Home Sweet Own Book 15

For Themed Anthology I read Red. Red was a discovery at Awesome Con, DC’s first comic convention. A friend of the editor who lived in Middle of Nowhere Pennsylvania found a red scarf on some back road and wondered how it got there. This anthology poses different answers to that question.

One of my favorite things for an anthology is giving different writers the same premise and seeing what they can do with it. People go in so many different directions and I loved it. As always I liked some stories more than others but I think my favorite was Superhero by Justin McLachlan.

A lot of the writers were local to the DC, MD, VA AREA so it was really neat to read stories and think “I know that neighborhood” or “I am familiar with those metro problems.” Having the stories take place in your own backyard added another layer I really enjoyed

1) Fiction 

2) Nonfiction – The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

3) Sci-Fi – Redshirts by John Scalzi

4) Fantasy 

5) Mystery 

6) Horror 

7) Memoir/Biography – Data, A Love Story by Amy Webb

8) Chick Lit – Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter

9) Feminist – Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan

10) Teen – What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

11) Holiday 

12) Essays – What Was I Thinking? ed. by Barbara Davilman & Liz Dubelman

13) Short Stories 

14) Library 

15) Animal 

16) Book about Books – Judging a Book By Its Lover by Lauren Leto

17) New – Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin

18) Old – Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P. N. Elrod

19) Pop Science 

20) Near 

21) Far 

22) Graphic Novel – Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? by Thomas F. Zahler

23) Reread – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

24) Wild Card 

25) Otherworldly Creature 

26) Free – Point Your Face at This by Demetri Martin

27) Noteworthy 

28) Bestseller 

29) Themed Anthology – Red edited by Kris Goldsmith

30) Steampunk 

31) Movie-Book 

32) Media  

33) Travel 

34) Food 

35) Classic 

36) Humor 

37) Poetry 

38) Past – Stasiland by Anna Funder

39) Future 

40) Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic 

41) Zombie 

42) Sports

Music: Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey

Home Sweet Own Book 14

For Feminist I reread Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan. It was her first book and I really enjoyed it the first time and read it and this time. It follows four women who become close friends while at Smith College and how they deal with real life and their own brands of feminism.

Most ‘women’s fiction’ is just a slightly smarter version of chick lit like The Devil Wears Prada. Sullivan’s characters gave life and depth to many things that are part of the feminist dialogue: date rape, the privilege of white feminism, prostitution and sex trade in the U.S., and transgender causes. The characters also deal with the same issues as most twenty-something women: dating, marriage, pregnancy, death, and the weight of choice.

The feminism never felt preachy to me. One of the characters is a bit extreme and devoted to the cause but that’s integral to her. Some of the other characters think about feminism as it pertains to their own life. One barely thinks on it at all. Each was a well developed and interesting character.

They agonized over some of their choices and made mistakes and over analyzed things like most of my friends. These weren’t women who were concerned with shoes, fashion, and finding prince charming. They have depth and think about feminism, literature, friendship, and marriage as something other than an end game. I wish more writers had characters like these.

1) Fiction 

2) Nonfiction – The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

3) Sci-Fi – Redshirts by John Scalzi

4) Fantasy 

5) Mystery 

6) Horror 

7) Memoir/Biography – Data, A Love Story by Amy Webb

8) Chick Lit – Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter

9) Feminist – Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan

10) Teen – What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

11) Holiday 

12) Essays – What Was I Thinking? ed. by Barbara Davilman & Liz Dubelman

13) Short Stories 

14) Library 

15) Animal 

16) Book about Books – Judging a Book By Its Lover by Lauren Leto

17) New – Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin

18) Old – Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P. N. Elrod

19) Pop Science 

20) Near 

21) Far 

22) Graphic Novel – Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? by Thomas F. Zahler

23) Reread – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

24) Wild Card 

25) Otherworldly Creature 

26) Free – Point Your Face at This by Demetri Martin

27) Noteworthy 

28) Bestseller 

29) Themed Anthology 

30) Steampunk 

31) Movie-Book 

32) Media  

33) Travel 

34) Food 

35) Classic 

36) Humor 

37) Poetry 

38) Past – Stasiland by Anna Funder

39) Future 

40) Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic 

41) Zombie 

42) Sports

Music: Analog or Digital by Wildlife Control

I’ve Got a Songza for You

My friend told me about this great new site/app for music. I’d been using Pandora but Songza is structured in a totally different way.

The app opens with It’s [Friday] [late morning] and offer you six activities with theme music like Doing Housework, Working Out, Working to a Beat and Brand New Music. From there you can select a playlist related to the activity.

If you’re reading in a coffee shop you can listen to From the Book (music based on literature) or Literate Indie (music inspired by books or about writing. If you’re Coding you can listen to Code Your Face Off or Math Rock. Other activities include Shopping at a Vintage Store, Waking Up on the Right Side of the Bed, Walking Through a City, Gaming, and Curing Road Rage.

If you have a specific mood you’re going for they can help you there as well. If you’re feeling Campy, Introspective, Raw, Cold, Sprightly, Atmospheric, Trashy, Aggressive, or Gloomy they have some music for you.

One feature I did like about Pandora was that you could make a playlist based on a band and it saved it. I searched Halestorm and it took me to Today’s Rock Hits with a Halestorm song whereas Pandora constructed and saved a playlist. Six of one, half dozen of the other I suppose.

It has no ads which I really like but it does have a skip limit. I think because Pandora has ads it’s more generous with its skip limit. I listened to the Rebirth of Alt-Pop most of the morning and accidentally switched to a super-mellow Indie playlist while I was scrolling around. When I tried to switch to a third playlist it stopped me. I was able to go back to the first playlist.

I need to figure out the parameters of the skip limit. It may be on their website. I’ve only got the app so we’ll see. With 100 Worst Songs Ever, Songs from Animated Movies, Rude Girls, Fall Out Boys, and Superhero Soundtracks, why should I only choose a couple of themes.

Right now I really like this app but the skip limit is annoying the Cthulhu out of me. I guess you'd better know what you want to listen to starting out. I’ve only had it for a couple of days so we’ll see if anything else happens.

Music: I Am the D.J. by Neon Trees

A Hair by Any Other Name

I heard you’re not supposed to make any major changes to your appearance when you start dating somebody. That’s twice in a row I’ve said nuts to that.

I forget where I first heard this, probably some asinine women’s magazine in college. It sounds like something you’d read in Cosmo. Fortunately I took enough women’s studies classes to realize what rubbish those magazines are but that’s another blog for another time.

Back in September I cut off six inches of hair and dyed the rest red. My hair is naturally a medium brown so the red was dark enough to look natural. The big cut was because I’d kept my hair short for nine years and had grown it out a bit for the last four years. I was starting to feel smothered by my own hair. I’d been planning on doing this for months. I wasn’t about to let someone who just got here stop me.

After eight months of upkeep, roots, and touch ups, I realized red was rather expensive. Today I went back to brown. It’s darker than my natural color but you can see the remnants of the red underneath. As it grows out my brown should blend in nicely. By the time I got it dyed I had a very nice demarcation line between my roots and the red.

Judging from the lack of reaction from my coworkers, it may not be that drastic a change. I’m doing double takes in the mirror but I got used to seeing my hair a certain way for months. I’m going out with a bunch of friends tonight so we’ll see if they have a bigger reaction.

Music: Just One Yesterday by Fall Out Boy and Foxes

ebookfession

This time I’m only confessing to one ebook that I’m almost half way through. I saw a link for Why Men Fake It: The Totally Unexpected Truth About Men and Sex by Abraham Morgentaler on Bookish’s Twitter feed. The article was interesting enough that I caved and bought the book. Judging from how quickly the title comes up in searches, this book seems to be making a big splash.

In addition to the title subject, Morgentaler also deals with basic anatomy, common problems, and the various forms of gender identity he’s encountered. And that’s only the first half. It gets a little dry and clinical in parts but that’s inevitable if you want to include the necessary science. This will definitely be my pop science book so I’ll give you a more complete review one I’m finished.

As someone who has dated more than a few men and was finally dragged back into the dating scene, my motives are not entirely scholarly. Furthering my knowledge about male anatomy, functionality, and psyche can only make the inevitable dating shenanigans easier…I hope.

Music: I Feel A Sin Coming On by The Pistol Annies

Iron Man 3

My friend had advance passes so I got in to see Iron Man 3 a couple of days early. It is absolutely worth seeing. We all have demons, we all have scars, even superheroes.

This film did an excellent job of humanizing Tony Stark. Unlike many of his counterparts in Avengers, Tony Stark is just ‘a man with a plan.’ He’s not a god, a super soldier, or a man with anger issues. In New York, he was willing to sacrifice himself but managed to survive. That would leave anyone with scars and a big part of this story is him dealing with them. Too few superhero stories deal with the mental and emotional toll saving the world takes. I’m so glad they did it here.

I also thought the villain was incredible. Super villains often reflect the fears and anxieties of society at large. This villain wasn’t aliens or a god from another realm; he was a terrorist. He valued anonymity and didn’t care if anyone ever knew his name. He had an amazing weapon and he wanted to keep it from the world.

I can’t say too much without revealing major plot elements but Iron Man gets more impressive and more human this time. I loved it.

Music: Live to Rise by Soundgarden