.

We've made it to the Rialla (always italicized) at last! With an accompanying litany of minor lords, at least a few who likely will meet similar fates to a couple of the side characters in Book I: introduced with little fanfare, then murdered. The feeling of this book being too easy to put down has eased, and I'm genuinely interested in seeing how things play out.

A steep, often rather boring climb to the midway point. We've been pointing toward the Rialla for hundreds of pages now, and we know that's where the drama is. Let's get there already, please.

Some of the world-building is pretty cool, and as a born St. Louisan it's fun to see familiar things. We still have some of the same issues from the first book: every dude in sight being horny for Anita (or acting like they are), every woman being "evil" or hating on her. Any human character with narrative weight also carries guns, making any fraught interaction also a potential gun fight.

The changes to v. 1, ch. XIII are slightly more substantial than v. 1, ch. IV's, but not enough to justify a full reread. The changes amount to pivoting the cause of Branwell's dissipation and decline to unspecified failings in character or mental health, rather than the aftereffects of an unsuccessful love affair. Less dramatic, somewhat less interesting.

So much untranslated French, also not translated by the editor. A translation app is certainly an option, although I'm not convinced those passages convey so very much that they'd be worth the effort.

I've been reading this a few pages at a time on trains and before going to sleep, so I'm likely not getting a whole lot out of it. What I remember from before was mostly vibes anyway, so it's probably fine.

Another one I've been reading off and on for a while. It's a good vacation book--very cosmopolitan.

Gaskell is doing well showing the reader that within the outwardly quiet life, was a vivid inner life. The outer life is starting to feel rather stifling, I have to admit.

I'm going to be absent for a couple of weeks. Stay frosty, everyone. <3

Charlotte has a pen pal or two from the boarding school she went to, and is still fangirling on Lord Wellington, though I have the impression she also has other things to think about.

The current selection of a "bad book" club I belong to. It's fun, fast-moving, and silly--just what I'd hope for.