denise

Books 5 & 6 in The Gender Game series

2018, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Gah, I thought The Gender Game was a six book series. It’s not. It’s a seven book series and I’m so annoyed, lol.

Book five was pretty much a bust for me (and I think for TW) book six was slightly better, (except all the people seem to have died, maybe? Hard to say with this series.)

I’m very ready for this thing to be OVER. I sure hope book seven is waiting for us at the library this weekend. (I also wish she had named these books better. I really hate their titles.)

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Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction /

The first thing you have to know about Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation is that it’s an over-sized coffee table type of book. I knew that when I reserved it and I expected it to be mostly pictures with few words. Turns out, it’s more words than pictures (though there are amazing pictures on every page) and it’s not an easy book to read in bed or in a chair or on your couch in front of your coffee table (not that I have a coffee table because coffee tables are from the devil) but still… it’s not a book I could sit comfortably and read. That was frustrating. So, I set it on the bar in my kitchen and I read a page or two at a time, while I ate lunch or while I waited for dinner to be ready. This means it took MONTHS for me to read this book.

The next thing you should know is that it’s more of a history of Walt Disney’s animation with a focus on the women of Ink & Paint. So you learn a lot about men in animation and the men who worked at “Disney’s” as they seem to call it in the early, early days. (You also learn a good bit about Walt but not as much about Roy.) There were a TON of women working for Walt Disney in the early days of animation and the book includes a yearbook style section of all of the women who worked there. Pretty cool stuff, (and it’s Women’s History Month, so this is a great time for you to dive into this book.)

Last, but not least, you should know that this is a really interesting book. If you’re like me and you don’t really know a whole lot about how animation used to work, then this is a great crash course. It may also make you want to look at a zillion old Disney shorts and commercials and maybe watch all of the Disney full-length movies in the order in which they were released (up to the move to computer animation.)

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Two Pyper Rayne Books

2018, Books in Bed, Mystery, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I picked up one of the Pyper Rayne books from the new arrivals shelf because it had a cute cover and an amusing title and I was hoping it was a campy paranormal book like some other series I’ve enjoyed. But, since it wasn’t the fist book in the series, I ended up returning it and just reserving the first two, instead.

The first one… was a little slow and not as campy as I’d like. I went ahead and read the second one, in hopes of finding a character (besides Ida May) but nope. I’m bored now, moving on.

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The Gender War

2018, Books in Bed, Feminism, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I feel like The Gender War lagged a bit, in places. Lots of not much happening and then a lot happening and then back to the lull and then BOOM. I was glad to see the boys playing a bigger role in the resistance/war. I could do without the whole “marriage” thing between Vigo/Violet but whatever.

I think I’ll be able to read all of the rest of the series back to back, that will be good. I’d like to just blast through it in March and be done.

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Clockwork Dynasty

2018, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I probably should have just skipped Clockwork Dynasty. It’s not steampunk, it’s science fiction and not really great science fiction. Have you seen The Terminator? It’s like that but different with fewer likable characters.

I can see why some people will really like this – the story starts Russia during Peter the Great’s era and lands smack in the 21st century. That’s a lot of ground to cover and they did a fairly good job of it, particularly early in the book. But, nah. I should have gone with my gut after the first 25 pages and put it down.

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Two Books in the Gender Secret Series

2018, Books in Bed, Feminism, Fiction, Young Adult /

OK books 2 & 3…kind of blended together because I read them back to back in less than three days.

In Book 2, Violet and Viggo reconnected in The Green and came upon Ms. Dale and some Matrus bad guys (gals?) … and they found another egg. And Violet found her brother. And some bad things happened. Also, new characters were introduced. Thinking about it like this, a lot happened. There was a lot of running and fighting and fear and stuff. Very fast-paced.

Book 3 was much slower. Viggo was unconscious for many, many chapters and there were a lot of interpersonal relationship types of things and just going about our day discussing issues rather than doing anything about them. And then, BAM – the last couple of chapters kind of exploded all over the place. The twist at the end was an interesting twist. I wondered if that was what would happen when Ms. Dale was confused about Desmond’s behavior and loyalties.

It will be interesting to see what happens in Book 4 (and 5 and 6.)

(PS. I’m getting a little tired of the Matrus vs Patrus, misandry vs misogyny stuff, lol.)

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Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

2018, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I’ve seen a few of Dr. DeGruy’s videos over the last 10(?) years and every now and then someone mentions her book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome on a blog or Facebook. When I saw it mentioned in January I decided to read it.

I reserved a copy via ILL (Thanks College of William and Mary for letting me borrow your copy!) and expected it to be a slow and painful read. It wasn’t slow at all and it wasn’t nearly as painful as I expected it to be because Dr. DeGruy covers topics I’ve heard about before or that I already believe to be true.

There are a couple of places where I really wish this had been a book that had an editor rather than her self-published thesis. For example, when she talks about AA women who are abused by men who are abused by women, I suspect she lost a lot of women (and some men) and never got them back. I think an editor would have been able to help her make her point more effectively.

As for the basic premise of the book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome — I think it’s a definite possibility. Nature vs nurture etc. People who grew up in poverty have a different relationship with money, with food, with “things,” and sometimes with people than those who did not. Those who grew up with child abuse or domestic violence have a different relationship with money, with food, with things, with people than those who did not. (You could go on… survivors of the Holocaust, survivors of Vietnam, etc.) Yes, people CAN overcome those things — they vow to do better than their parents, be better than their parents but when you add systemic racism to the mix, well that’s something else entirely.

I can definitely see the possibility of PTSS.

Very interesting book.

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The Book of Ivy

2018, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

First in a post-apocalyptic fiction YA series, The Book of Ivy wasn’t too bad. It was slow in parts, particular Ivy’s character development. It was too quick in others, particular in Bishop (he was what he was and that was that.)

It almost felt like a book two that was created primarily to set up book three. Everything that (slowly) happened, happened just to get Ivy (and I assume Bishop) to where they are at the end of the book. Period, that’s it. I would like to read book two but … it’s not available in print from my library, and it’s certainly not worth buying. I’ve put it on my TBR list, should I ever find a way to get a print (or audio) copy… it may be a long wait.

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