Deathless

[mishalak]

I asked for this book at Christmas and I was very happy to receive it. Had I not I would have purchased it sight unseen from my local booksellers. Why would I do this when I usually read books from the library before buying them? Because I heard, "Russian folklore, female hero, Baba Yaga, and Soviet Commissar." Yes, that pushed all my buttons at once. I might not have loved it, it might have been merely a good read that I regretted putting down hard money on, but I very much enjoyed it. From the classic fairy tale beginning to the uncertain/unsettled ending, it was very much my sort of story. The merger between folklore and history was solid, Marya Morevna was an interesting character, and also Chairman Yaga, never Comrade!

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
On Library Thing
On Goodreads

(Also, hi, did I do this correctly?)

Melody Gardot <3

[brooms]

She has 3 albums out, of which her 2nd, My One and Only Thrill, is my favorite.

Three more samples of her music:

Your Heart Is As Black As Night - http://youtu.be/Kmc1XN3iVVc
Love Undercover - http://youtu.be/gLNzMxhyDWU
If The Stars Were Mine - http://youtu.be/HLFKKY5RHxc

Meta!

[brooms]

My favorite things about fandom are, in order:

3. Fanfiction & fanart
2. Wank
1. Meta!

I love meta so much. Going through some of my really old delicious links, I found two funny ones about general fandom life that I still love -

http://theohara.livejournal.com/204535.html

Fanfic summaries that scare readers away. (It's from 2005 and nothing has changed.)

http://marinarusalka.livejournal.com/227057.html?format=light

See, fandom is basically a two-party system. You've got your slashers and your hetters. The slashers are the Republicans: a lot of people say they don't like them, but they seem to be everywhere and always running things. They're active, well-organized, and have a clearly defined group identity, which helps them rally a lot of popular support. At their best, they make the trains run on time. At their worst, they have a tendnecy to let the extremists set their public agenda, and to shower unwarranted moral opprobrium at anyone not in their party.

The hetters are the Democrats. They're as numerous as the Republicans, maybe even more so, but it's hard to tell, because they never seem to get their shit together to do anything, except complain about how the damn Republicans have taken over. They have no group identity beyond "we're not the Republicans." They are sincerely convinced that they represent the true will of the people, but if you ask them what the will of the people is, all they can say is "not what the Republicans are doing." As a result, even people who kind of like them often find them too ineffectual to vote for.