Wed Reading Meme

1.First, a bit on television. The Catch has cast John Simm as the villain, the head of a British Family Crime Syndicate. He's awesome. I love John Simm. Also, the show has some wonderful one-liners.

Margo: You slept with my brother after sleeping with me.
Felicity: I didn't realize we were exclusive.
Margo: This is not romantic jealousy you are seeing here, this is digust.
Felicity: I was actually sleeping with him first. I thought you knew. We've been together for some time.
Margo: How would I know, with your clear and obvious lesbian tendencies?
Felicity: Well how do you explain your lesbian tendencies in regards to your relationship with Benjy?
Margo: I don't, takes away all the fun.

It's a show I find myself rewinding, just to listen to the dialogue. It has great dialogue and good mysteries. Wish more people were watching it. Oh well, it's not like I have enough television shows to watch. 66 Hours of Television shows saved to DVR. Not helped by the fact that I rarely watch that much television any longer --- it's weird, I watched more television when I was younger and there was less of it. Now that there is more of it, I find my interest in it waning.

2. Wed Reading Meme

* What I just finished reading?

Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs -- which I actually preferred to the previous three novels. She's getting slightly better with each book. Has some humorous touches here and there -- such as "Stop and Rob" as a convenience store. My only quibble about the series is all the women are nasty, except for the heroine. Making me wonder about the writer's relationships with women. The women are also rather nasty to the heroine, jealous, competitive, judgmental and bigoted. While the men for the most part seem to be understanding. Also in the werewolf world -- it's ruled by men, and women are down low on the totem pole, while in the vampire world, mostly women seem to be in control -- but are seen as evil, werewolves - good. So, again, I'm beginning to wonder about the author's relationships with women. And if she's making a point about how women treat each other in her experience.

She's not completely wrong on this point. I guess. But I don't think there's as much difference between the genders on this point as a lot of folks believe. Maybe it's because I was raised with a younger brother and saw both genders act nasty in different ways. Men tend to more physical, while women are more verbal and use the silent treatment.

My other quibble, and this is a long-standing quibble with the urban fantasy genre, is that I'm not sure prejudice against supernaturally powered beings works as a metaphor for racism. I mean there is a big difference between being afraid of a werewolf and being racist. I have the same problem with the X-men comics...there's a huge difference between being afraid of someone who can melt your brain and someone who just happens to look different than you do. But I get where the writers are going with it -- they talking about power, and what would happen if the disenfranchised minority really did have more physical power than the ruling majority? Just not sure how well it works.

What I loved about the books and why I'm binging on them -- is I relate to the heroine's struggle to fit in with the community and pack mentality. She's trying to let go of her fears, and past hurts, and trust these people, some of whom don't seem to want her. Also she needs to filter out their negative energies and attempts to control or bully her. I find the way the writer is handling this interesting and relatable. I also rather like the heroine, who is a kick-ass auto mechanic who turns into a coyote, and is half Native American, not overly attractive and not super-powered.

* What I'm reading now?

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs -- this is book 5 in the series, and delves more deeply into her relationship with Adam, the werewolves, and the fae. The fae are actually rather interesting here -- the author relies heavily on Grimm's Fairy Tales, and German/Welsh mythology as opposed to merely Irish or English which is is usually the case. Since that's my heritage and I've studied some of it, I find it relatable and interesting.

Silver Borne also deals with a suicidal Welsh werewolf from the 1400s. He's an old werewolf, who hasn't aged and looks like he's in his mid-twenties. But after losing one too many children and being a doctor forever, he's fallen into despair. Or hopelessness. (After my visit to the Berkshires and taking various workshops, I discovered there's a lot of people, men and women, who feel either stressed or hopeless in our society. I think there's too much information, 24/7. We're bombarded with things we should want, should do, should feel...as opposed to loving where you are at. Also all the misinformation...I was told by someone this past weekend that my brain was fighting all the time. I thought that was an interesting statement -- questioning data. I needed a break from the information.)
So, too, apparently does this poor werewolf. So he tries to kill himself. But his wolf doesn't want to die and stops him and takes over. But if the wolf stays in control, and the man lets go, they will die...and the wolf will become a frenzied beast in the end. Interesting metaphor about the balancing act between mind and body, animal instinct and intellect. Or bi-polar.

Like I said, there's a lot of interesting metaphors and analogies in these books.

What I'm reading next?

Oh, the next in the series. There's 9 books. I'm planning on just reading 8. The 9th one is $13.99 which is a bit much for Kindle.