books! wow!
Mar. 11th, 2019 03:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So it's March and I'm officially reading books again! Finally!
A few months ago, I found Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother at a used bookstore and figured, sure, I've been meaning to read this! And then I put it on my desk and I didn't open it until this weekend, when I read it all in one sitting (my favorite way to read).
I personally didn't enjoy it quite as much as Fun Home, but Are You My Mother is definitely a well-organized, well-drawn graphic memoir. Bechdel's art has improved noticeably since Fun Home and all of the chapters start and end with really striking (visually and thematically) moments. Are You My Mother seems more focused (fixated) and thematically tight than Fun Home, which told a lot of stories that ultimately wrapped around one big thing. As a result, Are You My Mother is perhaps more hit/miss when it comes to the story and your personal enjoyment of it.
Personally, I did not relate to Bechdel's issues with her mother, but I did have a few moments while reading it that made me think, "oh jeez, I need to have my mom read this" because of what I know of HER complicated feelings about her mother. So the next day, I gave my mom the book and told her I thought she'd like it. Long story short, I think the book changed my mom's entire view on her life and affected her really deeply, so... Yeah, she liked it! Now I've got her reading Fun Home, but I can tell it hasn't sunk its hooks into her quite the way Are You My Mother did.
Personally, I did not relate to Bechdel's issues with her mother, but I did have a few moments while reading it that made me think, "oh jeez, I need to have my mom read this" because of what I know of HER complicated feelings about her mother. So the next day, I gave my mom the book and told her I thought she'd like it. Long story short, I think the book changed my mom's entire view on her life and affected her really deeply, so... Yeah, she liked it! Now I've got her reading Fun Home, but I can tell it hasn't sunk its hooks into her quite the way Are You My Mother did.
I also read The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys this weekend, which was... okay.
Full disclosure: I didn't listen to MCR as a teen. In fact, I only listened to their music after graduating from college, when I helped my friends (one of whom has cosplayed Party Poison) move across the country. We listened to a lot of MCR while driving, particularly Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. Danger Days is actually the only MCR album that I have gone on to listen to independently, and I've always found the music videos and overall concept of the album to be really interesting. So when I was at the library looking for graphic novels and I saw the The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (let's just call it Killjoys from now on because I'm lazy...), I was like, yeah! Sure! I had been wanting to read The Umbrella Academy comics anyway, so it seemed as good an idea as any.
I really wanted to like it. The art was good. The worldbuilding was interesting. There was a cat! Unfortunately, it all fell kinda flat. It definitely needs to be supplemented by a working knowledge of the Danger Days album, which is okay! Unfortunately, the story itself, even with context, was... all over the place.
It's set some years after the events of Danger Days and follows The Girl from the music videos as she joins up with a group of wannabe Killjoys who don't actually understand what they were fighting for but liked the aesthetic and the guns. Then there's also a subplot about two sex robots who are trying to just be gay and happy together but things don't work out that way. And then there's also a subplot with Korse, the Scarecrow guy. And... as much as I wish it had all come together in a way that made sense and was narratively satisfying, that... didn't really happen. Too much was happening at once and it all just got muddled and confusing.
Full disclosure: I didn't listen to MCR as a teen. In fact, I only listened to their music after graduating from college, when I helped my friends (one of whom has cosplayed Party Poison) move across the country. We listened to a lot of MCR while driving, particularly Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. Danger Days is actually the only MCR album that I have gone on to listen to independently, and I've always found the music videos and overall concept of the album to be really interesting. So when I was at the library looking for graphic novels and I saw the The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (let's just call it Killjoys from now on because I'm lazy...), I was like, yeah! Sure! I had been wanting to read The Umbrella Academy comics anyway, so it seemed as good an idea as any.
I really wanted to like it. The art was good. The worldbuilding was interesting. There was a cat! Unfortunately, it all fell kinda flat. It definitely needs to be supplemented by a working knowledge of the Danger Days album, which is okay! Unfortunately, the story itself, even with context, was... all over the place.
It's set some years after the events of Danger Days and follows The Girl from the music videos as she joins up with a group of wannabe Killjoys who don't actually understand what they were fighting for but liked the aesthetic and the guns. Then there's also a subplot about two sex robots who are trying to just be gay and happy together but things don't work out that way. And then there's also a subplot with Korse, the Scarecrow guy. And... as much as I wish it had all come together in a way that made sense and was narratively satisfying, that... didn't really happen. Too much was happening at once and it all just got muddled and confusing.
Anyway! I'm currently trying to figure out if I'm going to read Tana French's The Secret Place (which I started last year in Portland and had to return to the library before I finished because I was moving across the country...) or Brideshead Revisited (which I've been meaning to read for almost a decade now) next.
I've also been reading Sailor Moon for the past month or two and I am on volume 9 right now. I'll probably write something about that once I am all finished with the manga. I'm debating whether or not I should have been listing Sailor Moon on my Goodreads, but I haven't listed any manga before so... why start now? I don't list webcomics I've read on Goodreads even when they get published as books, so...? I guess I'll figure that out later. I already had a crisis about including The Fabulous Killjoys in my "graphic novels" tag on Goodreads and changed it to "sequential art" so there's really nothing stopping me at this point.
In non-reading news, so many of my favorite musicians are releasing music this spring? Hozier's new album slaps, Andrew Bird has an album coming out later this month, The Mountain Goats are releasing a D&D themed album next month, and then Vampire Weekend is returning from their, what, 6-year break in May? I also saw that Marina Diamandis is releasing a new album in April...? Wack.
I've also been reading Sailor Moon for the past month or two and I am on volume 9 right now. I'll probably write something about that once I am all finished with the manga. I'm debating whether or not I should have been listing Sailor Moon on my Goodreads, but I haven't listed any manga before so... why start now? I don't list webcomics I've read on Goodreads even when they get published as books, so...? I guess I'll figure that out later. I already had a crisis about including The Fabulous Killjoys in my "graphic novels" tag on Goodreads and changed it to "sequential art" so there's really nothing stopping me at this point.
In non-reading news, so many of my favorite musicians are releasing music this spring? Hozier's new album slaps, Andrew Bird has an album coming out later this month, The Mountain Goats are releasing a D&D themed album next month, and then Vampire Weekend is returning from their, what, 6-year break in May? I also saw that Marina Diamandis is releasing a new album in April...? Wack.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-11 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-13 03:34 am (UTC)Yeah, I didn't really listen to anything on Froot (and heard that there were... creative differences between her and the label that may have implied Marina herself wasn't as into Froot as she would have liked...) but I'm excited to see what her new album's like!
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Date: 2019-03-12 05:16 pm (UTC)I would like to read many of the things on your list, but I have not read anything since January 1st when I read the first play of Angels in America and then the second play would not load in my ebook reader.
What is Umbrella Academy exactly? I am suddenly seeing it everywhere out of nowhere. I didn't know it had anything to do with MCR??? Whom I know nothing about??? Maybe it is not a Thing For Galvin.
Anyway I'm glad you're reading again!!! <3 And taking these album announcements; I was just saying yesterday I haven't listened to ANYTHING that I've wanted to in the last like, year and a half :-(
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Date: 2019-03-13 03:32 am (UTC)also I ended up deciding to read the secret place and then I'm going to read brideshead after I finish it (likely this week, although I was distracted by jigsaw puzzles and neopets today)