Dangerous Women Review #2

I've just about finished reading the rest of Dangerous Women. You probably remember the first part of my review, which was probably the longest post I've ever written. This one shouldn't be as long.

1) Virgins by Diana Gabaldon
I was only halfway through this story when I did the last review, and I said I didn't like it too much. After finished it, I liked it much more. The females came in later in the story, and there was a lot of extra that I feel could have been cut out without hindering the story. However, that extra did help, if not to move the plot along, at least to make it interesting. After reading this story, I might be more interested in reading the book series that it's based off of.

2) Hell Hath No Fury by Sherrilyn Kenyon
I've read a couple of Kenyon's books, and they're definitely heavy on the romance. This one was lacking that, mostly, so that was a relief. However, it read like a teen fiction, and anyone who knows me, or has been following this blog for long enough, knows that I hate teen fiction. It was tacky, and worst of all, it used modern references. This isn't so bad for now, but in ten years those references won't make any sense. I like reading stories that mostly don't age.

3) Pronouncing Doom by S. M. Stirling
This story was very confusing and hard to get into. I read like it was the second book in a story, or like the first few pages had been omitted. Normally I don't care for a while spiel on the history of the world and what events happened to bring us to this point, but I think this story needed a bit of this to start off with. We are eventually told throughout the story, but it doesn't help if I've already read five pages and then find out what happened to throw the world into a post apocalyptic setting. The characters were great out, even if their culture confused me a bit.

4) Name The Beast by Sam Sykes
Yet another very confusing story, and this one barely got better as it went along. For the majority of the story I thought that it was written in the present, then going into flash backs. At the very end I learned it was always in the present, but switching between two places. Throw in a whole other species that is only briefly described, and it's just too much with too little explaining.

5) Caretakers by Pat Cadigan
Normally I don't care for modern stories, but this one was fairly entertaining. Not speculative fiction, with magic or anything of the sort, so really not my cup of tea. It was closer to a comedic drama. Not much else to say.

6) Lies My Mother Told Me by Caroline Spector
Near the middle I was forcing myself to read this story. It' about superheroes, and although the idea is good, the way it's put into action is tacky. The whole idea is that a virus infected humans that gave some of them super powers. The ones who received good or helpful powers are called Aces, while the ones with bad or unwanted powers are called Jokers. The problem is that it goes into the old style comic type superheroes, with tacky names and tacky powers. Near the end it really picked up though, and despite everything, it was pretty good.

7) The Princess and the Queen by George R. R. Martin
I'm only halfway through this one, but it's shaping up to be decent. Just like another story in this collection, it reads more like a history book than a fictional story. There is very little dialogue, so it's basically all descriptions of what had happened, rather than what was happening. But of course, it's Martin, so no matter what, it's entertaining to read... And there are dragons. It's also interesting because this story takes place before the events in his series A Song of Ice and Fire, so I can relate back to the series and understand what is going on.

Much shorter this time, right? Martin's story is the last one in the collection, but I would love to read more short stories. I'll probably pick up something from Value Village from time to time, since short stories are (mostly) easy to read and easy to review.

Healthy!

This flu didn't even last a week. How nice. Maybe I am growing an immunity.

Anyway, a while ago I said I would post some pictures of my concrete poetry if I was able to get a picture. Well, my professor finally posted the pictures, so here they are!

Sorry, they're a little small and hard to read. Here is what each of them says,

Look at the world through my eyes, and see not the perfection, but the flaws of a broken world

That was a ventie decaf two thirds sweet no foam one and a half shot one ninety degree skinny peppermint mocha with whip

The body blamed the personality, the personality blamed the body, the heart was torn between the two while the mind started it all.

Sick...

Ugh, so right after I posted that I wasn't feeling well on Tuesday, I started throwing up. So yeah, flu number two! It might have been food poisoning, but I can't think of anything I would have eaten. Either way, I'm till not feeling great. I tried to go to school today, but I missed my first bus and gave up. I was planning on going just to hand in my homework and go back home, but I saved myself about three hours of transit. So yeah, I'm going to go take a nap now. I called in sick yesterday to work, but I have to work tomorrow, since no one can cover my shift.

Again?

Some people might remember a while back when I had a melt down because I was told that the story I was expecting to be published in my school's anthology wasn't being published after all. Well, it happened again. Unfortunately, this time won't have a happy ending, where the editors e-mails me to say that my complimentary copy is ready. It was all a miscommunication this time though, and my professor, who had to break the news to me and two of my class mates, was very polite and apologetic. I know my work was supposed to be published, but unfortunately wasn't. I'll just have to continue to work on getting published for money.

But for now I feel very sick and just want to curl up on the sofa and stare listlessly at the TV.

This Is Why I'm Single

I meant to hold off on yesterday's post so that I could post this today. But I kind of forgot... So hey, special bonus Valentines Day post!

Like many people on the interest, I have spent another Valentines Day alone. Kind of. I was at work, and the atmosphere was actually pretty good. I'm not one of those bitter people that complain about how the day is all about making money. Because sometimes society needs a day to just show their appreciation for other human beings.

Moving on, I think it would be interesting to examine why I have been single my whole life. *Warning* Bragging may ensue

Pros
1) I'm not ugly! I hope. I'm average. I'm not going to tear myself down and state everything that I think is ugly about myself. Because honestly, I think I'm pretty average. I'm not severely overweight, but then I'm skinnier than what I would consider beautiful. My hair never really looks good and my skin is never perfectly clear.

2) I'm not one of those girls that spends an hour in the morning doing my hair and putting make up on. I wash my hair in the morning and get dressed, that's pretty much it for five out of seven days of the week. In fact, there's only really one day I ever really wear make up.

3) I play video games. And not even to the point where it's disturbing or off putting. I love Nintendo games, but I'm willing to try more hard core games... as long as someone teaches me. I can be competitive, but I'm actually pretty laid back when it comes to gaming.

4) I love nerdy thing! Depending on the guy, I think that's a turn on... right? I would be more than happy to have a Lord of the Rings marathon. And I hate chick flicks. I would never force a guy to sit through a movie like that.

5) I'm not very romantic, and wouldn't require any guy to be either. I think humour and friendship would have to be the base of any relationship.

6) I like to think I have a good sense of fashion, without resorting to being slutty. I would call my clothing elegant, and sometimes nerdy and lazy.

7) I like rock music. I hate the modern pop that's always on the radio these days, with a few exceptions. But my ipad is full of rock (and a bit of Disney). Seriously, I didn't even know hot to pronounce Adele's name until last year (and I still pronounce it wrong...). That's how little I care about that music.

8) My parents are awesome. I'm pretty sure my dad is more eager for me to get a boyfriend than I am. There would be no worries about me introducing anyone to them. Ask anyone. My parents are just the best.

9) I'm not clingy... I don't think. In fact, I like space. Not to mention I don't really have time for a social life of any sort... I think that's a con actually...

10) I'm entertaining... maybe? I really do hope this is a true fact...

Cons
1) I have pretty much no boobs. Yup. Apparently that's important?

2) I'm not a tall blonde, blue eyed wonder. I don't even have long hair. I have greenish eyes, if that helps...

3) I might love my book collection more than anything else in the world...

4) I don't know how to relationship. Which is why I would need something based on friendship rather than romance. I just don't know how.

5) You pretty much need to have a good grasp of the English language, including punctuation and capitalization. Text talk won't fly with me.

So I've come to the conclusion that I'm still single because I'm just too amazing. People are nervous of me or something.
.
.
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6) I might also have a bit of an ego...

Graduate!

Sorry for not updating on Tuesday, I decided to take a day off after my insanely long post last week. And yes, it was an actual decision, I didn't just forget.

But today was rather important! I finally received my official degree in associates of arts in creative writing. It was nice to go back to my old school (even if I had been there only a few months ago). I even saw some people I had expected to graduate last semester. The actual ceremony was nice and short (I would guess maybe only a hundred people or so) and was fairly relaxed. Near the end confetti cannons went off and scared the shit out of me. For the rest of the ceremony, you could see little pieces of paper floating down.

The reception after was amazing. The food and drinks were great and the decorations were beautiful. It was hard to believe they do this twice a year, and four times, as there are four different ceremonies during each of the graduation times. I'm sure the staff are sick of going over the same things so often, but they were all friendly and upbeat. I guess maybe they really were proud of us.

All in all, a good day. Made better by the fact that I didn't work and was able to sleep in.

Dangerous Women review

I cut myself on a binder today. It hurts...

But anyway! I'm about halfway done reading an anthology of short stories by well known authors. It's called 'Dangerous Women', and each story is supposed to feature a dangerous woman, obviously. What I've come to notice though, is that according to half these authors, a dangerous woman is either a stripped, prostitute, or heavily leaning on a man for support. It really makes me wonder why people can be so bad at writing women.

I'll give a quick blurb about each story I've read so far:

1) Some Desperado by Joe Ambercrombie
I loved it! It was a great way to start off the book. The main character was a feisty and scrappy young woman who was at the perfect spot between too powerful and just powerful enough to hold her own.

2) My Heart is Either Broken by Megan Abbott
I hated this one. It reminded me of 'Play it As It Lays'. I wanted to punch the female character because all she did was mope around the house, watch TV, go to bars. There was no action, and most definitely no danger. The only time anything happened was in the last page or so.

3) Nora's Song by Cecelia Holland
Simply beautiful! This story followed the young daughter of Eleanor of Aquitane. The voice was perfect, sounding like a twelve year old girl, but also like a princess. The point of view never switched, which is hard to do when you have two real and very powerful characters like the King and Queen. The main character, although young and rather helpless, showed bravery and the ability to grow into something dangerous.

4) The Hands That Are Not There by Melinda Snodgrass
This one was okay, but it's the first one where the female is a stripper. What annoys me more about these 'strong' females are strippers is that all the writer has to do is say that they had 'enchanting grace and were lithe as a cat, with a glimmer in their eye that spoke of danger'. Or something along those lines. It's all about image rather than actions. It doesn't matter if they're dancing naked for the enjoyment of men, as long as they look confident.
On the other hand, this story was well written.

5) Bombshells by Jim Butcher
This story follows the series 'The Dresden Files', which is a supernatural suspense/mystery book/show. It's actually a rather complex short story, and reading the preceding books would definitely help, but most readers should still be able to understand what's going on either way. It was good, but not one of my favourites. It was witty, and used a very strong voice with a first person narrative, so that worked well. Something about it though turned me off slightly. Not sure what...

6) Raisa Stepanova by Carrie Vaughn
This was another great story! It's about a Russian female pilot in WWII who is trying to get her five kills to become an Ace. It shows a ton of emotion, not between boyfriend and girlfriend, but between brother and sister and between friend and friend. It's adorable, and actually quite heart wrenching. Definitely one of my favourites.

7) Wrestling Jesus by Joe R. Lansdale
This was another story where the female was more like a side character or a background character. Even worse, she was basically an object. The whole story revolves around to men who get together every five years to wrestle. Whoever wins gets the female. The only redeeming part is that the female apparently chooses to go to the winner, rather than being passed around.

8) Neighbors by Megan Lindholm
I'm not sure about this one. The main character is a sixty year old woman who is in the early stages of alzheimers. She puts up a fight and shows a lot of guts, along with some danger. I think I would have really enjoyed this story, but it's confusing. I suppose if you're writing from the point of view of an alzheimers patient it would be confusing though...

9) I Know How to Pick 'Em by Lawrence Block
*SPOILER ALERT*
I cannot talk about this one without explaining the whole thing. Because it was so bad I have to rant about it. First off, the woman dies! The story is in the point of view of a man in a bar. Bad choice when for a book about dangerous females. Then a woman comes in and shows interest. They go back to a hotel and bang. All the while, the writer gives this man way too much power. He is able to guess just about everything about her by her looks and mannerisms. Think Sherlock, but with a trucker in a bar. When he guesses that she wants him to kill her husband, he kills her. She shows no danger except in the fact that she's cheating on her husband and may want him dead (This isn't actually confirmed, because she doesn't have much of a voice, and he's putting words into her mouth. but she doesn't deny it too much...)
So far, my least favourite story.

10) Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brandon Sanderson
This is so far my favourite story! (Makes up for the last one) Sanderson is my favourite author too, so I expected nothing less. There are two, maybe even three strong and very dangerous females in this story, but it's not over the top or overly feminine. Like the first story, the females in this one are more smart than powerful. They use what they have, and if that doesn't work out, they try something else. They fight 'till the end and don't fall back to using their looks and charms to get what they want.

11) A Queen in Exile by Sharon Kay Grossman
This one was okay, and had potential to be great. It's written a lot like a textbook, with the occasional break to play out a scene better. There are massive time skips that start with 'for many years' or 'a few years later'. In addition, this story is basically true. It follows a real queen and real events. it's hard to slip out of textbook mode when writing a historical piece with all real people, as you don't want to get something wrong or historically inaccurate, but something things need to be embellished a bit.

12) The Girl in the Mirror by Lev Grossman
If you're a fan of Harry Potter, you'll probably like this story. It's written like a young adult book, from the point of view of a young and very smart witch who goes to a very prestigious school. It's playful and fun, with very little seriousness. A nice light read.

13) Second Arabesque, Very Slowly by Nancy Kress
This one was very well done. It's in a post apocalyptic world, where women are treasured. At some point a virus went out that made 90% of the female population infertile. Because of this, girls are forced into sex as soon as they've had their first period. After my rant about sex and strippers earlier, you would think I would hate this. But the main character is infertile, and is only in this band of survivors because she's a nurse. This story was just really well written.

14) City Lazerus by Diana Rowland
Another story where the female character is a stripper. And once again, she's enchanting and beautiful and the main character cannot help but love her. Basically the same as the first one that did this. I wasn't impressed.

15) Virgins by Diana Gabaldon
I'm only about halfway through this one, and so far there has been one female, and mentions of one other. I have no idea where it's going, but I'm not too happy with it so far. The voices are great though. The two man characters are Scottish, ad Gabaldon put a lot of effort into the accents. Can be a little hard to read, but I'm more than happy to have a Scottish accent in my head.


Sorry for the length, I guess I had more to say than I thought. and there's still more! I have six more stories to read, ad I'll post another review on them when I'm done. Going over these ones now, I realize I actually like at least half of them, but it's the bad ones that really stuck out. It's as if some of the authors really wanted to be part of this book, but had no idea how to write a strong female character. So they used a strong male and made him weakened him with 'feminine whiles'. I would like to remind people that females are not all about their bodies and using them to get what they want. Most authors seem to understand this, luckily.

It's Only Nine...

I am so tired. My dog kept me awake last night, probably until about 12, with her howling and barking. I had to get out of bed three times to shut her up. I finally managed to get to sleep, but was woken up again at 1 in the morning. normally this wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I had to wake up at 5 to get to work, so I was pretty pissed.

My dog is an idiot.

Time for sleep now.

I Have Too Many Addictions

Sorry for the late post, I was hoping that my professor would post the scans of our trading card poems. If she doesn't it won't be soon though, and since they were trading card poems, I traded them away so I don't even have pictures.

Anyway, onto a serious topic. I've realized that I might have a serious problem. I love too many things. Not people, and that might be the real problem. I think I give all my attention and affection to objects, games shows and movies. My last post was about my addiction to Star Wars, and in previous posts you might have seen my addiction with Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, The Sims, Legend of Zelda, Nintendo games, and many other things. I've also lately gotten into playing Animal Crossing again, though the novelty is beginning to wear off now.

The good thing is, it appears with most things that if I get cut off cold turkey, like a season ends for a show, then after a couple weeks the addiction fades. For example, Once Upon a Time and Sherlock, I was addicted for the whole time that I was watching the show, but once I got to the end, I started watching something else and pretty much forgot about the old show.

In fact, I think the only movie I've been constantly addicted with has been Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit. That is how much I love medieval era movies. Star Wars comes a close second, but it's on and off.

But I'm sure everyone has these problems, especially this generation, who was pretty much raised by the TV.