InsaneJournal

Current mood:	drained
Current music:	Butterfly - Crazy Town
Entry tags:	books, depression, internet, work

Newsletters, work, books, and rice.
First, re: newsletter thing from yesterday. It was part guilt and part stubbornness that got me writing in the end, but I managed to bang out a short thing for my part of the newsletter. It helped, of course, that I could get away with less than four hundred words (at least seventy percent of which was pure, unrestrained snark). Whether all this is a good sign regarding my mood as of late, I leave to you to decide, dear reader.

Speaking of my stressed-out mood, Potential Boss hasn't gotten back to me yet about Teh Job, and I'm... kinda relieved. To be honest, I don't think I'll get it - the lady seemed about as stressed-out as I feel, and generally didn't sound ready to babysit me while I learned the trade. And on my end, I've been so worn out and edgy about school lately, I just don't see how I could handle a job on top of that. I almost miss my frame shop job - sure, the pay was crap, but it was better than nothing, and there wasn't much to do besides sit in the back and crochet. God, I wish I'd never even heard of Kramer Graphics. So, I guess it comes down to a choice. Which do I value more right now: monies or sanity?

Bah, enough of that depressing talk! I have been reading Books, which makes everything better. Pithy reviews behind the cuts, general spoiler warning:

White Night - Action! Adventure! Magic! Snark! If you're looking for the literary equivalent of double chocolate cake (probably not as good for you as other things, but oh so satisfying), you needn't look much further than the Dresden Files series. The latest installment stirs the cauldron of political intrigue and moral quandary while still delivering on the kickassery.

...wow, that sounded disturbingly like a book-jacket blurb. XD Seriously, though, I love this series, and I'm thrilled that this book was just as much fun as the first one. The only thing I'm really holding reservations about is Harry's little anger-management thing. It's been slowly building up over the last few books that Harry's got certain Issues to face before he can join the ranks of the completely stable, but when he lost control at Molly like that... I don't approve of teachers playing head games with their students at the best of times, so that was just a hard thing for me to read. I'm still with the series, though, because the whole anger thing is being presented as a problem to be overcome, and not as I R MACHO, R I NOT SXY? I'm pulling for you, Harry. Get your head on straight.

(Speaking of straight, if my incest squick-block wasn't already shattered, it'd certainly be creaking a little from the Harry/Thomas moments in here. Or hell, I just love Thomas in general. An incubus hairstylist? Spending an hour having my hair fussed over by a gorgeous sex-vampire? That is my idea of heaven right there.)

Dark Moon Defender - This is the third installment in the series that made me believe in romance subplots again. ^_^ *schmoops* I have to admit I was a little dubious about this effort. It focuses on Justin, who wasn't my favorite of the group (Cammon, hands down. Socute!) and introducing a new character whose main purpose seems to be Justin's love interest? I don't think I need to ennumerate all the ways that could turn ugly.

While I still like the second book, The Thirteenth House, the best (politics at its cutthroat best, forbidden love that reaches a conclusion that made my jaw drop, plus Princess Amalie truly rocks my socks), but this was a very good story in its own right. Justin doesn't get the SNAD treatment: he's just as much an asshole as he always was, just with a little more humanity thrown in, and Ellynor (the love interest) was both a believable young, sheltered girl and a young woman learning how strong she is. Other highlights: we get a lot more of Coralinda here as well, and she's just delicious as the villain you love to hate, and I just about squeed with joy when Sabina made her escape. It looks like everyone's getting stronger! Yaaaaay!

Also, Cammon = still cute.

The Virtu - I'm actually only about halfway through this book, but no litgeek post would be complete without some sort of squee over this. Every time I pick it up I'm amazed by how much I like this. The two main characters could be thoroughly unlikeable but for how deeply the author pulls you into their heads. The landscape is completely alien - the way magic is woven into the tapestry of society completely transforms everything we know, and for heaven's sake they count in base six - but the humanity she sculpts it all out of is amazingly familiar. This is an author who knows how to worldbuild, people.

Also, the angst is spectacular. And Mildmay and Felix blow through my incest squickblock so damn hard. You never lose that sense of how utterly wrong it is, any more than you can escape how little their hearts care. *faints*

Last thing: FreeRice.com, a flash vocab game that donates ten grains of rice to starving communities through the UN for every word you get right. Perfect for bookish types who are a) socially conscious, and b) lazy. Though I have to wonder how much rice they'd get if they had used, say, Tetris. Ten grains per line? Good lord, the Internet would solve the world hunger problem in a heartbeat. XD