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juushikaTitle: The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
Author: Linda Williams
Illustrator: Megan Lloyd
Published: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1986
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 314,440
Text Number: 1087
Read Because: childhood reread, paperback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This is very much a read-aloud book, and to my surprise I remember reading it aloud—I remember the repetition and the sound effects distinctly, so they must work well for kids. The art and Halloween styling is evocative and satisfyingly true to type without feeling cliché. What's fled my memory since childhood is the ending—the resolution is secondary to the tension and atmosphere, even to childhood-me. This doesn't appeal now the way it did then, but what a joy to revisit.
Title: Strangers in Paradise Volume 1
Author: Terry Moore
Published: Abstract Studio, 2004 (1993)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 65 of 345
Total Page Count: 314,505
Text Number: 1088
Read Because: on this list of graphic novels about queer women, paper back borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: DNF at ~20%. I want to like this for the character dynamic that I know develops, and the first hints of that are there in Katchoo's affections—queer, unresolved poly dynamics could totally be my thing. But the madcap adventures are distinctly not; the tone keeps the drama from turning heavy, but instead it's impossible to take seriously, and there's a distinct whiff of soap opera. No thank you.
Title: The Interior Life
Author: Katherine Blake (Dorothy J. Heydt)
Published: 1990
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 315
Total Page Count: 314,875
Text Number: 1090
Read Because: mentioned on James Davis Nicoll's "100 SF/F Books You Should Consider Reading in the New Year", ebook available for free from the author
Review: A discontented housewife finds herself spurned towards self-improvement by her unusually vivid daydreams. The worldbuilding elements which most intrigued me both are and aren't interrogated—is the daydream world real? is this maladaptive daydreaming, and how does it impact her daily life? what's her relationships with the dreamworld and its characters? There's a subtextual interior logic, but most of what we see—despite the close third-person narrative—is the results, not the explanations. I still can't decide if I'd prefer it another way, but the tone it achieves as a result is distinctive: quietly weird, deceptively small and large. As an exploration of sexism and the social role of a 1980/90s suburban housewife, this doesn't break new ground; there's distinct missteps (like the scene with the abuse victim) and overreaches (like the unnecessary and thematically irrelevant primary-world climax). But the interweaving narratives are more compelling in combination than they would be individually, character strengths in one prompting solutions in another, and it's profoundly satisfying—there's a relation here to competence porn, a sort of proto-competence or learned competence, that fulfills a similar desire but feels more empowering. I wouldn't have read this if not for Nicoll's 2019 reading list and the author providing the book free online, and I never expected to find it so appealing, but it's a quiet, consistent pleasure.
My only regret is the different fonts that demarcate narrative switches, which is mostly an obnoxious gimmick.
Author: Linda Williams
Illustrator: Megan Lloyd
Published: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1986
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 314,440
Text Number: 1087
Read Because: childhood reread, paperback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This is very much a read-aloud book, and to my surprise I remember reading it aloud—I remember the repetition and the sound effects distinctly, so they must work well for kids. The art and Halloween styling is evocative and satisfyingly true to type without feeling cliché. What's fled my memory since childhood is the ending—the resolution is secondary to the tension and atmosphere, even to childhood-me. This doesn't appeal now the way it did then, but what a joy to revisit.
Title: Strangers in Paradise Volume 1
Author: Terry Moore
Published: Abstract Studio, 2004 (1993)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 65 of 345
Total Page Count: 314,505
Text Number: 1088
Read Because: on this list of graphic novels about queer women, paper back borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: DNF at ~20%. I want to like this for the character dynamic that I know develops, and the first hints of that are there in Katchoo's affections—queer, unresolved poly dynamics could totally be my thing. But the madcap adventures are distinctly not; the tone keeps the drama from turning heavy, but instead it's impossible to take seriously, and there's a distinct whiff of soap opera. No thank you.
Title: The Interior Life
Author: Katherine Blake (Dorothy J. Heydt)
Published: 1990
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 315
Total Page Count: 314,875
Text Number: 1090
Read Because: mentioned on James Davis Nicoll's "100 SF/F Books You Should Consider Reading in the New Year", ebook available for free from the author
Review: A discontented housewife finds herself spurned towards self-improvement by her unusually vivid daydreams. The worldbuilding elements which most intrigued me both are and aren't interrogated—is the daydream world real? is this maladaptive daydreaming, and how does it impact her daily life? what's her relationships with the dreamworld and its characters? There's a subtextual interior logic, but most of what we see—despite the close third-person narrative—is the results, not the explanations. I still can't decide if I'd prefer it another way, but the tone it achieves as a result is distinctive: quietly weird, deceptively small and large. As an exploration of sexism and the social role of a 1980/90s suburban housewife, this doesn't break new ground; there's distinct missteps (like the scene with the abuse victim) and overreaches (like the unnecessary and thematically irrelevant primary-world climax). But the interweaving narratives are more compelling in combination than they would be individually, character strengths in one prompting solutions in another, and it's profoundly satisfying—there's a relation here to competence porn, a sort of proto-competence or learned competence, that fulfills a similar desire but feels more empowering. I wouldn't have read this if not for Nicoll's 2019 reading list and the author providing the book free online, and I never expected to find it so appealing, but it's a quiet, consistent pleasure.
My only regret is the different fonts that demarcate narrative switches, which is mostly an obnoxious gimmick.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-16 01:01 am (UTC)